bmags Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 I'm trying to get into the year. Last year, you may remember that we had very few offensive players who could hit the average mark of wRC+ or OPS+ (100). This was the list: ok that was for qualified players, but you get the idea. I don't think that will happen again. This is Zips, who takes mercy: Of players who I think we could be pleasantly surprised by, I'd put it on a first baseman guy. A weird bobby dalbec resurgence or the people get what they want and Tim Elko has 50 hrs and 500 Ks. Of players who I hope could actually get to league average, it's Brooks Baldwin. WOuld be really helpful. If Vargas can get to .430 slugging though that would be a big help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Vaughn/Robert and...hoping for Colson, but let's go with Teel instead. Benintendi another logical candidate if he wants to get traded away to an actual contender. Quero could do a reasonable Omar Narvaez impression... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Sacamano Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 3:40 PM, bmags said: I'm trying to get into the year. Last year, you may remember that we had very few offensive players who could hit the average mark of wRC+ or OPS+ (100). This was the list: ok that was for qualified players, but you get the idea. I don't think that will happen again. This is Zips, who takes mercy: Of players who I think we could be pleasantly surprised by, I'd put it on a first baseman guy. A weird bobby dalbec resurgence or the people get what they want and Tim Elko has 50 hrs and 500 Ks. Of players who I hope could actually get to league average, it's Brooks Baldwin. WOuld be really helpful. If Vargas can get to .430 slugging though that would be a big help. Expand You don’t say Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 3:49 PM, caulfield12 said: Vaughn/Robert and...hoping for Colson, but let's go with Teel instead. Benintendi another logical candidate if he wants to get traded away to an actual contender. Quero could do a reasonable Omar Narvaez impression... Expand I don't think Robert would be a surprise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 3:58 PM, bmags said: I don't think Robert would be a surprise. Expand Staying healthy enough to be a "qualified" batter would be though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcq Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Imagine a 20 game improvement to 101 losses. Not easy to do. Uniquely putrid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 4:28 PM, pcq said: Imagine a 20 game improvement to 101 losses. Not easy to do. Uniquely putrid. Expand The White Sox could set a record for the most wins gained from one season to the next, and still not finish .500. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogan873 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 4:32 PM, southsider2k5 said: The White Sox could set a record for the most wins gained from one season to the next, and still not finish .500. Expand Yeah, I think the biggest increase was 35 wins. Winning 36 more games would put the Sox at 77 wins. Holy hell that's depressing. We'd be ecstatic, and Venable would be in the running for manager of the year...and the team would be 10+ wins away from sniffing the post season. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac9001 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 It will probably end up being more than you would assume. Last year was uniquely bad from an expected outcome standpoint. But with the exception of SS/C (on opening day) I would expect the guys out there getting playing time will likely have an OPS+ over 100. If they don't the Sox will just give that playing time to someone else. Thus it's likely we get 100 OPS/WRC+ output out of 2B/3B simply because we have enough options that one of them is likely to be average and we're probably going to platoon a lot of guys to minimize their poor split impacts on their overall output. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chitownsportsfan Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Honestly nobody but thread tax I will go with Beni. I think for some reason he’s going to be motivated to GTFO and while it is just a wild hunch I think he starts hot and builds trade value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago White Sox Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 The guys I think have the best chance of reaching or exceeding a 100 wRC+ this year are Vargas, Baldwin, Meidroth, & Sosa. My personal money would be on Vargas & Baldwin. By no means am I excited about Vargas, but his ability to draw walks at an elite level should hopefully get him close to 100. From there, it comes down to being impact the baseball more consistently, which I need to see before I believe. As for Baldwin, he’s just a well rounded hitter who does everything well. As much as I Stan for Meidroth, I am the highest on Baldwin of all prospects in this tier. I think he can be a 2+ win player as soon as next year and I could see him ending up around a 100 to 105 wRC+ if he adjusts a bit faster than expected. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 5:10 PM, chitownsportsfan said: Honestly nobody but thread tax I will go with Beni. I think for some reason he’s going to be motivated to GTFO and while it is just a wild hunch I think he starts hot and builds trade value. Expand It really was a sign of how bad last year was where if any of us would have heard AB was going to hit 20 home runs I'd guess hed be flirting with his KC numbers, but his home runs basically ate up his doubles, and he hit a career low in ba. Just insane. I'd hope he could at least be a slightly above 100 player for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 5:37 PM, Chicago White Sox said: The guys I think have the best chance of reaching or exceeding a 100 wRC+ this year are Vargas, Baldwin, Meidroth, & Sosa. My personal money would be on Vargas & Baldwin. By no means am I excited about Vargas, but his ability to draw walks at an elite level should hopefully get him close to 100. From there, it comes down to being impact the baseball more consistently, which I need to see before I believe. As for Baldwin, he’s just a well rounded hitter who does everything well. As much as I Stan for Meidroth, I am the highest on Baldwin of all prospects in this tier. I think he can be a 2+ win player as soon as next year and I could see him ending up around a 100 to 105 wRC+ if he adjusts a bit faster than expected. Expand I could buy Sosa if he can turn his awful months into only bad. But he had an absolute scorcher to end the season that did little to improve his numbers because he was coming off 90 bats in august that he could have just stood there and swung at nothing and probably had more bases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fathom Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Sosa, Vaughn, Montgomery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 5:37 PM, Chicago White Sox said: The guys I think have the best chance of reaching or exceeding a 100 wRC+ this year are Vargas, Baldwin, Meidroth, & Sosa. My personal money would be on Vargas & Baldwin. By no means am I excited about Vargas, but his ability to draw walks at an elite level should hopefully get him close to 100. From there, it comes down to being impact the baseball more consistently, which I need to see before I believe. As for Baldwin, he’s just a well rounded hitter who does everything well. As much as I Stan for Meidroth, I am the highest on Baldwin of all prospects in this tier. I think he can be a 2+ win player as soon as next year and I could see him ending up around a 100 to 105 wRC+ if he adjusts a bit faster than expected. Expand Vargas will either have 100+ or 50- There will be no inbetween. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestEddy Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Vargas will probably have the longest runway, and most intensive support. I say Vargas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snopek Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 To keep myself mildly entertained during the season, I suppose I'll go all in on Benintendi continuing his decent finish to last season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 6:11 PM, WestEddy said: Vargas will probably have the longest runway, and most intensive support. I say Vargas. Expand This is a good point. A bad April will sink Sosa/Baldwin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago White Sox Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 5:46 PM, bmags said: I could buy Sosa if he can turn his awful months into only bad. But he had an absolute scorcher to end the season that did little to improve his numbers because he was coming off 90 bats in august that he could have just stood there and swung at nothing and probably had more bases. Expand Sosa is a really tough one for me. He’s obviously not going to get to 100 wRC+ without major improvement in his chase rate. If he can start laying off some sliders and take a few more walks, I think he can get there. Lenyn has fairly average bat speed and raw power, but he gets the most out of it by being able to square up on the ball consistently and having a swing geared for quality contact. He could go either way IMO and that high uncertainty is why I have him below Vargas & Baldwin in likelihood to achieve a 100 wRC+ next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chitownsportsfan Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 I wonder if Vargas' walk rate will come down if he continues to show no real power. Like Madrigal, if the pitcher thinks he can knock the bat out of your hand, you're not going to get worked around very often you'll just get attacked mercilessly. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago White Sox Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 6:03 PM, Quin said: Vargas will either have 100+ or 50- There will be no inbetween. Expand I honestly disagree. I think his floor is probably a 90 wRC+ next year. I can’t stress enough how elite his plate discipline is and even a mostly empty OBP is going to create a fairly high floor. Again, for him it comes down to whether he can actually impact a baseball consistently when he makes contact. He looked awful in that regard last year and Statcast backs up the eye test. I just don’t buy what we saw last year is truly reflective of his ability. I’m not one to buy into spring training fluff pieces, but him gaining weight was important to see as he did look extremely frail last year when I watched him play. I think that should help in the power department and I don’t believe for a second that a kid with a 60 grade hit tool will be so bad at squaring up on the ball long-term. I expect substantial improvement this year with the bat, but even a 100 wRC+ isn’t all that valuable if he can’t play a normal position. He’s got to be closer to 120 if he wants to be an everyday 1B or DH and that’s hard to picture right now based on what we have seen out of him in a White Sox uniform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chitownsportsfan Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 6:40 PM, Chicago White Sox said: I honestly disagree. I think his floor is probably a 90 wRC+ next year. I can’t stress enough how elite his plate discipline is and even a mostly empty OBP is going to create a fairly high floor. Again, for him it comes down to whether he can actually impact a baseball consistently when he makes contact. He looked awful in that regard last year and Statcast backs up the eye test. I just don’t buy what we saw last year is truly reflective of his ability. I’m not one to buy into spring training fluff pieces, but him gaining weight was important to see as he did look extremely frail last year when I watched him play. I think that should help in the power department and I don’t believe for a second that a kid with a 60 grade hit tool will be so bad at squaring up on the ball long-term. I expect substantial improvement this year with the bat, but even a 100 wRC+ isn’t all that valuable if he can’t play a normal position. He’s got to be closer to 120 if he wants to be an everyday 1B or DH and that’s hard to picture right now based on what we have seen out of him in a White Sox uniform. Expand That's the crux of it. It was a massive scouting fail. His best position is...hitter? And he needs massive improvement there? What are we doing? Hope in one hand and in the other... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago White Sox Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 6:39 PM, chitownsportsfan said: I wonder if Vargas' walk rate will come down if he continues to show no real power. Like Madrigal, if the pitcher thinks he can knock the bat out of your hand, you're not going to get worked around very often you'll just get attacked mercilessly. Expand Madrigal didn’t walk all that much to begin with though. And Vargas should have much more raw power than Nick, although he obviously didn’t show much last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago White Sox Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 6:43 PM, chitownsportsfan said: That's the crux of it. It was a massive scouting fail. His best position is...hitter? And he needs massive improvement there? What are we doing? Hope in one hand and in the other... Expand By no means am I supporting the acquisition. To be honest, it’s hard to see it working out for us unless he doesn’t transforms his offensive game. But I do truly believe Vargas will be a semi useful hitter next year and not the complete black hole he was last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeC Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/27/2025 at 3:58 PM, bmags said: I don't think Robert would be a surprise. Expand On 2/27/2025 at 3:59 PM, caulfield12 said: Staying healthy enough to be a "qualified" batter would be though. Expand Beat me to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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