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I've been doing it. Through 21 games we're at -9.91 runs from umpiring. I decided to do this because I've followed these accounts for years and have felt like the Sox frequently are at a disadvantage, but wanted to quantify it so that it didn't seem like whining. I think the 2018 season is what pushed me to wanting robo umps. Watching all those called strike 3s on Moncada conditioned me to just assume that any pitch within 5 inches of the plate would go against us, and it's sad how often that's actually the case

He took a home run cut yesterday. That's the evolution, when he gets into favorable counts where he feels good about what's coming, he should feel okay to take a big cut. Nick is playing fantastic ball and I'm glad when he comes up to the plate. Fine if the dude keeps flipping off the haters (me) for his whole career.

Great article from Fegan on Kopech today. Pulled some info on what he did last year during his opt-out. Definitely believe his worries about building his arm back up if he didnt start pitching on a mound until September.

I think there is a strong argument that relative to his time periods offense he is the greatest hitter of all time.

That's a straw man argument. Lmao people will not be asking for robot batters and fielders to replace humans (although...that would be pretty cool to see as a project of sorts). Baseball is so behind the times when compared to other sports in terms of technological advancements on the field (although, they are starting to get better). People don't want replay for instant gratification, that has nothing to do with it (some of these replays do take longer than they should...but that's one of the "kinks" that should be worked out over time). It's about getting the call RIGHT. Why is this even an argument? Why do people defend making wrong calls?

If there was open and transparent effort to clean it up, there wouldn't be as many calls for the robot umps. The umps make it so hard to back them

The human game has an element that cannot clean itself up because its protected by an umpires union. If this was just a matter of the occasional slight that would be fine. But we are seeing new levels of incompetence protected by an entity that cares only for the umpires. Hell Angel Hernandez sued because he felt he was being slighted because he wasn't leading a playoff umpire roster. Thats amazing. We are also at a point where velocity and movement mixed with framing might be too quick for the human eye. So flawed individuals with flawed skills that cannot be questioned are making unilateral decisions. Sounds like a recipe for failure.

Luke made 42 errors in his first 104 game season. Nellie hit below .200 in his first two partial seasons totaling 39 games. Hall of fame careers requires long and healthy years so really can't be predicted for anyone. I do think Madrigal has the tools to be a special player providing his health holds up.

Nice article from Fangraphs https://blogs.fangraphs.com/nick-madrigal-is-good-can-he-be-great/

Finally managed to sort a stream out and watch the game , never saw any last season . Team has changed a bit , happy Madrigal has made it , he's from my first draft as I haven't been following the game long , Kopech looked the real deal but best of all is watching Tim , fabulous competitor.

I am in favor of the automated strike zone. Getting the call right is the primary objective.

You’re all over the place, man.

100% agree. I dont want him starting unless it's a DH or spot starts like today. Let him give you 5IP a week out of the pen til July then put him in the rotation. I wouldnt be surprised with a Dodgers-like 10 day IL stint or two to control his innings tbh

Dammit, those big-spending Royals are going to swoop in and snatch another stud from the rest of us, aren’t they?

Can we get more excitement in here?? The game has been over for hours after the Sox just completed the sweep, and we have 4 comments. Collins looks like a catcher. "Slow, bad defender" Madrigal legged out a triple, turned a couple double plays, and looked sharp defensively. Abreu continues to drive in runs. Kopech threw a goddamn gem. No one has anything to complain about so everyone went quiet? That's a winning streak, folks! We've broken past that .500 barrier and there's no looking back. Let's go Sox!

Lions do not concern themselves with the play of sheep

It's so bad we have a new specialty called framing which is code for umpires are so dumb we can trick them into something being a strike based on the slight movement of the wrist. Slight of hand belongs in a club with a magician, not in a competitive game.

LOL if Yerminator is going to eat 4 of those burgers then he's going to have to take a pretty big dumpinator. Here's a prayer for the clubhouse that the bathroom fans are powerful enough for the task.

