Leaderboard

I can't stress this enough...last year, Maldonado was literally, by basically every publication I have checked, the worst catcher in all of baseball.

1. I don't hate Benintendi like many here, probably because I couldn't stand AJ "I don't want to be here" Pollock. Andrew hit well in the leadoff spot last year for a nice stretch. Hopefully his hand is fully healed and we will see more power. 2. Yoan is an elite defensive 3B. I just wish his sweet LH swing would return. 3. La Pantera is just an all around great player. Gold Glove D in CF and he does it all offensively. 4. Need to see Eloy tap into his easy power and of course he needs to stay healthy. 5. I have no problem rooting for Andrew, but he just hasn't shown the big league potential he showed in college. 6-8 Defense should at least be better. 9. Maldonado can't be worse than Grandal. They may be an easier team to root for than last year, but can they score runs?? As far as the srarting pitching....I have no clue what we're gonna get outta that bunch, with or without Cease. Bullpen could be solid or it could stink imo, but isn't that always the way with a bullpen? The Central is not good....let's see how long this squad can stay in the race. Every year, there are teams that under and overachieve. God help me....I will follow them no matter what. At least there is this support group known as Soxtalk that I can come to. Hi...I'm Wegner and I'm a White Sox fan.

I rag on the bad ones, so I should applaud the good ones. These are good ones.

Everyone knows the time to judge a new front office is a few months into its first offseason before you let real results influence the true reality - how it feels. But nonetheless, as someone extremely skeptical this will work, I have to at least remark that it does feel a lot different. First - I think I can say somewhat accurately that this board would have said the worst thing Getz could have done is act like they were still just a, say, RFer away and tried to patch it up. This offseason was painful, because this upcoming season is horrifying, but at least it appears to not be putting off future pain. I'd need an ethicist to tell me if it's better to take more pain in the short term or have more time to adjust future pain. Second - The trades do feel different. I would say in general Hahn got more leeway than deserved because my strong opinion is he sought out trades that got him prospects with higher "prospect handbook" grades specifically to get him a better set of reviews. The hype around the trades continued to meet an underwhelming reality, because often these rankings are outdated, and we were buying guys starting to fall off. He was like buying a car literally after it rolled off the lot for the full sale price, but still showing the sticker on the windshield to us. Posters can check me (I encourage it), but I really can't pin trades that hahn did similar to what Getz has done this offseason. He has gone for volume of some bounce back candidates/dfa candidates, and players whose age/grades seem to have undervalued them. Or...accurately valued them. But it certainly has felt like the sox own grades on these players were what drove the acquisitions. Were they right? I have no idea, but it feels like what is happening. Third - For seemingly his entire tenure, when Hahn is facing free agent position players in his "budget", he has opted for marginally more offensive upside over competency in literally every other area. If you saw a guy that had hit 95 wRC+ over the last 3 years who was slow and horrible defensively, and one who hit 90 wRC+ over the last 3 years and was good/great defensively, Hahn took the first guy 100% of the time. Fourth - Hahn's analytics seemed to always boil down to "this one weird trick will fix all woes". It seemed like they were way, way too focused on contact rate and cutting down Ks after 2019, even if it was a guy with low walk rates or horrendous power, and it came with a bunch of players with horrible zone contact who just chased every pitch for a nubber. For pitching, K-rate became everything. Some of this made sense. When your defense is horrid, getting guys that just don't allow contact made sense. But then also loving sinker-relievers in front of horrid defense made no sense ever. Fifth - he hired from the outside, albeit from the royals exclusively (jk). And even where he did not firesale his PD staff, I have to pay attention when Keith Law says this: "They did extremely well in last summer’s trade binge, they’ve hit on a couple of recent high drafts, and we’ve seen guys develop in that system to a degree that we hadn’t seen in some time." SO - maybe there were was headway. Now, what I'm not saying is different will equal success. You can make a lot of different versions of bad. But as a concern that he was promoted from within, he certainly has some different ideas. But obviously, he needs to show he can find well-rounded, elite talent from the draft, from intl, from trades, from everywhere. Different though! Go Paul DeJong!

I agree with the idea that Getz is calling the shits.

At least the losses will look cleaner, rather than the throwing the ball all over or just not making plays or not getting to balls.

Love it. Griffin sounds and looks tantalizing as we've discussed in the draft thread. Dude needs to chill a little bit so he doesn't play himself into picks 1 - 4. Thanks.

