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I sure hope he leaves Chicago. My girlfriend is in love with that guy and he's 50x better looking than I am. And soon he'll have 50x more money. With a 50x cooler job. He is 50x the man I am. My ability to drink beer and scream at the TV during sporting events does not make up for that.

ChiSox buy Cishek by the sea shore ?

He's way better than people seem to think. Excels at getting weak contact. The only concern I have with him is the slight increase in his walk rate

Since we are relevant again, I think it would be nice to have a thread where we can keep track of things like, World Series odds, power rankings, and what the pundits/other fanbases, and twitter is saying about us. This type of news is tough to follow and discuss when spread around multiple threads. I'll start with ESPN having a nice article about what to expect in the 20's. Here are a few things to note for the Sox. 1. We are predicted to have the best season of the decade, winning 112 games in 2023. The Cubs are predicted to have the worst season. 2. We are a high riser with the Padres, while the Indians and Cubs are fallers. 3. This is expected to be our best decade ever. 4. We will take over the city once more. 5. Luis Robert will beat out Nick Madrigal for MVP, even with Magical batting .364. 6. Magical and Robert will be the best defensive players at their position this decade. 7. Our infield will be the best of this decade. 8. We will have the best offensive season of the decade in 2023. And my favorite 9. Michael Kopech will be the best pitcher in baseball for 2025 and 2026. Hopefully it will be with us.

Anyone else have a strange feeling that Castellanos falls into the White Sox lap at their price?

They now have 4 excellent candidates for the 8TH inning; Bummer, Herrera, Colome and Cichek. A lights out closer could still be worth while. However, it would have to be via a trade, as there aren't any available, in free agency. The other possibility is to try Bummer as the closer, in which case they probably need another lefty, as Fry is the only other southpaw bullpen arm and I have lost confidence in him, after last season.

Hopefully the cubs didn't break him with his 150 appearances in the past two years

He's been very good for the last 3-4 years.

Remember those times Chris sale went crazy because Detroit was stealing signs hmmmmm

You must be very young.

If you are a follower of the Statcast/Baseball Savant folks, then you know they've been teasing the release of their infield defense metrics for months now. They are very close to public release, I believe it will be this week, and they've even been tweeting out some tidbits to get people interested. Without divulging my methods, since I suspect it will render my methods no longer usable, I have gotten my hands on most of the data (note: I haven't hacked anybody, everything's on the up and up). I only have complete data for 2019 but have some info about Sox players in prior years. So who wants to hear about the Sox??? Just like the outfield defense, you have two basic metrics: Outs Above Average (OAA) and a percentage added. OAA is a counting stat, like RBI, and is therefore sensitive to playing time and number of chances. The percentage stat is more like batting average and lets you more easily compare players with different amounts of playing time. On outs above average, out of 218 qualified infielders... Moncada ranked #51 (+5 OAA) Yolmer #82 (+2 OAA) Tim #104 (-1 OAA) Abreu #142 (-3 OAA) On percentage added, out of 218 qualified infielders... Moncada ranked #51 (yes, exactly the same as OAA; 2% added) Yolmer #86 (1%) Tim #104 (0%) Abreu #142 (-1%) So almost exactly the same in their cases. The differences in rankings for OAA and success rate added are mostly at the very top and bottom. By position... Among 3B, Moncada ranked #9 out of 53 3B in OAA and #7 in percentage added. Among 2B, Yolmer ranked #19 out of 71 2B in OAA and #21 in percentage added. Among 1B, Abreu ranked #34 out of 40 1B in OAA and #26 in percentage added. Among SS, Tim ranked #29 out of 54 SS in OAA and #29 in percentage added. Quick Sox highlights: Tim didn't do as badly as we feared. I can add that in 2018, he ranked in the 87th percentile among SS, much better. He was in the 66th percentile in 2017. If he cleans up the errors, he's going to be a real asset like we all hoped. He has demonstrated a consistent strength moving to his left over the years per these numbers. Last year his problem was coming in on balls. Yoan's defense was rated above average by UZR and below average by DRS, so some of us weren't sure where he stood. This suggests he is indeed a strong defender at 3B. Great! Also of note: In 2018, his 2B defense ranked in the 1st percentile, meaning he was the worst or close to the worst infield defender in MLB by these metrics. Abreu isn't good, but he's not horrible either (at least when it comes to fielding balls; this doesn't factor in catching thrown balls AFAIK). Other metrics were overrating Yolmer it would appear, although he has been by no means bad. Statcast indicates he struggles going to his right. Other info for non-Sox players: Best OAA in MLB: Javier Baez (+19) Arenado (+17) Andrelton Simmons (+16) Nick Ahmed (+16) Trevor Story (+15) Matt Chapman (+14) Paul DeJong (+13) Matt Olson (+12; by far the highest 1B) Jose Iglesias (+12) Worst OAA in MLB: Vlad Guerrero Jr. (-16) Jorge Polanco (-16) Fernando Tatis Jr. (-13) Didi Gregorius (-13) Jonathan Villar (-12) Tim Beckham (-9) Kevin Newman (-8) Gleyber Torres (-7) Best % added: Isiah Kiner-Falefa (8%) Tony Kemp (7%) Cory Spangenberg (6%) Andrelton Simmons (6%) Jeff McNeil (5%) Marwin Gonzalez (5%) Matt Olson (5%), Javier Baez (5%) Worst % added: Chad Pinder (-11%) Vlad Jr. (-8%) Luke Voit (-7%) Didi Gregorius (-6%) Fernando Tatis Jr. (-5%) Tim Beckham (-5%) Ryon Healy (-5%) Also, Marcus Semien was well below average, though not horrible, this year and was no different than the past two years, in contrast to the story told by UZR/DRS.

