All Activity

Listen to the Sox machine podcast again - you must have misheard. “Following the acquisition of Luis Castillo, Fegan highlighted that rather than chasing expensive external leverage relief, the White Sox view Smith and McDougal in Triple-A as internal bullpen solutions to bolster their relief corps.”

Not sure if this was already posted but it’s encouraging:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/articles/best-mlb-farm-systems-trade-234002603.html All the AL Central farm systems except KC stacked up at 7-10 have to be taking Roch into account despite not being listed Dodgers passed by Mariners for #1

Another poster shared similar sentiment from a Rockies forum post in this thread, calling Doyle “a dog”. Seems taylor made for Schrif cheese too… “O-DOYLE RULES!!!”

PIT post game guy apparently thinks he's just out of shape lol He does look somewhat thicker, though the yeti and St. Bernard comparisons seem a bit much...

I really think this is a prototypical Fuller / Getz guy. After his breakout year in 2024, he lowered his hands some and tried to hit for a higher average by sacrificing some launch angle. In his rehab stint he expressed his frustration with changing what had been working, likening it to being “on a hamster wheel”. Fuller will likely bring his hands back up ( like he did with Vargas ), work to improve his bat speed, and encourage him to do more focused damage in the zone with a launch angle that maximizes SLG for some AVG. If they platoon him with Peters I’m guessing he gets about 150 - 180 at bats and we will see something like .260 / .325 / .460. Somewhere in the 10 bombs range with 15 stolen bases and good glove defense. If Peters can’t break out of his slump and adjust to the league, we also brought in an insurance policy here. Best case scenario is we get him back on track and got a 3 - 4 WAR centerfielder for the next three years. When I first took a look at his numbers, I was confused and pissed… but the more I have learned about this kid - I completely get it and really think that this will be a move that a lot of people applaud with surprise.

Chicago White Sox: The White Sox are ahead of schedule, so it's understandable why they weren't more aggressive, but they didn't do much to improve the team. Castillo hasn't been that good with the Seattle Mariners and will cost $24 million next year. Brenton Doyle is a good defensive outfielder but can't hit. Huascar Brazoban might help the bullpen, but there were more impactful relievers who were traded. Joey Bart might help only because Chicago's catching situation has been so bad (last in the majors in the offense.) espn.com What's most frustrating is giving up two Top 15 prospects when CLE didn't give up anyone in their Top 20 and still had a more impactful deadline and also didn't add all that much in salary, either. Adell still costs less than Austin Hays. https://www.mlb.com/news/guardians-acquire-jo-adell-foster-griffin-nathaniel-lowe-before-trade-deadline&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjD--KOm4aWAxXHIUQIHWSmM08QFnoECAsQAw&usg=AOvVaw3tTmkofi9YH1Ph7pkxEaYL Some ratings had Jacob Cozart (Adell trade) at #18, but overall point still stands...top of the system was totally untouched. "Cozart, 23, ranks as the ⁠No. 18 prospect in the Guardians' organization, per MLB Pipeline. The 2024 second-round pick is ⁠hitting .239 with ‌10 homers and 44 RBIs ⁠in 79 games this season for ‌Double-A Akron."

Pretty crucial week ahead with the Guards playing the depleted Mets (and the Twins playing KC) while we finish off our last AL East series, but a series win vs. the Guards at home this weekend would do a lot of good regardless. Worth noting that getting through the two series against the Yanks and Rays (with a winning record even!) did notably drop the Sox remaining schedule strength. It's now the ~5th easiest in MLB (Cleveland still easiest, Twins ~9th). Getting through Boston should drop it further. Only games remaining vs. teams with more wins than them currently are the Crosstown and makeup game vs. ATL. At 7 over today, even playing ~.500 ball should have the Sox reasonably well positioned as long as they hold their own in the remaining divisional matchups. Guards/Twins would have to get closer to .580-.600 to get to 7+ over from where they are. Just don't help them out.

https://www.mlb.com/news/brenton-doyle-hoping-for-bounceback-2026-season?partnerID=mlbapp-iOS_article-share Some explanation in here for the 2025 down season. Apparently his wife suffered a Miscarriage in May of that year. He basically says in the article that he found it hard to focus on baseball due to that.

Watching some of this guy's 2024 highlights, he reminds me so much of Adam Engel.

Cantillo has a lower FIP/xERA, so I'd probably slot Griffin in behind him as marginally better than Bibee? Just think I'd rather them have 2 months of a 31yo rental than see whatever they would have turned Dion into. He's had a pretty unlucky high BABIP (.385) and low strand rate (62%), but his K/9 and expected FIP/ERA are impressive. Their new bats will probably have more impact, especially while they wait for JRam to get going again. They have 10 losses when allowing 2 or fewer runs, T-most in MLB with the Mets.

Volpe to AAA, Lombard up

I hope Doyle fucking mashed and flashes leather like no tomorrow just so that everyone upset will have to make a 180 on him. Will eat crow if I’m wrong on this one but I dig it. Just wish we would have got fucking Foster Griffin at the last minute. Really think he may end up being a major difference in the Central.

If that's the case they sold super low on him.

Big name. Big contract. Questionable results. (See Preller, AJ) Better hope they don't get Elias'ed.

The Castillo deal was very KW-esque

Kenny always at least made exciting deals at the deadline, you could count on it. Some of them turned out to be disasters but oh well.

Friend of mine is a huge Giants fan and he was pissed when San Fran gave up on Bart. He said that he was starting to figure it out in flashes. Maybe Bart will surprise us. He literally can not be worse than what we’ve had so far. 😆

At least they're "only" spending $1 million on Doyle for the remainder of the season.

Derek Hill just hit a Grand Slam to help the Phillies win. They could have Hill AND Adams and likely received more production at a lower cost than Doyle. Luis Castillo was clearly an "overeagerly jumping out in front of the market" overpay...hamstrung by JR wanting to offset salary by dumping Dominguez. They basically had to waste assets on Doyle because they didn't want to eat $2 million of Austin Hays' deal...AND didn't have Hill as a defensive replacement any longer, as Pereira also couldn't be trusted. Then also somehow lost Everson Pereira in this process...

Derek Hill of course hits a Grand Slam for the Phillies on the same day to win a game for them...

I actually kind of like the move for 2027 and beyond, but I don't like it for 2026. Doesn't offer enough as a hitter to PH late in games. That said, a Peters-Doyle-Montgomery outfield in 9th innings with a lead is pretty dynamite

as Tanner Bibee, Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo have been admirably durable but maddeningly inconsistent this season

"A 2027 qualifying offer for Griffin would be around $22-23 million, about four times the value of his current deal. If Griffin did not accept a qualifying offer from the Nationals, the Nats would receive a Draft pick should he sign with another club." (Doubt CLE exercises that option unless the FA/QO system completely changes.) That said, he's only costing them less than the Sox owe Austin Hays for the remainder of the season.