WestEddy

He catches the ball.

Fan favorite, Roland Hemond, was hired as Orioles GM after the 1987 offseason. He assembled a team that started the 1988 season 0-23. Hemond stayed in that role until 1995.

I get tired of the "he won't be on the next good team" complaint. They have to play the games on the schedule. I'm not sure how putting a first year rookie back at AAA to work on things is "panicking". This team is not going to be a 20-140 team. Once they stabilize, win a couple of games, and they're not a daily national news story, maybe then Sosa, Fletcher and Colas will get a full 2-3 month shot to see if they stick.

He has hit at every level. He is supposed to be better defensively, but he's exposed in CF. Probably pressing, too.

No, they weren't going to contend, but they still have to play the games. Fletcher has upside, and Barfield probably saw him as a young-ish outfielder a team would let go with a logjam.

And Fletcher's a work in progress, too. They shouldn't have signed Maldonado. I call Ortega and Grossman AAA depth, which they had to tap into with 3 key injuries. No, Paul DeJong isn't a guy who puts the team on his shoulders and carries them for 3 weeks. But he is a bounce back candidate who can field his position.

No, I'm more of a "reality apologist". I don't really look at ERA. Gowen's age appropriate for high-A. His WHIP is 1.043, he's striking out 10/9 and only walking 3.5/9. If Mena can't get his BB/9 number down, he won't have success in the bigs. I understand the frustration. This team sucks. It's not true they got nothing of value for Bummer. I wish they still had Mena, too. I still think it's too soon to label the trade a complete fleecing. People are proclaiming this team a complete s%*#-show where the true prospects shouldn't be brought up to this clown car to just fail, but then we proclaim Fletcher and Sosa as failures because they faltered in this clown car. Pick a lane.

Jared Shuster looks like he could grow into a lefty long man role, and Riley Gowans is doing well at Winston-Salem.

Cristian Mena is walking 5.9/9. He's still a work in progress.

Oakland still hasn't figured out how to get Alex Speas to consistently throw strikes, and Jose Rodriguez has faltered to a slash line of .179/.309/.321 at AA. They're "prospects" like Zach Remillard is a prospect.

At this point, I feel that Soroka, Flexen, Fedde, Keller, Clevinger, Brebbia and Leone are very important parts of this club's future. Get any of them tuned up and trade them. Sosa, Colas, Fletcher, Lee, Nastrini and Cannon will have 2 solid months of major league time in August and September.

I suppose we'll have to wait for Monty to start annihilating AAA pitching before we worry about that.

Frustrated, just like everybody else. I think one guy on this board predicted a winning record. I thought they'd be better than 2023, assuming they'd trade Cease at the deadline, and they wouldn't lose all three of their top players in the first 2 weeks. Oh, and professional baseball players could suck and still hit .200. Sheets is a nice development. Korey Lee, too. And the bullpen isn't as bad as "expected".

They picked their top 2 prospects at #22 and #26. I'm not depressed.

I think it's more that the kids are better trained, better mentored, eat better, and have more access to better statistical analysis than "old guys blowing out sooner".

The Chicago White Sox, as an organization, aren't some dude sitting in his underwear, shitposting on the internet. They have to field a team. They can't field a team that will go 3-159, and then shitpost. They have to create some semblance of chance of winning to be able to lure casual fans into the ballpark. Nobody cares what you wanted this OFFSEASON. Why don't you send a resume to the White Sox? I'm sure they would be most interested in your concept of players that "blow" and of players that "don't blow". You had included Erick Fedde in your list of players who "blow" before ST, and now, somehow, you don't. I suppose you predicted that, somehow.

He has started 16 of 24 games. Is he platooning with Suwinski?

Taylor is still a starting CF, and probably wouldn't have come to Chicago to be the weak half of a corner OF platoon. Pham had offers all winter. He just thought he'd get more. You're a guy who complains that every cheap contract on the team is a player being overpaid. You should be happy the Sox stayed firm, and probably got Pham for a much lower payroll hit in April than they would have in January. Taylor is currently OPSing .609 in Pittsburgh. If he were doing that in Chicago, you'd be railing on that you could have told us before ST he would suck that bad.

More likely that the league has adjusted to him, and now he has to readjust.

Yes, that's how conversation works. Normally, it takes evidence to get somebody to back off of what they believe to be true.

I'm not sure what I'm doubling down on. Maybe you should follow the discussion.

I need an aperitif to clear my palette of the anger for the previous worst 23 game start.

Jesus Christ!!! A big league home run!! I can die happy, now.

Baseball Prospectus has a much better catcher rating system.