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I am not going to say this lightly, but the man has Trout tools. The big thing he needs to do is stay healthy. If he can play 150 games a season, he will be an MVP level guy. He has it all. The Sox have never had a guy with the whole package like Luis has. We have had a HOF hitter in Frank, but he couldn't field to save his life. We have had insane defenders, who couldn't hit. We had guys like Magglio Ordonez who fielded pretty well, and could hit the shit out of the ball, but didn't have ++ speed. If Luis Robert stays healthy, he is a human cheat code.

I don't think its a stretch to say Abreu has turned himself into a top third MLB defender at 1B. Pretty incredible what he's done over there. Abreu is a fucking man. Love the dude. I know this is a Luis thread, but Abreu gets no where near as much respect as he deserves nationally, league-wide, and even among Sox fans. He's a Sox legend. So happy they resigned him, and he's already earned every dollar of that $50M.

Dick Allen with very similar raw talent.

I think Cease is a better pitcher, but the comparison to 2005 to me is Jon Garland. Obviously different times and a different game, but he was a struggling pitcher prior to 2005 and came out with 18 wins in '05 to give the team an edge at the #4 pitcher spot.

La Pantera has the tools to be the best Sox in history and a sweet ass logo. LuBob is playing catch with Josh Fields and Nicky Delmonico.

Current Pito way better defensively than Frank, especially throwing & Pop ups. Early Pito had worse hands at 1b, but he fixed that.

Crap on the team? What did I say that amounted to crapping on the Sox? Who thinks the WS would be favored in a series against the Astros? They could beat the Astros, we all know that individual series' can be unpredictable. I think the Sox spotty bullpen and defense might be a problem in the pressure packed, often tight games of a playoff series. Ranking the WS seventh out of thirty teams in MLB means they are a good/very good team. I think there are several better teams. I genuinely want the Sox to win the WS, but I don't want to set my expectations too high.

Right. I wrote similar but deleted it as I didn't think I phrased it properly. The 2005 club was a once in a lifetime collection of guys, mostly vets and mostly journeymen, that came together at the right time in October. God bless them for winning it all, but as we saw it wasn't a model for sustained success -- the 2021 club is a sustained success model, regardless of any postseason magic this year.

Eh, I'm sort of in the middle on this. On one hand......right now it seems like the Sox are running with a very solid Top 4 in Lynn-Rodon-Giolito-Cease. Different pitchers, but similar to the Sox rocking Buehrle-Garcia-Garland-Contreras. The heart of both teams seemed to occupy 1B, and Eloy and Dye seem incredibly similar to me. The difference-making, veteran FA catcher also sort of holds true in both cases. Aside from that.....I would agree the two teams are pretty different. This 2021 squad is much more "star heavy" and I think the talent on the 2021 teams blows 2005 out of the water. 2005 was in a lot of ways an incredible collection of decent parts that made things work together. 2021 seems more like a powerhouse full of high-end pieces that when all on the field at the same time.......few can match. I didn't feel that way in 2005.

Lopez has a 0.71 WHIP and 5.29 K/BB, but that's in 34 innings spread over starting and relieving, so not the kind of sample size you can use to compare to full-time starters.

take the first numbers and divide by 2. I have a TI-83 if you need it.

Have you seen how fast he can pull his glove down on tags? Give the man 200m.

Showing up the ump all game…Patrick Wisdom sure is acting like he’s been a big hitter for a long time when he hasn’t…

This article was written last week, but I didn’t catch it here. https://www.mlb.com/news/liam-hendriks-fixes-pitch-tipping-issue

Not just the tools themselves, but seeing those tools actually develop in the majors. I try to avoid making my mind to go places like this but with Robert I just can't avoid it. He came to us with so much hype, and at every level of his development he's exceeded or outright destroyed the expectations like it was a joke to him. My first thought is of course Frank Thomas, easily the greatest hitter we've ever had, but he wasn't a Gold Glove infielder and he didn't run like Luis.

Sorry, what I should have said was, "Everything is rosy. Maybe we will get to play the Cubs in the ALDS".

Here's another one. I knew we could find one.

Luis Robert could be the best player ever. That’s how high his ceiling is.

I think Luis is learning how to excel at cruise speed and stay in the game to reach his goals. Longevity is a crucial challenge. He can do it. Him and TA could define the Sox future.

I had to check the name, but Scot Gregor has been on the Sox beat for the Herald for over 20 years and he knows what he is doing as a writer. This while the Tribune couldn't afford a regular Sox beat writer.

Pito made himself into a good defensive 1st baseman and is much better defensively than Frank. IMO Jose is much better than the best Frank was...mainly because of Frank's terrible arm.

