nrockway

I take it back

Benintendi is such a goof.

Doesn't he have an agent to tell him these things? Like that there's a bunch of competition? What was he expecting? Like, bro, could've googled "white sox organization pitchers". Of course, anyone is better than Clevinger, but performance wise, Syndergaard isn't and the Sox obviously don't care that Clev is a scoundrel.

What's the deal with Ely Brown? 12th round center fielder off to a really nice start. .338 average, 11 stolen bases. Lots of walks. Lot of singles. The Chase Meidroth of center fielders? Evidently a good defender in college. The defensive stats they track for the minors seem solid. Seems fast. another hit! have to keep editing the batting average.

Another twofer: Civale pitched 3 innings in relief, struck out 4, no runs. On the other side, Brebbia gets the L on a ghost runner walk-off single.

My point is that he's the "feel good" story of the year. Late bloomer and nice dude.

I started to post this in the game thread but figured it could just be its own thread. Leasure's recent success got me thinking about what the Sox bullpen might realistically look like next year, if it might be pretty good, or if we could trade some of them. Starting with Leasure, he actually has a pretty good profile for a backend reliever even if it hasn't translated to a good ERA. The walks are bad, right, but he's only walked 3 guys since August 1st and allowed 5 hits, giving up 4 runs. 2 on solo shots, 2 on a pitch thrown by Grant Taylor that anyone not named Mike Tauchman would've caught to end the inning. 13 IP, 2.1 BB/9, 15.2 K/9. An absurd 0.615 WHIP. I think he could more tradable than Grant is at this stage, but maybe you just go into next season with Leasure, Taylor, Vasil, S. Wilson, Wikelman as part of the bullpen. All pretty good and make nothing. There's 5 of 8 bullpen pieces making a combined ~$5mil or so. There are several more guys that are hurt/in AAA/currently starting that could also be worth a look. Whether starting or in relief, Thorpe, Berroa, Mason Adams, Carela, Pallette, Iriarte (looks to be busting) should see some MLB time although maybe not to start the season. Burke and Cannon should return. Peoples could get a shot. Might be missing a few. The problem is that all of those guys are right-handed. Not a lot of lefties in the system. Which lefties in the minors come of the bullpen in 2026? Ky Bush? Schweitzer? Bush looked semi-decent in a relief role before being injured. Schweitzer has been incredible at Birmingham...like seriously so good, 0 earned runs in 41.2 innings. But was really bad at Charlotte, 7.92 ERA, and got bounced back to Birmingham. I don't think either guy is a sure thing to be good at MLB and both could also be starters and not be on the MLB team to start 2026. Schultz and Hagen might get the Crochet treatment and come out of the pen before starting. Wouldn't love to see that. They're also not likely to start the season with the Sox. Maybe Noah. There's Chandler's finest Shane Murphy who's flying through the system, but he also still looks like a starter. Jake Palisch might be an option. The other two lefties of note, Oppor and Larson, are pretty far away from MLB. Maybe Martín Pérez stays and moves to the bullpen. Maybe they bring him back to start and move him to the bullpen later. Now you're left with Eisert, Alexander, Booser and Ellard. Do the Sox give any of those guys a shot again in 2026? Alexander is a free agent, I see no point in bringing him back. Could see C Booz returning simply because they gave up a lot for him and also doesn't seem entirely useless. Ellard and Eisert seem pointless. This leads me to think the Sox need to sign or otherwise acquire 3 left-handed pitchers, ideally young and with some upside. Can they do it in the Rule 5 Draft? Trade some of the righties or redundant position players? Don't see a point in getting an expensive 30+ veteran in free agency like Jose Alvarado or Gregory Soto this season. Caleb Ferguson or José Quijada could be options but are they better than the lefties we have this year? tl;dr: the team look pretty set on inexpensive, controllable, pretty good bullpen righties but the LHP seems to be a weakness. To me the best internal options would be Peréz, Bush and Booser. Peréz might not be back (and is old) whereas Bush and Booser could just be bad. Booser is just bad but looks a lot better if he throws strikes. Not great options to be sure. Overall, not a bad position to be in.

