caulfield12

Rafael Santana, lol…

And Chisholm the most expensive. And now hurt, yet again. Likely out for most of the remainder of the regular season. Bell successfully dumped hitting worse than Vaughn and much more expensive to replace Christian Walker. Youngish underachieving outfielders, etc. with tons more potential than anyone on Sox roster. Tanner Scott, for example, FA to be.

Trout Ohtani Betts and Matsumoto don’t get them to .500 either. Throw in Soto and Tatis, too.

And Fletcher? A truly youthful 26? Outfielders age out even faster these days. Just look at Benintendi’s defensive decline from an unjustified Gold Glove due to the support of Red Sox Nation.

“The improved performance at the plate could be due to his reduced defensive responsibilities -- he's played third base only three times during that stretch while lining up at first base and DH four times each. Burger is batting .242 on the season with 20 home runs and 50 RBI in 94 contests.” cbsportsline.com Who could have predicted that, let’s say playing Sheets Vaughn and Eloy where they actually belong could possibly have led to better results??? Balta??? And maybe get Benintendi off the field as well, just like Pollock in RF or basically anywhere a ball could come his way??? The obvious problem here is that Sosa, Sheets, Julks, Baldwin and Montgomery can’t all DH simultaneously. (Maybe Baldwin can settle into average at 2B…in theory.)

Then why the hell did we trade for Fletcher at 26??? fWAR tells a completely different story. Still has him as a negative net defender at third, that hasn’t changed. But he did battle an oblique/abdominal injury at the very beginning of the season, that’s critical to add for context. https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?stats=bat&lg=all&type=8&season=2024&month=0&season1=2024&ind=0&pos=3b&qual=200&pagenum=2&pageitems=30 exactly 21/42 third basemen with 200+ at-bats there average we don’t have a single player on the position player side that even comes close to AVERAGE right now not a solitary one… maybe worry about how we botched the two biggest opportunities to get ONE or even TWO who could actually be well above average, like Luis Robert in 2023 or Yoan Moncada in 2019

Sweeper bigger arc…generally slower, slider short/sharp breaking pitch especially off a 95-103 mph FB. Sweeper more like a slurve.

Vargas over Mr. Twin meaningless too?

Especially the Royals and Twins…deciding factor in WC races, schedule’s disproportionate impact.

https://www.leadersmag.com/issues/2017.2_Apr/Making a Difference/LEADERS-Christine-OReilly-Riordan-Chicago-White-Sox-Charities.html https://pressbox.athletics.com/Publications/MLB Media Guides/2022 Chicago White Sox Media Guide.pdf Got stuck downloading. Husband Greg, live in Downer’s Grove, daughter Hayley, etc.

That’s like tabling all new White Sox stadium discussion until 2029-2030. After every sports championship, an immediate article predicting the following season and even ranking 30-32 teams or even hundreds for NCAA bb and fb. We live in an immediate gratification society. Grifol with his historically horrific managerial record must surely understand that much at least. We won’t wait five years to declare him worst or Bottom 2-3 manager in franchise history, will we?

So who do they actually start building around? Quero and Lee? Benintendi? Vaughn/Sheets? Baldwin?

We don’t even know 100% if Colson Montgomery has a legit value added position, either. Which version of him?

They were the clear TDL winner moving players and bringing in prospects. What the Sox should have looked like but somehow didn’t. We undoubtedly bring the ghost of Avisail Garcia back for RF next year. Marketing.

https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-win-bobby-murcer-award-for-second-straight-year#:~:text=CHICAGO -- Before the White,from the Baseball Assistance Team. No word about the supposedly cancelled/“no show” neighborhood baseball clinic…has that been officially cleared up?

He was crushing Moncada’s sprint speeds, even…I mean, how is that even humanly possible?

McCarthy is actually outproducing him…which was/is a huge jump in production from McCarthy’s paltry 2023 production. And very cheaply at that. Fletcher is the diametrically opposed result from end of 2023 babip wonder/miracle.

“Fresh off completing a four-game sweep of the Houston Astros to start the season, the Yankees have acquired right-handed pitcher Jake Cousins in a trade with the Chicago White Sox. New York will be sending cash for the 29-year-old reliever.” Success because JR got cold hard cash in his pockets??? For +0.1 fWAR of production? That’s worth at least $1 million on the open market, basically…

Until there’s one about actually winning a trade clearly, one would imagine. https://www.mlb.com/player/jake-cousins-664776 Did we win the Jake Cousins trade??? Not according to those numbers with the NY Yankees this season. He even hung a save on us while we now have perhaps the worst pen in modern baseball history.

Because KW got his way over Hahn trading Tim Anderson instead. So yet another waste of resources accomplished.

Here is the problem. At best, guys like Baldwin, Sosa, Ja.Gonzalez and even Montgomery (due to defense) all look like 1-1.5 fWAR type players. None of them are going to win any BEST tool accolades like an Oneil Cruz or Elly de la Cruz or Julio Take Me on a Sea Cruz even. We know what is Sheets and Vaughn AT BEST. It’s not good enough, simply. It’s average, at best, yet again. So you MIGHT have Montgomery. 50/50 at best if the back issues settle. Relying on Quero offensively AND defensively? That’s a ton to expect out of a rookie. Then just nobody in the outfield that could be a star. Fletcher, DeLoach, Julks, that high obp kid from SD 2-3 years out from now maybe a 5-10% shot at best. You simply have to base your lineup on 3-4 guys who can OPS 800 or even push up to 900+ to survive if you can’t buy talent. We don’t even have one 800+ (did it for at least a season) guy once we dump Robert. At least Burger provides some respect/fear from opponents and occupies one of those 3-4 key spots that carries the offense potentially. Benentendi and Vaughn are your best hitters, with Wolkow/Quero/Montgomery the most reliably predictable future center of the offense. But never in a million years would I start to count on THAT happening. Thats’s more barren than the most dangerous desert zone in Westworld (in fact, would prefer Musk’s ex over any of our current AA/AAA options), guys like Payton, Ortega, WHOEVER. Somehow we’ve turned borderline top 100 guys in Colas and Santos into DFA candidates as well. Inexplicable. Totally. Completely.

SD you can see attendant risks. Still something like 8 with $100+ million contracts. Exceedingly challenging to fill out roster spots #15-25 if you keep gutting your farm system to support big league roster (hey KW). Leads to more inconsistencies and experimentation with roster mix. Musgrove Darvish Bogaerts Tatis have dragged down roster last two months with injury family issues etc. Bogaerts has underproduced 1 1/2 seasons almost.

Nowhere but up from #30 in that area…

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/player/_/id/23220/jake-burger Yeah 2025 was kind of shaded different color on my screen…making it even worse

Three more arbitration years of control through age 32 season.