Celebrate Luis Robert

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

I was perusing the fWar leaders and it seemed only a week ago that Robert was at 1.1. Now he's at 1.7 after a scalding last 2 weeks. That's 14th in all of baseball. The only thing preventing him from winning AL player of the Week award 2 weeks in a row was Anthony Rizzo.

Marcus Semien is  4th with 2.1

Surprises:

Yandy Diaz 5th 2.0  Emerging as a big talent the last couple of years with the Rays since they acquired him from Cleveland in December 2018. He's now 31 years old.

Jonah Heim 7th  SH Catcher TX. 1.9 . Could be 1st half flash in the pan or just another late blooming catcher. I once suggested that the Sox trade Zach Collins for Heim before the trade deadline in 2021 when they both sucked.

James Outman Dodgers unranked LH Rookie OF 17th 1.6  NL Rookie of the Month for April  . Most of you know how much I wanted him on the Sox from the 100 times I mentioned him the past off season.

[Quin]

Celebrate Cali for good vibes.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

13 minutes ago, Quin said:

Celebrate Cali for good vibes.

Thank you kindly although I was tempted to say he'll get injured some time around the time Eloy is due back, either slightly before or slightly after. But at least that would give us another 3 or 4 weeks of Robert. Maybe Eloy can come back sooner. Was good to see him in the dugout yesterday.

Edited May 16, 2023 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[greg775]

Robert is pretty good. The games I watch he chases a lot. Pity me. He's a pretty good player.

[maxjusttyped]

In May, Robert has been the most valuable player in baseball by almost half a win. OBP over .500, hitting for outrageous power, we know his defense is nearly always stellar, etc. He certainly doesn't deserve to be lumped in with all of the under achievers throughout this organization.

It wouldn't surprise me if come the end of the season he doubles up the next most valuable player on the team by fWAR.

[maxjusttyped]

[Chick Mercedes]

Too bad gotta bench him to get his attention to focus 

[caulfield12]

28 minutes ago, Chick Mercedes said:

Too bad gotta bench him to get his attention to focus 

If only that same strategy would work for the rest of the team...

[lostfan]

Robert looked like ass a few weeks ago, and then suddenly he didn't. If only the rest of the lineup could figure it out like he did.

[Dick Allen]

2 hours ago, Chick Mercedes said:

Too bad gotta bench him to get his attention to focus 

He also started using that video thing with pitches Burger has been using. Those 2 using it, no mention of the others,hmmmm. His numbers really are incredible considering he has a 5-56 in there. 

[caulfield12]

8 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

He also started using that video thing with pitches Burger has been using. Those 2 using it, no mention of the others,hmmmm. His numbers really are incredible considering he has a 5-56 in there. 

“We started joking around in the cage one day, ‘They’re going to start selling jerseys that are split down the middle with half Sheets, half Burger on it,’” Burger said. “We thought ‘Shurger’ works, so that’s the name we’re running with. It made it seem like an actual last name that people would see and think ‘That could fly.’”

“We considered some split T-shirts, but it’s just us embracing our roles and knowing what we’re going to do and doing it to the best of our ability,” Sheets said. “We don’t even think about competing against each other. It’s about buying in. We root for each other really hard. Especially in that situation where consider ourselves one person.”

https://theathletic.com/4417940/2023/04/18/white-sox-gavin-sheets-jake-burger/

 

Have a feeling that Burger will stick around a long time...and Sheets until they can find an even younger/cheaper player who kills righties and can actually play solid defense at multiple positions around the field.

Burger's the most emblematic of that blue collar/diligent worker style that used to define the SouthSide... like a Herb Milkman Perry or Joe Crede. 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

1 hour ago, Dick Allen said:

He also started using that video thing with pitches Burger has been using. Those 2 using it, no mention of the others,hmmmm. His numbers really are incredible considering he has a 5-56 in there. 

I hadn't heard that . I know I read that Burger really liked whatever it's called and brought up that it wasn't available for road games. I wondered if that's been resolved ?

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

4 hours ago, maxjusttyped said:

In May, Robert has been the most valuable player in baseball by almost half a win. OBP over .500, hitting for outrageous power, we know his defense is nearly always stellar, etc. He certainly doesn't deserve to be lumped in with all of the under achievers throughout this organization.

It wouldn't surprise me if come the end of the season he doubles up the next most valuable player on the team by fWAR.

