caulfield12

Taking advantage of huge hole to the right side with Hernandez playing up middle. Ramirez should be on third. Crochet warming. Sigh.

Well, Reyes isn’t easy but generally not a good idea for the White Sox to challenge him…should have learned that lesson by now. Maybe they should ask Cesar for a scouting report.

Of course.

Either that or didn’t want him to dive out over the plate and punch it to RF…

Should have been first and second…bailed out by non-selective hitter.

Seems TLR cares more about handedness than Engel’s defensive ability in the outfield. I guess missing so much of the first half of the season has gotten him in the doghouse.

Just noticed his BA was in the 250’s range…overall only a 0.8 fWAR despite getting OPS near the 700 mark. Omar Narvaez at 2.9. Ouch.

Somehow I doubt his parents named him after a minor city in the Carolinas…

If this was the Olympics, Zavala would at least medal in bat throwing.

Good thing they have Clement and not Hernandez at second…

https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/31920403/winners-losers-how-all-30-teams-fared-dust-settles-thrilling-mlb-trade-deadline At least ESPN likes the move…and interesting how they still think the Indians have a shot to contend next year.

If he could play passable defense in the NL and wasn’t prone to lengthy slumps… We do/did have his brother/cousin and another famous brother. There’s that.

58 pitches through 3, ouch.

Well, same old offense…combined with our AAAA fill-ins.

Well, the Royals window opening end of 2013 and closing with all the injuries in 2016…most KC fans wouldn’t trade it for the world. More what most would have expected of White Sox. But the division seems to be so wide open other than Detroit mounting a nearer term challenge if they actually go big in FA for position players. Otherwise, they are looking at 2023.

One thing is for sure, it has been since 2005, the first half of 2008 and most of 2020 that every lead past the 6th inning really felt safe. Definitely has not been the case this year, ever since that Anaheim series to start the season. We had one 12-15 game stretch where we were really going well in the pen, but that came apart again.

With Abreu, it’s more about the aging curve at this point…

That’s what I mean. Closer’s spot is like a placekicker, the most fragile on the team psychologically. This works out spectacularly now or is another nail in Hahn’s coffin. It’s one out of the KW in his prime playbook, splashy…acquiring lots of talent that sometimes doesn’t fit well together in reality. Time will tell.

Sure, but they were reconciled to this day coming as soon as Bryant/Boras disputed his rookie year, Epstein left and planned for increasing revenues collapsed as well as team performance for the last 3-4 seasons. It’s not like the Marlins, tearing down right away. Now they might have had a shot to stay in the race with Darvish, but Epstein’s bad contracts and lack of pitching development did them in. Finally, the second wave of Almora, Soler and Happ crashed into a brick wall.

Sheets playing OF against elite starting pitching in the playoffs and especially on the defensive side…is a recipe for abject failure. You’re leaving out Bummer and Crochet in your consideration of who would be replacing Heuer. One guy is ROY, perennial MVP candidate when healthy, WS winner, multiple ASG’s, etc. it changes the complexion of the entire lineup and takes a lot of the pressure off guys like Abreu, Moncada, Jimenez and Robert.

Yes, but that’s using Kimbrel as THE defined closer, not as the ubiquitous “high leverage” guy. If he could be used like A.Miller for multiple innings from the 6th through 8th…sure. And maybe they’re counting on Kopech to do that instead, but you’re taking a big risk a Hall of Fame closer can adjust well to that role. Or that Hendriks won’t start looking over his shoulder with a 3 blown save week like Jansen suffered recently.

They’re quite fortunate they didn’t have to pull the trigger at 8-12 games over .500, or just 3 1/2 GB of the Brewers.

Those are almost all superstar or at least All-Star caliber contracts of $100-300+ million, which we just don’t do. Whether we can swim in a new pool where nobody’s blinking over spending $25-35 million yearly on players is another matter altogether. We can argue how much 1 unit of fWAR is worth in theory, but let’s see what happens beginning in 2023-25 when the biggest checks need to be written.

We’re only talking about cost/benefit here…not Soria vs. Kimbrel in a complete vacuum.

Yikes, have to agree with 90% of this. Scary. The biggest percentage of that 90% is a long history of watching the White Sox handle payroll (other than 2006 and adding Dunn). They’re really betting on at least the ALCS or making the World Series to boost season ticket revenue through the roof next…sponsorships/advertising, etc.