Chicago White Sox

Oh god…Legend & Harrison both starting

Keuchel has pitched well recently, but it doesn’t change the fact he’s capable of giving up 8 on a whim’s notice. I’ll be at the game regardless, but I would have preferred Kopech starting for obvious reasons.

Fucking Keuchel

That’s tough man. I remember years feeling like I only attended games the #5 starter started and it was the worse.

FML…going to the game tomorrow and going to get stuck with Keuchel now

It’s pretty wild that it keeps happening over and over. I figured Hahn would finally push some chips in once we hit the peak of the competitive window and instead the dude went with another spread the wealth type offseason. And unfortunately instead of using that money on a legit SP and a solid everyday 2B, we’ll need to tap into an improving, but still weak farm system to address our needs at the deadline. If Bryan Ramos is still a part of this organization by August 1st color me surprised.

I’m going to keep this very simple and fact based, but will acknowledge this is an incredibly early post audit and things could greatly change by the end of the season. AJ Pollock ($11.5M, -0.4 fWAR, 63 wRC+, 5th %tile OAA) Leury Garcia ($5.5M, -0.4 fWAR, 38 wRC+, 11th %tile OAA) Josh Harrison ($4.0M, -0.1 fWAR, 58 wRC+, 37th %tile OAA) Reese McGuire ($0.7M, -0.1 fWAR, 7 wRC+, 42 %tile framing) Kendall Graveman ($8.0M, 0.5 fWAR, 1.94 FIP, 2.76 xFIP) Joe Kelly ($7.0M, 0.0 fWAR, 6.42 FIP, 7.79 xFIP) Vince Velasquez ($3.0M, 0.0 fWAR, 5.51 FIP, 4.63 xFIP) Johnny Cueto ($3.2M, 0.2 fWAR, 1.75 FIP, 2.67 xFIP Total = -0.3 fWAR for ~$9M of pro-rated spend In total, Hahn committed $43M in payroll this year, gave up Kimbrel & Collins, and passed on offering Rodon a QO to acquire these eight players and it’s hard to imagine getting a worse return on investment. Outside of Graveman (who has been excellent) and one quality start from Cueto, every other guy has been replacement player or worse so far. Now to be clear, I expect most of these guys to improve. That being said, Harrison looks completed cook and a total waste of $5.5M (including his buyout). Committing three years to Leury is an inexcusable move for a versatile, but below average player. And that looks even worse with Yogurt & Sosa off to strong starts and Popeye also not too far off. Finally, only adding Velasquez when you say you need SP depth coming out of the lockout should be a fireable offense. We could all see this pain coming expect for Hahn apparently. Regardless of all that, there are so many better things we could have done with $43M and Hahn continues to find the way to spread his dollars across multiple needs that should be filled by a minor league system cheaply (utility guys, relievers, swing men) instead of adding legit impact talent. Let’s hope Pollock turns things around soon as he’s the only guy Hahn added that has an impact type ceiling.

Realistically what can you do? Call up Yogurt for 2B? Hahn fucking botched it by refusing to add a legit left-handed power hitter and solid everyday 2B.

“It’s up to Gavin Sheets” - words you never want to hear

If this goes to extras, would Tony consider using Tim as a pinch hitter?

You really expect Tony not to use his new toy if he only has it for a day?

And by like five feet too!

Absolutely embarrassing

Only six bullets left to score two, but luckily we got the slap factory coming up to save the day!

At least Tony is keeping the guys healthy for when the games really matter.

Thanks! Great to hear the stuff matched the results! Too bad this offense sucks a fat you know what.

This offense is going to need reinforcements.

Just got home…the numbers look great, but how did the stuff look?

Do we need to make a corresponding 40 man roster move? We got to full after the Cueto addition.

Glad all our lineup decisions are based on batting average.

I think we should all just wait and see what Rodon provides over the course of the season before any judgements. The early returns look bad and not offering a QO seems dumb in hindsight, but it’s a long season and his arm could fall apart at any time.

Please score some fucking runs!

La Russa takes a lot of fun out of watching this team.