Chicago White Sox

Cease’s spin rate on his 4 seamer was actually higher in 2023 than it was in 2020 & 2019. His slider is mostly the same with 2020 and well above 2019.

Cease did?

We are more than due for a homerun trade and I love the videos I’ve seen of Zavala (plus that .420 OBP) and it just feels like Thorpe is a dude who is going quietly produce #3 SP numbers for a long time.

?

Having the bullpen pitch five or six innings once every five days week after week on top of covering any other shortfalls from the remaining four guys could prove to be very taxing. And I simply don’t believe Pedro will manage this very effectively, which could result in underperformance and/or these guys getting hurt.

Are you suggesting this is “good news”? I am 100% excited for Crochet to make the transition to starting, but that doesn’t mean that I think the way we’re going about it makes any sense. This dude is going to have a very strict innings limit and it’s very likely this won’t work out health wise. Having him spend the first 45 days of the season in AAA and gradually work up his innings makes much more sense to me. First, it helps protect your bullpen to open up the season. Second, it claws backs a year of control which is very important in the event he wears out in June or July. This transition should be treated like a multi-year process and to me that justifies a short stint in Charlotte. But look, if you want to get overly excited about Crochet being the first pitcher in baseball history to make his first ever major league start on Opening Day in their fourth major league season then more power to you. It just feels like the org is putting lipstick on a pig to create some fan interest. And again, I will be right there with you cheering him on come Opening Day and hoping this all works out great (and making me look stupid), but IMO it does feel like we’re taking a typical White Sox short term approach to developing him into a starter.

It matters when you have a pitcher going 3 or 4 innings every five days. It’s going to kill your bullpen unless planned for. Hopefully Getz & Grifol have an actual plan here, because Touki or whomever the long reliever is will be needed to cover the other guys in the rotation.

So who will be his piggyback every five days? Feels like you basically need a dedicated sixth starter who is paired with Crochet to pull this off.

I don’t disagree with your core point, but I don’t think AAA experience is all that important for pitchers. If he dominates AA for three months, then there is a real argument that he’s ready for the majors IMO.

Gio Gonzalez was “passed along” three times and put up 32 fWAR.

Yes, let’s ignore all of Sheets’ history of being a bad major league hitter and slot in his horrible glove into RF because of a few dozen meaningless spring training at-bats.

To be fair, only one person is doing this and they constantly look for things to feed their pessimism.

It’s like two or three weeks typically unless it’s changed with the new CBA.

Sheets isn’t a legitimate OF option though. How has DeLoach been this spring? If bad, I’m not sure what alternative they really have.

For a reason? How about Arizona’s loaded fucking OF? When will you stop with this insanity.

If we use Sheets as the strong side platoon in RF, then Getz should be fired immediately because he’d be even more full s%*# than Grifol.

He has already proven himself in the minors and more seasoning won’t really help. At this point, it’s make or break in the majors…it’s really that simply.

Can we please stop doing this every year? Spring training stats mean almost nothing and I say this as one of the most vocal critics of the Fletcher / Mena trade. And for the record, if Fletcher doesn’t make the Opening Day roster, that would much more indicative of Getz has no clue about player evaluation.

I’d personally wait until mid/late April with Nastrini & Thorpe even if they were ready.

Fedde, Soroka, & Flexin are locks. The other two spots probably go to some combo with Crochet (with a piggyback), Nastrini, and a free agent.

I think we will look back on this trade in 10 years and all agree it was an A+ return when Zavala ends up being a legit star posting .400 OBPs year after year with 25+ bombs per and Thorpe has made 200 (mostly quality) starts for us.

He’s 3.028 service time and typically you need to hold a guy down 15 days to ensure they don’t a full year (172 days) since the season is around 187 days long. As such, we’d roughly have to hold him down for a month and a half, which is an absolute no-brainer.

Sorry, my comment was directed at Bears fans

This should be a wake up call for the Bears who wanted to keep Fields over drafting Williams and yet it definitely won’t be.

He gained a couple MPH last year so more is definitely possible.