What do you take from the 2017 season?

[southsider2k5]

Now that the 2017 season is over, and we saw 162 games played at the major league level played, a lot of players traded away as well as brought into the organization... what are you going to take from the 2017 season as a White Sox fan?

[Squirmin' for Yermin]

Now that the 2017 season is over, and we saw 162 games played at the major league level played, a lot of players traded away as well as brought into the organization... what are you going to take from the 2017 season as a White Sox fan?

 

Our young players seemed to have all developed well apart from a few (Rutherford, Collins, Fulmer, Burdi) while also have some lower guys perform (Zavala, Stephens, Adolfo). Good year for the minors and our young core. I am happy with all of the trades except the Yankees trade. Seems we are a good prospect short.

[Balta1701]

A lot of promise from pitchers not named Rodon and a helluva trade for Quintana. A promising start for Moncada who looks better than I thought he'd look, a rough year for Anderson, a promising year for Garcia but not sure we want to keep him.

 

Big league club seems to be running better than it was. No obvious signs of major improvement to how the minor leagues are run - guys are still being pushed aggressively and struggling for unexplained reasons.

[Jose Abreu]

A lot of promise from pitchers not named Rodon

The surgery obviously changes things, but Rodon had a stretch where he was a true ace, shutting down 1st place lineups.

Edited October 2, 2017 by Jose Abreu

[35thstreetswarm]

Now that the 2017 season is over, and we saw 162 games played at the major league level played, a lot of players traded away as well as brought into the organization... what are you going to take from the 2017 season as a White Sox fan?

 

Player- and team-specific baseball matters aside, I learned that a full-fledged rebuild is not nearly as painful as I expected. I can't believe "the bad season" is already over, and it wasn't even bad. Sick as it sounds, I may have enjoyed this season more than any since 08 because of the constant action on the prospect front, and the abundance of hope for the future.

[Ducksnort]

Player- and team-specific baseball matters aside, I learned that a full-fledged rebuild is not nearly as painful as I expected. I can't believe "the bad season" is already over, and it wasn't even bad. Sick as it sounds, I may have enjoyed this season more than any since 08 because of the constant action on the prospect front, and the abundance of hope for the future.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think next season has the potential to be more difficult than this one, at least in the first half before Eloy and Kopech come up. Sophomore slumps will happen, Avi is gonna regress (hopefully not much), and you'll probably see sophomotr slumps from Moncada and (for what it's worth) Delmonico.

 

The main thing for me next year will be the starting pitching, specifically with Giolito and Lopez. The pitching is the most important part of this rebuild, and we definitely have the man for the job in Coop.

[Ducksnort]

Player- and team-specific baseball matters aside, I learned that a full-fledged rebuild is not nearly as painful as I expected. I can't believe "the bad season" is already over, and it wasn't even bad. Sick as it sounds, I may have enjoyed this season more than any since 08 because of the constant action on the prospect front, and the abundance of hope for the future.

Yeah, this has been said by many over the season, but this was the most fun 60 win team many people have ever seen. Credit that to Renteria.

[Lip Man 1]

The most important thing I took out of the year, took place off the field of play.

 

The fact that the Sox front office committed themselves to a plan and did everything they could to start down that specific highway was huge.

 

That was the big deal, that has started everything.

 

Where it all ends up, nobody knows right now, these are the White Sox after all but for now the future appears very bright.

[Dunt]

Very encouraged by what I saw this season.

 

 

Positives:

-Farm system took steps forward, a lot of great performances across the board

-Yoan turned in a solid rookie season. 104 wRC+, .327 wOBA, 6 DRS, .181 ISO. I think he only goes up from here.

-Avi has played himself into either being a part of the future or a potential nice trade chip to further load up the system

-Jose Abreu had his best season since his rookie year

-Omar Narvaez, while awful at pitch framing, proved he can be a part of this moving forward in atleast a backup role. He actually reminds me of Alex Avila with less power.

