WestEddy

Did the Royals challenge it? Watching the highlights, it sure looks like he had a sno-cone hit the ground, and the ball bounced deeper into his mitt. Beautiful play, tho.

A pitcher shouldn't get rattled over losing a perfect game in the 3rd inning.

I hated them going back to the time Nancy Faust first started playing the hey hey goodbye when the other team changed pitchers, and they whined like babies.

But that's not really true. Everything doesn't need to go perfect. My contention is that if you roll this same group back, they win somewhere in the mid 60's. That's no improvement from where they've been playing the last 4 months. Now, out of Meidroth, Sosa, Vargas, Mead, Baldwin, Monty, Teel, Quero - some improvement may be wiped out by regression, but everything doesn't need to "go perfect" to gain a couple of wins from this group. Baldwin playing 1-2 positions more adeptly. Sosa and Vargas getting a little better at 1B, 2B, and 3B. A couple of these guys ironing out the stretches of OPSing .400 for weeks. Then you're looking at another wave of pitching that will challenge next year. Some won't be good enough to take or keep a major league job, but then they get replaced. And now we're at the point of the discussion where I say that I'm not trying to convince you to believe they will win 70 games next year. My expectation is that they win 70+. I get to think that. I've laid out that this team is playing at a rate right now that is most of the way there. If you don't want to think that - wonderful...don't. Nobody here is under any obligation to "prove" a 2026 win total. The people who wailed that this team wouldn't cover the newsworthy over/under line set in March or even surpass last year's 41 certainly aren't starting threads explaining how it was that they could have possibly been so wrong. All anybody does is shrug and say that it was reasonable for them to say the Sox wouldn't win 40 games this year when some of us thought that was preposterous.

You just said this: I'm not sure what your issue with this is. If the bottom falls out, they might scrape for 8 more wins. (That's one win each v.KC(3), v.Yanks(4), @Min(4), @Det(3), v.TB(3), @Cle(3), v.Bal(3), and then win 2 of v.SD(3), @Yanks(4), @Was(3)). That's 55 wins. (A .420 pct from May 1, btw.) If they rally, win 2 v.KC, 2@Min, 2.vTB, 2v. Bal and maybe 3 in those last 10, that's 60 wins.

Somebody would have to actually say that if you're going to pretend to quote them. Maybe you responded to the wrong post?

I posted my "work" 9 minutes before your post. My expectation is that the guys who were prospects, graduated, then had months of .500 OPS will hit better. Brooks Baldwin doesn't look like a star, but he can hit. Meidroth, Teel, Quero, Monty, Sosa look like they can aspire to average major league players next season. Will some tank and regress? Sure. I'm not putting money on it, or trading baseball betting tips for the lives of family members, so yeah - the nature of a fan is to root for the things you can see if you squint. I really don't owe it to anybody to act like the worse half of probabilities will happen when it comes to the entertainment equivalent of buying a ticket to a Pokemon movie.

Right now, even with the 5-14 run they've been on since 8/3, they're right at .400 since May 1, which I've been using as a line separating the dreck they brought into the season, and the prospects they've promoted, and Vargas/Sosa seemingly adjusting to the league. So, I think they're a .400 team, which translates to 65-97 over 162. If these guys continue to develop, any of the starters step up, or any of Schultz/Taylor/McDougal crash the rotation, Robert plays more like the 2nd half, maybe they pick up an arm and bat - can you not see them adding 5 wins? That's a 70-win team.

I would expect the Sox to be winning somewhere in the 70's next season, clearing .500 in 2027, and "competing" in 2028. I would show my work, but every time I say where I think this team is per 162, the usual crew complains that I'm trying to make them feel good, or that I'm not prefacing every sentence with "Getz didn't deserve his job" or "the Sox will perpetually set the loss record every single year".

