nrockway

Mike Sirotka, Mike Sirota...wait a second, are you guys not both talking about new Sox ace Mike Soroka?

this is my absolute favorite White Sox moment that I was lucky enough to see live! Iguchi, Rowand and Konerko going back-to-back-to-back. Jose Contreras was electric too, allowing one run in 8 innings. of course, Randy Johnson was my favorite pitcher, which is I assume why we went to this game, so a little bittersweet.

depends on the player(s). wouldn't ship him out just to ship him out. he should be better and more valuable next season unless the wrist injury is chronic.

this seems like the work of Bannister, based on his twitter post shared in this thread, more than the 'Sox' generally. I'm optimistic about the move, he seems like a diamond in the rough, and now Bannister's so-called "pitching lab" will be put to the test.

hitters: Shoeless Joe Jackson Scott Podsednik Juan Pierre Luis Aparicio Rudy Law Minnie Miñoso Magglio Ordóñez Harold Baines Luke Appling Carlton Fisk Tadahito Iguchi pitchers: Wilbur Wood Ed Walsh Giolito Keith Foulke Billy Pierce Chris Sale Javier Vazquez incomplete list and tried to avoid the more recent superstars.

His 3 year average bWAR is 3.9 and made, I’m pretty sure, every scheduled start. At 9mil and 20mil, that’s an incredibly useful player.

At least now it’s men shirts instead of women’s underwear…

KC is the better analogy to be sure, the two locations are adjacent to downtown and are mostly working-class areas; and even St Louis, though the scale of its 'ballpark village' is pretty small. regardless, Truist is an analogy because 'The Battery Atlanta' was built on undeveloped land, roughly 60 acres, and 'Sox Village' has roughly 100 acres of undeveloped land (parking lots). Comiskey is also connected by public transportation and close to the downtown of one of America's largest cities. I don't think the racial demographics are particularly relevant anymore, young whites with money have flocked back to the cities, desiring walkable environments with lots of amenities (bars with arcade games). east of I-90 is gentrifying rapidly thanks to M Daley and a re-concentration of the black middle class on those parcels of land stripped barren by M Daley and CHA. check out all the new construction going on in the neighborhood, condos now sell for $600k, new high rises are coming up with promise to be even more expensive. it's a different era. even so, the 'transit oriented developments', which this would be, are like neo-gated communities. people can hop on the train from downtown, enjoy the amenities and leave without ever interacting with the so-called undesirables (who were priced out or otherwise had their homes destroyed 20 years ago). Sox could even claim 'equitable development' in addition to that TOD funding or whatever else the city/state would give, the sort of thing that city officials lap up, by offering a few concessions to the residents of the neighborhood. I personally would be interested in a more forward-thinking model which involves real concessions to Chicago's residents without fantasizing about a return to a time when city governments actually provided public services to its people the point about 'Battery Atlanta' and 'Texas Live!' is that it's a shift from the Camden Yards type of development that clubs have been parroting for 20 years and there's actual tax revenue to be derived from it. The area around Sox Park is also a blank slate in a way like those suburban sites; a pseudo-progressive city government like Chicago's would probably go for it and whoever owns the team would stand to make plenty of money. anyway, this is a post about Jarred Kelenic, sorry to derail!

very off topic, but I think about this a lot and basically now think the Sox probably aren't leaving and are actually staying exactly where they are. There's a mutual interest for the club and the city to redevelop the ~100ish acres of parking lots around the park. Check out the development models for Truist and Globe Life and in particular what will soon happen in Kansas City. They're fairly comprehensive approaches and have some actual economic benefits for their cities unlike previous models of ballpark construction. Mark Rosentraub at UMich has been writing about the economic impacts of stadium construction forever and essentially writes that this new model can produce tax revenue for a city while the previous generation of them were public money sinks. Of course, I'm skeptical of these entertainment districts/ballpark villages/whatever you want to call it as I am about development that wholly caters to yuppy consumption habits. alas, that's the state of urban governance for now and the foreseeable future. The city is trying its hardest to yupify Bronzeville and so a complete redevelopment of that 'middle area' between Bridgeport and (technically) Douglas has to be front of mind for the Department of Planning. easy sell too: get rid of parking lots (everyone who works in that department thinks parking lots and automobiles are the devil) and replace them with buildings and create new sources of property and sales tax revenue. I just finished reading this book Mallparks: Baseball Stadiums and the Culture of Consumption by Michael Friedman on this topic, published this year, and would highly recommend it.

this is a good point. their package becomes more desirable if so, I like his upside and ability to play all three outfield positions but he feels like a prototypical right fielder. on the other hand, why would ATL take on that much salary to trade for Cease when they could spend in free agency?

seems unlikely. that ownership group is one of the worst in sports. loser cheapskates despite playing in a cashcow city

why do we assume Colas won't play next season? it reflects more so on Grifol and Getz to give up on him. if he's "undisciplined" and "lacks fundamentals" maybe they should instill those things in him. Colas needs to start unless somehow Lee Jung-Hoo plays right field for the team next year, at which point ship him and the farm boy out for a bag of chips

I think it makes sense for that reason actually. he might be totally done and won't cost much and carlos perez isn't worth looking at, at the very least he probably has some wisdom to impart on the catchers with upside. my only issue is that hackenberg looks much improved and had a very solid 2023. .649 OPS in 2022 across A+ and AA versus .755 in 2023 at AA-AAA. he looks pretty good defensively and has a cannon for an arm too. carrying three catchers isn't a completely insane strategy though.

