VAfan

AMEN!!

Vaughn was the second worst hitter on the team against righties last year, ahead of only Seby Zavala. I'm sure LaRussa will give him a chance to improve on that, but you don't want to be forced into a situation with him getting a lot of ABs there. He's a perfect platoon partner with Gavin Sheets, who mashes righties almost as well as Vaughn crushes lefties. And now they can do that mostly playing DH/1B, where they are more suited. I'm sure they'll still get some OF time, but it won't be a lot.

I haven't liked a lot of your posts on here, Ray Ray, but this shows that you are willing to give credit when it's due.

Even though I've been one of the few poster defending what we had for the OF and thought we might not trade Kimbrel, I wholly support this move. Certainly, this vindicates the Sox for exercising their option on Kimbrel. Below is what I posted on the Athletic. ***************** Excellent move for the White Sox, who get an experienced outfielder who once had CF range, and who has no platoon splits, to be their regular right fielder. Pollack's wRC+ last year of 137 would make him the 3rd best hitter on the Sox, behind only Luis Robert and Yasmani Grandal. But he's likely to slide into the 6 or 7 hole for Chicago, which is also where he hit most often last year for the Dodgers. Now the Sox don't have to stretch out Adam Engel to see how well his good hitting the last 2 years would work with a lot more ABs, but still have him as an excellent 4th outfielder and defensive replacement. And they don't need to use the awesome platoon of Gavin Sheets/Andrew Vaughn in the outfield much. No one knew if Kimbrel could bounce back in a non-closer role, and we still won't know. So, even if he returns to form as a closer for the Dodgers, Sox fans won't know if he would have done as well in a setup role. The Sox pen is still at least 5 deep (assuming Crochet wasn't hurt badly yesterday) with quality pitchers -- Hendrix, Graveman, Kelly, Bummer, and Crochet -- and have several other arms who can fill in (and also be stashed in AAA for fill-in duties). With 2 long men in Lopez and Velasquez to go with 5 starters, they only have room for 6 short guys when the rosters return to 26. If they still had Kimbrell, they might have had to cut a reliever without options. So, for Madrigal, the Sox at least get an offensive upgrade for this season, and a player they might be able to keep for an extra year at a reasonable cost to straddle the time until Colas or Cespedes are ready.

Has anyone done a breakdown of the 2021 Seattle Mariners? They went 90-72, but their run differential of -51 runs should have left them at 76-86! So they were 14 games better than where they should have been. The Sox? 93-69, with an expected 97-65 record. I was looking at Stathead baseball, part of Baseball Reference, on the White Sox scoring and leads summary. I was thinking about whether a better bullpen might improve the Sox' record. In Stathead, there's a chart for Inning-by-inning W-L record. You can see the team record when ahead, tied, or behind by inning. The Sox record didn't look very good, so I started searching for a comparison. I first looked at the Tampa Bay Rays. But then I found the Seattle Mariners!! Look at this chart. Tied Sox Mariners Rays 6th 11.-15 15-9 18-15 7th 5.-14 16-6 13-10 8th 5.-13 18-5 13-12 9th 5.-8 14-4 8.-17 10th 5.-6 13-7 7.-12 11th 1.-0 4.-2 2.-6 12th XX 0-1 1.-1 The White Sox had a losing record when tied in the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, then went 1-0 when tied entering the 11th. The Rays had a winning record when tied beginning the 6th, 7th, and 8th, but losing records for the 9th, 10th, and 11th, with a 1-1 record to start the 12th. But the Mariners? Winning records when tied from the 6th-11th, with a 0-1 record to start the 12th. And these weren't just slightly over .500 records like the Rays. The Mariners won a very hefty percentage of their games when tied in the 6th inning or later. Now one note should be added here. You can't total the columns. If a team is tied after the 6th but wins the game, that goes down in the ledger. But if no one scores in the 6th, that same game will be tied in the 7th. And so forth. So there is some carryover going on here. Still, combined with the skewed expected W-L numbers, it seems curious to me. Is there any kind of lesson here? Is there any chance that an improved bullpen could improve the Sox' record when tied late in games? Interestingly, the Sox had a better record than the Mariners when ahead from the 6th inning on. But they also won a lot fewer games than Seattle when behind from the 6th inning on. This is shown in the 42 comeback wins for Seattle v. 32 for the Sox. (The Rays had 46). So, if the Sox and their bullpen did well with leads, why did they do so poorly with late ties? The Sox did much better percentage-wise in 2020. I don't have the answers, but I'm putting this here to see if anyone does.

