The Hawk

I say that his power numbers being as good as they were 20 HRs and 75 RBIs along with a .275 average means something different to me than a 94 wRC means to you. His power numbers represent the top 3rd of all American League right fielders do they not? You have your "stats" and I have mine in other words. This is the same as occurs in every different GM and Manager's mind. What are they looking at in a player? When Hahn made this trade, he saw a very young veteran player(26 years old) who he thought had an upside. Hahn will have to rethink that decision based on Mazara getting sick and having a miserable year. I thought that Hahn made a good baseball decision when he made it. You think he screwed up. We will see how it plays out going forward

I told you. I do not care a whit about defensive stats for outfielders. If you want to give them credence go for it. To begin with, stats do not even begin to be able to measure the ground which an outfielder has to cover typically, the kind of shifts that his team employs, the ability of his center fielder, etc. This takes watching the player which in this case I do a lot of. With infielders it is different. There, defensive stats do matter but even there you need to take some of them with a grain of salt based on the way the team positions its defensive players. In his four previous years in baseball, Mazara was beyond any doubt a decent average major league right fielder all around. Not a star but average. He averaged 20 home runs and about 75 RBIs a season while hitting in the .260s. That is decent production for anyone let alone a 26 year old player with 4 years of major league baseball under his belt. You say he sucks. I say that you are wrong. As far as being anti-vaxx or Covid hoaxing, you're probably wrong about that also.

Nope. One year in his short career he hit 20 HRs and drove in over 100 RBIs. IN 2019, out of about 35 guys in the Al who played right field at all, only 7 hit more home runs(19) or drove in more runs than he did( 68). And he hit .268 which was better than 2/3rds of them did. The guy was a legit all around right fielder. He did have some trouble with left handed pitchers and did get platooned a bit. So what? lot of young players have that done in their early careers.

I don't know what the "rules" are, Greg. All that I know is that I personally love to see guys like Abreu and McCann and Jimenez intentionally beat the shift and try to drive runs in or get a runner on base in a tight game. And if a Left fielder, a First Baseman, and a Catcher can do it, then so can other players. I'm leaving out Anderson and Grandal in the kudus list, also. Hell, I am talking about five guys now that are legit ALL-STAR major league players, right? Maybe some other players and teams should be doing a similar thing before even thinking about banning shifting in baseball.

I'm sort of old school when it comes to hitting and I think that hitters that cannot work on hitting the ball the other way to beat a shift or laying down a bunt once in awhile to get on base are hurting not only their team but all their own growth as a player. Looking at Jose Abreu and James McCann as well as the young Eloy, it just further tells me that my opinion is a correct one.

Ever see some of Mazara's home runs? He hits them "FAR". If you guys want to research outfield and hitting data points, more power to you. I watch the player himself and make my own assessment. IF all things were equal and Mazara didn't get Strep Throat and lose weight and strength, do you think that he wouldn't have hit somewhere in the area of 20 home runs last year in a regular season. If you do, I'd have to disagree with you based on our ball park and better line-up than the Rangers had.

I hope that they do not go with the 2nd base gimmick nor this play-off team addition. There should be a premium for playing well and winning in the regular season. Letting a team like the Stros with a losing record make the play-offs is hokey.

Isn't he still under a club option and under contract?

Usually any major league pitcher must be able to control and spot his fastball before much else happens. This is something that Lopez finds very difficult thus far. I think that Lopez really has the most ground to recover as a pitcher in that I think that it is mental with him just like it was with Fuller. He needs to learn how to repeat a delivery.

Funny stuff. Nope. I'm not related to Mazara:) I literally do not pay any attention to defensive statistics regarding outfielders. Infielders, I do. But with outfielders, NOPE. THose stats are for geeks. Also, I literally watched 95% of the White Sox pre-season and regular season and play-off games this year and I think that I understand who is and isn't a good outfielder. To me, Mazara is an average defensive outfielder. He runs with long strides and covers the gaps fine. He also must give way to a guy in Robert who starts calling for the ball as soon as it gets hit just about all of the time:) I get it. You hate Mazara. Probably never wanted the Sox to trade for him in the first place. And since he got sick and never produced to what he was before he got sick, this just further amplifies your quest to get rid of him. Its all good. Neither of our opinions mean a thing and they will do what they will do. I think that he will get another chance because he got sick. We wouldn't be even having this conversation if Mazara would have put up the same average numbers he put up before.

I agree. A kid who I think may surprise a lot of Sox fans and advance quickly and ahead of the higher draft picks is the Steiver kid. I saw him in 2019 and someone really made a good change in his delivery it appears at their Shaumberg facility because his stride is now straight toward the plate and everything follows correctly. This is what I have been yelling about this year about Cease and what he does, especially with his fast ball. What I like about Steiver is also that he throws everything with the same release point and he has some good "giddiup" on his two seam fastball.

Yeah. That's awesome. By way of background. I was a high school and college pitcher and after retiring from business got back into coaching high school baseball as well as travel ball for older kids, specifically pitching. Burdi mentioned in the above the "analysis" of a pitch and what was right and what was wrong with it and using that information to correct your delivery. That was and still is my approach except naturally they have great film and analytics supporting what they are doing. I call it, "working backwards" on every pitch. When you do that and the pitcher learns how to do it, a pitcher can basically correct themselves on the fly as a game goes on and when you bring the catcher into it, he can really be a 2nd pitching coach on the field. Going back to Burdi, I love both Burdi's and Huerer's potential. Both have excellent deliveries and can defeat the elevated swing being taught by the hitting gurus in baseball right now.

