The Kids Can Play

You misunderstood my point and probably due to the fact I didn't clarify my point well enough on part of the Dodgers. I was only using the Dodgers as an example that even on a good team like the Dodgers, Yoan won't get better. I was essentially referring to any good team like the Rays, Braves, Orioles, etc. in which he won't get better. My point was, I wasn't suggesting the Dodgers as being the Sox trade destination for Yoan. I'm sure the Sox can trade Yoan to some team at the trade deadline. A team willing to go all in for that second half push towards the World Series and willing to give up some young prospects.

Great point! Amazing when you have owners and a GM who are damn good at their job and really care about winning. They are 11 games over .500 and 6.5 games back in the toughest division in baseball. The Sox who play in the worst division in baseball are 9 games under 500 and only 5.5 games out.

He was the #1 ranked MLB prospect and the #1 piece in the first rebuild trade in 2016 for Chris Sale. He was suppose to be a big contributor to those multiple championships, as well as being a perennial second base all-star for the Sox. His 2023 stat line of .245/.303/382/.684 and lifetime stat line of .253/.333/.423/.756 is not what the Sox signed up for and expected in return. It's time to close the book on "What could have been" and trade him! Enough is enough! Burger needs to be the 3B starter. Maybe on a different winning team, where they have more veteran leaders, maybe he can resurrect his career. Although I personally doubt he would even do it with the Dodgers. With all of Moncada's constant injuries and the non-stop discussion in this forum of his motivation and desire levels at nauseum...actually does make Moncada the most frustrating Sox player in my opinion.

Obviously it can always fail. The point is the good organizations with consistent top farm systems have a stronger scouting department which starts the entire process. They seem to identify the better prospects to suggest to the GM to ultimately draft. Of course this starts at the top and trickles down. Somehow in the Dodgers and Rays clubs for example, once they are drafted, they seem to be able to convey to the minor league director and all their coaches at each minor league level, the type of hitting and pitching fundamentals and situational pitching and hitting philosophies to teach solid baseball skills. They seem to be better at making these prospects productive and future solid big league players...for either their own team or as valuable trade bait. The fact the Sox AAA Knights at 5.91 and AA Barons at 5.77 are both dead last in team ERA in their respective minor league divisions, tells you the Sox do not have a good scouting and developing pitching prospects blueprint I realize I always use the Rays and Dodgers as prime examples of good organizations, but take a look at the last 9 years between these two clubs regarding MLB farm system rankings: Dodgers Rays 2023 #2 #6 2022 #2 #3 2021 #14 #1 2020 #9 #1 2019 #3 #2 2018 #10 #4 2017 #6 #10 2016 #1 #14 2015 #3 #11 When you have numbers like this above, it is not a fluke why both teams are usually in the playoffs most years. Maybe the day Reinsdorf is gone and a new owner comes in, we can attempt to get this type of sold organizational structure.

I have no clue, but Seby regardless of his inferior hitting, should be playing more for Grandal. The fact is Grandal sucks at digging out balls in the dirt. With Gio, Kopech and Cease, their balls in the ground with Grandal are usually wild pitches. With Seby he usually can dig them out and not have a wild pitch get away or charged to the pitcher. Grandal isn't producing enough offense to sacrifice worse catching for these pitchers. If the others start hitting more consistently, they can easily make up for Seby batting 9th and keeping the stronger defensive catcher on the field.

I think his point is right about the Sox flaws in how they run their farm systems and why it's ranked 26th. I think his first point is so correct about the Sox scouting dept. is horrible at identifying/scouting and drafting the right prospects. Then his point about having coaching consistency across all minor league levels, is the fact the future GM regime must hire coaches on all levels that teach the same fundamentals, and situational baseball philosophies. I am quite sure that the farm systems for the Rays and Dodgers for example, are always in the top 5 ranked farm systems yearly, because they have this consistency in the type of player they scout and draft. Then once in their minors, their coaches are all on the same page and they develop the prospects by teaching the same fundamentals and strategies at every level. I assure you the Sox having the 29th ranked farm system last year and 26th this year, is simply because they are seriously flawed in the scouting, drafting and developing of players. All their scouts and coaches in the minors, are probably not all on the same page.

I agree to a point with you that Burger isn't a finished product and all-star yet. However he can hit for more power than anyone on this team! Period! I truly believe in time he will hit on the road as well. I'm sure a lot of his poor road hitting is just mental, where he is pushing himself too hard and being impatient at the plate. The fact is, if Pedro wants Jake to become a more consistent player, especially on the road, then Pedro needs to start playing Jake everyday and keep him at one position. You cant keep messing with a young player's mind and constantly moving him from 3B to 1B to DH to bench and and one pinch hit AB. Not to mention Pedro keeps changing his spot in the lineup.

My comment was about that it wasn't the best pitch and he still could hit it so far because of his amazing strength. But ok. if you're going to play that game then consider this. Yes, it's great that Jake got it all. However you are forgetting Lange was missing badly and both Moncada and TA took advantage of his wildness and both walked consecutively before Jake's at bat. Jake already took ball one on Lange's first pitch which was well outside. If Jake took that second pitch, it would have been ball two with the bases loaded. Jake would now be in the best hitter's pitch count and Lange now has to come with a strike with that third pitch. Jake could have also missed that pitch and now be at 1-1 without the advantage. Hell, the way Lange was missing, Jake might have been able to walk in the winning run. I am a huge Burger fan like many here, and it's great Jake caught it with a good upper cut swing. However his swings have also missed many outside pitches this year, so don't make it sound like it was a no-brainer and done deal once he made the swing.

I think that's called a "Smashburger!"

That wasn't even a good pitch to hit, but the dude is so freaking strong. ?

