WestEddy

To Suareo's points: 1) Meidroth has more pressure because he's the lowest ceiling. Colson or Vargas would have to crater for Ant-man to push either of them out of the lineup. This is Vargas and Sosa's last year of pre-arb, so they're on their own kind of hot seat. 2) Kay looked the best out of the starting 5 in ST. I suppose the Sox will struggle to stay 10 games under .500, and Kay will be gone in July. I hope Fedde makes it out of April. 3) If Hicks clicks back, the bullpen could be special. 4) Ant-man. I think Pereira and Acuña will get a lot of leash the first half. If Ant is raking by May, do they trade Hays early? Is any amount under two full years enough relief to cut a slow-starting Benintendi? And if Pereira, Acuña and Baldwin are all producing, that puts Ant back in the IF. 5) A lot of blogger/Twitter dudes seem to keep winding up around 73-75 wins.

Sox on 35th guy has a bunch of takes and predictions

wrong thread

I have. Put the pages back up.

From the guy who claimed across threads, for pages at a time, that I once said that the White Sox have too many pitchers in their system and have to get rid of them. Or that I was the person who claimed that the White Sox couldn't cut Benintendi because they'd have to pay a replacement. It seems your entire roll here is to make up BS to troll people you deem too positive. I suppose I have pages of you calling me a gas lighting, goal-posts mover to look forward to, today. Happy Opening Day.

It was. You agreed with it.

Imagine thinking that Vinnie Capra is "better" than Shane Smith because the Brewers chose to keep him on their 40-man, and exposed Smith to the Rule 5 draft. Perhaps you should listen to some "experts". Your gut sucks.

You actually do. You expect every single waiver wire pickup that temporarily fills a hole to excel beyond our wildest fantasies. The guys who they didn't pick up and you railed on and on over, they all pretty much failed too. Alexander Canario, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Joey Bart's still a back-up catcher. I actually think Getz did a good job over time to collect a bunch of infielders to compete for starting jobs. Out of Vargas, Meidroth, Mead and Acuña, they actually had options for 2B and 3B. Now they have a group of ex-prospects to do the same in the OF. As far as drafting, no, they don't have a top prospect CF in the system, but we will probably see Braden Montgomery and San Antonacci taking reps in the corners this season, with guys like Bonemer and Lodise right behind them. Also, the Sox had a pitching infrastructure in place a full season before they created the ability to work with hitters adequately.

White Sox Opening Day Lineup vs Brewers 1. Chase Meidroth- 2B 2. Colson Montgomery- SS 3. Miguel Vargas- 3B 4. Andrew Benintendi- DH 5. Austin Hays- LF 6. Munetaka Murakami- 1B 7. Everson Pereira- RF 8. Edgar Quero- C 9. Luisangel Acuna- CF

Looking through and being slightly pessimistic, I'd say 13-18 coming out of April. Brewers, Jays, Orioles, @Royals, Athletics, D-backs. They catch a break with the Nats and Angels to close out the month.

OTOH, Murakami will be better than Vaughn, Hays will most probably out-produce Jankowski/Palacios, Monty won't be as bad as Amaya, any DH tandem will blow away Maton.

Korey Lee and Curtis Mead DFAed. Baldwin and Teel on 15-day IL.

Every team makes the announcement, "With the signing of [insert backup catcher here], I believe we have our World Series Championship backup catcher! Talk to me at the parade!!!" I don't know why the White Sox can't do that.

He also claimed I said that. One bottle of wine and 38 pages of my posts read, going back into January, I didn't see anywhere that I said that.

They're going to start out slow. April's schedule is kind of brutal. I'm going to go with James Fegan's 77 wins.

They should have just signed McGuire for 3/$110M, and the entire board would be ecstatic, high fiving each other over clearing that salary threshold.

Is Korey Lee the backup catcher on their next World Series Championship team? If not, why not just DFA him? Do you foresee a White Sox closing pitcher jumping into Romo's arms after the last out of a game 7 World Series victory?

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.