Leaderboard

Well, you’re going to win 162 games and lose 162 games. It’s what you do in the other 162 games that matters…

Keeping par doesn't work. We need to make up 20-30 games. That's the point.

Let’s try and make some educated guesses on how you think this team will look when they break camp in 2026 compared to the starters at the end of 2025 Starting Pitchers 1. 2025 Shane Smith -> 2026 Shane Smith easy one here. Shane ended 2025 very strong after a lull in the middle of the season (which followed a strong start that put him in the all star game) . 2. 2025 Jonathan Cannon -> 2026 Davis Martin Cannon was first injured, then demoted for a good portion of the season. It was a disappointing season for him, and I for one thought he would be better this season but he became batting practice. Davis Martin looked like he finally belonged at the end of the season, he might not be a true #2 but in this rotation he will be. 3. 2025 Davis Martin -> 2026 Mike Vasil this may be misguided but I felt like Vasils stuff was starter worthy and he deserved a shot. We will see, he was valuable out of the pen and they may want to keep him there 4. 2025 Yoendrys Gomez -> 2026 free agent Not an inspiring guess, but I have to think they are gonna sign a Martin Perez type again for “veteran leadership” and innings eating experience 5. 2025 Sean Burke -> 2026 Sean Burke Burke was demoted, and came back strong in September but I don’t believe we will be seeing him as Opening Day starter again and letting him figure out in the 5th slot could be very beneficial for him. overall, I don’t see Schultz or Smith making it out of camp. There is a huge blob of intriguing guys but it seems like a lot of them spent 2025 recovering from season ending surgery. The last two spots could be vultured by any of them and I will not be surprised. bullpen 2025 Stephen Wilson -> 2026 Stephen Wilson had a strong start to the season but imo was pretty NOT fun to follow at the end. He seemed to have a hand in pretty much every blown lead. I hope someone else can take his place as Venables safety blanket but I don’t think they will. 2025 Jordan Leasure -> 2026 Jordan Leasure He had imo the inverse season that Wilson had, and flashed a lot of potential in the last month, hopefully he can build on that and continue to get better 2025 Grant Taylor - 2026 Wikelman Gonzalez It seems like Taylor just really wants to start, and if the Sox agree with that, I have to think they will put him in the minors to stretch him out for that role. Wikelman had some nasty run on his pitches, hopefully he can find the strike zone 2025 Tyler Gilbert - 2026 Tyler Gilbert the Sox need some left handed relievers to figure it out. Gilbert looked better than Eisert to me, and I would definitely lean on him over Eisert 2025 Brandon Eisert -> 2026 Fraser Ellard I don’t see them giving up on Eisert yet, and he seems to find the plate a little better than Ellard, but Ellard seems to have a little more boring nastiness in his repertoire. He reminds me (good and bad) of Aaron Bummer. 2025 Cam Booser -> 2026 somebody, anybody thats pretty much my entire thought on him. It will probably be Eisert 2025 Mike Vasil - 2026 Free Agent off the scrap heap if I’m right on Vasil moving to a starting role, then someone will need to replace him as the emergency innings eater and opener. Could be a rule 5 guy as well. 2025 Tyler Alexander -> 2026 Jairo Iriarte i know they want to see if Jairo can keep it around the plate. In his 6 games pitched, he has 8 walks and 6 Ks. Tyler was a mop up guy and pitched accordingly. Death is not an option. the “Blob of Intriguing players”(BoIP) mentioned above also contains guys that could conceivably unseat anyone mentioned above. Nobody should feel safe in this bullpen. Competition is going to be key but we aren’t looking at a Zumaya type that will come up and blow us all away. I can’t even pick a closer here because nobody looked like a closer, they just happened to be the last pitcher in the game when it ended Position players next…

You either find really cheap jerseys or pay way too much for your Busch Light

What an absolutely depressing thread. While I don't think any of these are incredibly far off from reality, it just speaks to the hole the White Sox are in under current management. Based on what everyone has posted thus far, they are at best a 70 win team, which means they lose 90+ games next year. For the sake of discussion, say the 2027 actually is played...they're maybe a .500 team that showed improvement from 2026? So they'll have gone .500 or worse in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027. This is not even mentioning them going 35-25 in the COVID season, 93-69 in 2021...which was took SEVEN years to get to with below .500 baseball....all for 222 games of above average play that birthed zero playoff series wins. Put another way, from 2013-2027, there is a real chance for them to have two winning seasons over a 15 year stretch.

