Chicago White Sox

Wouldn’t take much in pitch recognition improvement to make Yoelqui a useful 4th OF. Monster arm, can play a legit CF, and hits the ball hard when he makes contact. He could be a more power-oriented, less contact version of Engel, which is a nice piece on the cheap. But he’s got to a find a way to stop chasing balls out of the zone, as that figure Law cited was insane. To your point, there is still some hope with him because of lost development time, but this does feel like a make or break year for him.

They have little depth in certain areas, with OF, C, & SP being the main areas of concern. I actually like some of the lesser bullpen additions we made and I think we have quite a few interesting depth pieces in the IF and at 1B / DH. I’d say Robert is the single most important player next year from a health standpoint. If he goes down, we could be looking at up to a 5 win swing. At least with catcher we got Carlos Perez and with SP we got Davis Martin. Not good depth by any means, but far better than the CF situation.

Very true. I’m glad people are sleeping on us. This team needs a chip on its shoulder after the s%*#-show that was last year.

Before I go into the why, I want make something clear. The past 18 months have been incredibly difficult to be a White Sox. It started with one of the most underwhelming off-seasons in my life where Rick Hahn ignored major needs, loaded up on pricey relievers, and gave a three year deal to Leury fucking Garcia. That followed with a season filled injury, underperformance, poor fundamentals, and terrible managing / coaching. What was once one of the most promising young cores in baseball looked like it was quickly approaching the end of its competitive window. And somehow, things were made worse this past winter with another mediocre off-season where we lost the face of the franchise and found out our star closer is battling cancer. And it’s that consistent disappointment over the past 18 months that has brought my excitement and optimism for the Sox to an all time low. But sometimes when you step away a bit, you come back a bit more objective. There is still plenty of talent here, even if the roster remains flawed thanks to a GM that I don’t believe to be very good as his job and an owner that refuses to overspend to make up for that GM’s mistakes. While I’m not going to predict a World Series victory, I do think a division title will happen next year. 10 Reasons Why the Sox will win the AL Central in 2023: Pedro Grifol - There are no words to describe how bad Tony La Russa was at his job last year. Any credible replacement would represent a multi-win improvement. That being said, I think Grifol is the right man to bring out the best of this roster. Jose Castro - Similar to above, Frank “f*** the HR” Menechino was a disaster as our hitting coach. So far, Castro has said all the right things and it seems like he will prioritize utilizing the team’s raw power vs. focusing hitting lots of weak grounders. Better Health - I hate even typing this, but this team can only be healthier next year just through normalized luck. Goldy Simmons having a full off-season to work with our guys and the hiring of Geoff Head as Director of Sports Medicine will also help. Eloy at DH - The kid put up a 144 wRC+ over 84 games last year and showed why he once was a pillar of the rebuild. With the move to DH and some legit weight loss, Eloy could finally have a breakthrough season and one where he plays +140 games. Vaughn at 1B - Andrew had a 125 wRC+ through August last year, before wearing down in September and seeing his FY line drop to 113. Playing a less demanding position should allow him to endure a full season and allow him to take a big leap. OF Defense - Vaughn & Sheets were two of the worst defensive OFs in the game last year (Andrew being far & away the worst). Replacing them with Benintendi & Colas is a massive improvement. And Robert can only be better in 2023 as well. Angry Tim - Let’s be honest, this dude is mad as f*** and is already starting to think about his next payday. He is going to to motivated as hell this year and is going to bring his his A game. I fully expect him to rebound to his previous +4 win player form. A New Junior - With a new name comes new beginnings. I believe Robert is going to flash that Mike Trout lite potential next year. The 155 wRC+ he put up in 2021 is my expectation along with above average CF defense. A +6 win season is possible. The Rotation - I’m very optimistic about the group this year. We got less than five wins from Lynn, Giolito, & Kopech last year and I expect that figure to double. And while Clevinger is pure scum, I do think he’ll give us quality production at the #5 spot. The Division - Last but not least, but the AL Central is simply not good. I get the Guardians won 92 games last year, but I don’t see them repeating that despite what projection models may say. I think they’re a high 80’s win team and we can beat that.

Are or were? And if they are post Tony, who is responsible?

Looking at these roster options, I’m still very annoyed we didn’t go out and sign a quality 4th OF who hits from the right side. That lack of depth is going to bite us at some point next year.

