chitownsportsfan

thanks, I'll take it.

Nice. This means we are through winter meetings and holiday period and onto that last tough stretch in January and the first couple weeks of February before we get the "best shape of his life" fluff and some velocity reports from Glendale. A guy like Kong gets a friends and family vote but a guy like Lou Whitaker is still out. Stupid.

Jeff Bagwell? Ha, not even close. I guess I had the year sorta right tho, or something. Never, ever would have guessed who it actually is.

Strike ruined what would have been one of the top 20 greatest seasons ever produced offensively right around guys like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Frank was screwed. Thankfully he got his 1st ballot unanimous selection when the time came.

Yea imagine so, must be nice being a world class athlete. Just keep that thumb away from the net!

wonder if Robert can also dunk. Trout is just a specimen. He has a 30"+ vert as well as world class speed, quickness and hand eye coordination.

Gotta love a guy that embraces the chrome dome.

Wasn't he battling the thumb sprain for the first couple months? Could explain some of that.

They gotta try and lock up Moncada if he has another big year. Something in the 200 million range will get it done. 6 years 200 million with a bunch deferred. Get him signed through 2027 with Robert.

I think it's enough to get back to Glendale this spring. Very excited now for the start of the year knowing at least Robert will be in CF from day 1 and on full display down in AZ.

Awesome, this might convince me to go to spring training again this year after skipping the last two.

Not sure there is a player in the game that has Moncada's power and speed combo, which leads to an absurd xBABIP around 365. I'd expect the BABIP to regress down to around 360, but the walk rate and HR rate will go up and the result will once again be a wRC+ around 125-135 with good defense at 3B. About 5-6 WAR. If he puts it all together in his prime, (2021-25) look out.

we just need @southsider2k5 to rejoin us this year! Let bygones by bygones.

Best year on the board since 2012 imo.

one would hope.

my god why the fuck is stone the mouthpiece. he's a non-entity to anybody younger than 35. sorry I can no longer include myself in that as of this year.

let me give you a short answer: by projections of WAR, this is the 1st White Sox team with a good shot of contending for a division title since probably like 2012. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Now, a lot can go wrong, but "on paper" this is about an 83-85 win team. WIth easy upside given Robert and Madrigal and Kopech all coming up as reinforcements early.

ok you made your 2019 quota of one rational post with about 72 hours to spare, congrats and we're on to 2020.

I like Collins, I think his bat will play, even if he's just a backup 1B/DH long term. But yea. He doesn't bring anything defensively. It's hard to project him as anything but a poor man's schwarber. usefullplayer on a cheap deal sure, but hardly worth too much fuss when they just signed EE. As for the "inconsistency" of bringing in Mazara also hoping for a breakout: they needed a warm body for RF. They already had a bunch at DH/1B/C. I'm not sure it's a great move, probably mildly bad over the multitude of outcomes but they had a hole to fill. How well they filled it remains to be seen.

I already explained why but you didn't read. Edwin is projected for about 2.5 fWAR. Collins for about .5 In a year they are obviously trying to contend you can't trot out a replacement level DH in hopes that he has a breakthrough. Collins will get his chance. Jose/Eloy/EE will probably miss around 60 games between the three of them. They are building depth on the MLB roster. This is what that looks like. I know, it's been a long ass time since we saw what that looks like.

EE is predicted for a 123 wRC+, Collins 96. That's about a 2-3 WAR difference at DH. Could be the difference between a wild card birth at 87 wins and going him with 85. It's no longer possible to give guys like Collins 600 PA to "see what they have". That's a good thing.

All that makes sense but I can't argue against adding EE on a one year deal given what he brings with the bat. He's a proven 125 wRC+ hitter, Collins COULD be that in a couple years but the Sox made the right call IMO bringing in EE and trying to contend this year.

How many starts can Rickie give him? I'm thinking maybe he DHs twice a week and maybe catches once every other week. That's like 250 PA, which isn't ideal but if 175 of those are against RHP I think he could slash something like 250/340/460 against RHP, which would cement him as at least a big league bat worth carrying.

All I really want is to watch meaningful games and be engaged with the team after June. The last half a dozen late summers or so have been completely pointless as an everyday follow outside checking the highlights and box for Moncada or TA or Gio or Eloy highlights. Thanks to the pitching and black holes in the lineup watching the actual games stunk. This year I'd love to just watch a team sitting at 50-40 after the first half try and make the playoffs. Regardless of outcome just being in the hunt and winning 85+ will be fun.

It's not hard at all when you look at the record of incidents with Puig and teammates and coaches. Few guys actually deserve the "clubhouse cancer" rep, many of them are just prickly guys that love to win -- Puig from almost all accounts is not that. He's a genuine nutcase that thinks he knows more than the coaching staff and straight up alienates his team mates. As I said yesterday if he does want to come here 1 year 8 million that's fine. It's the only scenario is makes sense because one incident and his ass is DFA the money is so light. Anything more than that, easy, easy pass.