Dominikk85

I agree. He truly seems to be an elite athlete when he is fit and you could dream of a young Yoenis cespedes with him. Hit tool probably needs work to get there but you are not getting a guy with that power, arm and speed often. A question is of course if he can hold that weight or whether he will gain it again.

Oh yeah I see. That should be easier to correct than a lack of spin rate though. Not sure how far the sox are with pitch design though.

No way as I said in the other thread, he won games at a 94 win clip with 2 and a half starting pitchers and narrowly lost a best of 3 series against the 2 seed. People say "because of jerry" but there is simply no precedent in baseball history that a manager coming off a losing season has such a successful season and gets fired. That has simply never happened white sox or any other team. He is back 100%. Of course he did make a couple mistakes but bottom line his team still performed much better than even the most optimistic projection said.

Cease FB spin rate is elite at 2500 (95th percentile), he just has no idea where it is going.

That sucks. Hopefully he can avoid TJ. It sounds bad but I would try conservative treatment first so you can keep him on the roster and send him down instead of 15 months of service time getting lost on the DL.

Really neither has done enough for that. That doesn't mean they can't ever but they need to earn it by tearing up the minors first. The sox aren't in a position anymore were anyone who does halfway decent in the minors eventually gets called up, at this point prospects need to earn it because there aren't as many free spots anymore.

Yeah probably. I think it's better to err on the side of too much pitching, on paper it might look overcrowded but in reality if you have 6 solid starters there might be a crunch the first couple starts but then it usually gets sorted out quickly.

Moncada also had some bad luck with line outs the last days. Obviously his power is currently compromised (a healthy and fit moncada would have hit a few of those high liners out of the park) due to his physical problems but there was some bad luck involved too.

An issue is the sox have so many question marks. Dunning, cease, kopech and even Reylo all could step up next season but neither of them is a sure thing. Realistically you can hope for two of them stepping up so you would need one more but in an ideal case 3 of them step up and the sox rotation is pretty solid. Of course also the worst case could happen and only one of them steps up and then you need two. Lots of uncertainty.

Yeah you are right, cease got super lucky the first half. But dunning actually looked solid in August before faltering in September

Rodon basically did start the inning, he came in with bases empty after the homer. This was the perfect spot for rodon if there is such a thing for him.

The sox just don't have a 3rd starter and it was always clear this is going to be a pen game. Obviously you hope dunning gives you two or 3 but he always was going to be gone after the first trouble. It was some risk but it could have worked if some of the relievers got their job done. There was really no other way to manage that today. Had he left dunning on and he gave up 3 anyone here would have complained too

Rick tried to play chess but his rook and queen played like pawns:).

I think it depends on what was available and what is the price. Not mortgaging the future is good but the future isn't forever either, I.e 1 year is 20-25% of a typical competitive window and shouldn't be thrown away easily. Thus it depends on what you have to give up. You don't want to give up a key piece but clinging on to 40 fv guys for "the future" might not be that smart either. Hahn definitely should trade spare pieces like Rutherford and sheets before they lose any value or even get rule 5ed but of course you need to get back something and not total crap. If Lynn was offered for let's say sheets and Rutherford hahn definitely should have pulled the trigger but probably that wasn't on the table.

Sox didn't come through in some situations but they also had some bad luck with hard hit balls and line outs while most hits seem to fall for the As. Also the tight zone helps the patient As more than the free swinging sox hitters.

Ricky did some mistakes but this game he really managed great. He pulled dunning when he got in trouble and then went with his best guys stretching them maybe a batter too long but not terrible either. This game there were two problems and neither is on ricky: 1. The sox don't have a third starter 2. The usually good relievers didn't find the zone Nothing he could do here. Sure it sucks rodon had to pitch but he brought in rodon with 2 out and bases empty, a perfect situation that doesn't get any easier.

Rodon was brought in at the right time, with two out in the 4th and nobody on, doesn't get more low leverage than that. If he needs to pitch that was the time. Unfortunately nobody got the job done.

I think cease has to pitch now. Not much left in the pen

In hindsight it was a mistake to not trade for a starter but cease and dunning looked not bad in the first half but especially cease struggled more than expected in the second half.

At that rate a position player pitches in the 8th

Well if you have a bullpen game in the first inning you have to leave some guys out a batter too long and hope for the best, otherwise you have nobody left in the 7th. Sucks that the sox only have two real starters.

I would have said crochet open for 1 or 2, then dunning and if he struggles pull him quickly however the last starts weren't so great by dunning maybe now I would start dunning and then stretch crochet as far as you can maybe even let him throw 2-3 innings.

I think there are several factors to why he was so good this year. 1. He is slimmer and fitter than usually 2. Avoiding the cold: jose hates the cold and is usually not good the first 4-6 weeks. This year he started the season when it was hot 3. A bit of luck. His .379 xwoba is a career high (only since 2015 available) but still he got a little lucky with a .404 actual wOBA. Regarding the final out yesterday: it was a great decision to swing first pitch here. He is clearly the best hitter of the team and it was two out. If he walks it is 4-5 and mazara is up with 2 out. I definitely take the chance of jose getting a hit and tying it over hoping mazara gets on and ties or wins it vs a lefty or McCann in case he pinch hits there.

He did always trade a lot of prospects but most of them really became busts. The only real good ones he traded were andrew miller in the miggy trade and moncada, kopech in the sale trade and both trades brought in a superstar in their prime who worked out really well. Still of course that approach is not super sustainable but he definitely did trade the right guys most of the time.

Great. Get a tired hendriks who the sox have already hit in:)