Sox Sign Rafael Ortega to a MiLB Deal.

[Bob Sacamano]

2 hours ago, The Mighty Mite said:

Is Getz ever going to sign a decent MLB player that might actually improve the club.

Nope. Only no-risk, no-reward types.

[EloyJenkins]

2 hours ago, Bob Sacamano said:

Nope. Only no-risk, no-reward types.

Chris Getz GM philosophy:

Edited January 12 by EloyJenkins

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

9 hours ago, nrockway said:

I tend to agree with your post, but if they are trying to sign an outfielder in free agency to replace Colas, those are the two guys left I'd look at on one year deals. Kiermaier and Bader would've been my first two choices, but I get the impression we're not signing an outfielder for actual money. But yeah I'd rather it be Colas starting or a potential return from Cease, I'd actually love to watch Kelenic on the Sox if Atlanta forked up the right price, he seems like a prototypical right fielder, he's a good enough defender and has a cannon for an arm. 

Colas has a cannon for an arm also. He threw out a runner at home that was 100.9 MPH which I think was the highest in MLB last year.

So this post is going to try to fill you in on as much as I can gather about Colas but it isn't easy since I don't speak Spanish and a lot of things about him are hard to find on the internet as strange as that seems. But there is a lot of strangeness in the whole Colas saga. However lets try to look at everything about him as objectively as we can while keeping in mind there is a lot as fans that we don't know about him that the coaching staff does.

This is what I know. The Sox hyped him to the fan base as the opening day RF for 2023. At that time we as fans ( me especially) bought into the hype. We barely heard anything about how bad his defense was. Now the hype train is in reverse. Now we are hearing his fundamentals suck in all aspects of his game, base running, plate discipline, focus ,hitting the cutoff man from Grifol and Getz and according to Grifol he thought it was very important for him to play winter ball.

Now it was Hahn mostly doing the hype train full steam ahead. But we also have to remember that Getz was in charge of preparing minor leaguers. Getz was the guy who did Project Birmingham. They did a whole series of videos on Project Birmingham and one of those videos featured Oscar Colas. I went back and watched it . Doug Sisson (Minor League Field coordinator) talked about how much time Colas and missed and also said that from talking to Colas that Colas said he was mostly a 1st base/pitcher who didnt play much in Japan. So we know he missed a lot of development time and wasn't really a RF.

We also know that in preparing for the 2023 season Colas went to Miami along with Robert and Romy Gonzalez to work on mostly his hitting ( guessing this) and plate discipline with some of the Sox coaches ,Tosar and I can't remember if any other coach was involved there.

So what have we seen? The Sox had all of 2022 to assess Colas fundamentals and focus on making their best hitting prospect better in all his red flag areas that Grifol is so fond of pointing out. You would have to think they were aware of these things, unless you want to chalk it up to how poor the Sox are at development, yet they still stuck him out in RF Opening Day 2023 and thought his hitting could make an impact and that his arm  could make up for his lack of fundamentals in the field.

Grifol also made it very clear that he thought Colas had to play winter ball which Colas decided not to do. What is not well known is that Colas' wife was in her last trimester of her pregnancy and Colas decided he'd rather be with his wife for the birth of his son.

Now despite how bad Colas was in the field it's not easy to ascertain just how bad he was due to how you view defensive metrics. He certainly had his share of errors (6) which I think led all RF's. I was watching a CHGO podcast about Colas and they put up a graphic with all the Sox outfielders showing runs prevented. I have no ideas what actual defensive stat they used to determine this (wasn't DRS) . But they had the Runs Prevented for both Colas and Sheets at 0. Robert was 11 and Benintendi was at -10. DRS had Colas -4, Sheets -5 Benintendi -3 and Robert 6. OAA (Statcast Outs Above Average) and RAA (Statcast Runs Against Average) found on Fangraphs under Advanced Fielding on the players individual page are very similar and those numbers ALMOST what it seems like what CHGO was using . I say almost because most of the numbers from OAA and RAA reflect the numbers CHGO used except Sheets was a -2 in both OAA and RAA while CHGO had him at 0. Benintendi's OAA was -10  but his RAA was -9 so CHGO used his OAA. Robert's OAA was 13 and his RAA 11 so CHGO used his RAA. Colas was 0 in both OAA and RAA so no matter which one CHGO used they got it right. So there are minor discrepancies from the Runs Prevented graph that CHGO used . That's the best I could come up with.

