caulfield12

Just put Crochet/Lopez in the Bummer role and go with it... Honestly feel like forcing Aaron onto the post-season roster is going to result in a more serious injury we can't afford...especially with Colome off the roster in all likelihood.

I honestly think 2005 Joe Borchard would have had a better chance in that post-season (had he been included on the roster) than 2020 Luis Robert with where his head is at right now...

EE and leadership this year....not seeing it. McCann has been a much more important leader IMO. You can't be a leader of anything hitting .170 and as a DH with an OPS well into the 600's. What would be the difference between Jay/Alonso DHing vs. EE this year? Except for about $5-7 million wasted...and Vaughn blocked.

Not to mention which Moncada are we going to get next season? 2016-18 and 2020, or the 2019 Yoan Moncada?

Look at Cameron's career fWAR numbers. I think the Trout comps and all the hype got to him...and the league's advanced scouts and pitching coaches dissected him so well. And he simply hasn't adjusted back. Something must be wrong physically, because he's not really making hard contact even when he is hitting the ball. If it's not physical, it's certainly psychological/mental. Every time you follow an at-bat, he gets behind in the count and you just feel an automatic strikeout coming. If not for that base hit against the Reds, he'd be closing in on the Mendoza line. It's crazy with all the talent that we have on this roster that we've never had a (position player) rookie put together a full season of success. Beckham, Tim Anderson and then Jimenez last year are the closest over the last 20 years or so.

Yet we beat them up pretty well last year when it didn't matter. What were we 13-6 or 12-7 against CLE, something like that....

2000 White Sox team says "hello!" Swept by the Mariners almost instantly, including that suicide squeeze at the end of 3rd game, was that Carlos Guillen who laid it down? That once-dominant offense shut down as well at the end of the year, pitching staff was LIMPING into the playoffs.

And you absolutely have to sit Luis Robert at least ONE game. He's just completely falling apart in every aspect. We'd be lucky to get Mike Cameron at this point...forget about Mike Trout for the moment.

Just announced. Rick Renteria signed a three year contract extension. I wonder how many Sox fans would give up this year's "playoff appearance" right now for the pick of any manager...?

I don’t think any White Sox fan over age forty could ever have this reaction...we have, out of the percentage of opportunities to make the playoffs, something like the third lowest success rate in MLB history. We might even be #1. We should just appreciate the opportunity and see what happens. Next year is the real test with Vaughn replacing EE, and hopefully a better solution in RF. The productivity over 2019-20 out of right has to be the very bottom of MLB, and not even all that close. We weathered a lot of injuries, the Kopech situation, McCann and Colome are likely to be the only two significant losses to the roster. Kopech/Vaughn/Crochet should more than balance that out.

Well, they finished 4-11 and you just knew all along the Tigers were waiting in the weeds. 2008 and 2012 were still MUCH more painful down the stretch, though. 2005 until the Crede homer against RISKE turned the tide finally of the Indians' amazing charge from behind. I had the game on my phone with 2 outs and runner on 2nd, Foster pitching, and just assumed we'd get the win...a bit reminiscent of a huge lead we had against the Royals in September 2005, and then woke up in the morning and they'd blown it was shocked and that panicked feeling arrived. All things considered, with where Robert and Moncada are at, and EE, and Mazara continuing to underperform even Kole Calhoun expectations, winning a playoff series would be a pleasant surprise...definitely need to get Bummer back and maybe Crochet can just "not think at all" out there and practically do anything until he gets hit around. Just going to have to approach it like 2008 when we faced the Rays without CQ. We might be the 2nd best team in the AL statistically, but we're going to really need a spark to come from somewhere. Does feel a bit like that last week of 2005....when we finally managed to get on a roll again. We've got only five games left to do it, maybe it (logically) happens against the Cubbies, which would be fitting.

It's almost too cruel to make the Twins face the Yankees again, right? Who knows, maybe a match-up with NY instead would be enough to wake up the White Sox...as it feels like we're kind of sleep-walking along in a bit of stupor, but that's always the case when an offense is starting to struggle as a unit. We aren't THAT far removed from five homers in a game, but it still almost feels like it happened a week ago.

2005 and 2008 over the last two weeks were nerve-wracking in entirely different ways. Hopefully the Cubs' finale series can wake them up out of their stupor, assuming they go on to lose 3/4 against the Indians. That would mean suffering a 2-5 stretch and likely the division decided the final weekend. The Twins have Detroit (2 games) and then Cincy (3) to finish the season...so the much easier schedule, unless the Reds have every game this weekend as "sudden death," which could work in our favor with the Cubs already locked into the postseason.

We still have the biggest run differential in the AL by 16 over Oakland, 15 over the Twins/Yankees and 20 over the Rays. We desperately need Bummer back, and for something....anything, approaching a 800ish OPS for the remainder of the year (through the playoffs) from Moncada, Robert, EE, Mazara and Grandal. At least two of those guys are going to have to hit, because Abreu, Jimenez and Anderson can't carry the team forever. We also don't seem to have a 3rd starter at the moment that's a clear-cut choice, so that's yet another "up in the air" issue.

How sure are we that Bummer is actually coming back? 75%?

Well, I guess the White Sox offense was thumbing through SoxTalk posts, lol. But we STILL need Moncada/EE/Robert/Mazara to wake the F up.

Paging Greg Walker and Scott Fletcher...?

And would the White Sox PLEASE get some help for Hahn with free agency/trades that don't involved Q/Sale/Eaton? Because Grandal, EE, Mazara have all mightily disappointed, Gio's been about what we expected, but if it wasn't for Keuchel and McCann (who we probably could have resigned for 30-40% of what they ended up giving Grandal), this site would be a completely different place right now. Imagine if he'd picked Bumgarner, instead? I'm not even sure how close they were with him (preferring NL/West Coast, etc.), but that would have totally sucked. As it stands now, we're losing one of our best team leaders and Gio's safety blanket in the offseason.

Without Moncada, Robert and EE, this offense feels dead in the water. I'm just not sure Luis can pull out of this before retooling his approach in the offseason. Maybe? As DJ said, he's guessing/cheating, his left-shoulder has been flying open and he's pulling off the ball...they're killing him with sliders off the plate. He used to drive those pitches up the middle and to right field, or out of the ballpark entirely. It's just one game, don't like the comparisons with 2000 where we clinched early and just kind of coasted into the playoffs...plus, there's no clear 3rd starter (still) now between Cease and Dunning. Knowing Renteria, he'll go with Gio Gonzalez or Matt Foster.

What’s the latest on Burdi? Would be nice to get him turned around, but probably too late to be able to trust him this year. Like the aggressiveness. Pitching is such a crapshoot, shelf life is always an unknown, see Rodon, Carlos. Or just look back at that projected NYM 2014-15 pitching dynasty for another example.

https://www.mlb.com/news/luis-robert-awkward-slide-into-third-base

https://www.mlb.com/news/young-mvp-award-contenders-for-2020

Well, the bad news is he's only at 57 pitches through 5. That's not exactly indicative of a great approach by the Sox, and he still has only one less K than Giolito, who has thrown about 30 more pitches to get through five.

Luke Voit with HR's 15 and 16. Seems like the Yankees always have someone who comes out of nowhere....like Tauchman last year.

The crazy thing is that he was regularly playing LF for the Cuban team when they really started honing in on him...would like to know the name of the CFer the Cuban manager had chosen over him, but it was undoubtedly an "established veteran" type.