Wait, what else are supposed to look at? Swaggermetrics? Considering I wasn't able to watch a bunch of Astros games, I'll go off of what their fans - and the numbers - conclude: He's garbage at pitch framing and defense. If defense and pitch framing is important, Seby blows him out of the water like a nuclear submarine.

I don't know why you guys think Sox defense will be good. Lopez is done, finished. DeJong? My gawd. How depressing. Beni no arm. That guy in right? He's 5 foot 6 or something. Catcher? Oldie not a goodie. Seems to me the weak 7 thru 9 part of the lineup, the bullpen, we have enough areas of concern that will cause the Sox to lose a vast majority of games, even the games they somehow keep it close.

The thing with Maldonado is that “he handles the staff well” has become a self fulfilling prophecy. He must handle the staff well because everyone says he handles the staff well. Last year, Framber Valdez throws a no hitter and it’s because Maldy called a great game. Valdez gives up 6 runs and it’s because Valdez had an off day or wasn’t prepped. It could never have been Maldy’s fault because he calls a great game. Several of the Astros starters had down years last year especially in the second half, but Maldy can’t bear responsibility for that. Hunter Brown has a lower ERA throwing to Diaz, he threw to Diaz in the minors, but we have to spend the second half having him throw to Maldonado because Maldonado has to start playoff games, not the guy with the OPS like 300 points higher, better defense, and better work with that pitcher. Then, Brown has a bad enough second half that he isn’t in the playoff rotation, but that can’t be Maldy’s fault because we know he calls a great game so it must be the pitcher not understanding his greatness. Maldonado calling a great game, for Dusty at the end, was Leury having a good day in the batting cages for LaRussa. It was a truth that couldn’t be challenged by anyone, even if it doesn’t look good. These pitchers had bad games - that’s not on Maldonado, ever. I think the Astros are better led and that limited it from being a problem, but I think we’d have seen Dusty’s deference to this player become a real problem this year if Dusty had come back, one of those that really causes a break with the GM and coaches. It started to last year because people around here could recognize the struggling rotation pieces and how Awful Maldonado was with the bat, and there was an awful lot of talk about it.

I have a feeling this will be sticking on the first page for a bit now since we should be getting daily word salad from Mr. Clean.

Less out-of-control-clown-car would be a welcome change. Too bad it won't impact the win column.

Bump This fell to page 5 He's a world class schmuck and proves it most of the time he is quoted.

He is such a loser.

It’s like everyone associated with the Sox intentionally say stupid things to piss off Sox fans.

That’s bottom of the order is about as putrid as it gets.

After three years of Gavin Sheets as your LH power bat you have Gavin Sheets again. At least Vaughn is one of their top RBI guys.

Let him open his books and prove it to an independent economist. Until then I don't believe a word of it.

GASP. But where are all of the Royals fans going to park?!

Bullpens are always a crapshoot. Hopefully the Sox catch some lightning in a bottle that they can flip at the deadline.

Soler is inconsistent but i did see something cool. SF's park is a HR cemetery but all his HR's in 2023 would have cleared their fences.,

They don't all play good D. They all have reputations for playing good D, sometimes several seasons ago.

I put together a way-too-early 2024 Mock Draft for FutureSox and included four picks for the White Sox. Here you go: https://www.futuresox.net/2024/02/13/2024-mlb-mock-draft-1-0/

72 career saves including a season where he had 39. At least we have a few guys with closing experience in camp. Hopefully a decent bullpen can be pieced together.

Oh. Soxtalk will be talking about this team. Don't you worry.

I’m just assuming we will get the motivated version who maybe hits better than previous seasons

110 losses and the worst offense in the majors.

At first glance, the line up doesn't look half bad, then you realize, Beni10d is a punch and judy guy now, Moncada and Eloy are sure to get hurt, Vaughn usually spends half the season sucking, Fletcher has a little more than 100 career ABs, and Lopez, DeJong and Maldonado cannot hit. I wouldn't throw Robert a strike until the others show they can put runs on the board.

I'm really excited about Soroka.

I'll take all defense over whatever last year was. If these guys can play solid defense and fundamentally sound baseball, it'll be 8000% more enjoyable than what we've seen recently. Because clearly prioritizing guys who couldn't play defense worked so well during the Hahn years.

OK. Doesn't change the fact that he will only have about 80 innings. Whether it's bullpen, starting, majors or minors, he is only going to have a reliever like load.

That would work. That about the right amount of innings. That a long layoff until next season though. This all predicated on him staying healthy which he hasn't shown he can do.

It's almost like with Abreu and now Grandal gone...suddenly they still have to worry about someone keeping Robert Moncada Eloy in check to an extent. Certainly not coming from Grifol and Montoyo.

