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Maybe no one should have been freaking out about less than a month's worth of DSL games fresh off signing a new contract. Really, no one should give a shit about DSL games in general, but certainly not in this context.

A couple more thoughts. I've lived in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Houston markets, and I cannot ever remember a franchise that has gone after their own fans nearly as often as this one. AJ Hinch gets mad when another team throws at his players, our manager swears when people dare question him. I think this tells us a lot about how these guys really are indoors - they really are surrounded by yes men. They go around all day with no one willing to step out of line, to propose anything new, or even to suggest that doing things differently might produce different results. They are so used to it that the only way any criticism leaks through - in the occasional press availability - they blow up at them over and over. Williams, Stone, Renteria, and I'm sure Cooper more than once although we've stopped paying attention to those, and that's all just this season. Rick Renteria has a .423 career winning mark, he is 258-352 as a big league manager. But he's absolutely angry at the concept that he might ever incorporate anything new into his managing style. His GM doesn't push him on that, he doesn't work with him on that, he's just in charge and he's absolutely earned it? That's absolutely not how it works in Houston. If management has something they want to try, they work with Hinch on it, and if Hinch has a problem with it, things stay behind closed doors. When people question AJ Hinch, he explains his thinking, admits sometimes things go wrong, and here's what we'll do about it if needed. It's the same setup as the rest of the franchise - how dare you question us, we are owed your allegiance and your money. Everyone around us has told us we're doing a great job, just you angry folks in the press.

By the collective hive mind doomsayers that love to scream into the void at the slightest sign of adversity.

Abreu will cost 5% of what Moncada will in a few years, that's why JR is happy to say this

He's averaging 11.5 k/s per 9 and has a FIP and ERA of 3.2 in 2019 MLB baseball. After today Giolito should/will be top 5 (6) in pitcher WAR. I'm not sure what is needed to be an ace if that's not one. This isn't even peak giolito either. He's in his first season of MLB success. Edit: and he will have done it in less innings than everyone above him not named Scherzer. Parkman, you should be gloating but now you're ridiculing the guy when he's top 5 in WAR. Weird.

Snell got 5/$50M early this year with the same amount of control and coming off a Cy Young winning season. Severino & Nola got 4/$40 & 4/$45M respectively plus an option year (I believe both were Super 2 guys). Any deal in that range should be a no-brainer for us as long as we buy out at least one free agent year.

Bless u El Rockin. You do realize when I say you are the best Sox fan ever I mean it, right? At least best on a message board ever. You are logical and loyal both IMO.

Guys, calm down. It’s probably just a death threat.

He's in the top ten on fangraphs and bbref before this game even gets logged. You have pretty stringent definitions of ace.

Hey guys! Still think he’s a fluke, a #4, or whatever other hot takes you had?

I remember watching Anderon in his rookie year thinking he was gonna be as good as he looks now. Then he looked average to below average the next couple of years before finally finding it.

"my bad"....lol...fuck him. Twins get that call all day. that guy sucks behind the plate.

I can't stand the guy. Someone test him for PEDs ASAP.

With virtually no protection.

Just want to point out that since August 5th Abreu is now hitting (including 2 singles today in 2 at bats) .381/.437/.698/1.135 in his last 71 plate appearances.

I don't like Rick Hahn but he has been fantastic at this.

If it's only two years that's manageable and I could get behind it (I'd personally prefer 1 yr + 1 option)...Anything beyond that wouldn't be ideal.

Not when it’s such a small sample and you’ve been away from live pitching for an extended period of time.

Great posts on Abreu BuehrleWood.

Cordell was sent down. Safe to assume Moncada will be back tomorrow.

I've long ago learned not to argue what an "ace" is and isn't on a baseball board. Some of the most pedantic dead end conversations anywhere around. I happen to believe there are only about 3-6 aces at any given time in MLB. For me that's what it is, and it's relative. He's a helluva pitcher and a great story and a very positive development.

95% of the takes on this thread are that he is a strong #2 with some inconsistency because he is still young. Yet every bad Gio game we get "HAHAHA I CAN"T BELIEVE YOU IDIOTS THOUGHT HE WAS A HALL OF FAMER LOOOOL" and every good Gio game we get "HAHAHA I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU IDIOTS THOUGHT HE WAS A SHITTY 5 AT BEST" Is anyone even reading the thread? Who are ya'll even arguing with?

