nrockway

Don't really like using the Orioles as an example because they're bad currently for reasons that might just as easily be our future (lack of spending, regression to key guys), but there was 'genuine progress' after 4 seasons that were as bad or worse than ours (covid season projected to 95 losses). They won 83 games with a 'young core', Adley's first full season and Gunnar playing half the season. Cedric Mullins in his first two full seasons compiling 10 WAR. Young players Jorge Mateo and Austin Hayes, Ramon Urias having good, not great, seasons. There were reasons for that fanbase to be optimistic despite losing 110 games. I think there are definite parallels between Colson/Teel and Gunnar/Adley. Jackson Holliday and Billy Carlson (or Bonemer if you prefer). Santander/Braden. Grayson Rodriguez/Kyle Bradish/Felix Bautista, Noah Schultz/Hagen Smith/Grant Taylor. The first two guys especially. The analogue isn't perfect, but I actually like our crop of prospects better especially at the lower end. There is more depth of potential impact MLB talent that will drip in over the next couple of years. Orioles won 101 games with their key internal guys and no payroll. I think we could be that good in 2027. Hopefully with some payroll, but we'll see.

BREAKING NEWS: "The Chicago White Sox are a baseball team" sources say. Subscribe to learn more.

co-sign the Mets crew. Their whole production department is top notch, maybe the best in sports. I think Stone is better this year than he has been in a while. The ass kissing is a little much but he gets some laughs out of me. Meanwhile over at the Bulls, Amin is constantly kissing the ass of a career backup. And Stacey hasn't gotten a laugh out of me in years. Is he still saying "gimme the hot sauce?" That was funny once. Now he says it to hawk his fuckin brand of hot sauce. Enjoy that ironic sense of humor or whatever you wanna call it. Last year he just sounded like he'd rather be anywhere else. Not that I blame him I suspect Lip is correct in that it's hard to hype yourself up to do this job for a bad team 162 times a year (minus however many days the two of them miss for various reasons). I figured he was going to retire before this season so maybe he had some contract anxiety hanging over him. I thought I might like Plesac but did not. Frank would be an awesome guy to get in the booth, he was pretty good on TV. It'd be cool if he could fill in some games. Beckham doesn't need to be around at all.

1.200 OPS in August for what it's worth but yeah his July and Sept numbers are downright horrible. Bad outfield defense/DH is doing some of the lifting on the WAR numbers...though it's not like his offense WAR numbers are great, he's basically a vs RHP DH at this point. But he is an above average hitter against them. The DH/1B penalty is kind of bogus if you ask me. Benintendi is a worse defender in left, a worse hitter (especially vs RHP), has fewer PAs and still has more bWAR than Sheets ostensibly because he has fewer appearances at 1b and DH than Sheets. Amusingly, Benny has .850 OPS vs LHP in 100ish PAs and .707 vs RHP in 380ish.

Always liked Gavin, glad he's finally having success. Not mad the Sox non-tendered him though

He hasn't had a very good season but Cease's durability is so impressive to me. I don't think he's ever missed a start in his career. I recall he almost did because he was exposed to covid but he ended up making the start regardless. Particularly impressive because of his big stuff. Also like Martin but I think he could be a potential trade candidate.

What was Benetti's experience before the Sox job? A little bit of KBO. ESPN3. Very similar to Schriffen except Schriff did work for ABC News. They both did radio broadcasts for their college. "Experience" is kind of a weird argument. You're either good at the job or you're not, you don't need a 30 year track record to be "good". Mind you, while I think Schriff is actually good at being a commentator, I wish he knew more about baseball. Had actual takes beyond what he's told by producers. He's done it a couple of times this season where his 'eye' offered a little bit of insight. If he spent his free time researching baseball like Benetti obviously does, he could be really good. It would be a shame to just fire him. McKnight isn't any better. Schriff's energy appeals to a non-boomer crowd. But it's like caulfield said, baseball fans can tell the difference between someone who knows what he's talking about and someone who doesn't. But baseball isn't rocket science, I suspect if he made an attempt to be better, he could be. Something that still sticks out to me from last season is him talking about how he wishes he had time to research the minor leagues. I think he should find the time. I listened to some semi-recent Tigers broadcast where Benetti was talking about the 'pitching lab' at his alma mater, Wake Forest...seemingly just random knowledge, but actually insightful. I think Schriff tries to be insightful about the players' personalities or whatever, but I think we would all like it to be about baseball. He could be genuinely good at the job. But, like, management needs to light a fire under him a little bit. Contract year might do that.

