35thstreetswarm

This again? You’ve *definitely* made your point in this one, man. Time to move on.

TA looks like he's 9 years old in that photo

Given the OP’s avatar, perhaps Stinkfisted.

It’s actually nice to be on a little island with your own group in the seats and not tripping over other people. Feels pretty normal once you settle in. Surprised at how loud the limited capacity crowd gets. Kind of love it, really.

Biggest concerns of the off-season: DH, RF, and 5th starter. Stories of the season so far: our DH, RF, and 5th starter.

Just awesome. Best thing that could happen, really.

I’m so glad we’re not a bad team anymore and now we’re a good team

Yay normal

...at a weird time that makes no sense, like when they sweep the Yankees in New York in May.

Bieber pitched better, and is better right now as much as I love Giolito. Either way, I just can't get that worked up about losing a close game to the best pitcher in baseball, especially with a split squad lineup on the field. I went into this series hoping for a win in at least two of the other three games. That would be a decent outcome while we wait for TA and Engel to return.

I actually don't see any reason to believe the White Sox will even exist next year. I think they're all as likely to die as not. I'm going to hold my breath now.

I HATED the lineup, and have some worries about that bad habit persisting, but come on -- did you not have the Cy Bieber game circled as an L on your mental calendar? Frustrating but not the end of the world. If Gio keeps pitching like that we win roughly every game not pitched by the Cy Young winner. Nick Williams will be gone soon. Turn the page and try to go for at least a series split while we wait for TA to come back.

Anyway, I see this has gone from a silly, lighthearted thread to a forum for trite, obvious, college-freshman-home-for-Thanksgiving "all organized religion is bullshit" cliches designed to get people riled up. Alas. I look forward to its imminent closure.

Daaamn, you're such a truth-teller, man. People can't handle it! Freakin' society, maaaan.

You don’t say. Eloy Jimenez is also hurt

Knot knice.

Fine, substitute "guy who should be playing" for "starter." It's kind of a semantic point. There are ways to construct our lineups so we don't see the likes of Williams, Lamb, and Mendick making up a third of our batting lineup. They should do that.

...nor is it necessary to stack ALL the bench pieces up in the lineup together over and over. You can spread it out a bit and still keep everyone fresh.

That's how it's starting to feel.

Sorry, but I naively thought the upside of bringing in TLR was that we weren't going to have to deal with headscratchers like this. What is the fascination with Williams? Why do we have to have 3 bad players in the lineup every night?

I'm not talking about what to do when Engel and Hamilton come back. I'm not talking about whether it's true that playing in the minors is important in a general sense (which is, by the way, a platitude...or very close to one). I'm not even talking about whether he should be sent down or not. Vaughn is with the big league club right now. The only question I'm asking is how someone could look at Andrew Vaughn and proven-to-be-bad-at-baseball Nick Williams sitting next to each other on the bench and call Nick Williams's number over and over. I think it's indefensible. I guess you see something in Nick Williams that I don't.

I saw a few tweets about Hendriks feeling better after consulting a tarot card reader. Figured he was kind of half-goofing in a press conference, but then saw a few articles about it. Seems like he's sort of serious, and really has some sort of personal mystic. I wasn't worried about Hendriks before, but I am a little bit now. https://www.mlb.com/news/liam-hendriks-gets-help-from-his-tarot-card-reader By the way, I'm at least 35% kidding.

Nobody is suggesting benching Mercedes right now for Vaughn (even the quote you excerpted just imagined a future scenario where Mercedes stops hitting). The question at hand is why you would play (a) a journeyman with below average defense, low ceiling, and no future with the team over (b) a #3 overall pick (yeah, I mentioned his "pedigree") with unusual polish, a (so far) sound hitting approach that has been getting him on base with regularity, and who is projected as a cornerstone of the team's future and whose development is thus top priority. Forget platitudes about "earning it" and prospects having to "prove" their bona fides in a vague and general sense. I have a hard time seeing how anyone could answer (a) in a way that's consistent with good organizational management.

I actually see the ghost of Mackowiak in Williams more than Vaughn. None of these situations are 1-for-1, but from Mackowiak to Erstad to Teahen to Lawrie to Alonso to Jay to Nick Williams, I have a near-allergic aversion to this organization's seeming affinity for prioritizing low-value "veteran" roster filler over the development of long-term assets.

Right -- the anti-Vaughn arguments on here read like the choice is between Vaughn in LF vs. Engel, or some other defensive whiz. I think it's getting lost that the choice right now is Vaughn vs. *Nick Williams*, who is not good.