Chicago White Sox

Don’t think it helped when Schifren said the Sox have no specific plan for Luis and are banking on a change of scenery to fix his ailments. Baseball gods did not like that at all.

Ok, we all got a little too exited about Castillo and angered the baseball gods. I had a feeling this was coming.

My concern as well but so far so good!

He’s incredibly good at squaring up on the ball and gets the most out of what raw power he has (when the swing / angle is right) and doesn’t have to sell-out to do so. Great fucking player…easily my favorite on the entire team.

Anyone else terrified when our 3B coach waves anyone in?

With awesome defense and fire in the clubhouse

Grichuk needs to break out of his slump and make the Red Sox pay for that

Chase is an absolute monster!

I can’t remember the last time Braden hit a HR

Doyle needs to come in and at least be semi productive against LHP.

I like this version of Castillo

I really think we will regret letting Pereira go. Still need a RH corner outfielder / DH option for next year and beyond.

Doyle fucking sucks

I’m literally sitting next to Sean Burke’s grandma. What an awesome woman and what a special experience for her. Need to reward her and the rest of their family with a win.

We are getting at least one here…book it

It’s not even a lack of scoring…these aren’t even competitive at-bats

It’s like these dudes have never seen a sweeper before. Some of these chases are like a good foot off from my seats. Immensely frustrating.

Just sucks that Romo is an absolute rally killer.

This team needs to wake the f*** up now.

How did Doyle look last night? I watched part of the 1st (turned off after the grand slam) and then had to board a flight. Saw him chasing down some balls off the green monster, but nothing else.

Sean Burke vs. Sonny Gray. Going to be a fantastic pitching matchup. Team should be hungry after its ass whipping yesterday. Burke is also from Massachusetts so I’d expect he’ll be amped up pitching in front of friends & family. It’s going to feel like a playoff game tonight. I flew into Boston last night with the wife & eldest son and will be in attendance. I refuse end the day without a White Sox win. Let’s fucking go!

Yeah, it’s a fine buy low move, but is odd timing and potentially problematic for a playoff push. Our bench now has two incredibly weak RH hitters in Doyle & Acuna plus a question mark in Grichuk. Despite certain flaws, Pereira was very useful against LHP. We could find ourselves highly exposed against lefties down the stretch and into the playoffs now.

I really like this Bart trade. Given he’s under control next year, I think you go to camp with a battle for the backup spot but consider Bart the favorite. Honestly, given Quero is only 23 years old, I’d be ok with him opening next year in AAA and trying to regain some form & value. I’m also open to trading Quero, but I think he’s a guy who could improve quite a bit with a focused offseason plan.

Perez came up when Hays & Pereira got hurt

Couple of thoughts that go into my grading process. All four players Getz acquired are controllable. Castillo & Bart each have one year of control left while Brazoban & Doyle each have three. All major areas of need were addressed to some extent. The pitching staff is stronger, but the question is how much. I think Castillo will be an upgrade over Fedde and absorb more innings, but he’ll need to fix some stuff to make those innings materially better than what Fedde has given us. We only added one SP which means our weakest link production wise stays in the rotation in Schultz. With Fedde now moving to the bullpen we probably see a lot of piggy-backing with him and Noah. That may help us address the innings issue down the stretch, but the lack of a more impactful SP additional could really leave us disadvantaged come playoff time. Brazoban is an upgrade over Dominguez which means the bullpen is obviously stronger. The core six late to middle relief guys are strong. Richards & Fedde give us two long men to help out as guys wear down. McDougal & Hagen are still here and could be significant reinforcements come September & October. I feel really good about the status of this unit. The addition of Bart is nothing crazy on paper, but is a massive improvement over Romo & Quero. Would have been great to get Stephenson but he didn’t even get traded, which suggests a high asking price. Ultimately, we got to hope that Teel comes back and some point, but Bart at least raises the floor. I still can’t process this Doyle move. We effectively gave up three players to add him if you count the DFA’ing of Pereira. I get he had a nice season a few years back, but he hasn’t hit for s%*# recently (maybe injuries are a huge factor) and he is now Peters’ platoon partner against LHP. I want to give Fuller and the hitting group the benefit of the doubt here, but hard to expect to fix his swing or approach amidst a playoff push. The defense will help, but doesn’t erase my concerns with the bat. In terms of what we gave up, I don’t have a ton of heartburn on the prospect cost. Gabe Davis was my highest rated prospect, who came in at 10th in my rankings three weeks ago. The difference between him and the next half dozen guys below him is very small. Like the ceiling but there is a ton of reliever risk so not overly concerned given the return. Adams & Smith were ranked 15th & 19th respectively, although Smith would have moved up quite a bit given his continued AA success. No one else was in my top 20 although Vielma is a kid who could get there in a couple of years. Losing Pereira does suck as I still believe in his talent if given enough runway. All things considered, I’d give the Sox a C right now but will say the ranking could change dramatically based on what Castillo & Doyle. Ultimately we appear to be a bit stronger without giving any major prospects, but didn’t do enough to materially improve our post season chances. Maybe that’s the right call for year 1 of our competitive window, but would have loved to found a way to add a SP to slot into between Burke & Davis.