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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 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.

This right here. I have no idea what he will bring, and what role they put him in, but not replicating the mistakes of the past for a cheap arm is the most important part. It puts another guy into the mix for a team that sorely needs good innings, well, everywhere. At the very least, he should help a pen that really, really needs it.

He gives up a good amount of hard hit ground balls, so the high BABIP makes sense. He also has 2nd percentile extension, which is kind of funny.

I'd rather they waste $4.5 million than trade for guys like Booser with a 19 year old prospect.

And his HR/9 rate didn't really change, so when he was in the zone, he was still getting hit for as hard of contact. Could he figure it out? Sure, he's got some raw stuff, but figuring out the balance here is what keeps a lot of guys from becoming solid major league starters.

He added a cutter and ramped up the use of his sinker at the expense of his 4 seamer.

During the best stretch of his year, he had 1 plus pitch and 4 negative pitches. You're getting way too caught up in a k/9 rate that was heavily influenced by 10k's vs a terrible Nats offense down the stretch where his fastball played way up (throwing 96.5!). Small samples are almost never worth looking at as a baseline for future performance. The other guys on your list are ACTUAL starters too. Who went through lineups multiple times and pitched into the 5th inning.

1.7 fWAR last year in 92 innings, which is a lot for a reliever. I think he was a multi inning opener for Boston. BABIP was .344 and he still put up good numbers, so this wasn't all just a lucky year. Definitely came up out of nowhere last year, but it's a great signing for $4.5 million.

Hate this move, but influenced by how the Sox bombed him last year. Old guy whose stuff has ticked way down. Might work out, but if it doesn’t, gonna be unwatchable and uncuttable.

So he’ll be competing for a rotation spot or was brought on to be the #5 starter?

I think most of his starts are of the “opener” variety. Like him better in pen than rotation.

Wow, love this move. He’s been pretty mediocre for the past few years, but made significant changes to his repertoire last season and the results show. This really strengthens the left-side of the bullpen for us. Still think we should add a legit high leverage guy to the mix.

wrong thread

Its actually a little lower than 15% since this only went through 2023 so you then include 2023 100 Loss Teams: White Sox, Royals, A's, Rockies 2024 100 Loss Teams: White Sox, Marlins, Rockies 2025 100 Loss Teams: White Sox, Rockies Out of those 9 instances, only the Royals (Over .500 in 2024) accomplished it and that was with going 12-1 against the hapless White Sox. So its probably anywhere from 10-15% chance it happens, which obviously is not great.

Chicago White Sox Top 37 Prospects | FanGraphs Baseball Rk Name Age Highest Level Position ETA FV 1 Caleb Bonemer 20.2 A+ 3B 2029 50 2 Noah Schultz 22.4 AAA SP 2026 50 3 Hagen Smith 22.3 AA SP 2027 50 4 Christian Oppor 21.4 A+ SP 2027 50 5 Braden Montgomery 22.7 AA RF 2027 50 6 Tanner McDougal 22.7 AA SP 2026 50 7 Billy Carlson 19.4 R SS 2030 45+ 8 Jedixson Paez 21.9 A+ SP 2026 45 9 Jaden Fauske 19.1 R LF 2030 40+ 10 Sam Antonacci 22.9 AA 2B 2026 40+

I follow all arms throughout the league throughout the year. Watching starts doesn't afford me much more insight than following the way I do. I do not have Burke projected to be a viable MLB starter. I get you're in optimistic mode and amped up but it doesn't change that. You like Burke. I did at one point too. Now I've gathered more data on him and he's much less intriguing and is a likely nothing burger.

I think the K rate improvement is great, but it's just one piece. SSK25 added context on his control issues keeping his xERA about the same and control was the reason I said bullpen for Burke. Strikeouts + elite extension + high walks + an xERA of 5 = probably a reliever. Does he have a chance to keep that K rate, lower the walk rate, and become a solid starter? Probably. I sure hope you're right. Right now it doesn't look like it's going to happen though.