And it's ludicrous. Robo umps will not ruin the game as some have suggested. We don't watch the game for umpires, and the only time we talk about umps are when they fuck up. As Stone and Hawk always said, you know you have a good umpire when you don't have to talk about them. And another poster said, yeah but the umpires suck for every team. Well shouldn't something be done about it then?? I'm glad they are testing it in the minors. Can't get here soon enough. I'm sure there will be kinks to work out, much like replay (which people said would also ruin the game), but it will be worth it.

Nope. The Royals will be a pain on good days, but over the course of 162 they suck.

I think the players work way too hard to have the outcome of a play, and sometimes even the game, be left in the hands of someone/something they have absolutely zero control over. It It doesn't just happen once a week, this is happening multiple times a game. I understand it when people say "that's the nature of the game; that's life; etc." But life also changes. We adjust things to make life better. We have the capabilities with technology to get the balls and strikes call right 100% of the time, and there is no reason it shouldn't be. If they still want a person behind the plate for more dramatic effect with the calls behind the plate, maybe equip the hp umpire with something that looks like VR goggles, which shows him the strikezone virtually (much like we have on our tv screens, but probably a lot more advanced), and they can make the call based on the result on the goggles. Something like that...

I don't know what to tell you. Apparently you're getting overly worked up a pretty vanilla statement. There are tiers across baseball ... some are murkier than others, and some positions deeper than others. If you were given your choice of a 3B for the Sox championship window how would you rank them? And what were you expectations of Moncada after the Sale trade and when he was a top prospect of MLB? But go ahead and get upset over a pretty simple statement on a message board. I'd have Bregman, Rendon, Jose Ramirez, as my top 3. My next 3 would be a combo Arenado, Devers, Machado. After that? I'd probably have the group of Chapman, Moncada, Bohm, McNeil, etc. Vladdy would slot somewhere in there depending on if there's belief he's a 3B. So that's what the hell I'm talking about. He's good. He's not even top tier at his position, let alone top tier of baseball which was many people's expectations coming over from the trade. And yes, Matt Chapman is a guy. A guy who will have 3-4 All-Star seasons , a nice career, but is not a superstar. Moncada will be the same. He may have a top 10 finish at MVP -- you know who else has done that ?Carlos Quentin. A guy. Sorry to upset you ... Moncada is just a guy. an above average role player that can have a few good seasons. He's not a perennial all-star, Abreu, face of the franchise guy. he's just a guy.

I understand the frustration with umpires, but I try not to think about it much. There are too many calls to analyze and if you dwell on them, it will drive you nuts. Safe to say, some calls will have an impact on the game. But that is the way it has been and will remain until something is else is done. Pitchers hang breaking pitches, fielders make errors, umps make bad balls. All are human.

Also it was August/Sept when Crochet was hitting 102. He had built up arm strength and the weather was hot...much easier to get lose and let it go.

Nobody is anointing anyone. The White Sox are as talented as any team that is not the LA Dodgers. The White Sox may end up 80-82 on the season because it is baseball and an injury or two can derail the whole thing. The team as it is built should win more games than it loses.

If you follow umps scorecard on Twitter you would see it's been almost every game. I haven't looked too close but it would be interesting to see if they have an overall scorecard of all umps

I think he is trying to dial it down a bit so he doesn't overthrow his arm

It's funny how you crucify the Sox for these type of losses but excuse them for the opponents. Always.

If the Sox didn't already have a guy with great speed who can hit for average and power, Madrigal would be a good guy for the leadoff spot, but that spot belongs to TA as long as he's with the Sox. I wouldn't mind Madrigal batting 2nd vs LHP but Eaton is doing great in that spot vs RHP right now. There's nothing wrong with having a really good hitter batting 9th. Helps get the lineup turned over more often.

Agreed. They need to be very smart about limiting his innings during the regular season. You need him available to start in the playoffs, or at minimum a multi inning reliever.

People who are saying positive things about Madrigal... how dare you.

I'm going to push back on this mostly because I think it actually sells Kopech short. The innings limit is definitely the main issue, but this is also a guy who hasn't thrown in a game in two years, a guy who only had 15 MLB innings coming into the year, and technically a guy coming back from surgery. Most of us knew he would be great by season's end, but what he is doing right now is a huge surprise. He didn't just come back from a 2 year layoff and pick it up right where he left off -- he came back better. That is incredible, and I hope it doesn't turn into a "we should have expected this all along" because that narrative belies just how much work and dedication Kopech must have put in over the last two years to achieve this.

