caulfield12

Sorely missed today…Banks struggled twice in a row against Twins’ LHBers.

Is there a Morton’s Steakhouse in Minneapolis? Poor Lance.

Not quite the Larry David Special Sandwich…that fishy effort.

Got rid of Kelenic from line-up?

He actually improved from 605 ops to 645 with the Sox. But one of many 32-34 year old veterans (Erstad at 33) whose best days were already behind them…and terribly beaten up by injuries due to his style of play and baserunning over the years. That 645 would be like Pollock hitting, well, a bit better than 612 or whatever he started today at. Plus Erstad was a better defender at that stage in his career than Pollock is now.

VV, Davis Martin and Lambert are your only other options?

George Bell at least finished 20th in the MVP voting in 1992. Pollock might not even end up with a Top 20 fWAR on the Sox roster… But Bell was pretty much done in 1993 when they really needed him…hence, Bo Jackson among others.

I only remember the fake interest/hype show around Bryce Harper that was as closing to sealing the deal as KW having an auxiliary seat at the Boras Corp table for the A-Rod FA negotiations. But the last really expensive (for the Sox) guy we signed was Melky Cabrera, and that was yet another Hahn Special.

The idea of him coming back to the team next year at $12-13 million is about as palatable as Cesar Hernandez this year or two more seasons of Leury in his 30’s. That’s not all that far off from what some team is going to pay Conforto in 2023.

Worst offseason Sox outfield move since Cory Snyder…

We love awarding $18 million contracts to veteran pitchers in their 30’s but NOT to Carlos Rodon in his 20’s. Idiots… That likely doesn’t happen without LaRussa’s involvement, either.

Here’s a better irony then. We traded Escobar for Francisco Liriano…the Twins then dealt Escobar for Jhoan Duran and he arguably will be one of the three biggest reasons the Twins end up ahead of the Sox ultimately. Not to mention the fact that we missed on our chances to trade for or sign Escobar last year because of an incorrect read on his quad injury…only to come up with the trade for Cesar Hernandez that screwed the Sox over. And we still don’t have a long-term solution at second base.

“a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result” The day was billed as a celebration of the longevity of Jim Kaat’s career and how that perseverance led ultimately to the HoF. Lynn is pretty much the exact opposite, where he pretty much acknowledges that he doesn’t have a very healthy diet and yet makes no attempt to change his behaviors and yet is seemingly surprised by the dismal results. As someone noted, the worst thing the White Sox did was give him a guaranteed contract at that age. Guys like Keuchel and Lynn are or will be finding themselves without a job because they became complacent and started resting on their laurels instead of working twice as hard to remain at that top level. And Lance Lynn actually had the highest fWAR in the AL from 2019-2021 among qualified starters but is nothing like that same pitcher anymore. But now he looks like one of the worst pitchers in baseball.

Fwiw, Lynn wasn’t very good when he signed with the Twins in mid to late March, either. So this isn’t a total shocker. Restarting mid year is never easy unless you are in pretty top physical condition like a Luis Robert.

Have to really work hard to stay in this game past your mid-thirties anymore. Ironic that Lynn’s only about half the way to Kaat’s 25 years and might be nearing the end,

Slipped. Past tense.

All they had to do was dump Kimbrel and QO Rodon. Then no Pollock blocking Schwarber. That said, if you signed Schwarber in the offseason, it would have looked like you weren’t willing to trust in either Sheets or Jimenez. In the end, it would have been the best call, but it also would have forced Vaughn into a RF role, where he was even more ill-suited.

Well, Cease had never lost to the Tigers so all things come to an end eventually…?

https://www.healthline.com/health/treatments-for-dizziness You forgot to address Robert’s light-headeness…

Burger/Sosa, lol.

LF/RF/DH…well, at least we didn’t end up with a disappointing Castellanos season. There’s that. Basically in the Sheets role, but playing almost every day. Of course, they already were locked in with Jimenez and Pollock.

Wacha, Martin Perez, Tyler Anderson…one could assume they were never going to spend on Gausman. Andrew Heaney has been really good but hurt too much.

It’s a but crazy we couldn’t keep Rodon because we overinvested in Lynn and Keuchel, two pitchers on the decline phases of their careers. If you could pick any starter to go against the Twins on Sunday to keep the spread at just 3 games back, Rodon would be the choice of at least 60-75% of the board. The other votes would go to Cease and Cueto. And he’s really other than Cease the best choice for shutting down opposing offenses like the Yankees or Astros in the postseason as well.

And that’s on the farm system again. Either you add Escobar and play a Sosa/Rodriguez type for essentially the same amount of money…but Hahn spent even more money on getting even less production, and took valuable playing time away from a younger player who could have benefited, fit into the long(er) term plans and MORE likely produced better than Leury even in 2022. But Sosa and Rodriguez weren’t quite ready to replace even Mendick in the eyes of Hahn, KW and TLR. If we don’t go after Josh Bell, hopefully it’s a much better version of Leury in Ian Happ..although he obviously can’t play SS. Or Drury. But Leury’s continued presence on the roster continues to block even those moves.

Except we didn’t fill that Rodon/Lynn/Keuchel hole for at least six weeks with Cueto. RF? That was unaddressed, as Pollock inherited LF thankfully when Jimenez went out. RF has been a hodge podge of Engel, AV, Sheets, Pollock and Leury. LF has been bad because of Vaughn’s defense, Jimenez’s injury/defense and Pollock being barely above a replacement level player for way too much money for that rate of production. Josh Harrison has been much better recently but borderline terrible the first two months…to the point he was a mere week or two away from DFA status.