Oh, the pitcher I was describing was Bryan Shaw (sans left-handedness). Senior moment.

Good point but I guess I'm of the opinion that, since there's no expectation to win next season, I'd rather deal known (but good) commodities who might help in the short term but probably don't have a role once the team is competing again; and so take a chance on boom/bust types. Maybe we find another Gregory Santos. Next season should be about discovery IMO. In the same vein, I wouldn't mind seeing Shewmake getting play over Lopez, maybe he can prove something. I did become a big fan of Banks' "hard hat and lunch pail" ethos over the second half and cheer on pretty much any lefty pitcher, so I'd also be happy to keep him. easy to root for

Stroman declined a $21mil option, has injury concerns and also exploded in the second half. These guys are getting paid, or at least the potential reward is worth the risk. I can't imagine giving up 27 runs in 26.2 innings and then saying "no" to 20 million dollars.

pitching seems like the way to go in the rule 5 draft this year. there are some solid dudes that are worth a look, certainly more interesting than Padilla. maybe Banks and Lambert have some trade value and could be moved before the 6th to clear another slot. I'd stick with Touki. I bet if they were targeting bats, Remillard would be off the 40 man roster.

I think it purely comes down to Benetti talking to the media about how signing an extension was "kind of a pain." He talks a lot and Amin doesn't. Also think Benetti is better at his job than Amin, I really can't stand Bulls broadcasts since Funk retired and will try my best to listen to the other team's. Stacey has become unbearable, hawking his hot sauce and his podcast. Amin just kowtows to him. Doesn't help that the team is in a worse position than the Sox are. Frankly, I don't like having "national" guys as broadcasters. They're seemingly more concerned about not pissing off their bosses at Fox or other team's fanbases than they are about rooting for the home team, which is logical from their perspective. I'd rather have a homer than the best of the best. I can look at Baseball-Reference or Fangraphs or otherwise go on the internet to talk about advanced stats or whatever. I want a homer in the booth. Both guys see a close call and say "well let's go to the replay and get the whole picture, we can't really say". Wrong. the call needs to go in our favor every time and when it doesn't, it's refball. Make fun of Kwame Brown's tiny hands too. Amin's best moment was when he went after Grayson Allen for several minutes calling him a dirty player when Allen kinda just made a hardnosed basketball play that wasn't dirty in the slightest, just physical. That was the first and last time I ever saw him stand up for a Bulls player and Allen is an easy target since his days at Duke.

how do you know about soft contact? do they have statcast in the carolina league or at the ole miss park? he hit 40 home runs in 800 plate appearances in college, that seems like a larger sample size than 30 games in A ball. he changed his swing as a junior and hit for 60 points higher batting average but dropped his home run rate. one might expect a 21-year-old will continue to develop and find the right approach. who were you taking instead? I would've wanted Bradfield maybe, or Nimmala but they were never taking a high schooler, but Gonzalez was not a bad choice. compare to Brice Matthews and Brayden Taylor, neither one will play shortstop in the MLB and are dubiously better hitters.

why was it a mistake to draft him? 150 plate appearances in RK-A? left-handed bat with plus power who walks a lot and might actually stick at SS. give the kid a chance.

Can they unload more salary in the deal? Boegarts or Manny? I could see both teams going for that. Their prospects are nothing special imo but Volpe, Peraza, Dominguez, Thorpe isn't too bad.

Noticing a trend, what are they hiding under those things?Untrustworthy. Lance and keuchel are particularly funny, I guess it’s the phantom napper’s fault he nearly set the record for home runs given up. I think the highest hr/9 for qualified starters ever.

I mean, what kind of person leaves his job and then trashes the organization and his former coworkers publicly? true pro. you should listen to the bbc some time. there are ways to ask difficult questions respectfully and get interesting answers. you make my point, he said nothing interesting and most journalists are wimps and bad at their jobs.

Love Gio, seems like a great guy, pretty much the only ball player whose interviews I'll watch. I watched some video last year featuring him and Blake Snell and Snell seems like the biggest moron alive whereas Gio seemed cool, charismatic and intelligent. Cool that he's still living in Chicago and welcomed the idea of coming back. The bit about Ohtani is more interesting than what he said about the Sox."the pitching was good when the hitting was bad and vice versa. we didn't click" snooze...but Shohei sleeps 14 hours a day? fascinating. wish these podcast guys actually knew how to conduct an interview and asked something more specific than "why did you guys lose so much?"

I doubt Cease gets traded before Ohtani signs, maybe Yamamoto too. Let's say the Cubs somehow sign Ohtani, the Cardinals might conclude that Cease isn't the answer to winning the division and might want to stick with their prospects. After both guys sign, other teams might get desperate and drive up Cease's value. Red Sox, for example, could probably use Cease and have several prospects that could help us. They'd also probably want (and be able) to resign him. Unless there's some slam dunk deal from a team with no hope for either one of them (Orioles), just wait a month or two.