NO! When I'm in a discussion with someone about whether it's worth keeping Robert, or whatnot, it's good to talk about where they are in wins, and how much a guy like Robert adds, or whatever. Every single conversation doesn't have to be about how the Sox are bad. If you want everybody on the internet to shut up and just talk in terms of how bad the Sox are, and will be, maybe the internet isn't for you.

When I note that the Sox have a certain winning percentage since May 1, I'm generally saying that in a discussion to set a baseline of what I believe you might expect from this current roster playing 162. I'm not trying to make you "feel better". So much discussion gets tackled with "I can't believe we're comparing Getz to a guy who was available and hired 31 days after him", or "oh, you mentioned a record, like I'm supposed to feel great about that?"

Isn't that what was on the table from the Reds? I mean, if Robert plays great defense, and continues to hit the rest of the year, maybe they're trading him.

What you gain is having CF filled for most of 2 seasons (fingers crossed), and if he returns to form, slapping a QO on him, which he'll turn down, and getting an extra draft pick in the 2028 draft (if that rule isn't tossed in the negotiations. Compare that to 2 team top ten prospects Robert might bring back. You're taking a big gamble that Robert stays healthy. What do you lose? If he gets injured and misses 60 games, then puts up this sub-.600 OPS stretches, you get nothing. If the Sox run most of this current group back next year, at best, they're a 70+ win team. Depending on how guys develop and if they delve into free-agency after there's a new players' agreement, they might just be looking at being a .500 team in 2027, Robert's last year. He didn't switch to Scott Boras just to accept a qualifying offer for 2028.

I posted 3 facts. Rojas has not been good this season.

3 of his 6 seasons prior to this one, he posted above average RC+. Terrible? Hyperbole. Rojas was having a good spring training before the toe injury. That is a thing. $3.5M for a veteran is nothing.

I thought I was engaging in a discussion about pointing out positive momentum during an otherwise bad season. I don't generally recognize which strings I'm not supposed to participate in. My opinion and experience are all I have to represent.

I wouldn't expect a team to keep railing on themselves for a losing record during a rebuild. I'm a fan, too, and sometimes have to explain to my wife why I was swearing at my TV last night. The losing is frustrating. But for the team trying to sell tickets, or rebuild any kind of momentum, again, I wouldn't expect them to be telling everyone how much of a failure the Benintendi signing was, or that this will be the first time they lose 100 games 3 seasons in a row. And here's an article in CHGO today about how the team's goal is competing, and soon. How should the 2025 White Sox be measured?

Could you please stop doing this? You didn't get lectured about being upset about the franchise. It sucks when we try to explain why we're positive to people who express befuddlement about that, and you're there, every single time, to bully us into shutting up.

I completely support everyone here in being angry that this rebuilding team isn't in first place and vying for top playoff seed. But we're watching a rebuild. I know Reinsdorf said something at a press conference two years ago. I know we just watched a rebuild start about 9 years ago, after a false start 4 years before that. The reality is that this team has mostly released their starters who bottomed out, then traded the ones with any value. Now they're bringing up prospects as they earn their spots. I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to be competing for first place right now, but that's fine if you do. It's nice to have markers to measure how this team is improving. As opposed to regularly decrying the number of losses amassed in the last 3 seasons. If that's what you want to do, please do it. And there are certainly thousands of posts around social media that will help you do that. I'm more interested in watching this team get built. Just as I wouldn't show up at the work site of a future YMCA in my gym clothes, then scream obscenities every day I don't have a finished gym to work out in. I'm not attacking anybody's viewpoint here, so please don't tell me how I'm sub-human, or I'm doing everything I'm (not) accusing everybody else of. I'm not rushing in to defend Chris Getz, or Jerry Reinsdorf. Just explaining the mindset of those of us that watch baseball and find something to root for in any kind of season, championship, middling or rebuild. Keep calm and carry on.

Yeah, players don't generally rack up 500 PAs in spring training.

Was going to say this earlier, but it felt trollish.

And if not, Ishbia will fire Getz, promote Paul Janish, and everybody will flop over and start defending Getz.

Once they start winning, nobody will care.