Look at Ray Ray Run

Yeah, the team was 24-10 (70.5% WP) in games played by Thomas that year. They were 75-53 (58.5%) in all other games.

For a second I thought this was about White Sox kids camps; I have very fond memories of White Sox kid camps. I only attended one year when I was really young, and I vividly remember leaving thinking I was the next Frank Thomas - then as time went on I realized that the majority of the kids attending camp at that age had never really played the game and I had been doing private lessons for 1 year by that age. Still, looking back I put my odds on being a big leaguer based on those results at -1000; not every chalk cashes! Instead we're talking about people with actual talent and skills in this thread working on their profession. I digress.

Ozzie Guillen may have turned Garland's career around. I remember Garland the top prospect struggling mightily his first few years with the Sox, and at the first sign of danger he was always looking to the bullpen to see pitchers warming and shortly after was always removed from the game. I remember Garland telling a story about Ozzie where he loaded the bases in a 1 run game in the 5th inning (I believe) and nobody out. Garland looked to the bullpen to see no one warming and Ozzie took a walk to the mound and asked him what he was looking at... told him, it's his fucking problem and it's his to get out of. Walked off the mound, and Garland gave up 2 of the runs and the lead, but started the 6th inning as well. I believe the White Sox lost the game, but Garland stopped looking to the bullpen whenever he got in a jam. That kind of confidence Guillen showed his starters ended up paying off 1 year later in 2005 when Garland and the rest of the staff took huge leaps forward. It's one of the most underrated aspects of Guillen's coaching that I think was overlooked. Joe Maddon could have taken this out of Guillen's playbook with how he managed Hendricks.

Frank hitting 12 homers in 26 games was amazing; even more so when you heard the reason why he did it. He had told everyone he couldn't actually run because he was so banged up/injured, that hitting the ball not over the fence was always going to be a single... so for that year, Frank changed his entire approach and simply tried to launch the ball. It checks out in his numbers too, and they are eye opening: 1. Frank had an ISO of .371 that year (second in his career behind only 1994) 2. Frank had a BABIP of .169 (LOL!), by far the lowest of his career. Frank literally couldn't run down the line, so he just dropped bombs or walked to first. 3. His HR to FB rate was 28.6% - the highest of his career, and double his career average. 4. His pull rate was 52% - 7% higher than his career average. What a crazy small sample from Frank - it really showed how amazing he was as a hitter though. He could kill you without his legs even working. Although we all know Frank mastered that art many years prior, with the "flail my ass out and throw the bat at the ball for a blooper to right" method.

The Jirschele stuff always showed the White Sox drive for new-age, but also defined the disconnect between the different levels. Players felt more comfortable and saw more progress at lower levels - Hansen even got sent down solely to work with the A-Ball pitching coach. That was a problem; the team needed to feel comfortable that the staffs of every level were speaking the same language, and they very clearly weren't comfortable with that. Hopefully this upcoming season is a sign of things changing.

A lot of new age acquisitions within that. That seems promising.

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of "peaks" when evaluating greatness. It's why I think Jeter was so overrated; he was just the Biggio of SS. They were very good, but neither of them had peaks to the level of a Frank Thomas. Give me a player with one of the three greatest peaks in baseball history over a guy who was very good for 12 years. I'll take that 7 year impact, with the rest of Thomas' career thrown in there. There has never been a more intimidating right handed hitter in the games history, and if you exclude Barry Bonds from the past 40 years there's never been a more intimidating man to play the game. Frank defined "if he didn't swing, I don't think I can call it a strike" from umpires. Him and Bonds had strike zone recognition that we will possibly never see again.

Yeah, guys pretty much just selling boner/sex drive supplements - that's par for the course for aging athletes. I was happy they added that part about steroids though; they didn't add the anecdote that Thomas was willing to give a blood test in violation of the PA agreement - giving up his union status - just to clear his name because that's how passionate he was about it. I'm happy someone talked him down because giving up his retirement and health care just to show people he was clean was a dumb thing to do. Frank was clean and he shouted it earlier than everyone else. When the era gets meshed together in 50 years, I will be the crust old guy swearing by Frank and telling them all he refused to use.

There's the story that Reinsdorf bailed Thomas out and gave him/lent him a good amount of money when he was going through his divorce. That was a really tough time in Frank's life, and Jerry was there for him. If you want to know how deep Reinsdorf's loyalty goes for his own, Frank has always been a good place to point. That said, Jerry really did fuck Frank with the strike in '93.

Yolmer is a good 3rd baseman; assuming you aren't commenting on him because he's not on the roster though.

The one knock on Yolmer is he really can't play SS very well. He's a 2 trick pony as a 2nd and 3rd baseman only. That could be the one knock since I think Mendick can play SS as well.

Why is the bat the driving force behind a utility IF signing? Defense and versatility should be 1 and 1a. I know I'm in the minority, but Yolmer, Leury, Mendick and Engel would be my bench pieces. They all do things extremely well - Engel Def/BR, Yolmer Def, Leury Versatility/BR, and Mendick +bat/versatile glove. I would be happy giving those guys a chance to be good in those places. I'm not signing a utility guy for a bench bat when the teams offense goes 8 bats deep right now; maybe 9.

