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If the Ishbias come out and say they'll privately fund a $1B+ new baseball stadium at the 78 (and I understand that's a HUGE "if"), city officials would be crazy to block that effort. And I get an alderperson taking a position that reflects the concerns of her constituents, but I'd be surprised if the city spurned such an offer. There shouldn't be an issue of having events at both facilities at the same time as the Fire have home games only 2 or 3 times a month.

Odd looking at the lineup and thinking "not bad".

Ok lets get this train back on the tracks.

awful baserunning at least try and get in a run down.

The amount of LHB we have now gives me epic pleasure. It's been centuries.

3 cheers for the hottest team in baseball in September!!!

No.

And this is the team our attendance is on par with. Look, this is EXACTLY why Jerry wants to leave Bridgeport for the 78.

I debated even making the post because it's a small sample and looks pretty different if you make it 'July 4', 'August 1', etc., but was trying to highlight hitters who will probably be here next season and not so much the Amayas, Capras, Matons of the world. Colson's 'eye' was one of his most impressive skill in the minors and it looks like it's starting to come on, likely as opponent pitching is adjusting to his wacky power and he's taking what he's being given. I wrote in one of the game threads, it's probably better in the long run that he's walking and hitting singles and not pacing 60 home runs per 162 games. I mean that would be wonderful, but he's probably not a 60 homer kinda guy. His BB rate in Sept is 13.333% up from 6% in August and 7.4% in July. 6 walks each month but September is not even halfway over. Chase is paralleling that, 5 walks in each of September, August and July. Faced some pretty bad-to-average pitching this month besides Skubal. So yeah, we'll see what the rest of the season holds especially with Vargas back. I'd argue that Sosa is even looking more patient.

The one good thing about pitchers is they can randomly just find it. But, obviously given Konnor Griffin, it's going to be hard to accept a college pitchers long winding road to competence.

It's funny the split, but worthwhile to do because we have quite a few different players in the second half. But for me it's funny because the point of this post is actually a bit in free fall. Walk rate post ASB has been much lower - in part due to Colson's poor walk rate, Meidroth not walking as much and being injured, and Vargas injuries. By end of sept would be funny if we were at same spot. But, second half saw strike out rate go WAY down while power went way UP. That's worthwhile.

We know offensively we've been better in the second half. How it has been done has been reassuring to me that we are scouting and have a better young core. Offensively, I'm sure we are aware that post ASB we have been an actual very good offense. That has helped us be a .500 team in the second half despite a very bad pitching staff. But there is one area I appreciate because even if you isolate our no-good offense of April and May showed immediate, genuine progress. Team BB%+: In 2022, our 81-81 team had a BB%+ of 80, which is 20% below league average and also last in the league. In 2023, our team BB%+ was 75, which is both 25% below league average but also last in the league. That was a 100 loss team obviously. In 2024, our team BB%+ was 83, which is 17% below average and amazingly just 29th in the league. While 2022 could be passable because we struck out less, and did so with league average power, by the time that we get to 2024 we are striking out more, walking less, and when we do hit it, it's for grounders. In 2025, our BB%+ is 102, which is 2% above average and 11th in the league. Our K% is 100, so we are just average in strikeouts (17th in league). What makes our offense still relatively tepid is the power. So this is, finally, a real reversal into a trend that was just extremely stuck. Much of that was players, but we had a lot of differentplayers during that 3 year stretch. This year, the MLB vets we got were able to provide actual bases not just generated by hits, but so was our talent from the farm coming up and not being embarrassing in their approach. What makes me genuinely even happier is if you isolate it to just April and May of 2025, when our offense was bad, we had a 107 BB%+ which was good for 11th overall in the league. They struck out MUCH more early, and had zero power. So even if you say we are buoyed by a hot stretch, this pattern has seemed genuinely durable across some different groups of players. A funny part is - hey wait Colson isn't necessarily an amazing part of this - ... Well post July 4th, with our loss of a few vet hitters and rise of Colson and younger bats, our Walk rate does go down to 96 and 20th in league, but our K rate is actually 90 - so we strike out 10% less than the rest of the MLB. We actually have the 5th lowest K%+ since Colson came up. But our power IMPROVED. pre Colson our Power ISO+ was 73, now it is 106 post Colson. So BBs went down, Ks went way down, and power went way up. But most importantly, we stopped this 3 year long trend of being bottom of the league in BB%+. In 2021, when we had good offense, we were second in league in BB%+ at 114 (thanks Grandal). We have more work to do to be the best team in baseball, but this is the kind of real progress I like to see. Shows across the board better execution in scouting, coaching, and players.

