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BOLD predictions, fathom.

Wow. Your predictions read like my eventual suicide note.

Thats only true if you can't just enjoy a baseball game. I know they are going to suck and not win much but a summer baseball game is still enjoyable for many.

The rotation this season is at least interesting and worth a watch. Especially if Smith is in it. The position player side of things though. Woof.

Let's face it, this team sucks so there's a lot of opportunities to be bold in 2025. The difference between this year and last year for me is that last year, there was only one guy I got bold about and that was Crochet. I thought I was bold, and it turned out he was even better than I thought. This year, there are a few more opportunities. I'll start with a few, and open up the floor for Caufield to copy and paste-spam 97 bold-prediction blog posts. 1. Sean Burke and Shane Smith combined for 5+ fWAR: With Burke, it's going to come down to command. If he can't command his fastball, this is toast, but I think both arms have the upside to surprise. I figure I have a shot of hitting on one and slightly missing on the other and still netting 5+. 2. Lenyn Sosa is a top 12 2B: I really wanted to go with top 7 here, but I was a coward. 2B is a weak position, and this puts him right in the 2.2 fWAR range, but more importantly it puts him in the wRC+ class of 105+. Sosa has shown a propensity to adjust and improve in his professional career. He lacks athleticism, but has a strong hitters acumen. 3. Miguel Vargas will not suck: The title says it all. This place is pretty down on Vargas, but there's a lot of failure left in that body before I'll say he's washed. He'll solidify himself as a MLB regular. 4. Grant Taylor will be a top 25 prospect by season's end. Dare I say, he'll out-pitch Hagen Smith. 5. Drew Thorpe will still suck Sell. Auction. Foreclose. Adding one: Garrett Crochet wins the 2025 Cy Young and leads the AL in IP.

I'll be stunned if Perez, Davis or Smith spend any time in Charlotte.

I'm not either, I'm incredibly checked out of White Sox baseball, just crazy that Sean Burke is an Opening Day starter for a team in 2025. I hope he's great, but just wild.

No one doubted it in relief. Although before the UCL there was a decrease in velocity but xould have been the elbow issue. Everyone doubted the arm for starting. Everyonewas shocked when they made him a starter prior to opening day.

You know there are a lot of potential outcomes in between Garrett Crochet-level breakout and failure. You act like Crochet's breakout was foreseeable. The thread announcing him as opening day starter a year ago was full of people criticizing the move and saying we had an opener starting game 1.

Yeah, they are going to struggle to score. Hopefully in the second half with meidroth, Teel, quero and Montgomery they get things going.

I said this a few weeks ago, but they need to find out, and most likely will, if Caleb is the guy. He had a good but flawed rookie season. Some of that was on Caleb, some of it was on the situation. The offensive line situation was a mess, and Caleb exacerbated it. They also had a coaching staff that voted worst in the league and there were public criticisms about a lack of preparation from the staff. Coaching hopefully will not be an issue moving forward. They also have significantly upgraded the offensive line, as you noted. Caleb should have the tools and infrastructure to be successful. If he isn't, and stays healthy for a majority of the season, we should find out if this is the guy for the Bears or not. And if he isn't....then this offseason was meaningless, as will the next couple of offseasons. But if he IS the guy, it's not even about 2025 W-L's. You had three teams in your division win double digit games. That won't last forever, but if you found your QB for the next decade, then it's a W.

I’ll play: Sox representative to the All Star game is Davis Martin. Andrew Benintendi will have a Wrc+ above 110, and they will trade him. George Wolkow will be a top 100 prospect by the end of the year. Nick McLain and Sam Antonacci will both be top 10 players in the Sox system by the end of the year. McLain will get a call up after Benintendi is traded.

You would think some of these guys would start separating themselves by now. They're gonna have a huge mix to choose from. Wouldn't be surprised if it's as many as 20 guys.

I’ll be hammered while tailgating by first pitch so doesn’t really matter to me.

I have been to Opening Days on the South side for many years. ODs have gotten a lot better every year since the Sox moved across the street. Now it's just a massive picnic. The feeling among the crowds is similar to what we have down Western Ave. with the SS Irish parade...everyone is in great spirits, smiling, and sharing a lot of camaraderie, drinks and food with family and friends. To me it's a sign of Spring and the baseball season to come. The games are usually played in cold conditions so the starting pitcher and the players (and us fans) need to soldier through that. Our OD starter may not have been the consensus pick based on match-ups and metrics, but rather for his grit and determination. I am 100% behind him and the team. Our group will have a great time, win or lose, rain or shine as we always do on Opening Day.

If the team stays healthy I'm expecting the team to win at least 81 games, maybe more.

Looking at the guys in our rotation, I will be shocked if a majority of them don't spend some time in AAA individually during the course of this season. There is so little experience, and not a ton of raw stuff in this group. The future is Schultz, Smith and hopefully Taylor if he can stay healthy through a season.

I know historically pitchers who rely on breaking pitched rather than velocity don't do as well in Arizona. Let's hope.

1. Vargas gets DFA in August 2. Teel is best offensive player on the team by end of the season

Yeah that seems like revisionist history. There was a ton of "what are they doing to him?"

He was going to line up at 2B lol Edit: unless he was going to possibly be the starting SS afterall.