As far as his hitting goes why he was so bad is anyones best guess. The Sox DFA'd Remillard and Carlos Perez and those 2 guys actually hit better than Colas. How is that even possible? Obviously Remillard and and Perez were better at plate discipline and contact and both had way more experience facing AAA pitching but are those the only reasons ? Despite missing so much time he hit very well in A+ and better in AA and in the small sample size at AA the numbers were good. His approach against LHP was impressive in AA. He hit .362 with a .569 Slg. % against LHH  in his 51 games using all fields. Most of his power came against RHP . You can seriously ask the question did his preparation in Miami prior to ST actually make him worse trying to implement what he learned or did he not apply what they were trying to teach him ?

The message to Colas is clear. Work on your plate discipline and fundamentals. His performance in both seems to warrant a strong message but we don't know what else is in play here. Grifol and Colas said there was a certain amount of anxiety with Colas and Grifol wanted him to "dial down the intensity level".

What we clearly don't know is how they perceived him in view of the Culture problem in the dugout.

Olivia Finestead the mother of one of Mike Clevinger's children and his main accuser of domestic violent against him posted two stories involving Clevinger's teammate Oscar Colas . She captioned the first 'Meanwhile ...' showcasing Colas liking a litany of her photos. 

She then took a screenshot of Colas's profile, urging Clevinger to usher his colleague away. 'Mike get your teammate off my page,' she captioned the story.

Make of that what you will. A lot of beautiful women get a lot of likes from many men on social media. But you do have to question Colas' judgment in doing this knowing he is a professional athlete open to high levels of scrutinization.

There was also some level of frustation that Colas expressed about something around mid season. What he was frustrated with is very hard to pin down. If someone wants to take a crack at it and can provide a link, it would be appreciated.

Some articles I referenced. https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-white-sox/grifol-and-getz-call-out-oscar-colas-for-lack-of-fundamentals/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/mlb/article-11977643/White-Soxs-Mike-Clevinger-avoids-awkward-question-Kanye-Wests-Gold-Digger-walk-song.html

https://www.southsidesox.com/2023/9/15/23874158/chicago-white-sox-oscar-colas-no-mas-alas  

The last article I didn't read until after I finished writing the above but had to chuckle at the writer saying this "Or maybe he did learn. Maybe — and this is an added scare to an already scary situation — maybe the White Sox player development is so incredibly horrible that it defundamentalizes, making players unlearn what they already know, to get worse." which is a very speculative question I asked above.

Edited January 12 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[Balta1701]

1 hour ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

This is what I know. The Sox hyped him to the fan base as the opening day RF for 2023. At that time we as fans ( me especially) bought into the hype. We barely heard anything about how bad his defense was.

Fwiw, we actually heard the opposite. He was supposed to be a major improvement over Vaughn/Sheets and even able to back up CF. They had him play some CF at AAA in ‘22 even. There aren’t advanced fielding stats at AAA, the regular ones didn’t look great if you pushed them as hard as they could go, but we heard plenty of predictions of a major upgrade on offense and defense

[WhiteSox2023]

26 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Fwiw, we actually heard the opposite. He was supposed to be a major improvement over Vaughn/Sheets and even able to back up CF. They had him play some CF at AAA in ‘22 even. There aren’t advanced fielding stats at AAA, the regular ones didn’t look great if you pushed them as hard as they could go, but we heard plenty of predictions of a major upgrade on offense and defense

Once the Sox proved to be terrible last year, I couldn’t stomach watching many games.  Was his defense that bad in RF or was it mostly his fundamentals?  I remember he was supposed to have a great arm but didn’t understand the concept of throwing to the cutoff man.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

31 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Fwiw, we actually heard the opposite. He was supposed to be a major improvement over Vaughn/Sheets and even able to back up CF. They had him play some CF at AAA in ‘22 even. There aren’t advanced fielding stats at AAA, the regular ones didn’t look great if you pushed them as hard as they could go, but we heard plenty of predictions of a major upgrade on offense and defense

I don't think I ever said the previous hype we heard didn't include defensive hype too. It's just in random talk by basically anyone connected to the Sox that yes offensively and defensively he was ready and brought a lot to the table on both sides of the ball.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

6 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Once the Sox proved to be terrible last year, I couldn’t stomach watching many games.  Was his defense that bad in RF or was it mostly his fundamentals?  I remember he was supposed to have a great arm but didn’t understand the concept of throwing to the cutoff man.

