Garrett Crochet named Opening Day starter

[caulfield12]

32 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

The year is 2021, you're told Garrett Crochett is the opening day 2024 starter. Who wouldn't be excited! Come on!

If you could only go back to before the 2020 postseason with that same announcement...

[Bob Sacamano]

1 hour ago, ChiSox59 said:

Id much rather see this experiment happen in the minors. Not only do you gain a year of a control for a season that might actually matter, you also protect yourself from losing a ton of it if he hurts himself again. So what happens in July in the off chance that he hasn’t hurt himself? Shut him down? Move him back to the pen? Not the route I’d have taken, but all you can do is hope for the best. 

Yeah and you can ease him in better down there. Deeper pitching so you can skip him more often and manage his workload. You can evaluate if you want him to get MLB starts later.

[WhiteSox2023]

1 hour ago, ChiSox59 said:

Id much rather see this experiment happen in the minors. Not only do you gain a year of a control for a season that might actually matter, you also protect yourself from losing a ton of it if he hurts himself again. So what happens in July in the off chance that he hasn’t hurt himself? Shut him down? Move him back to the pen? Not the route I’d have taken, but all you can do is hope for the best. 

This is probably the single best argument right here.  Sox are going nowhere this season.  Another year of control over Crochet for the Sox and in a trade makes way more sense than anything.

[Milkman delivers]

I don’t have strong feelings on this move one way or the other. I will tell you one thing though. The Sox were funny/entertaining bad last year. I was beginning to think this year’s team would be more untalented bad, as in they’d play decent defense and the basics, but they would be outclassed by more talented teams. I’m beginning to think they’ll be funny bad again.

[Chick Mercedes]

8 hours ago, PaleAleSox said:

f*** it. Let's get weird.

Exactly.

[greg775]

9 hours ago, WestEddy said:

This is great. The naysayers bending themselves into pretzel shapes inventing reasons why this is bad is worth it, alone. 

The Sox deserve no benefit of the doubt til we see something good happening. This offseason was disgusting. Since letting Burger go for nothing, everything's been negative for good reason. Actually since the hiring of Grifol.

[WestEddy]

Just now, greg775 said:

The Sox deserve no benefit of the doubt til we see something good happening. This offseason was disgusting. Since letting Burger go for nothing, everything's been negative for good reason. Actually since the hiring of Grifol.

I don't think the naysayers deserve the benefit of the doubt, either. Every single move gets them screaming, even good news. 

[South Side Hit Men]

17 minutes ago, greg775 said:

The Sox deserve no benefit of the doubt til we see something good happening. This offseason was disgusting. Since letting Burger go for nothing, everything's been negative for good reason. Actually since the hiring of Grifol.

Go back two more years to a day which will forever live in White Sox infamy.

There are great individual performances over every season. But in terms of great moments for the entire team, 2020 Game One vs. Oakland was the high point for White Sox baseball since the 2008 Blackout Game.

2021 Field of Dreams under Manager Miguel Cairo was the one great team moment since, with honorable mentions for two off field occurrences; White Sox Cane Guy and Liam beating cancer.

[Lip Man 1]

56 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

I don't think the naysayers deserve the benefit of the doubt, either. Every single move gets them screaming, even good news. 

The "good news" has been severely limited and doesn't even come close to comparing to other teams that actually are trying to win and aren't incompetent, dysfunctional or inept.

Today is actually the anniversary of another "one shining moment" in the history of this franchise (LOL): 

March 18, 2016 - The ongoing embarrassment that surrounded the retirement of Adam LaRoche ended, at least officially, with the player explaining his side of the story.

Just hours earlier, Chris Sale had kicked off what would be an utterly bizarre year for him by speaking out in support of LaRoche and against his own G.M., Ken Williams. Outfielder Adam Eaton would do the same.

The crux of the story came down to LaRoche claiming that, contrary to what was promised when he signed with the White Sox, his son Drake recently had been completely banned from spring training. Williams proffered that he’d spoken to Adam about lessening Drake’s constant presence with the team (as prompted by players like Jimmy Rollins, who talked to the G.M. about this strange, unprofessional and intrusive arrangement), and then lost his cool, when after that, he saw Drake on the pitcher’s mound during infield practice and issued a complete ban. The entire situation made the organization look inept and dysfunctional.

 

[Chimpton]

1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said:

The "good news" has been severely limited and doesn't even come close to comparing to other teams that actually are trying to win and aren't incompetent, dysfunctional or inept.

Today is actually the anniversary of another "one shining moment" in the history of this franchise (LOL): 

March 18, 2016 - The ongoing embarrassment that surrounded the retirement of Adam LaRoche ended, at least officially, with the player explaining his side of the story.

Just hours earlier, Chris Sale had kicked off what would be an utterly bizarre year for him by speaking out in support of LaRoche and against his own G.M., Ken Williams. Outfielder Adam Eaton would do the same.