They should have a lot more traffic on the bases this year with some guys that can talk some walks - so hopefully that leads to something.

Crochet had never started in his life. I would say both Burke and smith have electric stuff as well. With more quality pitches than crochet showed before last year.

There is a difference between enjoying A baseball game, and this disaster.

Garrett Crochet always had superstar stuff in his arm. That is not applicable to anyone else who is going to be on this major league roster as a pitcher to open this season.

Be honest. Did you think Garrett Crochet was going to be what he was prior to opening day last year? I didn't think so, so last year they didn't have a Garrett crochet either.

Jankowski is a lefty. As much as it hurts to say this, I think the OD left fielder for a major league team is going to be what’s left of Michael A. Taylor. On paper, this team looks like it will lose 160 games.

Not shocked by any of those guys. 12 NRI’s still in camp. 40 man roster crunch gonna be fascinating. Looks like they break camp with even more AAAA types than last year. Rotation looks okay. Line up and bullpen seem problematic. SS seems down to Meidroth/Amaya/Tristan Gray

1. 63 wins 2. Even with the super lefties and Grant Taylor coming up, Drew Thorpe will be the Greg Maddux-like ace of the staff for the next five years, at least.

Drury's hot spring carries over into the regular season and has a 2023-like season...before being traded at the deadline. Robert stays healthy, hits 20 HRs before the trade deadline, and is traded for a decent package. Penn Murfee is one of the best bullpen arms. Vargas has a nice season, batting .260+ with 25+ HRs and 80+ RBIs. Clevinger is the go-to closer to start the season, pitches very well, and still no team wants to trade for him. Drury, Martin, and Perez are all stars.

Oh Luis will get hurt running the bases in the first week and tear something

Per Garfien Benintendi and Slater taking bp today....they hope to play Wednesday.

Drury is ASG rep

Ok I'll play. If Vaughn breaks out, Robert stays healthy and contributions from Sosa, Drury and Vargas they might sniff the 70 win plateau. I think the pitching could surprise a little bit. All I want is to see hard play starting to do things right and development. I'm not saying they gonna contend but I'm trying not to see soooo skeptical on some stuff. Remember no one expected anything in 1990.... Just saying......

I think Burke and Martin both disappoint.

It's kinda an odd group of college hitters. You have a bunch of fairly polished hitters who have a chance to move quickly but are likely to be corners in Arquette, Curley, Irish, Taylor, Compton and Ford. You also have a group who are locks to stay at premium positions but have questions if they're gonna hit like Cannarella, Houston and Aloy. Then there's LaViolette who has questions about both. Right now I would say take one of the premium position guys and hope your new development dept can get him to be a league avg hitter.

To be fair, Crochet only had slightly more than a 0% chance of being as good as Crochet last year, per most assessments (mine included)

This is a great point that's hard for me to argue with. I'm upset about the team not looking at ST performances, especially Smith's; but then I'm ignoring Burke's incredible September in real MLB games. Maybe he is the way to go? We'll see. With that said, if Smith is not in the starting rotation, I'm going to be posting the first fire Venable post . . . maybe.

I 100% agree. Robert too. I don't really think these guys were optimizing their body for baseball.

I'm glad they gave it to a guy who may have a future with the team rather than a re-tread who will be gone at the end of the season at the latest.

Ligaments are static structures designed to support joints by holding to bones together. They stretch a little when joints move. Tendons connect muscles to bones. They contract and expand while helping to move one bone to another. In this case the ulnar collateral ligament holds the humerus and ulna together and keeps the elbow stable during the throwing motion. The flexor tendon refers to the wrist flexor muscles. While their primary function is to bend the wrist. However they originate near the elbow and cross the joint right over the UCL. The tendon acts as a secondary support to the elbow joint. The issue is that a pitcher can strain the wrist flexor muscles while flexing the wrist while throwing. This joint structures maintains its stability in this case. However the muscle can also be strained if the UCL becomes stretched and the muscles becomes the primary stabilizer of the joint. Thus a strain of the flexor can have 2 causes the primary strain is fairly easy to rehab. The secondary strain isn't the big issue. It's getting the ligament to heal.

Did you see Burke in the majors last year?

It is. Very depressing, the entire organization from ownership on down is depressing. I've been a fan now since 1960 when I was five. This will be my 64th season I have never in my life felt less hope than this year. It's really remarkable when you think about it how this franchise has been flushed right down the toilet. My thinking right now unless a miracle happens is I'll check the final score and that it. No sense wasting my time on anything else.

Sure and they were also facing 88mph heaters. Thing about the old days is they the old days. Moncada just has bad luck and is injury prone. Eloy never cared to be in shape imo.

10 months ago it looked like he'd never make the bigs. Pitching for a rotten team does have its perks.:)

This seems like an over reaction. In fact, I think worrying about who the opening day starter any season is an over reaction.

I just hope the weather is nice, the stadium is packed, and, most important of all, that everyone has fun.

Huh. Very cool for him. Even though I thought Davis Martin deserved it.

Seriously. Has nothing to do with the player himself, just embarrassing Sean Burke is the best an organization can throw out there Opening Day. If you didn’t announce the starter until the day of the game, 90% in attendance would say “Who?”