vilehoopster

So every ball that lands in the OF is because Vaughn and Sheet are DHs. Really, how many RFs would have caught that? Very, very few if any. Again, complaining just to complain.

I thought that too.

BS, with at least 75% of RFs in majors that's a double, at least, and Haseley wouldn't have hit a homer. You're complaining to complain here.

Because he sucks?

So a light at the end of the tunnel. Only one more year of him.

How much longer is Grandal's contract?

Serious question, if we sent Sheets ( or Burger or whoever) down to AA against AA pitching wouldn’t he tear the cover off the ball and have an OPS around 1100 or 12OO. Mendick’s Charlotte OPS IS .894, way better than his Sox OPS, and that’s Triple A. Wouldn’t Mendick’s OPS be over 1000 in AA? I remember when Palka had that terrible start for Sox in 2019, something like 2 for his 1st 45 at bats. He still went down to Charlotte that year and had an OPS of .900 and had 27 homers. So, minor league pitching much easier than MLB pitching, so even with his great start in AA, that doesn’t mean he can hit major league pitching. I agree he will be a good one for Sox but we probably need to cool our jets on Colas, especially with a small sample size.

Living in mid/ north Indiana, back pre-covid, I was able to go see the Knights play in Indy a couple years in a row. But then Covid hit. and last year they did that thing where teams only played local teams to cut down on travel and whatever else reasons, so the Indianapolis Indians and Charlotte didn't play at all. But this year, in May, the Indy Indians had a series in Charlotte, but Charlotte never played in Indy. Does anyone know, will Charlotte return the favor and come to Indianapolis next year. I really hope so. It's just great to be able to see the Knights in Indy, an easy drive, cheap seats and parking, a total win.

How can we fans be complaining about dumb plays and low baseball IQ and no one bring up Tim Anderson yet, especially after his play today not stepping on 2nd base to start that double play? He makes the dumbest, most mindless plays, and seems to me, far and away the most of any Sox player. Even before this season, I was amazed that a major league player could get picked off 2nd base as much as Tim has been. But this year he's been something special. Was it a month, a month and a half ago where Tim got picked off 1st base in back-to-back nights. One of the pick offs was because he tripped and stumbled over 1st base as he stepped back and 1st baseman just held the glove on him as he fell off the base. It was a couple or few weeks after that where Tim was running to 2nd base and ran past and tripped coming back and was tagged out. Again, the defender just held the glove on him as he fell off the base. Today, he completely missed stepping on 2nd base to start a double play. A player missed stepping on 2nd base to start a double play. How is that possible? Mendick had that bonehead play trying to tag up to 2nd base which cost a run. Moncada/ Engel ran into that triple play. And Leury constantly playing drives me crazy, but it seems unfair to pile on about him or the others being as being dumb players and nobody brings up Tim Anderson.

Completely disagree with 1st sentence. Three amazing bats (when Eloy’s healthy). Keep them on the roster and keep them in the lineup. Find a way to get and keep those bats in lineup. If that means Vaughn and Eloy at corner outfield spots, so be it. Sox are not at .500 because of outfield defense, it’s because they can’t score runs consistently. You solve that by have a ton of strong bats in the lineup, and these three with Tim and a healthy Robert are the best the Sox have. Eloy won the Silver Slugger in LF; he certainly can do it again (if healthy). Sorry, I believe Vaughn is more than adequate in LF to justify playing him there for his bat, whatever DRS says or even is. DRS, another eye-test, made-up stat. How many people on here have said that Vaughn looks better in the outfield than Eloy? Tons of them, yet this DRS says Eloy is average but Vaughn is terrible, not buying it. You win games by out scoring the other team, you do that having your best bats in the lineup. I’ll say it again, Sox aren’t struggling to stay at .500 because of their outfield defense, it’s lack of run production. And if you put forth the argument that the Sox need more lefty bats in the lineup, it would have to be a pretty elite lefty to hit righty pitching better than one of those three. Get a real lefty bat at catcher or 2B or 3B, but keep those three bats in the lineup.

In ways that would take me longer than I want to write here, I question that Leary is as harmful as this stat you’ve discovered makes him look. Plus you seem to be cherry picking games. A strong argument could be made that Leary’s homer won the game yesterday. Does that make up for the game where your stats say he cost the Sox 1.9 runs (which seems every bit as subjective as saying his homer won the game yesterday). With that said, I agree completely with you main point, Leary needs to play a lot less, a lot less. I’ve said it here on this forum a few times before: of all the crazy shit TLR does, his obsession with keeping Leary in the lineup seems the most crazy to me; I don’t begin to understand it. You don’t need the stats you quoted above, just look at his pathetic OPS and OPS+. Serious question, do you think that other coaches and Hahn have talked to TLR about playing Leary way too much, expressing the same questions and stats that we discuss here. I have to believe they have, all of them including Hahn have brought up the Leary situation. I also believe that TLR just politely listens and then follows whatever twisted logic he uses and keep putting him in the lineup.

