chitownsportsfan

He has negative value despite being on a league min deal. Impressive the Sox have managed to keep around so many of those guys on the 40 man under Hahn. Let's hope Getz is more proactive.

We're firmly in the "show me" phase of fandom. We've long moved beyond "trust but verify".

Everything I've read about Michael is that he's a failson that JR barely trusts. If Michael is running the day to day operations at the Berto Center, he's not doing any better job than his dad did the last 15 years. We just have to hope for an out of left field bid once JR croaks and hope Michael is cool being a minority partner. Here's hoping.

Yes, and baseball as a 3 hour everyday in the summer backdrop will always have value. I used to let bad losses ruin my day, fug that s%*#. It's like the Bulls, you can hope they are awesome one day, but you can't get too worked up about any one game in a season you expect at most to win 40 games.

I'm probably somewhere in the middle here. I'm a died in the wool Sox fan. It's in my blood. I'll never be 6 years old again and fall asleep listening to some other team and have my pops sneak in against mom's wishes sometimes and update me on a score. But actively support? When they suck? Hell no. I'll just s%*# post on this forum, make an occasional analytic one, and skip any spring trips or trips down to T-Mobile when they are in town. Following a bad baseball team in my 20s and living and dying every game wasn't worth it. It's certainly not worth it in middle age.

Does anybody know when this all prospect, cactus league game is supposed to happen? Or, if there's a few of them, when Colson is supposed to go? I couldn't find much info on it, other than apparently they are doing some sort of prospect series this spring.

Just on Kopech, injuries have really taken a toll on his arm talent imo. Maybe his new delivery can get him to find the zone more often, but the guy that came up throwing pure gas is never coming back. I'd imagine he sits around 93-95 the rest of his career.

The House The Taxpayer Built.

You've done a good job outlining the fWAR sources in other posts. The short of it is that around 4 of the projected fWAR is probably from guys that won't be here if they are healthy and producing mildly by the middle of July: Cease, Eloy and possibly if anybody will take him Moncada, and then that would be about -3 fWAR (rest of schedule) gone. Also about half the projected fWAR at SS is from Colson, and while ZIPS seems to think he can come up and be basically an average regular, I wouldn't mind just leaving him down in the minors all year, maybe get him a cup of coffee in September. If he's obviously too good for the minors sure bring him up, but otherwise just leave him down.

Yoan seems to have structural issues in his back. Good luck getting over those. Eloy has chronic soft tissue injuries, those should be easier to prevent and treat in theory.

Well, one of the few things about being projected for 63 wins is that even awful teams sometimes win 65. It's hard to suck that much. https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Team Looking at that, just compared to other teams, we've got a tough row to hoe especially on the pitching side if Cease is traded. I can see the downside on 63 as well.

It's a good post, but we're gonna suck.

Sounds like you're telling me there's a chance!

It's the lack of respect they have for the fans that really gets us. Not even casual fans think this team is going anywhere this season.

That's fine, as there will probably be a hot market for him in July as well. And maybe then they'll get what they want. I don't think it's a bad thing a deal hasn't gotten done. Hell, if nothing else it cooled off Orioles fans crowing on this site.

The Sox expected two Boras clients, both veteran pitchers looking for that last big deal, to have signed already? I mean, OK. You can expect that, but I can also expect a 60 degree sunny week ahead here in God's own PNW in the middle of February.

Simply seeing the obvious hasn't been a strong suit of the Sox' lately.

From your lips to my ears Jimmy. I've disagreed with you on many things over the years but there's no doubt you're closer to the org than most -- and if you are hearing that and sensing it, LFG. It's about time we stopped building our 25 man roster around 2-3 guys every year that should be strictly DHs and then trotting them out into the field. DH should be the last spot you worry about, not the springboard for how everything else has to be laid out.

If you can only point to 2-3 orgs at any given time, and then those orgs can only sustain it for a few years, it's not something reliable. It's like the Sox' run of SP health in the aughts, it will probably never be duplicated, and in hindsight, a large part of it was probably just luck. Don't get me wrong, this org has had some of the worst instructors and coaches in baseball the last 5 years or so and I'd love to see improvement there. But expecting anything more than "first do no harm" is too much. At the end of the day players play and coaches coach and there hasn't been a baseball team in history that has had coaching drive their success over a multi year time frame, it's players, always.

a little creativity would go a long way. There's absolutely zero pressure to compete for anything this year and that should (in theory) free up the 40 man to be used as more of a shuttle bus than in a competing year where you might need those 2-3 guys on it and in AAA to come up in midseason and hold down the fort. We have no fort to hold down, if we have to call up half a dozen career minor leaguers by midseason, just cycle through all of them, purchase the contract, put 'em on the 40 man, and then DFA as needed. I understand there is a human element and guys might get offended being "jerked around" but FFS, this is pro ball and we've again, we've got no culture to speak of any good, we might as well have a culture of treating this thing like a 3 year plan and get a look at as many guys as possible until we need to settle on a roster built to weather the storm over 162 in a contention window.

I wouldn't over complicate it for now. Just cut sheets, claim Njigba. There is a decent chance that nobody claims Sheets. A lefty DH, that can't hit RHP and has regressed to below replacement level that is entering his age 27 season isn't even AAAA fodder imo, he's now down into career AAA org guy territory. Notably, there's nothing in his underlying stats that points to bad luck, he was just incredibly awful. His xWOBA was .265 FFS. 14% of his ball in play were popups. He stinks. Lord knows this club isn't going to stay healthy, so there will be playing time available at some point for Njigba. I'd rather give him every single inning in the OF over Shields when they come available.

Seems like he was just saying much like a golf swing, there's always a wrong way to get the clubface on the ball, but there's also a lot of right ways -- and that each pitcher, like a golfer, will have his own right way. I dunno, read like mostly fluff to me. To the extent pitching tacticians, coaches, whatever can make a difference it's not something you can rely on year in year out and certainly not with the talent we currently have in the starting rotation. If nothing else, maybe it can help Kopech avoid injury. That would be valuable.

Looking at the 40 man roster, to the extent they have a 40 man crunch, it's only because they haven't cut a bunch of dead wood. If they have a bunch of guys that will need protecting in the offseason, than worry about that in the offseason. https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/roster/40-man You're telling me Sheets, and at least a couple pitchers, couldn't be cast off for a better, younger player should one come available like Njigba? We're gonna lose 90+ games, why in the world wouldn't we be bringing in guys like Njigba if available?

Yea I've followed him a bit because of his brother. If nothing else he fits what Getz has said he wants to do with the 40 man, get more athletic, more versatile. There's a chance this guy could be a useful 4th OF and a piece we could either flip or try and develop a bit.

Yea why not. Sheets is a DH that can't hit. He's old enough now to where you can't even squint and see him improving enough to ever play a competent corner OF.