Balta1701

Hits with the wrong hand, but McCutchen is now available, can play OF more than half time, and Eaton money would probably be an overpay.

Then LaRussa saying that he was a closer who was in the wrong role after game 2 seems extra confusing.

I never said that he had no input. Kimbrel - doesn't seem like a move he'd have made though. Even called out the FO for it during the postseason. Saying "I'm good with Goodwin" - that does sound more like him.

Apparently it is in fact possible for teams to do business and sign players even during a work stoppage. It just won't happen very often, not if there's some expectation of large scale changes to salary structurees.

Maybe the trade deadline?

It's generally a free article for their sportswriters to create for them, a favor to them and a good marketing thing for the club. There's generally no reason why you wouldn't do it.

Ok, I have to admit, I don’t understand this sentiment at all. I can really only think of a few times in my life I felt really screwed by a baseball team and neither of them were because the game was too expensive, it’s stuff like Hahn in 2015-2016 or the LaRussa hire. I have been going to ballgames all my life, it’s a form of entertainment, so I get to decide how much I want to spend on it. What does it cost for an upper deck ticket? I can get them for the third game of the season on Seatgeek right now for $15, plus either parking or a train. That’s getting screwed? When I was a broke college student I had to pick between that and seats at the RCA dome and I alternated each year. When I was a grad student I paid like $25 a ticket for the outfield at Dodgers stadium, got all you can eat hot dogs, and cheered for Jenks in person like 10 feet away as he was warming up. These days I often get better seats, and I have never once felt “I’m getting screwed by being here”. Why? Because prices aren’t being set by either the honored owners or the greedy ball players, they’re being set by people like me. That is supply and demand. If I am going to pay $75 a ticket, it should seem worth it to me based on the experience, and typically it is. I was at the game where Farquhar recognized a sound coming out of the Astros dugout, Keuchel started against him. Only thing I regret about that game is getting in the Shake Shack line as it took forever. If they give a crappy experience or they triple those ticket prices - real simple, I go spend my money elsewhere. I could have an entertaining day at a casino or amusement park or sit at home drinking pumpkin beer and watching Star Trek if I don’t want to spend that money on baseball (narrator - and he did that last weekend). Prices at the ballpark are set by that. If they’re too expensive, I go do something else, or I raid a McDonald’s before I get there so I don’t have to buy food. I wouldn’t really want to go to more than a handful of games a year, but if someone else does, they can decide if that’s how they want to spend their money and time. If I feel like I’m being screwed it’s not like there aren’t a thousand other ways to spend my money and time. Players salaries, owners profits, revenue, they are set by what I will pay for the product they give me. Now if you want to talk about stagnant wages and how union policy, tax policy, health care policy, and unionization policy affect those things, it might be an interesting conversation and there are plenty of ways where I’d agree I feel like lots of people are getting screwed. A too expensive beer at a ballpark? Not one of them, I can just not buy it. Frankly, me making that decision hurts their business too, because if I hadn’t been able to go to ballgames as a kid I probably wouldn’t be a baseball fan now.

What’s weird about that chart is there’s this cluster of 6 teams - SF, TOR, SD, COL, STL, and CLE that is somehow breaking what would be a generally decent trend defined by the other 24. I’d be interested in a greater analysis of that - low shifting but it isn’t translating to lots of extra hits. Why? Is there something about the players on those teams that is overwhelming the trend?

That's not "breaking even"

Ok, you're actually notably wrong on this. The single up 4-2 was by Gurriel, not by Tucker. Anderson was shading towards 3b, but he definitely was not overshifted, and it looks like he might have been in that spot partially because Moncada was close to the runner at 3rd maybe? If Anderson had been a few steps towards 2b you are correct he gets to that ball, so this is a play that defensive positioning could have turned into an out, but Tucker didn't even come up that inning so the problem was not that the White Sox overshifted, it's that Anderson was a few steps towards 3b for Gurriel. That play is 6:30 into this video.

I do think a left handed bat is a priority, which drops Marcus down somewhat, same effect on Taylor who would otherwise be a great fit for depth. But either way, not having a player bust would still be a higher priority.

I am legitimately confused.

Additional opinion: what is important is not which position they put a big acquisition at, nor does it matter if they make a trade or sign a cheaper vet to fill the other spot, it is instead that the acquisitions not be complete busts. No trades for guys who suddenly look like the Monstars stole their baseball ability, no overpaying grindy veterans who are hurt and off the roster by June, no $15 million a year guys who we are suddenly ranking alongside the worst seasons in baseball history. Just get something out of whatever you spend this time.