When he hit his 9th HR a few days ago I incorrectly called it his 10th.  1/2 hr.  later when I realized it, I re-entered the game thread to correct myself. When I saw that someone had already corrected me. I responded that I was getting ahead of myself and that he would hit another one later in the game. That prediction failed but he did hit another one the next day for his 10th and the day after that for his 11th.

Edited May 16, 2023 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[caulfield12]

You jinxed Outman. He can't hit a fastball recently. 

7 ks in last 17 abs. 

[maxjusttyped]

Luis Robert's on pace stats as of today

.274/.333/.573 142 wRC+ 45 HR 117 R 105 RBI 6.5 WAR

[Bob Sacamano]

6 minutes ago, maxjusttyped said:

Luis Robert's on pace stats as of today

.274/.333/.573 142 wRC+ 45 HR 117 R 105 RBI 6.5 WAR

Love that

[The Kids Can Play]

On 5/16/2023 at 2:27 AM, maxjusttyped said:

In May, Robert has been the most valuable player in baseball by almost half a win. OBP over .500, hitting for outrageous power, we know his defense is nearly always stellar, etc. He certainly doesn't deserve to be lumped in with all of the under achievers throughout this organization.

It wouldn't surprise me if come the end of the season he doubles up the next most valuable player on the team by fWAR.

You're right he doesn't, but then again, this underachieving organization doesn't deserve to have Rick Hahn as the GM which is the major reason Robert is not surrounded by more talent around him in the lineup. 

[Sleepy Harold]

1 hour ago, maxjusttyped said:

Luis Robert's on pace stats as of today

.274/.333/.573 142 wRC+ 45 HR 117 R 105 RBI 6.5 WAR

That'll do donkey, that'll do.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

On 5/16/2023 at 12:27 AM, maxjusttyped said:

In May, Robert has been the most valuable player in baseball by almost half a win. OBP over .500, hitting for outrageous power, we know his defense is nearly always stellar, etc. He certainly doesn't deserve to be lumped in with all of the under achievers throughout this organization.

It wouldn't surprise me if come the end of the season he doubles up the next most valuable player on the team by fWAR.

I think a lot of what is driving his improvement is something that they should be teaching every player but especially Colas now. The ability is there but what wasn't there is the ability to control the strike zone. You have to improve your Swing %, Chase % and K %. If you improve the 1st 2 your K % will follow and you'll get better pitches to hit. Keep your weight back and be balanced. Get into hitters counts.The best hitters don't have to lunge and reach an outside pitch to hit a HR to RF. They let their bat take it's natural swing path and know they can still barrel it up. Just compare how often he was lunging at outside pitches when he was 3 for 50 or w/e it was. Now he's very quiet in the box , balanced , seeing the ball better, swinging less, chasing less.

Check out Burger's HR to RF from yesterday. He was behind in the count but on a hanger on the outside corner but up he waited on that pitch . He didn't go out after it and try to hook it to LF.

 A lot of HR hitters just don't feel they have much power to RF for whatever reason. That's why hitters make a concerted effort to pull so much. A guy like Arenado feels he has to pull it. The majority of HR hitters pull the ball. Judge has a cozy RF so even though he does  less power going that way he can still muscle them out that way.

Plus you are never a finished product. Muncy made adjustments this off season. Probably took thousands of swings. Then the season started and whoops he sucked. However he made some adjustments on the fly and now he's got 14 HR's. Most hitters tinker and try to improve . You can't give up on guys too early.

Sosa might look like crap at the MLB level now but that doesn't mean he always will. You hope he finds what he's looking for. Beckham never could make the adjustment and he started off hot. I'd almost rather see a rookie struggle and he might think he's got it all figured out and then bam ,these coaches and pitchers are too smart and will find your tiniest weakness to exploit it. It's the ongoing game within a game to which we are often not privy.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

58 minutes ago, The Kids Can Play said:

You're right he doesn't, but then again, this underachieving organization doesn't deserve to have Rick Hahn as the GM which is the major reason Robert is not surrounded by more talent around him in the lineup. 

There is a decent amount of talent on the team it's just always injured. We've seen enough flashes from guys like Eloy and Moncada to know they are very talented. Same goes for Tim , probably Cola and Sosa too. But what we haven't seen is the ability to stay on the field and see enough pitching to develop a level of consistency  that will allow you to make minor adjustments along the way. In the rookies cases it just has to be a constant reinforcement that  YOU have to control the strike zone. YOU cannot hit everything a pitchers throws in the strike zone hard so how do you expect to hit the balls out of the strike zone hard ? You must cut down your Chase % and swing %. All these organiztions we see being patient against the Sox pitcher they all know this. It's what makes them MLB players.

