caulfield12

Bumgarner’s pitching so well down the stretch he’s adding another year and $20-30 million onto his contract demands. Of course, he could end up similar to Keuchel if he gets too greedy and isn’t totally honest about future vs. present/past values. Lots of FA’s have too much pride and feel they should be getting bank for 2010/12/14 when it’s now five years in the past.

How is that negative fWAR? You mean estimated? They’re going to get roughly 4.5 for Machado and Hosmer. Not great, but hardly crippling with the remainder of their roster construction. Balta would tell you that rate of return for Hahn FA signings (had Hahn inked them) definitely is not bad compared to his historical record. Machado had 21.7 over his previous 4 seasons for an average of 5.4, which would obviously be better than 4. It’s not like he’s repeating 2017, though. The real problems are Hosmer and Myers, but Myers was good last year and they traded Reyes in order to open up more playing time and bring in an exciting prospect in Taylor Trammell. They got Chris Paddack for Fernando Rodney, and an unnamed SS for virtually nothing. The moral of the story is don’t overpay 1B/DH/corner outfielders in free agency. That said, the White Sox have and still face the same problem. The Yankees solved it by coming up with Tauchman and Urshela. The Dodgers with Muncy, Taylor and Turner. The best organizations fill roster holes or cover up payroll issues by innovating and exploiting niches. Can Rick Hahn do the same?

Sure, but then they have to replace him again next season...when it’s really going to be important to stabilize the rotation.

If every free agent is worth approximately $9 million on the free agent market and Machado will finish the year around 4 at his current pace, then what’s the problem? How are they crippled? They’re all the way up to 14th in attendance, which is well above any AL Central team. They only have a payroll of $97 million, which is about $27.5 million less than the average MLB opening day payroll. They can carry those contracts (Machado, Hosmer and Shields) and still have room to add a veteran starting pitcher because the rest of their payroll is comprised of mostly 1st to 3rd year players, with the exception of Kirby Yates. By your argument, we shouldn’t sign any big free agents because, as Balta has pointed out numerous times, the majority go against the teams that signed them and can occasionally be franchise crippling. That said, if we were crippled by Adam Dunn, Paul Konerko and John Danks, then just sell the franchise and enjoy the profits so White Sox fans can move on.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Major_League_Baseball_draft We should be thankful the Twins took Jay over Benintendi...lots of “what the heck happened to ——-?” between picks 8 and 24. Fwiw, the Astros learned a ton from their mistakes with JD Martinez, Appel and Aiken. If the White Sox have ever 100% learned their own lesson, I’m not sure what we have to show for it, Luis Robert, I guess. But even then, they didn’t exploit that signing by bringing in another $20-30 million worth of players because it was enough to set a one-time precedent that they would blow away their ceiling.

The Indians and Twins are both on pace for 94-96 wins this season. Granted, they got to beat up on three bad teams.

Then let’s just throw out using fWAR and bWAR and go back to traditional Greg Metrics instead...so he suddenly became “lucky” as soon as he left the White Sox, just like Tatis and Semien.

They’ve also gotten 5.3 fWAR just this season for the joy of trading away James Shields and Fernando Rodney. But yeah, usually trading for 1B/DH types...especially on $140+ million contracts, isn’t wise. You would have made a better argument combining the $$$ for Myers and Shields to get just 0.7 fWAR. Which is pretty much the sum of the value the White Sox received from Nova, Santana, Alonso, Jay and Herrera for roughly the same amount this year.

McCarver used to be really good in the 80’s and early 90’s...

Pretty terrible footwork there by Anderson. E20.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/gerrit-cole-injury-update-astros-starter-scratched-before-throwing-pitch/1fq2swt0aj53m12s8ybtrpig4e Cole apparently felt something wrong with his leg warming up...right hamstring tightness.

What? They then drafted Bregman, Kyle Tucker and Cameron, who was turned into Verlander. Terrible...

He has been worth 12 fWAR in less than four seasons...how much would that have been worth bringing in a free agent to put up those numbers? $75-100 million? Which is basically about the same we are talking about paying Grandal now. Even Avi with a 1.6 fWAR would have been worth well more than he was going to get in arbitration.

Except they’re 1/2 season away from from being in “win now” mode.

When you have to compete against one of the most successful organizations in baseball history, bold steps are required to get your fanbase to buy in again after missing the playoffs for well over a decade.

He was in Arizona and literally playing against our Arizona extended spring team a week or two after the trade.

https://247sports.com/college/south-carolina/Article/South-Carolina-Gamecocks-baseball-Analytics-launch-angle--131079208/ This article basically argues they were getting too obsessed with analytics (homers/launch angle) and forgot how to play “old school baseball,” Hawk’s infamous TWTW tagline.

How many of those 13 players were available this offseason? It was basically Manny and Donaldson. You have to have a stud there to compete in today’s game...the White Sox have Moncada and he simply blends in with that Top 15, yet he’s far and away the most valuable position player in the organization (although Robert today might have more trade/surplus value.) Besides, it’s nothing compared to the Harper problem in Philly...and the Padres didn’t sign him for 2019, they signed him for next year and beyond. They also signed him as a mentor for Tatis, Jr., and that’s already starting to pay dividends. If he was at 6 fWAR again this year, they’d simply be drafting 2-3 places lower in the first round. In the end, this move will be judged on the Padres making it back to the playoffs. They’re already ahead of the Rockies, and will pass SFG when Bumgarner departs. They were never going to compete this year with the Dodgers, but the 11-5 start fooled some. Just too much inexperience on the pitching side.

That mantra will carry us through the offseason quite well...seems to be forecasting or presaging a return next season.

The shadows/sun will be the excuse from Renteria. Tough conditions for a catcher in the dog days of the season, etc. just have to get through the DH, somehow. Might want to think about having three catchers on the roster.

Sounds like a lightly attended Astros’ home game on the radio...

For those without subscriptions, who pushed this move forward? Getz? Hahn? Fabian? Haber? Hostetler?

https://www.mlb.com/news/jose-abreu-continues-to-be-valuable-piece-for-white-sox Also, no timetable for Moncada return announced yet as he “continues to progress.”

Farmer: Jay with the checked swing there. DJ: Uhhhm, no, that was his full swing.

Shia La Beouf...even the Decepticons would do a better job catching, somehow.