BamaDoc

I was wondering about Seager for 3b. Plays everyday, decent glove, LHB would look good in our lineup. However, now 31 with two declining years and has 3 years and nearly 60 million still owed to him. Think you could get him for salary relief with minimal prospect cost but man what I hoped would look good looks like a high risk of burning you.

New article today in the Athletic by Fegan on Burdi. They are hoping for further velocity return but currently working on pitching command vs throwing. It does confirm the velocity drop.

A pretty brutal group without Collins/Burger. 2019 will be interesting for this group. If no one progressing, it opens C/B moving just on need. Also, one of the easiest and cheapest positions to fill via free agency lately on a short term basis.

Agree

There is a good article at the Athletic on the Yankees transformation to a heavy analytic based organization. It was an interesting read. They had a table indicating the size of each teams departments, which they admitted was hard to do as some teams don't release that info or account for people differently. (They claimed two sources though on each team). From other articles I have seen thru the year about players getting and adopting analytics, I thought the Sox were doing well in embracing the changes/technology. The Yankees have a staff of twenty tying the Dodgers for the most in baseball. The White Sox were dead last with two. I understand quantity doesn't equal quality etc but I found this concerning. Any staff or posters with more knowledge or the ability to ask questions of Hahn etc? I do not want to jump to the traditional Sox being cheap answer. The role of analytics is changing the game dramatically and you can either lead or be left behind. At a time of rebuilding and as a lower overall spending team, I would hate to not take advantage of everything out there.

I think Jason is an up and comer who we should keep. He is very early in his career and should improve. Not sure what his contract status is but with the other broadcasting he is doing he has a bright future. I would try to give him a multiyear deal. Perhaps some of his corniness is trying to hard and to justify himself as a relative newbie in a room of veterans. Security may allow him to relax. Thought he did well last night as I watched their broadcast more than the regular one. Also in a world where broadcasters are no longer unique(homers), if nothing else the pitch of his voice makes him instantly recognizable.

I was surprisingly accurate........sadly.

If Leury is a super sub, filling in in CF as well as middle infield, it could work. Davidson RHDH and backup first/third.(needs lots of work at third) Palka LHDH and spell OF in corners. (needs work, could he learn first as well?) I would probably carry Rondon over Delmonico for additional versatility depending on options.

I started with Harry doing Sox games (and Mary Frances Veeck and Friend) listening to a transistor radio picking up WMAQ in Springfield. On west coast swings, I listened under the covers hoping my mom didn't make me turn it off. There was a connection because my dad grew up listening to Harry do Cardinal games. In Alabama now, my son has grown up to be a Sox fan because his dad was. He knows the Hawkisms but it is a little different now days just due to all the media people can listen to. It is sad because announcers are more and more vanilla. He was a homer, he could go nuts, he could ramble but make no mistake...he was ours! Thanks Hawk.

Agree. Every other team is seeing his performance, or lack thereof. Nothing that he is doing would make anyone jump and say, "I gotta have him."

Bingo! You can play your way on (Palka) and off of the 40 man roster.

I think seeing Kopech up and doing well, we felt pretty good about having four young starters for 2019. Felt like add a fifth, Eloy, others improvement and you could be a surprise team. Losing Kopech just seemed to blow all that optimism up.

I feel it just shows we are in for a long 2019 as most prospects won't arrive till later that year(Eloy exception) and as we have seen, few are great right away.

Sometimes you hear what you want to.........pessimist focuses on the setbacks.........optimist focuses on the successes.

Get well soon Michael. Back and better than ever.

So I will repeat, he looks like he will work in relief. For those that don't like wadding thru the numbers I found above, the results against him are very much like him pitching to Adam Engel for every at bat. So one time thru lineup would be like pitching to Engel nine times.

Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR SB CS BB SO SO/W BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+ 1st PA in G, as SP 18 162 142 17 30 2 0 5 0 0 18 31 1.72 .211 .300 .331 .631 47 4 0 2 0 0 4 .236 68 82 1st PA in G, as RP 6 42 40 2 9 0 0 1 0 0 2 7 3.50 .225 .262 .300 .562 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 49 5 Stats per baseball reference.com To me it clearly indicates he has a role on the team. He needs to be the long reliever. I looked and a six game sample size is obviously small but when you add in first time thru the order as a reliever, I think it is a lot more valid. OPS for second time jumps to .864 as starter and .750 relieving. He looks like a guy who can go two or three innings and be very useful. We may need two longer reliever types depending how we fill 4-5 starter roles. I agree with you he should not start.

Looks like 1 and 2 locked up. 20 games to go.

Best of luck Jack! Next year will definitely be trying so stepping away may be best. At least you recognized it was not a positive for you. As an optimist, I found if I go to the minor league box scores first, I can find someone did something good and be happy. That's why I started a lot of those threads. When I look at the majors I spend a lot of time thinking flip candidates, improved draft pick, and needle in a haystack. I realize our AAAA players probably won't stick but looking at it that way keeps me sane.

I guess I am idealistic. Better food, happier players, better results. Maybe 4-6 players make the bigs instead of 3-5. Treating them better than what they see other teams doing helps with signing early possibly team friendly extensions etc. For what it costs to bring in on over the hill reliever or bench piece you could feed the entire farm.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/prospects/stats/affiliates?date=09/06/2018 http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=145&ymd=20180906 Henzman for A+. Need a win down 0-1 in series.

I was not saying feed Robert and not others. I was saying, even he spends time in A ball and it would behoove us to all we can for each player. You can have roving nutritionalist as well as contracts with local food providers which strengthen the teams presence in their market places. I would just like to see Sox player development answer the questions.

Robert cost us 50-60 million including the penalties, comes from a different culture, played at A ball, why would we not do everything to maximize the return on investment? I wouldn't expect the affiliate to foot the bill but the Sox as parent club. It would make us more appealing to cities for affiliation as well. You are a favorite poster of mine and I thought you would be all in on this. Why not provide the best possible to help the prospects maximize their potential?

If you have read any of the articles by a ex minor leaguer on another site(not trying to create controversy), the reimbursement for the average minor leaguer is poor. Guys going to the AFL may only get a $20 meal allotment. There is a cultural adjustment for players coming from latin america to the states etc. Could someone with the ability to reach Getz or someone in the appropriate area ask a question/series of questions? Why do we not provide meals for the minors before games/ after games/ or both? The non bonus baby minor leaguer makes less than minimum wage. Even guys like Moncada freaked out when discovering twinkies and Eloy was in to a fast food chain. Others, we heard about pizza. Why not be the class of the minors and feed your players a nutritious meal, either in a post game spread or in boxes if hoping on the bus? Can you not supply supplements/vitamins if requested? It would not be that costly and you could tailor it to the players needs. Granted it is a static facility, but Alabama's football team eats like kings, steak, lobster etc but also with nutritionalists fitting diets to the individuals needs. Why isn't this done in the minors? I understand that most players won't make it but when you stand in front of Congress (which may be coming) to explain the sub minimum wage conditions, wouldn't this be if nothing else a good excuse? If the White Sox were to do this ( I realize Jerry doesn't rattle the status quo) it could set us up as a premier organization where everyone in the minors would like to be. It could help on signing draft picks as well as the minor free agent who ocasionally pan out. It seems ridiculous to pay 50-60 million on a player and let them eat garbage/fast food. Entrain them with good habits and hopefully you don't have out of shape major leaguers either. I would love to see articles in the future addressing just how we take care of our players. Sorry for the length.

In Fegan's Athletic article, several of the callups talk about just losing a grip on the ball and it sailing or spinning up to the plate. I am in no way affiliated with the Athletic but they have some very insightful stuff.