Needed a bit more offense tonight.

Contact pitchers don't usually fare well in AZ...going to have to simply quiet critics/doubters with effectiveness.

"he’s proven to have poise and smarts on the mound. There’s no overwhelming strikeout pitch in his arsenal, but his stingy attitude toward free passes (and safe hits that stay in the park) might well offset that." The biggest concern has to be the White Sox still having below average defense projected into 2026...that doesn't work nearly as well with pitch to contact/control guys. He's also going to have to beat out Thorpe who has a similar profile.

lol. Just garbage

Feels like his era doesn’t accurately reflect, a lot of the runs he has given up are put on the prior pitcher. I haven’t looked at it but he never seems to hold a messy situation

Baldwin replaced by Taylor in CF, Brooks must be hurt.

Going to be saying that a lot next season...prefer Baldwin on the corners.

Hopefully something minor

damnit, stop thinking!

Colson needs to start attacking pitches earlier in the count.

Nice 8 pitch inning! Martin settling down nicely after shaky start.

This ump is kinda all over. Pitch 3 was worse on tv

You haven't missed much

Go to the 78 on foot and tell me what attractions there are around there that would justify the investment of Billions of dollars there. This tract has been a dead zone for over 100 years for good reason. There is nothing there there. Have you looked at the Fire plan that they claim will be started next year? The 3 Metra tracks, The Clark st. N and S ramps, and Roosevelt are not altered, but for a possible turn off from Roosevelt into a parking garage. They will need a wall built all along the Metra tracks for pedestrian safety. If the Fire proceed with their current plan forget about your dream to move the Sox from their historic home on 35th street to that sh1thole. Auchi and his Related companies have been pushing hard to get money to build (from Amazon, from U of I, TIF from the City) on this extremely compromised tract for over a decade. They don't care about our sports fans or the City of Chicago, they are in it for the money and they are pushing harder and harder as time goes by.

Jose Ramirez is just the steadiest of offensive players. He hit into that dp but damn his numbers are just consistently great. Almost 40 Sb again

At what? Not throwing to second or pitch calling or blocking balls. The only metric he's better at is 'framing' which Fangraphs super overrates the importance of. It's also vague and hard to measure. Fangraphs gives our old friend Yasmani Groundball 20 extra WAR than bball-reference because of 'framing'. Literally double. Neither guy is good at the position but good enough that you want their bats in the lineup. Teel looks to be a better hitter so far. Quero has a much better idea of the strike zone. Split the time equally between these rookies should be the play. Neither one has proven much of anything. I think the idea is the opportunity cost. Quero is too good to be a backup and there are holes at 'every day' positions especially the outfield. Probably not a good enough hitter to be a DH. The idea isn't to give him away, there's no rush, but to find an outfielder who is just as good as he is. Would rather have someone who is perhaps a better hitter and will not rot away on the bench. Not sure who that player is. Kevin Alcantara maybe. Lee is not a valuable trade piece but he's fine to play, like, 40 games a year max.

You can never have enough catching and there is more than enough room for Teel and Quero on this 2026 roster. Lee is legit MLB backup catcher but he's the odd man here. He will have a 4-5 year career somewhere else imo as a backup. If there is some problem with Quero and / or Teel next year then consider a trade but absolutely zero rush to trade away an age 22 catcher with ball to bat and on base skill because of some perceived roster inbalance.

Teel is significantly better

Montgomery still has a lot of holes and is real streaky with the K's. I have no idea if he'll be up early next year. I think there's one scenario in which he closes a few holes and rockets into right field. There's another another where the further he goes up, the more the holes get exploited. That may delay things. He's a good enough defender that .240 with decent power is a major leaguer, though. OTOH, I think Bonemer is going to move incredibly fast. Scouts don't like how little movement there is in his swing, but it works and there are very few moving parts. He could be up by May 2027. And I would not be surprised if they stuck him in the outfield if there's still the huge glut of infielders. Guy's a good athlete.

Report said 4 weeks in a walking boot and should be ready to restart baseball activities and play in the AFL.