Not even close. No range, no arm at all. Jose can also dig it with the best of them.

The Herald had better Sox coverage than the Tribune in those recent times when the Trib didn't have a regular Sox writer. At least now they have LaMond Pope on the beat and he's man for the job, IMO.

It's already been said, but he has 8 WAR upside. Honestly, he doesn't even need to hit his ceiling to be an 8 WAR player. If he can stay healthy, he's an MVP caliber player year and year out. If he can stay healthy, and hit his ceiling, he could be one of the best ever. The talent is that legit.

I believe 2/3 of this team have or will be on an all-star team during their careers. Talent everywhere I look. I don't like to leave my seat when we are batting because something exciting can happen from everywhere in the lineup. There was a time I would arrange a bathroom break or make some popcorn around when Frank Thomas or Dick Allen would be batting...now the whole team has me leaving my pitcher to fend for himself.

Isn't the Sox being underdogs against the Astros essentially mean they'll probably lose the series? I think it's semantics.

No.

You know my views - Robert has the potential to be the greatest Sox player in franchise history. And I legitimately mean that. I'm not saying he will be - but I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it held true, nor would I be surprised if he was an MVP/best player in all of baseball. I was worried how he would come back from the injury and whether it would impact his explosiveness - but so far so good. The guy is just SO freaking talented and despite that he has so much room in his game left to grow too...which is what is scary (in a good way). It is also why when so many people on this site get worried about the ups and downs of baseball - I Just look across this roster and see so many guys with all star talent and in this case a guy with MVP talent that it is hard not to get giddy about the possibilities. We should all remember that - especially during the dog days of summer.

Get a new manager if you want to see that daily.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion....man.

I agree with the people at the USA Today having the Sox ranked seventh in MLB power rankings. There are three teams better than the White Sox in both leagues. In the AL, Tampa Bay, Houston and New York are better than the WS. In the NL, SF, LA and Milwaukee are better than the WS. If the WS play Houston in the opening round they would be obvious underdogs. Could the WS beat Houston? Sure, they could. Will they beat Houston? Probably not.

God, I hope so. If Cease turns into 2005 Contreras down the stretch we'll probably win the World Series.

Dylan Cease has always had this ceiling. You can't teach his arm. I know many were ready to give up on him after less than a season's worth of starts, but sometimes it takes a while. Especially for a taller guy, sometimes it just takes a while to be able to get all of those mechanics lined up. You can see him lose that feeling still occasionally, heck we saw it a couple of times yesterday. But the key is that it happens less and less, and he is more and more consistent. The kid has a chance to be one of the best in baseball.

The Tribune acts like it still owns the Cubs. It had a game story of the Sox pounding the Cubs. Then there were two stories about the Cubs so-called rebuild. The Cubs are almost 20 games under .500, get pounded on almost daily basis, and are going nowhere. The Sox are 20 games over .500 and going to the playoffs. So, let's write about the team that will be losing for some time to come.

People who have never thrown a baseball in their lives don't understand that there is also "wear and tear" just when warming up.

Typically with a 3 batter minimum and smaller benches than ever, Team don't need to warm up two relievers at once, because there aren't batter to batter match ups anymore.

Cubs opponent run line still performing well.

Those poor fans who went today.

Thats good because they were breathing down our necks. anyway, the relaxed manner the Sox have played with lately, maybe we should be rooting for Cleveland these days.

You don’t know what you lost til it’s gone.

Gotta be honest, Yaz annoyed the shit out of me earlier this year but now he's one of my favorite players on this team.

Well, I once thought keeping Orlando Hernandez on a playoff roster over Brandon McCarthy made no sense as Hernandez had lost his rotation spot as was genuinely bad down the stretch….

Hall of Fame Baseball People have very advanced statistics integrated into the very fiber of their DNA.

What's rarely mentioned in evaluating the catchers is what we can't see: game planning and game plan execution. When Zavala was called up instead of Yermin, TLR specifically referenced Zavala's game planning. The game planning is important as it might explain pitch sequencing that doesn't always seem to make sense in real time. They game plan with very advanced statistics, (this is Katz on the computer - not TLR).

I've had it up to here with this medium bashing

How come his medium didn't tell him he was going to start tipping his pitches...he should get a refund.

Katz for the starters and liams wife for the bullpen? Co-pitching coaches?

Agreed. Preller is really who I want to fail. I hope his moves crater their farm system and end horribly.

As long as Preller is employed I hope they rot.

I feel so dirty for wanting Tatis to fail, but I just do. He got his money already which is good. Please let the Padres never win a championship with him.