Lowered his FIP to 3.2 after today's start and that will push him to around 4.5 fWAR. He can still have a 5 fWAR season, which while not quite an "ace" is certainly "really good 2nd starter every team would love" territory.

That series was an ass kicking sandwich. The meat in the middle was crap. But the bread was very nice.

Sombrero for Goins. Thank god Moncada is back tomorrow.

If its called "Park Life", I have same book. Lots of great pics of fans at the games. I will give credit to the Chairman and Einhorn there, they really did spruce it up when they took over.

There is no reason to believe the Sox would sign Abreu for only one year. 3-5 years is my hope

So Abreu is retiring after next year?

1-2-3

As soxace will support me with, there’s no reason Engel didn’t steal 2nd in top of the 6th.

Cool. I hope this is true.

I like Abreu, but Moncada is the type of player that you say this about, not Abreu.

If he think's he can get more money he's going to opt out. How the nationals play has nothing to do with it.

They're really going to keep Moncada in that 4th spot when he comes back huh? This org is hard to root for

Maybe the rust is finally starting to shake off for Yogurt here...

Anyone who even utters “you have to have a balance” is so far behind, it may not even be the same game anymore. Successful franchises like the Dodgers and Yankees got all of this out of their system ten years ago. There is no “old school vs. new school” debate inside baseball anymore. All reliable info is good info and it all has to be used to make good decisions, period. Well-run organizations don’t have time for this — they get everyone on the same page, and if you can’t hang, you gotta go. The Yankees and Astros are revolutionizing the relationship between talent acquisition and player development, identifying and targeting players they know they can improve, evaluating and using feedback in real-time to ensure consistent progress up the chain. They understand their own strengths so well, they are poaching other teams’ underperforming talents and fixing them in a matter of weeks. The White Sox are still trying to get their manager to figure out what order to put the players in.

One idiot said that about Drake and he was beaten up in the clubhouse by his own teammate over it.

"Drake LaRoche is our real team leader!" and "I don't think you'll be wearing those jerseys now" are at least worthy entries on the same list.

Never going to happen. They’ve got a pitching coach who refuses to adopt any semblance of modern pitching thought, and had an announcer that ranted about some stupid ass TWTW and they seemed to love him. I can’t believe this never came up, but I’m convinced the whole Manny friends and family plan had it’s roots in signing-Thome-will-get-us-Konerko-back. I’m fully convinced they thought “hey, it worked before”. This organization has demonstrated no capacity for forward thinking.

Definitely this. Every time I start to think maybe I’m just being too critical someone does/says something that reminds me how far they are from being an elite organization. I swear they’re trying to piss me off.

There is no way this team will succeed with this type of thinking. Shit rolls downhill so if he feels comfortable saying this to the media there is most likely somebody above him that agrees. You can't manage and run clubs like the early to mid 2000's anymore.

How is Castillo still on the team? He is so unbelievably bad. How freaking hard is it to call up Mercedes and Collins and get rid of Skole and Castillo?

Anyone (Cordell, Engel) would be a better option than Jay right now. The season is over and Jay will not be back. Why waste at bats on him?

I think you might be getting one former White Sox owner confused with a current White Sox owner in terms of who almost “moved the team to St. Pete”. Veeck helped save the Sox from moving to Seattle. Reinsdorf threatened to move the team to St. Pete if the state didn’t meet his demand to make him a future billionaire by building him a stadium entirely funded off the backs of taxpayers, while also giving him a 40 year lease with annual guaranteed taxpayer-provided subsidies. Meanwhile, speaking of those subsidies and all of the revenues Reinsdorf has received from the new ballpark, if you thought Veeck was a “terrible owner”, who operated WITHOUT those taxpayer, built-in advantages, what in the world can you possibly think of Reinsdorf, particularly when you think of the franchise’s record since the park opened in 1991.

If the Sox were an NBA team, they would play through the slow, methodical center and shoot 20 footers the whole game.

"Analytics would say to bat Tim Anderson higher up in the order in Yonder Alonso lower, but fat guys DH and DHs are #4 hitters. My gut says so."

You know...both our GM and manager say that this criticizing talk doesn't effect them but it sure seems it does now. Good grief I've never seen such thin skinned professionals in this sport in a while.

The length of this Moncada rehab assignment seems excessive, and with a day game tomorrow, it's looking like a Thursday return. He should bring Collins, Madrigal, and Robert with him.

*suspended