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Ehh. My estimations are irrelevant. They played really good and inspired baseball the 2nd half. They have a player much better than anyone we have and rock solid pitching. The rest of the position player core outside of Gimenez is pretty meh. I'd wager a guess they don't win over 85 games in 2023.

I’d kinda hate to use the TA bullet on Albies. I’d much rather see the Sox actually sign some legit FAs and try to win, but if that’s not in the cards, I am leaning more and more towards selling our expiring assets and doing a reset. It’s so tough to swallow that pill because the division is so winnable the next couple years but Sox could do really really well selling TA, Giolito, Lynn, Hendriks, Graveman, Bummer. Of course it’s punting 2023, but could get some really interesting guys to pair with the remainder of the core in 2024. I feel really dirty having typed that, but if the payroll is maxed at $180M that’s probably the best play.

I just wanted to give him a fair chance to do a waiver claim before I criticized him for being too lazy to scout any of the guys on waivers. Seriously, the White Sox's depth is awful. There's like 2 positions on their roster where if they claimed a replacement level player with a minor league option, the player would be unlikely to make the big leagues. They're keeping Ruiz with no ability to send him down because they have no bullpen depth. They signed Leury to a big money deal because they aren't creating decent backups on their own. They played two different 1b in the outfield because they didn't have enough outfielders, and both of them were straight up bad. At one point last year Dallas Keuchel was their #2 starter, and it was totally obvious that such a thing was likely to happen coming into the season. They gave away one game because they had roughly 2 available relievers. They were Elvis Andrus and Johnny Cueto away from being roughly a 75 win team. Grab someone. Anyone. Find a player or two who can rotate up and down to AAA so that if someone gets hurt you can put them on the IL and actually have a player available to step in. They don't even need to be good, literally a 0 WAR player could turn into an extra 2 wins on their record if they could pitch the 7th and 8th innings in a 4 run game without giving away the lead or catch the ball in LF as a defensive substitute on a day when someone needs a rest to keep their legs from being hurt. It's somehow completely unbelievable and yet totally expected that they let this roster deadline pass.

For a team that's rumored to be operating on a limited budget, I would not be a fan of that. He's not much of an OFer and does nothing to help address the lineup balance. He'd be perfect for the Sox 16" softball team though.

Just wanted to say I’ve enjoyed the back and forth of these last handful of posts. Every point and counterpoint is well thought out where I’ve found myself agreeing with both sides ?‍♂️

MLBTR had him projected at $18.1 million. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/10/mlb-projected-arbitration-salaries-2023.html

If he's a groundball specialist, him giving up a lot of hits in AFL isn't as interesting as if the hits are ground balls. Not sure any of us figured Tanner Banks would see time this year or when Aaron Bummer jumped up, hence a pop-up. I wouldn't be surprised considering sox love sinker ballers in their bullpen under hahn if a guy that throws strikes and has a power sinker makes it

Also fair. But if the Sox keep all these guys and add on the fringes up to $180M payroll, they're going to be, at worst, in the thick of the ALC race. They aren't trading those guys in July if they're winning the division or within a reasonable distance. That's the thing - this team without any major additions is still plenty good enough to win this division, but they aren't good enough to be anything but a playoff underdog story.

0 walks, 15 hits in 10 innings there. Entirely possible he was somehow focusing on throwing strikes and gave up extra hits as a consequence, but the results weren't anything where you'd immediately say this guy is the next big thing.

my prediction is heyman will leak that the teams that spend the most will all be in the mix for a boras client.

Left out he gave up the go ahead run!

I don't know anything about the stat that is putting Cronin so high, but the 1.348 WHIP and 4.7 K/9 at Charlotte last year aren't giving me a lot of excitement. K rate at Charlotte was down from other levels, but still a 7.3 K/9 and a 2.08 K/BB ratio across the minors isn't particularly grand. 1.266 WHIP across the minors so I'm not seeing reason to think he's a huge ground ball pitcher either, giving up lots of hits. 15 hits in 10 innings in the AFL this year, no walks but again only 7 K's in 10 innings there. That's not a scouting report and maybe there's something here that could be deployed in an intelligent way out of the big league bullpen, but the profile of a low K rate and a WHIP that is 1.3 and above is pretty much a mop up guy out of the bullpen at best. Of course, the White Sox need a "mop up guy with an ERA around 5 who won't blow a multi game if they're called up" because they barely have that, but I have no clue how this guy is ranking ahead of Lopez on anything.

You could say that about the PCL or International League, I feel like. One difference other than the size of the baseballs in NPB vs. MLB I thought was that in NPB they use a 6-man rotation with Mondays as regularly scheduled off days for all teams. So you end up with effectively a 7-day cycle vs. a 5-day cycle in the big leagues. Could be wrong on that though.

This franchise will be so much better off seeing if sosa/romy can fill this role. And even batting right handed, I bet they can come close to Frazier's 84 wRC+ last year in the AL. Plus Romy/Sosa come with some much better power possibilities which this team desperately needs.

One of the Sox podcast had a Anderson + for Albies trade (trade simulator) and I can't say that I'd hate it. Anderson has 2 years left, Albies has 5 years at 7 mil per.

This guy shoulda paid for Twitter Blue for more credibility.

My ballot: Rolen, Jones, Helton, Abreu, Buehrle

Old, but relevant because against MLB hitters:

I know Schilling is a douche, but he should get in. He was a great pitcher. Lots of athletes are jerks.

Fields has looked amazing running the ball, but this unfortunately is the risk you take playing like this. Hope it’s nothing serious.

I think they should try something new like getting a player that is actually good (Bryan Reynolds) instead of a player that is bad (Cody Bellinger) that they hope will be good but will likely remain bad.

Irrelevant. This is America, where rich people fail upward all the time.

The Astros had a lower payroll than the white Sox this year.

Matsuzaka got through most of 2 seasons fairly healthy. His first season, 07, wasn't all that great, with an ERA of 4.4. In 2008 he was really effective and 4th in the Cy Young voting, but missed 1 month of the season with a back injury. Things went to crap for him after the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He suffered a leg injury either before or during that, and only pitched 60 innings that season afterwards. He was not awful in 2010, ERA in the mid 4s again over 160 innings, and then went down for TJS in 2011.

You just did more research and put in more time than the actual front office of this team will put into signing this guy. Kudos.