Leaderboard

89 wins. I, personally, would not include mike wright on the postseason roster.

Luis Robert is the White Sox best hitter at the moment. That is clear. In the last 7, 14, and 28 days, his OPS is well over 1.000. Even Yasmani Grandal is not in that stratosphere. So it's quite clear that Robert needs to hit in one of the top 3 spots in the order, if only to make sure he gets a 4th, 5th, or 6th AB in a game. But, the White Sox are not going to take Tim Anderson out of the leadoff spot. Tim isn't the Sox best hitter, but he went 9-14 in the Oakland series last year, saved the Field of Dreams game, had a monster game in the division clincher, and definitely seems to rise to the occasion. So the only real question is whether to hit Yoan Moncada 2nd and slide Robert to 3rd, or to have Robert hit 2nd and have Moncada slide to 6th. The value of Moncada as a hitter is that he takes pitches and gets on base. His overall .375 OBP is 3rd behind only Grandal (.414) and Robert (.387). So that suggests he should hit second. He also has speed, so he's not going to clog the bases between Anderson and Robert. Because he can take pitches and hit with 2 strikes, he has the patience that would allow Anderson to run if he's on. Robert, on the other hand, is super aggressive and swings more than just about anyone else in baseball. Moncada's splits also show he's done best batting 3rd or 5th, but his third best slot has been hitting 2nd. He's hit much worse in the 6 or 4 hole. Putting Moncada second also gives the Sox better L-R balance through the lineup. Anderson, Moncada, Robert, Abreu, Grandal, Jimenez, Sheets (or Garcia), Vaughn (or Engel if healthy), Garcia. That's R, S, R, R, S, R, L (or S), R, S. With Anderson, Moncada and Robert 1, 2, 3, the Sox could run more if they need to manufacture a run. TLR hasn't run them much this year so far to save wear and tear. He might unleash them in the postseason. This puts the fastest players at the top of the lineup, and if Garcia is 9th, that's 4 speed guys connected in the lineup. I think Robert should hit 3rd, and that should be his long-term slot on the White Sox. Abreu can still drive in runs as the clean up guy, or walk and let Grandal and Jimenez drive him in. What do you think?

I have no doubt that he’d miss and the fastball would go right down the middle for a hit.

Pure Garbage has made some nice blocks this inning.

So glad the WAR stat says otherwise, Moncada does not pass the eye test of being a "great player."

This is a special quality of petty when you make up an imaginary situation to call Jerry cheap about in a season where the team extended Lynn and brought in Kimbrel, Hernandez, and Tepera, along with their contracts.

Who fucking cares

DE-TROIT SUCKS! DE-TROIT SUCKS! DE-TROIT SUCKS!

Stoney implied today Goodwin won’t be on it

Lol, ok that's funny but I can see how some would get offended. Don't wanna turn this into some politically incorrect debate but in general we need to lighten up a bit, we get so easily offended nowadays, haha. Agree though on the Tigers commentators.

I don't like the Tigers hitting Abreu fuck the Tigers.

Sports are literally the only reason I have kept COmcast around.

Stupid mike wright comment meant I lost the winner thread battle.

If anything, someone should have ran for Grandal

I understand Jose's frustration, but the Tigers didn't hit him on purpose. I hope only good things come from this, but if we end up getting players suspended trying to retaliate, it's not gonna be a good look.

really great to see Eloy coming around. he is def one of the most important parts to october.

Let's get all those double plays out of your system before the postseason, Abreu.

I don't know if I am ready for how mad I am going to be at every double play we hit into in the playoffs

Expressing frustration for the team's propensity to ground into double plays =|= meltdown.

MLB should let MLB know that their website is wrong: https://www.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/qualifying-offer

My friend texted me that keyshawn johnson said "The Andy Reid Tree got some dead ass leaves on it" and I lol'd pretty hard.

Stupid Astros went and got swept this weekend and made this game significant. Otherwise I'd have been all for flying the rest of the team home from Cleveland and just sending Keuchel to Detroit with a note saying, "We forfeit."

