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This is Soxtalk. Is there such a thing?

Always liked Newcomb. Lot of risk with injury, and lack of success in this capacity, but I think he'll have a nice little run here in his thirties as a useful reliever though. A lot of base runners, so he'll be pitching out of jams with some frequency, but like his sinker keeping the ball in the infield as a reliever will help limit damage.

As I already showed, his swinging strike rate did not spike with that time (excluding our one WASN game). Having a spike in k-rate without a spike in swinging strike rate doesn't have a lot of sustainability. I don't want to keep going back and forth on Burke. I've already likely wasted enough words on a guy who isn't worth this much of a review.

I was bummed to see Wolkow so low

From the looks of his velos over those starts, he is throwing much harder at that point. More K's, but also a lot more walks. His HR rate didn't change, meaning he was still getting hit about as hard.

Well, it reinforces that Longenhagen doesn’t see a superstar in the system. I suspect Bonemer might end up being very good. Lotta ceiling for Oppor as well.

He struck out 9 or more batters per 9 innings in nine of 10 starts. He struck out over 11 batters per nine in half of them. This is not one game radically changing the outcome here. Take that game out altogether and he drops from 1st overall to 9th in this period, so still very much elite. You continue to use facts disingenuously and hope people are too lazy to fact check you. I still want to know what caused his K rate to nearly double from his first 10 starts to his 10 starts. If it can’t be improvement or development, then what was it? And how often do random dudes luck into a 12+ K rate per 9 over any random 10 start sample? Show me all the outliers because I didn’t see a single one in the data set I referenced, but sounds like you feel this is commonplace and should be able to easily identify dozens of instances like this.

Love the Bonemer ranking. Credit to @Autumn Dreamin for this link:

Mildly surprised to see no one rated higher than a 50 FV. That kind of reinforces the idea that no one sees a superstar in the system.

Solid little move.

The "elite K rate" thing is smack in the middle of a lot of other noise. It didn't change his HR rate, and it about doubled his walk rate, leading to no actual change in his expected performance. I previously said, I think his peak is a #4 starter, but I do think he has some consistency work to do to get there.

Like this more than giving multiple years to Fairbanx.

Totally agree about Bonemer and Oppor’s placement. Intrigued by Bush’s placement. Surprised they have Sammy above Wolkow.

I’ll predict he goes to Mets, only because the Mets dumped $10M of McNeil’s contract and still need OF help.

There’s also a very high risk, high reward possible closer out there

A #3 starter who avg 3.2 IP per start. What are you talking about pal?? Sheesh

Again, we are talking about ceiling here…not median outcome. I’d maintain his mostly likely outcome is a solid #4 starter. That being said, he pitched like a #3 starter over his final 18 starts. He posted an elite K rate over his final 10. If he could improve his control while maintaining that K rate, then we’re talking about a legit TOR starter. Do I think that will happen? No I don’t, but the fact he was able to strikeout guys at such a rate implies a higher ceiling than people are letting on.

As for some fans it always relates to how the Cubs do. Rejoicing in another team's failures - yawn. Competitive should only mean making it to the post season regularly. The Brewers are competitive. Close but not playing in Oct. with expanded playoffs is mediocre. Our bar is always much lower.

Relative to other pitchers with his similar usage, he was the 81st ranked arm of 87. He stunk. Arguing otherwise is truly baffling. No one is saying he stinks relative to me and you. His swinging strike rate went from 10.5% to 11.8% the final few appearances. While an improvement, it was all obtained in the final start of the year vs the Nats (again) where he ran a 21.3% swinging strike percentage. If you removed that OUTLIER (which is what it is), his swinging strike percentage from July 12th on was..... 10.8%. Nothing about his stuff played up but for one appearance. If your swstrk% doesn't change, your k/9 change is just sequencing noise mostly.

If we don't get Fairbanks, Dominguez is still available. Taylor Rogers is also available, but he's pretty washed. The Cubs even left him off their NLDS roster.

His minor league numbers show impeccable control (meaning he threw a ton of strikes, and his stuff was good enough at that level to keep people off balance in the zone), but command doesn't truly get tested until you start getting smacked around in the zone. So far, his command in the big leagues has been bad.

Yes, which is why his FIP during that stretch was that of a #3 caliber SP and not that of an ace. That being said, I have never argued he performed like a TOR starter or will ever become one. My arguments have been consistent no matter how many times people try to “gotcha” me or move the goalposts: He doesn’t “stink” He pitched better as the season progressed He has a much higher ceiling than people are letting on as evident by his elite K rate in final 10 starts Which of those three points do you disagree with?

Another good signing. The 2026 White Sox season is looking to be a good one.

Is Getz competent? Because he is actually making moves a competing team like the Cubs should be making...

Don't want to get too much into the weeds on this, but his curve is good because of his angle of attack. There's a reason a lot of guys don't have good curves and good sliders, and it's because the angle you want to come through with the arm that creates the action is different for both pitches. Not just grip oriented. Burke would have to change his angle of attack, which isn't a guarantee to produce a + slider and isn't guaranteed for any pitcher. It would definitely impact the quality of his curve ball though.