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I have no idea what you just said but maybe it's funny.

Huh? Everyone knows that. It's the rule for this year. You gotta be up by September 15th. That's not Vaughn, that's everyone. This is not insider knowledge. It's like tweeting "I have been informed that if kids want to dress up and get free candy, they must go around their neighborhood on October 31st."

Painfully obvious getting Sox to next level does not include RR

I guess it just wasn't meant to be lol. /Thread

Having Singer would mean no Madrigal... pass.

I wouldnt. Especially not with bauer available. Bauer is a perfect signing for this team, especially if hes serious about not wanting a long term deal. Sox then dont need to compete with the mega $250mil+ deals and can pay him $30 mil next year (if they can get him on a 1 yr+option deal even better). He eats up payroll before our younger guys get onto the backends of their extensions when their salary goes up. He holds down the rotation for a year or two when we have payroll flexibility and gives the next crop of arms (crochet, kelley, thompson, and dalquist) time to develop.

Wow. What a different take then during the draft. Everyone was freaking out that KW was going to be an idiot and over rule everyone and take him. Along with the relief when he didn't

Tim was the first big sign that the Sox were figuring out the drafting and development of position players. He is a victory for this organization from top to bottom.

To be honest, if you told me before the game that the Kansas City 9th would consist of.... ground out, single, walk, another walk to load the bases, K and a ground out to end the game...I would have said "Good, Colome got another save!!"

This is crazy. I can't believe Contreras is where he is. He frames like an 8th grader. He violently pulled every pitch to the middle of the zone. I can't wait for robo umps just to kill all this stupid framing talk.

Grandal has supposedly been not so good but his current wRC + and OPS+ are higher than James McCann’s 2019 numbers.

Samson says Reinsdorf said always finish in second Jesus fucking christ knock it off with these conspiracy theories. The guy forked over like 150M in new players this offseason + about 140M in extensions this past offseason. Why is this being brought up right now in THIS thread? Because Renteria is a "cheap" manager? Get the fuck out of here. Because at the present moment the team is 7 games above .500 and a W out of first place? You really enjoy getting the board fired up, huh @Jack Parkman? There are a select group of trolls on this board and you're certainly one of them. You're a disgrace

Yeah the Sox have been winning despite his 0.68 ERA coming into tonight.

Watching Robert run is just a simple joy in life

You spelled "Robert" wrong.

Nomar Madrigal

Still tied! Could have been so much worse.

I think we gotta give him a break. He's still recovering from Covid. Amazing he's able to play at all, really.

Who is this team producing runs and not hitting the ball 480 feet?

Wat?

All Magic does is hit

Thats a great point. But I am sure he is only responsible for EE and Mazara.

The problem with getting players who are "Better than we have but not top 5 level" is that when we've gotten those players, they have had an extremely high failure rate for us, and everyone else. They've been the ones who have dropped off partially to a ton, leaving us hanging. They're the Samardzija, Frazier, LaRoche, Encarnacion guys. So in the back of our heads, we're saying "Yes Joc has had a 130 wRC+ against righties in his career and we need that...but a tiny dropoff in that platoon split and suddenly we've got another flop". It's also...not wrong. Back when we were spending money, 2015-2017, I went through the guys you might consider "mid-level" free agents, the guys making $10-20 mil a year, and found that consistently the "bust rate" in them of guys where you want out of that contract was like 70%. It improved the last couple years as the FA market stalled, but in general those are just bad signings. You convince yourself the player has been consistent for x number of years and then you wind up having them take an immediate step backwards once they get to you, and it happens over and over. Your 2015 team signs 4 of them, Robertson performs well, but then you're asking how your other 3 big acquisitions all disappointed - those are normal numbers for these guys. Sometimes you have to do that, if we have money to spend this offseason Joc makes sense, but gosh darnit it would be so nice to try out one of the kids in that spot.

I think the board has tended to struggle with players that are clearly better than what we have but not top 5 level. The good news about getting Joc for this team as opposed to 2015/16 is we aren't signing him and expecting him to propel us to the playoffs. We'd be just adding a good player to our core of excellent players. People are better at this with pitchers but last few years people would look at players that were clearly better but still be like "no I think Yolmer Sanchez can basically be that (and he'd put up his 79 wRC+ and the other person would put up 105-110).

Engel basking in the ambience of THE LEGEND.

yeah...those are big differences.

Don't worry about Mazara. He says he's about to take off!

There are a lot of things people have been surprised by with Robert, such as "I didn't know he was that good defensively, I didn't know he was that fast" that were pretty obvious to those who have watched or followed him in the minors. However, his baseball IQ, work ethic, and analytical mindset were not widely discussed or publicized prior to his MLB arrival. Combined, they give me hope that he won't "just" stall out as a top 5 player in the AL, but that he'll maximize his potential and become a perennial MVP candidate.

Robert has impressed me with his baseball IQ. He looked to be sitting on the slider up 2-0 in the count. He’s made smart decisions on the bases and in the field as well.

Good point. The one thing though is they really put all the "potential MLB talent" at the Schaumburg site...and that to me may be better than a minors short season as they are getting high quality instruction and facing our best young pitchers. Evaluation is easier when everyone is around each other all the time.

Sheets (and generally the 23-25 yo college guys) is really hurt by that cancelled milb season. Sheets did take a step forward last year hitting decently in AA last year with 16 homers and with another step forward he could have helped his prospect status. A strong season at age 24 would have been nice but now he was not able to build on that and next year he is 25 which is nearing the "non prospect" age. Obviously some of those older non prospects can still become dudes (like JD Martinez or jose bautista) but that is rather rare. Vaughn is hurt a little too but he is a bit younger and he is so advanced that his development is mostly finished so it doesn't hurt him as much.

Need a pool on how many innings Rodon pitches before surgery. I say three.

Our top 10 prospects are all real high quality prospects. When I started following this list and KW was drafting, we would usually have 1-2 real prospects in total.

That is certainly a weird take after the team scored 11 runs

Can we talk about the greatest bat flip of all time?

2021 will be interesting with how they stack up against good teams beyond Minnesota and Cleveland, and how the young core handles the grind of a long season. Will need much better depth to withstand injuries and give the players adequate rest to allow postseason success in 2021 and beyond. Tigers 6-1 Royals 6-1 Pittsburgh 2-0 Chicago 2-1 Milwaukee 2-2 Saint Louis 1-2 Cleveland 2-4 Minnesota 2-4 Maximum Games Played / Innings Pitched Jimenez (127 / 2019) Robert (122 / 2019) Madrigal (120 / 2019) Vaughn (55 / 2019) Dunning (144 / 2017) Cease (124 / 2018) Rodon (120 (in 2018) since 2016) Foster (64 / 2019) Heuer (67 / 2019) Burdi (38 / 2016)

HEY GUYS IF YOU SEE A LINK THAT SAYS "LUIS ROBERT NUDES" DO NOT CLICK IT. IT'S A VIRUS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR KEYBOARD BE STUCK ON CAPS LOCK

Grandal is underperforming a little but he still has a quite solid season. Sure you would want him a bit better and he will likely get there but he always was a streaky hitter who strikes out and gets a lot of his value by walks. He is only hitting 226 but has a 345 obp and a solid 106 wRC+. He also has 0.7 war which is a 3 war full season pace. That is not quite what you hoped for but he definitely isn't a black hole and only should get better.

Is anyone surprised Yolmer would get in on this? ?

Lol, you would think that "Students will party" would be the first rule of the model

New York is finally balancing out calls for us after screwing us over so much.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how good of a fit Grandal is for this roster with all the right handed free swingers. I hate when people think my love for Grandal somehow means I hate McCann. McCann has been an absolute steal for the Sox and a hell of find. I don't think anybody - Sox included - thought he'd turn out this well. I just don't think McCann should be playing over Grandal if it means Grandal to the bench.

He’s got to be the worst pitcher in baseball from 2019-2020

I'm guessing they're going to work with him in Schaumburg on how to approach being a reliever etc., and then we see him back up in a week or so in that role.

Pour like $25-28ish mill into one position?

That thread is just a cesspool, so many people playing doctor and refusing to trust the science. But that's how we got here

Yea but McCann has a .420 OBP, does he deserve to keep getting benched in preference for Grandal? White Sox spent a lot on Grandal and just because that they are likely to keep giving him more playing time. Sadly, it seems we spent a lot of money on an area where we already had a great player who wasn't just a fluke that many assumed. I don't expect him to keep a .420 OBP and almost 1.000 OPS but clearly McCann has upped his game since he joined the White Sox.

A streaky hitter who is currently not hitting should not be in the 3 hole. That is my current problem with Grandal (actually more with Ricky). Add to that the case that it does not seem last year was a fluke for McCann, and the frustration is enhanced.

The fact that he was sitting on the bench while AJ Reed was getting at bats last August/September still pisses me off. We had a great chance to see what we have in Zack and wasted it.