It was a nice weekend to get some guys going. Collins is an MLB catcher, Vaughn can play LF on a daily basis, Yermin is a real thing, the rotation is best in the AL and Nick and Robert are progressing, The bullpen needs to figure their shit out but other than that this team seems to be settling in rather well. The Sox appear to have made the right off season moves dare I say including the manager.

I’m going to post in solidarity because I agree with you, and should be in here posting when I’m excited. This team is still stacked and now starting to play up to its potential. But there’s still so much room for growth. There are so many potential sources of momentum. So many compelling storylines. It’s a team to dream on. I’m likewise fascinated by those who seem so energized by the occasional failures — and capable of meeting them with such creatively venomous negativity and absurd worst-case projections — yet somehow unable to flip the script when the team turns in a positive effort. Oh well, guess it’s not all that unusual, and serves as its own little meta-narrative in what I hope will be the most memorable Sox season in a long time. Let’s not let up for the tiggers and roll to a nice win streak!

Don't look now, but the stupid, slow, weak dude is stringing together extra base hits, smart base running, and solid defense.

The Pirates are terrible. They're every bit as bad as people think. Not sure what your second point means. Sox haven't played the Tigers once this year.

This little fucker is balling out. Kudos to him. His defense is better and his bat right now is electric, even the last out was another bullet. Also, an awesome safety squeeze executed to perfection.

Madrigal now sporting a wRC+ of 124 with a fairly reasonable .313 BABIP.

Look at his splits, 7 days, 14 days, they are both solid. The 28 day splits include his torrid start, so he's not hitting that. But over the 7 and 14 days, he's .333 BA and over .500 slugging. Who knows how he'll end up, but I think the more people doubt him, the more determined he'll be to succeed. Plus, it's not just his bat that helps the team. His energy is ultra positive. Helps replace some of what the Sox lost in the dugout when Eloy went down.

Does Madrigal's skill set at the plate fit well in within the WSox line-up? On another team with less power up and down the line-up, your answer might be different. Using Benetti's volleyball analogy, someone has to set up the ball so others can spike it. Watching Madrigal's at bats has been almost as enjoyable as watching Mercedes. He sees the ball and can put a good swing on it when he wants.

Their pitching is overachieving by quite a bit. Duffy has a ERA under 0.50, but his Baseball Savant page is half blue. His xERA is almost 4. He's throwing harder than before, but he always his issues staying healthy. I think at the end of the season Brady Singer is gonna be their best pitcher. Nothing about their roster quality jumps out at you. They may luck their way to above .500 record if everything goes their way, but I really doubt they can win 90+ games. Edit: after reading over what I wrote again, Danny Duffy reminds me a lot of Carlos Rodon. Oft-injured lefties who are throwing harder this year and aren't likely to sustain the massive success they've had early on.

Exactly what I said in my post 12 hrs. ago. It's also what I have been saying for months, just find the gaps and corners , get some doubles and triples and he will be fine. Last year with the weak shoulder for most of his games we didn't see that.

The Twins aren't dead but they need to go 83-59 to win 90 games. It's a brutal start.

Every single year people say that its never been this bad before. There is always going to be a human element to the game when you have umpires calling balls/strikes with their eyes. Its not a bad thing. Automated strike zone will destroy the game.

It wasn't even a safety squeeze because he didn't take off as soon as the bunt hit the ground, but delayed until the fielder tuned to first base. Good baserunning. Wears #1, reminds me of Lance Johnson in the 9 hole.

So I've never actually read this thread but I find it funny that I see it as the lead thread in the diamond club on the main page all the time and it's ALWAYS Caulfield as the last poster and it's just the least surprising thing ever.

He never said the models are a trillion times more accurate. He said over a large sample, the model will be more accurate than a scout 99.99999999999% of the time. EDIT: I'm not trying to argue the math. I'm trying to argue the context of the math.

*raises hand*

I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think the 2020s will be the best decade in franchise history.