nrockway

Well, I didn't write "sheesh wouldn't you rather have Getz than these schlubs?" I wrote "would the White Sox be measurably better if they hired any one of these other dudes instead?". You could respond to what I wrote instead of, I dunno, somethin' you made up. caulfield did. It's probably a more interesting discussion. And less rude to me.

Really hope he turns out! French wine country to American border town community college to MLB is definitely a unique path.

I genuinely think it's amusing that a bunch of people with the exact same (rare and dying) hobby, posting about a baseball team on an internet forum, are so vitriolic. Some more than others. It's like, chill out, it's not that serious. Definitely doesn't need to be personal. Don't think I need to accept that. It takes years to build a team. The actual record is pretty irrelevant, it's not like it carries over. Frankly, this season I'd rather have a top draft pick than 'barely' missing the playoffs. I've seen enough of that garbage with the Bulls. A rebuilding team is obviously going to be bad, it's a question of 'is the organization itself more effective than it was under the previous GM?' It seems hard to argue against that. At the very least, it's hard to argue that Getz is worse than Hahn/Kenny. Based on what we can see publicly, the Sox are doing the sorts of things that 'modern' organizations do. I'm not going to beat a dead horse, this has been discussed plenty on the forum and you could read my perspective in the 'fire Getz' thread. An additional point would be, look at the below list of GMs who have been hired since Getz. Many of these teams look clearly worse and blowing a contending window. Bendix seems like a good hire, a different forum poster convinced me of that point. Maybe Greenberg. Stearns seems totally overrated. Would the White Sox be measurably better if they hired any one of these other dudes instead? Somebody should make that point, I'd listen to it.

That's horrible, I didn't know that. Adds a little context to his slow start. I don't think it would be a Robert for Doyle trade, more like Doyle for 'prospects' whoever those players might be in a year or two. Not saying that deal would even be available or the Sox would have the pieces, I just like him on the team and he probably doesn't have a future in CO. Michael Harris II might be another option, but he's looking a lot like Luis.

Robert is only expendable if there is someone who can replace his defense and still kind of swing a bat. If the Sox are going to compete before 2030, you don't just jettison a guy because he didn't live up to his superstar potential but is still useful. Not sure there's anyone like that in the system except maybe the 19-year-old Alcala or 18-year-old Christian Gonzalez, but and who knows what they'll actually do when they gets older and move up levels. Jacob Burke, DJ Gladney, Dru Baker are not those guys. Need to have someone like Ceddane Rafaela who I would've liked to see in the Crochet return and was perhaps available. Or Brenton Doyle who almost certainly isn't available but might be after Robert's contract is up. Robert at his worst is still very useful relative to other 'defensive' CFs. Compare to Victor Scott or Jacob Young. If Robert is hitting at his best, he's one of the best players in the game. I mean, I'd rather 'overpay' for Robert than have one of Cedric Mullins, Kyle Isbel, Trent Grisham, Alek Thomas (known Mt. Carmel bully) on a 'fair' contract. I don't think you can expect the first three to continue to hit over the life of a free agent contract. They're also not as good defensively as Luis. Daulton Varsho is about the only guy I can think of that might be a good, and realistic, free agent signing to replace Robert's production. Let's say Robert is healthy next two years and OPSs at like .710 for 2.5 WAR per season...what contract does he deserve? Probably one the Sox can pay and aren't likely to replace with internal candidates or a free agent. They'd have to make a trade (I think the aforementioned Doyle or Rafaela would be great acquisitions if possible). He's a .769 OPS hitter across 2300 PAs+ so he's probably more like that realistically. With his GG defense, there aren't many better options in the MLB. Jung-Hoo Lee will make more money than Robert next season and is pretty much the same age, has similar injury concerns and isn't clearly a more valuable hitter. See what Robert does next year and maybe he's due a reasonable extension. Injuries I think are still the biggest factor though. Still, it would be a shame if the current rookies continue to perform and improve, Braden and the other prospects come up and show out, and suddenly there's a massive hole in CF because Robert is no longer on the team. We've basically past the point of trading for prospects, at some point you have to stop planning for the future and plan for the now. I say it's 2027. Maybe the caveat is you don't think CF/up the middle defense is as important as I do, but still, who is at least a 'good enough' defender to play center field and will be available for the Sox to sign or trade for? Who is an internal option? Braden is a RF, Wolkow could maybe stick there and could be in MLB by 2027, but his bat is far from a sure thing. The rest of the OF prospects aren't going to see MLB any time soon and are also far from sure things. tl;dr: keep Robert unless there's actually a better player available. Maybe it's Varsho who is a unrestricted free agent in 2027. Maybe then you decline Robert's second team option if he really proves to be a sub-.700 OPS hitter. So what if you have to pay him like Benintendi or a little more. Small price to pay for production at an important position. He could also hit .850 OPS and be a 5 WAR player and we'd be kicking ourselves if he wasn't on the team.

really sad. that might be it for him.

Gomez has been solid. 7 ER in 18 innings with us compared to 7 in 4.1 with the Dodgers. Sox ERA down to 3.50.

Any close calls with a gator?

