WestEddy

I don't think Robert will ever "get close" to Belliinger's 2019 8.6 bWAR. I don't think Robert's currently in the same wilderness Bellinger was during 21-22. (I hope.)

Meidroth is an IF (2B, mostly) who walks, has great contact rates, but not a lot of power. Wikelman Gonzalez can't seem to consistently throw strikes over long periods. Only Gonzalez is on the 40-man, so he could be looking at a bullpen spot. Fangraphs breakdown of the trade: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/kyle-teel-headlines-solid-return-package-for-white-sox-in-garrett-crochet-trade/

Yes. Unlucky.

Mad? 2-3 teams are tanking and try to be bad every season. Yet, it's been 20 years since the last time somebody even approached this record. It is rare.

Ridiculous. Again, a random, replacement level team should win about 48 games. I can't stop you from believing that the 2025 team will win even less than 41 games, but that team was so incredibly unlucky. Do you think the 2024 White Sox were the worst, by far, assembly of players in the modern history of the game? Yet they set the record for losses. It's not a stretch to say that even with some regression, this is a 48 win team.

If you're talking about 2 wins at this point, yes he is. I would call the starting rotation "improved" from last opening day. Offense and regression from the catching position and IF will probably add a few wins. And there's people here saying they'll lose 121 again, or worse.

It's like a three legged horse won a horse race. So then we start looking for 3 legged horses to bet on, because now, 3 legged horses will always win horse races. The White Sox underperformed their Pythagorean by 7 wins. They have made improvements to the offense, and where they haven't, I'd expect some regression. They were historically bad. It would be hard to be worse.

Crochet, Fedde and Flexen produced about 11 bWAR over 83 starts (427 IP). Cannon, Martin, Burke, Thorpe and Bryce Wilson were good for about 5 bWAR in 52 starts (341 IP). It doesn't really work to triple the latter numbers and say we're good for 15 bWAR in 156 starts. I think the new 5 can put up at least as much production as last year's starting rotation, even throwing in Clevenger, Soroka and Nastrini's travails. The top starters aren't as good as Crochet and Fedde, and the back end won't be as bad as Soroka, Clevenger and Nastrini. I would also expect Baldwin, Ramos, Vargas, Sosa, and Meidroth to put up a little more offense than the trio of Nicky, DeJong and the clown car of AAA utility infielders. Why? Growth. Higher ceilings. Regression to the mean. That alone, like the "Chicago White Sox" guy pointed out a short while ago, a team of replacement level players (AAAA) would be expected to win about 48 games. I think the top 4 of our rotation are somewhere between replacement and average ML player (0-2 WAR). Last year's team was uniquely bad. That's why they set the record for losses.

And if people would just live healthy lives, insurance companies wouldn't have to deny them life saving coverage. JR has run a s%*# organization for a long time. This deflection is just weird.

The Brewers used Wilson differently for a while. In alternate starts, Jerod Koenig would pitch the first inning, then Wilson would come in and pitch 5. He seemed to be a bit more effective pitching the 2nd through the 6th innings than being the true starter. game logs: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=wilsobr02&t=p&year=2024

Yes. 2 years.

Nice article on the future of White Sox international scouting https://soxmachine.com/2024/12/david-keller-talks-about-the-future-of-white-sox-international-amateur-scouting/

Duke Ellis will never aspire to be a Herb Washington. Luis Rodriguez is to whom I refer.

My brain hurts when you guys are waterboarding logic like you do. That's why.

Dos Equis clara - and a monster burrito de carne asada, con todos. Feliz Navidad

I can still imagine a merry christmas for you, dude. And all your cohorts. f*** off and have a good holidays.

Somebody just wrote an article about how the next frontier is "empathy". The biggest advancement in college sports is sports psychology. Venable has a firm grasp on that concept. Seriously, stats analysis is tapped out. Sleep and nutrition adjustments are pretty finite.

I keep thinking a lot of these articles are written, not by AI, but by a foreign language AI. I sometimes run my own writing through ChatGPI. I'll get into arguments, late night, after a bottle of wine, with it. Asking for rhyming words for a particular word, I finally got ChatGPI to admit it doesn't really understand the concept of rhyming.

You've earned your SoxTalk Christmas Bonus. Now go drink your fill of Michelob Ultras. These Tuesday night Christmas Parties are a b****.

I think the guy they sent to Houston would be more annoying. Rookie bullpen arm they immediately had start and looked ... competent.

Why does it need to be cutting edge? Why can't somebody pounding some fundamentals into JR's skull be "cutting edge"?

My post conveys my feeling that I'm tired of posting Getz's successes, because the top players who made the bigs developed themselves, whereas the ones who failed, failed because of Chris Getz. That doesn't make sense to me. That's why I argue. These guys forsook an advanced metrics department, took years to think about hitting and pitching labs. Housing, nutrition and sleep monitoring were an afterthought. I'm really befuddled why everyone is expending so much energy to pin all of this in Chris Getz. Yes, he was part of the previous regime. No, he didn't quit. Sure, maybe he shrugged his shoulders and kept notes. I don't want all the perpetrators to burn in the fiery cauldrons of hell. If Getz is bringing in competent people to get s%*# in order, I'm all for it. I'm 61. I've got 20-25 more years of baseball fandom in me. I'm not going to spend it furious that the guy making good changes didn't earn his job.

Dogecoin

I'm guessing the AAA pitchers liked working with him, and they realized they were cutting Maldonado and promoting some of those pitchers. He's a guy. I can certainly see keeping the status quo and letting people work with familiar catchers in a lost season.