nrockway

How was it? Is there gonna be a replay? How was Mark's stuff? Did he twerk?

what. I mean I know Rojas is bad but...there's gotta be a better option

Bummer is still pretty good. 109 ERA+ with Atlanta. His FIP is better than his ERA. He throws a bunch of different pitches. He'll get another contract. All those guys were, ya know, baseball players. It wasn't a good trade. I like Naperville Nicky, seems like a nice dude, I like local players and any player named Nick or Nicky or Nico. His dad in the booth was fun. That trade and the Mena trade seem like they were based on old information. Or Barfield's opinion. Doesn't really reflect on my opinion of Getz, didn't really make a difference, but it wasn't a good trade, ATL got the better end of it for sure considering Bummer is playing and producing. Negative WAR, I guess, but his ERA is above average. Seemed like they just wanted guys to fill out the roster but could've done it via other avenues. Ultimately, who cares.

yeah, could've taken Nasim Nunez in R5 that year and he would've given you 3 times as much production (0.6 bWAR vs 0.2 lol) as Nicky Lopez for 1/5 the cost. Not like it matters, neither guy is a difference maker and it isn't my money. I liked Deyvison de los Santos in R5 but he's also proven to be not very good. Basically Tim Elko. Might still be worth having in the system vs...Shane Drohan...who is not in the system and has actually produced for AAA Worcester this season. Figured Shewmake and Shuster might've been better. Bummer of a trade. Gowens is a Libertyville and U of I guy though so hopefully he can do something in Chicago. I'm not holding my breath.

I remember when...never mind.

nice a .420 winning percentage across 162 games, if you round up, is 69 wins. just saying.

now there's a SAT word if I've ever seen one. didn't see enough of 'em.

It was the first sentence: he's low-paid and under contract through 2027. I'm optimistic we might be good by 2027. Wouldn't it be nice to already have a proper setup guy instead of a guy who "might" be a proper setup guy in 2030? Build a team for the 2027 has been my view since the 81-81 disaster season (which to me was more disheartening than the worst team of all team. bad and rebuilding is preferable to permanent treadmill. see: the Bulls). Maybe if a deal could've been done with Tampa to go along with Houser that returned us Taj Bradley, that would've been a good trade to make. Who's to say that was an option though. Otherwise, let's look at what the relievers who were traded at the deadline returned: We wouldn't have wanted the Yankees catchers for Bednar. Bednar is better than Wilson anyway with more of a track record. Helsley is more similar to Wilson and he returned pretty good value, namely a third baseman, but we're pretty stacked on mid-tier infield prospects and the two pitchers are flyers. I wouldn't have been mad about that trade, but also, who cares? Duran is incomparable. Tyler Rogers is better than Wilson and returned MLB-ready guys. I kinda like Drew Gilbert, that might've been an OK trade, but he's not exactly highly-touted, I'm not sure he's the solution in the corner outfield any more than Dom Fletcher or Corey Julks is. I think the last guy is Brock Stewart who returned James Outman. Maybe that would've been an OK trade...two years ago if he didn't fall off a cliff. This is to say, are any of those players more valuable to the White Sox in 2026 and 2027 and beyond? Maybe, maybe not. It's certainly not something to complain about. Maybe Wilson keeps up his play and actually becomes a valuable trade piece. Maybe we're upset that he's seemingly the best player in the Cease deal, but maybe Cease wasn't all that valuable to begin with as the Padres found out. My perspective is similar with Robert at this point. Are you actually going to find a better player to replace him when it comes time to compete? The time to trade him was after the 2023 season.Since that didn't happen, might as well keep him. My perspective is not similar with Crochet (though I really loved watching him pitch and was a big cheerleader when he was injured/in the pen). Too much money, too much injury risk, far too valuable to other teams ready to compete now. The idea shouldn't be to trade guys just because you can. Tauchman is probably the only guy we didn't trade who maybe should have been, but there were some mitigating circumstances and he's still arguably the best corner outfielder we've had in years, is under contract for another year, and maybe we just extend him.