The crux of the story came down to LaRoche claiming that, contrary to what was promised when he signed with the White Sox, his son Drake recently had been completely banned from spring training. Williams proffered that he’d spoken to Adam about lessening Drake’s constant presence with the team (as prompted by players like Jimmy Rollins, who talked to the G.M. about this strange, unprofessional and intrusive arrangement), and then lost his cool, when after that, he saw Drake on the pitcher’s mound during infield practice and issued a complete ban. The entire situation made the organization look inept and dysfunctional.

 

"The entire situation made the organization look inept and dysfunctional." This could be the catchphrase for the last 10 years at the White Sox.

[South Side Hit Men]

1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said:

The "good news" has been severely limited and doesn't even come close to comparing to other teams that actually are trying to win and aren't incompetent, dysfunctional or inept.

Today is actually the anniversary of another "one shining moment" in the history of this franchise (LOL): 

March 18, 2016 - The ongoing embarrassment that surrounded the retirement of Adam LaRoche ended, at least officially, with the player explaining his side of the story.

Just hours earlier, Chris Sale had kicked off what would be an utterly bizarre year for him by speaking out in support of LaRoche and against his own G.M., Ken Williams. Outfielder Adam Eaton would do the same.

The crux of the story came down to LaRoche claiming that, contrary to what was promised when he signed with the White Sox, his son Drake recently had been completely banned from spring training. Williams proffered that he’d spoken to Adam about lessening Drake’s constant presence with the team (as prompted by players like Jimmy Rollins, who talked to the G.M. about this strange, unprofessional and intrusive arrangement), and then lost his cool, when after that, he saw Drake on the pitcher’s mound during infield practice and issued a complete ban. The entire situation made the organization look inept and dysfunctional.

 

Jimmy Rollins is trash, played like trash here.

41 Games, .624 OPS, -0.4 bWAR

Same as the trash Tony brought in in 2021-2022. Same as the veteran trash Getz brought into camp as NRIs.

Veteran trash signings each and every offseason - The White Sox Way since 1981.

[Dick Allen]

7 hours ago, ChiSox59 said:

Id much rather see this experiment happen in the minors. Not only do you gain a year of a control for a season that might actually matter, you also protect yourself from losing a ton of it if he hurts himself again. So what happens in July in the off chance that he hasn’t hurt himself? Shut him down? Move him back to the pen? Not the route I’d have taken, but all you can do is hope for the best. 

I get all that but you send him to Charlotte to work as a starter, you may never see him again. I know Ray Ray thinks injuries are random, but this guy was hurt before he was drafted, and has been hurt every year he's been in the organization. Now "stretching him out" and throwing more pitches is the supposed answer from the same people who would call for a managers head if he let someone throw 130 pitches in a game. Makes no sense. He's going to get hurt, probably pretty soon. As long as they realize he's a reliever starting and don't try to do too much with him at least at the beginning, fine, whatever. But really, a closer pitching 55 innings a year is what he should be. 

[WhiteSox2023]

Just heard on the radio that Crochet hasn’t pitched 4 innings in a game since college.

Edited March 19 by WhiteSox2023

[Chicago White Sox]

6 hours ago, WestEddy said:

I don't think the naysayers deserve the benefit of the doubt, either. Every single move gets them screaming, even good news. 

Are you suggesting this is “good news”?  I am 100% excited for Crochet to make the transition to starting, but that doesn’t mean that I think the way we’re going about it makes any sense.  This dude is going to have a very strict innings limit and it’s very likely this won’t work out health wise.  Having him spend the first 45 days of the season in AAA and gradually work up his innings makes much more sense to me.  First, it helps protect your bullpen to open up the season.  Second, it claws backs a year of control which is very important in the event he wears out in June or July.  This transition should be treated like a multi-year process and to me that justifies a short stint in Charlotte.

But look, if you want to get overly excited about Crochet being the first pitcher in baseball history to make his first ever major league start on Opening Day in their fourth major league season then more power to you.  It just feels like the org is putting lipstick on a pig to create some fan interest.  And again, I will be right there with you cheering him on come Opening Day and hoping this all works out great (and making me look stupid), but IMO it does feel like we’re taking a typical White Sox short term approach to developing him into a starter.

[Bob Sacamano]

8 hours ago, Milkman delivers said:

I don’t have strong feelings on this move one way or the other. I will tell you one thing though. The Sox were funny/entertaining bad last year. I was beginning to think this year’s team would be more untalented bad, as in they’d play decent defense and the basics, but they would be outclassed by more talented teams. I’m beginning to think they’ll be funny bad again.

Yeah, I know what I prefer for them to do and I don’t have the energy to argue it. I’ve grown numb to their decision making honestly.

[Bob Sacamano]

51 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Just heard on the radio that Crochet hasn’t pitched 4 innings in a game since college.

Makes sense: he’s barely pitched for us, majors or minors lol

Edited March 19 by Bob Sacamano

[Dick Allen]

1 hour ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Just heard on the radio that Crochet hasn’t pitched 4 innings in a game since college.

He started 6 games as a freshman at Tennessee, 6 games as a sophomore, and 1 as a junior going 3.1 innings, so there really is no history of being a starting pitcher. 

[LittleHurtCG]

1 hour ago, Bob Sacamano said:

Yeah, I know what I prefer for them to do and I don’t have the energy to argue it. I’ve grown numb to their decision making honestly.

