Chicago White Sox

Sean Anderson called out the CEO of his company for his comments about why this happened, but also acknowledged that Jerry played a major role in this.

I don’t see how the positional group could be viewed as being worse than the one that put up -6.4 of fWAR last year. Robert will almost certainly be better. Tauchman/Slater is replacing a RF group that put up -2.1 fWAR. The catching group will likely be improved vs. the one that put -2.4 fWAR. We have a ton of options for 3B & 2B that project to be second division regulars. And gun to head, Vaughn should be a little bit better than last year. Hopefully Benintendi will also be a little bit better as well. Again, this will be a bad positional group, but last year was terrible with dudes called up who were well below replacement level.

He ranks 8th and they have a 45 FV prospect now.

You have repeatedly said Robert has little value and that we must get rid of him soon or else we’ll likely end up with nothing. And I definitely disagree with you on your valuation of Baty & Acuna. They would be solid secondary pieces, but neither is a fair headliner for a talent like Robert IMO.

See, you keep doing this. Pick random stat that supports your biased view of players and ignore all context. Again, we’re talking about 40 plate appearances with a wOBA nearly 100 points above his xwOBA and as ISO well over 100% above his minor league norms. But hey, who cares about his struggles in AAA when can the SSS in the majors to override it!

I’ve never once called Acuna a worthless asset, but his outlook and value is certainly suppressed after a rough 2024. As for Robert, I just outlined how good of a player he was in the majors prior to the 2024 season. It’s far easier to believe a guy with a track record of success in the majors will perform at that level again after a single rough season vs. the prospect who has never been successful at the level he failed at.

I’m sorry, but when you have a product line that’s not financially viable most companies will cut it. Covering the White Sox isn’t good business right now. If it was, then enough people would stop buying subscriptions and the broader business would go under. And like we saw with the Tribune and Athletic, both of those publications have kept on chugging without a White Sox beat writer. I will not defend firing people a week before Christmas and I do not support general corporate greed, but you also can’t point to every business decision and blame it on management being incompetent. Unfortunately, the external environment does impact how a company will need to operate and Jerry running this franchise into the ground has made it harder to cover the team.

No, I look at everything, although I don’t put much weight on 40 major league plate appearances where is wOBA exceeded his xwOBA by nearly 100 points. My point was you only look at Robert’s 2024 and say he’s a worthless asset, but don’t do the same for Acuna who is coming off a very rough AAA season and instead try to anchor off a 40 plate appearance sample in the majors. The reality is that Luis Robert has been a 4.75 fWAR per 600 plate appearances type player prior to last season. There is no arguing against the injury history, but the bulk of the time missed is related to two hip flexor injuries. Regardless, there is certainly a high risk of some missed playing time with him. But hell, if he can give you even 450 plate appearances you’re probably looking at a 3.5 win player which is more or less a top 7 CF. And that’s super valuable when you consider a guy like Tyler O’Neil just got 3/$50M despite his own injury history. Ultimately, I’m not going to trade a guy who I believe will be a 3+ win player next year for a guy who has failed in the majors over a 600 PA sample and a prospect coming off a really rough 2024 season. I need much more of a sure thing if I’m dealing Robert right now…otherwise hold until the deadline and hopefully do better.

It’s absolutely wild that you’re saying we’re overvaluing a dude who put up 4.8 fWAR two years ago while hyping up a Mets prospect who put up a 69 wRC+ in AAA last year.

Let me know when he puts up a 4.8 fWAR win season

I love this justification, but the pure hatred you have for Robert

They weren’t isolated, but the Sox were most impacted

Did you see his 2024 season?

Did those teams lose 2/3 of their staff?

Fully disagree here. We have gotten to the point where major publications and local newspapers can’t justify supporting a beat writer for the Sox in the third largest media market in the country. That’s 100% on Jerry for allowing the product to fall off like this. So yeah, he’s not to be blamed for firing dudes the week before Christmas, but he’s made it financially unviable for many publications to cover this team.

You called him a “no bat backstop” and my point was he’s more offense than defense.

While true, Jerry isn’t free from blame here. Interest levels are super fucking low because of the incompetence he has allowed to fester for years.

I think league minimum is $750k or so

Jerry Reinsdorf should be forced to sell with the damage he has done

Major injury most years, but still incredibly productive on a per game basis. He was just plain bad last year along with being injured. Unless you think the 2024 version is here to stay, trading him for two post hype guys who are likely to amount to nothing is the definition of insanity. Just hold into the season if that’s the best you can get.

He said those guys are his RF platoon. Neither are really CF types.

A team full of replacement players should win 48 games. I feel pretty good that we will be a positive WAR team next and therefore should exceed the 49 win O/U assuming normal luck. While the team will still be really bad, there are more above replacement level talents on it than last year.

So let me get this straight, we should ignore Robert’s track record and assume he’s the 2024 version moving forward, while we should ignore Acuna’s terrible 2024 season and Baty’s failures in the majors and assume they will be meaningful pieces?

The difference is selling low with Cease meant getting a consensus top 100 prospect, another guy who some publications considered a top 100 prospect, another top 10 org prospect with actual upside, and a controllable reliever. It sounds like selling low with Robert would be considerably less to the point the risk of FOMO is slim to none at this time.

I’d take the over at the moment.