bmags

The one good thing about pitchers is they can randomly just find it. But, obviously given Konnor Griffin, it's going to be hard to accept a college pitchers long winding road to competence.

It's funny the split, but worthwhile to do because we have quite a few different players in the second half. But for me it's funny because the point of this post is actually a bit in free fall. Walk rate post ASB has been much lower - in part due to Colson's poor walk rate, Meidroth not walking as much and being injured, and Vargas injuries. By end of sept would be funny if we were at same spot. But, second half saw strike out rate go WAY down while power went way UP. That's worthwhile.

Not that good so far for hagen

This has been just a legitimately good stretch of baseball. The Sox deserve their flowers, I was worried when we had the losing streak it was going to fall apart. But THAT was the blip, not the winning! Great second half, great job to our young hitters and good job to Venable for figuring out how to make pitching staff work enough game to game.

One thing I love about Colson is I feel like we had like a decade post 2015 Royals of “actually doubles and contact are good! I want a guy that gets on base by any means possible” and even with Vaughn this idea that gap power was the best part of Konerko. but no, actually home runs are what’s awesome. Hitting the s%*# out of the ball is awesome. Colson I feel has brought back our love of power, which was only lost by not seeing it for so long.

yeah I imagine that'll be tough to come back from in time for a pitcher.

And yes. Long term I think they can, but come on

This kills me. You can’t have 4 top 60 picks and it make zero difference. Hopefully turner can make one

But, regardless of whether they can put the whole offense together, main point was 3 years at the absolute bottom of walk percentage was horrific. It's nice to see it move into the top half in one year and not just settling for being 25th or something.

After how bad they have been even signing marginal free agents that'd be released by June, I think Tauchman is a good step if only to believe that when we get better they will be able to supplement correctly.

he is a defensive whisperer that made marcus semien a good defender.

Sadly in July it looked like a beautiful combo.

We know offensively we've been better in the second half. How it has been done has been reassuring to me that we are scouting and have a better young core. Offensively, I'm sure we are aware that post ASB we have been an actual very good offense. That has helped us be a .500 team in the second half despite a very bad pitching staff. But there is one area I appreciate because even if you isolate our no-good offense of April and May showed immediate, genuine progress. Team BB%+: In 2022, our 81-81 team had a BB%+ of 80, which is 20% below league average and also last in the league. In 2023, our team BB%+ was 75, which is both 25% below league average but also last in the league. That was a 100 loss team obviously. In 2024, our team BB%+ was 83, which is 17% below average and amazingly just 29th in the league. While 2022 could be passable because we struck out less, and did so with league average power, by the time that we get to 2024 we are striking out more, walking less, and when we do hit it, it's for grounders. In 2025, our BB%+ is 102, which is 2% above average and 11th in the league. Our K% is 100, so we are just average in strikeouts (17th in league). What makes our offense still relatively tepid is the power. So this is, finally, a real reversal into a trend that was just extremely stuck. Much of that was players, but we had a lot of differentplayers during that 3 year stretch. This year, the MLB vets we got were able to provide actual bases not just generated by hits, but so was our talent from the farm coming up and not being embarrassing in their approach. What makes me genuinely even happier is if you isolate it to just April and May of 2025, when our offense was bad, we had a 107 BB%+ which was good for 11th overall in the league. They struck out MUCH more early, and had zero power. So even if you say we are buoyed by a hot stretch, this pattern has seemed genuinely durable across some different groups of players. A funny part is - hey wait Colson isn't necessarily an amazing part of this - ... Well post July 4th, with our loss of a few vet hitters and rise of Colson and younger bats, our Walk rate does go down to 96 and 20th in league, but our K rate is actually 90 - so we strike out 10% less than the rest of the MLB. We actually have the 5th lowest K%+ since Colson came up. But our power IMPROVED. pre Colson our Power ISO+ was 73, now it is 106 post Colson. So BBs went down, Ks went way down, and power went way up. But most importantly, we stopped this 3 year long trend of being bottom of the league in BB%+. In 2021, when we had good offense, we were second in league in BB%+ at 114 (thanks Grandal). We have more work to do to be the best team in baseball, but this is the kind of real progress I like to see. Shows across the board better execution in scouting, coaching, and players.

sure would be sweet if ron washington got fired and we could hire him for Sosa.

