WestEddy

David Schoenfield says right in the article he thinks the Sox will win 79. Strange.

It is funny how McGuire is entirely overpaid, and it's the dumbest waste of money evah, but when having to diminish him, he's "fighting for a near minimum wage contract". And looking at his B-R page, McGuire really hasn't been around all that much for a 31-year-old backup. He's been with two separate teams for years-long runs, which, as RayRay tells us, is the sign of an elite backup catcher. That's short-sighted and argumentative. The Sox coaching staff think McGuire's better and they don't want Lee catching for them, regardless of what anybody who isn't a major league manager thinks. That's great that you're skeptical. Your evidence is...? Nobody's calling McGuire elite. Backup catchers are fungible. They move around. In my experience, catchers who are elite, defensively, are great at managing a staff and produce offensively are starting catchers. McGuire doesn't have to be elite. However, McGuire has been on two separate teams for years-long runs which kind of tells a story of teams who like his tools and keep him rostered instead of kicking him out as soon as any other option comes along. Seby Zavala, he is not. Being skeptical tells me you think that Korey Lee could clearly be a better catcher than one who has been pursued by 4 teams in the last 3 years. I'm skeptical of that. My evidence is that people who have jobs in the industry have expressed a preference for McGuire.

I also don't believe we're starting with 4 obvious holes in the lineup like Vaughn, Amaya, Jankowski and Maton. By May 1, they had it down to just Vaughn and Palacios.

I hope you find the commenter who made that argument and you get to make a real mean face at him.

Everybody would be aghast if the argument against Trajekt machines was that "we don't need them until we plan to compete". Conversely, Venable's a component of this team that also needs to develop his game management skills, even in a non-competitive season. By giving him, Bove and the pitchers a better tool in a more experienced catcher, you're also helping in the development of your pitching staff, and your two young catchers.

Didn't he lose a bunch of money over a recording studio? I remember that being something Ozney Guillen throwing out there in the aftermath of Hurt's leaving.

Nobody seems to have told Mark Polish-UK that Lee won't be making the White Sox opening day roster. Reese Mcguire Rumors - MLB Trade Rumors

And if he trips on the top step during opening day introductions and he doesn't catch a pitch all year, that scales up to infinity. No team should pay a player more than all wealth that has ever existed in the entire history of homo sapiens.

1) and a bunch did. That's the cross-section in b). Some said that McKinven knows what he's doing, others were that this is stupid. Others are "meh". All good. You're even in b. No beef. 2) I actually would rather they kept Lee, but this is fine. The staff seems to feel McGuire's moderately better, that works for me. 3) Okay, now I'm anti. Don't know what the market was, maybe taking McGuire off the market hikes Lee's demand slightly. 4) And I'm fine with that point. I'm pushing back against saying I'm seriously misguided, or part of the front office because my sunny side's always up.

a) The team makes an innocuous move b) there is a cross-section of reactions, both positive and negative. Nothing crazy, just "why are they doing this?" to "yeah, I can see why" c) the afternoon shift clocks in, and months old resentments are dredged up over something some commenter said about an unrelated thing d) people wonder why the big reaction e) the positive people are either insulting everyone by not agreeing with month old argument, or just plain stoopid for not connecting two unrelated complaints

Well, if they got those tremendous break outs, a couple of games bounce our way, and we're at 52-56 towards the end of July, I'd call that "challenging .500". And really, being 20 games off is winning 61 games. I'm pretty confident they're not doing that again. I've been a broken record about 75+ wins this season.

So, this isn't about bad allocation of resources, this is about you being mad about the team generally being cheap during a rebuild. It's actually a good allocation of resources, even for a rebuilding team. I think most here would have high fived each other to have signed McGuire in 2024 instead of Maldonado.

Apparently, somebody here argued they can't cut Benintendi because the Sox can't afford a replacement, and we cannot move on until he gets a victory lap out of that. Maybe he could just DM that guy with a "LoL, told you so", and be done with it.

Two things can happen at the same time. A team can get marginally better at a position AND they can plan for the future. I'm guessing you're sitting at a computer in your house or at work. If somebody's actually pissing on your leg, your problems are far greater than not understanding how teams are built.

Is this an actual situation you're referring to, or are you rehashing a weeks old argument with somebody on this board? Did Getz give a teary-eyed interview where he said they can't cut Benintendi because they can't afford a replacement, or did somebody here just toss that out in a back and forth? You seem to take some off-hand excuse from one of the commenters, then automatically assign it to the Front Office as their creed.

Sure. But McGuire will take some of them. I'm guessing there will be about 22 games before Teel returns. I could see McGuire starting 7-10 of those. The team was very right-handed. McGuire and maybe Peters gives Venable a balance of options on the bench.

I don't understand this term "hold a spot". They had 3 or 4 catchers on the 40-man at different times over the winter. As soon as spring training started, 3 more spots opened up. Who did the White Sox not sign because they rostered Lee? It seems they added as they needed, and DFAed players they saw as replaceable, or at low risk of being claimed. When they have control over a player whose services they might need, either in spring training, or the regular season, they keep them rostered until they feel they could move on. I don't understand the confusion.

You're not using "irony" correctly. Chris Getz isn't being tasked with rostering players who are better than their 2005 counterparts. His goal is to pick the best players available for the 2026 team. The team feels like McGuire is an upgrade from Lee. It seems to me that Venable wants to go with 3 catchers, originally, to not lose the DH in case of substitution, but in reality, to not rush Teel, or to ease him in behind the plate once he's back. Depending on how that arrangement works, that could get them to Memorial Day, 2 months. All told, McGuire could start up to 15-20 games. If this team thinks they can challenge .500, then surely, they are in the divisional race. Every win matters, and improving from a catcher they clearly don't like to one that some coaches have a working relationship with, and the team does like makes a difference. $1.2 million is nothing for payroll. I guess it's fun for people looking for some reason to indict this front office for every single move to cry about paying a player a guaranteed $450K above the minimum. That amount is negligible, and they'll probably be able to offload more than half of it once they're satisfied that Teel is at full speed. Or not, in which case, nobody cares. The funny part is that you actually agree that a backup catcher isn't an integral part of a roster that must contribute towards the next future championship, which was my point.

My point is shooting down the "every single move must build towards the next championship" canard. There is a season right in front of them that has to be played. We're talking about a backup catcher. Chris Widger was a prototypical backup catcher. Utile. I'm guessing McGuire doesn't see August in a Sox uniform. Cutting or trading him, it doesn't matter. If Reese McGuire doesn't "build towards the next championship", then Korey Lee does even less of it.

... present day Earth? McGuire is better than Lee, both offensively and defensively. You seem to be one who argues that the White Sox cannot develop baseball players. How will they magically turn Korey Lee into an All-Star catcher? Chris Widger was the backup catcher on the 2005 team. Should that team not have "settled" for Widger, and kept that roster spot open until some 5 WAR catcher became available?

"Hold a spot"? Can you explain the benefit of pitchers throwing to guys who are still learning the rudiments of the position and how to call a game instead of a more experienced player? And who would have taken Lee's 40-man spot? McGuire signed on with the Brewers. Do teams generally waive players and keep an empty spot on the roster to telegraph to preferred players on other teams that they want them?

If nothing else, Brooks Baldwin creates a roster crunch in a couple of weeks when he comes back.

Because they needed him for catching reps in spring training. With the 3 TJS pitchers on the 40-man, they always had extra slots if somebody better came along, so Lee wasn't taking up anybody's 40-man slot.