Just stashing this here. If you took a straight Sheets/Vaughn platoon, here were their combined numbers against opposite handed pitchers. 301 PA, 265 ABs, 70 hits, 33 1Bs, 18 2Bs, 0 3Bs, 19 HRs, .265 BA, .354 OBP, 552 SLG, 906 OPS Projected to 500 PAs, assuming they balanced out with the pitching matchups. (They are close enough in their numbers that it's a reasonable extrapolation.) 500 PAs, 440, ABs, 117 hits, 55 1Bs, 30 2Bs, 0 3Bs, 32 HRs, .265 BA, .354 OBP, .552 SLG, 906 OPS. Where would that rank on the team? OPS - 3rd. Behind Robert and Grandal SLG - 2nd - Behind Robert OBP - 4th - Behind Grandal, Robert, Moncada. Just ahead of Abreu. HR - 1st - ahead of Abreu Granted, Vaughn/Sheets are better at DH or 1B, but given this production, if Grandal is DHing or playing first when he can't catch, then either Sheets or Vaughn also need to be in the lineup, and they aren't putting Abreu or Jimenez on the bench. RF is where they need to play.

Everyone calling for an outfielder is supporting benching Vaughn against all but lefties. Just make sure you add that point to your comments.

Nothing should change off this. Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal got hurt running to first base. Engel got hurt trying to run to catch a ball. This has nothing to do with the makeup of the team. If you bring in an outfielder, you are just benching Sheets or Vaughn when Grandal DHs. Yet that outfielder probably wont hit as well as a platoon of that combo. Plus, at what price?

This piece actually spells out what the Sox have done in RF and DH -- plan to use Vaughn/Sheets/Engel -- in a rotation. Obviously a lot of people didn't like this choice, but it's pretty plain this was the plan all along.

My take on Bummer is he needs regular use. Because his slider moves SO much, he needs to pitch a lot to keep his feel for it. His problem last year was wildness. He couldn't get enough pitches over for strikes or looking like strikes that guy were able to sit on his fastball.

This is simply wrong. I've been on this site longer than most. But I largely tuned out the Sox during the rebuild, as I've shared before. I don't live in the Chicago area, so I didn't have the chance to go to many games. I would see them once a year when they came to the DC/Baltimore area, and watch if they were on TV, which was very rare. So, I don't want to see a rebuild. I want the Sox to contend and win it all again. And you can't have read my post if you think I agree with everything the Sox have done. I'm just able to convey that without going over the top.

Right! But you said this quite simply.

Criticism is fine -- I shared mine -- but it's pretty easy to tell when it goes over the top. Here's how to tell the difference. Ask any of the posters on here -- why are you still a White Sox fan? What is the response? If they can't say anything positive at that point, then it's whining. I mean, if the Sox DON'T win the World Series, is following or rooting for the Sox a complete waste of time? Not for me. I enjoyed the hell out of the 2020 season but I didn't think the Sox had a shot at a title. The Dodgers have had amazing teams year after year, and spend money out the wazoo, but have only won 1 World Series recently. It's possible to make a point without thinking Rick Hahn is a moron, Jerry Reinsdorf is a cheapskate, and TLR is an over-the-hill drunk. Just have a little perspective, and some HUMILTY. Because if any of the posters on here tried to do any of those jobs, including me, we'd fail completely. We're all such know-it-alls when NONE of us have ever done any of the jobs we trash people for. This is why I stood up for TLR last offseason. Sure, he's not a perfect manager. But I know he knows a whole lot more and has been through a whole lot more than any of his critics. Most of us don't have the first clue what the job of managing is. It certainly isn't making out the lineup card. I believe it's a people job as much as it is a strategy job. So, I'm an armchair critic as well (not a water carrier, btw). But I have some respect for the people who put the White Sox together, and the players and coaches we already have. And I'm going to enjoy this season regardless of where we end up.

In favor of whom, exactly? Everyone above him on the chart will also be in most games against right handers.

You ran 3-year numbers for them. I only ran last year. In 2019, Harrison had a TERRIBLE year for Detroit, but he was also apparently hurt. So why include that? Meanwhile, Garcia was league average against righties last year, and Harrison just a tick below. Either way, they are likely our 9th place hitters. If the Sox get league average out of the 9th slot in the lineup, I can certainly live with that. The way for the Sox to improve this year against righties is to get a full year out of Sheets and a full year out of Eloy, who has hit righties better than lefties over his career. And if Engel shows his numbers are not just a factor of sample size, he should get plenty of ABs there as well.

This is finally a realistic post about Michael Conforto. It notes his massive flaws -- draft pick compensation, unvaxxed status, and even how late he would be coming to a team right now. And that's not even getting into his pedestrian offensive numbers from last year. He's not in a very good position at the moment to dictate terms.

I said last year I thought Burger could end up being just as good of a hitter as Andrew Vaughn, but perhaps without the dramatic splits Vaughn has at the moment. He's certainly got much more potential than Harrison or Garcia. So where to put him? 1. 2B? The comp I was thinking of was DJ LeMahieu, who is 6-4, 220 to Burger's 6-3, 230. But who knows how heavy Burger is now?. Lot's of reports of him losing weight. I don't know about his ability to pivot, but as a 3B, he has more than enough arm, and should have the glove ability given the ball takes longer to arrive at 2B than it does to 3B. If he's got the speed, perhaps his range would be good enough? The Sox have tried him there already. Still, it would probably take an injury to Harrison or Garcia for them to give him enough ABs to see if he sticks. Best chance to play 2B would be to go to AAA and play there regularly to start the season. 2. DH platoon with Sheets? If he's only facing lefties, this would mean Vaughn would move to RF. Vaughn crushes lefties. so Burger isn't taking those ABs away from Vaughn. But that means using Burger rather than Engel. Not the best move if Engel is healthy. Engel gives you the best fielding lineup, and may end up hitting lefties better than Burger. 3. 3B with Moncada moving to 2B? I floated this idea myself for a while. But it's not happening. Moncada is a better 3B than he was at 2B, and we need him to not worry about fielding and get his bat back to 2019 levels. 4. Depth hitter instead of Danny Mendick. This may be the most likely option. When the rosters come back down to 26 and the Sox have 13 pitchers, their 13 position players will include Moncada, TA, Harrison, Abreu, Grandal, Eloy, Robert, Engel, Sheets (DH), with reserves Garcia, Collins or Seby, and Vaughn. There's room for 1 more guy. It could be Burger. Conclusion: Burger's offense isn't polished enough yet to force out Harrison/Garcia at 2B, so he's almost certainly headed to AAA to get regular playing time. But if anyone is hurt, he would likely get tapped as their best minor league bat at the moment.

I wouldn't say I'm satisfied with the White Sox offseason. I posted multiple times why I thought the Sox should re-sign Carlos Rodon. Without him, our rotation is thin and it's also missing a potential TOR ace. I'm guessing they didn't not as much for the money, but because they are still worried about his arm not lasting a whole season. The Sox can likely win the AL Central without Rodon. But how far will they get in the playoffs without him, if he were still in top form at the end of the year? It's also odd that the team didn't extent a qualifying offer to pick up an extra draft pick. I also hear the complaints about paying too much for "utility" players Harrison and Garcia, though I never thought it realistic for the Sox to pay $175M to Semien when he's 32, or for the other high-priced middle infielders on the market. Kimbrel? It's easy to trash this move given his production since he joined the Sox. In hindsight, it was a bad trade, but Madrigal wasn't helping last year and if Kimbrel had pitched like he did for the Cubs, it would have fortified the back end of the Sox pen which looked very shaky at times last year outside of Hendrix. And even he blew 6 saves. So I can see why they did it. Now? The Sox had to pick up the option before a trade market for him might have developed. Or they could have just let him go. But at that point we didn't have Graveman or Kelly signed. So that covers SP, 2B, and Kimbrel. It leaves RF. Perhaps this is the area of the most whining, but it strikes me as irrational and I've written a few posts about it. If you sign Conforto to a multi year deal, you block the potential arrival of Oscar Colas or Yoenis Cespedes. And you end up taking away ABs from the Sheets/Vaughn platoon when Grandal is the DH, assuming Abreu and Jimenez are not yielding their spots in that situation. And if Conforto is giving way to a Sheets/Vaughn platoon when they are in the field, then why would you sign Conforto in the first place? (They hit much better than he did last year, and cost pennies comparatively.) While I've quickly rehashed some of the major bones of contention, I wrote this post to just say that the whining from many Sox fans is over the top. I'm not satisfied by the Sox offseason, but I still think they have an awesome team, will get better as the season progresses, and can still make moves to help the club up through the trading deadline. I've been a Sox fan since 1970 -- 52 years. I've known only 1 World Series victory in that time. I want the Sox to win again, but I think doing so is going to have more to do with the performance of the players we have on the team now than any additions or tweaks we might have made. Houston embarrassed our entire pitching staff last year, and our offense wasn't capable of responding, except for one game. So, while so many fans are whining about what we don't have, why not enjoy what we DO have, and see if these guys can put it together and win?

