Balta1701

I would be ok with saying that Beltran has received a pretty substantial punishment.

I just want them to conduct a correct process. Interview a diverse group, find someone who actually gets along with the GM some of the time and works together with them rather than against them.

Some of the absolute worst decisions of the last 2 years were about how the bullpen was used or how they set up their pitchers. We sent Kopech out to pitch while he was injured. We lost the last chance game this season with Lambert on the mound. We lost a game this year because we had roughly 2 relievers available, and 2 days later Hendriks went on the IL for a month. We had Kopech pitch in the playoffs last year after throwing 45 pitches 2 days before, which he didn’t do all year. Somehow no one recognized that Rodon was out of gas or that Giolito needed pulled or that Lynn against the Astros on the road was a bad matchup. Did Ethan Katz have zero input on how his pitchers were being used? Many of them do well when on the mound, but the number of times we put them in bad situations is staggering. Some of these are really bad, like Kopech pitching after an injury in warmups. That’s career threatening s%*# and it happened with him as the pitching coach.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34702740/unaffiliated-neurotrauma-consultant-evaluated-miami-dolphins-qb-tua-tagovailoa-fired-several-mistakes-source-says Fired the independent neurologist

Manny Machado has a career batting average of .281 and a career xBA of .281. Jose Ramirez has a career xBA of .273 and a career BA of .278. You are looking at small samples of guys who are quite consistent over long careers. Altuve of course is a different type of hitter, while he certainly has power he also gets hits on the ground and I would say he is a guy who gets hits using bat control - placing balls where the defense isn’t. Thus, over his whole career he outperforms the expected average. the idea that those numbers somehow don’t line up across most of the league makes no sense.

So your argument against xBA involved Aaron Judge, who has an xBA of .309 and an actual BA of .314? Seems pretty spot on to me.

His expected batting average is .224 and his actual batting average is .218. The only sense that there is more to his struggles is that his walk rate also plummeted, his numbers are exactly what you’d expect for a hitter making this weak of contact.

Yoan Moncada exit velocity 2019 93.1 2020 87.8 2021 90.1 2022 88.7 Expected batting average 2019 .282 2020 .207 2021 .261 2022. 224

Think the White Sox are willing to put $150 million on the table to do that?

You realize Cease had TJS when he was younger right?

Kopech does not have nearly the trade value Sale had when he was 3 years away from FA. He wasn't bad this year, but he still had some injury issues and some games where his velocity dipped. He would bring something back in return, but it doesn't seem like a smart move for the White Sox unless they've totally given up on him. He certainly will not bring back two top 25 prospects, he wouldn't even return 1 top 100 prospect most likely right now. His upside next year is throwing 160 innings with an ERA somewhere in the low 3's, maybe better - a Dylan Cease type jump. If he did that, he'd become vastly more valuable. His downside is getting hurt again and maybe his value dips a little. I don't see any reason why the White Sox should move him. If he does take a leap and the White Sox are in the race, he's a valuable contributor. If he takes a leap forward and the Sox fall out of the race, he will have massively higher trade value. If he doesn't take a leap forward, then he's not expensive (arb-1 this year), but his trade value won't go down all that much and you can try again with a rebuilding team in 2024 - this is the "Rodon" path. Finally, the White Sox have zero starting pitching depth right now, so trading him and having to replace him doesn't in any way make the White Sox better in the short term.

How have the last 7 months gone for Russia's economy? In great shape for the Russian winter? If there's any additional lesson here, it's that with modern weapons and external support, a weak army defending its territory against a mid-level power can be way more effective than one would have thought. China's army is probably in better shape than Russia's, but is there any corruption in China's army of the sort seen in Russia's? People who have taken money and not done their jobs? Parts that have been sold off under the table that could affect their readiness?

Supposedly the NFL is supposed to have an independent expert do this evaluation, including during games, so that the team cannot pressure a guy to get back into a game. I don't think it's a stretch to say that a truly independent expert would have seen the way Tua got up last weekend and said "nope", so either the person is not as independent as hoped or is not an expert. Whichever it is, yeah this isn't ok. The other part of this is that "Second impact syndrome" was trending on Twitter last night, when a person takes a second hit before their brain has time to heal it is likely to do much more damage and that's the part the post above is talking about when it says it can be fatal.

I really have to be prepared for a couple months of “Elvis Andrus is an awesome player and moving Anderson to sign him is my cheat code for this season, I get him for like $5 million and he’s an all star” don’t I?

I would like to take a moment to laugh at the idea that a team with an infield LH side of Burger and Andrus is in the middle of a path to anything other than the draft lottery.

Josh Harrison will be a free agent in a week.

You're right it isn't. Good luck finding money to pay for that.

Who is your 2nd option then?

The requirements for a backup catcher to have value are so low though that it doesn't take a big breakout for him to be a useful piece for the next couple years...a .600 OPS backup catcher can be a 1 WAR player if he's not making errors or letting the ball fly past him all the time. It costs money to bring guys like that in.

Teams will take that on...but they're not going to give you a prospect for it.

Vaughn? Yes. 4 years of control, still pre-arb. He would return value. Jimenez? No. He's played less than 1 season in the last 2 years and is due $27 million over the next 2, as a DH. A team with money could gamble on taking him on but they won't give you anything of significant value back. Graveman? Maybe. He's affordable, but his ERA in the 2nd half is 5.40. People would take him on again, but his value has gone down since the deadline and there are more relievers available in the offseason than there are at the deadline. Hendriks? No. He's definitely movable, but he's one of the highest paid relievers in the league, he had an elbow injury this year, and his contract actually makes things worse because of the luxury tax shenanigans. If he's dominating next year in the first half, he'd be more movable for value at the deadline.

See that's the problem - they can't sell off 2 to 4 players. They don't have replacements for the expensive guys! They can't sell off Lynn because they don't have anyone to replace him. They can't sell off Grandal or Moncada because no one will take their deals without sending equally bad money back. They can't just sell Anderson or Giolito, because that doesn't save them a ton of money and they don't have replacements ready for them. It doesn't help the White Sox save money to sell off Anderson to move Moncada's deal and then have to go out and sign Correa for the same money, or to sell off Anderson and Moncada to make their IF into Burger and Andrus. Making moves like that while still being competitive can happen if you're the Rays or Guardians and you have a strong system with guys who can replace the ones you're trading away. The White Sox don't. If they are selling off bad contracts to clear money that they're going to spend on free agents, they save very little money. If they are selling off for prospects, they won't get much back for the guys you've mentioned. And importantly - if they sell off guys and make their roster worse, they are also wasting control of Cease.

Willie Harris was interviewed because the White Sox had decided to hire Tony LaRussa and MLB has a "Selig rule" that requires you to interview a minority candidate. He was not an actual finalist, he was given a sham interview to check the box required to be allowed to go hire the white guy they wanted to hire. Being a "finalist" would imply he had a shot, he was never actually in the competition.

I agree several of those contracts are sheddable. The White Sox could probably get their payroll down to $100 million, or $140 million, whatever. But how is that anything that makes them better? There aren't guys coming up who can replace these guys, and if you're expecting the Dodgers to take on $100 million in payroll this year how exactly do you think they're going to give back players? You now have no starting SS, Davis Martin is your #3 starter, Jake Burger is your 3b. Grandal, Pollock, Kelly, and Leury are included in a list of "could net some solid prospects as well if Hahn isn't involved." Please continue Governor.