I don't think that Kluber will be looked at. You are talking about a guy making a lot of money, is 35 years old and who suffered a shoulder muscle tear.

How many outfielders do you think there have been who have averaged 20 HRs in their career by the age of 26 years old. Hell, some outfielders don't even break into baseball by age 25 or 26. I'd say that it is worth giving him another look. Its not like that they are paying him a lot of money in terms of what the going rate is for power hitting outfielders

I just flat disagree with you about Mazara being a poor defensive outfielder. He covers the gap and has a strong and accurate arm. I care less what Fangraphs and DRS have to say. As for OBP, I don't think that it is the definitive measure of a player's offensive worth. This kid came into the league very young and averaged 20 home runs a season along with solid RBI numbers. That outfielder that they gave up was no certainty either of ever being major league worthy. We will see what they do with Mazara and right field. My bet is that they will platoon Engel and him next season. How the money is going to get decided in filing the position doesn't concern me. I don't see the Sox having a "gaping hole" in right field in any way. I think that Mazara will rebound. Its just a guess but I think that both he and Moncada were physically impaired last year and that this year will be different.

Rules changes shouldn't be about changing the basics of the game and eliminating shifts does that. I remember the shift that they did on Ted Williams. Williams ignored it because he was great enough not to worry about it. No hitter since was as good as Ted Williams, I can see players not wanting to change their swings but that hardly is required. This is understanding how to intentionally hit the ball the other way to help your team. The woe is me, I hit the ball hard right at someone, its unfair stuff is pathetic.

We will see because neither of our votes count and right field is not a critical need for this team no matter what they choose to do. I say that his illness was the reason why he had the season that he did because there really is no plausible reason why a guy loses his ability to hit for power like he did unless it is physical somehow. Not at his age anyway.

He was never a bad defensive RF. He can run and cover the gaps okay and has a very strong arm. He also was an over-all average offensive player who averaged 20 Home runs per season despite being platooned a bit. And at his young age, many thought that he'd have an upside including myself.

We will see. When they brought Mazara in it wasn't to be a world beater. Just better than the mess that they had in 2019. Then their guy got sick. I look at it this way. I liken what happened with Mazara to signing him and having him break his leg right out of the gate. They get no production out of him. Is it his fault that he broke his leg? Probably not, right? This, to me, is the same kind of thing. What I liked about Mazara was that he battled through what he was obviously going through. He started to go to left field and just make contact. HE made adjustments and played a decent right field through it all. That being said, he's going to have to prove himself. Maybe as someone has suggested, they sign him to an incentive laden contract where he can recoup whatever money he would lose if they didn't tender him. Baseball is a tough business and this is part of it. I just think that he deserves a second chance. He is still very young.

I just absolutely believe that you need to throw away what he did this season. I just do not believe that a player forgets how to hit. I think that he was sick and weak which changed his swing greatly. I think that hitting a baseball is the single hardest thing to do in all of sports and something was wrong with Mazara physically. Maybe I am wrong.? Maybe he just forgot? Realistically, he will have spring training to reclaim his stroke. If they need to move on, then fine. I do say that if he returns to his output average of the previous four years then it will be just peachy:)

Robert, Jimenez, Moncada were all on the White Sox radar very early on. When they had a chance to harvest them, they took advantage of it. Abreu is one of the best Latin players ever plucked from Latin America. No question that their drafting has been over-all bad in the last decade but they have done, I believe much better ever since the dismantling of the late 2010s including the latest additions of a bunch of young pitchers and Vaughn, Madrigal,

That's pretty good. Thanks for the warning:) I've gotta be honest, though. I hated it when the Sox traded Sale and Q and waved the white flag. But my anger was and still gets directed at Reinny and not Hahn. I've always thought that the problem with the White Sox has always been Reinny not committing to winning by bringing in people who know talent and building a system to sustain a winning major league team over a long period of time. I think that Hahn is proving that he knows how to do that. Signing guys like Robert, Moncada, JImenez while they are babies in baseball was genius and the drafting of some other young talent, especially pitchers to me is building a team and its future the smart way.

I guess then that I just must disagree with that opinion regarding Hahn. Somehow maybe the best batting order in all of baseball got put together somehow and the cost of it doesn't even come close to the cost of the so-called "elite" baseball organizations. Hahn did it via smart trades and excellent drafting as well as harvesting Latin America better than anyone else around. I personally think that the high end free agent signings turn out to be unsuccessful in the majority of cases and can actually hamstring an organization's ability to go forward. Looking at the free agents that the Sox brought in, some have really helped this team and didn't break the bank. I'm talking about McCann, Grandal, Colome Kuechel, He's had some misses but all GMs miss

My point on Moncada was tongue in cheek. Mazara was before this silly season, an average major league right fielder offensively and defensively. NO question that Moncada is the better major league player. But, they both got sick and their performance slipped greatly. Its not like they have gotten old and can't rebound. They both are young. As for buying similar expectations on the free agent market, I kind of doubt it. I think that $4.5-5.5M is pretty reasonable.