You are not alone. Fan interest in White Sox baseball seems to be at an all time low. Just like David Gilmour, a lot of Sox fans have become comfortably numb.  

[Bob Sacamano]

21 minutes ago, LittleHurtCG said:

You are not alone. Fan interest in White Sox baseball seems to be at an all time low. Just like David Gilmour, a lot of Sox fans have become comfortably numb.  

Yeah it’s whatever at this point. Hopefully he can get to 100 innings this year but I honestly doubt he will come close to that.

Edited March 19 by Bob Sacamano

[southsider2k5]

Even the Soxtalk headline preview has jokes on this one.

[WestEddy]

2 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Are you suggesting this is “good news”?  I am 100% excited for Crochet to make the transition to starting, but that doesn’t mean that I think the way we’re going about it makes any sense.  This dude is going to have a very strict innings limit and it’s very likely this won’t work out health wise.  Having him spend the first 45 days of the season in AAA and gradually work up his innings makes much more sense to me.  First, it helps protect your bullpen to open up the season.  Second, it claws backs a year of control which is very important in the event he wears out in June or July.  This transition should be treated like a multi-year process and to me that justifies a short stint in Charlotte.

But look, if you want to get overly excited about Crochet being the first pitcher in baseball history to make his first ever major league start on Opening Day in their fourth major league season then more power to you.  It just feels like the org is putting lipstick on a pig to create some fan interest.  And again, I will be right there with you cheering him on come Opening Day and hoping this all works out great (and making me look stupid), but IMO it does feel like we’re taking a typical White Sox short term approach to developing him into a starter.

Of course I'm suggesting it's good news. And it is. It's exciting. I don't think a Sox fan can get "overly" excited about it. Everybody here grouses incessantly about how Reinsdorf hates the fans, and the first fun development, everybody freaks out and wails. 

It seems like all the people who were hoping for Erick Fedde to get soundly beaten on opening day so they could cluck their tongues at everyone they judge to be "overly excited", are truly unhappy that they didn't think of this development to complain about, beforehand. 

It's fun to talk about screwing over baseball players like they're game pieces, but "clawing back" a year of control is problematic, from an MLBPA standpoint. I'm sure Jerry Reinsdorf's toweling himself off right now, thinking about holding every minor leaguer at AAA until he's ready with the perfect team. You should suggest that to him. Maybe he'll hire you as one of his flying monkeys. 

As far as protecting the bullpen, everybody says this is a lost season, anyway. Keep two long men in the bullpen. You already have multiple 2 inning guys. They're covered. 

It's funny when commenters think that only when crazy moves succeed will they "look stupid". 

[Iwritecode]

9 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

The entire situation made the organization look inept and dysfunctional.

 

It only looks that way because it actually is.

[T R U]

10 hours ago, greg775 said:

The Sox deserve no benefit of the doubt til we see something good happening. This offseason was disgusting. Since letting Burger go for nothing, everything's been negative for good reason. Actually since the hiring of Grifol.

Since everyone loves spring training takes here...

Jake Burger - .139/.162/.412 1 BB 13 K's in 37 PA's

Woof.

[Milkman delivers]

37 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Of course I'm suggesting it's good news. And it is. It's exciting. I don't think a Sox fan can get "overly" excited about it. Everybody here grouses incessantly about how Reinsdorf hates the fans, and the first fun development, everybody freaks out and wails. 

It seems like all the people who were hoping for Erick Fedde to get soundly beaten on opening day so they could cluck their tongues at everyone they judge to be "overly excited", are truly unhappy that they didn't think of this development to complain about, beforehand. 

It's fun to talk about screwing over baseball players like they're game pieces, but "clawing back" a year of control is problematic, from an MLBPA standpoint. I'm sure Jerry Reinsdorf's toweling himself off right now, thinking about holding every minor leaguer at AAA until he's ready with the perfect team. You should suggest that to him. Maybe he'll hire you as one of his flying monkeys. 

As far as protecting the bullpen, everybody says this is a lost season, anyway. Keep two long men in the bullpen. You already have multiple 2 inning guys. They're covered. 

It's funny when commenters think that only when crazy moves succeed will they "look stupid". 

How is it a “fun development” though. He’s simply the only option that’s been on the team. We have no ace and we don’t even have a #1 starter by any decent team’s standards, so you go with the guy who’s been on the team the longest.

You are correct that it’s a lost season. That’s why the reactions are mostly people who just don’t care. The ones getting upset or defensive are likely just doing it as a coping mechanism due to the repeated failures of the franchise.

The people upset about it are Randy Quaid in Major League. The people who don’t care are all the empty seats around him.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

12 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Because they were only on the hook for $3 million and were finally going to get their money's worth out of him...

It's not like he ever was paid well. As far as Sox 1st round draft pics go he was in the top 1/3 as far as making it up to the bigs and having some success.

I just never understood why they pitched him so many innings when they could have kept him stronger by making his starts shorter. He was a horse the 1st half but there was no way it was going to last into the playoffs.

He gave it his all though. Watching him pitch was the highlight of the year.