iWiN4PreP

Nice play by Avi... but man ReyLo is getting hit HARD

Quick Gamethread question for discussion: What do you think of Jose Rondon (SS) and his future?

Reynaldo Lopez (4-9 with a 4.66 ERA) looks to get a much needed W after a long stretch of L's or no decisions meanwhile CC (7-4, 3.30 ERA) looks to stay on track with his recent run of successful starts. CC is truly a remarkable story... how he went from a terrible year to readjusting and becoming a very good SP again this year. Bravo. CHW Lineup: 1. Adam Engel (R) CF 2. Jose Rondon (R) SS 3. Avisail Garcia (R) RF 4. Kevan Smith (R) C 5. Matt Davidson (R) 1B 6. Yoan Moncada (S) 2B 7. Nicky Delmonico (L) DH 8. Ryan LaMarre (R) LF 9. Yolmer Sanchez (S) 3B NYY Line up: 1. Brett Gardner (L) LF 2. Giancarlo Stanton (R) RF 3. Aaron Hicks (S) CF 4. Miguel Andujar (R) DH 5. Neil Walker (S) 3B 6. Gleyber Torres (R) SS 7. Greg Bird (L) 1B 8. Austin Romine (R) C 9. Ronald Torreyes (R) 2B

Yeah -- me too, then bring him up, resign him when the time comes and we get to watch both. :).

I *really* hope the White Sox aren't afraid of using the insane payroll advantage they have this offseason. We should most certaintly make a huge play for either/both of Harper/Machado. If we get either one, that immediately puts our rebuild into a contender. I am partial to Harper as I think he has more potential to be game changing over the next 10 years compared to Machado, but Machado fits a nice position need of 3b. Now, if we get one of them, I'd want to get another FA as well, perhaps Pollock fits nicely if the price is right. I could see us swinging Pollock + Machado as a great scenario. I think Pollock's market won't be amazing considering he is older and very much injury prone and somewhat declining. I'd also like to get 1 SP. I'm not sure yet who's available. I'd also throw around the idea of trading Rodon. I know this site is split 50/50 on the idea, but his peripheals are not great. If he continues his ace like run down the stretch and we can pawn him off for 3 valuable pieces to the rebuild, that's a major win for us. One poster on this site mentioned the Braves with a deal around their prospect catcher, Gohara, and another good piece. That seems like a good trade for both teams. I'd love it. IF we can get a good trade out of Avi, we take that, but that is highly doubtful. C Omar/Castillo 1b Abreu 2b Moncada 3b Machado SS Timmy Anderson OF Eloy / Pollock / Fill in with Avi or Palka or Delmonic or Engel DH Whatever is left from the fill in EDIT: I should also add that there are so many different ways we can go this offseason and next. It will be very hard to disappoint me. The only way I will be a disappointed fan this off season is if the team does NOTHING. They might have the best financial situation of any team this offseason, put it to good use and at the very least get some good players to flip at the deadline if the idea is to not contend next year and give the rebuild another year.

OK -- For a while I was FIRMLY on the train of thought of not bringing him up. Right now, I'm quite the opposite. Eloy has done way too much in the minors to not bring him up as soon as this week. This is quite frankly both exciting and nerve wrecking. I feel if the club doesn't bring him up -- it's flat out disrespectful to the fans and the player. Do the right thing. Bring up ELOY!

People here love to talk about Uribe as if that's the case that disproves the point. The point still stands... an OBP south of .300 is terrible. It means you are making way too many outs and not getting on base enough. Sure, Timmy has power and speed and that's nice, but the unknown is how many runs have we lost because he kills rallies/can't get on base at a higher clip to let the line up flow more naturally? All I'm saying is a lot of people here are ready to go to war with Timmy as our SS for the next 5+ years. Why not strive for better? I'll concede that there aren't many SS's out there that can produce as much and have a higher OBP, but I'd like to see better.

I'm completely with Jack here -- I'd love to have a SS that has an OBP north of .300... When you are below .300 OBP you are detrimental to the team... even with his power/speed combo and average defense. Don't get me wrong -- Anderson could improve, but right now he is a fringe starter. He'd be an awesome super sub to have, but we should strive better for our line up. If we strive for better and don't get it -- OK, fine, #9 hitter on our good teams could work out. I just don't get why so many people here are so enamored with him when he continually puts up OBP's lower than .290.

