caulfield12

Great work by the middle infield. Shocking.

Owen Miller, the pride of Illinois State. I see that the White Sox still haven't learned how to pitch to Josh Naylor yet. Wow. Broke his string finally. Reyes a .400 hitter at home and roughly .100 on the road. Talk about dramatic splits.

Well, on the plus side, the Twins have next to no chance to score with Buxton and Correa out, they actually have a much worse line-up than the White Sox are running out there tonight against Verlander....unless Gary Sanchez suddenly wakes up from his stupor. 11 of 12 Guardians' hitters have gotten first pitch strikes from Giolito.

Is the scorekeeper DRUNK? How can that be a base hit for Moncada? It has to be a fielder's choice.

"Rays: Their pitching injuries haven’t slowed them down This might not be that surprising for anyone who’s followed Tampa Bay and its seemingly inexhaustible supply of pitching over the past few years, but it’s still stunning. Consider the injured arms the Rays have been without -- the list includes 2021 ace Tyler Glasnow, top prospect Shane Baz, young starter Luis Patiño, lefty Ryan Yarbrough (who returned last week after missing 23 games), depth starters Yonny Chirinos and Brendan McKay and high-leverage relievers Nick Anderson, Pete Fairbanks and JT Chargois. That’s basically a full rotation and the back end of a strong bullpen missing from Tampa Bay’s roster, yet the Rays ended the weekend with a 3.25 ERA that ranked seventh in the Majors and fourth in the AL." -- Adam Berry mlb.com

"Twins: The pitching -- all of it Where on earth did this come from? A year after posting the second-worst staff ERA in the AL, the Twins’ success in 2022 has been fueled almost entirely by the success of the pitching staff, which entered Monday seventh in the Majors in starters’ ERA (3.17) and sixth in bullpen ERA (3.03). The rotation has gotten a huge lift from the success of rookies Joe Ryan and Josh Winder, while the bullpen has seen even less heralded arms thrive in all manner of roles. The Twins have now won seven straight one-run games on the strength of that pitching -- and have you seen rookie Jhoan Duran pump 102 mph on the radar gun?" -- Do-Hyoung Park mlb.com

We haven't used cash ONCE in the last 2 1/2 years here in China...everything through mobile phone QR codes. Well one notable exception is wedding "red envelopes" or Hongbao for the bride and groom. That has to be fresh new 100 RMB notes that add up to 6's or 8's.

Well the odds of the Sox drafting a a future superstar SS at #1-6 or spending $140 million plus in FA aren't the greatest...so that means it's Montgomery or bust.

No rookies are having an easy time this year...especially the most inexperienced ones.

Wasn’t that the WHOLE point of Cesar Hernandez coming in?

At the very worst, he's third behind Burnes. That said, playing on West Coast for a team other than the Dodgers means he will always get less media attention than the Yankees/Mets guys.

Just provide a single one of your predictions that has been close to accurate, please. Broken clocks rule means you have to be right eventually...

But what explains the gnawing sense that the White Sox are more often than not less/er than the sum of their individual parts as a collective team?

That would pretty much make the White Sox the most dysfunctional organization in MLB if what you asserted was actually true.

Sosa apparently has the better arm. Yolbert’s is fringe for playing SS everyday, more of a natural 2B.

It’s not beyond a paywall. I don’t subscribe to The Athletic or have any free articles remaining…but the whole article is available to anyone who clicks on it for whatever reason. It only happens here in China that the whole thing downloads when normally it only shows the first paragraph and then it starts fading where you can’t read any further…? Just assumed that happened because it was so out of date.

What do you do with Grandal if he can only catch 100ish games at that salary and you make Eloy the full time DH? He’s not going to be easy to trade with one more year remaining on his deal and one year older…? And you’re not going to make Jimenez the weak side of a platoon like some thought should happen with Vaughn/Sheets to start the year?

Not so sure Correa, Seager, Story or Baez would be saving us…but whatever is wrong, it’s spreading like a disease across the entire infield. And even seems to have followed Sheets, Vaughn and Leury to a lesser extent wherever they play on the field.

Josh Naylor not being good enough to hold down a starting spot in SD is certainly affecting the White Sox right now.

That would take an intervention of sorts. Even if we put our best defensive lineup out there.... Pollock in LF, Robert, Engel in RF, Moncada, Anderson, god knows who at second, god knows who at 1B and Reese McGuire at C....we still have no way to play Vaughn/Abreu/Grandal at DH simultaneously. Just not sure how you can get considerable defensive improvement with our current roster unless you play Adam Engel every day in right. And then we still have a conundrum with 2B offensively and defensively, and Abreu's defensive slump/malaise at 1B. How in God's name is this team going to suddenly improve defensively in season with this particular coaching staff and manager? Moving Anderson to second in the middle of the year will never work. I guess you can promote Yolbert Sanchez to play second, but that's going to put so much pressure on the offense to carry the bottom of the lineup. Not that Harrison is doing much to help the team, either.

They didn't have an eight game losing streak. Only the 83-79 Cardinals of TLR (two eight game streaks) and 1953 Yankees (lost 9 consecutive in early July) still managed to win the World Series.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1591320-how-important-is-team-defense-in-winning-world-series-championships This one has pretty good information in general...but covers more of the previous decade in MLB. By the way, that previous 2018 Phillies' team from the OP finished 80-82 and in third place, missing the postseason.

https://theathletic.com/447974/2018/07/27/how-bad-can-you-be-on-defense-and-still-make-the-postseason/ Adjusting the bar a little bit, there have been 27 teams to finish a season with a total of minus-60 Defensive Runs Saved or worse. Three made the postseason.

Yeah, I just looked him up again and noticed he was still hovering around an 800 OPS entering tonight...would have thought he'd already be down in the 650 range after a hot start.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team/_/view/fielding/table/fielding/sort/errors/dir/desc We're tied with the Pirates for most errors in the majors and lowest fielding percentage. Basically, the Top 6 (or bottom, if you look at it that way) along with the White Sox are ALL pretty bad teams, in general. Additionally, you have the Diamondbacks, Athletics, Nationals, Orioles and Rockies. None of those teams are going to make the post-season.