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It's cool that Ryan Pace has joined us

Fun game to be at in person. Loud White Sox contingent there this evening.

New guy here and a little shy about starting a new thread - but here goes. Scanning through the MLB site post AS break team stats reveals a few negatives: While we're 5th in league OPS, we're not hitting many doubles or triples (86 2b/12th in league) (4 3b/14th in league), i.e the only reason we're in the top 3rd of the AL in OPS is due to the increase in HR hit in the last half of the season. Feast or famine re: XBH. Two points that have jumped out at just about everyone: (1) We have a grand total of 8 Sac Flys (tied for league worst.) This stat alone indicates that we're getting the runners on but are not getting runners in at anything like a reasonable rate. (2) A league worst 55 GIDP. The Sox are top 5-6 (American League), in just about all other areas. Not exactly meh but not sterling either. I don't know that we're shooting ourselves in the foot so much as tripping over our own feet. At least some of this has to do with TLR's style as well as late summer fatigue and the over-time abilities of players. Looking at individuals - I can understand Vaughn's rookie challenges, but what's up with Eloy? At this point, even considering the value of resting players, I'm not overly optimistic about the playoff chances against Houston. Thoughts?

Leury's got voodoo dolls somewhere in his house.

"Soxtalk said I'm not crazy" will get you far in this world.

This team is so well rested they've slipped into a coma.

Padres bring in old friend Detwiler and he gives up a grand slam

Toasting all Sox fans who love the White Sox and our great Polish core in Chicago. Greg Luzinski is our cousin, the Sox are still kicking ass nearly four decades later!

That ball is probably gone in just about every other park. Triples alley in this stadium is huge.

He really has. The sac bunting has become less and less prevalent. We're still third in the AL in sac bunts, but 18 of the 21 came in the first half. We've had 3 sac bunts in the 2nd half.

26 game on-base streak for Yoan. Imagine not appreciating him. couldn't be me. What a stud.

I feel like even when Dylan has his best stuff he somehow manages to have like 70 pitches through 3 innings...

Would it be bad to point out Eloy's career wRC+ is 120? He's a very good hitter but when he was returning from injury it felt like some people were acting as if he's already Juan Soto or something.

I want to see Cease come back super strong, throwing strikes, commanding the zone with all three pitches, and going at least 6. That’s the most important thing we can hope for.

We need a 3rd party, but Yang sure isn't the one to start it. We need people who are between the two parties, not farther left or right than them.

Again, how will that change anything going forward? Ok, China did it. Now you know. Now what. this is like stopping and yelling at Tommy for letting the lions out of their cage when they are running up to eat you both. Ok Tommy let them out. Do whatever you can to get safe and then yell at Tommy.

You put together some really good stats and info that tell a very interesting story. At the end of a long season, I'm sure guys like that are always looking for new angles or a potential story. You should DM him with some of the numbers you posted, and just ask him if he can look into it more with some of the responsible parties involved. My bet is you get a response.

no offense to any of you - but i've been going back and forth about this for a while. i'm going to be deleting my account. i used to have fun on this board, but lately its more anxiety than anything because of this stupid topic. i don't even go onto pale hose anymore ... just straight to this. and i waste entirely too much time trying to make points. im sure some of you are really good people. we all have our disagreements naturally about how we see the world which are driven by personal experiences that others on this board are not privvy to. take the response above ... I mean? This your moderator? i could say the sun is shining and he'd come back with "there's some clouds up there". what's the point of going back and forth with someone like that? it's not even a normal, reasoned response. how is that productive conversation? it's just attack. 33,551 posts. im gonna stop wasting my time... have fun on your next 33,551 posts tony.

Why cant I put LSD, MDMA, Cocaine etc in my body? Do I really have control of my life? The argument against vaccines is entirely hypocritical if the anti-vaxxers dont believe I have the right to do whatever damn drugs I feel like. Unlike covid, my cocaine binge isnt hurting anyone but myself. In most states you cant even buy marijuana. (Edit) Also my employer is allowed to restrict alcohol/drug use while I am working. Why should my employer not be able to also require vaccines?

I'm not cheering for the Indians until the Sun times has the asterisk next to the White Sox name.

No it does not. A doctor may give it to you, but the only evidence that is has any effect is clearly fraudulent. It is also really, really, really interesting how you have such a problem with Big Pharma making money on anything, but you have no problem with people pushing Ivermectin to make money on it.

That might drop him below a .1000 OPS on the season. Who needs him anyway

Tatis pops up with the tying run on 1st in the 8th and 2 outs. Don't worry, he had great swagger jogging to first base.

I know we’re playing a shit team but this is one fun game to watch

The defense will do a lot of heavy lifting for him next year and he's not going to be other wordly on defense until the hip is right. It's insane he can be one of the best hitters on the planet after such a long layoff and not being 100%. His tools are generationally good.

He's so awesome!

That ball just kept carrying.

Cease is averaging 6.004 IP per start which is full inning above the big league average.

This would be a 26 game hit streak if I were the official scorer in Oakland.

yep, I don't care how long he goes if it's 1 or 2 runs. Let him become Rich Harden and I'm thrilled.

