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Keep checking this thread for Bauer updates and all I'm getting is hearty helpings of Mazara. No thank you.

STOP ? TALKING ? ABOUT ? NOMAR ? MAZARA ? IN ? THE ? TREVOR ? BAUER ? UPDATE ? THREAD ?. Factoring in the eye test, he's still below average. Let's move on, yes?

Man, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice... This is still Mazara talk??? Holy moly.

I'm still trying to figure out why they eliminated the curveball from Lopez's repertoire. Because it worked with giolito is not a good reason but that's the only one I can come up with. It clearly didnt work out with Lopez. It was his best pitch when he came up with the Nats. I'd like to see if he can bounce back employing it before giving up on him.

Couple things: 1. Are you related to Mazara? I ask this because overall, he kinda sucks. 2. With respect to the bolded, if you don't like DRS, look at the Inside Edge numbers. Mazara gets to exactly NONE of the "unlikely" chances (10% - 40% types). This illustrates that he has no range. His arm is mediocre as well. 3. In sum, he's a poor-fielding corner OF who needs a platoon partner, a defensive sub late in games, and a pinch runner. There are plenty of players with fewer flaws that are available for less money.

Things have been quiet on the manager search lately and this makes me believe that Hahn is operating in a stealth manner and talking to Ozzie about the opening. Anyone else think this may be in the case and we may get a surprising announcement sometime this week? I know this would make Chance the Rapper happy!

Random article that lists us as one of the top five destinations for Bauer. Obviously this means nothing, but it’s better than arguing against a delusional Mazara fanboy. https://www.radio.com/sports/mlb/gallery/trevor-bauers-top-5-potential-landing-spots-in-free-agency#chicago-white-sox-ckgmga8570061u4pc0d1ngpfm

Meatball status confirmed - I think we can all move on here and refocus our thoughts on Bauer again.

They sure as hell aren't just looking at batting average and home runs.

Yeah, they just say everyone is a candid except Ozzie to throw everyone off. ozzie has to be the choice, assuming Terry Bevington doesn’t want to come back.

This is...not a blog?

No. /Thread.

Maybe you should take a look at the stats. If you run a fangraphs on RF for 2017 to 2020 Nomar Mazara doesn't rank in the top 50. In fact he ranked 53rd. Even if you narrow to oWAR only, he still isn't in the top 50. Hell Daniel Palka ranks ahead of him at #77, as does Charlie Tilson at #87, and Ryan Cordell at #100. In fact Nomar Mazara comes in 2nd to last at 112 of 113 offensively during that time frame. Even if you rerun it without his disaster of a 2020, Mazara comes in at 58 of 113. EDIT: Even if you want to look at the traditional stats, Marara has never hit .275. .266 is his career high. He has carried and OBP in the .320 range. He's hitting a homer about every 30 PAs, so it isn't even like he has been selling out for the long ball or something. He is a decidedly mediorce player with a ton of potential the Sox were hoping would break out. It didn't happen, and he isn't getting an arbitration offer. You can bookmark this post if you like even.

I would be highly disappointed if they brought in another project. There is no time for that at this point, your contention window is open now.

What is unequivocally creepy is speculating on adultery involving Jerry Reinsdorf or anyone else.

