This year's goal: 99 losses (or fewer)

[bubba phillips]

My goal for the White Sox this year is to lose fewer than 100 games.  Why?

- psychologically, the record looks less horrific when the losses are not in triple digits.  Teams with 100+ losses are treated with as much disdain as the teams that WIN 100+ are glorified.

- fewer than 100 losses puts a better spin on the progress of the rebuild.

- dropping from 3rd to 5th or 6th in the draft is insignificant.  You'll still get a quality player (assuming the Sox know what they're doing).  This year's draft had players picked late in the first round that many "experts" felt had top 10 talent.

The chances of losing less than 100 games looked very promising after the Bosox series.  With 24 games to go, we needed to go a mere  7-17 the rest of the way.  But the current 6-game losing streak is making it interesting.  Especially since 9 of the remaining games are against Cleveland and the Chubs.

 

[GreenSox]

Agree - don't want the team to lose 100.

[Superstar Lamar]

I don't care a fig if they win a single game the rest of the year except for the three against the cubs

[Greg Hibbard]

Literally no one on this team of professional players will differentiate losing 99 vs 100 games. The tank should be back on and we need the #3 pick. 

[gusguyman]

35 minutes ago, Greg Hibbard said:

Literally no one on this team of professional players will differentiate losing 99 vs 100 games. The tank should be back on and we need the #3 pick. 

MLB players have sat out game 162 instead of risking their exactly .300 BA going to .299. Professional players are human too, and almost all humans love milestones.

[reiks12]

Records 0-0 to start next year, nobody will be thinking about 100 losses then. 

Astros had 100 losses, Cubs too.. Twins had a 100 loss season then went on to make the playoffs the next year.

[Greg Hibbard]

1 hour ago, gusguyman said:

MLB players have sat out game 162 instead of risking their exactly .300 BA going to .299. Professional players are human too, and almost all humans love milestones.

So what you’re telling me is that a player willingly sat out a meaningless game 162 because he didn’t care if his team won or lost that game to preserve personal stats. It seems you are reinforcing the argument that the player wouldn’t care if the team lost 99 or 100 games. 

 

[bubba phillips]

ONE  MORE!!!---win or rainout.

[Boopa1219]

I don’t get this type of thinking...

The goal should be to get the highest draft pick possible, so that the Sox can get the best possible players during the draft. The same people who are rooting for the Sox to win these truly meaningless games are the same people who are going to be mad that the Sox for missing out on (Insert Player Here). 

And there’s a big difference between having the third worst record and the fifth worst record. That affects how much money you have to spend on amateur players in the draft and on J2.

And to suggest that the number of losses is indicative of the progress of the rebuild in absolutely insane. What’s so hard to understand about this process?

[Greg Hibbard]

I literally cannot believe some think it is more important to win 63 games than to get the #3 instead of potentially the #5 or #6 pick. The difference between the #3 and the #6 pick could be a world championship. 100 losses will never be remembered if the Sox get a world series title because of it.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Greg Hibbard

[Leonard Zelig]

3 minutes ago, Greg Hibbard said:

I literally cannot believe some think it is more important to win 63 games than to get the #3 instead of potentially the #5 or #6 pick. The difference between the #3 and the #6 pick could be a world championship. 100 losses will never be remembered if the Sox get a world series title because of it.

It doesn't matter what people want.  The team will do what it does.  We've all wanted them to win for the past 10 years and that hasn't had any effect on the play on the field.

[southsider2k5]

42 minutes ago, Joshua Strong said:

I don’t get this type of thinking...

The goal should be to get the highest draft pick possible, so that the Sox can get the best possible players during the draft. The same people who are rooting for the Sox to win these truly meaningless games are the same people who are going to be mad that the Sox for missing out on (Insert Player Here). 

And there’s a big difference between having the third worst record and the fifth worst record. That affects how much money you have to spend on amateur players in the draft and on J2.

And to suggest that the number of losses is indicative of the progress of the rebuild in absolutely insane. What’s so hard to understand about this process?

It does NOT effect July 2 money.

[Greg Hibbard]

16 minutes ago, Leonard Zelig said:

It doesn't matter what people want.  The team will do what it does.  We've all wanted them to win for the past 10 years and that hasn't had any effect on the play on the field.

Yes, the team will do what it does, but we post opinions on message boards anyway.

[Iwritecode]

1 hour ago, Greg Hibbard said:

I literally cannot believe some think it is more important to win 63 games than to get the #3 instead of potentially the #5 or #6 pick. The difference between the #3 and the #6 pick could be a world championship. 100 losses will never be remembered if the Sox get a world series title because of it.