Nicky Delmonico

Yoan Moncada

Great game by the Sox no matter the outcome in the bot of 9th. Very impressive what this bull club has done since the Kopech call up.

Did you listen to the podcast in full? In *general* I agree with you, but I think you are taking the strong pessimistic outlook here. On Gio: Gio started off horribly this year, but in his last 6 or so starts he has shown a completely different side of him. His velocity is getting back up and he has strongly rated pitches. This is a guy that was highly touted as a prospect. I think Gio has the potential to be a SP2 here if he continues to show that the first half of this year was not who he is. On ReyLo: This is a guy that has the 3 pitches, but they are horribly inconsistent. When they are all on together he could be a top 25 SP in the league as he has shown flashes of in games. The question is if he can flip the switch and have them all on consistently.

This is one of my favourite podcasts. They seem high on all the pitcher's except that they noted Orson has been extremely lucky this year. They were surprisingly high on reylo stating he could be a top 25 so if he ever finds consistency.

I'm in 53 H2H Yahoo fantasy baseball leagues. I am in first or second place in 45 of them. The other 8 I am in place 3,4, or 5. 2 Weeks left of the H2H season before fantasy playoffs. I am in 3 roto leagues placed (1, 1, and 4). Amazing year for fantasy baseball, but I will never do this many leagues again and next year I plan on getting deeper leagues and more sabermetrically inclined leagues.

Avisail Garcia

This is not just about maximizing the bullpen, but also the starters. The starters and BP would benefit from something like this. I'm trying to find some statistics now.

But this issue isn't simply a bad bullpen. It's an atrocious SP corpse. Rays have who? Blake Snell and no one. The White Sox now have Kopech and Rodon looking like quality starters, but prior to that all they really had was an interest in Gio and ReyLo and seeing what they had in a season. Guys like Covey, Fulmer, Shields, Cease all could have likely benefited from being in a roll similar to what the Rays system implemented. At this point Reylo is looking like someone who could also benefit here and Gio is a question mark deserving of a longer leash.

Yasssss. The world will see Rodomination and drive up his trade value.

It's to *optimize* the strengths and minimize the weaknesses. Right now, we trout relievers out there with very little purpose in most scenarios. Here, the Rays are using analysis to determine the best possible RP to face off against a team's line up, hand the ball over to the SP for the best possible outcome (not go through the line up more than 2 times). One of the reasons you want to use your bullpen more nowadays is because stats are showing that a pitchers third time through the order is usually disaster (unless you are an ace-quality pitcher). So you actually don't want to rely on your starters that much, but rather a complete team effort. The point of this comparision to the Rays is that the Rays DON'T have some amazing Yankee-like bullpen. They have a bunch of no-names, but unlike the W'Sox no names, they are able to squeeze every ounce of production out of their pitchers.

They Rays are 16-8 in August and their pitching continues to be insanely good relative to their apparent roster. Since the ASB: 1st in SwStr% 4th in FIP 4th in SIERA 5th in K% 5th in K-BB% 5th in K/9 6th in xFIP The league needs to take notice of this. Of course 1 year could be a statistical anomaly, but my feeling is that what they are doing lends to the future of baseball. I don't feel like the White Sox Organization has ever been intelligence-heavy (i.e. scouting and strategy wise) so I have no faith in this organization to do something big like this, but if they are listening -- now is a great time to get a head of the curve with the trash we've been throwing out their in our bullpen.

Anyone else feel like Engel's and Garcia's OF defense was very MEH/bad during the last Kopech inning?

For the fan it has to be better to have less players moving around. It's easier to follow, easier to create legends, easier to look at baseball as more than just a sport, so to speak. For the players, of course it's better to have that freedom to move around. I wish there was more consistency -- A. Trammel from the Tigers who got his number retired played for Detroit for over 20 years. That's amazing.

Can't wait! Hoping for a study performance, expecting an average QS.

Yoan Moncada

Statistically speaking, the comparison means nothing. I could compare a bunch of random players to show whatever I wanted. If Jose altuve wasextremely similar to moncads it might make a little sensr, but other n that it is useless fluff.