Manfred is such a giant bag of shit. I'm not going to rant on about this but I can't stand these damned rule changes that eliminate portions of the game which have evolved naturally within the proper context and spirit of the game. Example, the 3 batters rule. You give a manager 25 players to roster and he is likely going to pick 2 specialists, a lefty and a righty. If you give him 5 or 6 less players then he won't, but with 25 or 26, you allow him to specialize and devote specialist players to specialized roles that are important enough to designate as being so special and worthwhile. The lefty and righty specialist evolved naturally out of good competitive spirit. But of course everything about being a commissioner is about revenue and specifically appealing to a seemingly increasingly idiotic generation of people with constantly decreasing attention spans. So of course the desire is to cater to these people because they have money. But I don't give a shit about these people. They're bandwagoners anyway, and for hardcore fans like me, I think the long length of the game and the long length of the season has a lot of appeal. I like to work while having the games on, or put the game on the radio in the car. It's a nice chunk of my day that is made more enjoyable by baseball, and I'm not going to b**** about the length of it. I think a lot of people are like that. Eliminating the shift or trying to is trying again to eliminate another element that evolved naturally within the spirit of the game. Put a bunt down you stupid oaf if you don't like it. Oh you can't bunt? Ok fuck you then, hit the ball on the ground to the 3B playing SS. Grab some bench. That's excellent baseball and IMO isn't doing anything different than before. People just record more information now and use it better but they could have spent all of the 1940s shifting if they wanted to. Eliminating cheating is great. Improving accuracy of the umps by replacing them is great. Making the game more fair for all teams is great. A pitch clock is a great thing. I would love for technology to be added that allowed the pitcher and catcher to communicate wirelessly by their own signals, but ONLY the pitcher and catcher, because adding the dugout into the game allows for micromanaging of everything and really ruins the spirit of the game of pitcher and catcher vs. hitter. But adding tech to the game to make it more fair is great. A pitch clock is great, but must be reasonable. The pitch clock should be longer during the AB. E.g. for the first 5 pitches it is X seconds between pitches, then for pitches 5-8 it is X+2 seconds allowance, and pitches 9-11 it is X+4, and pitches 12+ it is X+6 or something, to allow for extra thought to exist in moments of greater need for strategic thought. But simply b****ing about the length of the game just because a bunch of dumb bandwagoner fans don't like and a bunch of people generally with the attention span of a fly can't handle it is really ruining the game for pitiful benefits. Think about these Yankees vs. Red Sox games that take like 4 hours because the lineups are stacked and every hitter is a tough out and every pitcher has to make a great pitch in like every AB. When you stack a lineup full of great hitters then you are doing a great job as a FO. And as a hitter, if you can survive deep into counts routinely, that makes you a great hitter. As a P, it is one thing to fiddle with your hat and your ass for about half a minute off the rubber before getting back on it but also in the spirit of the game, the P should have the ability to set himself up mentally to make a tough pitch in a tough situation. Really, these long games are often the result of some of the best of the best of the game playing each other. This is a good thing. I wish Manfred was a fly on the wall and I could just swat him. He doesn't care about the game at all. As far as the man on second rule, I actually don't hate it as much as I thought it would, but I would prefer a normal 10th, a man on 1st in the 11th, 2nd in the 12th, and a man on 3rd in 13th and beyond, or something like that, if the rule is going to stick. And in this case I do not believe it harms the spirit of the game because it's about keeping players healthy and members of the pitching staff available for future games. And I believe it should only apply in the regular season and should not apply in any game 163 or playoff game situations. But anyway fuck Manfred with a rusty flag pole.

Manfred's job should be endangered.

No, they aren't just looking at batting average and home runs. RBIs are looked at as well as OBP. And a right fielder is an important defensive positions as well. You might want to consider that Mazara does have a good number of assists in his four seasons which is a testament to his arm strength. He does have a very strong arm. But southsider, batting average and home runs and RBIs are still the make or break stats for measuring especially the baseball positions which are counted on to deliver runs. That is just the truth of things.

I always love when someone tells a person that batting average is an antiquated way of measuring a hitter. like, cmon man, that horse doesn’t need any more beating. 2006 called and said “great point!”

You realize that for every single made up scenario, you can do the same thing for a batting average right? Fluke hits happen, why do you trust batting average? It's too bad you can only handle the most simple of numbers.

You are moving the goalposts over and over again, and have been proven wrong with every single claim here. At this point get off your butt and actually show your work. I am bored with proving you wrong, while you have zero evidence of anything you say.

And if they were, who in the word actually thinks a .265 BA with 20 HRs to be that good?

Do you ever look up what you are talking about? From 2016 to 19, Mazara ranked 20th in HRs by a RF. He ranked 29th in BA. He ranked 39th in OBP. Even cherry picking the best portion of his career, and his best stats,he is a replacement level RF. He is a decidedly mediocre player. Your argument is faulty. Nothing of what you thought is actually true.

What if I told you those things were factored in, and over the course of a season single event anomalies equalize so that measure can be taken that which gives a much clearer view than an eye test which is neither comprehensive nor unbiased.

This times a billion.

IMO Ozzie is definitely a dark horse candidate. They are downplaying the chances of him being the manager wayyy too much. I just don't buy it. I think it's possible the Sox want to keep it under wraps until the world series ends, then it'll be a big surprise.

I think there are many more fans than just me that want to give us the best chance at a World Series title in 2021 (or whenever the next season is played)

Abreu wins the MVP on Thursday, November 12.

If Quintana is our big rotation upgrade then I think we’re in big trouble next year and I say that even if that means we get Springer. I do like the McHugh idea depending on what else we do, but not sure the front office would sign him after he called them out for service time manipulation. Also, there is zero chance they are moving Grandal in some crazy attempt to bring back McCann. I’m generally curious why you think this, although I’m guessing it’s due to Stone’s comments on Twitter.

No. /Thread

I know they said that initially but they haven't referenced him since the day Ricky was dismissed. It leads me to believe that something is happening on the down low. We can be hopeful!

