Balta1701

You should read between the lines.

You mean the office now run by Shelly Duncan, son of former Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan? Fine, I’m ok with blaming him too. I wonder how he could have even gotten that job. There’s no one prominent in our organization who was so the Duncan and the Cardinals who would make that a pathetic nepotism hire who we should also blame, right?

1. Garret Crochet pitched on back to back days for a completely unknown reason. He gave up 2 runs (from the inherited runners) in that second game. He pitched in back to back games 3 times all season counting that game - always gave up a run in the second game. How you expected anything else from him I have no idea. 2. Michael Kopech didn't pitch at all in games 1 or 2. He pitched in game 3 and at least slowed down an offense that was on fire. He threw 50+ pitches, leading the manager to say he would not pitch in game 4. He then pitched in game 4 and got hit. I agree with LaRussa, LaRussa was wrong to pitch him in game 4. 3. Aaron Bummer struck out 7 guys in 3.1 innings. 9 guys made contact with him, 6 of them were on the ground. He somehow gave up 5 hits out of that, meaning that a number of ground balls that should have been outs got through the infield. Bummer did a solid job. 4. Tepera was fine. Shoulda used him more. 5. Hendriks gave up a late home run to Altuve. Everyone else had already quit at that point, so I'm not sure how much to hang him for that. 6. I will give you the ability to partially blame 1 bullpen pitcher - Craig Kimbrel in game 2. For bizarre reasons, LaRussa took Engel out, moved Leury to RF, and Leury missed a ball that Engel would have gotten if he were still in, so it's not entirely his fault. That was then followed by a home run, breaking the game open, which wouldn't have occurred had Engel gotten the out. However, Craig Kimbrel should be held to a higher standard than that. He's supposed to strike guys out. He's supposed to be able to pitch over a defensive mistake. That's why they paid for him. That's what he was doing through July. I won't give him a free pass since he was asked to be Craig Kimbrel and he was unable to do that, even if LaRussa's lunacy didn't help.

It is very interesting to see how prior to the series, the 2 camps were "the teams are fairly even but the White Sox haven't set themselves up well for this series" and "The White Sox are way more talented and that's going to do the job". The first group is somewhere between despondent and flat out angry at how the series went, and now we're getting the "tip your cap the Astros are just better" sentiment that was somehow absent beforehand.

The part where our new manager concealed his DUI from the public during his hiring press conference, the part where he had the rules explained to him by the press after shouting down his assistant coaches who tried to explain it to them, or the part where he told another team to throw a high speed projectile at his own player?

Have you watched the last 12 months? What makes you think they can’t find another bottom?

So what's the answer, is opening day next year Eloy, Robert, Vaughn around the OF, Sheets at DH, and Abreu at 1b? Roll it back again?

But there's 2 big differences with Eloy. First, unlike Vaughn, Eloy clearly can have the "Injury prone" tag, which like it or not does affect his value in a trade. Second, Eloy is due at least $30 million the next 3 years. The option years are nice at the end, but they're expensive option years if he's mostly a DH by then. If I were talking to the White Sox about him, I would not be putting very much on the table in terms of talent coming back. He's not worthless, but he's not a guy you're getting my top pitching prospect for unless my system stinks. I will take him, I will give you something back that has some value, but I'm not giving up very much to take on the risk with this player.

Let's put it this way. I think Vaughn showed serious signs, particularly against right handers, during that stretch in June through August, and then he clearly hit a wall in August and September. I would fully expect him to come back a much stronger hitter next year, probably so good you can't ever take him out of the lineup. Furthermore, much to my surprise he was not terrible in LF, and was able to stay healthy most of the year despite all the position shifts. However, the White Sox have a gigantic logjam. Burger, Sheets, Abreu, Jimenez, and Vaughn all should be in LF, RF, or DHing. None of them are good defenders, they are adequate at best and hurt the team defense when they're out there. Only one of them is Left Handed, and this lineup needs LH help. One of them will simply not be moved, for many reasons. Jimenez, Burger, and Sheets all are guys who could be moved, but none of them is likely to bring a solid return back - Eloy has underperformed, Burger has an injury history, and both Burger and Sheets are the sort of "good but not great" guys that are moved for filler pieces. The White Sox have to do something about this logjam, and out of all of them, Andrew Vaughn clearly has the most value. He is the one who could potentially be moved for something close to his worth, and if Burger and Sheets are able to be "not as good as Vaughn but ok" next year, then the White Sox overall would be better with the player/pitcher returned for Vaughn and Burger and Sheets covering the DH spot and part time IF/RF than they would be with any other option. I don't know that the right deal will come around, I would value him very highly based on his performance this year. But I would not reject it out of hand.

