Chicago White Sox

Yes, I saw his first at-bat, although not much to take from that. I also watched videos of him batting last year when we first traded for him. His game is taking pitches and making contact…what have you seen so far that makes you think those skills won’t translate to the majors?

Great, but we also need to 2 win players all over the place.

Six whole plate appearances and we’re already writing Meidroth off 😁

I have never seen that before, but what an awesome output

The only way it can get worse is if Jerry sells to his boob of a son. Otherwise, the odds are 99.9% the next owner is better than 89 year old Jerry.

My guess is this is how this will all play out: Ishbia buys out minority shareholders this Friday…Ishbia will assume +50% ownership of team but control will remain with Jerry Capital call for remaining shareholders to help finance new stadium…team control passes to Ishbia and he receives ROFR on Reinsdorf shares Jerry passes and his sons liquidate their holdings at elevated multiple…Ishbia secures full ownership through new agreement or ROFR The first part we will know about in the next couple weeks. How and when control passes to Jerry is the big wild card.

I know people are super down and rightfully so, but there is actual stuff to look forward to this year. First & foremost, we will have a sizable group of young players on the major league roster this year. On the positional side, you start with current top 100 prospects in Montgomery, Teel, & Quero. In addition, you have a former top 40 prospect in Vargas and a former fringe top 100 prospect in Ramos. And on top of that, you have a super versatile player in Baldwin who put up a 150 wRC+ in the upper minors last year, another infielder in Meidroth who put up a 132 wRC+ in AAA due to a .437 OBP, and a third infielder in Sosa who put up a 173 wRC+ in Sep/Oct and who was overall a league average hitter last year per Statcast despite his chase & walk issues. While this group obviously lacks the star potential that the previous rebuild core possessed, there is a lot of depth here and I’m confident that we can quickly build a foundation of good 2+ win players across the infield and at catcher. IMO, it will be super fun to watch. On the pitching side, the major league rotation will lack the level of intrigue that the 2024 version possessed. There is no TOR ceiling type arm like there was with Crochet last year and Fedde was more interesting as a potential trade chip than Martin Perez. Regardless, there is a lot to be excited about even if the Big Three arms don’t arrive this year. Year 2 of Davis Martin post TJS is going to be super interesting. He’s coming off 10 starts of league average production and should only get better as the rust wears off and and he gets more work in with Bannister (sounds like he’s added a sinker to his already vast arsenal). Cannon may lack a high ceiling, but he already looks a legit BOR major league starter who will soak up a ton of innings. Can he be more than? Burke may be the most interesting arm on the roster next year. Massive dude with four legit pitches who Keith Law is a big fan of and who cracked a Fangraphs’ top 25 pitching prospect list based on projected peak major league performance. He has a chance to be super valuable SP if he can stay healthy and harness his command. And while he won’t be ready for OD, Thorpe is high on my list of must follows for next year. I think the prospect community and this site are sleeping on this kid way too much. I get Region’s Park is super pitching friendly, but we’re talking about a consensus top 100 prospect (who was as high as the 50’s) who just put up a 1.35 ERA across 11 starts last year. Yes, he didn’t look great in his last handful of major league starts, but there is strong reason to believe the kid was not 100% healthy at the time. I personally believe with a little improvement to his 4 seamer and repertoire changes that allow for less reliance on it, he can develop into a solid mid rotation starter. And given the length of this post, I won’t go into much detail regarding the minors, but this is the deepest system we have had in over a decade or more. The rotations will be loaded throughout. There are actually some high upside positional guys worth following in B. Montgomery, Wolkow, Bonemer, etc. It’s going to be a fun follow on a daily basis regardless how bad the parent club is. Finally, and most importantly, we should finally get confirmation on what life after Jerry might look like. I have been as down as anyone when it comes to this team and a big part of that was there was zero margin for error with the farm system as Free Agency isn’t a foundational level with Jerry. But the change to Ishbia will completely change that equation and it’s important to take in next year with that consideration in mind. We don’t need to win 70 games next year to feel good about our future… we just need to find enough long-term pieces that can provide us with a solid floor that we supplement via free agency. And that should excite the fanbase more than pretty much anything next year.

Greg just reentered the world after years of Captain America style hibernating and doesn’t get how these sports are different! Give him a fucking break Kyle!

What in the world are you guys talking about? Public ownership isn’t happening and it’s not worth wasting a billionth of a second talking out. It’s absolutely wild to me that there are actually posters trying to paint going from Jerry to Ishbia as anything but a positive.

Still trolling after all these years.

It was honestly just about immediate likelihood of grabbing a role. Smith would be second to last if the list was based on ability to retain a role long term. My point is we can easily survive trading Davis Martin and covering the innings.

Berroa is 100% a reliever. This is just the list of dudes in AAA and above who will likely make starts this year: Davis Martin Jonathan Cannon Martin Perez Sean Burke Bryse Wilson Shane Smith Drew Thorpe Nick Nastrini Jairo Iriarte Mason Adams Owen White That seems like pretty good depth for one season before the Big 3 and other arms start hitting.

There is zero chance Ishbia is going to try to move the team. Harold is referring to some sort of stadium news in Chicago.

My point was the Sox would be stupid if they changed their evaluation of Vargas that quickly, especially when they knew he didn’t have options. If they were willing to admit they missed that bad that fast, then they should fire Gene Watson immediately for being an incompetent boob.

Oh gotcha…I read it as you were saying it wasn’t stupid to cut bait on Vargas.

That’s fair. To be honest, a half season in AAA is probably reason timeframe for him anyways.

I fully agree with what you’re saying in regard to your last point. Telling people they can’t complain is annoying…I just don’t think Autumn intended it like that.

We know Fletcher can hit HR’s in Arizona…the problem is him hitting them everywhere else.

I just think a three or four game sample to open spring training is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. To be honest, we should all be worried about next year because we know this team is bad, not because they are starting off slow. And I get it’s natural to overreact to things in a game thread, I do it all the time myself, but spring is just a different beast in general.

Oh 100% agree. I’m definitely worried myself.

He’s not shitting on fans for being angry, but the takes are fucking wild in these threads. The overreactions to every single plate appearance is hilarious. Same for the worries on velocity of guys still ramping up. And then debating whether spring training W-L records are predictive of regular season success…I don’t care if we win every game from here on out, our team is going to be terrible this year. We don’t need to a three game sample to confirm that for us. I will never tell fans not to be pissed off because everyone should be, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with a poster asking us to be a little bit smarter on what we complain about. And don’t get me wrong, I can be a total meatball at times and am not trying to suggest I’m better than anyone here, but Autumn is a really good poster who is just trying to bring better conversation to the board.

To be honest, there is nothing more ridiculous than a spring training game thread. Small sample sizes, uneven matchups, guys ramping up and working through stuff, weather effects, etc..all ignored for the hottest of takes.

You are and he definitely deserves a OD role. He’s one of a handful of guys that I think beats expectations this year.

With the upcoming labor battle, we’d be incredibly smart not to unnecessarily burn service time on guys that don’t need to be on the OD roster. Wait three weeks and get the extra year of control for any prospect of note.

Getting 2 wins out of RF next year would be a 4 win improvement vs. 2024. I am all for playing young guys where possible, but you can’t force the issue by inserting a guy you don’t believe in into the lineup. Just being “young” is not justification to be given playing time.