They need a top pick so badly. While this looks great in isolation, take the Tigers who have the #2, #8, #33, and #37 guys in this list. Cleveland has 17/58/59. These are the types of teams we are chasing.

It means 1967 was almost 60 years ago, and that puts you really close to the age where you start collecting social security. It wasn't that deep.

5 in the top 100 is great and all, but the top prospect being #38 out of 100 isn't something I can get too excited about. The system desperately needs top end talent to go along with quality depth.

Jim Callis on ranking Bonemer vs. Carlson: https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/pipeline-inbox-arizona-fall-league-carlos-lagrange-billy-carlson-joshua-baez

Those are kind of strong words. He's not wrong...

I think 5% chance if he just destroys the Fall League. Otherwise, I think he gets half a season in the minors at least. I actually don’t think any of their top prospects are gonna make the team out of Spring. Schultz, Smith, and McDougal will probably get AAA time. Montgomery and Antonacci may start in AA. Oppor and Bonemer are unlikely to make the majors this year. Carlson and Fauske will be in A ball. Everybody else is either a utility ceiling, a project, or a reliever. So, guys who have a shot at making the team are lower ranked guys like Franklin, Pallette, and Shane Murphy, IMHO.

Brooks and Benintendi in the outfield makes my eyes hurt.

I'd say: SP - S. Smith, Martin, Burke, the odd journeyman signing, and a hodgepodge of Gomez, Cannon, Shane Murphy, McDougal, Tyler Schweitzer, and Duncan Davitt until Mason Adams, Thorpe and Bush rehab, and Schultz rounds into shape. I agree that Grant Taylor gets starter innings at Charlotte. RP - Somebody practically announced that Vasil will be in next year's bullpen again. I also see the cast of usual suspects getting another shot. Getz has shown he has little patience for the guys who get a clear shot and muff it (on the offensive side). Maybe he relies on Bannister more on the pitching side. That said, Eisert, Ellard, S. Wilson, Gilbert, Leasure, Wikelman and Booser should all get long looks here. We keep hearing names like Chase Plymell and Peyton Pallette, but none of them seem to have forced the issue, yet. C - Teel/Lee. I see a few "this team has big questions at catcher" articles on MLBTR and think the Sox can capitalize. Quero graded out as one of the worst defensive catchers in the game, and while he put up good BA and OBP, the power hasn't shown up. Maybe there's enough offense for Miami or TB to gamble on coaching his defense up. 1B - Gotta be Lenyn Sosa. Vargas' bat takes a hit here. Unless they find that Naylor's very affordable. 2B - Meidroth/Sosa until Antonacci or Gonzo force the issue here. And by "force the issue", I guess I mean, look slightly more like an average major leaguer than Meidroth. 3B - Vargas/Mead - Vargas started out strong, defensively. Maybe further conditioning and development turn him into the 3-WAR 3B I envision. I'd also imagine Mead has pretty clear instructions on what's expected of him coming into 2026 camp. I blinked, and the dude fell to a .584 OPS. SS - Colson. duh. OF - There's got to be a spot for Brooks Baldwin for regular ABs here. Maybe WillBob and Fletch pick off a month or so? Also a spot for a Quero/Robert trade return OF? Rule 5? DH - 10-D. If they can't trade him, he's got to spend more time here than LF. tl;dr - Quero, Robert and Tauchman are all good candidates to get traded. Meidroth is a nice story, but Getz doesn't strike me as having his Gordon Beckham who will start 5 years without a swipe at an upgrade. Rule 5 could make SP and OF fun spring training stories. There's probably 10 bullpen arms bouncing around the game that will be tweeting their White Sox horror stories at the end of 2026.

