caulfield12

https://www.royalsreview.com/2023/5/8/23715357/white-sox-series-preview-a-team-of-disappointment This summarizes things quite well.

Who would we honestly say has shocked or even surprised with their performance though? Lynn...not really. Clevinger...no. Kopech... maybe just overhyped and lacking in the secondary stuff command that turned so many starters into relievers in the first place? Or just too many injuries and missed development innings? Maybe Cease? Never a sure thing to repeat Top 5 Cy Young position. Lopez? Not in that particular role that he'd never experienced consistent success with... Bummer...not really. Kelly has been bad for a long time, but looked much better recently.

Still, we all too often seek the comfort of simple positive emotions such as happiness rather than sit in the discomfort of negative or mixed emotions, even though they contribute to more profound well-being. We resist negative emotions such as sadness or fear at our peril. Psychologist and philosopher Kirk Schneider refers to happiness as “potential fool’s gold,” believing the “compulsion to think positively” (i.e., toxic positivity) is equally as bad as the “compulsion to think negatively” and can actually block us from experiencing the “wonder-amazement of living.” Embracing negative emotions not only adds to the richness of our human experience, but negative emotions are also a way to broaden our emotional vocabulary, which helps us call up a greater variety of coping skills. In fact, research shows that people with higher emotional granularity, or emodiversity, use more positive coping mechanisms and recover more quickly from stress. Even better than embracing your negative emotions is embracing both positive and negative emotions at the same time. Holding two seemingly opposable emotional forces in your mind simultaneously, also called co-activation, is a powerful coping mechanism that increases our sense of meaning and gratitude in the face of adversity. While emotions such as happiness are known as “positively valenced” and emotions such as sadness are “negatively valenced,” some emotions like bittersweetness, sympathy, nostalgia and wonder are mixed or “dually valenced” emotions. Paradoxically, this tendency toward feeling just positive purely or negative emotions is further exacerbated when we are stressed, precisely when we could most benefit from the ameliorating effects of mixed emotions. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/09/opinions/sense-of-wonder-instead-of-pursuit-of-happiness-parker/index.html

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=tatis-000Eli Career .389 ops and .140 batting average, one measly homer in 253 plate appearances, 93 k's $500,000

Tyler O'Neill.

Well, we ALREADY lost Rodon, Heuer, Madrigal, etc. AJ Pollock, in a way... thankfully. Except that led directly to Benintendi. So Pollock ended up eating into a lot of future financial flexibilty already (due to his dislike for staying another year with the Sox) while costing himself a good bit of change in the process.

Actually, it’s been that kind of season for the White Sox and even with the Royals (10-26) struggling mightily, it might not get better at Kauffman. The White Sox are 18-21 against the Royals since the start of the 2021 season, including a 9-12 ledger in Kansas City, after going 9-1 vs. them in the 2020 pandemic-shortened season. …. “It was definitely one that got away from us,” said White Sox designated hitter Andrew Vaughn. “This was a tough one. We accomplished some things that we wanted to get accomplished, which was to get ahead in the count,” Grifol said. “But when we got them on two strikes, we just couldn't put them away. They got about seven hits with two strikes; three extra-base hits including a homer and a couple doubles. That was the game, right there.” ….. “I was throwing in the zone much better. Just working through some things right now, but I think it’s close,” Cease said. “I need to kind of hunker down with my slider. I’ve been backing them up and not getting the consistency that I need. And it really comes down to executing. I feel like I’m on a good track right now, we’ve made some good improvements the last 10 days or so. We’ve had a lot of focused work. Just got to keep feeling the process. The results are disappointing.” Unfortunately all of that excitement came from a small group of White Sox fans about eight rows up from the team’s dugout shortly after it was announced the Blackhawks received the No. 1 pick in the NHL Draft. Connor Bedard, make your plans for Chicago. mlb.com/Scott Merkin 9800 in Kansas City, 12,500+ for the Tigers at Cleveland

30. OAK -129 29. CHW -61 27/28. KC Miami -59 25/26. Detroit Colorado -37 24. Cincy -36 23. Philly -29 22. Washington -23 21. Cleveland -22 20. SF -21 4 AL Central in the Bottom 10, 3 in Bottom 6 overall

Connect back to Hahn? Or correct?