He was bad on a lot of levels with errors and fundamental mistakes. He's also not that much faster than Sheets, 33  percentile to 38 for Colas according to Baseball Savant Sprint Speed. If you go according to OAA or RAA he was  average but those stats normally require a larger sample size. He also had near collisions or partial collisions with Andrus and Remillard.

He did have a few very nice assists including the one where he gunned down Kepler at home on that 101 mph throw. Apparently a -10 OAA is Ok for Benintendi because he didn't kick the ball around miss cutoff men or not communicate with the infielders.

[pcq]

20 hours ago, ChiSox59 said:

Colas is one year removed from the exact type of guy that we’re targeting in Cease deals. Just let him play!!! 

Yes I would pop Colas in RF and check back in a couple of years. Worry about something else. 

[nrockway]

2 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Colas has a cannon for an arm also. He threw out a runner at home that was 100.9 MPH which I think was the highest in MLB last year.

So this post is going to try to fill you in on as much as I can gather about Colas but it isn't easy since I don't speak Spanish and a lot of things about him are hard to find on the internet as strange as that seems. But there is a lot of strangeness in the whole Colas saga. However lets try to look at everything about him as objectively as we can while keeping in mind there is a lot as fans that we don't know about him that the coaching staff does.

This is what I know. The Sox hyped him to the fan base as the opening day RF for 2023. At that time we as fans ( me especially) bought into the hype. We barely heard anything about how bad his defense was. Now the hype train is in reverse. Now we are hearing his fundamentals suck in all aspects of his game, base running, plate discipline, focus ,hitting the cutoff man from Grifol and Getz and according to Grifol he thought it was very important for him to play winter ball.

Now it was Hahn mostly doing the hype train full steam ahead. But we also have to remember that Getz was in charge of preparing minor leaguers. Getz was the guy who did Project Birmingham. They did a whole series of videos on Project Birmingham and one of those videos featured Oscar Colas. I went back and watched it . Doug Sisson (Minor League Field coordinator) talked about how much time Colas and missed and also said that from talking to Colas that Colas said he was mostly a 1st base/pitcher who didnt play much in Japan. So we know he missed a lot of development time and wasn't really a RF.

We also know that in preparing for the 2023 season Colas went to Miami along with Robert and Romy Gonzalez to work on mostly his hitting ( guessing this) and plate discipline with some of the Sox coaches ,Tosar and I can't remember if any other coach was involved there.

So what have we seen? The Sox had all of 2022 to assess Colas fundamentals and focus on making their best hitting prospect better in all his red flag areas that Grifol is so fond of pointing out. You would have to think they were aware of these things, unless you want to chalk it up to how poor the Sox are at development, yet they still stuck him out in RF Opening Day 2023 and thought his hitting could make an impact and that his arm  could make up for his lack of fundamentals in the field.

Grifol also made it very clear that he thought Colas had to play winter ball which Colas decided not to do. What is not well known is that Colas' wife was in her last trimester of her pregnancy and Colas decided he'd rather be with his wife for the birth of his son.