Can’t really complain about this if he’s used properly, which should be likely winner of the OD 2B job and general infield depth. If he reverts back to his s%*# form or one of the young guys looks studly this spring, they better be prepared to move him to a reserve role. My only real concern is there being a handshake agreement that he is a lockdown starter.

In regard to the 2B battle, Rick Hahn just said Zach Remillard “has sort of been forcing the issue for a few years” and that we should see what he has in camp. Fire this guy right now. Just a complete fucking joke of a GM.

He’s going to be sub-replacement or like a 2.5 win player next year. Definition of a boom or bust like guy and I wouldn’t bet on the latter given how much he is likely to strike out.

How you think Tears of the Kingdom looks? Nintendo continues to hide so much it’s hard to get a sense of what the game is really about.

Every player healthy and in the best shape of their career should be the answer.

Regarding the first point, he could trade from the farm to improve the major league roster and/or add depth. I get this is still a bottom five farm system, but it still has plenty of talent to tap into if winning next year is truly a priority. IMO, there is zero excuse going into the season with our OF depth. A single injury or Colas struggled and we are pretty much fucked. And I get the point on payroll constraints, but let’s pretend a lot of financial wounds aren’t self inflicted by Rick himself. $180M should be enough to build a more complete roster with far less question marks. As for changing from Rick to Getz, I can’t really say how impactful the change would be and it’s not the move I would make at GM to solve our problems. But I do think it’s possible that Getz represents an improvement. To me, Rick is a very poor talent evaluator and hasn’t installed the analytic resources into the org to make up for that shortcoming. A lot of the latter may be an ownership driven problem, but it’s becoming very clear that Hahn is incapable of being a successful GM in a Jerry led organization. At some point, you give the guy who is highly intelligent and a former baseball player a chance. Maybe it’s all the same outcome due to KW, but Rick can’t keep blaming his shortcomings on Jerry forever.

I could see a switch to Chris Getz if the team performs poorly.

And IMO, Hahn should be relieved of his duties if the team doesn’t make the playoffs. La Russa is long gone and Rick is the guy entering the season with a $180M payroll relying on multiple rookies and with little depth. Tony’s impact may have been massive, but that doesn’t excuse Hahn from not improving the roster.

There is a nice positional core developing outside of catcher: 1B: Vaughn 2B: Sosa/Popeye SS: Montgomery 3B: Ramos LF: Benintendi CF: Robert RF: Colas DH: Jimenez Need some of the young pitchers to come through as well, but at least there is some reasons for optimism in the long-run.

Remember when Rick said he was going go make trades to help augment the roster and then proceeded to only make a minor one? Oh those were the days when I thought we were serious about winning instead of banking on perfect health & luck. What a fucking s%*# show.

Then we won’t be making the playoffs anytime soon.

The dream scenario is the Texans getting so desperate for Young due to the Colts seriously pursuing that they give up the 1.12 to move up a spot. Seems very unlikely, but you never know given how shitty the state of NFL QBs are at the moment. But damn, would allow us to grab one of the top WRs in the class which would be fucking awesome.

Honestly, the stadium is basically perfect. About the only thing you could do to enhance the experience is rip out a few sections of the 500 level and install some high top tables. At least for me, I like experiencing a Sox game looking at my friends rather than the field and there aren’t a lot of options to do that right now at the Rate.

It’s not silly when the competitive window is quickly running out of time.

I got to be honest, this franchise sucks a fat you know what. I’m literally embarrassed to be a fan at this point. I uprooted my entire family so I could go to Sox games on the regular and I come home to a roster whose only addition is a non-power hitting LF and a stadium whose only upgrade is a baby bar with some high-top tables that can’t even see the field. For f***’s sack we are a joke.

Isn’t this more of Jerry’s fault? How would you have funded the extra $4M in payroll in 2023?

I’d be fine with him in a reserve role (definitely worried that Grifol would play him everyday), but I can’t see us cutting Leury until mid-season at the earlier. Hahn is going to try to save face on that deal IMO.

“Hits lefty” is a pretty loose interpretation of those words. He technically takes at-bats from the left side would be a more fair way of saying it. And the one amazing season you’re referring to was partially driven by flukey batted ball luck. He’s legit one of the worst hitters in baseball. I understand the defense is amazing, but going with a glove-only guy at 2B (even with the rule changes) seems nuts to me. Personally, I’d rather just go with Lenyn Sosa even if you have to accept some struggles for the first months.

It might eventually come to that…lol