almagest

Rojas had 2 years before that in the mid .700s, he was much better in 2023 after being traded to Seattle (.720 OPS), and he still put up 2.2 bWAR last year due to his defense. Slater was looking decent before his injury and was much better after moving to Baltimore last year. He was also a pretty consistent ~110 OPS+ guy for SF in 2021-2023. Assuming Tauchman comes back from his injury alright he should be able to post a 100 OPS+, which when platooning with Slater is just fine, and much better than they'd likely get from Sosa. I also think you're discounting how BAD Sosa's chase rate is. 1st percentile means he's either worst or second worst of the 168 qualified hitters in MLB right now. He'll never be any better than he has been if he doesn't fix this (probably worse), no matter how hard he hits the ball when he's actually swinging at barrel-able pitches.

Cost control doesn't matter if he's not good, which in over 600 ABs he hasn't been. He'll need to hit better than a .650 OPS with bad defense to keep a starting role, even over injured 30+ year olds on 1 year deals. It's not like his advanced stats are that great, either. If his BA and SLG lined up with the expected numbers on Baseball Savant he'd be solidly productive (probably a mid .700s OPS), but there's not a lot supporting that in his batted ball data. He doesn't barrel a lot of balls or hit them hard, likely because he swings at literally everything - 1% on chase %, and that's been a trend his entire career.

Man I just can't put Sosa in that group. He's at almost the same numbers he finished last year at (after being hot for the last month of 2024 or so), so it's not like that hot streak carried over. He also seems to make a completely boneheaded play once every other game. I'd rather play him than Vaughn or any of the other complete stiffs on the roster, but he's the odd man out once Tauchman, Slater and Rojas are back.

This damn stupid trade, not really even trying to sign Harper, and trading Tatis are the top 3 most infuriating White Sox moves in the last 20 years.

All joking aside, getting Tauchman and Rojas back plus working Elko in and this team starts to approximate a major league offense.

This division can be had. Detroit only 11.5 up. That's nothing this early.

And here's one of those games where the Sox score a ton

Meidroth must be a pain in the ass for other teams

Vargas is my new crush

"Good job of adjusting by Vaughn" - no, stupid job by the pitcher doing nothing but throwing cutters off the outside corner. Go up with a fastball for Vaughn's usual K swinging at those, or go in with a cutter and get a weak grounder to SS.

Oh good. Vaughn.

Flyball would've scored Baldwin if Sosa could have done anything productive

Can't count on Sosa

Nice job by Burke there. Would be nice to not sweat out every inning and need the pitching to be perfect because they can't score any runs.

That was a pitch to drive to right field Luis.

https://x.com/FutureSox/status/1917623390535352461

Just under that one.

Don't take away the laugh emoji it's all I have

We all knew a GIDP was coming

Because he swing first pitch on a pitcher's pitch two at-bats in a row and hit the ball on the ground, which is absolutely not what the Sox needed at the time. The second time was also right after a 4 pitch walk.

Sosa is just a dumb ballplayer.

Good pitch to get Quero after a very good at bat. About 700 left on base today.

Safe - looked like the sweep tag was late

Sox should get a bonus "pity pool" of at least $5 mil.

If Cleveland can't make something out of him I think our odds are short. Still worth a shot, even if just to eat some innings.