Aka last Wednesday

Yes I hated the trade for the exact reason that it now stinks. Relievers are volatile and not worth that kind of investment. Kimbrel was not the best rp on the market. People really need to stop drawing conclusions from 30 innings. Iglesias has been better than Kimbrel for four years. And is a two inning reliever, which for the Sox need much more. And sorry but trades aren't assessed based on what you deem important. Production throughout the duration of the Deal, given the price, was imperative for this to work.

Greg, I believe that this is what you're told, but I'm highly confident that what you're being told is either a flat-out lie or a misunderstanding of what's going on. First of all, the very rare instances where there are legitimate bad reactions to the vaccine are documented. A GP doctor would have access to the history on vaccine complications and would know what's going on. Secondly, people don't just go to a bunch of specialists unreferred to find out what's wrong. If specialists are seeing patients without some indication that their area of specialty is involved, that's malpractice, either on the part of the GP for referring the patient or on the part of the specialist for taking the patient without a referral.

Imagine there's a giant routlette wheel with 999 black spaces and 1 red space. You can bet on either color, but even though the odds are very different, you win the same amount if you win your bet. However, if you lose your bet, the people closest to you also lose their bet even if they bet on the winning color. Now imagine that they guy next to you tells you that he's betting on red because he knows someone who bet on black and lost. Except that he doesn't actually know someone who bet on black and lost, but he read a post shared by someone on Facebook that claimed that someone bet on black and lost, but nobody has actually verified that this happened. The unvaccinated are the people betting on red, and people betting on something with odds that bad do not need nor deserve to have anyone being a voice for them or having empathy for them.

Man, after all these years, you still just suck at this. You’d think you'd wise up just a little bit over time. The White Sox ran away and hid from the division during the 2021 season. It was unlike most other seasons we are used to. The Sox bullpen, at times, was a strength for this team but also inconsistent. The Sox went out and got Ryan Tepera but over the following few days, teams across the league really bolstered their stretch rosters and the Sox decided to make a strength even stronger. Craig Kimbrel was far and away the best relief pitcher on the market. You can disagree, but you'd also be wrong. It was a guy many of us were asking for, and Hahn confirmed him and Williams had their eye on him since May as one of their ideal acquisitions. Now, see if you can stay with me here, this is where it gets a little nuanced, and I fear I may confuse you. The playoffs are more important than the regular season. I know it's hard to fathom, but the impact a dominant reliever can have in the playoffs is much greater than in the regular season, especially when recently we've seen starters get pulled incredibly early in postseason games. If Kimbrel is lights out this postseason and contributes meaningful, impactful innings on the way to the World Series.....I don't give a FUCK about a game he blew in the middle of August. I also won't give a fuck what Nicky Slapdick does for the Cubs in 2024 either. I hope he does great. But he is never going to be a true impact player and became expendable while sitting on the IL when the Sox were chasing a World Series. So yes, in conclusion.....you and Ron can have a circlejerk over Madrigal and Kimbrel struggling with the Sox. You hated the trade from the moment it was announced and won't hesitate to tell everyone the moment his name gets brought up. But I'm not willing to grade a trade when history is still being written. Kimbrel still has the opportunity to make a major impact for this team when it matters most. If he does that, the trade will be a win for hopefully both teams involved. If he shits the bed when it matters most, then it was a bad acquisition. But I'm also not going to hang Hann and Co. out to dry for acquiring the best available RP on the market and using an injured player as the main trade piece during their World Series window. That's what I want my GM to do.

Well fuck me eh?

He bat 4th in 56 games this year.

Nick Madrigal showed us two things in his time here. An 80 hit tool and an 80 injury tool. Everything else about him was not what we expected. Maybe he gets there eventually, but his defense and baserunning where decidedly average as a whole. The grinder fan club can stan him all they like, but when 2Bs are a dime a dozen, it's more like Nick Mehdrigal. Kimbrel may have struggled since he got here, but remember 2 things. #1, the pen outside of Liam was pretty scary at this point, including Heuer who was supposed to be a vital bridge guy. #2, Kimbrel had put up the best stats of any reliever on the market at that point, and Rick Hahn beat everyone to him without giving up a current starter or top prospect.

