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It’s not really that crazy when you consider his injury history and the fact that he had one year of SP experience

Building off my previous post, here is my 5/1 roster projection: Lineup: B. Baldwin, RF (S) K. Teel, CA (L) M. Vargas, 3B (R) C. Montgomery, SS (L) M. Murakami, 1B (L) Hayes, LF (R) E. Quero, DH (S) S. Antonacci, 2B (L) Acuna, CF (R) Bench: IF: C. Meidroth (R) IF: L. Sosa (R) OF: E. Pereira (R) OF: A. Benintendi (L) Rotation: S. Smith (R) S. Burke (R) T. McDougal (R) A. Kay (L) D. Martin (R) or E. Fedde (R) Bullpen: CL: S. Dominguez (R) SU: Taylor (R) SU: Leasure (R) MR: S. Newcomb (L) MR: M. Vasil (R) MR: C. Murphy (L) MR: J. Hicks (R) LR: J. Paez (R) IMO, that’s a team that could surprise this year, especially if one of Hagen Smith or Schultz can grab the #5 in the rotation by June or so.

Over at Sloan, a Kyle Teel homer to tie the game for Team Italy!

It's mostly just minor league numbers propelling Chase in the projections. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Both are limited players in their own way and we'll see how they perform this year. Chase needs to prove he can still work counts after the book is out on him. Sosa needs to show his 2nd half power surge wasn't a fluke and continue to improve his defense at 2B.

The funniest part is that article was written during Monday's 17-9 shellacking of the Cubs at the hands of the Reds. Rolison came into the game in the 3rd with one out, and proceeded to give up: single, single, walk, double, walk, home run. 6 runs. I suppose the heads he's turning are watching balls fly out of the ball park. His spring ERA is 27.00, and his WHIP is 3.50

I think Tyler Biadasz is the more likely option. Linderbaum is gonna be highly sought after and will likely price himself out the Bears range. Biadasz, like Dalman, also calls out Blitz protection and other things on the line. He'll be a fine add.

Newcomb is throwing a 6 pitch mix. The cutter is running a nasty whiff rate, but nothing else is getting swing and miss so far. Vargas continues to play a solid 3B.

Him walking away from millions on his contract indicates to me something must've happened in his life. I wish Dalman and his family the absolute best.

Im shocked that a player that has his best performances after he turns 30 was living better through chemistry.

Yeah. Sox would probably going to playoffs here in what would have been crochett's final season with the team if he hadn't made that trade. We lost so much

Correct. It was only the injury, surgery and ground breaking rehab program that the Sox used that allowed him to reach that starter potential. There is still a risk it all falls apart.

I don’t know in what world Crochet was bringing back Roman Anthony.

Jim Callis of MLB.com has released his top 30 Sox prospects. Despite a lot of graduations last year a pretty good list. 5 overall top 100, 13 are aged 21 or younger. https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/whitesox/

I’d be shocked if Antonacci or McDougal made the team.

I’m still not seeing how any team would be interested in Benintendi, even if the Sox were actually willing to pick up half of his remaining contract which would mean the acquiring team would owe him $15.5 million over two years. The Sox just signed a similar quality veteran outfielder in free agency for just $6 million for one year. Unless Benintendi has a big first half and/or 2026, I think the Sox are stuck with him until they are willing to outright cut him and pay out his deal.

I am very high on Burke. He was phenomenal to end 2024 and then started off this past year very poorly before rebounding as the season progressed. The reality is some repertoire changes negatively impacted his slider and he’s been working on addressing over the off-seaon. If he can get that pitch back on track, I see a kid with ability to be a legit #3 SP. Periera is backup OF in the above construct and one who would primarily play against LHP until he can demonstrate the ability to do more than that. Not sure why he’s drawing your attention here as he’s simply a role player. And FWIW, if he’s not healthy, I think Hill gets the spot ahead of Kelenic to start the season. Finally, I assume that Benintendi and Quero split the DH role and that Andrew plays LF when Hayes needs a day off. If he fails to produce in such role, then I think he’s a potential DFA by the 2H of the season.

Braden will be up at some point, but they want him to work on his chase first. To me, he’s more of a 2H reinforcement and hopefully the guy who eventually pushes Benintendi off this roster once and for all.

Yeah, that's exactly why the article is silly. The premise was using a whopping two scoreless innings as evidence that the Sox would regret the loss of a guy who had been riding the waiver wire. Meanwhile the Sox have multiple lefties who have thrown a whole THREE scoreless innings! With multiple strikeouts/inning instead of Rolinson's 0! Like @WestEddy said, it's just filler content. If they kept Rolison over Eisert, you could write the same article and arguably have a better case (Eisert is slightly younger with an additional year, and has been better)

In the regular season they'll play their best guys in leverage instead of minor leaguers. Considering most teams are due for a random blowout or two by week 2 of ST, it actually feels weirdly positive that their losses are from prospects/NRIs coming a run short in late innings.

If they're going to try to hold and win 1-run games, they should probably put their set-up guys and closer into the high-leverage situations instead of guys who will be throwing AAA innings for most of this season.