Lenyn Sosa traded for Jordan Walker is my big trade proposal (not that I support it)

Ok, the Cubs are on it, now I like this list

Guys we are gonna end this conversation about Shaw, unless we are keeping it at baseball. We all have our opinions on what happened with him, and those opinions aren’t going to flame this board one way or another. It’s ending now

What’s hilarious about this is you’re probably a little upset that I slapped you down pretty good yesterday after you made the claim that “There's a constant tone of negativity on this board and it's typically misguided/not rooted in anything factual.” Yet today, when I stated how sad the discussion is around the future of the Sox based on factual information about the last decade plus of the franchise, all you can do is make a joke(??) about…someone suffering from depression? Yikes

https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/updated-top-100-prospects-list-for-october-2025?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage Braden Montgomery #38 Noah Schultz #40 Billy Carlson #71 Caleb Bonemer #73 Hagen Smith #88 Nice to see the system rebound a bit after graduating Quero, Teel and Colson. Hopefully Fauske can make his way into the back end of the top 100 sometime next year. I'd guess Montgomery, Schultz and Smith are possibly up next season, which means McDougal, Oppor and Lodise are next up on the Sox top 30 as potential top 100s. Not sure any of them profile well enough to make the list, though. If the Sox can draft well enough to find guys with enough potential future impact in the first three rounds, and find a few diamonds in the rough in later rounds, they should be able to build a continuously competitive MLB team.

No worries, we are good!

Okay, next 8 cases.

Sure. I'm not 800 years old so I'm only thinking about during my lifetime lol. Which dates back to the late 90s.

It means that people who were 4 years old in 1967 are age 62 now. Is that too confusing? Saying that the Sox outdrew the Cubs in that Go Go Era means pretty much nothing to the state of the franchises today.

That overlooks like a hitter gets to hit once every nine team ABs, while a starting pitcher throws to all nine of them when they are in. Garrett Crochet was 2nd in MLB with 814 batters faced. Looking quickly the leading batters had about 700 PAs.

Colson's floor is what we saw with is back injuries and his sub .100 stretches with a ton of strikeouts.

I am sure the weighting of the systems changes because of where guys rank too. If you just rawdog adding up how many people are in top 100, that equates 100 with 1 as equal. With a team like the Tigers skewing towards the front with less players, but 2 top 10s, and 4 top 40s, that could outweigh the Sox five who starts at 35 and are mostly in the backhalf.

Most people have already covered what I'd expect but: Move Cannon to the bullpen - he's hit 96 on his fastball and I wonder if he could get into the high 90s in relief. Pair that with an increased focus on whatever the Sox think his best secondary pitch could be and you might have a decent middle reliever. I'd expect Thorpe to be in the rotation mix unless he's not ready for spring training. I don't recall what his timeline was. I expect Robert here all season unless he destroys in the first half and they can get something nice for him at the deadline. I'd look to trade Quero in the offseason and see what offers are there. Also see what's out there for Lee and pick whatever makes the most sense between the two. Teel is 100% your every day catcher. Platoon RF again between Tauchman and a FA signing or rule 5 pickup. I assume they'd have given Fletcher a longer shot if they thought he was anything, but maybe he's in the mix for a platoon if they trade or release Tauchman. I mentioned it in another thread, but give Elko a shot in the offseason to fix his issues and see where he is in spring training. Maybe there's a .750+ OPS guy in there somewhere. If not, encourage him to take his talents to Asia. Find someone to take Benintendi, or just DH him so he stays somewhat healthy.

And this guy took a year off to sign with the White Sox.

I say this respectfully nrock, but god help us with that team. That’s probably a 105 loss roster.

Obviously some of it was his own issues but I don't think the Sox did him any favors with their approach to his training and especially his core issues. Let's hope Colson fares better. Thread tax I really do think the farm is one of our decent points ATM as a franchise. There's good depth even if there isn't a couple top 20 overall types and depth is usually better.

I was just thinking about a deal with Tampa when I saw it was reported they were looking for catching lol well, not for Simpson but still.

Go Brewers Go Jays Go Phillies Go Mariners LCS’s w/o LAD, NYY, Red Sox, or Cubs would be very welcome.

