2020 60 game sprint to the finish

[KrankinSox]

2 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Honestly, this is not ideal for us.  We actually play a smaller portion of our games against the Tigers & Royals and now we play all our non divisional games against a pretty stacked NL Central.  At least most of our games will be fun to watch.

Incorrect. 20 of our 60 games now are against the Royals and Tigers, or 1/3rd of the entire season.

Regular year would have been 38/162, or 23%.

This doesn't give us an advantage over twins or Indians, who play the same schedule. However, it is a factor in a potential wild card race vs. Teams from the east and west.

The bottom of the east has the O's and Jays, while the bottom of the west has the M's.

Advantage for the ALC teams as the Royals, Tigers are clearly two of the worst teams, along with probably the O's.

Edited June 24, 2020 by KrankinSox

[Quin]

4 hours ago, Jerksticks said:

Maybe we’ll get some coordinated celebrations?  Whole team pimping would be cool like NFL touchdowns

Tbh, we'll be better off than most teams in this department.

 

[35thstreetswarm]

32 minutes ago, KrankinSox said:

Incorrect. 20 of our 60 games now are against the Royals and Tigers, or 1/3rd of the entire season.

Regular year would have been 38/162, or 23%.

This doesn't give us an advantage over twins or Indians, who play the same schedule. However, it is a factor in a potential wild card race vs. Teams from the east and west.

The bottom of the east has the O's and Jays, while the bottom of the west has the M's.

Advantage for the ALC teams as the Royals, Tigers are clearly two of the worst teams, along with probably the O's.

Exactly—this is great for us.  We also play zero games against the (likely/projected) top teams in MLB.  

[SonofaRoache]

1 hour ago, pcq said:

The White Sox 13 Indians 14 and Twins 15 have the weakest AL schedules based on last year's performance. 

The Twins and Indians are skewed because the Sox are better than they were last year. 

[SonofaRoache]

3 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Honestly, this is not ideal for us.  We actually play a smaller portion of our games against the Tigers & Royals and now we play all our non divisional games against a pretty stacked NL Central.  At least most of our games will be fun to watch.

 AL East

Yankees, Ray's, BoSox, Braves, Nationals, Mets, and Phillies

AL West

A's, Astros, Angel's, Dodgers, DBacks, Rockies, Giants

I think we get off easier with the Twins, Indians, Cards, Brewers, Cubs, and Reds. These teams are good, but the top end elite talent isn't there. In fact, I don't think any team in the Central would finish higher than 4th in East or West with this season's scenario, as teams will try to win every game. 

[southsider2k5]

9 hours ago, Y2Jimmy0 said:

There's zero chance Rodon opts out. He needs the service time to become a free agent after 2021. 

I know they get paid if the opt out,, do they officially lose service time?

[Soxnfins]

magic number is 35 boys!

[wegner]

You can't win the season in April August but you sure can lose it!!

[southsider2k5]

7 minutes ago, Soxnfins said:

magic number is 35 boys!

*61

[MiddleCoastBias]

46 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

I know they get paid if the opt out,, do they officially lose service time?

"Has the right to opt out and be paid with service time."

 

Edit: welp, he walked that back, it's only for high risk players

Edited June 24, 2020 by MiddleCoastBias
I got Nightengaled

[Y2Jimmy0]

24 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

I know they get paid if the opt out,, do they officially lose service time?

It depends on situation. Someone with a pre-existing medical condition gets paid and service time. Someone without gets neither. It doesn't really matter for a guy like Jose Quintana. He'd still be a free agent. His contract expires. Someone like Mookie though, needs the year of service to hit free agency 

[Kyyle23]

What if a guy opts out, then mid August he says "damn I want to do this", can he opt back in?

[DirtySox]

Yall want some updated ZiPS?

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-obscenely-late-obscenely-early-zips-projected-standings/#comments

[southsider2k5]

3 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

What if a guy opts out, then mid August he says "damn I want to do this", can he opt back in?

There was some twitter chatter on this last night, the answer is yes.

[smellysox]

One question I have, is it the same rules with the 40 man roster in what happens when a player is out of options and is sent to the taxi squad? Is he dfa'd? Like Carson Fulmer I believe is out of options? The whitesox 40 man is full.

Edited June 24, 2020 by smellysox

[soxfan49]

 

[Y2Jimmy0]

33 minutes ago, smellysox said:

One question I have, is it the same rules with the 40 man roster in what happens when a player is out of options and is sent to the taxi squad? Is he dfa'd? Like Carson Fulmer I believe is out of options? The whitesox 40 man is full.

I believe it's the same, yes. Fulmer and Cordero both out of options. 

[bmags]

man 60 games really hits home when you see 31-29 as your final record. Every game is going to be insane. I worry for pitchers because 60 games isn't that far off from it just being a huge tournament.

[Chicago White Sox]

3 hours ago, KrankinSox said:

Incorrect. 20 of our 60 games now are against the Royals and Tigers, or 1/3rd of the entire season.

Regular year would have been 38/162, or 23%.

This doesn't give us an advantage over twins or Indians, who play the same schedule. However, it is a factor in a potential wild card race vs. Teams from the east and west.

The bottom of the east has the O's and Jays, while the bottom of the west has the M's.

Advantage for the ALC teams as the Royals, Tigers are clearly two of the worst teams, along with probably the O's.

lol...you are totally right.  No idea what match I was doing for the proposed schedule.  Definitely have a big advantage on the AL side of things, but the NL Central should be pretty tough.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

6 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Honestly, this is not ideal for us.  We actually play a smaller portion of our games against the Tigers & Royals and now we play all our non divisional games against a pretty stacked NL Central.  At least most of our games will be fun to watch.

