WestEddy

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.

But they have been sharing the DH/C spot more now that Brooks Baldwin's back. He is the emergency 3rd catcher. I mean, if both Quero and Teel get hurt, you really don't want to suit up Lenyn Sosa. That's way worse than a position player pitching.

Sosa is the Sox' best offensive player to date. He gets dinged on defense, most probably for his time at 1B, where's he's mostly playing out of position. Even with that drain on his value, he'll probably end up with 2 fWAR which is an average major leaguer. If he stayed at 2B, he's worth even more. At 25, I don't know if I see a 5 fWAR season in him (or a few), but he's certainly a guy who, now that the training wheels can come off, he may just be a nice 3 WAR dude to run out there at 2B. With 4 years of control, that's valuable.

If they run most of this group back next year, Meidroth is light years better as a 5th IF than Capra or Amaya. And he's a guy nobody minds seeing getting 2-4 starts a week between 2B/SS.

Yeah, I don't see what this does beyond Lee sitting most all days. c-teel/quero 1b-vargas 2b-sosa ss-meidroth 3b-monty lf-beni cf-lubob rf-tauch dh-teel/quero Now you have a bench of bb, mead, lee, m.a.t. Maybe Brooks replaces Beni in LF or spells tauch in RF, where Beni goes to the bench, and then to Korea for 2026? Teel could stand in LF some days if they want to DH tauch. I guess they gotta play Benintendi in the slim hope he OPS's over .700 for a stretch, and somebody takes the Sox' money to release him.

I agree with you on this. And there are no "yeah, but"s. You are correct that this is a heater he's never seen the likes of, before, and I'm already on the same page that he was rushed, and while the position changes got him at-bats, the added pressure and exposure didn't seem to jump start him then.

Do you really know of any credible prospect analysis outfits that look at minor league win-loss records? I agree that fans who don't really pay attention scoff at a system based on W-L's. Normal systems are regularly moving guys around, on and off rosters, so the teams aren't really indicative of anything. I'd agree that better players win more games, but when you have situations like Noah Schultz, where a team is stretching him out and fine-tuning his approach and arsenal, his results might influence outside rankings, but the team has a path, and they're not pursuing W-L's, ERA or anything beyond specific, targeted stats. An organization like the Sox might now be zeroing in on wins for Birmingham and Winston-Salem, as they'll want their guys to experience the urgency of a "pennant race", and they get an extra week or so of competitive games.

And away we goooooooo Yes, perhaps his hot streak will be one to remember. But "getting better upon leaving" doesn't equal a hot streak.

Vaughn could bottom out and wind up with negative WAR in Milwaukee, but for the next 5 years, he will be on the list of players who left and got better. And when it's pointed out he didn't, the same half a dozen people will clown that fact for pages, because reasons.

I'm not even sure where you're going here. I'm sorry I don't feel the deep shame you want me to for the lack of accomplishment from people who aren't me? Again, you're really spoiled for choice here for people to share your weird obsession over Chris Getz with.

Now do the 7-23 start. Compare and contrast. Show your work.

No, it's pretty demonstrable that he changed here before he left. How did he shake off a call? Like, are they supposed to bench him? They finally took him out of the closer's spot but still used him in leverage situations. I just find it amazing that a small bunch of people can't accept that Kopech may have finally taken advice and applied it before he left. Calling the White Sox the better organization is a bit much, but if that's what you think, then good on you.

What are you talking about? Yeah, nobody thought the 10-4 record coming out of the All-Star break was indicative of anything, so congrats? They're playing about a .430 rate in the 30 games since the All-Star break and are around a .400 record since May 1st. Are you actually claiming that the 7-23 Vaughn/Amaya/Jankowski/Maton team was as good or intense as the current version? They sure seem to be scoring a lot more runs now than in April. The bullpen has been bottom half of the middle third most of the way, I believe, which isn't great, but we were right next to the Dodgers in the last couple of lists people posted. I'd imagine that all of Smith, Martin, Burke and Cannon will be in the mix for next year's OD. I don't care how many games they lose during the rebuild. You could keep commenting that at me all you want, and it doesn't mean anything. You don't seem to grasp that teams go through hot and cold streaks, and neither are true indicators of talent level. That's a fact.

Oh sure, I agree. That hot take was a little hasty. Little minor league development, the outfield and bouncing around the infield BS. The Sox screwed him over. But he was near a league average bat, and once given 1B and left alone, didn't improve. His horrible April/May played a not small part in sinking the 2024 team to historic depths and dropping him to AAA in 2025 was a positive jolt for this team. So, yeah, if Vaughn finishes out the year on a tear, then puts up numbers immediately next year. I'm going to want some answers. From Vaughn, mostly. He's a professional hitter. Independent hitting labs exist, if the Sox didn't provide that, which I believe they do, now.

Well, I only said one thing, then thoroughly supported it when challenged. I'm not sure what other "facts" I've ignored. Is somebody blaming Tim Anderson for his own lack of sustained success a fact I need to not ignore?

You are literally the peanut gallery kicking in with BS. I don't even understand you posting this comment. You're not proving me wrong about Kopech. You're not even proving me wrong about trying to stay out of these.

It's not unlike y'all making fun of me for not admitting 1+1=3. Miguel Vargas' mechanical change did result in more production. Kopech did start mixing his pitch types, which resulted in better results. The half dozen people who regularly clown doesn't make these things untrue.

No, I'm trying to prove my point by showing what Sox management and Kopech himself had said with the context of what actually happened. I laid out a pretty clear example of Kopech throwing 14 4-seamers in a row. The quality of his pitches didn't change in 2024. He just stopped throwing one single pitch every damn time so that the batter always knew what was coming. And there's a very clear line where he did it one way, then changed, and had vastly different results. Then Kopech said he didn't make any radical changes in LA. And as far as you not getting over using May 1 as a divider for the quality of the Sox team as a whole, they made a series of changes, dropping some bad players, and bringing up their next core - that resulted in a different level of intensity. I'm not cherry picking 8 games and claiming they're a world series contender. I understand that looking at the season in sections doesn't feed your narrative of all bad, always bad, but if you only pay attention to the overall win-loss record, I wouldn't say you follow baseball with any depth. There's a s%*# ton to watch and follow.