Dominikk85

I wonder what is the issue with vaughn? At age 26 he still could easily have a breakout but a 100 wrc+ and -1 career war after 1700 career plate appearances is a big disappointment considering his draft prospect status. When he was drafted he was considered one of the best college performers of all time. His college career he hit 376/497/691 with 16% walks and 10% strikeouts and 50 Homers in about 700 PAs (a full mlb season). That profile was considered flawless, he walked, didn't whiff and hit for power. Then came minors time and he was pretty solid, his minors career he hit 278/386/472 with 8 Homers over about 250 PAs (like a low 20s homer pace). Power output was more ok than great at a 194 ISO but it was a small sample. Then he got called up pretty early. First year wasn't great but whatever it was his first year and he wasn't terrible and second year he improved to a 113 wrc+ and people thought he might be ready for a breakout but then came another ok but mediocre year I wouldn't read too much into his early struggles this year but the total body of work has been underwhelming. Strikeout rate is fine but he doesn't walk much considering his pedigree and hits too many ground balls to tap into his decent raw power. I don't think he is terrible but getting 260 with a 320 obp and 20 Homers is not what you hoped for when he was drafted. Is this a development failure? Should he have gotten more minors time? Or was he taught a wrong approach (contact oriented instead of "elevate and celebrate")? Or was this just a case of "don't draft a 1b this early because if he only is a 105 wrc+ guy he isn't all that valuable"?

Don't think he suddenly is a really good player at age 30 but still interesting he had those Homers early. Did he do driveline or something like that? Or was the sox approach of telling guys to slap the ball the other way hold him back? Could of course also be a lucky streak where he faced a favorable combination of parks and wind.

I like the deal. Doubt deloach can become anything but if berroa improves his command only a little he could become a good reliever. Some extra bonus money is also great, maybe that means they can overslot a solid HS prospect.

Frank Thomas was an extreme fly ball hitter. It's interesting that some power hitters are later talking about contact hitting and bunting like they never tried to hit Homers. Arod is a prime example too, he hit 700 bombs and had like 5 bunts in his career but yet he Talks about bunting and slapping the other way on air. A too pull happy approach can be bad but the sox where third lowest in fly ball pull rate last season...

I would have said that the sox probably have automated the Twitter posting using a web scraping tool to automatically add some stats and not check them but I doubt the sox IT R&D is able to do that, they are probably still getting faxes from Jerry:).

I meant prospect talent, not mlb ready talent. Trade everyone with less than 3 years of control left and get a high draft pick.

Fangraphs Depth charts currently has the sox at 67 wins and 95 losses only ahead of the rockies and behind the Nats and As. It would actually think the should go all in and aim for 100 plus. Try to get as much talent as possible

I think Atlanta mostly wanted to make roster space with that trade. Atlanta gets several roster spots and a reliever and the sox can hope for soroka bouncing back and maybe shuster and shewmake becoming decent depth options for utility infielder/6th starter.

I think that was a great trade for both sides. Lynn collapsed this year but he was good the first year and solid the second year, can't expect much more from a 35 yo. Dunning isn't really great but a nice depth guy for the rangers who really need any pitching depth they can get.

Especially since abreu doesn't have the batspeed anymore to turn around 95+. Really all he can do at this point is shooting the fastball the other way or turning on a hanging breaking ball. I would throw him fastballs at the inner half all day (unless I threw less than 91 or so). I feel Texas got a little lucky in both games and escaped some jams. The rangers offense apart from that one first inning hasn't been all that good but Houston failed to capitalize on opportunities. I wouldn't write Houston off at all, the longer the series goes the more the rangers lack of pitching will show up. On the other hand of course that Texas offense is capable of putting on double digit runs if they break out and if it happens in one of the next 2 games Houston will be im trouble. At this point the odds are probably like 65-35 in favor of Texas but there is a chance for the astros. The other series I feel is over, I wouldn't give Arizona more than like a 5-10% chance to turn this around. Really Philly is better at everything except for defense and maybe baserunning, Philly has better hitting, better SP and better RP.

I think a big issue has been command of the pitching. White Sox starters are 5th in the AL in stuff+ but only 12th in location+ (stat created by eno Sarris). White Sox pitchers also lead the majors in pitches thrown either in the heart of the zone or way outside the zone (statcast attack zones "heart" and "waste". Stuff is good, "just throw strikes and pitch to contact" doesn't work anymore, especially with the shift ban (see cardinals) but I think the sox starters push it a bit too far regarding bad command.

I don't think getz is bad and he does know baseball but I'm sceptical that he has the power to really bring a lot of change. Change is not easy to create from people who are promoted from within because they have relationships with the people in the org and change sometimes does hurt. That's why companies who want big change bring in people from outside, it's not that they don't have smart people from within but a person from the outside often has a different perspective and is not so involved in the little politics and cliques within a company so they can bring change easier. BTW I'm not totally ruling out Getz can bring change, there have been long tenured people kinda breaking out when "unleashed" and surprise everyone with big change when everyone thought they would just continue but that does not happen super often.

Do you think that this was what got Williams and Hahn fired? Obviously is was a bad season but reinsdorf had endured bad seasons before without firing people? I wonder if that leak which kinda embarrassed the organisation by portraying it as a "no culture, everyone does what he wants" org was the final straw that lead to the firing. JR might be the type of guy who would have gladly helped covering that up and sweeping it under the rug acting like nothing happened but when it came out it really embarrassed his org which might be more important to Jerry than actually having a functional org.

They could hire a new manager. Maybe something in between a rookie and a geriatric is available:)

I think it is good that it came out. Doesn't help for this season of course but the season is lost anyway and this means that the sox leadership will be forced to do something about it instead of ignoring it. Maybe it means they can have a fresh start next year with less anarchy in the clubhouse.