Greg Hibbard

The solo home run phenomenon of this team is so fitting: a bunch of nonplussed dudes completely disconnected from one another racking up the emptiest of stats in a forest that mow down trees that don’t make a sound when falling. They are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Why are other rookies succeeding despite that?

I just don’t understand the upside. The dude is super slow, he doesn’t defend at an elite level, he doesn’t have plus power, and he doesn’t take enough walks. What the hell were we sold on? A high enough floor to be assured of being a right handed Gavin Sheets?

Jerry should just own-manage. Hahn can still be the GM. It would be fitting.

Why would Quentin be a good comp? Carlos had 36 homers in his age 25 year, had a 30 homer per 162 avg, and had an 830 plus career OPS. Vaughn has shown no signs he is even close to that level.

I just want the club to clean house completely and start over with people who actually want to play the game hard. I would rather watch a no salary bunch of AAA guys busting ass on every play than these entitled affluent bums.

…Dan Pasqua? Let the question sink in for a minute, and then check the numbers. It’s horrifying to think he might not even be as good as that guy.

It’s so sad and typical that the story of this game has become the franchise strikeout record, the announcers and everything about the energy around this seems to care not a single iota about the stated purpose of this game. Who the hell cares about the franchise record for strikeouts. Win the goddamned game.

Jake has been unbelievable, and I think his future is very bright if he can stay healthy. I’ve been wondering about his swing rate and particularly his swing rate out of the zone, which at times seems highly exploitable. I think the adjustment the league will make is that every pitcher will just not throw him strikes until he learns to stop swinging so much.

To your point about Eloy in the field, he does hit significantly worse as a DH - .242/.745 vs. .290/.858 as a LF. I know he does gets injured, but the first injury was honestly a bizarre fluke that he probably couldn't duplicate if he tried, and the second injury had nothing to do with him playing the field - wasn't he running to first? The appendectomy also has nothing to do with being in the field. Is he a below average defender? Yes. But he hits way better when he's in the field. With respect to Moncada, at this point I'm neutral on moving him to 2b. Our 2b options aren't good offensively anyway, so we might as well try that too. That all said, I think you're looking at the money wrong for trade value, with all due respect. If you trade him this season, a team takes on $40 million and 1.6 years, right? If you trade him next year, and he's hot, the team only takes on the remainder of that one year at $24.8 million. If a contender has a major injury to an elite third baseman, it's a no brainer.

Well, no....at this point with Moncada's injury I'm not moving Jake off of 3B, especially after Jake hit two dongs last night. Jake's so hot he may be the starter no matter what at 3rd if he keeps raking for the next month. If Moncada was truly healthy I would have DH'd Jake because unlike a lot of others on this team, he seems to hit from any position in the lineup and whether or not he's DH'ing, and I want the defensive value of Yoan at 3rd. Living with a .730-.750 OPS isn't terrible with a great defender. It is what it is - an underwhelming contract for a slightly above average player.

I was never a fan of Burger to second, and I wanted Moncada to stay at 3rd for defensive value. I wanted Burger to DH and move Eloy back to the field. To your last point, I don't think we can really trade Moncada at his lowest value for return and i don't think anyone would take on that contract at this point. I think the best case is to IL him for the rest of the year, see 300 more ABs of Burger, and hope to get actual value out of Yoan's first half of 2024 if he gets hot by dealing him to a contender in July.

As it becomes more and more apparent that Gavin Sheets is the same AAAA player Daniel Palka was five years ago - a left handed power hitter with zero defensive value who occasionally gets hot with home runs - it begs the question - why isn't Oscar Colas back up with this club instead? Colas continues to prove everything he needs to at the minor league level. He now needs everyday reps at the major league level. I like Gavin and I hope he finds success, but he is just not a good enough piece to build anything substantial. The team is not willing to hit him against LHP, so he is a pure platoon option. Oscar is supposed to blossom into a great major league asset. Why are we holding back his development at this point?

Yes, I also pointed out that 79 games might win this division. You said nobody thought the Sox would go .600, much less .500 the rest of the way. Do you stand by your statement that this team won't win more than 76 games? .500 from here on out gets them to 77-85.

It's an laughably absurd to posit that anybody alive doesn't believe this team isn't capable of winning 77 games out of 162. Walk away from the edge.

And there are nearly 3 more 34 game stretches left in the schedule where the Sox have the ability to make up 5 games at a time while not even playing close to their best baseball.

Sox 20-14 Det 16-17 Cle 15-19 Min 15-19 KCR 11-23 Sox have gained 3.5 on Detroit, 5 on Minnesota and Cleveland each in just 34 games. God, this division just sucks. 79 games might win it.

Wait, so the pitcher would come to bat later? Crazy. So it’s effectively always a double substitution.

Yep. I’m fine with the lineup as is but I want Burger subbed for Sheets if it’s a lefty at the crucial end of the game. Can you now move Eloy into the field without penalty?

Guys, if Gordon Beckham and his then .210/.600 average/OPS were able to hang around the majors from 2014-2019, Yoan Moncada will have absolutely no fucking problem hanging around the major league for a decade on defense alone. What Yoan Moncada actually is is the most overly criticized player in recent White Sox history, especially on this forum. He still sports a 3.3 WAR per 162. Is he overpaid? Hell yes. He is not worth $25 million. Is he going to have a problem getting $10 million a year until he's 35? Absolutely not.

How the hell can this organization not understand the basic concept that in all divisional games where there is a two game swing, you start your nine best damned players every fucking day, and you get the scrubs their damned playing time when you play the oaklands and baltimores and inter league games that literally mean nothing in terms of divisional jockeying? How are we this dumb?

Why is Robert out?

I’m not comparing Beckham to Anderson at all in that post I concede your point, but Tim’s 2018 WAR seems unnaturally inflated by his weird dWAR number that year, which I’m not quite sure I understand entirely, looking at his fielding stats. Look at his oWAR from 2016-2018.

That’s simply not accurate. Tim has 3400 PAs. He was below average for the first 1650 of his career (.260/.700), absolutely exceptional for the next 1300, and for the last 500 he has declined back to basically a .260/.700 hitter - if we are being generous about this year not being a trend further down. I really like TA and I would gladly take some of the distractions to have the fire back in him. At this point, I don’t know what will help, but he needs something different.