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I still am 100% against the hire, and haven't spent a dime on anything that would go back to the White Sox since it happened. I plan on continuing that until he is gone.

I think this is more indicative of most teams having a bad offseason than us having a great one.

I appreciate you posting the article, but I’m tired of this game.

You who asks many questions, know in your heart the truth.

Not at all. I don’t think anyone was worried about someone like Hendriks.

My favorite quote from the article:

Gotta be this for me. Took roughly 4 1/2 years to complete. The vast majority were acquired in-person, with a few purchased from a dealer I trust.

I firmly believe the "championship window" was a deliberate illusion from the get-go. This ownership is either dumb as hell or insulting our intelligence.

😆

I can't believe that too many left handed starters are going to want to face the White Sox this year. Also, I have to believe that a lot of managers are going to try to avoid starting a lefty against the Sox. Seriously, if you're an average left hander, even above or below average, are you going to want to go out and pitch against the Sox? I have to believe no. Now, I know every professional athlete has pride and confidence, but there has to be a point where any athlete (in this case a lefty pitcher) thinks about the odds and how the odds are not in his favor, and what would be best for his stats and his success. As the Sox are approaching on the schedule, I believe that managers will manipulate starting pitching rotations whenever reasonable and without throwing guys off pitching cycles to avoid putting a lefty out against the Sox this year. I mean 14 for 14 last year says a lot. Here's a question. Is it kept track of; is there a stat for how many left-handed starters a team faces in a year? If so, I have to believe the White Sox might set a record for fewest number of starting left handers faced in a year.

29.1% of SP’s in MLB in 2019 were lefties. That’s 47 games over a full regular season. Probably somewhere around there. so 47-0 with those. Just have to go 53-62 against righties and boom 100 wins.

I know this doesn't effect sox fans mostly but the new reduction in MiLb teams sucks. My announcer buddy went from a high A team to a low a team overnight. Feels shitty that they can do this to players and staff. Love to hear your thoughts.

Fell in love with that Jacket when I saw Ozzie wearing it at the parade...and the love of my life bought it for me that Christmas....she's the bess!!!

Steve Adams just speculated that teams will need 10 to 15 starters to get through 2021. Yikes!!

I suppose that is better than Tadahito.

There have been at least two grievances filed within the past three years (2018 against TB, OAK, Pit & Miami, 2020 limited to the Pirates) against owners for failing to spend their revenue sharing money in compliance with the collective bargaining agreement. The players at minimum want teams to spend league revenue sharing funds on player salaries. Haven't heard any results of said grievances, but the continued race among the usual suspects toward a $15.6M payroll (26 X $0.6M) requires players to ensure the next CBA includes enforceable provisions that revenues shared "to ensure competitive balance" are in fact used to ensure competitive balance.

TA has given some interviews lately saying he was pretty upset about this in the beginning, but has started to come around as he has talked to TLR more. Hopefully it lasts once things start going for real.

Last year was not that big of a sample size. IMO, to start the season, no one bothers to plan this out. Later on, assuming we crush LHP like last year, a playoff contending team might try but I doubt they shuffle around their rotation enough to make it happen. They would if its just a matter of flipping a starter.

The only teams that would bother messing with their rotation to avoid a lefty starter pitching against the White Sox would likely be divisional rivals vying for a playoff spot. That leaves the Indians (who have zero lefty starters) and the Twins. I could see the Twins trying to avoid Happ getting lit up if they can, but depending on days off and the health of their rotation at the time they might not be able to avoid it. Then maybe in September teams outside the division might try to avoid starting a lefty, but again only if they are fighting for a playoff spot. I'd guess the number of times teams purposefully skip a lefty starter is significantly smaller than the amount of lefty starters the White Sox do face.

If TA7 gives his blessing after a couple weeks, this should be able to be put behind the fanbase...I hope. IF they come out hot and win a bunch in April, winning baseball will be the focus, not TLR histrionics.

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With a Covid impacted season and injuries/callups/rest, I don't see how any team will be able to "avoid" using lefties against the Sox. And the division is pretty heavy with them, so while it may affect a couple games here or there...I just don't see last years small sample size affecting strategy in that big of a way.

Through November, the CDC shows Flu Vaccination numbers being less than 1% lower than as of November 2019, and about 5% higher than November of 2018. https://data.cdc.gov/Vaccinations/Weekly-Cumulative-Influenza-Vaccine-Doses-Distribu/k87d-gv3u/data

I'm just trying to make it through this week. We are supposed to have a heat wave on Sunday. High temps in the 30s and lows *ONLY* in the 20s. Plus more snow...

Poor list. Dodgers, Cardinals, Braves, Twins, Nationals all deserve higher spots. Obviously, White Sox deserve lower.

Between this and the nbcsports top-5 power ranking for the Sox that came out last night ( https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/mlb-power-rankings-dodgers-padres-enter-2021-world-series-favorites?b ) I'm incensed. How can the media just flat-out ignore the outrage that was the White Sox offseason? Why can't our mistakes get the attention they deserve? Typical coastal media bias.

Love this piece. He didn't just sign for the money, even if the money was critical to the process. Colome was an effective closer for us, but he didn't strike me as a team-leader type. I think Hendriks is the kind of guy who will help lead the entire bullpen to shut teams down.

