Chicago White Sox

Cut the comedy routine and he’ll be fine. As weird/goofy/odd the DJ & Farmer combo can be, I was amazed the other day with them actually going in depth about baseball situations, scenarios, & strategies. Stone has excellent insights to offer, but too often they’re not talking baseball for my liking.

Yeah, Matt being lefty would be nice and Lillian would obviously be much happier!

He’s got to keep up the BB rate, but he’s quickly turned himself into an interesting player and a potential long-term answer at DH.

Bad call there.

God I actually might like Davidson ?

Alright boys, let’s score some fucking runs. Nicky’s my pick to click today and hopefully he starts things off right right here.

Yeah, I’m really digging the new site. Lot of cool new features that generally make it better. And the improvements for phone users like myself is like going from black & white to color TV.

Nothing you can do about that.

? I may need to change my prediction

No, I’m asking them to make small improvements to avoid nightly blowouts, put less strain on a fairly taxed bullpen, and better the team’s morale. The talent level will prevent this team from ever being remotely good, but that doesn’t mean we should accept being this bad. For example, cutting bait on a MiGo who topped out at like 89 in his last start and looks to be done seems like an easy to way to improve the team without affecting anyone’s development.

I’m confident the team takes this one today. Lopez has looked pretty awesome this year and I really think the offense can get to McCullers. Plus the team is going to do everything in it’s power to avoid another sweep.

Well that’s not the argument of this thread in the slightest. I fully expected this team to be bad and have been one of the most vocal supporters of giving our young players the time needed to develop (see my many responses on Moncada). But there is bad and there is getting absolutely destroyed on a daily basis. Losing like this is not part of the process and does not provide any positive benefit whatsoever. We can continue pretending these guys are robots, but it’s only human nature to be affected by this type of losing. Guys will most definitely start pressing & start to lose focus. We’re already starting to see that and it will only get worse if this type of losing continues. And when I suggest to “fix this mess”, it’s not about trying to get to .500 and it certaintly isn’t meant to add wins at the expense of development. It’s not even about making this product more watchable for the fans. It’s simply about making these guys feel like they have some sort of chance to win on a daily basis. Ultimately talent plays out and this team will be bad no matter what we do, but if possible let’s have them lose more games 3-5 & 4-6 then these 1-10 blowouts we’ve seeing lately.

I have to disagree here. Losing itself isn’t the problem, it’s the way we are losing that’s the problem. Our starters have been an absolute disaster and this is an area that is effecting the rest of the team. First, it’s putting a significant strain on the bullpen. I get we have two long relievers now, but a guy like Rodon had to pitch 3 innings the other day. And this is after he pitched the day before. A lot of our relievers are being forced to pitch on back to back days more than you’d ideally like IMO. This rate of usage can not last over a full season or it will have consequences. The other part here is how these types of blowouts impact the morale & confidence of our positional players. Playing from behind eight runs on a regular basis is not fun and causes guys to press and/or lose focus. We’ve already seen plenty of sloppiness and it’s only going to continue. It’s really hard to avoid that trap when you have to nothing to play for on a nightly basis. And I really don’t want key future pieces in Moncada & Anderson up there feeling like they have to force something and changing their plan or approach. Players do stupid things when they start pressing and that’s not in the best long-term interests of their development.

What doesn’t matter?

To share some of my own thoughts here, it’s obvious the starting pitching is the largest problem. Outside of Reyaldo, the rotation has been an absolute disaster. MiGo looks pretty much cooked and probably needs to the be the first guy to go. I think we’d be smart to flip flop roles with him & Santiago. I’m not sure MiGo is destined to last long with this team, but I’d retain him as a long reliever in the short-run. The next change is much harder for me to propose, but I think it necessary. I think Giolito needs to be sent down to Charlotte to clear his head. The kid is a very cerebral pitcher and I worry him working through his mechanical issues while dealing with the stressors of major league hitters is not the best way to right the ship. I get the working with Cooper arguments, but last night’s outing is not going to help his fragile mental state nor boon his confidence heading into his next start. In the interim I’d probably give Volstad these starts as there doesn’t seem a better option here unfortunately. This would result in a rotation of Lopez, Shields, Santiago, Volstad, & Fulmer. That’s still beyond ugly but would hopefully be an upgrade or at the very least more stable. Other changes are much more straight forward. First, get Engel out of the lineup ASAP and give Thompson an extended look in CF. Second, move Avi down in the lineup. He is absolutely killing us right now batting in the two-hole. I’d put Sanchez there against RHP & Anderson there against LHP. For now, that’s all you can really do on the offensive side IMO.

So let me start off by sharing a few facts: 4–13 on the season (3rd worst in MLB) 1-9 in their last 10 / have lost 6 straight Outscored 60 to 15 in their last 5 games 2nd to last in run differential (-50) Most runs allowed per game (6.65) Bottom 2 in starters ERA, FIP, & xFIP Worst in starters K/9 & BB/9 (5.85 vs 5.95) Starters averaging under 5 IP per start Starters have combined for 0.0 WAR 5th worse in relievers BB/9 (4.83) 4th best in relievers K/9 (10.43) Offense is 19th overall in wRC+ (94) 4th worse in K % (26.1 %) 17th in BB rate (8.9%) & 15th in ISO (.156) Averaging 2.45 runs over last 11 games Two negative WAR players (Avi -0.6, Engel -0.5) Couldn’t find good stats to highlight how the base running & fielding has been. I would say that Anderson & Moncada have been awesome on the bases, while the rest of the team has been passable at best. Defensively the team has been a mess despite what the stats might say. The team has played very sloppy baseball through 17 games. So given this information, what can be done to improve this team in the short run? I’m sure we all expected the team to be bad, but the way things are going right now are far beyond my wildest expectations. These losses are becoming demoralizing and it’s going to have an impact on our players confidence and/or efforts. While there are no perfect solutions here, some changes are desperately needed to allow our players to feel they have at least some chance of winning on a given day.

Remind me to never start a gamethread again this season. Pretty sure the other game I started was just as bad.

I would pay for Greg’s ticket & buy him unlimited beers if he wanted to go to a game in Chicago. Would be a small price to pay to finally meet the legendary Greg in person.

There aren’t any great solutions at the moment. Can’t rush Kopech because of this mess, but the other starters in Charlotte are really AAA fodder. I think Santiago is our best option if we want to bump someone from the rotation. At least there are a couple of interesting bullpen guys down in Charlotte if needed.

That’s great except for the fact that Giolito’s stuff has gradually disappeared. Not good when you can’t command 91 MPH fastballs when you were previously throwing the ball 98. Hopefully this is all tied to mechanical issues, but until he’s back closer to the mid 90’s it’s hard to consider these lumps as normal growing pains and not something much worse.

Adolfo K’ing like crazy these last couple of games, hopefully it’s just a rough patch and not a sign of things to come.

It’s clear that changes are desperately needed, but honestly I don’t know what can be done to fix this mess. Santiago should probably take MiGo’s spot in the rotation. I hate saying this, but Giolito probably should be sent to Charlotte for a few weeks to get his mind right. I guess Voldstad could be his replacement in the interim. I’d probably send down Bummer as well and call up Cedeno. Not sure why the Sox felt the need to rush the kid. The staff will still be a mess but hopefully a bit more stable. On the offensive side, the changes are pretty simple. First, get Engel out the lineup and give Trayce an extended look in CF. Then I’d move Avi down in the order. Can’t keep trotting him out there in the two-hole when he’s refusing to take walks & swinging at everything. Put Sanchez there against RHP & Anderson there against LHP. These changes may only have small impacts, but losing like this is demoralizing and will NOT help with the development of the few future core guys currently on the roster.

I really think their top four is Mize, Bohm, Madrigal, & Swaggerty in some fashion. Those guys all fit perfectly in our rebuild timeline. I don’t see the Sox taking a HS arm at 4th overall and quite frankly I don’t think there is a HS bat with enough upside to pass on those four college guys.

It’s really a shame they didn’t just cut bait with Shields and sign someone with a semblance of upside.

Keuchel (0-3, 3.52) vs. Giolito (0-2, 5.50)