Chicago White Sox

You’re literally drawing conclusions based on 316 plate appearances: Y20-Y23: PA = 1,519 | 5.3% BB % | 25.2% K % | .221 ISO | .334 BABIP | 125 wRC+ Y24 (1H): PA = 179 | 10.1% BB % | 31.8 K % | .255 ISO | .290 BABIP | 123 wRC+ Y24 (2H): PA = 246 | 4.1% BB % | 34.1% K % | .086 ISO | .322 BABIP | 56 wRC+ Y25 (YTD): PA = 70 | 11.4% BB % | 27.1% K % | .068 ISO | .175 BABIP | 33 wRC+ Robert was legit awesome through the All-Star game of last year. He clearly was awful during the 2H of last season, but there are many reasons for that which have been highlighted plenty of times. In particular, it’s 100% clear his health was a major contributor and we can see that by his the reductions in bat speed and sprint speed last year. However, if you look at his underlying metrics so far this year you will see improvements (including chase rate). The BABIP is ridiculously low (which will normalize) and the power has been terrible despite his elite bat speed being back to normal, but as I have pointed out he hasn’t been squaring up on the ball at all. His groundball and popup rates are up a combined 24% points vs. his career rates and 26% points vs. last year. That’s the definition of abnormal and a completely different problem from last year. Do you really think that rate is going to stick? Additionally, Robert routinely struggles in April. His career wRC+ is 82 in April vs. a combined 120 for all other months. As such, there is zero reason to overreact to a slow start from him as long as he is healthy. Again, you have decided Robert is a fundamentally different player now (and a terrible one at that) because of 316 bad plate appearances. It’s absolutely wild.

My point is someone would give up something for him, even if it’s just a couple of lottery tickets. I don’t see any realistic case where we we’d decline Robert’s option unless he suffers a major injury and that’s lingering heading into the offseason.

Zero chance…big market clubs would take him in a heartbeat if he was free

I’ll be honest, I am starting to lose the little bit of hope I had that Getz wasn’t the shitty Farm Director that he appeared to be and that his failures were a result of being held back by KW & Hahn. I have no doubt that he’s made some structural improvements to the org, but ultimately you have to be able to marry the data and technology and turn it into meaningful actions to drive real change and I am currently unconvinced he knows how to do that.

It’s our only hope unfortunately

We need Ishbia to take over ASAP and clear fucking house

Dear god…I really fucking hate this team

How the f*** do we have a .160 BABIP? Have we hit the ball hard at all or are we just slapping it around?

We doing one today or have reached the point of none of us no longer caring.

Last two seasons? He put 4.9 fWAR two seasons ago? Unless you are calling 60 plate appearances in April a “season”…

Why would it be ideal to keep those guys altogether? Like slow down for a sec and think why that makes any sense?

And will be forever if we cut bait on kids after a few weeks or even months

We are rebuilding…they are competing.

Yup, he legit looked broken out there after his hip injury.

His 2021 season was driven by a super high walk rate, which really has nothing to do with his power.

He was at a 125 wRC+ prior to last year. I don’t put a ton of stock into his performance last year given the extent of his injuries and the fact this team was a fucking disaster lead by an incompetent boob. Now, if Robert’s performance doesn’t improve in the coming months, I’ll certainly change my tune on that. For now, I believe he’s the same player he always was because the elite athleticism is still there.

I think it was in a Sox Machine article by Fegan. None of the other beat writers are going to talk about technology like Trajekt machines other than Fegan.

How dare that private equity scumbag build a ballpark in the 78! Think of the ingress / egress challenges and lack of parking! Some people may have to take public transportation with all the common folk!!

You literally said he doesn’t work on anything outside of the job. I’m pointing out that he has been using technology previously not provided to him to address his major weakness during the offseason. Whether the results stick in another matter, but the core point that he’s trying to improve holds true.

A low OBP, but high ISO hitter who is 20% to 25% above league average as a hitter and who can play a quality CF.

He literally worked on a Trajekt machine all offseason and his chase rate is currently at a career best.

Moncada has long Covid and lost a lot of power. Not even remotely comparable situations.

Nope, in the top six percentile for both bat speed and sprint speed. As I mentioned in a previous post, his current year results are down because his launch angle has been fucked up. He’s been barreling balls pretty well and has career best performances so far in chase rate and walk rates (his biggest problems in the past) along with an improved K rate. I know it’s fun to overact to small sample sizes, but the underlying data suggests his offense will regress to the norm at some point.

Did NBB ever signal that Jerry was going to facilitate multiple transactions to increase their ownership stake from like 5% to 35%? I haven’t seen him really comment on the logic there, but rather just downplay on anything happening soon which is probably what the Reinsdorf’s want out there until a deal is final.

For people who think this will take 5 years or more, the question is why? What do the Reinsdorf’s have to gain waiting so long? Again, other than Jerry being bored, there is no rationale for keeping their stake in the team when they have a motivated buyer who would likely blow all other alternatives out of the water. And even crazier is this notion that’s Jerry’s sons will somehow hold onto the team for an extended period of time. Again, why? And how would they be able to afford running a team when they minimal accumulated wealth? They will almost certainly have to sell the White Sox to keep their cash cow that is the Bulls. Jerry has telegraphed this for years. The only difference is that with the Ishbia’s already on board and currently the largest shareholders (based on deals that Jerry helped facilitate), it’s clear as day that the transition plan is already in the works. It’s only a matter of time before this happens unless you believe all stakeholders will act against their own best interests moving forward.