Ironically Lynn basically pitched exactly like he did in the first half…against the Astros.

So you are wrong about it being the greedy players’ fault?

If the players union split and actually broke, that means ticket prices would decline in your best assessment? I might be hinting at a more general feature of economics here.

It is absolutely true that stagnant player wages over the past few years has meant higher team profits.

This statement drives a counter-question though. Why is it that the team which had the least pressure on their pitchers and the most time to put guys on the IL for health reasons was also the team where the pitching cracked down the stretch? The Astros and Braves have pitching injuries but they were able to push theirs a full month longer than us. The Dodgers had a staff that finally broke in the NLCS, but they also won 104 games while trying to catch San Francisco so they didn’t get the extra month off the White Sox took. Why did the most rested team specifically come apart at the starting staff when that was the thing that the strategy was supposed to prevent? This is actually a question that needs to be answered because it impacts how the roster should be built next year. Was it a one year fluke or does this team have an issue with pitchers who are more likely than other teams to break down late in the year or was the way the White Sox used their starters in the playoffs drastically different from other teams or was the strategy of giving guys shorter outings and IL stints a flawed strategy because guys wound up rusty?

My version of a hair-brained idea that I’m not even sure I like- break out Vaughn and Crochet and see if you can pull off Brandon Lowe from the Rays.

They were 9-9 in one run games after the trade deadline, it looks like they took 2/3 from San Francisco in Atlanta, lost 2/3 in San Francisco, were swept by the Dodgers in LA, lost a 2 game series at home to the Yankees, swept the Cardinals in St. Louis. Lesser competition, but they also had a 9 game winning streak entirely on the road in there.

TBH I have none right now that I have confidence in. They’ve set themselves into a poor spot right now with how the moves have stacked up. It might well be a “sell Giolito and Lynn after 2022 is the right move” situation, and those aren’t typically the type of moves they do.

Easier said than done.

Ok first question, how the heck did you get this to work? The Spotrac roster builder is non-functional for me in Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and on an iphone on Safari. All the "trade" windows open up buried in the background and are completely inaccessible, you can't click on them. This is also not an adblock issue as I tried turning it off? Anyway, here's my problem with this, it's not that this is a bad 2022 roster - it's what happens in 2023 with the guarantees you just gave out. The White Sox get out of Rodon's deal in this format, but that's about the only major expiring contract they have. But...Moncada, Robert, Jiminez, Anderson all have guaranteed contracts/options that go up, Giolito will be Arb 3 with probably a $14 million salary, Kopech and Cease both are Arb 1 so I just guessed they're $4.5 million. Dominguez iis also arb-1. LaStella's contract inflates hugely in year 3. I also kept Lopez for $4 million, which is probably an underestimate if he is retained. Sulser will be Arb1, Dominguez is Arb1. Also assume Anderson's option is picked up, obviously will be. Jose Abreu is technically an expiring contract after 2022, but does anyone seriously believe he won't be back with the 2023 white sox for about $20 million? I would have guessed another year would be added to his deal prior to the 2022 season had there not been a labor impasse. So, assume $20 million for Abreu in 2023. Without making any other moves, and following the numbers you gave, the roster you gave us inflates naturally from $175 million in 2022 to over $190 million in 2023 without making any other moves. If all you do is add in another year of Abreu, then this roster is naturally way more expensive and in a position where they would struggle to spend money the next offseason based on their history. So I guess that's my "What do i want them to do" - 2023 is trouble. A lot of guys go up in salary, and the only salaries that leave are Keuchel and Rodon, assuming they keep Abreu. This will happen almost regardless of who they bring in - if they go for a guy like Conforto on a multi-year deal, they create this problem of suddenly having no money to spend the next offseason. So where does that leave this team? Is 2022 an "All in, if we don't win the world series, we trade Giolito and others?" year? Or are they ready to push to $210 million payroll in 2023 prior to losing Gio as a free agent? What do I want them to do? Have an answer to this issue.

Give Mack some credit, every time there’s a disaster in Houston, all the mega churches shut their doors and Mack keeps letting evacuees sleep in his stores. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/20/mattress-mack-refuge-houston-during-imelda/?outputType=amp