South Side Hit Men

If I had three White Sox wishes, one would be to flip Lenyn’s name with Tony’s in the first sentence.

I lost my optimism enjoyed in 2019 and 2020, when Jerry fired Ricky, and instead of conducting a legitimate manager search ended up hiring this drunken senile disgraceful buffoon. Sox fans were locked into a full porta-pot and rolled down an enormous hill on October 29, 2020, a date which will live in infamy. I get why some may have continued to share optimism the past two seasons, primarily due to their love of the core players, and hoping the team could succeed despite the shitshow management and ownership. The pathetic ownership and stewardship of the other four AL Central teams also gave fans legitimate hope that this team could finish as the tallest midget, or earn one of six farcical wild card births, and win a wild card series if everything worked out. Anything is possible until a team is eliminated, but any cause for optimism now is based on blind faith and hope against logic and what fans have witnessed the past two seasons. This is the burden Sox fans have carried since the day they were born, but it didn’t have to be this way.

He was a finalist. Was Tony a finalist last year? Is he one his way this year? LOLz Fuck you Jerry.

Steve has expanded his White Sox targets.

Barring a Blue Jays comeback, Sox down three in the Division and Wild Card, trailing two and three teams, respectively

Wish Tim was more like Jackie, less like Steve Garvey.

Who acquired these guys? Who is managing them? It all needs to be flushed down the toilet, by someone external who knows what they're doing and given free reign to clean up this mess from top to bottom, scouting, player development, major and minor league coaching and instruction. That's why the Sox have sucked for decades. They can't draft, they can't develop players, they can't coach or manage players.

Fuck his arrogant ass. He's part of the organization changes planned for 2023. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

The money has already been lit, they should take it out of Hahn and Tony's final paychecks on the way out the door.

In a few weeks if this continues, they should just shut down Kopech and Grandal for the season, DFA Pollock and Leury, bring in a FO that knows something about baseball and try in the final two years of this window.

2022 fWAR before today Dunning 0.8 $0.7M Kopech 0.8 $0.7M Giolito 0.8 $7.5M Steak 0.4 $19.0M Keuchel -0.4 $18.5M

They're even worse, that game was over by the 3rd yesterday.

Never has, according to some. Never will either. 2013-2020 - Kenny had him on Training Wheels 2021-2022 - Tony! Toni! Tone!

Sad but true. 2022 fWAR Lamb 0.2 Pollock -0.2 <= Starting CF Grandal -0.5 Sheets -0.6 <= Starting RF Leury -1.0

June/July are looking more and more like the anomalies this season. Runs scored per game (17th in The MLB) April 3.2 May 4.0 June 5.0 July 4.9 August 3.6 1. New York Yankees 570 5. New York Mets 512 10. Boston 485 15. Texas 472 17. Chicago White Sox 458 (4.3 per game) 20. Arizona 447 25. Miami 412 30. Detroit 345

April 4-6 (4-2) May 10-9 (5-2) June 5-4 (5-0) July 3-5 (9-3) August 1-1 (1-0) Starter 23-25 Substitute (24-7) Have to expect a drop off as starter for games he filled in for Robert. The problem with Tony's focus on 1-3 innings for defense is you're skipping the first 2/3 of the game, and guys like Sheets (OPS + 91) and Leury (OPS +45) are below (or Leury terrible) average offensive contributors. Engel is only 8 points behind Sheets playing against RHP and LHP, whereas Sheets' is inflated by facing RHP in 90% of his plate appearances (232 vs. 24). It's ludicrous that Sheets is still on this team, and Tony thinks he's a regular when he is terrible because he has a below average bat and plays atrocious defense.

