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I sure hope he leaves Chicago. My girlfriend is in love with that guy and he's 50x better looking than I am. And soon he'll have 50x more money. With a 50x cooler job. He is 50x the man I am. My ability to drink beer and scream at the TV during sporting events does not make up for that.

ChiSox buy Cishek by the sea shore ?

He's way better than people seem to think. Excels at getting weak contact. The only concern I have with him is the slight increase in his walk rate

Since we are relevant again, I think it would be nice to have a thread where we can keep track of things like, World Series odds, power rankings, and what the pundits/other fanbases, and twitter is saying about us. This type of news is tough to follow and discuss when spread around multiple threads. I'll start with ESPN having a nice article about what to expect in the 20's. Here are a few things to note for the Sox. 1. We are predicted to have the best season of the decade, winning 112 games in 2023. The Cubs are predicted to have the worst season. 2. We are a high riser with the Padres, while the Indians and Cubs are fallers. 3. This is expected to be our best decade ever. 4. We will take over the city once more. 5. Luis Robert will beat out Nick Madrigal for MVP, even with Magical batting .364. 6. Magical and Robert will be the best defensive players at their position this decade. 7. Our infield will be the best of this decade. 8. We will have the best offensive season of the decade in 2023. And my favorite 9. Michael Kopech will be the best pitcher in baseball for 2025 and 2026. Hopefully it will be with us.

Anyone else have a strange feeling that Castellanos falls into the White Sox lap at their price?

They now have 4 excellent candidates for the 8TH inning; Bummer, Herrera, Colome and Cichek. A lights out closer could still be worth while. However, it would have to be via a trade, as there aren't any available, in free agency. The other possibility is to try Bummer as the closer, in which case they probably need another lefty, as Fry is the only other southpaw bullpen arm and I have lost confidence in him, after last season.

Hopefully the cubs didn't break him with his 150 appearances in the past two years

He's been very good for the last 3-4 years.

Remember those times Chris sale went crazy because Detroit was stealing signs hmmmmm

You must be very young.