I did too and Pedro better wake up. The sweep was nice and seeing Hendricks pitch that awesome top 9th inning was the 2nd best moment in the game, other than the Burger slam.

Great walk-off grand slam series win. I'm keeping my excitement and expectations in check, because as we all know, the Sox will tease you here and there and then break your heart. The next 8 teams and 22 games over four weeks will determine if this team is good enough to compete and win the division. There are no weak teams for the next 22 games. If they can catch the Twins and lead after that 22nd game versus The Angels...then we might just have something. The starters have all improved except for Lynn and the bullpen is looking sharp, but the hitting is still anemic and inconsistent. The wildly free-swinging Sox hitters struck out 14 times today. Although the patience and discipline in the 9th inning by Moncada and TA was impressive against Lange. However the other Sox hitters need to start all being more patient at the plate.

I agree Zavala should be catching Kopech today, as well as Seby should have also caught for Cease yesterday. It makes no sense for the Sox two top pitchers with secondary pitches often outside the zone or in the dirt to be caught by Grandal.

You're right, it's not all on the hitting coach. This inept front office is clueless in how to develop a strong philosophy in their scouting, drafting and coaching development of good plate discipline hitters. The fact is, the White Sox keep adding these dumb baseball IQ players to their roster. The Rays, Dodgers and other good teams, seem to avoid adding these type of horrible plate discipline players to their roster.

As we've known for several years the White Sox are one the worst teams in baseball in plate discipline. 2023 league stats Chase% Swing % 1st Pitch Swing % 33.3 - 30th 49.7 - 30th 32.4 - 25th This pathetic lack of plate discipline in turn causes these horrible offensive stats: BB% BB%+ BB/K% OBP OBP+ 6.6% - 30th 77 - 30th 0.29% - 30th .296 - 30th 93 - 30th The fact it hasn't gotten any better, confirms as we've known for awhile...the GM, manager and coaching staff have done little to nothing to create a specific plan to improve this problem. Additionally, the players obviously don't care enough and are probably not sitting down and watching any or little tape of their AB's with the hitting coach. This starts at the top with Pedro who is over his head. He obviously is not making this a mandatory concern and project of making the players watch tape of their AB's and getting in that new batting machine that creates the off-speed secondary pitches. The worst aspect of this dysfunctional front office, is the fact it exposes how inept the White Sox organization is regarding their scouting and development process and philosophies on hitting and plate discipline! The fact the White Sox keep drafting, trading for, or signing FA players with this terrible lack of plate discipline is a huge problem.

That 1995 team from a hitting standpoint was a really good team. The reason they finished 68-76 in a second straight shortened season, was the pitching staff was horrible besides having a crappy manager. POS Name G R H 2B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1B Frank Thomas 145 102 152 27 40 111 136 74 308 454 606 1.061 UT Dave Martinez 118 49 93 16 5 37 32 41 307 371 436 806 CF Lance Johnson 142 98 186 18 10 57 32 31 306 341 425 766 RF Mike Devereaux 92 48 102 21 10 55 25 51 306 352 465 817 3B Robin Ventura 135 79 145 22 26 93 75 98 295 384 498 882 LF Tim Raines 133 81 143 25 12 67 70 52 285 374 422 796 2B Ray Durham 125 68 121 27 7 51 31 83 257 309 384 693 SS Ozzie Guillen 122 50 103 20 1 41 13 25 248 270 318 588 C Ron Karkovice 113 44 70 14 13 51 39 84 217 306 387 693 Team Totals 145 755 1417 252 146 712 576 767 280 354 431 785 AL Rank 5 2 7 8 2 2 2 4 5 5 The pitching staff was garbage with a 4.85 ERA.

I do and you're absolutely correct. That is why I said in my post just earlier and many other times in this forum, until this POS loser owner is gone and the team sold, this will never happen...although it truly does need to happen someday, if we ever want to be one of the great consistent winning teams.

I don't agree it was a good idea at the time. As Caulfield pointed out: Kimbrel had misleading first half numbers compared to the prior 2-3 seasons with the Cubs. 2019 - Cubs - 6.53 ERA 2020 - Cubs - 5.28 ERA All I know is, of all my friends and family who are Cubs fans...they were ecstatic to get rid of Kimbrel. Yes Madrigal hasn't done well since leaving the Sox and obviously being sent down to Cubs AAA. However at the time the Cubs traded for Nick, he had two good years with us at BA .317, OBP 358. If were were going to trade Madrigal and Heuer, then we should have gotten more, or given the Cubs less in that trade. Keep in mind, on several other teams in MLB, Madrigal would still be on a roster. Sadly for Nick, he plays on the Cubs with Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson.

I agree 100 percent in keeping Cease and hope you can get him back to 2022 form next season, in order to get a better haul on a trade. However the scary and sad thing is, between Katz and the other pitching instructors/coaches in the Sox organization, the Sox will probably be incapable of finding the necessary knowledge and tweaks to get Cease improved.

Yes they do! It needs to come from the outside. No more internal promotions. We must go steal a top GM from a baseball organization that knows how to build a winning roster from the scouting, drafting, developing prospects, trades, FA and INTL signings.

Great idea and maybe steal a page from the Rays and Dodgers, in how they found someone young and sharp. Andrew Friedman - 2005 - became GM of the Rays at 28 years old. - 2015 - became President of the Dodgers at 38 years old. - Currently still Pres of the Dodgers and only 46 years old. Sadly Reinsdorf is too arrogant and ignorant to understand this concept. Until he is gone and the team is sold, he will keep promoting inept GM & VP executives within.

Hopefully that off-season is without Rick Hahn around!

Well done Wegner!

I heard this interview a few days ago while in my car and found it on YouTube to share. Just listen and enjoy the amazing excuses and lack of taking any blame.

Great post!!! ?