White Sox Record by pitcher apperances Starts Dylan Cease +12 (17-5) Vince Velasquez +2 (5-3) Injured List Lance Lynn +2 (6-4) Reynaldo Lopez +1 (1-0) Injured List Johnny Cueto 0 (7-7) Dallas Keuchel -2 (3-5) DFA Jimmy Lambert -2 (0-2) Relief Pitcher Michael Kopech -3 (8-11) Davis Martin -3 (0-3) Charlotte Lucas Giolito -5 (7-12) Relief Appearances Kendall Graveman +26 (36-10) Liam Hendriks +25 (31-6) Joe Kelly +10 (18-8) Aaron Bummer +4 (12-8) Injured List Davis Martin +2 (3-1) Charlotte Jake Diekman +2 (2-0) Reynaldo Lopez 0 (18-18) Injured List Johnny Cueto -1 (0-1) Starting Pitcher Josh Harrison -2 (0-2) Position Player Vince Velasquez -2 (2-4) Injured List Jimmy Lambert -3 (7-10) Ryan Burr -4 (2-6) DFA Bennett Sousa -5 (10-15) Charlotte Kyle Crick -6 (4-10) Injured List Anderson Severino -6 (0-6) Charlotte Jose Ruiz -7 (18-25) Tanner Banks -14 (7-21) Matt Foster -15 (14-29)

White Sox record by player starts: Josh Harrison +11 (40-29) Luis Robert +8 (42-34) Seby Zavala +7 (17-10) Yoan Moncada +7 (31-24) Tim Anderson +6 (42-36) Eloy Jimenez +5 (18-13) Jose Abreu +4 (54-50) Reese McGwire +1 (24-23) Carmines Andrew Vaughn +1 (41-40) Gavin Sheets 0 (33-33) Lenyn Sosa -1 (1-2) Charlotte Adam Engel -2 (23-25) Danny Mendick -2 (12-14) Injured List Yasmani Grandal -3 (28-31) AJ Pollock -5 (34-39) Adam Haseley -5 (0-5) Charlotte Jake Burger -6 (19-25) Injured List Leury Garcia -8 (28-36)

What's moronic is not acknowledging the worst umpire call in World Series history. It was NBA-esque. There would be a 9,453 page Soxtalk game thread if it happened against the White Sox.

It's not a good lineup, but at least you have a decent outfield (swapping out the worst corners possible in Vaughn and Sheets). What they should do for the remaining two months to maximize offense / defense is: SS Anderson CF Robert LF Eloy 1B Abreu 3B Moncada # DH Vaughn RF Pollock C Grandal # 2B Harrison Reserves: 3B Burger; OF Engel ,2B/SS Leury C Zavala Option to Charlotte: DH Sheets

It's not even close, Vaughn / Sheets are far behind Reyes in RF. Right Field Defensive Career Runs Saved / Lost Annualized (source Baseball Reference) Eaton G 453 +5 Mazara G 548 -4 Goodwin G 101 -6 F. Reyes G 184 -12 Castellanos G 586 -13 Sheets G 58 - 26 <= Tony's Favorite Option Vaughn G 46 -34 <= Tony's Second Favorite Option Lamb G 10 -35 <= Tony's 2021 Experiment

Had to look this up vs. Jake Arrieta’s crazy 2015 second half. Jake’s 2015 finish is widely cited as one of the best all time, and Cease’s stretch is nearly the same, and didn’t have the White Sox terrible defense behind him making him work extra outs in most starts. Dylan is also throwing far more strikeouts without the benefit of facing a pitcher (Jake did 11 of 12 starts). The Sox broke up Jake’s chance at matching Dylan’s feat. ? Dylan Cease (5/29/22-8/5/22) 13 GS, 76 IP, 47 H, 34 BB, 95 K, 15 R, 5 ER, 7-2. Jake Arrieta (8/4/15-10/2/15) 12 GS, 88 1/3 IP, 41 H, 14 BB, 89 K, 7 R, 4 ER, 11-0.

If the Sox weren’t tanking this season and you want to rest Robert, the lineup should be: SS Anderson 3B Moncada # LF Jimenez 1B Abreu DH Sheets ^ CF Pollock C Grandal # 2B Garcia RF Engel