If you are a follower of the Statcast/Baseball Savant folks, then you know they've been teasing the release of their infield defense metrics for months now. They are very close to public release, I believe it will be this week, and they've even been tweeting out some tidbits to get people interested. Without divulging my methods, since I suspect it will render my methods no longer usable, I have gotten my hands on most of the data (note: I haven't hacked anybody, everything's on the up and up). I only have complete data for 2019 but have some info about Sox players in prior years. So who wants to hear about the Sox??? Just like the outfield defense, you have two basic metrics: Outs Above Average (OAA) and a percentage added. OAA is a counting stat, like RBI, and is therefore sensitive to playing time and number of chances. The percentage stat is more like batting average and lets you more easily compare players with different amounts of playing time. On outs above average, out of 218 qualified infielders... Moncada ranked #51 (+5 OAA) Yolmer #82 (+2 OAA) Tim #104 (-1 OAA) Abreu #142 (-3 OAA) On percentage added, out of 218 qualified infielders... Moncada ranked #51 (yes, exactly the same as OAA; 2% added) Yolmer #86 (1%) Tim #104 (0%) Abreu #142 (-1%) So almost exactly the same in their cases. The differences in rankings for OAA and success rate added are mostly at the very top and bottom. By position... Among 3B, Moncada ranked #9 out of 53 3B in OAA and #7 in percentage added. Among 2B, Yolmer ranked #19 out of 71 2B in OAA and #21 in percentage added. Among 1B, Abreu ranked #34 out of 40 1B in OAA and #26 in percentage added. Among SS, Tim ranked #29 out of 54 SS in OAA and #29 in percentage added. Quick Sox highlights: Tim didn't do as badly as we feared. I can add that in 2018, he ranked in the 87th percentile among SS, much better. He was in the 66th percentile in 2017. If he cleans up the errors, he's going to be a real asset like we all hoped. He has demonstrated a consistent strength moving to his left over the years per these numbers. Last year his problem was coming in on balls. Yoan's defense was rated above average by UZR and below average by DRS, so some of us weren't sure where he stood. This suggests he is indeed a strong defender at 3B. Great! Also of note: In 2018, his 2B defense ranked in the 1st percentile, meaning he was the worst or close to the worst infield defender in MLB by these metrics. Abreu isn't good, but he's not horrible either (at least when it comes to fielding balls; this doesn't factor in catching thrown balls AFAIK). Other metrics were overrating Yolmer it would appear, although he has been by no means bad. Statcast indicates he struggles going to his right. Other info for non-Sox players: Best OAA in MLB: Javier Baez (+19) Arenado (+17) Andrelton Simmons (+16) Nick Ahmed (+16) Trevor Story (+15) Matt Chapman (+14) Paul DeJong (+13) Matt Olson (+12; by far the highest 1B) Jose Iglesias (+12) Worst OAA in MLB: Vlad Guerrero Jr. (-16) Jorge Polanco (-16) Fernando Tatis Jr. (-13) Didi Gregorius (-13) Jonathan Villar (-12) Tim Beckham (-9) Kevin Newman (-8) Gleyber Torres (-7) Best % added: Isiah Kiner-Falefa (8%) Tony Kemp (7%) Cory Spangenberg (6%) Andrelton Simmons (6%) Jeff McNeil (5%) Marwin Gonzalez (5%) Matt Olson (5%), Javier Baez (5%) Worst % added: Chad Pinder (-11%) Vlad Jr. (-8%) Luke Voit (-7%) Didi Gregorius (-6%) Fernando Tatis Jr. (-5%) Tim Beckham (-5%) Ryon Healy (-5%) Also, Marcus Semien was well below average, though not horrible, this year and was no different than the past two years, in contrast to the story told by UZR/DRS.

Abreu was 9, as was McCann. Still annoyed Giolito was snubbed from even the honorable mentions, but as was said, he’s really not much of an analyst. What do you all predict for Moncada tomorrow?

"A source indicates this is likely the White Sox’s last major move of an offseason"

one thing that sucks is next years free agent market for relievers is garbage, sox need their young bullpen prospects to show up this year.

Bullpen and Rotation aren't exactly strengths but there isn't anyone that I want to launch into the Sun before the season even starts for the first time in what feels like forever.

How did fake Steve Cishek miss this???

He was definitely their safety blanket, as he wore down last year. I love his fit in our pen.

This also allows us to hold onto McCann/Collins unless given a good deal. We now don't NEED to trade for a RP.

I’m pretty sure oldsox’s comment is more of an indictment of Eloy and Mazara’s defense than Robert’s speed. His point is that no super stud center fielder can make up for the massive defensive deficiencies of Eloy and Mazara. Mazara isn’t very good and Eloy is a DH.

I like Jason and Stoney. Can we get replacements on the radio?

The contract they are already out of? Probably.

Hawk & Wimpy in their prime were the best!

They are a good pair - a great pair! But my favorite pair is Hawk and Wimpy. Those late 80's and 90's broadcasts were great. Alot of good memories and good whitesox teams then. I really do believe the sox would have went to the WS in 94 had it not been for the strike. I remember Hawk finding out live on air of his very good friend Don Drysdale passing away and Wimpy having to take over for an inning or 2. But I really do enjoy the Steve and Jason pairing. Better than the Steve and Hawk pairing and much better than the Hawk and Darren pairing.

Trading 6 years of collins when mccann is a FA next year is a tatis tier move. a 2 fWAR starting catcher should yield a RP better than the scraps that were available this offseason. (see Tampa)

I'm not sure anyone knows what he is. He's a completely different pitcher than he was in college. He was a slightly undersized pitchability righty now he's a power armed swing and miss guy. I say just let him keep doing what he's doing and let it work itself out.