I wouldn’t say “no chance”, if he is non roster invitee next spring and just flat out shows he can hang, I wouldn’t put it past them to push the envelope with him. It’s not likely, but there isn’t a lot of guys at the major league level who are blocking him and Getz has made a lot of call ups this season that make me think he would be willing if he believes the player can do it

I lived for a year about a mile away from Coors Field. That whole area is popping off, it's a lot like Wrigleyville plus a bunch of homeless shelters, Salvation Army, drug rehab facilities. The YUPs and CO's junior senator (real estate developer) are trying to get rid of all that other stuff. The ballpark is really incredible. Great views. Lots of things to do before and after. Denver is also quite small and all of its 'touristy'/business things are concentrated around this area along with the 'neighborhood' kind of vibe. Very easy to access by commuter rail and highway...the yuppies can just walk over and it's a nice day out. If you're in Denver on business, it's probably walking distance to your hotel. It's a cheap day out for families. I think that ChatGPT post got it pretty much right. The transplants (ie me) are a big factor too. I think the high octane offense draws people. Nobody cares if the home team is any good.

If he has an insane AFL and spring he'd probably start in Charlotte but no chance he makes the opening day roster. Best case he forces his way up by July.

And because this news is out there, it is begging MLB to get involved. It has happened before.

I know. Just the concept of A) A 12-year-old prospect inking that B) It getting announced 5 years before it can legally be signed, with details about a prior contract falling through Are just bonkers to me

I heard a clip on MLB Radio this morning that the Pirates have had 4 above .500 seasons in the last 33 years (I didn't fact check it). Jerry see's all the year over year profits that they get and that's what he wants. I think it's going to be a long lockout. The spenders don't want to share with teams/owners that don't care about winning and the non-spenders don't want to cutoff the pipeline of profits.

Good stuff. Looking at that same list, since the break, Sox are 6th in WOBA/9th in xWOBA. 5th in LA, 13th in barrel, 18th in hard hit. The underlying metrics are cause for optimism since the call-ups!! A lot of this can be repeated next season...we might actually have a good offense especially if Luis is still with the team and can somewhat replicate what he did his first four seasons. Patience and power plus some batting average guys sprinkled in. It's just too bad the lineup isn't more balanced. A bit of glut in the infield and at the catcher position. The corners are still kinda scary although Braden ought to be a nice addition to eventually replace Tauch. If Luis is traded, who knows what CF will have in store. Dru Baker and Jacob Burke seem like the most "ready" CFs in the system and neither guy is good. A couple of guys who could be something by 2027. Would love to get Kevin Alcantara from the Cubs somehow.

Some interesting stuff here: Sox are 25th in xwOBA, they are 2nd in LA, they are 18th in barrel rate and 17th in hard hit rate. Last year the Sox were 19th in LA but ranked bottom 3 at best in the other three. The xwOBA still isn't where you want it but at least some underlying stats that will need to be there for any decent offense have moved from awful to mediocre.

How is Ozzie's accent getting heavier?

The woman is being offered 5k to sell the ball, and being asked to sign “I’m sorry” on the ball lol https://www.ffsn.com/phillies-karen-is-being-offered-5000-for-the-ball-she-stole/

Honestly the worst take you have had on this site. Woof f*** that lady, she didnt have any more right to it than anyone in that row

I'm one away on the Sosa HRs. None of those guys were traded. 6 more wins in eminently doable. Colson has his 2 bWAR and then some.

I think the Sox can breath easy their record won't be broken in 2025. Congrats to all involved.

Yes, Hulk did raise a moronic man child in Nick that probably still thinks he did nothing wrong in his life. In 2007, the guy put his best friend into a paralyzed vegetative state from drunk and reckless driving while drag racing. Hulk actually blamed the best friend/victim in recorded calls to his son Nick while he was in jail. In 2023, Nick got busted for a DUI so what do you do after that? Surely the wise move is to take your son on tour to bars, clubs, and restaurants around the country in order to shill your Real American Beer. Perhaps that wasn’t the wisest of decisions when your son obviously has a problem with drinking. That was just a totally awful decision and look. https://youtu.be/829CE9nmYAA?si=MIcE0Enl0gXnxeiM

the racist comments about black people and busting the union is enough for me. You wanna add the street racing element that brain damaged his kids friend and the entire fallout from that, that’s fine too, hulk hogan was a legendary character in the business, Terry Bollea was a piece of s%*# person

Because he was also a piece of s%*#