AND THAT'S A WHITE SOX SWEEP OF THE DH BACK TO .500

[caulfield12]

16 minutes ago, mqr said:

They’re the most talented team I think I’ve ever seen. 

One of the best pitched series in a long time...

Now there's no way guys their rookies can keep this up, but the Dodgers are just almost impossible to beat when at least 2 of their top 4 guys are going offensively, and of course Bellinger's out for now.

I do think their one weakness is the bullpen, especially Jansen when he goes through one of his shaky periods.

As good as Seager (one of the most underrated, underappreciated SS's in the game), Betts and Bellinger are, Turner's the one who always seems to bite you in clutch situations.

But when you have a Top 3 rotation like that and follow them up with May/Urias, it's scary.

[Chicago White Sox]

22 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Because how can a bullpen arm, even when used for 3+, need 5 days off? I understand the plan, I just think it sets back the bullpen. He looks amazing, but I'm not sure how treating a rp as a sp is managing his workload. Let's say he threw an inning Wednesday, does that really hurt his usage?

It may set back the bullpen a little bit in terms of flexibility, but having Kopech available a starter down the stretch is worth that small sacrifice.

[chitownsportsfan]

 

[KrankinSox]

1 hour ago, chw42 said:

2 weeks into the season, the best records in the AL are the Mariners, Royals, and Red Sox. Who had that coming into the season? Oh and the Yankees are 5-10.

The 5 best records are the Mariners, Angels, Royals, Indians, and Red Sox.

Those also happen to be the 5 teams the Sox have played. We've played some hot teams and are .500 with a plus 18 run differential. And we haven't even started clicking yet.

[vilehoopster]

Not an Abreu hater. In fact, a few years ago when everyone wanted to trade him (to Boston, if I remember correctly) or never resign him, I'm the one that came on here and talked about how he was the only Sox in the top 100 players in baseball (we now have nine, amazing)  how he was a repeat all-star and again how he was the White Sox best player. And everyone started complaining about his defense and low way. So any way, just making it clear that I'm an Abreu fan, a big one. But . . . . . . 

If he can't hit in cold weather, and he admits it, and Steve Stone keeps tell us how he'll heat up when the weather does, but if he can't hit now. Sit him down. Sit him out when it's cold. He was Boston's best player today hitting double play ball after double play ball. The White Sox should have had 2 or 3 more runs but Abreu's double plays kills us. Steve even said the something about the cold keeping him for lifting the ball and hitting so many ground ball. If that is the case, sit him down. 

Now we hear how he is a team-first player. How Rick R. got on him for his defense and he really worked on it. Also, he has come into the season the last two years in much better shape and the results have been there. Maybe sitting him in cold weather will motivate him to work on hitting when it's cold. But what happened today, can't keep happening. 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

3 hours ago, wegner said:

Robert seems to be figuring it out as well which is great to see.

Yea a few people didn't like that he seemed farther away from the plate but I actually did. If he is too close to the plate he's chasing outside pitches off the plate. You back him off the plate and those pitches look too far away to swing at. Also closer to the plate and you get jammed too. Ideally you want Robert extending his arms and getting the sweet spot on the pitches. It forces him to use CF and RF more while still using his quick bat to turn on pitches on the inner half and down the middle.

You have seen him using right and right center a lot more . And right now we need hits and contact from him.

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[YoYoIsMyHero]

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

But it doesn't, and yes it absolutely hurts the others it's one thing to not be able to go back to back days - that's hard on the rest already - but needing a week off after 41 pitches means you're an arm short all week.

He's missing three games - and honestly just one really cause you would try to avoid pitching a guy who just threw 40 pitches for a day or two. It's not that big of a deal.

Although, if this was the Dodgers they'd put him on the 10 day IL for "soreness" and just call up another arm that can give them a few innings

[VAfan]

18 minutes ago, vilehoopster said:

Not an Abreu hater. In fact, a few years ago when everyone wanted to trade him (to Boston, if I remember correctly) or never resign him, I'm the one that came on here and talked about how he was the only Sox in the top 100 players in baseball (we now have nine, amazing)  how he was a repeat all-star and again how he was the White Sox best player. And everyone started complaining about his defense and low way. So any way, just making it clear that I'm an Abreu fan, a big one. But . . . . . . 

If he can't hit in cold weather, and he admits it, and Steve Stone keeps tell us how he'll heat up when the weather does, but if he can't hit now. Sit him down. Sit him out when it's cold. He was Boston's best player today hitting double play ball after double play ball. The White Sox should have had 2 or 3 more runs but Abreu's double plays kills us. Steve even said the something about the cold keeping him for lifting the ball and hitting so many ground ball. If that is the case, sit him down. 

Now we hear how he is a team-first player. How Rick R. got on him for his defense and he really worked on it. Also, he has come into the season the last two years in much better shape and the results have been there. Maybe sitting him in cold weather will motivate him to work on hitting when it's cold. But what happened today, can't keep happening. 

Sit him for who, exactly?  He's still at 97 OPS+, which is better than everyone else who could play 1B today. 

The Sox have a thin lineup already without Jimenez and Engel, and resting Anderson in game 2.  Plus, he's very good defensively at this point. 

[ptatc]

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

These guys throw year round. Kopech isnt coming back from not throwing. I think modern pitcher management has been a complete disaster with no real evidence supporting its effectiveness. Kopech has arm strength. If you want to keep inning escalation down, fine, but thinking you need 5 days to recover from 41 pitches because like you haven't been throwing daily for 16 months is nonsense to me. You build arm strength and durability by pitching, not resting. Don't throw through fatigue and soreness too much and you'll be fine. Inning load management has just increased injury.

