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This board would have hated the Sox paying him $9 million.

Center field is coming off its worst offensive season in 100+ years. For the vast majority of the year it was the worst performing position in baseball- behind catchers. The skill set Robert possesses, in a game very low on center field talent, should cost a premium regardless of his struggles last year in a historically bad position.

I’m thinking of that key and peele sketch. “Is there a Bruh-ee-say on this team? Stop playing with me, Bruh-ee-say!”

Last year’s team was unlucky now? Huh? Getz had an absolutely putrid offseason other than the Fedde signing and people were calling him out for it in real-time last year.

Your comps in this thread have been wild. Robert, prior to last year, had accumulated 12 WAR in his previous 367 games (4 years) averaging 5.3 fWAR per 162 games. Bellinger, prior to last year, had accumulated 6.5 WAR in his previous 425 games (4 years) averaging 2.5 fWAR per 162 games. Robert is 27. Bellinger is 29. You can't comprehend how Robert would have more value than Bellinger. Amazing. For reference: A 5 WAR player is a top 20 player in the MLB. A 2.5 WAR player is in the 100+ range and much more attainable/replaceable.

So did Lenyn Sosa. Would you trade him for Luis Robert?

Idk, it's really hard to lose 110+ games. Even with being terrible, you need to have a lot go wrong. I'd lean over but really hard to bet on these bums.

Man, what truly sucks the most is that Fegan and Vinnie are two of the best and moderated when it comes to actual reporting vs. meatball coverage.

The Sox was from being a bad team with little interest. Several years ago, the Tribune went without a Sox beat writer, but for some reason had one for the Cubs. Back when the Tribune owned the Cubs, all of us complained about the uneven coverage. Now we just accept it. And why is because JR has let this team slide where everyone knows they are not a worthy cover. Vinnie didn’t deserve to lose his job. Fegan didn’t deserve to lose his. If JR would have done his job, they both would still be doing what they are doing. And the sad thing is, it wasn’t like they were making millions.

Counterpoint to the Acuna hype: Lenyn Sosa is hitting .392 ..451 .765 with 9 HR in the same league. Maybe the pitching is not great.

Lol my son is 5 months old. Whenever he grabs and starts doing stuff with his left hand a tear runs down my cheek.

The guy went 0-10 with a 4.74 ERA and an even higher FIP, and triples his salary. I wish I was younger and a better baseball player.

So your claim is now that Bellinger is an MVP worthy player these days, and if you are equating him with Robert, I would hope you understand why the Sox should be looking for more than Acuna and Baty as a return for him.

If he sucks as a starter, they can at least stick him back in the pen where he had success in 2024.

When literally everything goes wrong like that it tells me that the problems were bigger than just the players.

TBH, that’s too rich for me too. WOW.

Plus, every position player who carried over from 2023 regressed or stagnated. Really just the confluence of every possible thing going wrong.

I don’t see how the positional group could be viewed as being worse than the one that put up -6.4 of fWAR last year. Robert will almost certainly be better. Tauchman/Slater is replacing a RF group that put up -2.1 fWAR. The catching group will likely be improved vs. the one that put -2.4 fWAR. We have a ton of options for 3B & 2B that project to be second division regulars. And gun to head, Vaughn should be a little bit better than last year. Hopefully Benintendi will also be a little bit better as well. Again, this will be a bad positional group, but last year was terrible with dudes called up who were well below replacement level.

You have repeatedly said Robert has little value and that we must get rid of him soon or else we’ll likely end up with nothing. And I definitely disagree with you on your valuation of Baty & Acuna. They would be solid secondary pieces, but neither is a fair headliner for a talent like Robert IMO.

Not for JR’s White Sox.

See, you keep doing this. Pick random stat that supports your biased view of players and ignore all context. Again, we’re talking about 40 plate appearances with a wOBA nearly 100 points above his xwOBA and as ISO well over 100% above his minor league norms. But hey, who cares about his struggles in AAA when can the SSS in the majors to override it!

A couple moves I’d like to see: sign Michael Lorenzen as a 2-way: not sure this will work man this would be fun. The NYT just dropped an article about this, and I would love the upside for the Sox. If you offer the ABs maybe you can get a team option for the second year. Worst case if hitting doesn’t work out he’s probably the best pitcher on the staff. sign Ha-Seong Kim to a 1 year deal. If Kim doesn’t get the multi year deal he’s looking for, the Sox would be a great fit for a one year prove-it, recovery deal. The Sox medical staff might not be the idea fit, but most contenders would rather not pay Kim to rehab for the first few months of the year. Worst case, the Sox spend 12M on a guy who never ends up getting it together this year. Best case, he returns to normal and you have a huge trade chip in July. You’d be paying 6M for a chance to get some very good prospects. The guy was worth 10.7 WAR in 2022-23.

if someone last year this time offered a 35+ FV prospect for Crochet, the line of thinking woulve been 'sure take it, Crochet's a last link to a disastrous past' i would hold onto Robert and try to rebuild something for half a year there. if you trade now for pennies then you'll have to complain when he's at full health and back to a 38 HR pace we shouldnt make trades because we're upset about hahn or kenny. make trades when the time is ripe

So why is this company paying Cole Kmet to bring absolutely nothing to the table? Bet they are paying him more than the many people they just laid off through various cities. This is a piece of crap company with a horrible business model.