Abreu was 9, as was McCann. Still annoyed Giolito was snubbed from even the honorable mentions, but as was said, he’s really not much of an analyst. What do you all predict for Moncada tomorrow?

"A source indicates this is likely the White Sox’s last major move of an offseason"

one thing that sucks is next years free agent market for relievers is garbage, sox need their young bullpen prospects to show up this year.

Bullpen and Rotation aren't exactly strengths but there isn't anyone that I want to launch into the Sun before the season even starts for the first time in what feels like forever.

How did fake Steve Cishek miss this???

He was definitely their safety blanket, as he wore down last year. I love his fit in our pen.

This also allows us to hold onto McCann/Collins unless given a good deal. We now don't NEED to trade for a RP.

I’m pretty sure oldsox’s comment is more of an indictment of Eloy and Mazara’s defense than Robert’s speed. His point is that no super stud center fielder can make up for the massive defensive deficiencies of Eloy and Mazara. Mazara isn’t very good and Eloy is a DH.

I like Jason and Stoney. Can we get replacements on the radio?

The contract they are already out of? Probably.

Hawk & Wimpy in their prime were the best!

They are a good pair - a great pair! But my favorite pair is Hawk and Wimpy. Those late 80's and 90's broadcasts were great. Alot of good memories and good whitesox teams then. I really do believe the sox would have went to the WS in 94 had it not been for the strike. I remember Hawk finding out live on air of his very good friend Don Drysdale passing away and Wimpy having to take over for an inning or 2. But I really do enjoy the Steve and Jason pairing. Better than the Steve and Hawk pairing and much better than the Hawk and Darren pairing.

Trading 6 years of collins when mccann is a FA next year is a tatis tier move. a 2 fWAR starting catcher should yield a RP better than the scraps that were available this offseason. (see Tampa)

For that price, he’s worth it. However, he simply walks too many guys.

Why would anyone? He literally screwed the Colts over the season before.

