caulfield12

The ‘ol momentum shift coming this half inning. If the Twins are going to score, it’s now. And I could just hear Ron at home shouting at the t.v., why are they speeding up Abreu’s bat throwing all those curveballs...beforevfinally mixing in a pedestrian fastball that must have looked like 95+.

The company line was always no adds after Kimbrel and that was only possible due to Zobrist sitting out much of the year...

Tell that to the Astros as they added Verlander, Cole and Greinke. Or the Cubs with Chapman, Heyward and Royals with Shields, Cueto and Zobrist. Last time I checked, LAD and NYY aren’t winning any titles recently.

While this is less true recently, winning a World Series used to guarantee a five year sustained boost in attendance. Now, it’s just as much about broadcasting/media rights. And the Royals are definitely challenging that “five year” theory with their current rebuild. It was a lot more accurate for the Sox, with the 2010 season marking the downswing into the Dunn signing, Ozzie/Buehrle departing, 2013 and the eventual rebuild.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UYsH7Yy0BawYXQX7Jpgz7F0qswXDyRbAPtRJXhdU0qQ/htmlview When you’re spending at or even with the Cubs every season but 2009-10, much more is expected. Nobody expected a World Series in 2017, 18 or 19. But a competitive, .500ish and maybe even wild card competitor if everything goes right is quire fair to as for at this point for 2020.

This has not been the case at all for the AL Central. The success of the Indians, Royals and Twins go against the very trend you're highlighting. The White Sox had a Top 10 payroll in 2008, when they last made the playoffs, but they also ran Top 10 payrolls all the way through the 2013 season, where it was obvious they would need to either rebuild or "retool on the fly" with trades and free agents. They chose Option 2, spending money in free agency from 2014-16 and bringing in the likes of Samardzija and Todd Frazier via trade...as well as Jose Abreu for the 2014 season. The payroll didn't bottom out until the last 2-3 seasons.

2006-2013

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2014/09/01/bo-porter-fired-astros-culture-jeff-luhnow/14928347/ The problem is that our front office and manager are perfectly aligned...which is a BAD thing. Because Bo Porter, a former football player and emblematic of the KW approach, is representative of Rick Renteria in just about every way possible. And Luhnow wasn't having it...

Try the late 1990's. Moneyball was published in 2003. We're probably better off just reverting back to the 2004-2005 method of competing again.

https://links.e1.theathletic.com/a/click?_t=1d75fd3a730a463c8648bd84293b832a&_m=7764220c10864c8095df9ea684feebb9&_e=_K42l8C7zMnF0Asjk9a0AdM1-3X2CzXTPcIcVWfNcX86HbL7zl0tfrSwoYYiuVVrirqgBYi--dPvD2bEJJixl-Jg2Z9O0R992QjFUO4T5Pmao5TkuY0DYg4n9SWPhUcfzjbQ13jkOc21o0NoagpFaCSUlx6kO4rPrEgVoPGczdXyP176RxIA7RIouaTrehsdGnAemxy3Bc5t7xZAPQGTG9aPxHiaFoJ4sWPWS2-tXefbKgBClTS52JW6YQYzCj4oMXLE-nlDqCVdu17NLm1kU4Bo25NzgCC_rfHVos6JjqpvhbuKZy71Z3vZ_zm8wuhqIerNV4HYhTiYv369i3MOQ-XH52ZmJhe4T6cC86EUmn93CQYv9mLo-kJeoL_YrAr7b5rIska-RXFQGWRd1s-_HIlZXdXJ_QWSlwlepdRDMA7msW5ohU9lJgdjFqnhSkSw 35 under 35: The BrainKanix duo who revamped Lucas Giolito’s mental approach plans on doing much more In the middle of a rut of July starts that would send him from the White Sox starting rotation to Triple-A Charlotte, pitcher Dylan Covey was trying to describe why his four-seamer kept leaking back over the heart of the plate. But his mind kept wandering to a conversation with his teammate — and one of the best turnaround stories in baseball — Lucas Giolito. A few days earlier, Covey got a start against the A’s in Oakland, the team that had left him off its 40-man roster and exposed him to the Rule 5 draft. He wanted more than just to command his pitches, or piece together a quality start. He wanted to crush his former teammates while the front office staff that let him go watched. Instead, he allowed six runs without getting out of the first inning.