I think this is a huge advantage for the Sox; the AL Central isn't the weakest division in baseball but it's one of them, and they get to play 66% of their games vs them. The NL Central, of the NL divisions, is the 2nd best (possibly tied with the NL West). The NL East is the toughest division in the NL imo. The Sox will likely have one of the easiest schedules in the league from a W% perspective. 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

On 6/23/2020 at 12:12 PM, SCCWS said:

Sorry but you are living in a different world. There are millions of Americans who went back to work because they need to support their families. They work in all type of different jobs with different degrees of exposure. Most professional athletes can opt out if they choose and live off their past earnings.Those that choose to play will make big bucks and will be tested and protected a hell of a lot more often than the average person. Athletes are no where near lab rat status compared to most workers on the front lines. 

Excuse me I was out of work 4 months due to a herniated disc in my back that affected my legs so severely I couldn't perform regular duties . I also have COPD , RA and cataracts in my right eye which means my immune system and lungs are also affected. I am also 62 years old. All those things combined puts me at high risk. Then my parent company finally found me work at the start of the pandemic. With all that's wrong with me what job did I get offered ? Custodial work. That's right cleaning up after everyone and being among my coworkers and the public . When everyone was at home and even the Los Angeles freeways were pretty empty I was on the front lines from the beginning.

My first day on the job I got conjunctivitis in the same eye as the cataracts. SO don't you dare say I am living in a different world. I cannot live off past earnings. Even with all those things wrong with me, my age and being a custodial worker my health plan said I wasn't eligible for a Covid test. I only got a test after the hospital called me to say they had an opening to do my cataract surgery in 2 days so I had to get a test right away meaning I missed more work doing that then more after the surgery than a normal person would miss because the doctor knew the nature of my job and gave me more time off.

Yes I and many common folks  certainly are  guinea pigs more so than the players. But if I die i'll just be a statistic . If some famous or even not so famous players dies it's big headlines and everyone questions why they didn't cancel the season and their methods to protect players. If I was a player good enough to live off past earnings I would opt out. Guess we will see if there really is a season that can be started and sustained without many casualties . Everyone is a lab rat. But only high profile people and companies get put under the microscope.

I am now out of work again after 5 months doing that job because they filled the position i had with healthy person and I am still waiting for Workers Comp. to pay me for the 4 months i was off before that job offer.

Edited June 24, 2020 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

In addition to the schedule, the White Sox are built - at this point - for a small sample run. If they manage this well, they could really excel.

Their pitchers already had to be managed, limited, and maintained. Now you can run a rotation 5-6 deep - if you wanted you could run 7 deep and pair back-end starters together. 1-2-3 would pitch alone, and 4-5 would pair for a game and 6-7 would pair for another game. This would allow them to get everyone regular rotation time, with regular rest time, all while controlling the pitch counts and innings limit in a way that's both beneficial for the teams long term and short term. This would be an ideal sprint setup, and it's just one of many options they have with guys like Kopech, Cease, Rodon and etc all needing a little comfort and ease getting back into things.

With the three batter rule and no real extra-innings (with runner starting on second), carrying a ton of relievers just seems pointless. They should roster all the starters, and get creative. This will also allow them to roster more young position player talent - keeping the regulars fresher throughout the sprint (60 games in 66 days) - allowing you to put in fielding subs and pinch runners constantly in the 7-8-9th inning which should become much more used if you are the ROAD team and the game is tied. Why? Because you are at a huge disadvantage in extra innings - being unable to only play for one run with the home team also starting with a man on second and no one out - and you need to maximize every run scoring possibility late. You do that by flooding your roster with players, not pitchers, and utilizing those skill sets to maximize your late game run outputs. If you are the home team, you want to do everything to either win the game or force extra's; where again, you have a big advantage. 

The strategy this year will be interesting. Bullpens should already have been slightly shorter with the 3 batter rule, but now with the extra innings component, a good manager might be able to get extra a win or two extra in a season of 60 games. 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

22 hours ago, SCCWS said:

Sorry but you are living in a different world. There are millions of Americans who went back to work because they need to support their families. They work in all type of different jobs with different degrees of exposure. Most professional athletes can opt out if they choose and live off their past earnings.Those that choose to play will make big bucks and will be tested and protected a hell of a lot more often than the average person. Athletes are no where near lab rat status compared to most workers on the front lines. 

Most people think the average MLB player is a lot richer than he actually is. They're not struggling, by any means, but the average major leaguer is certainly not a set-for-life millionaire. 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[wegner]

With the shorter season, will we see managers playing the hot hands so to speak and shaking up lineups a bit more?  I am just thinking that you cannot afford to keep a guy in the 3 hole for example if he is starting out slow.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

Just now, wegner said:

With the shorter season, will we see managers playing the hot hands so to speak and shaking up lineups a bit more?  I am just thinking that you cannot afford to keep a guy in the 3 hole for example if he is starting out slow.

You're talking about, roughly, 3-4 "stretches of games" for a player. Seasons are just a collection of stretches and streaks - even for the most consistent players. I'd say a players streak runs in about 2 to 3 week increments - with some outliers of course - leaving you with 3-4 in a season. If you get in a long rut or a you get on a long hot streak - of the outlier variety - you could potentially be their for the course of the season. It will be interesting to see if players respond to a bad start with more urgency further damaging their play. It's easy to struggle all of April and say I've got another 5 months. When month one is half your season, that pressure might get to some.

I think a manager needs to be patient with his guys - a manager can't show panic about a player just because the season is shorter - but also more urgent and press the issue with much more frequency late in games with swaps and pinch runners etc.