Chicago White Sox

What you hearing James?

Please make this s%*# stop. Most here want to discuss White Sox baseball instead of enduring endless bickering and whining. I understand that the mods here don’t want to abuse their power, but at some point action must be taken to protect the quality of the board. I also think some hard discussions must be had with a certain Admin who is consistently involved in the bickering. I’m not looking to pick sides here, but at some point all parties need to be sent to the penalty box if they can’t play nice. And it’s clear as day that playing nice won’t happen on its own.

Love that write up on Perez.

My guess at the rest of the offseason list: Sign mid-rotation SP Add cheap veteran OF Trade Lee for whatever possible Trade Sosa if a return is there

I accept your apology pal 😁

They have the worst outfield on paper hands down. I just think that Baldwin showed enough last year to be given an everyday opportunity. Yes, the defense is a question mark, but that’s explainable and hopefully addressable. The bat was legit good after a tremendous run in AAA (go check his Statcast figures). I might feel a little different if were trying to win the World Series next year, but alas we aren’t and he’s the type of guy you try turning into a everyday regular in a rebuilding season.

It’s honestly exhausting. At some point, we just need a ban bet to settle things and then condemn the loser to SoxMachine where they can suffer through an endless stream of Caulfield and South Side Hitman posts.

How are you deciding then he gets the job heading into Opening Day? What data and info are you using to make that decision?

Then you keep him. But yes, that’s what I’m getting at.

Again, if you are evaluating rookies (or minor leaguers) only using full season stats then you are doing things wrong. Candidly it’s just lazy and I’d be pissed if one of my analysts took such a simple approach to evaluation. The reality is his AAA stats were elite, his major league production after returning from his demotion was really good, and he looked the part using the eye test if you actually watched him. His physical tools are also much louder than most people realize (his 25th ranking last year missed the mark) and most scouts view him as a high makeup guy. There are so many reasons to believe this guy is going to put up a +100 wRC+ next year and potentially blow it out of the water. If you want to over-index on a player’s first 130 PA’s that’s on you, but I saw a player who was adjusting and getting better as the year progressed and all the underlying data backs that up. I also got to chuckle at the idea that Baldwin shouldn’t be handed a spot after a strong 200 PA performance in real major league games, but should potentially lose out an opportunity to the likes of Jarred Kelenic over a tiny set of meaningful spring training at-bats. Is that really your stance on this?

The only difference is the size of the bet we are making. Even if Dominguez has a down season, he can probably be moved without eating material money. For him to command value, it’s all about performing in the closer role. If he does, his value will increase and he’ll have a chance to return a nice piece or two.

I’ll be honest Ray Ray, when you first joined the board you were a detail-oriented, highly analytical poster whose constant use of the word “pal” brought a breath of fresh air. Now you are so disgruntled about the team that you barely watch the games anymore and now just do lazy “full season” drive-by analysis at every turn. Brooks was fucking incredible in AAA last year (SSS) with a 89th percentile xwOBA, strong contact & barrel rates, above average power, league average chase, and high end speed. When he returned to the Sox after his demotion, he proceeded to put up a 116 wRC+ in nearly 200 plate appearances and nothing about it appears to be flukish. Yes, he sucked in defensively in the OF corners, but was neutral in CF overall (SSS again). Both the eye test and advanced metrics show a kid that struggled with reads and route optimization, which shouldn’t be surprising given he was learning on the fly. However, with his speed and baseball intelligence, there is reason to believe he can improve with time. Ultimately, not giving a kid who just put up a 116 wRC+ over his 200 PA’s in his rookie season is the definition of insanity and/or poor analysis. The old Ray Ray would agree with that point too.

That might be true. However, at a conceptual level, relievers are typically paid on past experience and ones who have consistently performed in high leverage and or have rocked up a lot of saves are compensated far more than their peers. We are buying a reliever with great but limited high leverage experience and handing him that opportunity. If I look at someone like Tanner Scott, the Marlins went out and acquired and gave him his first real opportunity at consistent high leverage in year 2. He responded incredibly well and it increased his value exponentially. The following year when the team was out of contention, they were able to spin him off for what was considered a haul at the time despite being a rental. That is the conceptual playbook here. Get an arm you like and put them in the closer role and hope they perform. If they do, their value will only go up because a successful inning of high leverage is far more valuable than a medium & low one and valuation models like fWAR reflect this. How you acquire said player is mostly irrelevant if the price isn’t insane and you truly believe in the arm.

That’s why I’d tell him he’s 90% an outfielder next year and will only rotate through the infield in select situations or in the event of key injuries. Physically he has the talent to be a good defensive outfielder, but he needs to consistent reps to learn how to read the ball off the bat, optimize routes, and make against or off the wall.

I don’t disagree and will never defend the process behind his hiring, but Getz at least appears to be building an org & strategy around an owner who isn’t going to spend with the big boys or take on the risk of a massive individual contract. It’s a shame Kenny & Rick never got the memo and instead built their strategy around poor infrastructure and signing B & C tier free agents at less valuable spots like the bullpen, 1B/DH, etc.

Yeah, all jerseys & memorabilia from the past rebuild have take a serious hit. I had a wall of these cool hand drawn prints of Abreu, Moncada, Anderson, & Eloy and outside of Jose I’m embarrassed to rock them at this point.

I think they would have been able to trade him though.

This is absurd semantics. Rebuilding is a life cycle term while “good” or “bad” is a performance outcome description. Most (but not all) rebuilding teams are “bad”, whereas teams in their competitive window can also be “bad” due to injury, luck, or talent regression. Making this an either or thing is just silly.

How did we perform against our Expected W-L last year and how much of that variance was driven by a poor bullpen? You claim you want to win games, but the fastest way to radically improve our record with limited investment is probably improving the bullpen. And don’t get me wrong, I’m generally aligned with your views on bullpen investment, but we’re talking about one or two dudes who make a combined $15M or so. And one of those guys is intended to be the closer and can be flipped in the likely event we aren’t in the playoff mix come July.

Do they? I fucking love Baldwin. The big question with him is defense and long term positional home. If he can get better in the OF corners (or ideally CF), he can be an important of the puzzle. As for Acuna, I’m optimistic he can be good defensively in CF, but either he needs to be elite out there or the bat needs to get significantly better (which is a huge if). I’m personally much more higher on Brooks but think we need to give both an extended run in the OF this year.

Fully agree on Kelenic. He’s getting way too much attention because he was a big name prospect at one point. At least Acuna & Pereira haven’t had multiple years of failure at the major league level like Kelenic. He’s a fantastic minor league deal guy, but he should have to prove himself at Charlotte before he enters the major league calculus.

You don’t think Baldwin should be given a shot?

They actually got me one for Christmas! I’ll proudly be rocking it for the next two years now that my Robert jersey has joined the likes of Abreu, Ramirez, Viciedo, Peavey, Loaiza, & Jenks on the retirement shelf.

I think you need to separate out the payroll issue. That’s a decision made by Jerry and caps what Getz can accomplish. Under those constraints and understanding the context of where we are at in our rebuild, I’d call the offseason solid. I agree that our level of payroll is an embarrassment and Jerry should be lambasted.

No options and < 1% chance he makes the Opening Day roster. Until you add another OF, you should probably keep Hill.