Early in the season Robert was very bad. Why ? Mainly because he got into some bad habits last year because he was injured and basically you forget and have to rediscover what made you good when you were healthy and hot. If you are not ever healthy, which we can say for most of his career, his development will be slower.

[caulfield12]

Ofc Outman hits a massive bomb to help the Dodgers/Sox lol. 

[The Kids Can Play]

1 hour ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

There is a decent amount of talent on the team it's just always injured. We've seen enough flashes from guys like Eloy and Moncada to know they are very talented. Same goes for Tim , probably Cola and Sosa too. But what we haven't seen is the ability to stay on the field and see enough pitching to develop a level of consistency  that will allow you to make minor adjustments along the way. In the rookies cases it just has to be a constant reinforcement that  YOU have to control the strike zone. YOU cannot hit everything a pitchers throws in the strike zone hard so how do you expect to hit the balls out of the strike zone hard ? You must cut down your Chase % and swing %. All these organiztions we see being patient against the Sox pitcher they all know this. It's what makes them MLB players.

Early in the season Robert was very bad. Why ? Mainly because he got into some bad habits last year because he was injured and basically you forget and have to rediscover what made you good when you were healthy and hot. If you are not ever healthy, which we can say for most of his career, his development will be slower.

You are right there is no doubt the Sox have never put this talent all together at once due to injuries. Maybe it never will happen because regardless of the talent, maybe the Sox players are just seriously injury prone and won't ever be able to stay healthy to reach the potential they actually have.

Right now Eloy is out. Then when he gets back, it could be Moncada, Burger or Anderson or whoever. Yet the bottom line is, that is the responsibility of the GM to put a strong roster together that get on base and score runs, but also is capable of staying healthy.

Consequently Hahn has failed miserably in that area.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

1 hour ago, The Kids Can Play said:

You are right there is no doubt the Sox have never put this talent all together at once due to injuries. Maybe it never will happen because regardless of the talent, maybe the Sox players are just seriously injury prone and won't ever be able to stay healthy to reach the potential they actually have.

Right now Eloy is out. Then when he gets back, it could be Moncada, Burger or Anderson or whoever. Yet the bottom line is, that is the responsibility of the GM to put a strong roster together that get on base and score runs, but also is capable of staying healthy.

Consequently Hahn has failed miserably in that area.

No doubt. I always bash the owner 1st because the whole direction the franchise takes is based on how he thinks the money is spent best. The problem with that is , he's a baseball fan imposing his lack of knowledge about the sport into his ownership of the team and has learned very little during his tenure.

I tend to give the players a lot more rope.

[caulfield12]

4 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

No doubt. I always bash the owner 1st because the whole direction the franchise takes is based on how he thinks the money is spent best. The problem with that is , he's a baseball fan imposing his lack of knowledge about the sport into his ownership of the team and has learned very little during his tenure.

I tend to give the players a lot more rope.

He was only about a decade late (KC 2014-15) trying for that super pen with Kimbrel and Hendriks.

In the meantime, nearly every major league team has a quite capable pen...they have no choice, so many injuries and short outings from starting pitchers going at max velocity in the majority of cases.

Edited May 18, 2023 by caulfield12

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

15 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

He was only about a decade late (KC 2014-15) trying for that super pen with Kimbrel and Hendriks.

In the meantime, nearly every major league team has a quite capable pen...they have no choice, so many injuries and short outings from starting pitchers going at max velocity in the majority of cases.

But I think it's a fallacy that the Sox starting pitching has short outings. All teams deal with that problem and the Sox did try to remedy it by throwing money at relievers while neglecting the position player depth and player development. Relievers are notoriously inconsistent and old relievers are prone to injury although almost all pitchers are also.

Reinsdorf failings are based on how he chooses not to spend money on the development of youth . It's been reflected in how the Sox have operated over the years in the International FA market usually going for older players and ignoring young or Dominican players or trading away money meant for IFA's.

Hahn also has traded away youth like Semien , Tatis etc while also not trying to get more youth. And they are always out there. Plenty of young players are blocked or are given up on by their 1st organizations and get traded. Look around at all the good players who started off with other organizations who gave up on them or threw them into trades.