Chicago White Sox

So elaborating on this a bit, but the Braves had two players play 162 games last year (Swanson & Olsen) and one play 159 (Riley). Harris played pretty much every single day once he was called up and Acuna played most days once his season actually started (he did receive more rest than others which makes sense). Point is their stars started almost every single game if they were healthy. I’m not convinced that Grifol will go that extreme, but I truly believe he shoots for ~150 starts for our legit stars and the guys where there isn’t some obvious platoon advantage to take advantage of. Guys like Anderson, Robert, Andrus, & Benintendi should be playing pretty much everyday. I get that the former two haven’t been able to stay healthy over the course of a full season as of late, but giving them more than an extra off-day once every two weeks really isn’t going to change things. Unless they are actually hurt, put them on the field. Moncada, Eloy, & Vaughn fall into the next tier for me because of their history of nagging injuries. To me, I think Grifol shoots for ~140 starts out of them. For Moncada, proactively giving him ~22 off-days against LHP throughout the season makes some sense with a guy like Alberto on the roster. Similar logic applies to Eloy & Vaughn against tough RHP with Sheets on the roster. That only leaves Colas of the non-catching starters. And with him, it’s really hard to say how they treat him against LHP. My guess is they won’t do a strict platoon in the long-run, but they may slowly introduce him to major league lefties to start the season. Gun to head, I’m guessing he will also get ~22 days off against LHP this year, which would put him around 140 starts if healthy. As outlined above, this is very different from how Tony managed things. Yes, this hasn’t been the most healthy crew as of late, but Abreu was the only guy who was out there pretty much everyday. I’m super happy this will change significantly under Grifol as not utilizing your best players as much as possible is an incredibly stupid way of managing a team. Put them out there unless their bodies clearly say no, which will obviously quite a bit with this group, but zero reason to baby them.

I was very skeptical of this hire at first, but I think today proves that Grifol is going to help modernize the f*** out of this organization. It’s incredibly early, but his hire looks like it could end up being a game changer for us.

Looks like this will end up being on the money. And honestly, I’m much happier with this bench arrangement than a lot of different outcomes. Burger playing 3B everyday in Charlotte makes all the sense in the world. He will be needed at some point this year.

?…something tells me Romy is making the roster

I’ve been expecting as much, so hopefully this is true:

Colas has officially made the Opening Day roster.

I know Leury is better than what he was last year, but I always felt he was overvalued by the front office and is a really dumb baseball player. More importantly, he’s just not a great fit for this roster. Glad we are moving on.

This has been the most boring spring training in recent memory and the fact we’re all excited to see how the bench shakes out only reinforces that point.

Also, let’s not act like Eloy & Vaughn are beacons of health. Hanging someone like Sheets around will be useful. And yes, I get he can technically still provide depth from AAA, but not quite when it comes to the day to day stuff these two often deal with. Again, to me Gavin is a no-brainer for this roster.

I think in a bench role he’s fine. This team ranked 23rd in baseball last year in wRC+ against RHP. Hopefully Colas Benintendi & Colas help, but it can’t hurt to have a LH bat who can fill in at 1B / DH occasionally and PH if needed late in a game. I’m a bit of an optimist when it comes to Gavin, but I think he might be able to get you close to a 120 wRC+ against righties. That’s plenty valuable for a role player. I just don’t want see him get a ton of ton of time in the OF. I also don’t know of many guys he is blocking for bench spots. A quality 4th OF who bats from the right side like Adam Duvall would have been great, but we don’t really have anyone like that he’d blocking. Burger is a very similar player but with an even narrower skillet. Sounds Grifol is looking for specialists rather than well-rounded but underwhelming players who will be overplayed. If that’s the case, then Gavin should be on the roster.

Alberto if he’s on the roster

Who would you keep over Sheets?

Sheets in the lineup today…he’s making the roster IMO.

Wow, I would not like this:

That all seems to make sense. With Alberto & Andrus in place, you don’t need a bench option that can cover SS. That could allow you to go with someone like Billy in a more specialized role (pinch-runner, late inning OF defense). My big beef with Billy is he’s a negative value player on days that he starts. For better or worse, it seems Hahn is committed to using Eloy & Gavin in the OF corners, which might allow for a guy like Billy.

?

I’m not a huge Alberto guy, but I do think he’d go elsewhere, whether it’s a major league or minor league opportunity.

I can’t see it happening, but this is a Rick Hahn designed team and the dude loves playing his 1B / DH types out of position.

And I’m not 100% against it, but you really can’t have him and Sheets as 2/3 of your bench. And personally, I think Sheets is the more valuable bench piece at this time given our weakness against tough RHP. Also, Alberto and hopefully Romy can hit LHP while providing some defensive versatility. Obviously they won’t hit lefties as well as Jake, but that’s a sacrifice worth making IMO.

Fathom = Eloy vs the Wall confirmed

Northbrook Bob seems to be suggesting Burger will make the team. If so, then I can’t see Alberto making the roster. Sheets is a 100% lock and there is zero chance they go with him, Jake, & Hanser as their three man bench. If they go with Burger & Sheets (which seems crazy to me), then I think Romy or Leury is all but guaranteed a spot. If they go with Alberto, then it potentially opens up a spot for Billy or Haseley. I still think we end up with Sheets, Alberto, & Romy as the bench with Leury being DFAed to free up a 40 man roster spot, but Burger really remains the wild card in all of this.

I’m definitely Team Romy.

I’d wager large sums of money that Sheets makes the OD roster. Our biggest weakness has been hitting RHP and they will want to use him to give Eloy & Vaughn breaks at times. He’s also a viable pinch hitting option for Andrus & Seby late in games. I don’t like the fact that they’ll use him in the OF way more than he should, but having a LH power bat on the bench is important and Haseley is not a real option despite a nice spring.

Agree…unless you plan on playing Eloy in RF against all LHPs and that seems insane to me. But this is Rick Hahn we’re talking about so who knows.

So the more I think about this, the more I expect the Sox to go with a bench of Sheets, Alberto, & Romy. The Sox need a left-handed bat somewhere on the bench and that role pretty much goes to Gavin by default. He can fill in at 1B/DH against tough righties when Vaughn/Eloy need a day off and can technically play a bad corner OF in a pinch (the Sox will use him much more then I would out there though). As for Alberto, I’m not quite sure I get the admiration around here, but it seems like all but a certainty that Grifol will place him on the OD roster. Personally, I think spring training stats are meaningless, so a nice camp doesn’t change the fact that he has been legit bad against RHP in his career. That being said, he does hit lefties fairly well and can play throughout the infield. As much as I’d love Burger’s bat on the bench, Alberto fills a similar need offensively with far more defensive versatility. As for the final spot, this could obviously go a lot of different ways and Leury in theory should be the favorite. However, it does seem like Hahn / Grifol may be ready to move on from Leury. If so, I think you’re looking at one of the pure OFs or a true utility guy like Romy. IMO, I think the Sox would prefer the latter and don’t think they will overreact to a strong camp and go with someone like Haseley. Yes, Romy has had a rough spring, but the defensive versatility is a huge plus and I think he will at least hit LHP well next year. And the latter is a big plus when you have two LH corner OFs who will need time off like everyone else.