Balta1701

It would be nice if the highest paid closer in the league was the best closer in the league, but that's often not how it works - the best closer in the league is often a guy teams develop internally, he peaks for a couple years, and then moves on as a free agent or is traded to the Padres. Often that guy remains fairly good for a number of years, but usually his best years are the fireballing years in his mid to late 20s. I'd like Hendriks to be the best closer in the league, but with how things work, "very good" is probably ok, and he's in "Very good" for now as long as he's healthy. The best closer in the league would have 2 fewer BS/2 more saves than he has, and even then a decent team probably turns one of those into a win.

The White Sox in 2022 are actually surprisingly good in close games. This chart comes from a gambling site - however they're defining close games, the White Sox come out 3rd in baseball in close game record. https://www.teamrankings.com/mlb/stat/win-pct-close-games The Sox are 24-16 in 1 run games. Cleveland is 26-16, but the White Sox aren't bad at all in close games. https://www.mlb.com/standings/advanced-splits/2022-09-21 The problem is...like last night, when the White Sox break, they fall apart completely. This has been implied by their run differential the whole year - they win close games and that's actually the whole reason they've stayed afloat, but they get shelled too often to balance that out. I think this is a symptom of the lack of roster depth and of the coaching philosophy, personally. When they have to go to the last 2 or 3 guys in their bullpen, they get destroyed because those guys aren't major-league quality. And they don't get to the back of other teams' bullpens often enough because they don't take walks and they don't hit the ball over the fence.

Just to stress this somewhere else - the White Sox are in the middle of the pack in all of MLB in terms of injury days this year. Not nearly the worst. And for everyone who keeps saying "oh but they're losing their key guys and no one else is" - note that the Yankees and Mets were brought up and they've had guys like Scherzer, DeGrom, Stanton, Montas, Chad Green as guys hitting the IL, key parts of their teams to. If the White Sox are "gutted" by injuries any time they're not the healthiest team in the league, and injuries that other teams power through are also managing to shut down the White Sox...this says something about the White Sox as well.

I have no idea who thinks that the current state is acceptable. Even if he hits a ball hard at some point, he's able to give like one good swing an at bat so he's being overly aggressive each at bat. Since he re-aggravated the wrist injury and had the first "Swinging one handed" game, he is 1-28 with a .071 OPS and 0 walks. That is legitimately "there are people here who could do that" bad.

Are there any division champions or playoff teams with a significantly higher number of injury days? I bet there are...

Rick Hahn is one of the sacred cows that needs slaying.

There was an injury that mattered, but they did promote Vaughn on day 1 even though he was not ready with the bats and also not an OF.

In the game thread after the 6th, I was expecting Lopez, Graveman, Hendriks, and expecting that Cleveland would pose one more threat against one of them and said that as long as we got through that, we had it. Then Lambert came in and I was screaming. AUGH.

Of course, when you see multiple collapses like that, the answer should not be to shrug one's shoulders and say "well, no way I could have seen that coming", it's instead to ask "ok what the F*** happened here?" Turns out that for a couple of them...relying on guys in their mid 30s who are paid a lot of money is a particularly high risk play and that probably should have been taken into account when deciding roles for the year. For Moncada...maybe you couldn't see another collapse year coming, but how did it happen? Is he having an issue with the coaching staff? Is this a personal issue? If you knew this was a personal issue coming into the season, is there something you could have done during the offseason to create depth? Or to change up the way the locker room runs? All 3 of those guys, for various reasons, were injury risks - did they have backup plans if they missed significant time? Some of that stuff...one could have readily been prepared for if they tried to prepare a baseball team for the rigors of a full baseball season, rather than insisting things would work because they said it would.

Obviously they should have managed other things differently, but at least once you get to the 11th inning try playing matchups. The first 3 hitters that inning, Miller, Maile, and Straw, were all right handers. Miller's splits are reversed but the other 2 aren't. Put in Ruiz against those 3, yes I know the runner will score from 2nd at some point in there. Then, depending on how Ruiz is doing, you can bring in the lefty to face Kwan and to turn Ramirez around to the side where he's been weaker this year. It's not perfect, no guarantees it won't turn into a 5 run inning, but it's the best they could do.

Ozzie’s last several teams were renowned for their lack of accountability and terrible fundamentals. Peak of this was probably 2011, but you could take it back years. The biggest change in 2012 was that the team looked like it had been coached for the first time in years. Ozzie was too busy playing favorites with his guys and demanding respect from the organization to be bothered with dumb things like coaching. People are just forgetting how sloppy those teams were because time has passed.

Over 2020-2021 he was about a 0 WAR player with an OPS of .600. The last time he put up anything higher than a .707 was 2017, and his OPS with Oakland was .673 before he was DFA’d by one of the worst teams in the sport who couldn’t even get salary relief for him. Then somehow with the white Sox he has a .879 OPS. You know exactly how it will go. Because of his veteran background he will be the day 1 starter. He will put up a .600 OPS and -0.3 WAR. He will play 2b everyday for 140 games because of that important veteran grindyness. 2b will be an offensive black hole. Again.

If we are being honest, that moment was too big for Lambert. He has been competent in the pen this second half but he hasn’t been in a situation like that - handed a lead in a must win game - heck I doubt he’s been on the bench for that. That’s why he shouldn’t have been in.

I do not know what confuses me more. Lambert being used in the 7th or Robert being in the game. I just can’t fathom either of those moves. But anyway, that’s basically the season. Goodnight.

To the Nationals for Corbin.

And good luck with McKenzie and Bieber taking 2 of 3.

Inserts screams promised earlier.

I will never understand this s%*# they are pulling with Robert.

Karinchak pitched yesterday right? This is our chance.

Graveman last pitched on Saturday, 3 days ago.

Have to save Graveman for, well I dunno, Thursday? The 10th inning? I don’t know.

Lopez will pitch the 10th and I will just be screaming about why they gave the lead up to save him.

Cairo can’t be back. He might undermine LaRussa with occasional bouts of competence.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME