South Side Hit Men

Eloy: .762 OPS; 9 HR, 30 RBI Andrew: .758 OPS; 12 HR, 45 RBI Never understood the Eloy love or Andrew hatred here.

And who gives a rats ass about making the playoffs beyond Jerry counting extra money (glad he got screwed out of it in 2020). It's about advancing in the playoffs (winning pre 1969). The three years the White Sox advanced in the playoffs: 1906; 1917; 2005.

Robert Junior and Zavala are the two very good / excellent defenders on the entire team. Everyone else is far below average across MLB, with Grandal, Vaughn. Burger, Anderson and Eloy in the bottom ten, and Andrus (2B), Shields and Colas just outside the bottom ten solely because they didn't play enough games. White Sox Positional Defense Runs Saved (all players): Catcher (87 Total Players): Zavala (7th); Grandal (81st). First Base (70): Vaughn (63rd). Second Base (87): Gonzalez (70th); Andrus (73rd); Sosa (81st). Third Base (82): Moncada (39th); Burger (76th). Shortstop (69): Andrus (54th); Anderson (67th). Left Field (91): Benintendi (80th). Center Field (79): Robert (5th). Right Field (87): Colas (68th); Sheets (76th); Eloy (78th). Note: Eloy is grouped with DH because that is his primary position this year. His rank reflects where he would appear if listed as RF, his lone 2023 defensive position.

Every year I come here after these projections are released, fans are incensed at how low the team overall and several individuals are ranked, a mix of believing players will reach the highest range of performance and games played projections. Baseball Prospectus sucks, Fangraphs suck, Vegas sucks, etc. No, the White Sox (and many other teams) suck. Some of these ideas are laughable. Promote Colas? He has a few dozen games in AAA and needs a lot more work there before being completely overwhelmed at the ML level. The problem is these guys (Colas, Sosa, Rodriquez) were clearly rushed to fill the pathetic depth needs. The problem is not they weren't promoted fast enough. Colas played 7 games at the AAA level. And was promoted, and failed miserably. Ditto what they have done with Vaughn, Cease, Kopech. "Jerry's chickens, have come home to roost."

Perhaps this is the parade Rick is talking about.

Rick Hahn at home, knowing he is signed through 2027. #FireRickHahn

The emphasis on the bullpen is consistent, though without the same results or quality, because Hahn going to Hahn.

Pedro doesn’t have talent to succeed here. The one area of poor judgment that you can’t fault him for because there are only 30 MLB managerial jobs is not doing what Joe Espada did and that is tell the White Sox thanks but wait for an opportunity with an actual chance to succeed. I think he is doing a good job learning what or who he can trust and do the best he can with the roster he has. Sounds like Hahn lied to him about a bunch of promises or representations of what he was stepping into and allowed to do, based on his comment to “Talk to Jerry” last week. I’d be pissed as well working for an asshat like Hahn.

Eloy is pouting because he is now an everyday DH. Eloy is an everyday DH because he can’t catch baseballs or stay healthy. Trade Eloy if he stays healthy into mid-late July.

Kim Ng is the only external person Jerry is familiar with besides Tony La Russa who he’d hand over the club to run the baseball side. But I’ll take that over the alternative: Waiting for an undetermined future year / decade for Jerry to die. Adding 1-2 years for the estate to settle and a new owner to be formally approved by MLB. Adding 1-2 years for a transition to a new FO including removal of all officers including Brooks Boyer. Adding 3-5 years to build a domestic scouting team (pro and amateur), create a analytics team, build a minor league instructional system, build a training and medical staff, hiring a major league manager and coaching staff. Acquiring 160 + players at all levels.

MLB Trade Values: Bryant + Palmquist = Negative $118.3M Moncada + Eloy = Negative $20M Rockies would need to eat Benintendi’s deal as well ($20.7M Negative) and include these minor league players to make it fair: 2B Amador $24.2M OF Fernandez $14.6M C Romo $13.1M OF Veen $12.2M RHP Vargas $7.8M SS Bernabel $5.0M That’s the value of eating really bad contract money. That’s also why the Sox won’t be getting much beyond a bag of dicks at the deadline, because Jerry will be looking for teams to eat contracts, not spend prospects. Not to mention the fact Hahn is involved, doesn’t know WTF he is doing.

This Monday game was a punch in the gut. I thought they would beat Detmers tonight. This is a new all time low in terms of total hits (3) vs. a left handed starter since the faux rebuild The Dozen Games the White Sox scored 0 or 1 runs against a Left Handed Starter since 2019: 6/26/23 Reid Detmers at Los Angeles A. L. 2-1 1 (3 hits) 5/18/23 Logan Allen vs. Cleveland 2-1 (8 hits) 4/26/23 Yusei Kikuchi at Toronto 8-0 (4 hits) 9/25/22 Tyler Alexander vs. Detroit 4-1 (6 hits) 9/14/22 Kyle Freeland vs. Colorado 3-0 (8 hits) 8/1/22 Daniel Lynch vs. Kansas City 2-1 (10 hits) 5/15/22 Nestor Cortes vs. New York A. L. 5-1 (4 hits) 4/26/22 Daniel Lynch vs. Kansas City 6-0 (5 hits) 9/9/21 Sean Manaea at Oakland 1-0 (6 hits) 8/25/21 Robbie Ray at Toronto 3-1 (6 hits) 5/21/21 Jordan Montgomery at New York A. L. 2-1 (6 hits) 5/15/21 Mike Minor vs. Kansas City 5-1 (4 hits)

Which team will finish with the better offense and position player roster? White Sox vs. Athletics: Position Player Offense Runs Created: White Sox -44.7 Athletics -48.0 Position Player Defense Runs Saved: White Sox -18.3 Athletics -19.1 Position Player Overall fWAR: White Sox 3.7 Athletics 3.4 Players with a positive Offensive Runs Created (Batting + Base Running): White Sox (3 ML): Robert (14.9); Burger (4.6); Benintendi (3.6); Hamilton (0.1). Athletics (3 ML): Noda (11.9); Rooker (8.3); Ruiz (2.5). Players with a positive Defensive Runs Saved: Athletics (6 ML): Bride (2.4); Peterson (2.0); Kemp (1.8); Laureano (1.4); Diaz (1.3); Wade (1.2); Allen (0.1). White Sox (4 ML): Zavala (8.1); Robert (5.6); Sosa (3.1); Andrus (1.3); Anderson (0.6); Rodriguez (0.1). Players with an overall positive fWAR: Athletics (10 ML): Noda (1.6); Rooker (1.2); Ruiz (1.1); Peterson (0.7); Bleday (0.4); Laureano (0.3); Perez (0.3); Bride (0.2); Wade (0.2); Diaz (0.1); Capel (0.1). White Sox (9 ML): Robert (3.1); Benintendi (0.9); Burger (0.8); Vaughn (0.2); Moncada (0.2); Grandal (0.2); Zavala (0.2); Jimenez (0.1); Sheets (0.1). Billy Hamilton is the fourth most valuable White Sox offensive weapon with .000 OPS in 2 at bats. Fire Rick Hahn.

The best new managerial prospect, Joe Espada, who wasn't even interviewed by the pathetic White Sox in 2020 looked at this shitshow in 2022 and said, hard pass, I'll stay bench coach in 2023.

Meanwhile at Rick Hahn's house on the North Shore.

Rick Hahn's 2023 40 Man Roster Construction - Position Players: All Stars: Robert Jr.. Players who can field and hit "good enough": Benintendi. Designated Hitters: Burger; Grandal; Jimenez; Sheets; Vaughn. Fielders who cannot hit: Andrus; Zavala. Was good, might be later: Anderson. AAAA: Frazier; Haseley; Perez; Remillard. Too young, still prospects: Colas; Ramos; Rodriguez; Sosa. Injured: Gonzalez; Moncada. DFA'd: Alberto; Garcia; Hamilton, Billy (reclaimed in AAA); Marisnick

It's knowledge of baseball. It was clear he was a bad signing Thanksgiving 2019. No catcher is "Elite" if he sits in the playoffs because he can't catch. Like Stone says "I prefer my catchers to be able to catch."

It's still 1st and 2nd if Zavala is catching.

f*** YOU GRANDAL

Grandal is unplayable at catcher at this point. Call up Perez and DH Grandal or just DFA his ass.

Bummer in, let's do this!

I wish Eloy's Mom had a girl.

Let's do this Tim!

In Pedro We Trust