Chicago White Sox

It’s really wild when you look back on it, although I do think there was a bias against the Sox system at the time with the mainstream publications.

It’s 100% a part of the equation.

FIFY

This team needs to keep adding. A 4th OF is a must. I’d love to see us acquire a LH hitting infielder, even if they aren’t a lock-down starter at 2B. The bench right now is a bit of a mess, especially if you’re going with Romy or Sosa as the primary 2B. Leury clogging up with roster doesn’t help matters either. And I hope we see a couple SPs brought in on minor league deals. Obviously they won’t be studs, but we desperately need to beef up Charlotte’s rotation with guys that can at least be replacement level if called upon.

Cueto is not going to sign with us to be a swingman when he can get a SP role for solid money elsewhere.

I just think these projections are kind of meaningless. They don’t account for the impact of moving away from our previous lifeless manager with a guy who will have players prepared and focused, they don’t account for the impact of replacing a hitting coach whose motto was “f*** the HR” with three modern instructors who will help our players tap into their raw power, and they don’t account for our new training staff finally having an off-season to work with our guys and find ways to keep them healthier over the course of a season. So you can continue to pound table and scream that we’re way behind the Guardians as we head into next year, but I’ll continue to point out that all these protection systems miss context and do not realize how incompetent certain elements of this org were the last two seasons. Whatever these models are spitting out, I’d add at least a good five wins on top of that.

I guess the season is over then ?‍♂️

Has this not been formally announced yet?

I don’t think some people realize how big of a deal it is getting rid of Menechino and replacing him with three hitting coaches who want to establish a modern approach. We saw the impact in small samples last year after players were sent down to AAA and got to work with Chris Johnson. For example, Gavin Sheets’ wRC+ against RHP went from 83 prior to his demotion to 122 once he had a chance to work with Chris. His improvement was supported by a much more pull heavy approach and harder contact, which resulted in a much improved HR/FB rate and 50% gain in ISO. Just from the eye test you could see he looked more dangerous at the plate. I don’t expect this new trio to be miracle workers, but when the predecessor was completely incompetent and actively making our hitters worse, it’s not hard to expect massive gains from our core hitters next year.

He gone

FG had him as the #98 overall prospect two years ago. They are definitely the outlier on Santos.

Clevinger 100%.

Better last year does not mean better next year.

Sosa reminds a bit of Semien in that regard. Marcus obviously had much better patience, but he put up some massive numbers in AA and never cracked a top 100 list to my knowledge.

Wow…Cespedes had a 45% chase rate ?

I’m good with guys like Hamilton, Reyes, & Payton as extra depth in AAA. But they can’t be first guy up when a starter misses extended time. Go sign Duvall for like $5M and give us a quality 4th OF.

If the Sox don’t add a solid 4th OF then they aren’t serious about competing next year. Can’t rely on Gavin Sheets or Billy Fucking Hamilton to fill in when one of our starters goes down. And that’s assuming Colas comes up and is able to be semi-productive from the get go.

There are multiple RH hitting OFs could be quality 4th OFs.

I’m guessing the guy photo-shopped, but would love to see Mets fan react to that after convincing themselves they’d get Liam for McCann & filler.

It doesn’t matter if you have to move a piece if five other teams are eager to acquire said piece. For a player as attractive as Liam, the poker element only works on margins. You should be able to get a quality return regardless of how your hand is positioned.

Now this is more like it ?. Obviously completely ridiculous, but people should spread this over Twitter to see those fucking Mets fans squirm.

Why would teams lowball for Hendriks if they want an impact reliever? This is simple supply & demand and there are no other arms available like Liam and he’s a very reasonable deal.

Who you talking about? Gary Sanchez?

?…Kade actually was pretty good last year for the Knights once he moved to the bullpen. And not having him on the 40 man roster as additional depth was a nice plus. That being said, Santos still has an option and a massively higher ceiling. Probably a risk worth making if you want a potentially more impactful arm.

I was hyped as f*** for that bullpen. It didn’t really work out, but at the time I was excited for guys like Sisco & Aardsma.