I'd like it if the Sox signed more prospects out of Asia, but it's hard to compete with any California team on that front. I also wish it was 70 degrees every day in Chicago. Geography isn't fair. Is Jang better than either of the two guys we got in return? He seems a lot better than Maximo Martinez (80 grade name though) but Aldrin Batista had a really nice 2024. 1.04 ERA at Winston-Salem in 5 starts at age 21. 2.93 ERA in total across 110.2 innings. Good peripheral stats. Injured now unfortunately. Not TJ, might be nearing a return, but he's someone who looks like he'll climb up the prospect charts. big fan of the Kim bros, wish they were both on the team. I'd want the Sox to consider Ha-Seong despite the crowded infield and injury concerns. Probably he picks up his player option at this point though.

He's under contract through 2027. Low arb estimate. More valuable to the Sox than to other teams I'd imagine. His value is probably similar to Keynan Middleton who returned Juan Carela. That was a pretty good trade in the sense that he improved after coming over (and Middleton is playing independent ball now. sheesh); but who's to say a similar deal existed for Wilson. Why trade a guy for a lotto ticket just to do it unless he's expiring? Jang has a 5 ERA at A ball and isn't particularly young. are we actually mad about this? Fajardo might be pretty good and is advanced for his age. I'm basically chalking it up to "welp, who cares" unless he really turns into something. I think we pretty much liked the trade at the time. Those kinds of pitchers are sort of a dime a dozen, aren't they, especially at such a young age. The guy to be upset about is Cristian Mena IMO. he ought to be pretty good and that struck me as a pretty bad trade at the time

FutureSox is great. It's just like...the Dodgers are always at the top of these lists and then their guys never actually make it to MLB or otherwise contribute. Rushing and Cartaya were supposed to be these elite catchers. Miller, Stone, Pepiot, Frasso, Nastrini were going to be an elite rotation. Stone and Pepiot are both playing well I guess. Graterol was a prospect and he's a good reliever, but they mighta hoped he remained a starter. Pages and Busch are probably the only two in recent memory who actually look to be all-star caliber players. Not sure Busch was ever ranked on any lists though. Thinking about how Washington, incompetent after winning a World Series (sounds familiar), gave up Scherzer AND Trae Turner for Ruiz and Gray. The first guy is OPSing at about .500 right now and the other guy unfortunately hasn't pitched since June 2024. The third guy in that trade is playing in Mexico while the fourth is 27 and in AA. The Dodgers are very good at ripping teams off, I'll give them that.

Hope you're doing well now, Eddy. The Ron Gant bit is interesting. ATL cut him and paid him 0 dollars of the $4.5mil remaining on his deal. He missed a season then went on to produce ~15 WAR the rest of his career, 6.5 the following two years after the injury. Not like Atlanta needed him, they won the WS, but he doubled up the production of the guy who replaced him (Klesko). Probably could've used the production in 1996 over rookie Jermaine Dye who OPS'd under .300 in the World Series and was traded anyway. Reminds me of the Bulls second overall pick in 2002, Jay Williams, who got hurt almost exactly the same way after a lackluster rookie season (really lousy draft in hindsight). The Bulls cut him for violating his contract and because they needed the roster spot, but still paid him ~$3mil, roughly half of his remaining salary, and he never played in the NBA again. The buyout was finalized in January 2004; did the good karma result in a White Sox World Series win in 2005? The bad karma clearly didn't hurt the Braves. The contract stipulations make sense when you're being paid millions of dollars to play with a ball, but the human element seems important; it's more than a game n all that and sometimes 22-year-olds make stupid decisions. The Braves as an organization probably would've benefited on the field if they had just kept Gant too. Probably one of my favorite things things the Bulls/Sox have done. Not really related to this discussion at all. 5th rounder Antonacci looks really good. Adams is obviously legit. Hagen is still probably the most 'legit', but underwhelming. Most of the guys slumming it there are selections from the previous regime or otherwise players you don't expect anything out of. I thought Veras, Tatum or Gladney would see MLB time before Elko, but they all fell off a cliff and were never very good or touted to begin with. At A+, Zavala has looked better, Jeral Perez seems pretty good. Oppor and Ziehl should earn a promotion. A and Rookie league seem to have some actual blue chip talent. Bonemer has made himself into a top tier prospect, Blake Larson is an intriguing prospect. Don't sleep on Shane Murphy. All of these guys and more pass the vibe check and, as we all know, the sport is 90% vibes. This team is clearly less doomed than it was in 2022 in terms of a potential future The real test will be if the org can get the most out Carlson's potential 5-tool kit or if he's the Christian Pache of shortstops. It bears repeating that many on this board figured Crochet couldn't be a starter (he never threw more than 50 innings!!!), but somehow the non-starter returned two top 50 prospects (one will be a superstar), another guy who clearly belongs in MLB, and a fourth player who will probably be an MLB player. Being so incredibly wrong about Crochet and Colson causes me to doubt the talent evaluation of some around these parts. Being a pessimist and also being wrong is an interesting combination. Couldn't be me. I would also just totally ignore MLB.com's system rankings. Nobody actually believes the Dodgers have the best farm system, right? It's marketing BS.

It'll be Braden aka neo Tim Raines

Reading about him a little bit, I’m pretty excited about our second round pick, Jaden Fauske. Over slot money for an ‘area code game’ guy, they tend to be pretty impressive. Might even stick in center field. 455 grade Lodise looks like a high floor player too. Think we have a lot of potentially pretty good position players in the psystem compared to years past. Not sure how next year’s draft is shaping up, but it would be nice to draft a true/defensive center fielder in the early rounds.

that's true, but many thought he was a bust and not ready for the majors. I suspect he won't keep up this home run hitting pace but you might expect him to walk more like he did in the minors. His batting average looks about right, but the OBP isn't really indicative of what he did in MILB. I think with Colson, he showed he can actually hit a major league fastball which I thought was a big concern and what would've made him bust. I'm not looking at the statcast stuff, but maybe Vaughn is actually hitting breaking stuff now...ok I looked, his WOBA on breaking pitches is .347 this season compared to .237 last season, .263 in 2023, .264 in 2022, .222 in 2021. I'm convincing myself that he actually turned a corner lol. Also, why can't we just hype up our guys??? Baseball is fun! Too much fun, I have stuff I should be doing besides talking about baseball online.

It's a bit cherry-picked because his OPS+ during that stretch was 156 compared to 193 now with Milwaukee. Harder ballpark to hit at and hitting is down a bit across the board. I'm not sure if Milwaukee has played mostly at home the last month though or where they've played. He is playing better. Maybe Milwaukee really did do something (I'm also not ruling out magic/witchcraft/voodoo/pocket pancakes filled with PEDs). I think our players are hitting better in general though and maybe the hires that have been made (Fuller mainly) are helping the Sox to become a Brewers kind of organization. That "swing decision" stat was kind of a meme and James Fegan investigated it a little bit, but I think there's something to it. Maybe Colson totally busts without the additional help. Maybe Lenyn doesn't take this step forward. I think it's possible that Vaughn, like Robert, didn't really take to the new hitting regime. Robert seems to be playing like his old self and not taking a bunch of walks like he tried to do to start the year. The young guys seem to be taking to it though (I say from my armchair perspective. I don't know). The organizational improvement seems more evident on the pitching side of things. But then the Sox have been kind of good at that for a while.

June 2024: Andrew Vaughn slashed .337/.371/.561(.933 OPS) in 105 PAs. Pretty close to the 1.055 OPS he's at with the Brewers in 110 PAs. He's done it before. He didn't sustain it. Let's see if he can sustain it. I hope he does, I just wouldn't be so optimistic.

welcome to the internet. I thought talking about magic and mysticism and the jocular tone might've hinted at that. I know something about a proper sample size though. I don't think it's become clear though. Give him 600 plate appearances. Let him finish out the season at least. He's done enough to get the option picked up, but we're talking about 1/5 of a season.