Catcher 2025 Kyle Teel/ Edgar Quero -> 2026 Kyle Teel/ Edgar Quero honestly this is the most exciting position on the team for me. Teel just seems like the type of player that everyone that follows the team will love for his entire career, extremely enthusiastic and fun to watch. Quero seemed like he faded a lot down the stretch but get his ass in the gym in the offseason and hopefully next season we can see a complete year from him. I do, however, feel like this combination will not be for long, and Quero will likely be dealt at some point. First Base 2025 Miguel Vargas -> 2026 Miguel Vargas this feels like a pick that is mostly because there is no organization first baseman waiting to take this spot. Did everyone know that Miguel Vargas changed his hand position earlier this season and it did wonders for him? I found that out 287 times this season. Vargas did have some good runs, there is no doubt, but the droughts were not aesthetically appealing Second Base 2025 Chase Meidroth -> 2026 Chase Meidroth I know they messed around with him at short this year, but imo he needs to stay at second because the arm and range isn’t as good as it needs to be for short. The guy is a grinder but he needs to stay healthy. Shortstop 2025 Colson Montgomery - 2026 Colson Montgomery clearly his power has opened everyone’s eyes, but his defense I felt was even better than advertised which gave him a lot of rope when he had some dry spells. I really hope they can get him a better plan at the plate in 26, because there was a lot of at bats where he just went up there looking for one fastball and that was all, and good pitchers worked him over. 3rd Base 2025 Curtis Mead -> 2026 Curtis Mead I think the ship has sailed on Lenyn Sosa being a starter at 3rd, and they seem to like Mead despite his lack of power. I’m not a fan of it, but maybe he finds that extra bit of muscle and some of those doubles leave the park. This could be solved via trade (Robert?), I won’t be surprised if it is resolved that way Left field 2025 Brooks Baldwin -> 2026 Brooks Baldwin his defense was an adventure, to put it mildly. I have always felt that he needs to be put in one spot and left there to be at his best, but they keep moving him all over the diamond. I’m a believer in this kid, I like his bat and I think it will only get better. Center Field 2025 Michael A Taylor -> 2026 Braden Montgomery I am planning on Robert getting traded this offseason. I feel like they are going to be very aggressive with Braden and right now I see no reason why not, outside of him completely faceplanting in spring training. Right Field 2025 Michael Tauchman - 2026 Michael Tauchman I hate for this to stay static, but feels like both parties are happy with the arrangement. Maybe this could also be resolved via trade but I’m not seeing a up and coming RF coming back to the team any time soon, and we can’t put Benintendi out there again. DH 2025 Lenyn Sosa/Andrew Benintendi -> 2026 Lenyn Sosa/Quero or Teel (whoever is not starting) sosa showed us that when he gets hot, he can put up some big offensive numbers. Unfortunately for him, that glove is suspect at best. He will likely got starts at first and second for the benefit of everyone resting, but I think he spends most of his time at DH rotating with Teel and Quero for matchups Bench I’m not gonna go 2025 guy to 2026 guy because this is a “position” that you fill towards the end of spring training with Swiss Army knife guys that can provide good defense in a pinch. The Rojas experiment was a harsh lesson for all of us, and it seemed like everyone else they threw out there produced better than he did. I have doubts that they spend that kind of money on a “super sub” any time soon. for arguments sake, these were the bench guys in 2025, if you want to argue anyone in 2026 im all ears 1b/DH Tim Elko - despite the belief of a certain acronym that this guy should ask the Sox to release him so he can go start for a World Series contender, the hole in his bat was huge and put him back in AAA/AAAA hell 3B Bryan Ramos - this guy feels to me like someone who never really finds his footing with the Sox but finds success elsewhere OF Will Robertson - also seems stuck in AAA/AAAA hell. I’m doubtful he finds his way out but who knows, maybe the pedigree finally surfaces OF Corey Julks - See above. OF Dominic fletcher - I want to believe in this guy, even being a short dude. He seems like a gamer, I just don’t know that he will ever get “there” IF/OF Curtis Mead - he actually showed some promise, but like I previously mentioned it really feels like there should be more power in that frame IF/OF Joshua Rojas - an unmitigated disaster. A lot of money (for this payroll) and -1.5 WAR through mid August. Hard to understand how bad he was in the role he was given but here we are OF Michael A Taylor - I’m glad he got to retire on his terms. That’s all I got to say about that C Korey Lee - he is a strange cat in that sometimes he definitely looks like a legitimate major league catcher and other times you wonder why he is on the field. He has two good catchers in front of him so it’s hard to see a consistent role for him at the major league level looking at the roster apparently there was a guy named Ben Cowles on the team as well. I don’t believe this, but you can believe it if you want

Shortstops can generally move to other positions, look at Jackson Merrill. If Carlson works out, Bonemer is going to move, and I bet he could handle an OF position, possibly even center. As far as the new Top 100, all 5 Sox sport a 55 FV, so there’s no clear cut number 1. Personally, I have Bonemer > B. Montgomery just cuz there’s more upside there. I also have McDougal and Oppor in essentially the same tier as the Top 5 guys. Would not be surprised to see one or both of them sneak onto top 100s soon. After the top 9 guys, though, I think the system falls off a cliff. They really need to do better in LatAm to get depth.