You keep repeating this, but I haven’t seen that much anywhere

I am starting to think the Sox will hold onto Collins as insurance; it sucks for Collins, but with Edwin and McCann only signed through next year, an opportunity could open up next year for him.

Have to be careful walking a righty.

He and Abreu checked in at 10.

Yeah, I’m expecting him to be on the opening day roster, to be honest. Give him one last shot and then cut ties if it doesn’t work out.

what's the over under on Rickie fucking up the bullpen and leaving Chicago out of relievers due to the new loogy rule? I'm guessing about 5 times.

That's why having an option for year 2 made this an even better deal. I wonder if McHugh could have had for the same structure and similar money. I also expect at least one from the Burdi/Hamilton/Johnson/Foster group to play a key role next year, god forbids if they don't.

Figured Cishek was most likely scenario. I'd like to see them give some milb deals, have mentioned tony cingrani before. Still would like to go after Salazar as well. They may have expensive mlb call up numbers around 2-3 mill but if they are not injured they offer good potential for K men in bullpen. Still would be interested in Kennedy, but also look at a guy like aaron sanchez for bullpen. If his well dries up he may reach for what he can. Same for smyly, if going to bullpen increases his fastball, he could be interesting.

lol, on time on OOTP I fielded a team that had a DER of like 67%. When you only catch 2/3 of the balls in play your pitching staff is going to need to be getting 4 outs most innings. I have to say fielding a beer league outfield would be entertaining, at least for a few games.

I just hope they keep Yermin Mercedes, at least through ST. I want to see him hit at MLB level.

Chisox

Steve Chisex lol

Hahahahah Fake Bruce LeVine actually got one right 🤣🤣

Looks like his sources were on target with this:

Passan tweeting interesting stuff: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28439945/sources-mlb-decision-discipline-astros

Hawk and DJ in their last year was the absolute best. It took them forever to hit their stride but once DJ kind of accepted Hawk was the voice of the booth they became amazing...just in time for DJ to be relegated to radio. Now Farmer and DJ are the worst pairing of all time.

Statistically, the only difference between last year and a normal Kimbrel year was a comically high HR rate. Still striking a ton of dudes out, and his walk rate has been that high in years where he finished with ERAs in the 2's. Cubs might give him up to get out of his salary, but they aren't trading him for worse pitchers just as a change of scenery.

Sox wrap up another outstanding move. What an incredible deal. Steve gives up two years of arbitration. Manny Bunuelos is next.

Well reasoned post.

There is a lot is symmetry and balance to our team as it now stands. I , for one, prefer that they do not risk upending that balance or the character of the team by signing a fukup like Puig or bringing back Yolmer the assclown. If Madrigal continues to show that he can play great defense and hit during Spring Training, I would bring him up on Opening Day despite potentially losing a year of contractual control. I said "potentially" because the Sox can always choose to extend him later this season or down the road. Having Madrigal in the starting lime-up on Opening Day means that the Sox don't have to futz with signing some infielder to start for a month, or making Leury platoon in the IF and OF which could dilute his effectiveness. So.... come out of the gate on Opening Day with Robert and Madrigal in the line-up. Develop team chemistry from the start, rack up as many wins as possible in the first two months, and bury the sh1t teams in the Division right off the bat.

Whether their logic is ridiculous or not, unfortunately, our team has given them every reason to think this way over the past 15 years.

If I've got this right from his stats over at Fangraphs, his Pitches/Plate Apperance last year was 3.35, which is lower than Tim Anderson's was. In other words, he's very much aggressive at the plate and often sees very few pitches - if you give him a pitch in the strike zone on the first pitch he will put it in play, but he also took 3x as many walks as Anderson did, so if you don't pitch to him he won't swing. If this keeps up remotely at all we are going to be talking about this guy's bat command and strike zone command forever. As soon as you throw him a hittable pitch he puts it in play.