-Giolito impressed me quite a bit this season. To start the season the way he did and finish the way he did says a lot to me about his maturity and his mental toughness. Even if he doesn't reach his lofty ceiling, I think his floor is a really serviceable #3 for a championship team.

-Lopez showed glimpses of some really gross stuff. The lack of strikeouts was a little bit concerning, but I think he was pretty gased by the end of the season. The fact that he was throwing 97-98 in his last start though makes me confident in his ability to start moving forward though.

-Nicky Delmonico is a find. He is the type of player/find/hidden gem that accelerates the timeline of a rebuild. Im not sure he can be this good moving forward, but it's nice to have a little insurance at DH/LF. He is a solid LH bat and a welcome surprise this season.

-Yolmer finished w/ a 2.1 fWAR season. His offensive profile is still nothing to write home about, but Im confident you can plug him in at 3B next season and he can be a place holder until Burger is ready or they go out and get someone like Machado, Donaldson, Arenado, etc.

 

Negatives:

-Tim had a tough season. It's great he came on in the second half, but his defense took a massive step back. I hope he's able to flush this season and come out the other side a better player. I want him to succeed here.

-Fernando Tatis looks like an absolute beast.

-Rodon can't seem to stay healthy.

-Renteria likes bunting far too much.

 

[chitownsportsfan]

Very encouraged by what I saw this season.

 

 

Positives:

-Farm system took steps forward, a lot of great performances across the board

-Yoan turned in a solid rookie season. 104 wRC+, .327 wOBA, 6 DRS, .181 ISO. I think he only goes up from here.

-Avi has played himself into either being a part of the future or a potential nice trade chip to further load up the system

-Jose Abreu had his best season since his rookie year

-Omar Narvaez, while awful at pitch framing, proved he can be a part of this moving forward in atleast a backup role. He actually reminds me of Alex Avila with less power.

-Giolito impressed me quite a bit this season. To start the season the way he did and finish the way he did says a lot to me about his maturity and his mental toughness. Even if he doesn't reach his lofty ceiling, I think his floor is a really serviceable #3 for a championship team.

-Lopez showed glimpses of some really gross stuff. The lack of strikeouts was a little bit concerning, but I think he was pretty gased by the end of the season. The fact that he was throwing 97-98 in his last start though makes me confident in his ability to start moving forward though.

-Nicky Delmonico is a find. He is the type of player/find/hidden gem that accelerates the timeline of a rebuild. Im not sure he can be this good moving forward, but it's nice to have a little insurance at DH/LF. He is a solid LH bat and a welcome surprise this season.

-Yolmer finished w/ a 2.1 fWAR season. His offensive profile is still nothing to write home about, but Im confident you can plug him in at 3B next season and he can be a place holder until Burger is ready or they go out and get someone like Machado, Donaldson, Arenado, etc.

 

Negatives:

-Tim had a tough season. It's great he came on in the second half, but his defense took a massive step back. I hope he's able to flush this season and come out the other side a better player. I want him to succeed here.

-Fernando Tatis looks like an absolute beast.

-Rodon can't seem to stay healthy.

-Renteria likes bunting far too much.

 

Great summary!

[zisk]

 

 

Avi,Yolmer and Lucas G. were nice surprises this year. Hopefully Leury will be healthier

 

next year while playing like he did this season. Sometimes after a big home run season

 

MLB takes a little juice out of the base the following year, so I would expect a few less

 

from some guys. The defense improved a lot the second half ans I would expect that to

 

continue. As we add more young players next year I'd bet we become more talented and

 

more inconsistent at the same time. 2018 will be fun and 2019 even more so.

[Rowand44]

The biggest thing for me is the rebuild is super healthy and might be moving a bit faster than imagined at first.

[BlackSox13]

One word, Patience.

 

That was key to everything for me. Patience with the FO, with scouting of players prior to trading for them, with development of current and newly acquired players, with the coaching staff and with all us fans.

 

I would be more specific but it would be a very long post and who the hell wants to read a long ass blurb from me? I know I wouldn't.

 

That patience allowed me to discover how much I've missed Hawk as well.

