southsider2k5

The White Sox hit 30 games below .500 on July 8th with a mark of 30-60. Since then they are actually 27-29 over what is just a touch more than 1/3 of a season, that even includes the just finished 7 game losing streak. This team has improved a lot over the course of the season, and now that we have some talent in the pen again, I would expect to see that growth continue into next year.

Probably, and it could be one of two things. Either he did it accidentally or it means something. If it is something, I would imagine there is anything more here than a liked tweet. Seems reasonable to me. I know it isn't fire and brimstone enough for most though.

Is this really a thing? Especially with how easy it is to "like" something while scrolling through your feed? Is there anything else here?

A look a Wilbur Perez. Side note, people really need to understand what the term "floor" actually means. His floor is not Juan Minaya. Perez is a 20 year old is the DSL who tops out at 91. His floor is a low minors reliever, not Juan Minaya who can throw near 100. https://www.southsidesox.com/platform/amp/2018/9/13/17852752/under-the-radar-wilber-perez-white-sox-kodi-medeiros-joakim-soria-milwaukee-brewers?utm_campaign=southsidesox&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

Hector Santiago, closer.

Adam Engel and Tim Anderson, just like we expected.

You realize you are only contradicting yourself here, right?

So what you are saying is Rick Hahn picked a nothing pitcher off of the scrap heap and sold him at his peak. I agree. Nice job Rick Hahn.

12 ABs and he is done. Impressive.

The easiest assist ever for Tim Anderson.

The team has added back Jose Abreu, Avi Garcia, and Nate Jones and you think they are losing on purpose? That would be the worst tank attempt ever.

I would also point out that this isn't just Yoan taking a lot of pitches. Moncada is actually 24th from the the bottom of league ( out of 146 qualified hitters) in swing rate at 41.2%. Joe Mauer has the lowest swing rate in baseball, but doesn't show up on the list. Neither do #2 or #3. In fact only two of this list show up in the top 20 for lowest swing rate.

I would love to see this happen, this could go a long way towards giving the Sox more outlets with what they are generating in the draft and Latin America.

Castillo is a great example of what can happen signing bridge guys. Smith and Narvaez actually ended up as one of the top catching combos in all of baseball. Now Castillo is going to block one of them and is now taking time from them. Plus we still need to be thinking about making room for Zavala and Collins in short time.

A very interesting listen here as a deep dive on the Sox farm system is undertaken. https://art19.com/shows/white-sox-podcast/episodes/bf21838f-bc52-44e2-9a9b-a96cf40a6c45

This is what a rebuild looks like. I am not quite sure what the panic is for. Unless you have the finances of a major market team with large fan support, self-evaluation and player creation is the best way to a title.

And it isn't even close.

I also would like to point out that there is probably a bit of fuzzy memories going on here with Joe Crede. The guy was a career 92 OPS+ hitter. He had a total of two years in his career where he was over a 100 OPS+, one of them being in a season of 209 PA's. Yoan Monada is sitting at a career total of 93 OPS+ and at 92 this year, or right in line with Crede's career totals. Tim Anderson is setting at a career total of 90, and at 93 OPS+ for this season. These guys are already as good as Joe Crede was for his career.

I am not interested in placeholders or half-assed plans to go for it. The list of guys you gave is bunch of guys who are short term guys, older guys, or guys with significant injury history... or more than one of the above. At this stage I am not interested in putting a 78 win team out on the field so we can improve from a 73 win team, and in the meantime blocking kids we need to evaluate, or open up spots for them to play every day. Today is about sorting through the Palka's and Delmonico's of the world so that we know where we stand when the big wave of position players starts to hit. We have a potential superstar CF in Luis Robert and another potential very good CF in Luis Gonzales in the system. No, I don't want to block them with an injury riddled large contract player in AJ Pollack. If Robert and Gonzalez bust, and we need a CF in two years to make this a playoff team, then the next AJ Pollack will be out there. The exception to me is franchise changing players. If you get a guy that is going to fit into a position as a star for the next 5 to 7 years, then you do it. If you can pull in Bryce Harper, Manny Machado or even Clayton Kershaw, then you do it. Odds are extremely high that all of those guys are going to be better than anyone we have a chance at generating in our system during that time frame. No other FAs this year can you say that about. It isn't about the payroll, it is about maximizing the rebuild. It is about getting every guy directly from the system possible so that we have the most assets possible left when it is time to win (both players and money). We started this rebuild largely due to fans calls for it. Now is not the time to chuck that into the lake and quickly reverse course before this has run its course. This is still the "passive" stage of the rebuild as you call it. Once we start to turn the corner, there will be plenty of time to Go For It. If we get to a point where this is an 85 win team that could be a 90-95 win team with additions, that is when we should change course and look at more additions. That could be 2019, 2020, or even later. As we stand today we are trying to fight off 100 losses this year, and looking at probably the low to mid 70's again next year. There is no good reason to add middle of the ground window dressing yet. Roster filler? Sure. 2nd and 3rd tier FA's? No thanks.

If you are trying to say that Anderson and Moncada are not good defensive players, you aren't being very accurate. First off Joe Crede really wasn't known as a good defender until a few years into his career, and definitely not right off of the bat. Secondly, Anderson already IS a very good defensive player, and Moncada outside of a really bad midseason defensive slump, has had a solid defensive year, and has all of the tools to be a gold glover in the same time frame that it took Crede to become one.