Hope for Lenyn. Never realized what a chase machine Naylor is. 7th percentile this season and .805 OPS. 4th percentile in 2023 with .843 OPS. Like, if our guy can be at a similar rate, he's simply a really good hitter. Their profiles are pretty similar except Sosa makes better contact and hits the ball harder. And Naylor K's a lot less. Sosa has more HRs this season in fewer ABs.

Does Hagen get another start if the championship series goes 3 games? It would be 6 days from his previous start.

DET looks bad on both sides of the ball and Cleveland is just a professional organization. They're never out of it. DET loses 10-1 against a team that is 12 games below .500 and CLE wins again (against the worst team in the league). Thinking about their respective series vs the Sox. Outside of likely Cy Young winner Skubal, DET looked like they didn't prepare at all for the series. Their pitching got rocked. Meanwhile, the Guardians actually attacked the Sox players' weaknesses as though they had done some advance scouting and were able to sweep a bad team despite some good pitching on our end. It would so wild if Detroit is the team to fall out of the playoffs.

I'm 99% sure Sosa didn't play because Thames talked about how the key to hitting against Cease was to only swing at strikes and "keep him in the zone". Consequently Cease was way out of the zone. 3 walks, 2 hit batters, 40% of his pitches were balls. I think Danger Robertson (in place of Benny) had a good game. He's a good defender. Looks like he has a good arm. But the bat is just not good enough generally speaking to be a real option in left. I liked that Getz talked about how the outfield is a problem despite some "ok" offensive performances from Benny/Tauch. .740/.760 OPS is just not good enough from your corners especially when they're terrible at defense. Somewhat amusingly, Steven Kwan has like 3.5 times more WAR than Benintendi in left despite being 40 points lower in OPS. I think he's a better hitter than he's shown this season and could be a realistic trade target. Still, would like some power out of the corner.

I think he's been way better than the 5+ era would suggest. The BABIP numbers are just super unlucky even beyond having a bad defense behind him. 13 K/9 to 4 BB/9. 0 homers allowed. Very good peripheral numbers. Bringing the walks down would be great. Kinda like how Martin was good tonight but these little tappers kept finding holes in the infield. Better positioning could've saved a couple runs.

yeah, these Friday night games were actually really good this year.

the .436 babip against is inevitably gonna correct itself.

LOL, I could hear the fireworks before the last out was recorded on TV. Spoiler alert, real world.

I went to this game 2 years ago where Cease started vs the Orioles. Sat by the first base dugout. Rain delayed, cold weather, so barely anybody was there (not like anyone would be there anyway). Some already drunk "Sox fan" just heckled Cease from the start until people eventually told him to shut up. Cease had to have been hearing it. I dunno how that couldn't get in your head just a little bit even if you're a professional athlete. Supposed to be a home field advantage. It's a real thing. Tens of thousands of people supporting you has to feel good. A better team that people show up to watch drowns out those bozos obviously.

Thought Davis looked good tonight. A little unlucky.

dream marriage

Amin is much worse than Schriff tbh... which hasn't really been a topic of discussion (why would the bulls be I guess). I can't stand the dude. He's OK at football. But imagine missing Neil Funk, which I do. His s%*# talk homerism was actually funny. That bit about Kwame Brown's tiny hands is pure gold. So what if he couldn't tell the difference between Carlos Boozer and Taj Gibson...it was endearing. Neil mediated a lot of Stacey King's absurdity now he has free reign to say whatever bozo nonsense. It's like if Steve Stone suddenly became a grifter. Adam is just like "yeah dude, promote your kyle korver hot sauce brand and podcast, i love that, i also don't know anything about the sport i'm commentating on". IDK why they hired either one of these dudes. Benetti filling in for Bulls game was actually awesome. I didn't love his Sox tenure, but the guy is just a good announcer. I thought he was better with the Bulls. I think he's not so good at baseball because he has too much free time to tell his bad jokes.

What a performance! The guy is fine. He looked good even when he walked like 10 guys. His stuff is truly dominant if he commands it consistently. Looks like he did that tonight. I’m still wondering if he’s an elite reliever or an excellent starter. Didn’t watch this game, hope to see a replay if it exists.

Well that’s incorrect too. The census “estimates” are the most accurate that exist. You haven’t posted your sources whereas I have. We are both wrong. I’m happy to be wrong. I learn something. Post what you know, I might change my mind. This is also a pointless detour. if you have a better source that us census, please do tell. Also who cares.

I said it's 'grown' over a certain period of time. But you can look at the recent data (that I posted, did you even look at it?) and it's shrinking, my guy. The average Nashville resident has more money than your average Chicago resident. Particularly your average South Side/south suburbs resident. You only need to sell, like, 20,000 seats out of a population of millions. One might think that 'investors' are thinking about future trends. I dunno where you got those median income numbers. Turns out I was also wrong and median household income is roughly the same at $80k per the Census. Good reason not to trust the google AI...after some actual digging: https://data.census.gov/profile/Nashville-Davidson_metropolitan_government_(balance),_Tennessee?g=160XX00US4752006 https://data.census.gov/profile?q=chicago+illinois Discussion is good. Thanks for checking me. I'm not embarrassed to be wrong and change my point of view. Four times higher though...wut

The other idea is 'rates of change of growth' (think back to your high school calculus class). Chicagoland has "grown" since 2010, but at what rate? How does that compare to southern markets and what does that imply about the future? Nashville is booming, so are parts of Florida, and people in Nashville have money. Nashville's median income is, like, 1.7 times higher than in Chicago. And we're talking about the South Side team...how does it compare to the North Side? I'm not willing to compile the averages for CMAP data on a forum post...but it's lower than the North Side...what can you charge for a ticket in Nashville? Again, I don't think this is happening, but it's goofy to just rule it out entirely.

Ok here's one: the US Census. April 1, 2020 Estimates Base Population Estimate (as of July 1) 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 .Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metro Area 9,454,363 9,439,531 9,362,043 9,310,017 9,337,814 9,408,576 .Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area 7,638,258 7,667,594 7,776,611 7,973,603 8,166,110 8,344,032 .San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Metro Area 4,753,655 4,745,673 4,621,751 4,599,793 4,609,445 4,648,486 ..Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley, CA Metro Division ..Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley, CA Metro Divisionoak 2,848,279 2,846,779 2,807,669 2,795,989 2,800,321 2,821,667 .Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV Metro Area 2,266,452 2,275,970 2,296,651 2,321,961 2,354,285 2,398,871 .Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metro Area 2,014,425 2,021,825 2,033,685 2,077,922 2,113,986 2,150,553 Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC Metro Area 1,780,046 1,781,773 1,785,817 1,785,895 1,788,412 1,794,278 .Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI Metro Area 1,574,735 1,574,565 1,563,631 1,564,152 1,567,889 1,574,452 .Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area 6,245,017 6,242,286 6,254,431 6,252,024 6,280,902 6,330,422 I've accidentally deleted this post, like, 5 times trying to fix the formatting...and all of the commentary removed as well. CMD+shift+z is just deleting everything...still better formatting than most PHPBB boards. The idea is that the North is literally shrinking and people are moving south...but also, the Brewers somehow double the Sox attendance and the Phillies triple it. Population isn't everything. But your point is that the region is growing...it isn't. It's stagnant or shrinking. In terms of longer term growth rates, Chicagoland is basically just "people having babies" whereas most of the South is simply booming. This is a concern of local policymakers, all the people leaving Chicago and going South. Climate apocalypse might help tho!!

Agreed on all accounts. Except Benetti still can't tell when a home run is being hit until it's in the stands. Depth perception issue or something. I think Schriff has "tools" but hasn't developed them at all. He makes me laugh sometimes in a cornball sort of way. I like some of his calls. I thought we were getting a guy with actual hands-on baseball knowledge though considering he was technically a pitcher on the Dartmouth team....but damn.