Dan of Steel

Stellar control on that one Cease... Rick Vaughn would be proud.

Ughhh... Look guys, if I'm subjected to watch you guys on live TV, can you do me the smallest courtesy and look quasi-competent?

Another ugly inning from Cease. He needs to buck this stupid trend. It's gotten old.

Okay, nice double play there Cease.

Yeesh. Bad start. 2 batters, 2 hits. Now worse. 3 batters, 3 hits, 1 run. No outs. Cease, FFS. Get your head out of your ass. No more crap innings. Or just give up another 2 hits and load the bases with zero outs.

As CWS stated, Cole is younger and is playing at a higher level than Bumgarner, Wheeler (and Strasburg). Thus, he is more certainly going to get more money and more years.

The Sox are not setting up for a dumpster dive. It's nonsensical to do so. They have way too much money to work with and the core is nearly assembled. The time is now. However, it wouldn't surprise me if Stone is just downing the idea that the Sox are going to shell out a huge long-term contract for Cole (which somebody will). That doesn't mean the Sox are going to scrape the bottom of the barrel this FA. Still plenty of quality FA acquisitions to make to compliment the core.

Hindsight is 20/20, but Harper should've been the primary target, not Machado. The Sox are likely better for it moving forward without Machado. Same can't be said sans Harper. We need a RF, and while I get the hesitance b/c we've been burned before on NL hitters, Harper is easily the most prolific talent with the largest set of tools compared to Dunn or LaRoche. Despite the huge addition of Machado, the Sox and Padres are both making the same modest improvements from last season.

Sadly, that's just something you're gonna have to roll the die on. Kopech has to prove he's going to be a quality addition to the rotation or that sets the rebuild back considerably. Lopez is kind of a luxury given he's basically pitching for a spot the rest of the way. I think he's finding his way to more consistent success. McCann slumped but appears to be coming out of it and still provides a very quality plate presence. Abreu, I just think we're gonna have to roll with for now. Vaughn is a hopeful 2021 addition to the ML roster. So there really isn't much in terms of immediate options outside of him. The Cubs were fortunate in 2015, because a lot of their young talent they inserted hit the ground running and it aided in their route to a 97 win season and a trip to the NLCS. The Sox need to hope Madrigal and Robert make similar impacts and some of their FA's are winners, rather than whiffs. If not, then 2020 is most likely a flash but fizzle season, where they are competitive, but likely don't have enough juice in August/September to make the push towards the playoffs.

Going strictly by raw numbers during that season compared to this season. Giolito is sitting at a 3.44 ERA on the year. Sale was at 3.41. Surprisingly, Quintana was even better that year, with a 3.36 ERA.

Considering that the "juiced ball" theory is true, there is sufficient evidence that the change of ball composition took place in 2015. And as far as the whole "bad hitters were WAY worse" theory, no they're not. Saladino, Sanchez and LaRoche were horrendous in 2015. Both squads had holes in their lineup where the OPS dropped into the low .600 or even .500. However, the 2020 squad will not be relying on any of those players posting those stats minus perhaps Sanchez for a time before Madrigal arrives. The Sox had no in-house answers to improve catcher, 2B, 3B and DH that year. The Sox have in-house solutions to every position minus RF.

LaRoche was an NL hitter and 35 years old when he signed. KW pulled an Adam Dunn 2 Electric Boogaloo. Pitching staff is an unfair comparison, since this group lost Kopech and Rodon to injury. The Sox will add Kopech to the rotation, bare minimum. Giolito is pitching at a level comparable to Sale or Quintana. Cease will continue to improve. Lopez appears to have fix his issues and is playing at a higher level. You add the possibility of adding a quality veteran arm via FA, then you have a fairer comparison regarding pitching rotations. Then combined with a superior lineup.

1) How is it "not fair"? OPS is OPS. What environment? The team plays in the same stadium as they did in 2015. 2) You change it to OPS+, confirm that the lineup in 2019 has more guys with > 100 OPS+, yet you still conclude the lineup in 2019 is worse? You want to use BA? OBP? SLG? OPS? This year's lineup is better in all facets.

You're saying that if they invested in 2020, they would be going for it before they were ready. That is utter nonsense. There is no picking and choosing when the window opens. The window to compete begins in 2020, whether they want to "go for it" or not. The clock is ticking on their core players. Robert and Madrigal are inbound in 2020. Moncada, Anderson, Jimenez, etc. are under control. The Sox also have guys like Kopech, Dunning and Rodon who are currently on the IL but are expected back in 2020. It's nothing like 2015. This is already a better lineup, with incoming support to only make it better, and an impending insertion of Kopech at the very least, with several quality veteran arms available. The results for the year may be the same, and the team may underachieve, but it wouldn't be the same result. The Sox in 2015 were not built to get much better than they were. Their ceiling was in the mid 80's at best with the talent assembled, even accounting for peak Chris Sale and Quintana. The lineup should be stabilized in 2020, and the pitching staff has a ton of room to grow with returning players and young arms improving. Really it comes down to this. You think the Sox should hold off until 2021, but the fact is that the Sox can't afford to play it safe.

What? Here was the lineup in 2015: C Tyler Flowers 1B: Jose Abreu 2B: Yolmer Sanchez 3B: Tyler Saladino SS: Alexei Ramirez LF: Melky Cabrera CF: Adam Eaton RF: Avi Garcia DH: Adam LaRoche That's a lineup consisting of only 3 players 25 y/o or young (Sanchez, Saladino and Garcia) of which, only Garcia had anything close to resembling high-level prospect hype. That lineup only had 3 players with an OPS above .700. That is beyond horrible. Eaton and Abreu were the only guys with above average OPS (.792 and .850 respectively). To put that in perspective, this year's lineup has 6 players with OPS above .700. The three in the lineup with sub .700 OPS? Ryan Cordell, Yolmer Sanchez and Yonder Alonzo. One guy will be relegated to utility man (best case) when Madrigal is called up. One guy is a spacefiller for a PTBNL at RF. The last name was released and is no longer on the team. The lineup as currently constructed, despite the holes, is already leagues better than 2015. You add Madrigral, Robert and a decent RF to that lineup? There's practically zero comparison.

This team should make the necessary upgrades, plus adding guys like Kopech, Madrigal and Robert. This team should be at least .500 in 2020. Don't know what a playoff number of wins would be. Sometimes 86 is enough, sometimes 90 isn't.

I think it's absolute BS he ended up with 3 ERs. 2 at best, but really 2 of his 3 runs were on bad defense.

Lopez's turnaround has been one of a very few silver linings of an otherwise brutally frustrating 2nd half of the year.

Bad call. Out.

Lopez and Cease shoring up on the mound has been reassuring. But what in the unholy f*ck has happened to the bats? I think they've scored less runs since the All-Star break than they have games lost.

Giolito is going to have a dominant pitching effort wasted.

Yeah, I'm done with Renteria. He's done his job. He's the John Fox for the White Sox. Help boost the locker room, develop the youngins. Time to step aside and let someone with a better tactical baseball mind take the helm.

My bad, that was meant for Adolfo. However Basabe spent a good portion of this season rehabbing from a broken bone in his hand.

Anderson's absence is a huge reason why the offense has stagged considerably. But the damage is done. This team was a long shot to compete for a WC bid prior to his injury, the pipedream is all but dead. If he's not 100%, no point to play him.

There was an entire thread dedicated to that stretch and most anticipated that the Sox would be lucky to finish better than 7-15 during that stretch. That's far from "picking and choose". 22 games is about a quarter of the season up until the break, with the team near .500. That was the point.