Look at Ray Ray Run

Can hate on the Cubs all we want, but there simply aren't a lot of 23 year olds in the games history putting up 6+ WAR seasons. The only player I can think of in my lifetime who had similar elite success at a really young age in the outfield only to get worse with age year over year was BJ/Melvin Upton, and he never had a 6 WAR season. PCA has more power than BJ too. Similar profiles though outside of handedness.

The difference between Colson and Noah is that pitching is much more measurable. It's undeniable that the changes made to Schultz have hurt the quality of his stuff which inherently makes him a worse player without a doubt. It would be one thing if it was just the ballpark or some bad luck this year -- I too couldn't care less about a high ERA if it's simply noise. The problem is, Schultz has earned his results this year for the most part. He's performing at the same level of his stuff.

The highest Pepiot was ever ranked was 55th in baseball. He's been a fine MLB starter the past two years, and seems like he'll have a decent career is a middle of the rotation for a while. I'd call that a success. Nastrini was never a top prospect. Gavin Stone was never higher than 56th in baseball. Cartaya was a bust and Bobby Miller has been a failed starter for sure and he was a nice prospect. If he became a + RP though, would he actually be a bust? Rushing is 24 years old and a higher ranked prospect right now than everyone in the Sox system. Help me understand how he's a bust? Meanwhile, the last time the White Sox were the #1 farm in baseball during the rebuild resulted in the vast majority of those players busting. Pipeline stinks because they're basically a PR arm for baseball and have limited scouting abilities, but they aren't over ranking Dodgers players in some big conspiracy. What this exercise should do is show that prospects are volatile and the majority of them don't pan out.

I think if this is a breakdown of for this season only, it's hard to argue with PCA's placement. If we're projecting out, I think he's a really volatile player because of his bat. He nearly leads the league in chase rate, and he doesn't hit lefties. If I had to put a comp on him, it would be Andruw Jones. Great athlete, incredible defender, great power and speed but the hit tool and etc will waiver from year to year with him in my opinion.

You'll gobble up whatever is put out by the team, it's wild. So the Sox were letting him pitch with bad mechanics his entire career before this year but then decided this year that was over? Optimal mechanics aren't even a thing in the first place. Also not sure what mechanics have to do with pitch mixes. No one is talking about triple a banners, but you judge prospects based on progress and regression.

You don't understand what was a failure about overhauling a guy who was dominating resulting in him falling apart and ALL of his stuff regressing? Also, a stain is a single negative thing that happened while a red flag is a signifier of things to be concerned about in the future. Glad I could help answer that for you.

The Ryan Fuller excuse just doesnt add up to me. I have to believe they had a plan to have that infrastructure in place when they were drafting, so why would a lack of infrastructure at that time influence their pick?

Schultz having a rework is the biggest stain and red flag for this current regime. It made no sense. It has been a huge failure, and they've been candid about it being their decision and direction that's led him here. He went from a possible #1 overall prospect to a huge question mark. The lack of pitching development this year has been devastating. Smith also didn't throw strikes in college so assuming command will come with reps is far from a guarantee. Lastly, they're on pace to lose 101 games and they have a farm system in the back half of the league. How is there any positivity there?

Back to back wRC+ of 141 as a younger-than-level prospect will create a lot of buzz. He did that at 20 and 21 so pretty impressive at that point. I actually have more hope for Mead than Vargas right now.

So where are we getting 80 wins from exactly?

100%. This exists throughout all walks of life and work too. You can have an incredibly talented team, but their skill sets simply don't align so you can't get the most out of any of those skills. Your GM is supposed to be the facilitator and maximize the team structure in a way that they can get the most out of their assets skill sets and strengths. If you have a head of pitching development that excels at maxing spin, velo and release, but your lead scouts and minor league pitching coaches strengths were maximizing endurance, release repeatability and command, on the surface you'd think you have it all covered but the reality is you have people in both spots delivering a message that the other can't maximize. In baseball, if you are going to find an edge it'll be a niche edge that you need to master and then you need to commit to it. It doesn't mean you throw everything else by the wayside, but it means all you care about being is average/in-line with others in other areas while you master your niche. The Sox didn't actually have a problem mastering a niche historically, there problem was being average in the areas they didn't invest in. With Getz' White Sox, I think that niche is still a big unknown while he's focused on bringing other areas up to average. As I've said before though, nobody ever won anything consistently by merely copying what others were doing. You need an edge, and I have yet to see it. The step back pitching took this year is a huge kick in the dick.

Another lefty last night for the homer. Crazy how many lefties He's seen since he went to Milwaukee.

Tim Anderson averaged 4.01 WAR per/162 in his first 6 years with the White Sox. If Colson has that pace, it would be a huge win.

The challenge with the Baez comp for me is that Lenyn is a contact-oriented player. He's striking out less than league average, but also walking very little --- meaning he is putting a ton of balls in play. If we were forced to compare him to another Chicago MIF, I'd compare him more to Starlin Castro than Baez. He has a little more pop than Castro, but besides that their K/BB rates are in the same ballpark, but Lenyn elevates the ball with greater frequency and hits the ball harder when he makes contact consistently. Castro's game was built more to collect a few more singles, while Sosa's game is built more to generate more XBH.

Vaughn is actually hitting the ball on the ground quite a bit more in MIL than he did here.

The Rays gave him looks over three seasons, and while the PA's are low, it's hard to argue that they didn't give him a chance imo. They did, and they simply didn't like what they saw. His power does not seem to have ever come fully back following the broken wrist.

Smart enough to adjust continually to the changes pitchers make to him. He has a lot of mental lapses which lead to highly recognizable errors in the field (maybe he needs some adderall???), but generally speaking I wouldn't call a guy who has adapted and evolved as much as him baseball stupid.

With a payroll under 80 million, I'm not so sure.

"Building around up the middle talent."

Luis has officially gotten his xwOBA up to the 50% percentile. At this point, without some bad luck (expected numbers are about 20% better than actuals) he'd be on a 3.5 WAR pace with the horrible start. Insane that no one traded for Robert. He really could have been the x factor of the entire trade deadline.

On a rate basis, he's about 16th of guys who actually play 2nd base and removing qualifiers (still requiring 200 PA'S though). So pretty close to right in the middle. He's actually in the top 10 since the middle of June though.

There's been a few of us here saying Sosa was the most likely to improve and stick, of everyone around. His history shows it. Hilarious how much hype Vargas gets and hate Sosa gets. Sosa has now been more than 50% more valuable ytd than Vargas despite fewer games played.

Thanks, I remembered the prediction thread and the vast majority (from what I recall) said they'd be better than last year.

I've read twice that "many people here said they'd be worse this year than last." To that comment I ask, who said that?