Who gets credit for Rodon 2021 and Cueto 2020? Santos and Middleton? Lambert? Not sure how he's responsible for Lynn and Clevinger at this stage in their careers. He gets credit and now blame for Cease, or Dylan was always going to be consistent? Giolito has recovered nicely this season, compared to last. Kopech...I guess there's another enigma.

Gimenez and Kwan had surprisingly strong seasons last year, pretty sure Gimenez ended up in the 5's or even as high as 6.5ish fWAR. The biggest change is Oscar Gonzalez being absolute garbage after being at least a very solid/above average hitter as a rookie last year. Of course, they've already cycled through three of their expected starting pitchers already. Their bullpen has also sprung a number of leaks compared to 2022.

The crazy part was STILL taking on a significant amount of Shields' salary after he was basically forced off the team by then SD ownership comments (had just given up something like 9-11 earned runs in a single start)...and Erik Johnson at the time of the trade still had pretty decent value, although there were certainly mounting (mystery) health concerns.

Well, one thing's for sure, the Padres had 4 individual scouts in on him, and Preller himself. (For the record, I think SD never should have added either Clevinger or Soto, in terms of their long run financial sustainability, and that their starting pitching and bullpen as currently constituted is going to coming up short in the playoffs...barring significant changes. Also, James Wood, involved in the Soto trade, is getting rave reviews nearly across the board. That said, an .847 in High A isn't quite destroying the league, at least not yet.)

I'd like to see the list of everyone in on Tatis before Keith Law was saying he was going to debut quite high on his Top 100 list... he just skyrocketed from that moment on. the scouting radar, like this 16 year old Salas kid (catcher) that Law also pointed out in recent weeks is going to be one of the best prospects in the game, eventually.

3 more games from the worst team in baseball... unless it's the A's... who are deliberately trying to alienate their fanbase in order to leave.

Just goes to show hard it is to erase 2021 for Grandal...just like Sox memories of Dunn post 2011. He was actually fairly decent for the most part that following season.

The game's going longer so KC can sell more concessions and souvenirs?

Cuban Curse, same thing happened to Moncada... Vaughn having an RBI/HR season like 1985 Tommy Herr with the Cardinals.

Then SoxTalk would also be mired in mediocrity. Can't have that.

Throw in all the rumors we were in on signing Soto and Vladdy Jr. and Acuna...at least one of the three, but came up short financially. Or throw Machado/Wheeler into the mix as well...

What did Harry S. Truman famously say? The buck stop here. There's just no here, here. But it's the way of the modern world to foist off responsibility on underlings in order to protect those at the very top. I would at least sort of respect Hahn for saying we simply have to better after embarrassing breakdowns in fundamentals. Hahn set the tone and tolerated this situation for so long that someone attempting to put a new system in place doesn't even stand a chance of successfully implementing it... the players all know things will revert to mean and that it's far easier to replace a coaching staff than half the active roster. Not to mention we don't have a farm system in place to produce viable replacement options. So the coaching staff has no choice but to ignore such mistakes because those players still provide them the best opportunity to win on a given day. For example, Luis Robert might be fixed for now... but there will be a point where similar situations occur (lack of hustle), nothing is done to address it and everyone just kind of shrugs their collective shoulders.

Bargaining stage... or denial? Contending for a World Series is no longer something that even front office execs can say with a straight face... I mean, 2/3 against what was supposed to be one of the 3-5 worst teams in baseball is something... but the Tigers are playing their best baseball in years and they have been the only divisional rival the Sox have dominated. KC, not so much unless you go back to 2000's, and even down the stretch in 2005 a royal pain in the ass.

CJ Abrams was a Top 5 MiLB prospect two years ago but everyone believes Wood is the real prize of the bunch, and Gore. Pretty sure it's Hassell. Clevinger trade fair massive giveaway as well. Quantrill Naylor Arias Hedges Miller etc.

Worst GM or not, why in God's name would he be allowed yet another shot to rebuild when he failed in that endeavor as well as failing to compete on the fly from 2013-2016? What exactly can he do well... besides trade very favorable controlled contracts for those three younger Sox players? Let's not forget when he traded Frazier Kahnle Robertson etc., to the Yankees, he got ripped off. And the Tatis trade, when all is said and done, will cost how much in lost fWAR?

His name is Wil Myers...and he's a really bad outfielder.