caulfield12

If Connor McKnight was a writer... this would be the result.

Well, since they have no choice but to field a AAA team...I guess the only thing that really matters is whether Charlotte ownership gets so frustrated they want to give up their affiliation agreement because the talent provided is so depressing. That doesn't seem likely for now... they still have those three minor league teams lumped together in the Carolinas with Birmingham just a stone's throw away. Of course AAA and AA are still 75-80% about marketing and promotion, with the remaining percentage being winning baseball. To the big league franchises... development almost always comes first over fielding playoff contending affiliates, but it does hurt on the margins if losing starts to go on year after year after year with no end in sight. However, Crochet, Moncada, Eloy and Liam will bring some relief though. Seeing a rehabbing Tim Anderson, for example.

Last lefty reliever the Sox completely turned around was Matt Thornton. Damaso Marte before him.

Simply replacing Garrett Cleavinger, who just hurt his right ACL. "Over those 13 outings, Diekman allowed 14 runs — 10 earned — on 11 hits while he walked 13 and struck out 11, facing a total of 58 hitters. Although he is in the twilight of his career, Diekman still features a fastball in the upper 90’s that he mixes with a sweeper and a change-up. Thus far in 2023, his change-up usage has surged compared in year’s past and he hasn’t enjoyed much success while throwing the pitch; meanwhile, he is depending less on his sweeper and fastball." Bet you start seeing more sweepers cutters and sinkers/two seam fastballs.

Should we also be thanking Hahn for not resigning Jose Abreu...the tradeoff in years and money were basically cancelled out by making Benintendi into a rebuild albatross, though.

Alex Call 654, Benintendi 649. Actually has improved his defense from last year, -2.3 in both categories. 0.0 fWAR. Last year +13.6 on offense and 2.8 fWAR. Comps to Pollock/Peralta fall off continue, albeit still only 28.

Yikes, Naylor Gimenez and Rosario all at the bottom statistically... although Josh with some clutch RBIs recently. Former Sox targets Michael Conforto and Jean Segura near the bottom as well... Jose Abreu next to worst qualified OPS in the game. Amazing in a bad way. Segura occupying the current bottom. Guardians should have traded Amed Rosario for a haul heading into his walk year...in retrospect, that's easy to say now, ofc.

Now is the ultimate test for Kelenic. He's finally made the needed adjustments in his game and they've seemingly stuck. Can he sustain it out over 3-4 months or even a full season? Where will advance scouts decide to attack his swing this time? 1.2 fWAR and slightly negative on defense (-0.5)...so his bat will obviously have to carry him.

ChatGPT tomfoolery...he wanted to promote Peralta and Remillard the other day like it was going to immediately transform the world based on AAA numbers. And Victor Lopez. Doesn't seem he understands baseball very well at all.

Burdi to Sox? Cash considerations. Diekman and international $$$ for Gordon Beckham long term contract to announce?

jerryaldini 16 hours ago The law firm of Bummer and Graveman thumb_upreply share

https://www.royalsreview.com/2023/5/8/23715357/white-sox-series-preview-a-team-of-disappointment This summarizes things quite well.

Who would we honestly say has shocked or even surprised with their performance though? Lynn...not really. Clevinger...no. Kopech... maybe just overhyped and lacking in the secondary stuff command that turned so many starters into relievers in the first place? Or just too many injuries and missed development innings? Maybe Cease? Never a sure thing to repeat Top 5 Cy Young position. Lopez? Not in that particular role that he'd never experienced consistent success with... Bummer...not really. Kelly has been bad for a long time, but looked much better recently.

Still, we all too often seek the comfort of simple positive emotions such as happiness rather than sit in the discomfort of negative or mixed emotions, even though they contribute to more profound well-being. We resist negative emotions such as sadness or fear at our peril. Psychologist and philosopher Kirk Schneider refers to happiness as “potential fool’s gold,” believing the “compulsion to think positively” (i.e., toxic positivity) is equally as bad as the “compulsion to think negatively” and can actually block us from experiencing the “wonder-amazement of living.” Embracing negative emotions not only adds to the richness of our human experience, but negative emotions are also a way to broaden our emotional vocabulary, which helps us call up a greater variety of coping skills. In fact, research shows that people with higher emotional granularity, or emodiversity, use more positive coping mechanisms and recover more quickly from stress. Even better than embracing your negative emotions is embracing both positive and negative emotions at the same time. Holding two seemingly opposable emotional forces in your mind simultaneously, also called co-activation, is a powerful coping mechanism that increases our sense of meaning and gratitude in the face of adversity. While emotions such as happiness are known as “positively valenced” and emotions such as sadness are “negatively valenced,” some emotions like bittersweetness, sympathy, nostalgia and wonder are mixed or “dually valenced” emotions. Paradoxically, this tendency toward feeling just positive purely or negative emotions is further exacerbated when we are stressed, precisely when we could most benefit from the ameliorating effects of mixed emotions. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/09/opinions/sense-of-wonder-instead-of-pursuit-of-happiness-parker/index.html