Passan tweeting interesting stuff: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28439945/sources-mlb-decision-discipline-astros

Forgive me since I'm jumping into the thread without reading what people have written thus far. Here's my take: Overall I'd say what, 60? 70%? of bullpen success is pretty finicky. You have your top of the line guys, and they are probably worth the money, but then you have a whole bunch of other guys who may have a year or two years of great success only to go through some downs. Edwin Diaz, Treinen, etc. are just names that pop up. Further to that, the bullpen, to me, is one of the last pieces of the puzzle to acquire to put your team over the top. It doesn't mean you shouldn't have a serviceable pen, but more or less, it's to say you don't go out and get a Chapman, Hader, Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman type of guy unless you are in a true championship window (which i believe will start next year, or more likely 2022). For that reason i'm out on Hader. Now in regards to the rest of the pen guys this offseason, I do think that Hahn missed the boat on a few ... last year we were throwing $9mm at Herrera, and some of these guys are just as serviceable (maybe with less upside) and are going for less. So to me, I think we could have signed some of these guys. However, that being said, you look at a guy like Drew Pomeranz or Andrew Miller, or a whole bunch of other relievers and you see they really were just failed starters. Uberly talented pitchers, but that just didn't have that extra pitch to get through the order a few more times. To me, I think we have those guys internally who can really flourish. Reynaldo Lopez comes mind. We still have Burdi ... I hold out hope there. Basically, I'm pretty against Hader. I'm pretty against going out and signing a big name guy in the future, and would rather go the internal route, while balancing in some high upside FA and seeing if it clicks.

Fangraphs has his run grade at a 60, Pipeline at a 65, and BA at 70. That's pretty dang fast if you ask me.

Hawk and DJ in their last year was the absolute best. It took them forever to hit their stride but once DJ kind of accepted Hawk was the voice of the booth they became amazing...just in time for DJ to be relegated to radio. Now Farmer and DJ are the worst pairing of all time.

Welcome back home Steve. Your well loved .

Yep. Hawk and Wimpy are my favorites of all-time as well.

Sure, the last couple of months....but through the first half of the season, he and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., were struggling mightily, compared to, let's say, Peter Alonso and Tatis.

Kimbrel is going to continue declining. He's a 2 pitch pitcher whose fastball got absolutely clobbered last year despite only losing 1 MPH on it. It could be that last year was an anamoly and that he can bounce back. But he got barreled up 20% of the time and gave up 92 MPH EV. He deserved to get crushed last year, it wasn't bad luck. Most of the damage came on fastballs, which is even more concerning. If he continues to lose more velocity it'll be hard for him to live up to that contract of his. Even if he corrects whatever he was doing wrong last year.

Statistically, the only difference between last year and a normal Kimbrel year was a comically high HR rate. Still striking a ton of dudes out, and his walk rate has been that high in years where he finished with ERAs in the 2's. Cubs might give him up to get out of his salary, but they aren't trading him for worse pitchers just as a change of scenery.

His blank check approach to team building only works for so long. And now that there are caps for the draft & international pools his flow of young talent has slowed. Throwing gobs of money at everything seems to have caught up with him this time.

I’d rather trade McCann than Collins to be honest.

Sox wrap up another outstanding move. What an incredible deal. Steve gives up two years of arbitration. Manny Bunuelos is next.

There's no way they are, that deal is a fantasy and to be against it is so crazy.

man people are in. sane. Anyone that would be against that deal should find a new sport where people just count pennies.

Idk, I imagine dealing with someone you can't stand during BP or whatever puts a damper on your day, and when your expected to perform at almost inhuman levels, that could be a problem.

You make about as much sense talking baseball as my 2 month old nephew. Note: my nephew doesn't talk nor know what a baseball is.... Kinda like you,

Yet you posted three times in this thread. ?

Ryan Cordell is emblematic of White Sox baseball since 2013. He represents everything we struggled to watch as baseball fans. Yes, its important.

Whether their logic is ridiculous or not, unfortunately, our team has given them every reason to think this way over the past 15 years.