Antonacci came up with the bases loaded, no outs and got a job done with a sac fly. Italy up 9-4.

Wicks gets a visit from the trainer and then leaves the game, apparently gesturing towards his hand. Maybe a blister? Velo was there, control wasn't.

So my son gave me a new custom Brother Rice / White Sox cap. This thing is 🔥.

I’m guessing he won’t even or will barely wrestle. He’s on the R-Truth gimmick plan. Mostly used for comedy, just for the merchandise sales.

The analytics apparently are in support of the contact play, but I swear it leads to an out at the plate more often than not when I've seen it. Solid outing for Chris Murphy. 3IP scoreless, 1 hit/walk and 4Ks. Sitting 95-96 with the fastball.

Can't imagine how the Sox pen will survive without that "hidden gem" production!

Its on mlb.

Vargas likes Pivetta. Solo bomb ties it.

What a strange article. If DFAing Rolison becomes "one of the most regrettable decisions of the Sox offseason", that would be pretty stellar.

Tyler Linderbaum, cmon down.

Meidroth will not be replaced by Sosa, but eventually he might be by a player like Antonacci who can play good defense and has some power. Sosa is a back-up infielder and DH who will get a lot of ABs once again because he is a proven hitter with power. Always exciting to see him come to bat because he hits the ball hard.

True .I had looked at Chase's MiLB numbers and it still all came back to plate approach and walks ,and the consistent steadily high OBP and better fielding though it is only slighly above average . Both show that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Both made it to the majors. Chase because of great approach which resulted in decent but not powerful hitting stats yearly. Sosa because he'd have a down year then adjust so ,as we often hear with prospects, his path was not linear. Projection systems are less tolerant of the inconsistenies of non linear development.

And can’t give away at bats with lazy fly balls to right field

We have a ~$15M DH/lf option ready to go for them.

There go his chances at the HOF.

Im conflicted here.Sosa wasn't that bad defensibly at 2nd base. He was far from the top defender there but so was Chase. They had almost the same fWAR. Sosa slightly higher 1.4 to 1.3 for Chase .WAR and projection system hate Sosa because of the poor chase rate ,low walk rate and defense. fWAR had Sosa slightly negative in offensive and more negative in defensive WAR but somehow his overall WAR was 1.4. The projection models are much kinder to Meidroth than perhaps any other Sox player as far as projected WAR. Not sure why that is. Maybe walk rate, chase rate and defense are more steady stats that make it easier for a counting stat like WAR to incrementally move forward because a good approach is a key to being a better hitter. You might not be able to say Sosa is a professional hitter because of his approach but he is a pretty good hitter. WAR and projection models look at Sosa and basically say we don't understand why he and Meidroth had similar WAR but it won't happen again. Its like the single best contact you can make doesnt even count as much as a walk.

Nor does a good or even great day in ST mean much of anything. See Betemit, Wilson or Sweeney, Ryan. Not a fireable offense. But also not burnishing the credentials of a front office that has had to face credibility questions for three consecutive seasons in the national media.

Those who live in the past suffer depression. Those who live in the future suffer anxiety Only those who live in the present love in their right mind. Paraphrase from Lao Tzu

At what position was he one of the worst at? SS? Chase only had 3 errors at 2B. Meanwhile Sosa had 10 at 2B. Defensively there is no comparison here.

And he deserved it. The endless mocking of Getz for not knowing that Acuna wasn’t a switch hitter has nothing to do with hoping Acuna turns into a good player. A GM should know the batting handedness of the player he is acquiring in a trade.

Im more shocked so many people celebrate Getz for that move. He gave up one of the three best pitchers in baseball and if Montgomery isn't a + big leaguer it's a guaranteed loser... and I think Teel is an all-star caliber catcher but he's not a unicorn talent.

I love that camera. It’s like a gothic romance novel

Cubs pitching getting absolutely LIT UP by the Reds today. 15-6 so far. Boy I hope the Cubs end up the third best team in that division.

They have Sosa. He led the team in home runs last year, but so many people here seem to ignore him or forget about him. I don’t think he’ll lead the Sox in HRs this year, but if he gets enough at bats, I feel confident he’s good for 25 to 30. That’s why I think he should be the main person at 2nd over Meidroth. That power goes a long way. With Quero and Benitendi, there are not enough DH at bats to take advantage of Sosa’s power. A example of my point about people forgetting about Sosa is that I was listening to a podcast saying that Sam A, with his EVs, should replace Meidroth because he is good for 12 to 15 homers a years, clearly more than Chase can hit. I listened to that realizing that Sosa could double that amount.

Robert hit 14 HRs each of the last 2 seasons and put up a wRC+ of 84. Austin Hays just hit 15 HRs last season and had a wRC+ of 105.

Vargas, Quero,Sosa?

There’s a Rock Raines in him somewhere.

So, I assume this means you aren't wishing him a happy 90th birthday today?

I’m going to predict 78 wins while I have a few beers in me. Why not. Done being down on team. Everyone is having a career year like the Mercedes era, but Tony’s not around to traumatize anyone