If it was that easily and dramatically derailed by a minor injury, such that a muscle pull affects the team construction years later, then as you said in the spring it was a "Mistake".

After his injury, don't bury him for 2 months as a 10 inning a month reliever. If he's still hurt don't call him off the IL and give him a rehab stint first (they literally called him up right before the big league all star break, so it's not like they were desperate for those innings). In that rehab stint, have him throw 20 pitches, 40 pitches, and then 60 pitches in his 3 outings or something like that. Then, in late July/early August, when Keuchel is struggling, Rodon needs time off, and they have several double headers, he's getting multiple inning outings in those games. Now we're at 90 innings for the year, right in line with your goals, with still some room for him to pitch in the postseason (Which was mismanaged again, but well who wasn't there).

Those 3 days did not suddenly heal Rodon, and the days they chose to use as his starts and throwing days were not dictated by Jesus. They even moved around the date of his last start once.

Your numbers for him early in the season were 110 to 100 innings, with 120 probably being too much and 80-90 being so low that you couldn’t fathom him getting fewer than that if they wanted him being a starter.

70 to 150 is a big jump.

And now because they got embarrassed by following the strategy you were endorsing, you’re left with trying to ridicule hypocriticals that are somehow worse than what we just watched.

Well, it’s a darn shame that those pitching schedules in September were handed down on stone tablets by a burning bush on top of a mountain in the Middle East, because otherwise we might have adjusted the September schedule to make things work once we decided we were going to go for the 3 seed.

That extra rest worked out great though.

I agree, pitching Kopech in more starts down the stretch was a solid idea to help go for HFA and to build up his arm. That’s exactly what they should have done.

If LaRussa had lined up his pitching with Lynn and Cease in 3-4, and you complained about him being benched, people would think you had lost your mind. And yeah, this series could have been closer than it was, the lack of HFA was just one of Tony’s screwups. But it was a massive one, given this team.

Since you aren’t dropping it, you were one of the chief campaigners for more rest going down the stretch, that Home Field Advantage was less important than that. This entire conversation was a key part of why I was saying it was important. Since they went with your “more rest” strategy, are you happy with the results?

Well yeah. You can find them by the fact that they consume oxygen to burn fuel. I will agree that having this team managed by an archaea would be a downgrade.

This is not how things went in Florida.

I don’t think we are this lucky but here could be some portion of the reasoning. 1. He can. He would have demand right now for his services because of the recent success of the team, including his executive of the year praise. This may not be the case in a few years. 2. The demand for his services could easily translate into more money for him. 3. His position with the White Sox has certainly changed in the last 12 months after he was not allowed to hire his own coach. What that means for how the front office is functioning or for his career I will not guess here, but it could certainly be a factor in a decision like that. There could be actual personal conflicts here affecting his daily existence for the first time in his tenure. 4. He has had permanent protection in his position because of Jerry Reinsdorf regardless of performance. However, as seen with the other Reinsdorf owned team, that protection cannot be expected to last into the next ownership group, and the expectations of success might suddenly and dramatically increase. He might have 15 more years, or he might have far less. Again, no idea how he might actually weigh this, but it is another reason why a White Sox GM might hear a ticking clock right now.

He wasn’t dominant but their usage of him made no sense either. After he got hurt, they called him up without a rehab stint at AAA, then buried him in the bullpen pitching an inning every 3 or 4 days until September. He therefore completely missed goals for how many innings he was supposed to get and also never got back into a groove post injury. How is a guy supposed to build his arm back up or get back into a pitching routine with that usage pattern? How on Earth do you bring a guy in his second year back to the big leagues without some in game work in Charlotte? It should come as zero surprise that his performance was notably better in September when they started giving him longer outings.

Pitching to contact did not work well for Bummer. And the NL has a free “get out of trouble” card at the end of their lineup every time.