caulfield12

Shocking...who didn't see this coming at his age and with how much downtime he's had in the last few years? Just more money thrown down the drain, unless they had taken out insurance on his deal (roughly 60% payout)...

But there was that pretty extended window after Giolito's two really excellent seasons, whatever it was, 2019/20, or 2018/19/20....when there was an opportunity to get something done. Of course, he went from one of the very worst pitchers in baseball that first first season or two with the White Sox to one of the very best, seemingly overnight. And there was always the "greatest RH pitching prospect in the game" pedigree with his draft, although it was tarnished a bit by the initial TJS.

He pretty much played a full 2020 and was clear RoY favorite until the last 4-6 weeks when he faded terrible and Kyle Lewis of the Mariners kind of took off, but he flashed that huge Mike Trout potential. So I would go with "showed up" at least 2/5 times, compared to just once.

That's exactly what has happened to the Tigers...who are one of the best fourth place teams out there now. Royals have another huge series this week, but their playoff probability was 70%+ in recent days. Clearly their best season in almost a decade, nine years to be exact. And they're pretty much the 2023 Reds of 2024, one of the biggest underdog teams out there from one of the smallest markets in the game.

But the Chiefs were poorly rated in this regard....well, nvm.

Manager Pedro Grifol didn’t complicate matters. “It's fun to win. It sucks to lose,” he said.

Blame it on John Danks, Lance Lynn and a bunch of expensive veteran relievers. Sox just don't do top line FA pitching and they don't do extensions ever since Sale and Quintana. (You would think those last two names would only reinforce the value of young/er, cost-controlled pitching.)

by fWAR, Sox have 7 connected to the bottom 30 with over 100 plate appearances. Burger Vaughn Grossman Then we get to the absolute bottom of the barrel. 318. Anderson, Tim -1.1 319. Abreu, Jose -1.4 321. Benintendi, Andrew -1.6 322. Maldonado, Martin -1.7 Moving it down to 80 PA, you can even pick up Nick Madrigal at -0.7 fWAR. That's five former first round draft picks represented there.

Worst offense by 3 whole fWAR in all of the MLB and the only team in negative numbers overall, pitching and hitting. Pitching 28th at 3.1, ahead of only Houston and Colorado. Without Robert and Crochet...absolutely unwatchable to all but the most die hard fans or masochists.

Uh-oh. Maybe all White Sox fans need to start flying upside down Cubs' W flags or create their own unique version of "Southside Stand Down" L flags in protest of the general decrepitude of the organization.

Who created that environment for Luis Robert, Jr., anyway? Hahn...Ventura, they set the tone for years (see the Drake LaRoche/Sale/Eaton fiasco, for example)...Rick Renteria, TLR, Grifol, Montoyo, etc. Think about Tim Anderson here as well, Grandal, Moncada, the failure from the veteran leaders as well jettisoning Abreu, the only guy Robert really seemed to respect a lot. Isn't it amazing how players like Reynaldo Lopez or (fill-in-the-blank) and suddenly transform into almost completely different players and even personalities. Put him on a competitive team, look at how Dylan Cease has suddenly elevated his game this year.

Without Covid, Burger would have probably ended up completely giving up on his career and we wouldn't have been able to trade him for a quasi-first round talent in Eder. That's another way to look at it, instead of two busted draft picks. Of course, two top five drafts with virtually nothing to show for it (at least where things stand now) is a killer. And then letting Anderson's value erode down to nothing after being an All-Star and Rodon escaping without a QO. Obviously, no bueno.

Getz is also the problem if he made false and overly optimistic promises of turning this thing around given all the budget/resource restraints apparently placed upon him.

More excuses fans can use looking back at the history of the Sox years from now, just like 1994.

What is Bergin? Did have one Corona last night lol.

Nobody would ever buy that one.

Every team that had a BA Top 5 farm system made the playoffs within 3-5 years or something like that in terms of breakthroughs. Recently, you have the Padres, Blue Jays, White Sox, to name just a few, but all of them are now in various phases of struggle...SD built two nearly top 5 systems (I think they were around 5-6 and might now be down closer to 8-9-10 after the Cease deal was consummated and Leodalis deVrieze coming out a bit slowly in A ball at age 17. Of course, SD had to cut almost $100 million from payroll after their owner passed away and favorable RSN/broadcast rights deal in such a small media market. Pretty much the complete opposite of the success of the Astros/Royals/Cubs in the previous set of rebuilds a decade earlier. Of course, the problem in the AL Central is that the Guardians still will have an arguably stronger farm system after this June's draft than the White Sox...especially if Robert and/or Crochet are not traded. Detroit, did they ever reach Top 5 farm system status at the height of their rebuild years maybe 2-3 years ago when they had all the topline pitching prospects as well as Riley Greene coming up?

Well, that and completely mistiming the supplementing with FA's, by overpaying for the likes of Keuchel and Grandal (they peaked way too early), then you have Lynn extension, the Liam Hendriks deal, let's see...ALL the RELIEVERS, lol and finally Benintendi. Every single move but Liam a complete misstep, and even that one somehow managed to completely blow up in their faces when Liam went down to cancer/injury. Rodon/Anderson either leaving the team without a Q0 or completely falling apart, along with never figuring out how to get through to Reynaldo Lopez.

Would almost rather see Eder (at his relatively advanced age) pushed up. But Getz probably doesn't want everyone to start jumping on that trade as well if it blows up in their faces. Granted, it was KW's move and not Chris'.

Shocking, isn't it? Almost like the baseball gods want to put the RED SOX back in their rightful place and the White Sox back to total obscurity.

I blame the loss on the misspelling of Flexen's name to start the Game Thread, lol...

Vaughn error?

That or jersey day related to a given player (or coach in this case) is almost always the kiss of death, especially after any type of "vote or expression of confidence" from ownership that is issued in a public manner.

Not to mention Robert's contract isn't exactly a bargain if he's not producing at least in the 3+ fWAR range, but more optimistically 4-5. And that's obviously based on fragility he's demonstrated in the beginning of his career, with last year being his only close to complete season. As someone else mentioned, you're going to need to get ANOTHER piece like a Fedde, Pham, Sheets, Vaughn...whatever that acquiring team perceives as being a weakness down the stretch run. Tempting as Robert and Crochet being combined would be a dream acquisition for any GM, only a handful of teams could actually pull that off, and only 2-3 likely have the kind of risk tolerance, stones and job security in the GM/Executive suit to go for it with a move like that would instantly transform your team into a top WS contender IF IF IF those two guys can both stay on the field/mound.

Said numerous scouts about Micker Adolfo and Joe Borchard...