Biiiilly Billy Billy Billy. 🖕🖕🖕

Day records: Sox 29-26, Hou 23-24. So go Yankees/Red Sox!

It would take sooooooo much for a third party to overcome the establishment. I really don't think I will see that in my lifetime

Sure would be nice to have a full lineup at some point.

I've stopped listening to Bill Maher a long time ago.

No but it will validate their distrust.

I think he is correct. It has nothing to do with anything going forward but people who distrust the government and other entities will use it as more evidence to distrust "the system" right or wrong. It's all about perception and optics.

You haven't really answered my question at all, I'm not asking again

It would be nice if he started "attending" games.

If someone tells you with proof the virus originated in Bulgaria, how does that change anything you have done or will do going forward. Why does it's point of origination affect whether you will or will not vaccinate

That seems too specific to be useful as a metric, then, because it's not counting all the times they won after being down in the 7th or later, but rather just in the 7th. Of be more concerned about the former than the latter.

@IWokeUpLikeThis the LaRusstans would disagree with this statement I'm sure.

FWIW, Extra Rest in the postseason is likely unless he starts game 1 of the ALDS. If he starts game 2, his next "turn" would be game 1 of the ALCS, which would be ~8 days later.

I hope the Sox do not waste their Championship window with a crappy manager like TLR. The team, the city and the fans deserve a better manager. TLR low energy, no sense of urgency, boring ineffective station to station baseball with no runners in play with many double plays, perplexing on field decisions, Sunday lineups, etc. should not be the norm.

Tough call on 2B starter in playoffs. Leury will have the occasional brain fart. Cesar really looks lost, and also seems not to care. I'd go with LG if they let me choose.

Thanks for giving me permission. Such a typical response.

If Tony and the Sox are checking out until the playoffs. Maybe the fans should as well and not buy tickets.

So much is wrong about this post IMO, but no need for me to rebut. You have the right to your opinion on the vax issue.

There's been a trend going on where we just absolutely refuse to hit sac flies with a runner on third and less than 2 outs. I know it's a super weird thing to be bad at, but our bad record in 1 run games and the fact that the playoffs will be full of close games magnifies this situation even more. The weird thing is that we weren't always bad at it this year. We're 11th in sacrifice flies in baseball with 35, but also 3rd in PAs with a runner on third and less than 2 outs with 305. We've hit .361 in said situations, so we're bringing in a run about 40% of the time. That's really good. The average ML team hits .316 in those situations. So why are we even talking about this? Well, it's cause the results have been night and day since the All-Star break Pre-ASB with man on 3rd and less than 2 outs: .410(best)/.391/.609 in 198 PA with 28 sac flies (4th), 88.4 EV with 12 degree launch angle. BABIP of .437. Run success rate of 59%. Post-ASB with man on 3rd and less than 2 outs: .268/.368/.415 in 107 PA with 7 sac flies (27th), 84.8 EV with 3 degree launch angle (worst). BABIP of .297. Run success rate of 27%. Regression is a b**** ain't it? Not only did we get super lucky in the first half, we also hit a lot more fly balls and hit the ball much harder. A nearly 60% success rate of bringing a runner on third with less than 2 outs is extremely good. The 27% success rate we've seen after the ASB is god awful and it's probably a result of hitting far too many grounders and just not hitting the ball hard enough in general. Diving deeper into the numbers, with 1 out and a man on 3rd, our numbers get even worse. In a situation where you must make contact and try to hit a fly ball to ensure a run gets in, we manage to do the following: Post-ASB with man on 3rd and 1 out: .207(worst)/.311/.293 in 75 PA, 83.3 EV, 1 degree launch angle (worst), 5 sac flies. Run success rate of 23%. What's even funnier is that since August 1st, we've managed to have a negative launch angle in said situations. No other team in baseball has managed to achieve this. In a situation where a fly ball gets you a run without a hit, we just decide to hit grounders. So here's what all of this tells me: when we were surprised at how our patched together offense put up runs in the first half of the season, it was because we were lucky and we were extremely efficient at scoring runs with guys on base and when the runs could be had without the benefit of a hit. We all thought that when we got Eloy and Robert back, our offense would become a juggernaut and score consistently. It's been the very opposite of that. We went from an offense with a high floor and low ceiling in the first half to an offense with a very low floor and very high ceiling in the 2nd half. Part of that is our inability to cash in runners with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs. You may think that those situations are just a fraction of our PAs this year and you'd be right. It's not a big sample. However, if we executed at the rate we did in the first half with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs, we'd have 30 more runs in the 2nd half alone. That's not an insignificant number. Hell, had we just done the ML average, we'd at least 10 more runs. That alone there is a win in pythagorean terms. I'm not sure if the guys are just pressing or if it's a personnel or a hitting coach problem, but something is very wrong with our approach with a guy on 3rd and less than 2 outs. I know everybody who's been watching on a daily basis like I have notice it. Quite frankly, it's getting old and it's costing us games down the stretch here. Those games may not mean a lot, but the ones coming up in 3 weeks do and I hope to god we fix our issues by then. Cause every run matters in the playoffs, especially when you can get them without the benefit of a hit.