No, I look at everything, although I don’t put much weight on 40 major league plate appearances where is wOBA exceeded his xwOBA by nearly 100 points. My point was you only look at Robert’s 2024 and say he’s a worthless asset, but don’t do the same for Acuna who is coming off a very rough AAA season and instead try to anchor off a 40 plate appearance sample in the majors. The reality is that Luis Robert has been a 4.75 fWAR per 600 plate appearances type player prior to last season. There is no arguing against the injury history, but the bulk of the time missed is related to two hip flexor injuries. Regardless, there is certainly a high risk of some missed playing time with him. But hell, if he can give you even 450 plate appearances you’re probably looking at a 3.5 win player which is more or less a top 7 CF. And that’s super valuable when you consider a guy like Tyler O’Neil just got 3/$50M despite his own injury history. Ultimately, I’m not going to trade a guy who I believe will be a 3+ win player next year for a guy who has failed in the majors over a 600 PA sample and a prospect coming off a really rough 2024 season. I need much more of a sure thing if I’m dealing Robert right now…otherwise hold until the deadline and hopefully do better.

This sucks for every one of the people losing their jobs, and it sucks that the current state of the Sox gave them an extremely easy and accepted scapegoat well done all around, owners of sports and media. You got your pound of flesh, again

To me, Fegan was as good as it gets. He alone was worth the subscription.

Girthy, but he’s doing just fine…

Terrible news. Really enjoyed Vinnie's coverage of the Sox.

Fully disagree here. We have gotten to the point where major publications and local newspapers can’t justify supporting a beat writer for the Sox in the third largest media market in the country. That’s 100% on Jerry for allowing the product to fall off like this. So yeah, he’s not to be blamed for firing dudes the week before Christmas, but he’s made it financially unviable for many publications to cover this team.

Lame. I’ll miss Vinnie… won’t miss Herb.

With a running start.

While true, Jerry isn’t free from blame here. Interest levels are super fucking low because of the incompetence he has allowed to fester for years.

f*** that guy for blaming the Sox for it. They also laid off a Bears guy and people in their Denver office. A week before Christmas.

Sell the team Jerry

I’m sorry, but when you have a product line that’s not financially viable most companies will cut it. Covering the White Sox isn’t good business right now. If it was, then enough people would stop buying subscriptions and the broader business would go under. And like we saw with the Tribune and Athletic, both of those publications have kept on chugging without a White Sox beat writer. I will not defend firing people a week before Christmas and I do not support general corporate greed, but you also can’t point to every business decision and blame it on management being incompetent. Unfortunately, the external environment does impact how a company will need to operate and Jerry running this franchise into the ground has made it harder to cover the team.

Really good numbers in 2023, decent last year. Had a nice postseason. Wonder if Walker McKinven also vouched for him.

It’s worth the injury gamble especially if you are able to come back from it. It happens early in your career before you make it to the majors, you aren’t getting paid anyway. You get hurt before you’re a free agent, you still get paid plus service time, or if you get hurt after you get paid, the checks don’t stop. Most things in baseball,are cyclical. Everything seems to come back. Even bunts and stolen bases. But I don’t know if the 220 inning horse is one of them.

Acuna doesn’t have to mash to be a valuable big leaguer. He plays good defense and is very fast so he’ll provide lots of value on defense and baserunning. If he’s a 90 wRC+ type hitter in MLB he’s likely a 3-4 WAR player like Andres Gimenez the past two seasons.

We've all seen this before. Randa Fields Viciedo Vaughn Sheets Palka...

It’s absolutely wild that you’re saying we’re overvaluing a dude who put up 4.8 fWAR two years ago while hyping up a Mets prospect who put up a 69 wRC+ in AAA last year.

This is a very low-risk move. If Bannister see's something in him, then let's give it a chance. Exact type of move Getz should be looking at for the MLB level.

The Brewers used Wilson differently for a while. In alternate starts, Jerod Koenig would pitch the first inning, then Wilson would come in and pitch 5. He seemed to be a bit more effective pitching the 2nd through the 6th innings than being the true starter. game logs: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=wilsobr02&t=p&year=2024

Something the medical research figured out a few years ago.

Is it just me or is "Rate" a stupid name for a mortgage company?

Jerry Reinsdorf should be forced to sell with the damage he has done

Isn’t Robert’s track record also “major injury every year”?

But greg told us the problem is pitchers don't throw enough innings anymore???