spiderman

Sheets has to be an occasional guy off the bench. He has some power, played ok, but he is a serviceable piece off the bench. Engel, assuming he is not a free agent, can fill out out the bench, but they need two starters. There is no way they can offer up Eloy as a serious LF.

They cant have Jimenez or Vaughn playing LF or RF next season. Vaughn is going to play 1B and Eloy DH. I want Abeau back, but its hard to see a path here without this roster being clogged up again. They need corner OF help, great if one of them happens to be a lefty. The lineup needs a makeover though with the abilities to hit right hand pitching.

Are those chants happening in recent games? Honestly, TLR has no business managing the team, but this team feels so broken in so many different ways.....just feels like doing that would make everyone feel better for a few days until we realize the players are still hurt and/or underachieving....this roster has like 5 1B on it, and the front office haven't treated the previous off-season like this team was actually a contender. I don't think TLR will be back next season, but he won't be fired. I think it would have to be some mutual agreement and he becomes a part of the organization.

Fair enough. I do expect the White Sox to be active, but some of that will be via trades. I haven't thought about who they may be willing to move, but it's pretty obvious that this team needs more than some tinkering. I really hope they don't feel the need to continue adding to the bullpen - if anything, move someone from there if possible. Also hoping that this team will be willing to spend more to add talent, but that may be stretch.

I want Abreu back on the White Sox. He's our best offensive player. If he wants (or gets) a 3 or 4 year deal, that's probably not the smartest move, but I'd overpay on a shorter-term deal (1 or 2 years).

Grandal should only be playing catcher and platooning. He's not hitting. I'd much rather see Vaughn or Jimenez at DH the last 40 games.

That's true. Really, they have been a .500 team over the last full season since the all star break. It's a lost season to this point. If I'm Rich Hahn, it's just hard to justify making any large moves on a .500 team even if many of us think this team should be performing better than this.

Yep, don't disagree they didn't make the moves needed to make the team better in the off-season and these same holes remain. I would still argue though that this team should be better than they are performing. Hahn isn't wrong to expect his core players to be playing better though.

I would be surprised by any significant moves also. I would expect more patch work type moves than anything that is significant.

Is he wrong? This team, at least on paper, should be better. They weren't urgent in the off-season and that is a letdown, but they also have enough talent to be better than their performance.

Fair point. They didn't exactly treat the off-season with much urgency to make meaningful upgrades at 2B, RF or to replace Rodon. They do like spending on their bullpen though. Again, not to say they won't make a meaningful move by tomorrow. We'll see.

Can't they add some 3rd catcher to the roster in September? It probably wouldn't be more than an emergency option though. Some people on this site and Twitter seem to think this pitcher can help vs. lefties, but they are taking on his contract for next season. Walks are major concern though. Seems like they aren't expecting Bummer to be back soon (or at least not counting on it) and rolling the dice a bit on a guy they probably think they fill a hole with.

Exactly. I don't know if they are taking on a massive long-term deal right now, but I can see them taking on money in the short-term, like this trade. We'll see.

Let's see if they take on any significant money. I find it hard to believe they can't add to their payroll.

He's probably not sleeping at his desk. Let's wait to see if they are able to make any moves. They will probably do something because they are fortunate to be a .500 team playing in a bad division and only 2 games out. In most seasons, this wouldn't be a team I would be willing to make any significant moves - it's really up to the talent on this roster to live up to their hype. Does adding a decent starter like Quintana really change their fortunes? He could have helped, but it probably doesn't change the White Sox path for this season without their top heavy talent playing the way they were projected.

It's probably hard to tell a player to not dive or run into walls, but maybe a reminder that they are playing a spring training game is needed.

Assuming that Vaughn is out for at least a few weeks (hopefully, day to day), it seems unlikely that the White Sox are going to spend more on this current roster. Is RF primarily Engel or do they rotate Garcia out there, etc.?

Do the White Sox need to move Kimbrel's salary before making any additional moves? Are they now hoping the market will move in their favor after a few of these teams have been so aggressive? This could go well beyond the upcoming artificial deadline of the lockout.... Is it possible that the White Sox see their team as much better than the fans do? They signed a relief pitcher to step into the bullpen, it was only a year ago and Andrew Vaughn was considered a top #5 prospect....maybe with the combination of him and Sheets, they think they have options already here and a full rotation in place. It certainly appears that they are operating with a tighter budget that we are hoping a team as good as the White Sox are, but this could all be for not, if they surprise us with a significant move, and many of the OF targets linked to them are still available.

Isn't an OF like Pederson a dime a dozen? Couldn't you just get him in return for taking the salary off of the books?

He's going to make some moves, but, assuming they keep playing at a high level, I don't know that they are going to make any significant moves, especially if there is a chance that they get either Jimenez or Robert back in August. So far, this team appears to have tremendous depth. Engel looks like a starting caliber CF/RF and Vaughn is a top MLB prospect who has found a home in LF. Mendick looks serviceable as well at 2B. It looks like the bullpen can be fortified, but there's still time for a few of these guys to get their stuff together. I really don't think Hahn is going to make a blockbuster though just for the sake of it. This team is loaded and there's really no obvious place, maybe outside of RF to add, but that can be solved by getting Robert back.

Thank you. I guess that was what I was getting at with WAR. If you have a talented team, one player (or even two) won't derail you. Yes, the team is not as good as they could be with Jimenez and Robert, but are they 10-12 games worse (as the WAR would probably indicate vs. their replacements)? If the starting pitching holds up, they will be a 90-95 win still.

Trout puts up the best WAR on a crappy team. Would have a similar WAR on the White Sox?

Thank you! Is that a flaw? If Robert and Jimenez are out and the White Sox still win 90+ games, what does that say for the value of those two players? Clearly, both are highly talented and help the team win, but if the lineup is still 7 deep and the starting rotation / bullpen are amongst the best in the majors, isn't there WAR less compared to if they played for the Tigers or Pirates?

Help me with this.... Robert and Jimenez are worth "x" in terms of Wins Above Replacement (WAR). They are clearly better than the alternative. Saying that, how much does the overall team reflect in WAR? Losing Robert on the Tigers or Pirates is probably more impactful than losing him on the White Sox. When both of these players were lost, obviously, there is fear of a drop-off. However, in a lineup that features Anderson, Abreau, Grandal (even with his batting average), Moncada, Vaughn and Mercedes (so far for him and Vaughn), this is still not an awful lineup despite more plate appearances from Garcia. Anyways, question is, does WAR take into account the team around them, lineup and pitching?

La Russa is doing a poor job, but a lot of the attacks are people like Dan Bernstein who thinks everyone is a racist etc. I think that's the agenda of a lot of these people. These same people used to tell you that managers don't matter.....until now.