Leasure had a really solid August, carrying over into September! No extra innings, no Bryse, maybe this means No Clevinger.

looks like defensive substitutes. the defense has been killing us. And Meidroth has been limping all game.

🤙 🤙 🤙

Mead's had a pretty good week. Not willing to be replaced by Ramos.

Speaking of the Rays: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/09/braves-claim-ha-seong-kim-from-rays.html?utm_source=twitter Braves Claim Ha-Seong Kim From Rays Tampa signed him to a two-year, $29MM pact in the winter. He is making $13MM this year, with just under $2MM left to be paid out. The second year is a $16MM player option. They could've just eaten $2mil and traded him. He's probably picking up the option. He's a good player who lots of teams would want. Didn't make it very far through waivers, ATL is the 6th worst team and might expect to be good next year. Definitely don't need him this year. Orioles might be good again but their former #1 prospect is a 2B and their best player is a SS.

Outman has a cannon(92nd percentile), Benintendi does not (37th). Keaschall is fast (82nd percentile), Colson is not (41st). The problem is 2 runs scoring unearned. And everyone running on Teel.

busted his ass on an infield single too.

His out of the zone stuff looks good but he doesn’t throw enough strikes that good hitters bite on it

Wtf

Booser made “out, man” look ridiculous. Not so much buxton.

Stands to reason they won’t be giving Fraser Ellard a statue any time soon

That slurve is a crazy pitch.

Fair enough lol

Nasty pitch. Wikelman’s been good though? Out of that inning several batters ago if Mead wasn’t a terrible defender.

Thought this started at 1:30. Missed another Colson bomb and a Chase bomb? Right on time to watch Mead boot one.

I was definitely irrationally optimistic about Colson. Some of the negativity was fair (not 'bum' talk which is baseless and mean-spirited to say about a nice kid). The concerns about his back are still real. I still question his ability to hit a four-seam fastball and his bat speed could evaporate if the oblique continues to bother him throughout his career. The Crochet chatter was a different story. I recall a lot of the discussion was "how can he start, he's only thrown 73 inning in his MLB career across 3 seasons, no player has ever done that and transitioned to a starter". I think was a mis-assessment of the the new ecosystem pitchers find themselves in where there's a very good chance they have a serious injury before they even reach MLB. More subjectively, I think it was a misread of his spirit and desire to be the best.Realistically, it was probably beneficial that he threw so few innings. I read a good point a while ago about pitchers from the Midwest projecting well because it's too cold to play baseball all year round and so they've accumulated less strain on their arms trying to throw as hard as possible with little league mechanics. We'll see about Braden, but the injury talk seemed overblown pre-draft and he has an 80 grade, heart of the city, personality. Same as Wetherholt (maybe not the same personality, I dunno). Wish we could have had both, JJ is killing it. To your second point, c'est la vie indeed. I sorta like the Bundesliga model, the 50+1 rule that states a single entity (person or company) cannot have majority control over a team. Better prior to 1998 when teams were required to be run as not-for-profits. Bundesliga is an excellent league, although stars often leave to go play in other leagues where they'll make more money, so it isn't as competitive as the Premier League or La Liga. Evidently Bundesliga draws the largest crowds on average of the 'Big 5' leagues. Less branding. Cheaper tickets. Not perfect, Bayern has a considerably larger budget than every other team, their payroll accounts for like 25% of the whole league, but a decent model to take inspiration from. Or the Green Bay Packers obviously, a small town that nobody has ever heard of is a perpetual powerhouse. Even England has a ton of cooperatively-owned teams at the lower levels. There could be potential for that in the minor leagues, instead one singular private equity firm owns 45 MLB-affiliates which is just sickening to me. Happy Labor Day!

They skipped his start yesterday in Charlotte, it was Civale's turn to start today, seems like today would be that day. Ellard is now listed as the probable starter and he's never started a game in his MLB or MILB career. Just seems like a weird situation all around. Maybe Clev missed his flight or is hungover or something.

Awesome! So not Clevinger? Or was there another corresponding move I'm not aware of? Wishing Ramos luck. Might be his last shot with the Sox.