Doubtful. They have some things in common like the animals and Hendriks liking LaRussa's use of relief pitchers. Plus Hendriks seems like the kind of guy with a positive mental attitude on just about everything. I'm neutral on it considering some players need different things than others. Some need TLC and others need a kick in the ass and everything in between. If you play hard you will gain a manager's respect , results get you playing time although a lot of managers do defer to veterans. We see that time after time.

I guess it makes sense to start there also considering the unknown post covid economy of free agency. Just surprising and insightful.

I really do not get the whole non-masking thing. What is the issue with wearing a mask it is the height of stupidity. I find it insanely baffling.

My wife who has asthma, had an appointment for March 6th. Her doctor called her this morning and asked her if she wanted a shot today. She is there now. I am so thrilled.

Getting my first shot tomorrow. Originally was supposed to be Moderna, but we were just informed it will be Pfizer. Happy to get the ball rolling.

There are a few problems with using Eaton in the 2 hole. First, he's not nearly as good of a hitter as Moncada, assuming Moncada returns to 2019 form. You don't give extra ABs to worse hitters. Second, he's a platoon hitter, at least part of the time, vulnerable to lefty relievers. Moncada is a switch hitter, able to handle whatever reliever is thrown at him in the late innings. Third, Eaton can be a good hit and run player, both behind Robert, but more importantly, ahead of Madrigal. You don't want to hit and run with Abreu behind you. You don't want to try to steal ahead of Abreu when it might result in an out. If you do it in front of Madrigal, you turn him into an RBI guy with just a single, and if you end the inning with an out, Madrigal is a fine lead off hitter for the next inning. Fourth, by grouping Robert, Eaton/Engel, Madrigal at the bottom, followed by Anderson, gives the Sox their speed together with no one to clog the bases between them. I think LaRussa will use that speed to put pressure on opposing pitchers and produce more small-ball runs than we did last year.

You are embarrassing all of us Midwesterners.

Some teams aren't sticking to the Collusion/Covid script/payroll.

Yes, it is a fair point, and the numbers are the numbers and RBI doesn't necessarily translate to WAR. I guess this is the thing for me: Having watched Jose in 2019 you can't tell me he only gave the Sox a couple more wins by being on the team rather than some other average schlub at first base. Maybe its my fan bias, I don't know, I'm an older guy and maybe I just look at general stats plus intangibles as the measure of worth more than the extremely calculated and granular sabermetrics we have now. I grew up with slash lines, period. Once I started hearing about OPS, WHIPs and whatever else that was it for me, lol.

CHI 20. Rashawn Slater OT Northwestern CHI 61. Rondale Moore WR Purdue trade CHI 83. Rashad Weaver EDGE Pitt CHI 93. Greg Newsome II CB Northwestern trade CHI 205. Kelvin Joseph CB Kentucky CHI 219. Greg Eiland OG Mississippi State CHI 224. Tre Norwood S Oklahoma CHI 230. Jonathon Cooper EDGE Ohio State

I read this as Nancy applied to play the anthem for the Cubs, and was turned down as they didn't plan to play it regularly and had someone to do it when they do. Not sure how anyone asking to play the anthem during the Viet Nam War could be anti-anthem. Pointing out that teams haven't always played the National Anthem before games, even in fairly recent history, isn't anti-anthem. Its pro-historical truth. Fun fact: There was also a period of time in the mid 80's when the White Sox often played "America the Beautiful" instead of "The Star Spangled Banner" before home games at Comiskey Park,

So many ignorant takes here today, feels like a game thread.

Where in the hell do you see that she was anti-anthem?

I can't like this post enough. Your last point, that I bolded, is the most important to me. No one is saying the White Sox can't be good; they could be very good! In fact, projection models think so too, as their win outcomes range from 83 up to 105, but what all fans should be tired of is needing everything to go right to reach the potential the front office has sold for years. The job of the front office was to take this very talented core that is going to have some ups and downs, and give them much more likely production in pair with it. If you add two starters (even in the 8-10 million dollar range) and a real RF'er this off-season, you're looking at a team whose mean win total is now at 88-89ish, with all that youth and "variance." And with the idea that Giolito and Anderson are legitimately undervalued due to data/input issues when trying to evaluate them vs the avg. A common misconception of the "models don't project young players" isn't that they don't or can't, it's that a lot of young players fail and that's accounted for. We, as fans, may not believe OUR players will fail, but the reality is development comes in funky patterns and the sum of those patterns results in the outputs we see. So it's not that they don't project young players well, it's that there's more variance in those projections and as fans we're less likely to see that downside. What is exhausting is the front office not supporting the risk of those young players with proven vets; while also not requiring us to give up assets. There's a guy in this thread saying you HAVE to give Zack Collins and Dylan Cease a chance to play all the time. Why? The Dodgers are literally telling Gonsolin and May to take a seat and move to the bullpen until your number is called because depth is imperative and having proven assets when competing for a title increases your chances of competing for that title. You want to give Vaughn a shot because of your internal scouting, fine whatever but you could have given him a look/shot while also signing a proven MLB hitter to be your DH - further lessening the risk and burden of Vaughn. The job was to spend money when the window opened, that's what was sold. Well the window is open, and we're still stuck here rooting for a roster that needs to exceed their expected outcomes in order to be at the top of the totem pole.

The Collins love on this site is incredible. The guy is not exactly a front line player. He is not great defensively and what we’re his stats in the minors? He is not that great. Neither is lecroy but he probably knows how to handle pitchers and is a smart catcher. Good depth for sure , nice sign. That’s it no all star no starter just good damn depth.