Fix him and trade him again. Do it a third time in 2027 when he is inevitably cut twice.

the Robert/Montgomery handshake bromance is the story I didn't even know I wanted, but desperately needed.

I dunno you guys, I don't think he's ready for the majors.

so how many games do the Twins lose next season? especially if Buxton goes down like he's known to do.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/08/braves-release-erick-fedde-place-aaron-bummer-on-15-day-il.html A twofer: Fedde released, Bummer to the 15-day IL with shoulder inflammation, seemingly a precursor to a more serious injury. I'd bring Fedde back. Why not?

6 pitches, 2 Ks jinxed the immaculacy, sorry Yo Yo

walk shmalk

Crochet goes 7 IP, 11k's, 1 BB, 1 ER (Stantonian solo shot) at Yankee Stadium and lowers his ERA to 2.38 in a 12-1 win. He leads MLB in innings pitched as well as K's and is 5th in qualified ERA. Let's see what Skubal does his next start against a hot hitting Sacramento Athletics team at their minor league ballpark. Cy Young race should be close between the two, they're jockeying for position on the K's, IP, and ERA..and some thought Garrett didn't have the durability to be a starter. Very fun watching these two lefties dominate. Love the guys we got in return, but it's a bummer he's not doing this with the Sox.

I think you're right about the identifiable part. He's a cool guy with cool haircuts and speaks out about Chinese issues. I bet he speaks to the millennial/gen z'er but isn't nearly as popular as Yao. He also wasn't nearly as good at basketball. I also think the difference is that Lin is born and raised in America and his parents are from Taiwan (I think...right?). An analogy might be Tony La Russa or Joe Torre not being popular figures in Italy even though they sorta like baseball there and those guys have that ancestry/naming convention. I wonder if the Bulls forthcoming star Matas Buzelis is popular in Lithuania since he's born in Chicago. We'll have to wait for him to take the next step to see. Probably depends if he plays for the national team. Those guys also don't have the label of having ancestry from a 'renegade province'. I think Linsanity was pretty popular in Taiwan even if he likely has no opinion on Taiwanese independence. Nothing he's said to the media anyway. Didn't stop him from having a basketball career on the mainland as well as Taiwan. I wonder how popular he actually was when he played in China besides just being very good relative to the competition, kinda like Stephon Marbury. Not so sure about the Christian part. I bet they don't care. Sun Yat Sen was a Christian after all. He was quite popular during the revolution and the atheist CCP wanted to claim his legacy. His widow, Soong ChingLing was also a Christian (Christian name Rosamund), and certainly popular or at least protected during the Cultural Revolution (on the 'List of Cadres to be Protected'). Her father was a missionary. And China is way more chill about religion than they were during that time period and certainly during the Qing dynasty. I feel like we've segued a little bit from banana ball 😆

Li Ning shoes! I've never seen them for sale anywhere in the USA. I didn't know (until googling it just now) Jimmy was their main athlete. Pretty funny. I guess he's been wearing them for a couple years...can't be any worse than the Big Baller Brand shoes.

Gordon Beckham sorry for 'gay' joke What a loser

That was strange. Beckham was so weird about it. It was a funny bit, I mean it was a giant hot dog, that Beckham made awkward for no reason. Schriff set him up perfectly to say something funny and he blew it and looked like a backward buffoon. Like c'mon dude, it's not that serious. Your "manhood" or whatever wasn't in doubt, it's just a silly bit. I think now it is. I like that Schriff kept pressing him lol. I can't help but think about "disgusting" Benetti whenever they bring food into the booth. I'm pretty sure Schriffen was eating it and the broadcast just cut away. Every other team brings food into the booth and they eat it, what is wrong with Brooks Boyer? Is he me? I don't like watching people eat either but I understand that's idiosyncratic and that nobody else cares.

Aww, the handshake is improving 🥰

I watched this Jomboy video the other day...wasn't really about the White Sox, but he showed some interesting stats that suggest the coaches are getting the most out of the players, at least on the base paths in terms of 'limiting mistakes'. Sox stuff starts at about the 7 minute mark.

"Pitching clinic" in Birmingham tonight. 0-0 going into the 11th. Nice showings from McDougal (put him on the top 100 list) and Schweitzer has been lights out since the demotion, 0 earned runs in 36.2 innings, absolutely nuts. Why does Coffey get tagged with the ER from the ghost runner? Same thing with the Trash Panda pitcher Yovan -- do they score it different in MILB? Or is the scorekeeper confused? Braden extends his hitting streak on an infield single (that probably should've been ruled an error). Nishida walk-off single! Missed the excitement in the MLB game, but this was a fun few innings to watch.

Seems like they love baseball in Taiwan (brought there by the Japanese) and the little league teams do very well in the LLWS. They have a 12-year-old throwing 80mph! Sooner or later they're gonna produce some MLB stars better than Yu Chang, Chien-Ming Wang, Fu-Te Ni etc. I don't think the mainland has produces a single MLB player. Woo, Kwan, Bichette, the Wong brothers don't seem to have any fame over there. Basketball has obviously become quite popular on the mainland, have to think Yao played a big role in that. Hard to see baseball as a sport taking hold there any time soon, but the fashion is popular everywhere in the world. Maybe the Sox could use some of that hat revenue and spend it on a player.