 

All in all, I really enjoyed this season and can't wait for the end of February when pitchers and catchers report.

 

 

[Dam8610]

For the goal of the season, development of the talented youth on the team and in the minors, it was a great season. Most players met or exceeded expectations in that department, and this was the most enjoyable 95 loss season I could imagine, because of how bright the future looks at the end of it.

[chitownsportsfan]

Two quick thoughts:

 

-- Foundation has been laid for "sustained success". In Moncada, Leury, Yolmer, Delmonico, Eloy, Kopech, Anderson, Giolito, Lopez and Hansen you have the next core of guys you'd expect produce around 30 WAR in any given season. There are another half a dozen guys position player guys and maybe a couple more pitcher wise you'd expect to add another 10-20 WAR over the next five year window.

 

-- Next year in many ways will be more difficult. This year was "house money" and the Sox did well. Next year you're going to have a really young lineup at times and some of the young studs, including Eloy and Kopech, are probably going to have some rough patches. We are going to expect more wins than this year, but that might not be the case, especially if they trade Avi and/or Jose.

[bmags]

For most of year I felt like this was going about as well as it could go, then the Rodon news.

 

The bad:

Rodon's shoulder

Burdi's elbow

Anderson's first half

Fulmers first 4/5s of season

Saladino

 

The good:

Improvement from virtually all pitching prospects (sans fulmer)

Generally good health

production way over expectations for AAA-Majors players that were not top prospects.

(How many years did we bring up these players with not a lot of hype outwardly but decent AAA numbers and they just fell flat on their face. I expected a whole lot of Asche's and Jacob Mays, but everything after that was thrilling to me)

 

 

We built up our prospects this year and basically had one flame out (fulmer) before becoming something to think about. That's good.

 

 

[OmarComing25]

For most of year I felt like this was going about as well as it could go, then the Rodon news.

 

The bad:

Rodon's shoulder

Burdi's elbow

Anderson's first half

Fulmers first 4/5s of season

Saladino

 

The good:

Improvement from virtually all pitching prospects (sans fulmer)

Generally good health

production way over expectations for AAA-Majors players that were not top prospects.

(How many years did we bring up these players with not a lot of hype outwardly but decent AAA numbers and they just fell flat on their face. I expected a whole lot of Asche's and Jacob Mays, but everything after that was thrilling to me)

 

 

We built up our prospects this year and basically had one flame out (fulmer) before becoming something to think about. That's good.

Good list, I'd add Jones' injury to the bad. Before the season he was in our top 5 trade chips but now he has little to no value.

[bmags]

Good list, I'd add Jones' injury to the bad. Before the season he was in our top 5 trade chips but now he has little to no value.

 

Yikes good point.

[jenksycat]

The Good:

-Surprising performances by guys that were assumed to just be roster-filler: Avi, Leury, Delmonico, Yolmer (partially)

-The future 'core' appears to be settling in (Yoan, Gio, Lopez, Anderson's 2nd half)

-Abreu having such a good year that makes people want to extend him

-Kopech/Eloy tearing up the minors and looking to be contributors to a fringe-wildcard contending 2018 team if everything else goes perfectly

-Rodon showing ace potential

-It appears the team was almost completely rebuilt in 1 off season way ahead of schedule that could realistically lead to a contending window of several years + tons of money to spend in FA

 

The Bad:

-Anderson's first half

-Injuries knocking out Leury, Jones, Saladino

-Rodon's body

 

The Unknown:

-Although the team has been rebuilt, the jury is still out if this franchise can scout/develop it's own talent and not need to pilfer other teams' farm systems.

-I don't see Rentaria as the long term manager and that will have to be sorted out eventually

 

 

 

 

[greg775]

I'm not a "rebuild guy" so I realize my post will be different from most. Please let's not start a big argument in respect for what's really important (the Vegas tragedy). But you asked. ...

I thought it was a miserable season. As a fan I was insulted and irritated that we had to trot Pelphrey, Holland and Shields out there as three starting pitchers. They were disgustingly bad and insulted me as a fan. I mean if they were trying to tank, fine, but those guys were embarrassments to the uniform in terms of performance.

