caulfield12

Kimbrel with 30 k’s in 18 innings but somehow a 6ish ERA. Scoreless top of 9th against AZ.

Don’t tell Benetti that…he loves to rave about the free concessions food everywhere. Except for dinners on the road that are usually on him and not Stone Pony.

Watch the home games closely. Other than the weekends, it’s depressing…although the small crowds do their best to be small and supportive. As noted many times, the attendance is heading towards a historical low…prices in numerous areas were actually increased coming off that disaster of a season, and the team now has the biggest YoY decrease in attendance in the majors compared to 2022 base years. What does that tell you? The fans are not buying it…which leads to payroll decreasing and decreasing. But when the fans bought tickets in 2022 based on the 2020-21 seasons and multiple championships and unprecedented financial flexibility, we got NONE of those things. No stars…just solid, overpaid veterans, and spending in all the wrong places. I still watch or follow most of the games, but it’s now largely for Robert and Burger…with the rest of the once promising core just a year or two remaining with the Sox. There’s nothing anyone can do to change things, but we’re also not going to trick ourselves into believing we are a legit threat to advance past any first round playoff opponent with the current roster composition. I mean…look at the Bulls for a similar comparison, they will tear down their Big 3 again coming off another playoff disappointment. That’s the reward to fans for having the best home attendance in the NBA. So if one of the most profitable franchises in sports doesn’t care about its fans, why would we expect the White Sox to? JR simply thinks of them as a headache and hardly profitable and is more concerned with extra gambling revenues than reinforcing the sinking rebuild. Period.

Jay Cuda probably has a number like the entire Sox team from 2019-2023 has a lower fWAR compared to Semien, Bassitt and Tatis. 2) Marcus Semien, Rangers Best finish: 3rd place, 2019, '21 "Did you realize that Semien has finished in third place twice (MVP voting)? Two of the last five seasons no less? Semien is always going to be a little bit underappreciated, a quiet guy who plays every game but is still a little bit streaky. His 2021 season, his only year in Toronto, was incredible (he had 45 homers!), and last year, his first year in Texas, was seen as somewhat of a disappointment, even though he still put up 4.2 fWAR. He has been the best version of himself again this year, hitting .301, leading the AL in runs and putting up a career-high .377 OBP. With the injuries to Corey Seager and Jacob deGrom, Semien could end up being the face of this surprising Rangers team: If they end up winning the AL West, Semien will widely be seen as one of the primary reasons why. With no real MVP frontrunner in the AL right now, he is someone to keep an eye on." MLB.com

Whatever drug you are on...I would love to try some. Not even sure Baghdad Bob and the Russian war ministry could put such a positive skin on every single thing that has gone wrong with this organization. Maybe you can get ghost writing credit for the potentially best-selling Rick Hahn biography. I guess Scholtens is also on his way now with a potential RoY campaign, too. I mean, this is an owner who gave up on winning in the late 90s when the team was only 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 games behind the Indians at the time, basically in order to save a ton of money.

Click?

How could any team have a killer instinct when it was actually coached/instructed to deliberately play at around 75% to avoid injury? Not only did they not avoid injury... the team aggressivrness was basically neutered compared to the Gisrdians last year, in particular.

This comes off as not only should we accept adding terrible players... who won't even get the bar back to mired in mediocrity, but we should be happy to add these players to the minor league systems. You could understand players in their twenties with a limited amount of upside like a Haseley...it just feels depressing that we keep going through retreads and guys like Madrigal Vaughn and Colas are just not getting the job done, regardless of where they're playing.

Better to take the insurance payouts and hold him back as long as necessary. That said, being "just" 5 1/2 games back is going to keep pushing guys like Crochet and Hendriks onto the active roster earlier than could reasonably be expected for them to pitch effectively right off the bat in high leverage. Not unlike Rodon just being thrown into the 2021 playoff pen against OAK without having enough time to adjust. Finally, carrying a closer with that contract makes zero sense for a payroll limited rebuilding team.

This year is also proving you can't have lightning in a bottle every year like Rodon, Billy Hamilton, Cueto and Andrus. Dumpster diving and going with rookies who might not make some team's Top 10-15 prospect lists, for example. I guess you can go Burger Middleton Santos as positives but the apple is starting to turn there too. No plan to integrate increased contact...hit and run...advancing runners...our pitchers holding runners, quick to the plate and then throwing out anything remotely close to league average of 17.5-22.5% of opposing base stealers. Seems like all the off season pitch clock changes really affected Lynn and Cease...for example.

Why didn't severe payroll limitations impact the Twins and Guardians nearly so much??? If you know you're running up against limits... you can't spend more than any team in baseball on expensive veterans when the volatility there is so extreme from year to year. Better to take your lumps with young and cheap arms for your pen like the two teams mentioned so they could sign Buxton, Correa, Jose Ramirez, Gimenez, etc.

The Curse of Jeffrey Luhnow Obviously the Astros are still doing "okay" this season, all things considered.

White Sox on verge of being "just" 5 1/2 games back. -10 Minnesota would be +1 if they can't rally down 4-3 to SF in bottom of the ninth at home

Speaking of Cubs' fans, where has Ron been recently?

Can they really rely on the likes of Harold Ramirez for the entire season...?

Romy Gonzalez has temporarily won the 2B job...since there's basically no other options other than Sosa at the moment...maybe Erick Gonzalez or Remillard.

Shades of 2005 El Duque in Boston lol.

Francona waited too long but pitch count was so low for Allen, plus they have had DHers recently.

De Los Santos bringing the heat.

Needless to say you can't trade Anderson at anything less than a 700 ops. Long ways to get back there.

Anderson really struggling with fastballs this year... Something going on with that front foot/leg.

Have to trade Grandal this year as early as possible... before he gets hurt again.

They're stuck with him through the rebuild at this point...not unlike Benintendi. Zero surplus value as he nears arbitration years.

Guardians' base running has been pretty bad this year compared to last. Anderson saved a run by stopping the ball from getting through.

Gordon Beckham? Now Benetti is using it for pitches and at bats too frequently.