almagest

This is true, but you still need a platform to build upon. This is one of the biggest problems in data science - so many people want to start from the end goal and don't understand that you need to put a ton of work into collecting, sanitizing and normalizing your data first. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the White Sox accumulated a ton of player info during their Hahn-driven modernization, but did not understand how to properly leverage it to develop the insights needed to build good proprietary models and predictive analytics. I think these are reasonable assumptions, given what we've heard about lack of opposing player scouting, internal siloing and lack of quality internal data-driven initiatives in the org, plus what Bannister said during this podcast. This bothered me too and was the worst part of the podcast. "We're having pitchers learn changeups" isn't much of a revolution. I wish Chuck pressed him more on it, though I could imagine a couple reasons why he was reluctant to share more - A) they don't want to give away their perceived advantage, or B) they're still working on developing these internal insights (because the data collection and cleanup was such a mess) and are currently relying more on old-school methods, like Coop teaching everyone a cutter. It's not an under-valued gap, that's just a talent issue.

The "had TJS or will have it" part is easy, I'm sure, but the biomechanical advantage part likely isn't (otherwise I'd bet the Dodgers would be doing it). Hopefully that starts to show up as they draft and acquire more pitching in the next few years.

And I'm saying I don't know if that's going to matter because a lot of the damage is already done, unless the Sox focus on drafting guys who have some biomechanical advantage that they can identify, or who either already had TJS or need it right away.

You're missing the point. This is a problem throughout all of baseball because of how pitchers are taught to maximize velocity before they're even drafted. There's not much the Sox can do about it. Having so many pitchers drop around the same time is likely a statistical anomaly.

The Sox did not prioritize maxing velocity the way other orgs did, and velocity is what correlates heavily with TJ surgery. I don't know if the Sox are prioritizing max velocity more now (I suspect they are, as everyone is), but I do know that every pitcher is told to prioritize velocity as soon as they show any ability to pitch at a high level, so I'm not surprised to see a rash of surgeries needed. Hopefully they don't all hit at once like they did for the Sox this year, but I would expect every viable prospect to need TJ at some point.

Now these guys look decent on the road and horrible at home

Vargas is super late on the fastball

Yes. Yes it was. I can (somewhat) forgive trading away Tatis, a guy who you had recently signed at a super low level. You certainly shouldn't miss on evaluating your players that badly, but it's one of the risks of trading lower level players. I also would have liked them to send two players away for something better than Shields, who was terrible and at the end of his career at the time, but I assume they asked for Tatis to eat more money in the deal. The Samardzija trade was HORRIBLE. One of the worst Sox trades I can remember. Semien was a statistical darling in the minors and had a decent amount of hype around here. Bassitt was a solid pitching prospect. Both were MLB ready. Those two alone were way too much for Samardzija, who had only one really good season as a starter, and only had one year left on his deal. Even if Semien was the 3-ish WAR walk machine playing ok defense at second that we expected, and not the guy with multiple seasons above 7 bWAR, it would still be a terrible deal because Bassitt was immediately BETTER than Samardzijia.

I won't blame Hahn for KW meddling, for JR forcing LaRussa on him, or for budgetary restrictions. I will absolutely, 100% blame him for everything else. His free agent and trade records were ATROCIOUS. There was zero Latin pipeline. Their drafting was terrible. We've also heard departments were isolated from one another, and Bannister hinted at just how bad the state of data was before he took over. None of this is acceptable for a GM.

Gave this a listen this morning. Some good insight on some of the philosophical changes with the organization, particularly around pitching, as well as comments and updates on some of the interesting pitching in the system. One takeaway early on in the show is how much work they've done to modernize the organization. Definitely worth your time. Bannister is a fun listen.

As long as I'm dreaming - Naylor, Bader, Tucker and Schwarber on the position player side makes this a way more competent offense. I'll be realistic on the pitching side - take Walker Buehler on as a reclamation project. Maybe Cease too.

I'm going to keep the pipe dream of Kyle Tucker alive and no one can stop me

I meant Renteria. Tatis is just the tip of the iceberg with Hahn.

It's wild that the 2020 AL manager of the year runner up got fired. I remember loving how hard that team played. They should've beaten Oakland, though that was more of a .500 team that got hot for a bit during the short season than it was an actual contender. Surprised Rick hasn't gotten any other jobs though. Wonder why.

Eloy dealt with a ton of really bad injuries that caused him to miss a big chunk of his early career. He's least surprising to me, honestly. Robert has also had a number of bad injuries. Who knows how that affected his hitting. He also always had a lot of variance in his game because of his approach. There's just no sustained periods where he looks like the best hitter in baseball anymore. It's only the bad, flailing away at outside sliders part. Vaughn was mediocre in the minors, so it's not like warning signs weren't there. He was a big scouting failure, just like Madrigal. Moncada probably peaked in 2019 and would never come close to those offensive numbers again. His 2021 season was likely a good bet for how he'd perform yearly if he wasn't injured all the time (or didn't want to play). Sox should've put their foot down on his workout regimen if it was a concern as we suspect. Or maybe they did, but since Yoan got his signing bonus and had a long-term deal after 2019 he didn't listen. That's an interesting point on TA. Maybe his injury in 2023 affected him too because he looked good before it, but if he stayed healthy, maybe he would've turned in a season like 2012 Paul Konerko, who looked like Frank Thomas from April - May and then completely fell off a cliff.

He's struggled a bit in his last 3 games, but overall in the last month he's dramatically cut down on the strikeouts and has a pretty solid line. 🤞he can keep it up.

I don't think it's that hard to figure out. Moncada and Robert got HUGE signing bonuses and were extended early. Eloy and TA were extended early. All four of them also dealt with severe injuries. The clubhouse culture sucked after Renteria. The Sox stunk at drafting and developing hitters. Basically every free agent signing didn't work out except Liam. When you take all of this into account (injuries, a lot of money before proving much of anything, bad clubhouse culture, few veteran examples of how to do things right on their roster, and little to no help from players outside the core group), it's not surprising they all washed out.

That won't get much of anything in a trade. At best some pitching lotto tickets they can hopefully turn into something.

I don’t know, if he doesn’t turn it around this will be almost 2 full years of looking completely lost at the plate. Terrible pitch recognition, bad contact, almost no game power. With that said, the Angels will probably offer him a major league deal.

Did not expect to take 2 of 3 from Toronto on the road after losing 8 in a row. Nice rebound.

Jays are brutal the last two innings. This is like watching the Sox as the opposing team. I almost feel bad for them.

LOL how do you walk Capra? That's worse than walking the pitcher

Just throw Robert sliders off the plate and he'll either miss or make weak contact. He's gonna have to go reset on a minor league deal somewhere after 2025. I'd honestly release him after the ASB if he's still showing no signs of life and they can't get anything for him.

Nice inning by Eisert.

It can rain inside a dome, right?