As far as other negatives ... I feel like we had about 5 bullpen pieces "almost" as bad as the above mentioned starters. Disgusting bullpen.

The positives for me are different from some of you. I appreciated some key hits this season from Avi, Davidson and Abreu. I especially enjoyed Avi's season, which was splendid. And I absolutely loved Abreu's season. Also as much as I hated Dunn, I did like Davidson. I felt like he did the uniform proud as a rookie. Some of his blasts were absolute bombs.

I also liked watching Moncada and feel like Tim Anderson showed well the last six weeks. I disagree with some of his hitting approach but enjoyed his hitting the last month and a half. Enjoyed some of the performances of our young starters especially Rodon.

 

In short, I loved Abreu, Davidson and Avi. Hated a bunch of things.

Edited October 2, 2017 by greg775

[Bob Sacamano]

I'm not a "rebuild guy" so I realize my post will be different from most. Please let's not start a big argument in respect for what's really important (the Vegas tragedy). But you asked. ...

I thought it was a miserable season. As a fan I was insulted and irritated that we had to trot Pelphrey, Holland and Shields out there as three starting pitchers. They were disgustingly bad and insulted me as a fan. I mean if they were trying to tank, fine, but those guys were embarrassments to the uniform in terms of performance.

As far as other negatives ... I feel like we had about 5 bullpen pieces "almost" as bad as the above mentioned starters. Disgusting bullpen.

The positives for me are different from some of you. I appreciated some key hits this season from Avi, Davidson and Abreu. I especially enjoyed Avi's season, which was splendid. And I absolutely loved Abreu's season. Also as much as I hated Dunn, I did like Davidson. I felt like he did the uniform proud as a rookie. Some of his blasts were absolute bombs.

I also liked watching Moncada and feel like Tim Anderson showed well the last six weeks. I disagree with some of his hitting approach but enjoyed his hitting the last month and a half. Enjoyed some of the performances of our young starters especially Rodon.

 

In short, I loved Abreu, Davidson and Avi. Hated a bunch of things.

 

This season is only "miserable" if you don't actually understand what's going on. So many positives this season. Sucks you can't enjoy it.

[Balta1701]

The surgery obviously changes thing, but Rodon had a stretch where he was a true ace, shutting down 1st place lineups.

He has had a similar stretch each of the 3 seasons he's been in the big leagues though. 2015 over his last 8 starts, 1.91 ERA. 2016 7 start stretch at the beginning of August - 1.85 ERA.

 

To me he's still basically the same pitcher he came up as. When his "Stuff" is working he's absolutely dominant, but no pitcher ever maintains their fastball and slider through the entire season. Rodon gets into month-ish grooves when he has good control of both of them and maybe even the change tags along those games, but those stretches come when he's overpowering with stuff. No one can possibly say that pre-injury Rodon didn't have dominant stuff, he has as good of a slider as anyone in the game and a mid 90s fastball. He just doesn't have any way to win games on days when he doesn't have his dominating stuff.

[hogan873]

This season is only "miserable" if you don't actually understand what's going on. So many positives this season. Sucks you can't enjoy it.

Yeah, I feel a lot better about this season than I did about 2016. The future is very bright, and it's part of the rebuild life that we have to walk through some darkness to get there.

[greg775]

This season is only "miserable" if you don't actually understand what's going on. So many positives this season. Sucks you can't enjoy it.

How could ANYBODY enjoy one iota of Holland, Pelphrey, Shields, those relievers. Insulting to me as a fan. I listed many positives in my post BTW. That doesn't change the fact it was a horrible, embarassingly bad season, one of the worst I've had as a Sox fan, simply because I couldn't watch so many games cause of the rotten players dotting the roster.

[SoxAce]

Good list, I'd add Jones' injury to the bad. Before the season he was in our top 5 trade chips but now he has little to no value.

 

I'd add Robert's constant/freak injuries as well. Let's hope that's not a thing with him in the future. Seen it too many times with a few prospects in the past.