Look at Ray Ray Run

Kevin Newman hit 606 last spring with a 1429 OPS in 33 at bats. Kevin Newman had a .574 OPS in 517 at bats in the regular season for the Pirates last year.

and Devers and Moncada value on a rate basis was nearly identical last year... lol know it's not. that's literally exactly what it is, "a bad spring."

correlation =/= causation. it could be some guys who perform really poorly in spring are hurt, but the guys that aren't hurt have no barring. jack, watching spring training and caring about results is just a terrible thing to do given how many years you've been following this closely.

eloy's gonna mess around and hit 50 homers this year, isn't he?

The Sox not knowing how fast he was when they drafted him makes no sense. You're clocking kids home to first, home to second, and first to third when scouting them since they're 15 years old. It's not as if he lost speed. You're also clocking them 1st to 2nd, both jump and time. This narrative that somehow a team could be getting a player who actually isn't as fast as they assumed just doesn't make sense. You want to argue the glove had some challenges with the speed of the game they didn't expect, I could buy that. The speed though, no chance they were shocked by a guy running the same times he has been running for years.

I think the Sox try to push Kopech closer to 150 innings, but it'll be interesting to monitor. That said, if he replaced Rodon's production I would be floored, and he still wouldn't be better than Gio in my opinion.

Hate to be a negative nancy, but I don't think Lincoln Henzman is good.

Let's just get through a season with around 130 IP, no injury, and consistency before we start annointing Kopech as better than someone who ranks as the 6th best starter in baseball, among those qualified, since 2019 in Giolito.

He's 36, and before last year he was looking at FIP's over 4.7 for three years in a row. Big fan of Cueto's, and he'd just be a stop gap, but he's got an injury history now at his age and he's a big time fly ball pitcher who does not strike people out. Going from San Fran to Chicago as a big fly ball pitcher is no bueno. The best to one of the worst parks to give up fly balls in as a pitcher, and with all those balls in play, big chance chances for some fireworks.

Yeah, I said it before but Paddack just hasn't been able to develop an off-speed pitch that isn't his change up. I was a huge fan, but he's better suited for the bullpen at this point; unless he finds a third pitch which he hasn't shown an ability to do. His shine has worn off. He wouldn't even make up for a year of that shit Hosmer contract. Padres better hope Caufield gets a GM job quick if they wanna dump Hos.

Abreu had nothing to do with rebuild spending.

You implied the Sox didn't identify their needs and acquire them which led to their demise. Hence how I pointed out the demise of the Sox in 2021 playoffs was due to the performance from a unit that was never identied as being of need.

Acuna has maybe the most team friendly deal in baseball outside of his buddy Ozzie Albies who was legitimately defrauded. Freddie Freeman signed an extension for 8 years 135 million (16 million per). While both are larger than deals the Sox have signed, admittedly, it's really not all that different than the Robert extension. Saying the Sox don't have 100 MM superstars just makes no sense. Sox have players every bit as good as the stars on the Braves, they're just earlier in their contracts and don't make as much money. Also, Anaheim has two guys probably worth 700 million between them and they aren't even a playoff team.

In what world was a White Sox "need" in 2021 at the TDL a starting pitcher? Who in their right mind would have argued that? The Sox had 4 starters in the top 20 in baseball in WAR. The Sox were never going to acquire a SP who was going to pitch in the playoffs. It wouldn't have made any sense. FOUR of the TOP 20 starters in baseball. Their strength failed in the playoffs, so they lost. The Braves got production from a bunch of bums, and saw their bullpen (who were middle of the pack 14-16th in all of baseball) dominate. There was no logic or rhyme/reason to the Braves title and it certainly shouldn't be a barometer for which the Sox front office builds around: "be one of the worst teams in the playoffs and get lucky!"

Yes, the Sox have BETTER players than the Braves. My goodness, what are you guys even rambling about. If Luis Robert was a free agent tomorrow he'd sign a contract 2 times as large as Freddie Freemans. Yoan Moncada 2021 fWAR - 4.5 Freddie Freeman 2021 fWAR - 4.5 White Sox offensive fWAR 2021 - 25.2 Braves offensive fWAR 2021 - 22.1 White SOx offensive fWAR 2020 - 13.4 (best in baseball) Braves offensive fWAR 2020 - 11.0 White Sox pitcher fWAR 2021 - 27.1 (best in baseball!) BRaves pitcher fWAR 2021 - 16.0 The narrative that the Braves were anywhere near as good as the White Sox the past two years is a complete joke. The White Sox front office put a team together with BETTER players by a long shot, but on Soxtalk we have people pandering to the Braves front office because they acquired Adam freaking Duval at the trade deadline; a guy with a very similar carrer and value trajectory as the bum Cesar Hernandez the Sox acquired. Cesar Hernandez had actually been better for a longer period of time. People need to learn to seperate outcomes of small-sample post-seasons from the overall quality of a team and their process.

Leury Garcia had the biggest hit of the entire post-season for the White Sox. He had 4 RBI's and 3 runs scored in 4 games. Cesar Hernandez had an 831 OPS in the playoffs. The Sox lost because their SP - which was a strength all year and absolutely was not going to be a place they looked to acquire more talent from at the deadline - fell flat on their face. No one was saying the Sox should have acquired SP's at the deadline, and no one was demanding they don't pitch Giolito, Lynn or Cease in the playoffs. The Sox could have acquried Mike Trout and Ozzie Albies at the trade deadline to fill RF and 2B and they still would have gotten destroyed by the Astros. While I despised the process and decision making that led us to Cesar and Kimbrel, it also had no impact on the playoff results and did not change the fact that the White Sox were better than the Braves before the playoffs and once the playoffs started. You can applaud the Braves moves because you appear to pick and chose when you're results oriented and when your process oriented. The Braves got lucky, end of story.

The Braves had a lot more needs than the White sox. It's called luck, pal. Atlanta bullpen wasn't as good as sox bullpen but dominated in the playoffs. Atlanta acquired guys similar to cesar Hernandez in value and upside, but their cesar Hernandez's had well timed hot streaks in the playoffs. I dogged the cesar and kimbrel moves as much as anyone. Atlanta did not enter the playoffs with a better roster than the White sox. That's the job of a front office. The sox had a better team and they lost. It happens.

Not debatable at all. It wasn't even close. They got lucky. People have a real hard time accepting and understanding that luck plays a large part of postseason baseball. People always want too look for purpose and reason and some grander plan. It was none of that, they got lucky. Guys ran hot and they won. Period, end of story.

Atlanta wasn't a better team than the White Sox at any point during the 2021 season.

But he was smiling!

Why would the sox trade Vaughn for mitch Keller? If the Sox were gonna target a pirates pitcher, a cheap shrewd move would be inquiring about JT Brubaker.

There was absolutely no reason the sox should have given up anything of actual value for cesar Hernandez.

I'm not sure how kopech may be significantly better already.

Did pollock have a fortunate 2020 as well?