With that lineup, the white Sox are going to have an awful lot of short games this year.

At least Yaz isn't a dick. Maldonado was extremely unlikeable on an Astros team that was unlikeable to begin with.

I remember thinking about just how many things had to go right for the Sox last year for them to be competitive right before the start of the season...and that was kind of when I realized that we were screwed. This year is even worse for obvious reasons. Not only do we need just about everyone in the lineup sans Robert to bounce back or break out, we'd need at least 3 guys in the rotation to come back from major injuries or straight up terrible seasons. Don't even get me started on the bullpen. Even if we get some comeback years from Yoan or Eloy, I really can't see this team winning more than 70 games.

Oh so did I. I can already seem myself loathing Maldonado with the same white hot disgust I had for Yas...

Maldonado might have been worse but for the last 2 months of the 2023 season, if I was watching a game and Grandal came to the plate I would call out.....,"why is he still here???!!!"

Because Maldonado knows how to win.

There are a lot of ways to come to that conclusion. If all you look at is offensive and defensive metrics that's your likely conclusion. However if you want Cease and the rest of the staff to pitch well enough to be traded for more than we expect, a veteran catcher calling a good game recognizing his pitcher's strengths and weaknesses and making adjustments on the fly may be a positive influence. That to me is the main reason to play the season. Get as much as u can for Cease and others . For catchers his preparation , knowledge, intelligence might mean more to the Sox future than any other player. I guarantee he'll be catching Cease.

Good point. Is it better to lose 4-0 or 10-6? At least the 4-0 game is over under 3 hours I guess. To be fair, with this staff we might just be losing 10-0 a lot.

Exactly why I have no idea Maldonado got $4.25 million and Grandal got $2.5 million.

Getting shutout or low scoring in any sport is really depressing and the quickest way to turn off fans. I can take losses , I'm used to that as a Sox fan. Decent offense while losing at least you have some reason to cheer. Defense and pitching doesn't put butts in the seats unless you win.

With the way things are now with SP innings, he could make 20 starts before they shut him down in August and pitch 80 innings. I'm fine with the plan as long as Crochet is. We have very little to lose as a team and if the player has given his blessing, go for it.

James Fox says he hears they have 5-6 Dominican signings. Waiting for the fallout from the age scandal before releasing names and bonuses perhaps. 5-6 DR signings more than likely means below $2M left for the Sox if its 6 players averaging $60K per guy so its a very conservative estimate.

I'm slightly curious if an improved overall defense will make the losses more bearable. I doubt it, but as with all of us diehards I'm willing to give it a shot for a month or so before checking out.

Historically this will be a slightly below average season with historically low expectations. I think they can avoid 100 losses. They won't beat themselves and don't have anyone on the roster who has been arrested for that.

Hahn and company never should have been allowed to do the first tank job. They were simply not capable of pulling off a total teardown and rebuild. They saw the success of the Cubs and Astros rebuilds and somehow convinced JR they could do the same. Only problem is they did not have the infrastucture nor anywhere close to the baseball smarts of those other organizations. Getz is also a major reason why the Sox are in such a bad place. Hiring him to reshape this organization seems like a pipedream.

Most people who are opposed to masive taxpayer funding for billionaires to build sports stadiums are also against public officials taking lavish trips on the taxpayer dime. Not too complicated really.

It hasn't even been one offseason, but if his vision for the team is "all defense, no offense," then we are in for a rough Getz tenure. Kenny was all about catching lightning in a bottle, getting his guy, and using the farm to supplement the MLB roster. Honestly, if they had expanded playoffs during Kenny's tenure, this might have worked. Rick was all about trying to build a star offensive-focused core with power pitchers in the rotation, locking them up to team friendly deals, and supplement them with an expensive bullpen (where he could conceivably outbid teams) and other players he traded for (but he got starstruck by prospect rankings / could not develop). Getz, well, we know his hands are tied with the budget. But the Mena deal feels like a KW "use the farm to supplement the MLB roster" move where they sacrifice youth for an immediate fix. He talks about trying to make the team attractive for pitchers— with his 1-year signings of mediocre vets who are good defensively, but are aging. There's also a part of me that feels insane because JR waxed poetic about Getz "teaching" players in the minors to field baseballs. But for some reason that hasn't been the case at all during Getz's tenure, so if he's going to be like KW and Rick Hahn where he relies on going outside of the system — like Mena for Fletcher — to build his vision, then that's a problem. I've also been extreme blunt that I'm judging Getz on a curve because his hiring process was a joke.