This ranking only includes players who are still on the Sox. So no Hamilton, Lamb, Eaton, Hernandez, or Goodwin. I also didn't include Mercedes or Burger or Romy. Against lefties. Plate appearances in parentheses. Robert (68) 231 Grandal (96) 184 Abreu (153) 161 Vaughn (141) 156 Anderson (143) 125 Harrison (141) 114 Moncada (135) 99 Garcia (139) 91 Engel (49) 76 Zavala (30) 74 Eloy (59) 60 Collins (57) 57 Sheets (19) - 26 Against righties. Engel (91) 154 Grandal (279) 150 Sheets (160) 143 Robert (228) 135 Moncada (462) 129 Anderson (408) 118 Abreu (506) 116 Eloy (172) 116 Garcia (335) 101 Collins (172) 101 Harrison (359) 99 Vaughn (328) 68 Zavala (74) 63 Aside from the small samples for several of these players, what would I draw from this? 1. Sheets/Vaughn are a tremendous platoon pairing, whether it's DH, 1B, or RF (or LF). 2. Sheets should get full-time duty against right handed pitching, as the 3rd best hitter against them on the team. 3. Andrew Vaughn will need to be eased in against right handed pitching. At the moment, he's only hitting them better than Seby Zavala. Yet he crushes lefties at the 4th best rate on the team, so sending him to AAA doesn't make much sense. 4. Adam Engel might be a better hitter than we give him credit for. He had reverse splits last year, but has hit lefties better in the past. If he can stay healthy and put up the kind of offensive numbers he has put up the last two years (121 and 127 wRC+), he should get a lot of time in RF. 5. Harrison and Garcia are pretty well matched as a platoon as well. But it's close enough that Harrison could be the primary 2B. 6. Garcia shouldn't get as many ABs as he had last year. But he probably will come close, given TLRs preferences. 7. Eloy isn't going to hit this bad or rank this low. If he does, our offense will be in trouble. 8. The Sox need 2019 Moncada back. His wRC+ numbers were 121 against lefties and 147 against righties. 9. The numbers for Luis Robert are artifically low because they include the first half. In the second half, his overall blended wRC+ was 173 compared to 125 in the first half. 10. Jose Abreu is still crushing lefties.

The overwhelming negativity on this site gets horribly tiresome for at least some of us. I enjoy having a reputation of being optimistic about the Sox, since it clearly stands out. It's so easy to be a naysayer. And how many Conforto threads do there have to be before you say -- ENOUGH!!! There is a lot RIGHT about this Sox team. Why not celebrate it at least SOME of the time??

Don't forget Engel. He's hit well in limited duty the last 2 years. Better than Vaughn against righties. Much better defensively. I think he'll be the starter, with Vaughn worked in to get opptys. Engel just has to keep him hammys healthy and not make any hero plays in spring training.

Why would the Sox be looking for a mult-year deal for a RF? Oscar Colas or Yoenis Cespedes are the players they expect to compete for RF soon. Not this year, but very possibly as soon as 2023. The Sox have to be looking for some inexpensive starters to balance the roster. The only way I think they'd consider signing Conforto would be on a 1-year prove it deal to see if he can regain his form.

We're spending so much time talking about adding or not adding players ... Why not talk a bit more about the players we have? One of the most intriguing things I've read since the Sox returned to the field is what Lucas Giolito did to bulk up his lower body. Here's what James Fegan of the Athletic wrote today: Ethan Katz said a bulked up Lucas Giolito was sitting 96-97 mph in his live BP yesterday. That seems like a few ticks up from last year, when Giolito fell to 3rd in the Sox starting rotation behind Lance Lynn and Carlos Rodon. Is Giolito ready to regain his role at top dog in the Sox rotation, not by decline from anyone else, but by leapfrogging Lynn and keeping Cease and Kopech at bay? One the reasons I argued all offseason for the Sox to keep Rodon is because he offered quality when healthy that the Sox could not replace, and left-handed quality no less. Well, the pain of him leaving would be lessened a great deal if Lucas Giolito took a few steps forward and became an ACE who could match up against any opponent. What do people think? I guess we'll have to see it to know.

As someone who has argued endlessly for going with what we have in RF, I think if Conforto was fine with a 1 year deal, the Sox might be interested.

Because he's worlds better as a hitter against right handers at the moment. Sheets against righties - 143 wRC+. 160 PA. Second best on the Sox, behind only Grandal. Vaughn against righties - 68 wRC+. 328 PA. Anyone who picked the second option over the first would be dumb. Vaughn might/should get better, but he's not there yet. And when he does, it doesn't mean you have to bench Sheets. It really comes down to whether you play Vaughn or Engel against some right handers. Engel has the better defense, so Vaughn has to outhit Engel too. And last year, he didn't. Engel against righties in 2021 - 154 wRC+. Granted, this was only 91 PAs. Vaughn may have hit a HR in today's game. That's great. But he's going to have to earn his PAs against right handers over time.