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=tatis-000Eli Career .389 ops and .140 batting average, one measly homer in 253 plate appearances, 93 k's $500,000

Tyler O'Neill.

Well, we ALREADY lost Rodon, Heuer, Madrigal, etc. AJ Pollock, in a way... thankfully. Except that led directly to Benintendi. So Pollock ended up eating into a lot of future financial flexibilty already (due to his dislike for staying another year with the Sox) while costing himself a good bit of change in the process.

Actually, it’s been that kind of season for the White Sox and even with the Royals (10-26) struggling mightily, it might not get better at Kauffman. The White Sox are 18-21 against the Royals since the start of the 2021 season, including a 9-12 ledger in Kansas City, after going 9-1 vs. them in the 2020 pandemic-shortened season. …. “It was definitely one that got away from us,” said White Sox designated hitter Andrew Vaughn. “This was a tough one. We accomplished some things that we wanted to get accomplished, which was to get ahead in the count,” Grifol said. “But when we got them on two strikes, we just couldn't put them away. They got about seven hits with two strikes; three extra-base hits including a homer and a couple doubles. That was the game, right there.” ….. “I was throwing in the zone much better. Just working through some things right now, but I think it’s close,” Cease said. “I need to kind of hunker down with my slider. I’ve been backing them up and not getting the consistency that I need. And it really comes down to executing. I feel like I’m on a good track right now, we’ve made some good improvements the last 10 days or so. We’ve had a lot of focused work. Just got to keep feeling the process. The results are disappointing.” Unfortunately all of that excitement came from a small group of White Sox fans about eight rows up from the team’s dugout shortly after it was announced the Blackhawks received the No. 1 pick in the NHL Draft. Connor Bedard, make your plans for Chicago. mlb.com/Scott Merkin 9800 in Kansas City, 12,500+ for the Tigers at Cleveland

30. OAK -129 29. CHW -61 27/28. KC Miami -59 25/26. Detroit Colorado -37 24. Cincy -36 23. Philly -29 22. Washington -23 21. Cleveland -22 20. SF -21 4 AL Central in the Bottom 10, 3 in Bottom 6 overall

Connect back to Hahn? Or correct?

Who gets credit for Rodon 2021 and Cueto 2020? Santos and Middleton? Lambert? Not sure how he's responsible for Lynn and Clevinger at this stage in their careers. He gets credit and now blame for Cease, or Dylan was always going to be consistent? Giolito has recovered nicely this season, compared to last. Kopech...I guess there's another enigma.

Gimenez and Kwan had surprisingly strong seasons last year, pretty sure Gimenez ended up in the 5's or even as high as 6.5ish fWAR. The biggest change is Oscar Gonzalez being absolute garbage after being at least a very solid/above average hitter as a rookie last year. Of course, they've already cycled through three of their expected starting pitchers already. Their bullpen has also sprung a number of leaks compared to 2022.

The crazy part was STILL taking on a significant amount of Shields' salary after he was basically forced off the team by then SD ownership comments (had just given up something like 9-11 earned runs in a single start)...and Erik Johnson at the time of the trade still had pretty decent value, although there were certainly mounting (mystery) health concerns.

Well, one thing's for sure, the Padres had 4 individual scouts in on him, and Preller himself. (For the record, I think SD never should have added either Clevinger or Soto, in terms of their long run financial sustainability, and that their starting pitching and bullpen as currently constituted is going to coming up short in the playoffs...barring significant changes. Also, James Wood, involved in the Soto trade, is getting rave reviews nearly across the board. That said, an .847 in High A isn't quite destroying the league, at least not yet.)

I'd like to see the list of everyone in on Tatis before Keith Law was saying he was going to debut quite high on his Top 100 list... he just skyrocketed from that moment on. the scouting radar, like this 16 year old Salas kid (catcher) that Law also pointed out in recent weeks is going to be one of the best prospects in the game, eventually.