This is so funny. When I saw this thread, I thought it was being sarcastic, making fun of the trade for Soto thread. You know, mentioning another silly trade idea. I was going to start a thread like, “Let’s trade Leary and Grandal for Judge and Stanton” to keep the idea going. Then I started reading the thread and was it was legit, that some people were discussing this like it could happen. Wow, so funny.

“And an actual OF at that. No more DHs playing OF.” Pollock is an actual outfielder and when Vaughn plays RF; he too is actually an outfielder. I said this before: offer every team in baseball, you have a choice of Vaughn or Conforto in right field, but Vaughn can only play RF, who would you rather have? Because of his bat, every team would take Vaughn. Why. Because his bat truly is elite.

“Lol, yea, why would the Sox need an elite hitter against RHP? “ He’s batting 0.00 this season and he hit .232 last season. Your idea of “elite” and mine differ somewhat. If you go back further than that, you’re talking about back when Keuchel was good too. How relevant is that now. You go back and look at stats back then, Pollack’s stats for that good run Conforto had, Pollack’s OPS was better.

I can’t believe people still trying/ hoping White Sox will get this stiff. All you guys calling for the Sox to go after this guy, just admit you were wrong. But no, you want to be proven correct. He’s of no value to the Sox at all. The same guys who complained about the Sox signing vets like VV or Harrison, want Sox to sign this guy in hopes he’ll be good NEXT year so they can say they were right all along for wanting the Sox to sign him before the season started, you know, back when Conforto was hiding his injury.

This is 100% correct. Like talking about getting Machado and Harper, they were never, Soto is never going to happen.

I would debate that Vaughn, with what he is already doing with so few at bats and so little experience is more likely, I would say much more likely, to be a top 3 to 5 hitter of all time. Again, over the NEXT ten years, not last few years for my comparison.

Soto is younger but has 1925 major league ABs. But Vaughn has only 690 major league ABs and basically nil for minor league experience, but for this year, their stats are comparable. Vaughn in 40 less ABs has more RBIs and much higher BA but Soto has more homers and a higher OPS. Give Vaughn the experience of 1900 ABs and we’ll see what his OPS is then.

Starting next year, I would bet that if you look and compare stats over the next ten years (again starting with the 2023 season on thru 2032) I would bet big bucks that Vaughn has a higher OPS, more RBIs, and a clearly better BA. I am confident that Vaughn is going to be that good.

How is Anderson so bone headed on the bases, just amazing. Remember last week or so he was picked off 1st base twice on back to back nights. One was like just now where he wasn’t paying attention and stumbled off the base. I don’t get it.

Agree with the Play Harrison part of this %1000. Of all the stupid, senseless things TLR does, his obsession with playing Leary so much is the most baffling to me. Doesn’t he see Leary’s stats? Wasn’t he at the game last to see how well Harrison played and how his bat is coming around? Harrison is a better defender at 2nd? Has any one of the other coaches asked Tony what is his deal with continually playing Leary. It makes no sense. So frustrating.

Can we stop this ridiculous statement that a bad outfielder is a danger to the other defenders on the field. It’s stupid and it’s stated on here continually as if it were a fact. A slow defender or one who takes bad reads on balls is no less or more likely to call for a ball, nor is he less likely to hear a player calling him off, like the Eloy and Robert bobble head last week. Again, repeated on here continually and it’s silly and a silly argument.

Righty or lefty pitching, I don’t care. Play Burger and sit Moncada’s ass down. I’ve said it here over and over: Moncada doesn’t care. There is no more clear evidence it this than Monacada running the Sox into that killer triple play. He had NO idea of the situation at all, not mentally into the game at all. Don’t come on here and complain about Burger’s defense. Like Vaughn’s D in the outfield, detractors greatly exaggerate Burger’s bad D. I can think of three games this year Burger has directly won with his bat. I can’t think of a game that Moncada won with his glove. If you talk about Burger losing games with his glove, we’ll compare that to the game Moncada lost two nights ago with his clueless (I don’t give a shit) base running. Plus Sox need home runs, that’s Burger light years over Moncada. Play Burger, and equally important, sit Moncada.

What is the rule here? If Engel would have stayed at 2nd and tagged, it’s pretty obvious Moncada would have passed him or, at least, ran into him. It looked like Engel wanted to tag but saw Moncada coming. If Engel had stayed at 2nd and Moncada passed or made contact, wouldn’t they both have been out? Didn’t Engel have to run or both out? Again what is the rule if a baseruuner passes or bumps into the runner a base ahead of him?

Anyone sane. Anyone would be better. When he was hired I though it would either be great or a disaster, but I never saw this level of a disaster. LaRussa has totally lost it. His moves are day after day indefensible. Sitting Sosa two games and then batting him lead off???? Sitting Anderson today??? And EVERY GAME is like this: crazy ass lineups and in game decisions. For all the Sox injuries and other problems, I absolutely believe if the Sox had started the season with anyone else in baseball other then LaRussa managing, anyone in the majors or minors, they would have 5 to 10 more wins. I’m telling you, many, possibly a majority of this Sox team is at the “why give a shit?” level and just earning pay checks now and it’s because a crazy fuck is captain of the ship and they know it, and they know they can’t do a damn thing about it. They have quit on him and the team and are just going thru the motions.