caulfield12

Even the pleasant surprise of the 2012 team…with almost as many rookies as the 2022-23 Guardians, the fans never really believed in that team down the stretch and they led for a good stretch of the season over the Tigers. Or 2008 after Quentin went down…it’s almost impossible to imagine a team with no rotation depth, a fading bullpen, poor defense, almost zero fundamentals, injury prone, etc., doing anything at all in the postseason. The Twins have actually managed to prove they can’t even win a single series, just like the White Sox. It has been closer and closer to a decade now since the 2014-16 Royals and then Indians/Guardians amazing runs in the World Series/postseason. Realistically, how could any long-suffering Sox fan believe in Hahn still/now with a century plus of countervailing historical evidence? The Twins at least excel in pitching and have Duran at the back end. The Guardians have youth/energy and Francona on their side. The White Sox it’s basically Luis Robert alone to carry the entire team at this point.

Baltimore is a great example…for decades and decades they tried to spend their way into contention through free agency. Chris Davis was the poster boy in that regard. They learned how to do scouting, analytics, evaluation and development and are beating all those AL powerhouses but the Rays at their own game while running a hugely profitable payroll simultaneously. The Rockies, Mariners until recently, White Sox and Royals are/were the only pretty hopeless franchises. Even the lowly Marlins almost always develop talent internally. And the Tigers have a narrow path forward but still much better positioned than the Sox except for the Baez contract…which is basically two Benintendi’s.

The whole produced by Clevinger and Cease/Kopech starts going 4-5+ innings is going to implode the entire bullpen at some point…especially down Hendriks and Crochet again and looking to trade at least 2-3 of the best arms down there in Kelly Middleton Graveman Lopez and perhaps even Santos.

Hahn said they won’t go all in for the postseason if there’s no realistic path forward to win. Does Atlanta now being 16-2 versus the AL and NL Central provide a better example of the Herculean task ahead? Let’s keep in mind they’re trailing three teams here…not just one or even two.

Some other big differences. 1) Lost niche of staying healthy when Herm Schneider departed. 2) Cuban Connection almost completely dried up 3) DR and Venezuela and Asia/Pacific Rim dry markets for the Sox going on two decades now…you can sustain yourself as a small market team like the Guardians, Rays, Pirates and Reds unearthing superstars there

With what pitching staff? You're overlooking how likely it is that Lynn and Clevinger will also be out the door with Lucas.

Goes with the Berto radio rant...just a bit more melancholic lol.

4. The best pitching staff in baseball belongs to … the Twins? The first-place Twins -- who, to be fair, are only at .500 -- have had all sorts of lineup disappointments, not least of which is Carlos Correa, who has had a season not nearly commensurate with how much we were talking about him all winter. But the Twins have more than hung in thanks to their pitching staff, which leads the Majors in FanGraphs WAR. Pablo López has been all Minnesota had wanted after acquiring him for Luis Arraez (more on him below), and Joe Ryan and Sonny Gray have been outstanding, too. A fantastic pitching staff making up for an underwhelming lineup en route to an AL Central lead? We thought that was Cleveland’s thing. www.mlb.com Looks like the Guardians are going to pass the Twins for first as early as today despite being perhaps the most overlooked competitive team. If not them, it's defibitely Miami or AZ.

Lost development time, Covid year, marital/relationship issues, TJ recovery, etc.

I just believe strictly from a marketing standpoint Burger's story has more value to the White Sox and their fans if they're legitimately going to tear this down. He might end up more Matt Davidson or Conor Gillaspie or Chris Snopek. Started a thread a month ago and it's still not clear what position player a typical fan would even want to watch hit after Robert. Maybe they do end up holding Anderson, Jimenez and Moncada into next season...and not quite sure "Anderson's lame duck rodeo" works if he doesn't show much improvement through the end of this season. Without any prospects to market like they had from 2018-20...especially on the pitching side, not sure how they can survive another rebuild with almost nobody to look forward to the next couple of seasons on pitching side. Drafting more "immediate impact" NCAA players (Vaughn Collins Madrigal Burger Burdi) likewise seems to be the path of typical Sox rebuilds...but look how well that worked out.

See Oakland A's and Cincy owners... although that kind of reverse backfired on the Reds' ownership as they suddenly have one of the most entertaining teams in the sport. Marlins and Rays still undecided...

CLE only 1/2 game back. Would be shocked if the Guardians don't win it again.

They also need to have Japanese Heritage Month like the Angels are putting on tonight.

Ofc the one time out of ten that Eloy slides there and gets caught on the dirt and then blocked by Renigfo's foot. Why should we expect anything else?

Never mind. Moran is a reliever for the Twins... the picture that was referenced.

Maybe he's a huge fan of the Twins' reliever?

Did he just throw a strike trying to throw an intentional walk?

Put Sheets down.

Oops pretty much the best team to rest him against. Just kind of half paying attention these days. Can't remember the last game actually focused in on for the entire time.

Very lonely place Gordo when you can't lay off or hit a high fastball, also...and unfortunately we now have to listen to you until JR dies.

Kopech is almost done tonight. Completely lost out there.

Trade Grandal now after he just dramatically raised his CS rate lol.

Brilliant analysis...Gordo.

He was off the bag. Originally safe.

Kopech is way way short with his stuff tonight. Never seen him at 93-94 in the second inning b4.