I wonder if there's ever been a study on the significance of where exactly a player was drafted.  Like take the WAR of all the players drafted in the top 10 and see how much of a difference there really is. I suspect it would be pretty small.

[FloydBannister1983]

12 minutes ago, Iwritecode said:

I wonder if there's ever been a study on the significance of where exactly a player was drafted.  Like take the WAR of all the players drafted in the top 10 and see how much of a difference there really is. I suspect it would be pretty small.

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/community/success-rate-of-mlb-first-round-draft-picks-by-slot/

[bubba phillips]

2 hours ago, Greg Hibbard said:

I literally cannot believe some think it is more important to win 63 games than to get the #3 instead of potentially the #5 or #6 pick. The difference between the #3 and the #6 pick could be a world championship. 100 losses will never be remembered if the Sox get a world series title because of it.

It's just an opinion.  No better and no worse than yours or anybody else's.

[Iwritecode]

1 hour ago, Juschill said:

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/community/success-rate-of-mlb-first-round-draft-picks-by-slot/

That's close, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I want the WAR for all the players drafted #1 overall for say the last 20 years. Then the war for all the players drafted #2 overall, ect... I'm guessing the numbers between the guys from #3 wouldn't be all that much better than the guys from #5 or #6.

It would be simple enough to do, just time consuming.

[ChiSox59]

I don't give two shits about meaningless win totals.  I want the #3 pick.  

[Dam8610]

22 hours ago, Iwritecode said:

That's close, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I want the WAR for all the players drafted #1 overall for say the last 20 years. Then the war for all the players drafted #2 overall, ect... I'm guessing the numbers between the guys from #3 wouldn't be all that much better than the guys from #5 or #6.

It would be simple enough to do, just time consuming.

I think someone did that and found that the Top 3 have a gap, then the rest of the Top 10 have a gap, then it's pretty much a crapshoot. I didn't do any research or find the article I'm remembering reading, so I could be completely wrong, but I seem to remember that.

[bubba phillips]

On ‎9‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 5:54 PM, bubba phillips said:

My goal for the White Sox this year is to lose fewer than 100 games.  Why?

- psychologically, the record looks less horrific when the losses are not in triple digits.  Teams with 100+ losses are treated with as much disdain as the teams that WIN 100+ are glorified.

- fewer than 100 losses puts a better spin on the progress of the rebuild.

- dropping from 3rd to 5th or 6th in the draft is insignificant.  You'll still get a quality player (assuming the Sox know what they're doing).  This year's draft had players picked late in the first round that many "experts" felt had top 10 talent.

The chances of losing less than 100 games looked very promising after the Bosox series.  With 24 games to go, we needed to go a mere  7-17 the rest of the way.  But the current 6-game losing streak is making it interesting.  Especially since 9 of the remaining games are against Cleveland and the Chubs.

 

I guess asking for a "winning" percentage of .292 was asking for too much from this collection of losers.  So we played .250 ball for virtually the whole month of September.  A fitting end to the season, since we played .250 ball to start the year.

Several people mentioned that Moncada improved his numbers in September, but that was dismissed by others as coming against other teams' garbage (September call-ups).  I guess if you play .250 ball in September (as the Sox did), that must mean that their garbage is better than our garbage.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

On 9/11/2018 at 5:26 PM, reiks12 said:

Records 0-0 to start next year, nobody will be thinking about 100 losses then. 

Astros had 100 losses, Cubs too.. Twins had a 100 loss season then went on to make the playoffs the next year.

Cubs 1st round draft picks from 2011-2015 : Baez #9 , Almora #6 , Bryant #2 , Schwarber #4, Happ #9

Astro's 1st rounders 2011-2015 : Springer #11 , Correa #1 , Mark Appel #1, Brady Aiken #1 , Alex Bregman #2 and Kyle Tucker #5 both in 2015

Looks like the Cubs picks are more in the Sox range but they picked all position players in those years and everyone of them has made significant contributions.

The Astro's had 3  # 1's and 2 of the top 5 in 2015.

What is the trend here with 2 World Champs ? They both had the most success drafting position players who turned into superstars or very high quality players. Only 2 pitchers taken by both teams both #1's by the Astros and both bombed,

Will the Sox end up with similar draft results ? As of now it doesn't look that way. Jake Burger taken at #11 like Springer was. Zack Collins taken at #10 , Baez #9 . Happ at #9  Fulmer at #8 in the same draft year. Maybe Madrigal or this years pick end up good,

 

Even if you throw in the kids we got in trades do we have a Correa, Springer, Baez or Bryant or Bregman among them ? We will see.