chw42

Yeah, the payroll looks good in terms of total value, but JR also limits what kind of long-term money the FO can spend. Which in turn limits the types of players they can go after. We know JR won't give any mega-deals out, so now we're left with a hand-full of big deals to mid-level free agent types and almost every one of them has blown up in their face. Keuchel and Grandal's deals are now disastrous contracts. Keuchel might be off the books, but we wasted $36 million on him these last 2 years to get below replacement level innings. Grandal, unless he miraculously gets healthy again, is a replacement level catcher who can't even catch every day. Hendriks also got a similar level contract, but he's also trending downwards with potential elbow issues down the line. I don't know how Jerry or the FO can sit there with a straight face and tell any of us those investments were better than spending the $300+ million needed to land either Harper or Machado. The 3 aforementioned contracts with Kelly and Graveman added already sits at a total commitment of $222 million over about a 5 year span. Please tell me how that's better than getting 5+ years of prime production from Harper or Machado.

That's probably Naylor screaming that s%*# in the background lmao Personally, I blame the Sox fans for constantly calling Naylor fat and hyping him up in that 6 run blow-up.

It probably looks worse in bWAR cause Joe Kelly would be a huge negative WAR value with his 6+ ERA. 0.4 fWAR isn't really representative of his actual results this year. Edit: Kelly is worth -0.6 bWAR and Graveman is worth 0.7 bWAR. Those 2 combined got paid $16.5 million this year and produced an awesome 0.1 bWAR. We still owe them a combined $24.5 million for the rest of their contracts too....amazing. If it wasn't for Lynn getting hurt and signing Cueto, this would probably be one of the worst off-seasons in White Sox history. Imagine just lighting $40 million on fire. That's basically what Hahn did.

Diekman and Graveman folded like lawn chairs this past week.

It was Tony in ST right before Hahn acquired Haseley and Pollock lol

Also Tony's burner account.

Yeah I'm definitely hoping Cleveland gets swept in the first round now.

I don't see the team winning another game this season if they couldn't win today with Cease starting.

They were mentally done when Diekman gave up 5 runs on Tuesday.

Getting swept by the Tigers at home lol

Have we ever seen a team go from still being in the race on Monday and then eliminated by Sunday with 10+ games to go in the season? This was the week from hell for the Sox.

It'll be like a 15 inning gap between he and Verlander. That being said, Cease is about 1 bWAR ahead of Verlander and Cease is about 0.8 fWAR behind Verlander. The difference being the White Sox defense being god awful and the Astros defense being really good. I think Verlander will win over the writers with him coming back from TJS at 39. But in reality, it's really close between them and it really could go either way.

Romy is a strikeout machine. The scouting reports caught up to him real quick.

Roquan had one hell of a game. Fields not able to do anything against a bad Texans defense is incredibly disappointing.

Lopez out here throwing 93-94. Pitching staff seems fatigued all over the place.

Cease looks super fatigued. His stuff is nowhere near what it was a few starts ago.

Hopefully everyone just ignores him.

It seemed to me that the only way Tony stays is if he gets a role in the FO. Which might just be a way for him to finish out his contract.

Well, if I read that correctly, TLR ain't managing again. Hopefully, Cairo losing the team after Tuesday should discourage the FO from even considering him for next year. I don't hate the idea of Bochy, although I doubt he wants to come out of retirement to coach this sorry ass group of players. This job opening isn't what it was just 2 years ago. Bochy is 67, so he's also old. Not TLR old, but still old. I'd rather they go a little younger after seeing what a corpse manager can do to a young team.

There's a reason why the A's released him before he can hit his vesting option. He's not worth $15 million. He's about to be 34 and has been pretty bad for a while before his stint with the Sox.

Wong has a 138 wRC+ vs. R this year. You can maybe platoon him with Romy. I just looked at Wong's contract. He's got a $10 million club option with a $2 million buyout for next year. Milwaukee's been looking to cut payroll and I bet they don't even pick up the option. They're pretty loaded on the IF.

You think Milwaukee will trade Wong this off-season?

Yeah Nimmo is a good bet to miss at least 40 games a year. He's been pretty healthy this year but he actually just got hurt a few days ago.

Yup. He absolutely will not be ready by opening day, even if he stays as a reliever.

Once teams can no longer play an infielder in the OF, he might actually get a few more singles from those balls he can't elevate from the left side. Yaz was actually pretty good against lefties this year, so his skills might still be there. You just have to hope he gets healthy and rebounds. And maybe banning the shift adds some points to this batting average.