gogosox1959

Not so sure of the legal implications. If he gets cut and the league then clears him, (or deems no basis for disciplinary action), the first thing I'm doing if I'm him is suing the sox for $24mm

Almost always, where's there's smoke there's fire. Almost always is not 100% of the time. Holding him back from full spring training would harm both him and the Sox if he were to be cleared. Worse still would be if he were to be cleared two months from now. I would think that would put the sox at significant contract liability.

Full Katz article in The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/4110927/2023/01/22/white-sox-ethan-katz/

A lot of posts here seem to feel that everything is under the Sox's control. In a year or two, Jason will be gone anyway and it won't be the Sox fault. His network career will quite naturally take precedence for him. In a year or two, Stone will be gone anyway and it won't be the Sox fault. Retirement beckons - likely when Jason leaves. He's three months younger than I am and the thought of that much travel time wouldn't be something that I'd accept these days and I doubt if he's in better shape and health than I am.

Feeling better about signing after reading this new blurb in MLBTR today. Sounds like more than just wishing and hoping that Clevinger will regain past form. Quoting Katz: “We broke down some biomechanics stuff after we signed him to kind of show him the differences. Where he was different in all aspects of his delivery, which was probably in correlation to the knee … Now that he is healthy, he is working on it. His bullpens and the videos that I have seen, there’s been no kind of restrictions or anything that’s slowed him down from being able to be aggressive on that back leg

Morosi picks Sox to win division - just need to be healthy and return to normal exp\ected numbers - no super improvement needed. (on twitter, but can't find the link)

Fegan 40 man: https://theathletic.com/4065040/2023/01/15/white-sox-roster-projection-spring/ posted at The Athletic Yaz, Seby AV, Romy, TA, Yoan, Leury, Sheets Eloy, Robert, Benintendi, Colas, Marisnick Lynn, Giolito, Cease, Kopech, Clevinger Renaldo, Bummer, Graveman, Ruiz, Kelly, Lambert, Diekman, Avila

Article in The Athletic (pay): https://theathletic.com/4089120/2023/01/14/white-sox-san-mondry-cohen-arbitration-deals/ Sox hire former Washington assistant GM Sam Mondry-Cohen. He spent the past year as a consultant for the Phillies. He's a senior fellow for Wharton’s sports analytics and business initiative at Penn. At Washington 2009-2021, he created their research and development dept and developed their internal stat data base. His "experience with the Nationals is rooted in trying to distill analytical information into actionable takeaways for players on the field" To me, what shows this is really legit is that he will be traveling with the team all season. Good article; worth the read if you have access.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that Pollock’s deal also includes $3MM in performance bonuses. Usually some of those bonuses are pretty much automatic if healthy so instead of being unhappy with the Sox for $13mm, he has chance to be happy and get to $15mm with a base of $12mm

New article today in The Athletic: "We're not up there trying to hit singles" https://theathletic.com/4032036/2022/12/27/white-sox-hitting-coaches-approach-2023/ Both of the hitting coaches are quoted: Johnson/Castro and "field coordinator" Tosar is tied in. The three all live close to each in FL. Approach is analytical game preparation. Castro : “The numbers are there, the analytics, and we use them. But once you step into the batter’s box, it’s about competing. We’ve already planned for this starting pitcher. We’ve seen his stuff, we know what the stuff does. Now we have a plan. Chris Johnson. “We’re not up there trying to hit singles, we’re not up there (searching) for the baseball. We’re up there expecting this pitch to be right where we want it, and we’re gonna let it go.” I also liked: "All three men live close enough to each other in Florida that Oscar Colás and Romy Gonzaalez's thrice-weekly visits to Tosar’s house in Miami for cage sessions so far this offseason have provided a forum for the coaches to share drills...."

If he's bad:1 year $12mm ($8mm + $4mm buyout) If he's good: 1 year $12mm ($8mm + $4mm buyout) as he would choose free agency If he's okay: possibly 2 years for $20mm

The rule is about having begun your motion -- not to have released the ball. His lengthy delivery should not be an issue.

I would suggest that no one could have coached Eloy, AV, or Sheets into being major league outfielders. Baserunning is something else and they took that away from him.

https://www.soxon35th.com/white-sox-announce-2023-ml-coaching-staff/ Bench Coach: Charlie Montoyo Pitching Coach: Ethan Katz Bullpen Coach: Curt Hasler Hitting Coach: José Castro Assistant Hitting Coach: Chris Johnson First Base Coach: Daryl Boston Third Base Coach: Eddie Rodríguez Major League Field Coordinator: Mike Tosar Senior Director of Sports Performance: Geoff Head Only Daryl Boston back other than Katz-Hasler

Keith Law article today in the Athletic. https://theathletic.com/3946274/2022/11/28/law-astros-jose-abreu He's negative on the signing. "The Astros aren’t buying Abreu’s 2022 performance. They’re buying his 2023-2025 performances, and those are extremely likely to be worse, starting in year one and declining sharply from there".

Every top 100 kind of list I've ever seen is reflective of the age of the respondents. For the last 30 years, it's 1st base. If you want to really consider legacy positions, I agree with Mighty Mite's list which begins with Chico Carasquell in 1952. That list doesn't even include one of the one of the all time greats: Luke Appling who was at short, (and then some third) for 20 years starting in 1931 So it's the better part of 90 years vs. the last 30 years

Mendick is ahead of them

That's the 12 yr at home. Born at 24 wks - spent 4 months in hospital

He lives in Phoenix and has a 12yr old at home. Perhaps just wants to be closer to home. Let's see where he signs.

AV made $715,000 in 2022. Even with arbitration, nothing too big on horizon. Not a free agent until 2027

The issue is time frame. Better player in 2023.abreu, 2024.?, 2025 and beyond is AV

Iguchi, (if his English is good enough, if I recall correctly, his wife taught at Northwestern). Would need a Spanish speaking bench coach) one World Series win; 3 Japanese series wins; been managing for 4 years; was personally solid in fundamentals; Japanese managers all drill in fundamentals. The Sox are the worst fundamental team I've ever seen in defense, positioning, running the bases, and situational hitting. a huge competitive advantage for future free agents coming out of Japan. (I won't say Ohtani in 2024 as a $300,000,000 contract would literally be the end for JR).

RIGHT NOW: cleveland 79-67; sox 76-71; cleveland up 3.5 and has tie-breaker IF SOX BEAT CLEVELAND 2-1; cleveland 80-69; sox 78-72; cleveland up 2.5 and has tie-breaker with c13/s12 games remaining IF SOX BEAT CLEVELAND 3-0; cleveland 79-70; sox 79-71; cleveland up 0.5 but Sox have tie-breaker If Sox 3-0 they have alegimate chance; less than 3-0, no realistic chance

sox twins Sox Lead current 74-70 current 72-70 1.0 3-0 77-70 5-0 77-70 tied 3-0 77-70 4-1 76-71 1.0 3-0 77-70 3-2 75-72 2.0 3-0 77-70 2-3 74-73 3.0 3-0 77-70 1-4 73-74 4.0 3-0 77-70 0-5 72-75 5.0 2-1 76-71 5-0 77-70 behind 1.0 2-1 76-71 4-1 76-71 tied 2-1 76-71 3-2 75-72 1.0 2-1 76-71 2-3 74-73 2.0 2-1 76-71 1-4 73-74 3.0 2-1 76-71 0-5 72-75 4.0