Now despite how bad Colas was in the field it's not easy to ascertain just how bad he was due to how you view defensive metrics. He certainly had his share of errors (6) which I think led all RF's. I was watching a CHGO podcast about Colas and they put up a graphic with all the Sox outfielders showing runs prevented. I have no ideas what actual defensive stat they used to determine this (wasn't DRS) . But they had the Runs Prevented for both Colas and Sheets at 0. Robert was 11 and Benintendi was at -10. DRS had Colas -4, Sheets -5 Benintendi -3 and Robert 6. OAA (Statcast Outs Above Average) and RAA (Statcast Runs Against Average) found on Fangraphs under Advanced Fielding on the players individual page are very similar and those numbers ALMOST what it seems like what CHGO was using . I say almost because most of the numbers from OAA and RAA reflect the numbers CHGO used except Sheets was a -2 in both OAA and RAA while CHGO had him at 0. Benintendi's OAA was -10  but his RAA was -9 so CHGO used his OAA. Robert's OAA was 13 and his RAA 11 so CHGO used his RAA. Colas was 0 in both OAA and RAA so no matter which one CHGO used they got it right. So there are minor discrepancies from the Runs Prevented graph that CHGO used . That's the best I could come up with.

As far as his hitting goes why he was so bad is anyones best guess. The Sox DFA'd Remillard and Carlos Perez and those 2 guys actually hit better than Colas. How is that even possible? Obviously Remillard and and Perez were better at plate discipline and contact and both had way more experience facing AAA pitching but are those the only reasons ? Despite missing so much time he hit very well in A+ and better in AA and in the small sample size at AA the numbers were good. His approach against LHP was impressive in AA. He hit .362 with a .569 Slg. % against LHH  in his 51 games using all fields. Most of his power came against RHP . You can seriously ask the question did his preparation in Miami prior to ST actually make him worse trying to implement what he learned or did he not apply what they were trying to teach him ?

The message to Colas is clear. Work on your plate discipline and fundamentals. His performance in both seems to warrant a strong message but we don't know what else is in play here. Grifol and Colas said there was a certain amount of anxiety with Colas and Grifol wanted him to "dial down the intensity level".

What we clearly don't know is how they perceived him in view of the Culture problem in the dugout.

Olivia Finestead the mother of one of Mike Clevinger's children and his main accuser of domestic violent against him posted two stories involving Clevinger's teammate Oscar Colas . She captioned the first 'Meanwhile ...' showcasing Colas liking a litany of her photos. 

She then took a screenshot of Colas's profile, urging Clevinger to usher his colleague away. 'Mike get your teammate off my page,' she captioned the story.

Make of that what you will. A lot of beautiful women get a lot of likes from many men on social media. But you do have to question Colas' judgment in doing this knowing he is a professional athlete open to high levels of scrutinization.

There was also some level of frustation that Colas expressed about something around mid season. What he was frustrated with is very hard to pin down. If someone wants to take a crack at it and can provide a link, it would be appreciated.

Some articles I referenced. https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-white-sox/grifol-and-getz-call-out-oscar-colas-for-lack-of-fundamentals/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/mlb/article-11977643/White-Soxs-Mike-Clevinger-avoids-awkward-question-Kanye-Wests-Gold-Digger-walk-song.html

https://www.southsidesox.com/2023/9/15/23874158/chicago-white-sox-oscar-colas-no-mas-alas  

The last article I didn't read until after I finished writing the above but had to chuckle at the writer saying this "Or maybe he did learn. Maybe — and this is an added scare to an already scary situation — maybe the White Sox player development is so incredibly horrible that it defundamentalizes, making players unlearn what they already know, to get worse." which is a very speculative question I asked above.

very detailed post and some great information here, thanks for sharing. Oscar is clearly talented but seems like a knucklehead, and old enough that he should be expressing better judgement. That's so weird and kind of funny about Clevinger's ex, you'd think a professional athlete could attract female attention without resorting to "liking" his teammate's ex's social media posts especially in consideration of everything that transpired between her and Clev. Pretty gross honestly and seems like the sort of thing that creates bad blood in a clubhouse. It sort of reminds me how Eury Perez and lots of other MLB players were "liking" the posts of Wander Franco's abuse victim. Like, why can these guys not find a girlfriend the normal way like everyone else in history has done? What is it about the zoomer mentality that you must find a girlfriend over the internet and "sliding into the DMs"?

I think the culture problem was a big deal the past couple of seasons and really impacted the team's performance which is why I like the signing of Maldonado. He's a winner, mature and vocal in the clubhouse and best of all he speaks Spanish. I hope he can make an impression on guys like Colas, Eloy, Moncada.