Why would other organizations be looking to hire a second year GM away from another team? He just got the job and has a lot of autonomy in a great city, why would he be looking for a new job? Is there precedent for that? David Stearns, the wunderkind we might compare Getz to (new job, same year, young age) was with Milwaukee 8 years before the Mets hired him. Meanwhile, the Mets are underperforming and the Crew are better than ever. This thread has been awful quiet for months and I assume it’s because fans have realized that Getz isn’t a moron. Are we still mad about the lack of an interview process? we have hindsight now: who should have been hired in your view? edit: it's an indictment on Craig Counsell too. I liked his batting stance, but is he any good at managing? The pocket pancake guy who doesn't speak spanish is having more success

why?

why do you like the padres so much anyway, holden?

I think it's a streak. He's going to finish the season at or below his career averages and negative WAR, won't he? The law of averages is undefeated. It's magic. He didn't suddenly become a superstar by moving 80 miles north. I doubt he woke up one day and said to himself, "I'd prefer to make $10 million dollars instead of 0 dollars -- I'm going to start trying at my job". Maybe a little bit, it was probably a wake up call, but at the end of the day, we've pretty much seen what kind of player he is...a pretty good player that can probably show a little more than what what we saw in Chicago. But he probably isn't an all-star or a top 50 hitter. He's done enough to have his option picked up, which is great. I'd take Pseudo-Vaughn over Rhys Hoskins at half the cost. But it's 106 plate appearances with Milwaukee vs 2451 with us. It isn't really a sample size. He's facing an atypical amount of lefties. It's random. His stats were bound to average out and he seems to be in a really good environment for him. Watching him this year with us, it's not like he regressed. He looked the same. He was unlucky but pretty much the same guy. I'm not really watching the Brewers, but is he doing anything different? It might be a confidence/mental thing, but can that be sustained over the life of a post-arbitration contract? We're seeing that 'deadline superstar' Eugenio Suarez is going to average out to a slightly above average hitter in line with his highly variable career averages, as such there's probably a reason he didn't net a huge return and why the Yankees didn't bother to give up anything for him and might've even preferred Ryan McMahon (who has been marginally better than Eugene, a whole 0.9 bWAR better since the trade). These stats are very much influenced by minor perturbations, is there any actual reason to believe that Vaughn is a different player? To his credit, he's hitting a lot of bombs not in line with his career averages. Is there evidence to suggest he can sustain it? I think to myself: I've watched him play ball for several years, is he all of a sudden "that guy"? Is team chemistry infectious like it was when Texas won the World Series? I suspect nobody really knows what they're talking about in this sport (besides the people at FutureSox, shout out, lucky us; J Gonzalez is budding star though), sometimes guys just get hot for extended periods. Part of the reason baseball is the best sport, these things are just mystical. There's no understanding it. The physicists and materialists say the fastball cannot possibly rise, that gravity doesn't work that way, meanwhile baseball legend Mookie Betts says, "get in the batter's box and see for yourself". I think it's a streak.

I knew it. EZ win. this is the type of win that strikes fear in the heart of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. oh wait, wrong sport and time period. The new YoYo (YoeYoe?) rocks. The cutter was nasty. The curveball was unhittable. Those pitches were moving like crazy. 95 MPH sinker. His stuff looked really good. I'm surprised he threw 90 pitches on top of that. He didn't do that at Charlotte. The Yankees and Dodgers failed him, but can the Sox help him be his best self? Can the neo-Sox be the Devil Rays with a big market budget? Will the new front office spend real money on a free agent or continue to cut payroll? I don't understand why the Yankees cut him, he was quite good for their AAA affiliate, but man, what a heartening performance. I never heard of this guy and he looked like a star and like he can repeat it.

lol@at that Torkelson "hit by pitch"...I'm a little delayed. I think we're gonna win this one.

just shot up to #1 prospect. just imagine what he could do with two hands.