And the Padres are eliminated from the playoffs after their mega off season and in season additions lmfao

Can't be second in GIDP if you aren't getting a lot of guys on base.

I would be just fine with Keuchel being the designated weekday day game pitcher so I never have to watch him.

700,000 Americans are dead. Millions more have long covid symptoms. Yet all we talk about is this.

This was beautiful.

I love TA, but there are better leadoff options given his .330 OBP. TA is the 5th best hitter based on wRC+ (excluding Engel due to sample size). He shouldn't be leading off. Yoan and Robert are easily better candidates. See below for my lineup. Yoan Robert Grandal Abreu TA Eloy Sheets Vaughn Hernandez

greg, I'll play your game. But I doubt you respond, but that's what you do. 1. What evidence do they have his "symptoms" are from the vaccine? How long ago did he get the vaccine? Because seeing as it's been around for almost 8 or 9 months now, I have serious doubts she or her "hubby" were ever going to get vaccinated. They've had plenty of opportunities and seem like they are looking for a reason to tell people they won't get it. It sucks he's gotten "sick" since getting the vaccine. But he made the right decision in the grand scheme of things, given the options we all have to face. 2. I will again use the seat belt argument. Let's say this son was killed in a car accident. He was wearing his seatbelt. But the sister in law and husband have always felt like their personal freedoms are more important, so they've always been on the fence about wearing their seatbelt. Now because of the accident, this pushed them over the edge, they aren't wearing it anymore because their son died even though he had his belt on. That doesn't make them right. Every piece of data will tell you that when you're driving, wearing a seat belt is safer than not having one on. And having a random, anecdotal piece of evidence that has personally affected you doesn't make your opinion better than science or data. 3. A dozen people have already said it, but I'll say it in a slightly different way. If they don't want to get vaccinated, they are able to make that decision. They are within their right, currently in the US, to not take the vaccine for this incredibly deadly and infectious virus. It's the wrong decision, but people make wrong decisions everyday. But when/if they get COVID, they are fully responsible for whatever hand they get dealt. Our country (including Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed) have created a free, highly accessible vaccine that has been proven to be incredibly affective against the COVID-19 virus. If you make the decision not to take it, whatever happens to you after that is on YOU, and quite frankly I have no compassion for anyone at this point who is still unvaccinated and has access to the vaccine. Because you aren't doing everything you can to avoid getting and spreading this virus.

This angle is nonsense. They acquired them for the stretch run, to hopefully get a 1 or 2 seed and have home field which they did not get because those guys stink.

FWIW, Heuer has been absolute ass with the Cubs recently. Like really bad.

Mooney and Robinson were supposed to be who the weapons were and the tight end experiment was supposed to yield results. If I’m looking at their line I’m thinking about the problem with the tackles and evaluating if Mustipher, Whitehair and Daniels are who they should build the line around. Had Dalton remained healthy, I had hoped Fields wouldn’t see action until the fourth or fifth week.

Never "hated" on either, just questioned the contracts and Lynn's prior comments and his commitment to staying healthy, don't want another part time player sucking up $18M for multi-years. Lynn had his weight under control when he actually gave a shit about it in Saint Louis. Doesn't seem to give a shit anymore on that front, consistent with his statements of literally not giving a shit about the Tampa series and yesterday's game. I rather have athletes who "give a shit". https://www.truexsportsinsider.com/als-finest-pitcher-lance-lynn-continues-to-bear-too-heavy-a-load/

Cease has the most extreme home/road splits so he should pitch at home. Lynn is historically bad at Houston so he should pitch at home. If the Sox aren't using those two data points to make this decision then something is very, very wrong. That leaves Giolito and Rodon to pitch games 1-2, and Giolito is going to be better able to come back on 4 days rest for game 5, so I send him out for game 1. I would go Giolito/Rodon/Cease/Lynn.

This is shocking levels of stupid, even for you. What you just said was “Listen, I guess I understand seatbelts save lives, but 43 people still died in car accidents when they were wearing seatbelts. So I understand why people just wouldn’t wear your seatbelt all together, because it doesn’t totally save you.” You know why people aren’t civil anymore? Because of dumb shit like this. The vaccine isn’t full proof. No vaccine is. But it goes to great lengths to protect you. It should be an incredibly easy decision for those with even the slightest ounce of brain power. But we’ve seen countless times we are running dangerously low on supply of that right now.