Basically seems like we're guaranteeing Jose Abreu a spot in the White Sox Hall of Fame and a lifetime coaching position, or at least deal like Jim Thome has with the front office. Cannot figure out to play said player at DH instead of 1B, of course. Also agree with Jack Parkman here...if you're anything resembling a "sane" baseball fan, you have to start watching other teams/players, studying what GOOD or even GREAT front offices are doing differently...watching Charlotte or the minor league teams. Worst-case scenario, cheering against the Cubs, but even that has lost a lot of its allure after 2016. I guess cheering for their dynasty to come crashing down, that's something.

Still don't understand why we'd be getting Bumgarner without significantly overpaying the rest of the NL..particularly teams west of the MIssissippi. He could theoretically be convinced if we were also making a commitment to bring in X Y Z other "high level" free agents to create a more competitive team (see Robertson/Cabrera/LaRoche), but would he realistically sign were he to be the only significant addition, and wait at least one year for a playoff run?

Here's the thing. Hahn traded decent players in Duke and Swarzak to acquire both of those guys. If the GM is okay with the manager playing a veteran whose main purposes (bringing in Machado, trade deadline move) have long passed, I don't know what it says about this organization's talent evaluation. Heck, it would even be better to give Daniel Palka those at-bats over Jay, because we still need to find a LH platoon bat for DH next year. Just strange we're prioritizing winning at the AAA level over the big league one right now. Not bringing up Robert and Madrigal is one thing, but it's just strange they're not willing to reward guys like Yermin and Mendick who worked hard for their opportunities all season long...

Don't forget Beef Wellington...

Like Collins?

It might work out in the end, but still don't like playing for single runs in the late innings at Minnesota...not with the erratic nature of the White Sox bullpen.

Yeah, I remember back in the day following through the old Yahoo Sports gameday stuff. Now, MLB and MILB.com make it more interesting when you at least have the pitch speeds and location. Chinese internet still isn't reliable for streaming games...always stops and starts, to doesn't come back after the commercial breaks and have to start over and reload.

Goins came to the big leagues as a "pure/defense first" SS, so not a huge surprise there. And Sano's hardly Usain Bolt. But yeah, great not to just let the runner score there and have another runner in scoring position, likely to score on a 2 out hit and tie the game. White Sox have nothing to lose...playing to win at this point in the season.

Maybe...he's been on my stupid fantasy team all season long and I haven't "felt" him make an impact like, say, Yelich...but it's that selective memory thing, of the 10% of the time I'm actively watching or paying attention, the other 90% gets blocked out. Cognitive dissonance.

Except how do you explain Castillo hitting after Abreu?

Miley's a really interesting case. He has been SO good, and unexpectedly so, I can't imagine the Astros letting him go so easily as they did with Morton, especially with Whitley's troubles this year. They do have McCullers coming back, supposedly, but who knows how well that takes with his history.

Then how do you explain Josh Donaldson sustaining his success later than age 26/27, or Arenado...just a couple of examples. Matt Carpenter, until this season, was a very effective player as well.

What are you basing a 5.4 fWAR player (average from 2015-2018) at age 26/27 falling off by that much? The AL East arguably was better overall pitching than the NL, once you get past the Dodgers and DBacks (especially without Greinke now.) PetCo factor, alone? Harper is the one who's mostly been at the lower numbers except for his one 9.3 fWAR season four years ago, and has graded out inconsistently on defense. It feels like a big chunk of his numbers have been coming from OBP/walks. This year, before that Cubs' game, it seems like he failed in almost every clutch situation this season where he had an opportunity to drive in runs.

Well, maybe we can hire someone from the Rangers who identified Lance Lynn and especially Minor for this season...because that's EXACTLY what the White Sox need again, someone who can sort out those guys and find the one diamond in a rough out of 10 or 20 guys. Ryu makes me uneasy because 1) his health, 2) success mostly confined to NL, 3) he's going to get overpaid by quite a bit based on his numbers this season vs. the entire breadth of his career. He has been a really good pitcher, when healthy, but you just have a feeling guys like him or Rich Hill wouldn't work nearly so well with other organizations.

And Leury Garcia/Tim Anderson had similar fWAR's a month or so ago, which means exactly nothing without looking at context...this whole obsession with attacking Manny Machado is just weird.