It's 4 days for normal rest. Of course he has been throwing and working out. But it's never the same intensity.  They have to build up the innings of this intensity at an appropriate rate. This is also the advantage of having him in the MLB as the intensity us greater here. 

You fo build strength by throwing. However remember the stabilizing muscles are very tiny rotator muscles and fatigue quickly with the motion of throwing. They just don't want to push it too much too soon because there is no reason to. I would guess he is available in 4 days max but they may spread it out to keep the innings down to save them for starts at the end of the season. The other option is to pitch more now and shut him down before the season is over.

[ShoeLessRob]

1 hour ago, vilehoopster said:

Not an Abreu hater. In fact, a few years ago when everyone wanted to trade him (to Boston, if I remember correctly) or never resign him, I'm the one that came on here and talked about how he was the only Sox in the top 100 players in baseball (we now have nine, amazing)  how he was a repeat all-star and again how he was the White Sox best player. And everyone started complaining about his defense and low way. So any way, just making it clear that I'm an Abreu fan, a big one. But . . . . . . 

If he can't hit in cold weather, and he admits it, and Steve Stone keeps tell us how he'll heat up when the weather does, but if he can't hit now. Sit him down. Sit him out when it's cold. He was Boston's best player today hitting double play ball after double play ball. The White Sox should have had 2 or 3 more runs but Abreu's double plays kills us. Steve even said the something about the cold keeping him for lifting the ball and hitting so many ground ball. If that is the case, sit him down. 

Now we hear how he is a team-first player. How Rick R. got on him for his defense and he really worked on it. Also, he has come into the season the last two years in much better shape and the results have been there. Maybe sitting him in cold weather will motivate him to work on hitting when it's cold. But what happened today, can't keep happening. 

That won’t obviously happen. I wish they would hit him maybe 5th/6th until he heats up, but who do you move up? Yermin could be fun.

[caulfield12]

Yeah, Abreu swung right under a center cut, belt high 92 MPH fastball in his last at-bat, that's definitely a pitch he usually drives, or, at the very least, fouls off.

Just a bit out of sorts.  Then something clicks and he goes on a tear.

But you don't sit the reigning AL MVP unless he's facing someone like Cole, Bauer or Buehler from the RH side and his bat is looking slow/er.

[chitownsportsfan]

3 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Yeah, Abreu swung right under a center cut, belt high 92 MPH fastball in his last at-bat, that's definitely a pitch he usually drives, or, at the very least, fouls off.

Just a bit out of sorts.  Then something clicks and he goes on a tear.

But you don't sit the reigning AL MVP unless he's facing someone like Cole, Bauer or Buehler from the RH side and his bat is looking slow/er.

Hot take: he's the same hitter he's always been.

[caulfield12]

3 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Hot take: he's the same hitter he's always been.

Well, by definition, almost every hitter is streaky.

He's in the mid 600's or whatever for OPS, he's under-performing but not killing the team or anything.  And he has a pretty consistent pattern there, as well, in terms of early season struggles.

In the same way his bat is a little bit slow in the cold, most of our pitchers will hopefully gain back another 2-3 MPH on their fastballs as we move into May.

[Rounding_Third]

2 hours ago, vilehoopster said:

Not an Abreu hater. In fact, a few years ago when everyone wanted to trade him (to Boston, if I remember correctly) or never resign him, I'm the one that came on here and talked about how he was the only Sox in the top 100 players in baseball (we now have nine, amazing)  how he was a repeat all-star and again how he was the White Sox best player. And everyone started complaining about his defense and low way. So any way, just making it clear that I'm an Abreu fan, a big one. But . . . . . . 

If he can't hit in cold weather, and he admits it, and Steve Stone keeps tell us how he'll heat up when the weather does, but if he can't hit now. Sit him down. Sit him out when it's cold. He was Boston's best player today hitting double play ball after double play ball. The White Sox should have had 2 or 3 more runs but Abreu's double plays kills us. Steve even said the something about the cold keeping him for lifting the ball and hitting so many ground ball. If that is the case, sit him down. 

Now we hear how he is a team-first player. How Rick R. got on him for his defense and he really worked on it. Also, he has come into the season the last two years in much better shape and the results have been there. Maybe sitting him in cold weather will motivate him to work on hitting when it's cold. But what happened today, can't keep happening. 

Send him to alt site then Charlotte until he he learns to hit MLB pitching dammit!

Seriously, wondering if his earlier bout with Covid is still affecting him.  He had a bad ST in warm AZ, too.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Rounding_Third

[joejoedairy]

4 hours ago, KrankinSox said:

The 5 best records are the Mariners, Angels, Royals, Indians, and Red Sox.

Those also happen to be the 5 teams the Sox have played. We've played some hot teams and are .500 with a plus 18 run differential. And we haven't even started clicking yet.

Yeah, its early so records don't mean much. But the teams the Sox have played are 37-21 in games not against the Sox.

[bmags]

9 hours ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Hot take: he's the same hitter he's always been.

how late into the season last year was the campaign to move abreu out of the 3 spot? had to be just about now when he started to turn things around, and presumably in 85 degree vs 50 degree weather.

[joejoesox]

13 hours ago, 35thstreetswarm said:

Indeed—I thought we went straight to CLE.  Well, let’s ride our ace to 3/4!

Rodon and Kopech already pitched 😘