I can’t believe a thread is being started on this. No, Ozzie Guillen is not going to be the new manager. Hahn has already put this to rest in the presser and also mentioned that there may be some candidates managing or coaching in the series. They also have to wait until after the series is over to interview Hinch. That’s why it has been quiet. Nothing is going to get leaked or announced yet on who the new manager is going to be. Let’s move on from the Ozzie Guillen talk.

Ok. I understand your view. But your view is either misinformed, or ill-informed. With respect to the bolded, there are two readily available defensive metrics that take into account what you are complaining about: Inside Edge Fielding Stats Here, they attempt to classify defensive plays as "Routine," "Likely," "Even," "Unlikely," "Remote," and "Impossible." Range Runs, which measures how many balls an outfielder gets to. Needless to say, Mazara has been below average on both measures. These metrics directly measure an OFer's range/ability to get to balls. With respect to the underlined, WAR directly measures whether or not a player has been average or not at his position. Here again, the metric shows that Mazara has been a below average player. That aside, no team would trade away an average starting RFer for Walker.

I told you. I do not care a whit about defensive stats for outfielders. If you want to give them credence go for it. To begin with, stats do not even begin to be able to measure the ground which an outfielder has to cover typically, the kind of shifts that his team employs, the ability of his center fielder, etc. This takes watching the player which in this case I do a lot of. With infielders it is different. There, defensive stats do matter but even there you need to take some of them with a grain of salt based on the way the team positions its defensive players. In his four previous years in baseball, Mazara was beyond any doubt a decent average major league right fielder all around. Not a star but average. He averaged 20 home runs and about 75 RBIs a season while hitting in the .260s. That is decent production for anyone let alone a 26 year old player with 4 years of major league baseball under his belt. You say he sucks. I say that you are wrong. As far as being anti-vaxx or Covid hoaxing, you're probably wrong about that also.

Nope. One year in his short career he hit 20 HRs and drove in over 100 RBIs. IN 2019, out of about 35 guys in the Al who played right field at all, only 7 hit more home runs(19) or drove in more runs than he did( 68). And he hit .268 which was better than 2/3rds of them did. The guy was a legit all around right fielder. He did have some trouble with left handed pitchers and did get platooned a bit. So what? lot of young players have that done in their early careers.

The question is how long Americans will be ordered to stay home. It's definitely going to be a wild period in US history.

There's the greatest Jeremy Reed fan ever known! I've popped through without logging in on occasion, and I've been lurking with greater frequency with the excitement of this last season. Despite all the changes in social media/interaction, I love seeing this place still running strong, and it's been great seeing all the old regulars in action throughout everything.

Remember this prediction. They will change the strategy on Covid once Harris/Biden take over. Things are not going to be better in January IMO so there will be a complete and unilateral nation-wide shutdown where the rules and regulations are so strict it'll make your head spin. Quarantine of the entire USA folks. What that does to the economy? Well, we're gonna find out. But if the covid numbers remain bad on inauguration day, you wait. The quarantine is comin'

You put it on non pay TV and viewership would be higher. Just because people don't want to pay for it doesn't mean there isn't interest in it. It's supposed to be America's game let America watch it for free. You get bombarded during a game with commercials telling you what you should buy. I have to buy a TV to watch anything .I have to pay a monthly subscription to watch cable or premium TV. American's are poor and in debt because they are immersed in this "buy" culture. They cant cook, they won't read, they can't grow their own food, they can't start a fire without matches because no one teaches how to just survive . Very few have actual skills. If you want something you buy it, steal it or take it violently. America's enemies just have to figure out how to turn our electricity off and we will all, freeze, starve or kill each other. Ha ! Oops old man yells at cloud . Never mind we're all good . I'm gonna sit in my recliner have a beer and watch the old boob tube and get fat and stupid.

Whole family got the flu shot today (love how easy they have made it - literally we just pull up in the car, hop out for < 5 minutes and we are done (don't even have to park the car). Hopefully this years shot is pretty effective against the flu - would be a really good year for that to be the case and for it to be a mild mild flu season.

If shifting is such a big deal then the hitters should adjust.

Fair enough - I agree with that.

It is hard to talk about COVID without getting political. Some think their rights are violated by being asked to wear a mask and have made it a political issue. I do know that ignoring science and saying it will magically go away is not coming close to addressing the problem. Regardless, how to approach COVID should not be political. People are dying, and others are suffering due to a collapsing economy. Those things are not political. We need a real consensus here, and we are not getting one.