Beating racism is great. The White Sox just defeated racism.

With all due respect, I hate grading it now. If you graded the 2005 deadline before the season ended, anyone would have said “meh”. After what Blum did in the WS, it’s considered an amazing deadline.

I gave it an A for bringing a lot of anxiety to all the geniuses on this board who think they could do better.

The Tepera trade was very solid. Horn is fine and may, possibly, eventually, become a contributor in the Cubs pen in 2023; however, he's a 35+ guy no matter how you slice it. The A's gave up Daniel Palencia who is a better prospect than Horn for Chafin who is objectively worse than Tep. Cesar obviously hasn't been great, but it would've been a bit short-sighted to just plug Leury in a second and take him out of the super-utility role. The idea of Cesar was that he'd be a league average bat (more pop than contact) with plus defense. Hasn't exactly worked out, but its hard to blame Hahn for that. Picking him up from the second place team in the division that you have a super series with at the end of the year was a nice boost. Looking back, Pilkerton was too steep of a price considering the results both have had, but their is no guarantee that Pilkerton's stuff will play at the bigs during the title window. Regardless, I dont think Pilkerton was netting more than Cesar so their isnt much opportunity cost worry here. Then obviously, the Kimbrel Trade. If the plan was for an eighth inning guy, there were cheaper ways to do this. If Kimbrel were a guy like 2016 Andrew Miller that would give you 2 innings of shutdown relief every other night then fine. If you wanted to put Kimbrel at closer and move Hendricks into that role, then I'm good with that. Sox talk legend Codi Heuer got absolutely shelled today. Even prior to today I dont think anyone here would rather put him out there in the 8th instead of Kimbrel. The biggest issue is the Madrigal part. The thought was that Cesar would provide similar value to Madrigal next year, while contributing to the title run this year. By 2023, Jose Rodriguez may be able to be the starting second basemen. To a tanking team like the Cubs, getting an MLB ready asset that wont impact the teams mission of putting a disgusting product out there day in and day out is a dream. The bigger concern is more the opportunity cost of what else Madrigal could've brought back. The right teams had to value a second-base-only guy with a torn hammy who relies on his hit tool. If the Marlins/Pirates/Rockies' scouts aren't impressed with Madrigal you can build a trade around him. Simple as that. Sure Bryant would've slotted in well, but there was no club option on Bryant and he would almost definitely leave after this year. I also really don't think that Hoyer and ownership would be willing to trade him to the South Side without a huge tax. On the emotional attachment scale, I think TA=Javy, Jose=Rizzo, and Bryant=Robert. Kimbrel is like Hendricks. Love the guy, but he's more of a mercenary than a guy you've been attached to for years. I root for the Sox, but that wouldve hurt me. There has been and will be debate on what Madrigal should've been cashed in for, but I think Hahn's process was sound here. The starters were dominant prior to the deadline and Lopez has been great as the #6 since. The lineup was producing and still had Robert, Grandal, and Eloy coming back. And the bullpen was very good, but there was a need for another reliable high-leverage guy so that Crochet and Kopech could avoid being over/misused. From the outside looking in, I think Hahn is a hell of a GM. Like Theo, he will have his warts when you look back at his tenure, but he brought back the Sox from purgatory by nailing the Sale, Quintana, and Eaton trades. If Hahn had a bigger budget, he may have given Zack Wheeler and offer so big that he told is in-laws to give him some space. Hahn obviously preferred Wheeler over Keuchel and that would've been a huge difference in this title window. If the Sox win the WS, the answer is A+. If not it's a C or worse. Pretty much no matter what he did during the deadline the answer would be the exact same. As for your question, I'd probably go B or C if I had to choose. I think he showed that he can be a somewhat unemotional buyer which is a good thing. I think some GMs would be more attached to their #4 overall pick and wouldn't sell him at an injury discount.

Not possible.