Of the very worst players in MLB

[caulfield12]

by fWAR, Sox have 7 connected to the bottom 30 with over 100 plate appearances.

Burger

Vaughn

Grossman

Then we get to the absolute bottom of the barrel.

318. Anderson, Tim -1.1

319. Abreu, Jose -1.4

321. Benintendi, Andrew -1.6

322. Maldonado, Martin -1.7

 

Moving it down to 80 PA, you can even pick up Nick Madrigal at -0.7 fWAR.

That's five former first round draft picks represented there.

Edited June 10 by caulfield12

[bmags]

It is crazy, and on the flip side, check out how much of the top ten pitchers are white Sox adjacent.

[caulfield12]

2 hours ago, bmags said:

It is crazy, and on the flip side, check out how much of the top ten pitchers are white Sox adjacent.

Blame it on John Danks, Lance Lynn and a bunch of expensive veteran relievers.

Sox just don't do top line FA pitching and they don't do extensions ever since Sale and Quintana.

(You would think those last two names would only reinforce the value of young/er, cost-controlled pitching.)

Edited June 10 by caulfield12

[bmags]

8 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Blame it on John Danks, Lance Lynn and a bunch of expensive veteran relievers.

Sox just don't do top line FA pitching and they don't do extensions ever since Sale and Quintana.

(You would think those last two names would only r enforce the value of young/er, cost-controlled pitching.)

They also acquired a bunch of phenomenal stuff and some times that’s hard to time with competitive windows. I’d Cease figures it out one year earlier who knows.

[southsider2k5]

45 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Blame it on John Danks, Lance Lynn and a bunch of expensive veteran relievers.

Sox just don't do top line FA pitching and they don't do extensions ever since Sale and Quintana.

(You would think those last two names would only r enforce the value of young/er, cost-controlled pitching.)

Dylan Cease is John Danks fault?  Cool.

[WestEddy]

1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

Blame it on John Danks, Lance Lynn and a bunch of expensive veteran relievers.

Sox just don't do top line FA pitching and they don't do extensions ever since Sale and Quintana.

(You would think those last two names would only r enforce the value of young/er, cost-controlled pitching.)

Giolito was a player rep, and committed to trying out the market, as I recall. Cease took on Boras, and had no interest in being "cost-controlled". Besides Lopez and Kopech, they haven't had anybody to extend since. (They did give an extension to Lynn.)

[caulfield12]

3 hours ago, WestEddy said:

Giolito was a player rep, and committed to trying out the market, as I recall. Cease took on Boras, and had no interest in being "cost-controlled". Besides Lopez and Kopech, they haven't had anybody to extend since. (They did give an extension to Lynn.)

But there was that pretty extended window after Giolito's two really excellent seasons, whatever it was, 2019/20, or 2018/19/20....when there was an opportunity to get something done.

Of course, he went from one of the very worst pitchers in baseball that first first season or two with the White Sox to one of the very best, seemingly overnight.

And there was always the "greatest RH pitching prospect in the game" pedigree with his draft, although it was tarnished a bit by the initial TJS.

[WestEddy]

7 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

But there was that pretty extended window after Giolito's two really excellent seasons, whatever it was, 2019/20, or 2018/19/20....when there was an opportunity to get something done.

Of course, he went from one of the very worst pitchers in baseball that first first season or two with the White Sox to one of the very best, seemingly overnight.

And there was always the "greatest RH pitching prospect in the game" pedigree with his draft, although it was tarnished a bit by the initial TJS.

Jim Margalus wrote about this at SoxMachine in 2022:

https://soxmachine.com/2022/03/lucas-giolito-shows-limitations-of-white-soxs-approach-to-extensions/

And he draws from James Fegan's Athletic article:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3206034/2022/03/23/disconnect-on-a-contract-extension-between-lucas-giolito-white-sox-predates-arbitration-impasse/

Quote

 

Sources indicate that last spring the White Sox offered Giolito a contract extension before the 2021 season, which would have taken the place of the $4.15 million deal he and the team reached for his first arbitration-eligible season. The contract offer was for four years, $50 million guaranteed, and would have bought out Giolito’s three arbitration-eligible seasons and his first year of free agency. The offer also included a club option for the 2025 season.

The deal would not have set an MLB record for the largest extension for a starting pitcher with three full years of service time. That was set by Carlos Martínez’s five-year, $51 million deal (with two option years) with the Cardinals in 2017, and surpassed by Sandy Alcantara’s five-year, $56 million agreement with the Marlins reached this offseason. But it would be the largest four-year guarantee to a starting pitcher at a similar cutoff in their service time accumulation, surpassing Aaron Nola’s 2019 agreement with the Phillies for four years, $45 million with an additional club option year.

 

Maybe I'm mixing up the "player rep resolute on Free Agency" story with Samardzija. Giolito's regular talking point was that he wanted to sign an extension. But the model didn't really work for players when his turn came up. 

[joejoesox]

totally forgot that Giolito had another elbow surgery earlier this year, maybe he's been hurt the last year+ ever since the sticky ban.  wonder how many pitchers that had a negative impact on

[greg775]

Sox would have more than the one lone, everything went right that 05 postseason title if they had never got rid of Dombroski. I'd go with the Sox as one of the three worst franchises in all of sports today, arguably the worst.

Edited June 10 by greg775