Week 1s are often fools gold or fools...coal, but sure feels like if you could choose one team that could not afford to look atrocious it was the dolphins. Tua looks broken in a way that derek carr suddenly looked broken. And that team is built around a QB that can get out the ball as fast as Tua used to - their offensive line sucks. Jets looked much better than I thought and steelers didn't look scary. So just another ho hum 10 win steelers team that somehow still wins so many games they look ass in.

One thing aside from this coming from the coaching staff is I think bears have two qb dads that are a problem. I wouldn’t be shocked if the guy giving Dunne the stuff to run down was none other than Tyson bagents dad. As much as I dislike flus, I actually think he’s been around long enough and is secure enough as a defensive coach he wouldn’t be so dumb. But Waldron probably was furious after wickersham part.

I agree on baltimore and Philly, I struggle to put cincinnati and san fran as unbeatable teams right now. Burrow is incredible but that defense looks brutal, and san fran just seems so brittle. Who knows what they are this year.

Oh man Tyler dunne s Substack just eviscerates Williams. Basically makes him out to be Jamarcus Russell or johnny manziel.

The bears schedule is not that brutal.

Shoulda stuck with basketball!!!

it is a bit unfair how cool every left hander looks hitting a home run.

It’s a bummer he could never create a stick. Still like picks like this.

I like my veteran leadership in one position and it's the wise old owl backup catcher.

Team really needs a masher, and it will get like a Josh Naylor maybe. Pitching, eh, sometimes guys show up. I'd imagine they put money in bullpen. If you get the offense they've had last 2 months, and better pitching/a Starter in offseason, and then KC and MN regress more...I could see 70.

My point is you are holding other teams to a higher standard than you hold the white sox to. But, of that group, Mattingly and Fenstermaker and Minasian aren't key baseball decisionmakers so they don't count. I don't real Over 2.5 years, aside from being unable to scout waiver wire and vet min free agent talent to avoid the worst record of all time, there are 2 points where you can look at now and say "did Getz set us up for success more than these GMs?" - The 2024 draft, especially the 1st round, where Getz drafted Hagen Smith at 6th overall, who now is struggling mightily with command, instead of multiple top hitters including #1 overall prospect. - Farm System: 18th - Major League Team record - Jeremy Zoll Twins: - 2024 First Round Draft Pick (#21) took Kaelen Culpepper who has a .900 OPS in AA - Has the 4th best farm according to BA - 82-80 record last year Would I take Jeremy Zoll over Getz? Yes. Peter Bendix Marlins - 2024 First Round Draft PIck (#16) PJ Morlando - least impressive of stats, but holding head above water in A ball with a .750 ops - Farm System: 13th - MLB Record Last Year: 62-100 (21 games above white sox) - MLB Record This Year: 61-69 (14 games above white sox) Would I take Peter Bendix over Chris Getz? Yes Craig Breslow Obviously yes. David Stearns First - in David Stearns first rebuild with the Marlins he created a near playoff team with waiver wire pickups and scrubs, they didn't lose 120 games, so just with that resume I'd say yes. Farm System: #9 Record in 2024: Made Playoffs with 89 wins Record in 2025: 69-61 (2nd place) 2024 Draft: Drafted Carson Benge (19th overall), hitting .900 OPS in AA Would I take David Stearns? Yes Brad Meador Farm System: 10th Record in 2024: 77-85 Record in 2025: 68-63 2024 Draft: Drafted Chase Burns, a top pitcher that actually dominated minors and is pitching in majors this year. Would I take Brad Meador? Yes The weird Giants set-up, is one you could argue could struggle. Yet with a worse draft position, took a player they parlayed into Rafael Devers. Their farm system, still better than the sox and surging at lower levels. Getz has done some good things, but tearing things down to the studs and then having some young players in year 2 playing like potential starters is not really out of the ordinary for baseball. Getz has been here for 2.5 years. This draft looks solid. Last looks like it was a huge miss for no reason. The Cease trade was a huge miss. As a result, we have the 18th ranked farm despite the worst record in the AL. 2.5 years in. And if it's because all of these guys that have graduated, you'd still want better on field results than we have, there's a LOT more team to build yet we have the 18th best farm. It's just not good enough yet, and Getz showing an inability to find passable talent to avoid catastrophe last year is a warning even for a 'built up' team.