You probably already root for “someone” like him but just don’t know it.

Agreed on both points. Aside from the bump for the first few years when the park opened and then a bump for a few years when they won the World Series, they've been plagued by attendance issues and criticisms of the ballpark and location. To make matters worse, over the last decade or so, the economics of drawing people to ballparks seems to have accelerated even more so toward a stadium integrated with other adjacent entertainment options. But they can't just build a new stadium and keep running this team in the same old Reinsdorfian way. Under Ricketts, the Cubs have become frequent participants in the postseason. They've advanced in the playoffs now - something the Sox have only done ONCE in the last CENTURY. Things were different when the North Siders truly were "losers". They might not make the playoffs every year, but I think they'll be frequent contenders going forward. The Sox can't bring fans back and rebuild this fanbase by fielding mediocre, underwhelming teams going forward.

REALLY? YOU DON'T SAY? I simply can't fathom why a White Sox message board would seemingly be more negative than positive after going 162-324 in the last three years. SOMEONE MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!

The Marlins sound way worse here. Who the hell is #1 if they're #2?

Actually, the Sox have something more powerful than TWTW: TWTS. The will to suck.

Deer had crazy power. I was only baseball “aware” of him at the end of his career, so all I remember is he was good for 3 ks and a homer that might leave the stadium. Crazy he had his best year with Detroit in 92 which was almost the end for him.

Look, I’m not looking to foster this argument. If you don’t like it, tough s%*#. I’m sure you could be profound, but you choose to post the way you do instead, and I accept you for being that way

They’ve made a ton of decisions on and off the field the last 4 years that has destroyed the finances of the franchise. You couldn’t run a franchise worse if you were trying to tank the team towards another city.

Are you referring to Vargas’ horrific start that lasted from the second the Sox acquired him into this season, along with his sporadic extremely long slumps? No offense, but you would be a complete and utter moron to not trade Vargas for Shaw in a straight up trade, even if the Cubs front office was high enough on meth to even make the offer. Shaw is younger, has more years of control, and IMHO, is much more likely to reach his peak. Shaw is apparently a cowardly “me” guy? What evidence do you have of this? Meanwhile, did you miss the hilarious “depressed” Vargas memes from last season once the Sox acquired him because he couldn’t buy a hit with his weekly salary? Who you crappin’?!?

Pipeline update: Stop me if you've heard this one before, but Montgomery is the Sox #1 prospect

True, but you can go back a lot farther than that.

As an admin, in general I don't have a problem with people throwing sand in the sandbox. It is par for the course in a place like this honestly. It irritates me more when people throw sand, and then complain incessantly when people throw sand back. If you are going to call people trolls, don't then go troll other people.

This seems desperate.

I grew up in Chicago and have been a fan for 65 years, my earliest memories of the Sox start in 1960 when I was five years old. I find it hilarious and infuriating that this organization has been incompetent, dysfunctional and inept for so long that the possibility of moving is even being brought up. This isn't the mid 1970's remember when John Allyn was flat broke. I don't want them to move at all but given the situation if they try to extort another stadium and given the disastrous results on the field especially since 2007 then piss on them. With the garbage they have been putting out and the profits that JR has been making for a long time they don't deserve s^&* in my opinion.

True... but all we know (for now) is that Nashville is a much smaller market, that the Mayor and others have already said public funds for a new stadium will not be available and MLB wants an expansion team there because they could get about 2 billion dollars in expansion fees (according to Sports Illustrated) and would not favor relocating a team. Based on the above I don't see how that would qualify as being in Ishbia's best interest or a better opportunity. Time will tell.

Will Venable isn’t going anywhere. He’s just getting his own guys.