First of all, I want to say this is about 30 spots too low for Frank. This entire piece is worth a read, but I wanted to quote one part about Ozzie that just had me dying - knowing Guillen and Frank's relationship and how interesting it was (Frank and Ozzie were closer than most thought. Ozzie and Frank's personalities were always polar opposites, but they worked well together and Guillen always knew how to get a rise out of Frank but he was also Frank's staunchest defender when criticism was real). "There’s a vivid and telling scene in Reilly’s SI piece about Thomas — it happened after ESPN baseball analyst Dave Campbell suggested that the way to get Thomas out was with high inside fastballs. Campbell cited Thomas’ record against Nolan Ryan; Frank was 0-for-12 with 11 strikeouts against the legend. Of course, all 12 of those at-bats were in Thomas’ first three seasons. It’s fair to say Thomas was not impressed. “Who the @#$%^ is Dave Campbell?” Reilly quoted Thomas screaming in the clubhouse. “A %$#@! .213 hitter trying to tell me what I can’t hit? A .213 hitter? Telling me I can’t hit fastballs?” The scene — which, by the way, was delightfully enhanced by Ozzie Guillen, who egged on Thomas by shouting, “That’s true! You cannot hit fastballs!” — is so telling for any number of reasons. Two of them stand out." Now onto Frank and his ranking. Thomas was arguably the greatest RH peak hitter in baseball history - having one of the three greatest 7 year stretches in MLB history. In the modern Era, Frank Thomas is the greatest pure hitter since the league became integrated. Frank, ironically enough, was slightly underrated in his era because he came around right before walks got their proper due. Frank's story was always fantastic to follow - a baseball player in a football players body and region. Frank never was given a chance, but he was spectacular in every way and proved his talent. https://theathletic.com/1516374/2020/01/13/the-baseball-100-no-74-frank-thomas/ Ozzie was the GOAT teammate; he'd drive you crazy, but he had your back. Ozzie was one of Frank's biggest supporters, despite driving Frank crazier than any of his other teammates.

A couple points from the FG's piece today on Aroz: The underlying metrics are also impressive; he pummeled the ball, hitting 49% of his batted balls 95 mph or harder. (this was something I said yesterday) When it comes to plate discipline, Arozarena shows uncommon poise for a player with his raw tools. Guys who combine his speed and feel for contact often end up swinging too much, overly secure in their ability to hit everything. That’s not Arozarena; he ran a below-average 41% swing rate in the minors in 2019 while making contact on more than 80% of his swings. If you want a major league comparison for those numbers, it’s roughly Xander Bogaerts. (This was really interesting and something that really stood out in his profile to me)

Fair enough, I'll defer to your thoughts here.

The extension was discussed nationally that day - nothing final but it was discussed. Also, he said the Sox were close with Will Harris and 1 hour he signed with the Nats lol. Why do people chose to ignore this anecdote while citing this guy? If you want to know why fake insiders exists - which is a common question around here - you answer that question every time you give this guy attention.

You want Cameron Maybin to be your late-game defensive replacement? He's not a good defender though? I know people are tired of Engel because he represents a bad period in White Sox baseball, but he'd be a fantastic 4th outfielder. He's an elite defender and baserunner. This team has plenty of offensive firepower now.

He didn't piggy back off Jimmy's tweet - FS posted an article on Jan 1 before Cishek's piece breaking down the extension talks. On the morning of 1/1, MLBnetwork reported that extension talks with Robert had picked up steam. Progress on the contract was made at the winter meetings according to Hahn, and frame work had been hashed out by the time Jimmy reported it. Cishek takes tea leaves and reports them. He also said the Sox were closing in on Will Harris and 1 hour later Harris signed with the Nats. Then he shifted and Chisek it was. He threw a bunch of shit against the wall, and he got a few things right. That's the nature of fake sources - Incarcerated Bob has mastered the art.

The Cardinals are not trading Fowler either; especially not for a non-big leaguer. They moved outfielders to clear a logjam, and potentially re-sign Ozuna. If they re-sign Ozuna, their OF is Fowler, Ozuna and O'Neill with Bader being the 4th man in the rotation. If they don't re-sign Ozuna, then their outfield is Fowler, Bader, and O'Neill. The move for Liberatore seems odds for the Cardinals - who are in win-now mode - and you have to believe it's a precursor to a bigger move for the Cardinals who will ship Liberatore out soon after they acquired him.

Those were the best relievers on the market and the only ones that made sense for the Sox who were interested in relievers and had stated such to Merkin. He didn't call the Robert extension - Jimmy reported it, and then another national writer said they were making progress and right after that he tweeted it out. He also was NOT the first person to report the Mazara trade as has been cited here. He piggybacked off another national writer - might have been Nightengale, I can't remember for sure - and that was that. I followed the guy to see if he was first on anything after he was originally cited here - I also follow all the national/local writers for most teams. He was never first, and frequently piggy backed all his reports of national and local reports.

I said this yesterday, but publicly available prospect rankings overvalue pitchers beneath A-Ball. TINSTAAPP is a very real thing in the executive baseball world. Here's one good read on it. Libertore was a good prospect, but he wasn't elite enough for him to warrant his value in the rankings. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/an-update-to-prospect-valuation/

Rangers seem to wonder how he will sign with them when they're not interested lol.

He was a really raw prospect though; that was the knock on him for his age. He really put it together last year - I am a believer. He's really talented, and he has great strike zone recognition.

He named every reliever that was left on the market that could be considered solid. He SAID NOTHING about Grandal before the signing.

No, he has not. Here is what Cishek has done; every time a rumor has been reported by someone, he has taken it a step further and said the Sox were working to finalize something. Sometimes, it happened and he "looked" right. Other times, he just moved on and pretended he never said it. He didn't get anything first - he piggy backed off of other reports.