No offense guys - but the world would be a better place if we stopped just blanketly calling people with different political viewpoints idiots. Makes no one better & not productive. Unless you literally think we should live in a world where you can't be friends with someone who has different viewpoints. Personally - I think that is a boring world and I don't believe things are black and white. Different people have different views and I need to respect that - as long as those views aren't fundamental extremist type of positions. And no - I don't think every person who voted for Trump is an extremist - some certainly are, but many had there reasons and the fact that they voted for that individual does not make them a horrible person. We will never get ourselves back as a country if we continue to have so many people who have basically put themselves in an echo chamber (it is literally the exact opposite of diversity and is scary). Tony - I am not saying that is you - but this country is way too polarized and I hate absolute statements like this. The reality is, there were a lot of people who voted for Trump back in 2016 because well, they figured they had been stuck in their situation forever and maybe that situation had gotten worse and over decades they never saw it get better (Democrat, Republican...didn't matter). So you know what - they decided they wanted to take a shot and go anti-establishment, because you know what, why not, nothing else had helped them (in their own perceived world). I don't get why people can't empathize and respect that and instead just assume every single person who voted for Trump is a steaming pile of dog, poop. Some absolutely are - but that is the human race and those people exist on both sides of the voting spectrum.

Laughable. JR and EE were the architects of the pay per view scheme both locally and nationally, steal what you can now scheme be it television or raping taxpayers across the country to pay for their capital expenses. Also destroyed interest by cancelling the 1994 season .When you cut out long term interest and erode your customer base for short term greed, you get flaccid interest in baseball that endless erectile dysfunction and gambling ads cannot remedy. It's how a two team baseball city became a one team city, and how the NFL pwned MLB and continues to pull away like Secretariat.

With the shortened season, spotrac shows the league average payroll at $59 million. That means total player salary for 30 teams comes to $1.8 billion. When they didn’t have to pay staff to open ballparks, does that claimed loss make any sense? It still does not to me. The White Sox’s payroll this year was $43 million. If revenue was 0, that means everyone else would have to blow through $57 million, without having to pay any ballpark employees. Revenue of course is not zero, so all the other staff have to blow what, $100 million to believe that number?

This actually is where I'm at, I just like Odorizzi more than you. But I'd actually be okay with 2 of the following, but especially if we end up L Hendricks, Treinen and depending on scouting/injury report Kela in BP (or colome but I worry about his shoulder). You could convince me on a ton of these as the piece behind Stroman (assuming bauer out of range): Brett Anderson (33) Chase Anderson (33) – $9.5MM club option with a $500K buyout Chris Archer (32) – $11MM club option with a $250K buyout Jake Arrieta (35) Homer Bailey (35) Trevor Bauer (30) Trevor Cahill (33) Tyler Chatwood (31) Anthony DeSclafani (31) Robbie Erlin (30) Mike Fiers (36) Kevin Gausman (30) Gio Gonzalez (35) — $7MM club option with a $500K buyout Cole Hamels (37) J.A. Happ (38) Rich Hill (41) Merrill Kelly (32) — $4.25MM club option with a $500K buyout Corey Kluber (35) — $17.5MM club option with a $1MM buyout Mike Leake (33) — $18MM mutual option with a $5MM buyout Wade LeBlanc (36) Jon Lester (37) — $25MM mutual option with a $10MM buyout Tommy Milone (34) Mike Minor (33) Matt Moore (32) Charlie Morton (37) — $15MM club option with no buyout Jimmy Nelson (32) — $2MM club option (can become $9MM mutual option based on innings total) Ivan Nova (34) Jake Odorizzi (31) James Paxton (32) Martin Perez (30) — $6.25MM club option with a $500K buyout Rick Porcello (32) Jose Quintana (32) Robbie Ray (29) (assume he's more but i'm interested) Garrett Richards (33) Tyson Ross (34) Jeff Samardzija (36) Anibal Sanchez (37) — $12MM club option with a $2MM buyout Matt Shoemaker (34) Drew Smyly (32) Masahiro Tanaka (32) Julio Teheran (30) Michael Wacha (29) Adam Wainwright (39) Taijuan Walker (28) Alex Wood (30) Jordan Zimmermann (35) There are interesting depth pieces this year that could feasibly perform above their heads or at least be a floor of giving legit innings which we can't guarantee Cease can.

Last thing I'll post on this. Here's a link from another source that speaks to his elite spin rates, his high GB rates, and his ability to regularly go 6IP in most of his outings. They express why I favor Stroman as part of a 2 FA SP solution this offseason better than I can: Trashstros fans post about Stroman

I get your frustration with our past hiring processes as I hated them too. But so far, Hahn has said all the right things and has implied there will be candidates from some of the playoff teams. I fully expect a couple more guys to be interviewed in addition to TLR & Hinch.