Balta1701

Ironically the Pirates replaced their GM for various failures during that 10 year stretch. However, unlike the example you gave, the Pirates did not win the World Series over that time, in fact they lost in the wild card round a couple times and never advanced. Big difference in having that title, or even playoff success, wouldn't you agree?

Actually that Hendriks deal is a mess. The brilliant "Same money option" thing seems to increase his luxury tax number every year, so that on a $54 million contract his luxury tax number is something like $70 million. As long as the team is no where near the luxury tax, and they make the playoffs every year so there's no need to consider trading a closer away, this doesn't matter. But if they were to miss the playoffs and/or need to cut spending and/or approach the luxury tax, he becomes less valuable in a trade, harder to move, and harder to hold onto.

I am extremely skeptical with the notion that the minority owners have made money the last 3 years.

First game of the year against Cleveland. Entire infield forgot how to play defense, 4 errors, should have been more, immediately turned into 8 game losing streak. ”He has two strikes, Tony!”

And they are the bottom feeders in every league.

I would say your rotation needs to have 7 competent arms and at least know who would be your 8th starter if things got desperate at the opening of the year. Cleveland ran their 8th starter out against us in that makeup game, let us shell him, used it to rest their pen and other starters, and then won 7 of their next 8 games against Minnesota and us. It definitely helps if you have one guy who has a minor league option because then you can have them working at Charlotte. If this is a serious injury for Martin, then right now the White Sox have to my eyes 4 starting caliber arms. Hopefully it isn't. I would have already said the White Sox need a solid additional starter and then a "desperation 7th starter" at the level of VV this year stashed somewhere. If Martin has an issue with a potential for knocking him out next year, then they need at least 2 competent starters as well as a VV type stashed somewhere. That could easily eat up their entire FA budget if they chose to go that way. It also makes roster construction difficult if they don't have anyone at Charlotte good enough to step in early if someone is hurt in April and May again.

He has a concussion.

Well apparently Martin left hurt today, so if that's serious then we can add yet another starting pitcher onto the list of needs.

1. Guillen is spending the time talking about himself and he has a TV slot. 2. Guillen talking about himself has a history of bringing press coverage, both positive and negative. The press will be happy to take advantage of the eyeballs on that story. 3. Espada and Quatraro and others are not generally familiar names. Those names do not drive article clicks or radio listening. They may well be the best candidates but the press is going to be biased at the start as to what it can sell. 4. Rick Hahn suggested he wanted someone who has recent managerial experience (recent experience in the dugout) and experience in the playoffs. There's ways you can interpret it to get around that for these guys and maybe Hahn won't be wedded fully to that statement, but that statement suggests that Bochy would be more of a favorite than those guys.

The fewer voices there are in an organization, the easier it is to keep everyone in line and the lower the chances anyone will ask if the boss is actually doing a decent job.

We don't know all the details but it is clear before the season that Abreu wasn't interested in an extension at that time. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the organization had asked. https://www.mlb.com/news/jose-abreu-focused-on-2022-entering-last-year-of-contract

I am genuinely ok with shopping around and strongly encourage it. Casting a wide net is exactly what they should do with this search and IMO may well be the most important part. I don't care as much if it's someone who has a white sox connection like Willie as I do that they did their homework and exhausted their options beforehand. This should be a detailed, involved, and difficult process. They should be losing sleep on this because they have so much to do and so many details to process, not the reverse as it has been the last several times.

His career OPS is 0.697. At US Cellular/Guaranteed Rate field, it's .708 - including this year. His HR rate total at US Cellular/GR field is 2.4% - slightly elevated from his career mark, which is totally what one would expect for this ballpark which is somewhat HR friendly. That's half the rate he has put up for the White Sox in 2022. Also, he's hit 9 HR with the White Sox. 6 have been hit on the road. So unless he really likes something about the White Sox's road jerseys, no that doesn't fit either.

This season he's hit a HR on 3% of his plate appearances. Never before in his career has he homered in that high of a % of his PAs. On top of that, It's been 4.8% while in Chicago, and was 2% in Oakland. His HR/FB rate in Chicago of 19.6% is nearly triple the 7.1% he put up in Oakland in the first half of the season and more than triple his career mark of 5.9%. The league average is supposedly just under 10%, which fits for Andrus being typically less than that since he's not exactly known as a power hitter. His FB rate is even down since he came to Chicago from Oakland, although not outside his career marks, so he's hitting fewer FB and they're just going out of the park. On top of that, his exit velocity in Chicago is lower than any season of his career since that was tracked, his walk rate is lower than any season of his career, his K rate is higher than any season of his career. His batting average in Oakland was .237, his OBP was .301. His batting average in Chicago is .277, his OBP is .312. This is a guy who started swinging a little more aggressively, got lucky on a couple swings, and had a surge of HR that he probably hasn't done before and won't duplicate again. Everything about his numbers screams "would have an OPS in the .600s but got a few extra HR swings in Chicago", which is totally a thing that baseball allows over stretches of 200 plate appearances.

As of right now I think they need to act like they are just a couple moves away. They have so many guys who underperformed and who are not movable for fair value that it makes no sense to do any version of "starting over". Even if you try to "Start over", you're practically going to have the same roster next year. So you might as well act like the same guys will be better next year and the team is only a couple moves away, because if you're right those moves might be important, and if you're wrong you'll be doing the same thing a year from now that you would be if you tried to start over - taking advantage of the contracts clearing out.

I can think of one other #23 who frankly had a bigger impact on the franchise in one at bat. Hell I can picture that at bat.

Just in my lifetime, Robin Ventura played 9+ seasons for the White Sox, put up nearly 40 rWAR, won 2 postseason games, and did not have his number retired.

Because last time his ego and behavior led to losses.

It is worth stressing again that the "hit the ball on the ground" approach did not begin with LaRussa, or even Menechino. Todd Steverson was the first hitting coach hired by Rick Hahn in 2014, and his teams constantly were at the bottom of the league in launch angle since the start of statcast tracking and were at the top of the league in ground ball rate before that. When he was removed, Menechino was brought in and was hired by Hahn before LaRussa was brought in. The last time that the White Sox had an elevated fly ball rate was in 2013, when Jeff Manto was their hitting coach. Manto, of course, started in 2012 and would have been hired by Kenny Williams. Rick Hahn has hired two hitting coaches and the results consistently have been "hit the ball on the ground" out of both. This isn't a coincidence, and it isn't something LaRussa brought.

Yes. There will not be substantial FA demand for him. He could also play 150 games there and put up the mid .600s OPS that he did from 2018-July 2022, before suddenly having a monster month and a half out of no where. This is also why there won't be substantial FA demand for him.

Thank God that's over.

Please note that this is a reason that specifically demonstrates why Ozzie Guillen would be a bad fit. Unfortunately I have to agree, he wouldn't be the worst hire, as I will never again get to say that anyone would be the worst possible hire after what was observed in 2020. That was and will forever be the worst hire I have ever seen in baseball. Bobby Valentine Red Sox 2012 is up there with that.

So was Freddie Freeman in his second full season.