Chicago White Sox

He added a cutter and ramped up the use of his sinker at the expense of his 4 seamer.

So he’ll be competing for a rotation spot or was brought on to be the #5 starter?

Wow, love this move. He’s been pretty mediocre for the past few years, but made significant changes to his repertoire last season and the results show. This really strengthens the left-side of the bullpen for us. Still think we should add a legit high leverage guy to the mix.

From July 12th to the end of the season, here were the leaders in K/9 with 40+ IPs pitched. Again, this reflects Burke’s final 10 starts as a rookie: Sean Burke = 12.33 Shohei Ohtani = 12.29 Jacob Misiorowski = 12.05 Dylan Cease = 11.97 Blake Snell = 11.69 Freddy Peralta = 11.68 Brandon Woodruff = 11.51 Paul Skenes = 11.48 Logan Gilbert = 11.23 Sean Manaea = 11.13 To say a rookie who was able to post the highest K/9 in baseball over the final third of the season “doesn’t have much of a ceiling” is absolutely wild to me. The other nine pitchers in this group are some of the best strikeout pitchers in the game…the only guy who even possibility stands out as an outlier is Manaea who completely abandoned his sinker last year and ramped up the usage of his sweeper. @Look at Ray Ray Run - What is your theory on the above figures? How did he go from a terrible K rate to start the season to best in baseball by its end? Obviously it can’t because he got better or developed as the season progressed, that is not possible for rookies or young players, so is it just random performance variance and/or the benefit of getting to face the Guardians one extra time?

Which is why I said this: “and his minor league numbers show a dude with impeccable command”

The point on Thorpe is we don’t know what he is. To say he “stinks” completely ignores his minor league track record & prospect pedigree and over-indexes on his first eight major league starts. He’s obviously got a unique profile with less margin of error when it comes to command, but I’m giving him a much bigger runway than that first cup of coffee with is before making such declarations. He may end up busting, but I liked what I saw from his change up when he was with the Sox and his minor league numbers show a dude with impeccable command and an ability to generate weak contact. I remain cautiously optimistic for now.

Come on man. He literally faced Cleveland, Kansas City, & the Angels in his first 10 starts as well plus the Marlins who were actually a bottom 10 offense per wRC+ (unlike Baltimore as you cited). The difference in team quality between those two samples is minimal. Regardless, you are now suggesting that his K rate doubling in his last 10 starts vs. his first 10 starts is because he faced the Guardians one extra time. You know as well as me that’s absolutely ridiculous and you would normally call out any other poster for suggesting it. Again, the original argument here was whether Burke stinks or not. You said you watched his early starts and that he did not get better as the season progressed. That is an objectively false statement whether you believe his last 18 starts to be signs of improvement or just performance variance. And then instead of posting advanced metrics during those two (or three) different time periods to suggest the underlying peripherals were all the same to help the performance variance angle (which I’m confident wouldn’t be the case), you cite a bunch of full season metrics and pretend that young players can’t / don’t get better with experience. Which again, is another absurd hypothesis and just simply lazy analysis. No competent GM would evaluate a young player (rookie, minor leaguer, etc.) solely on full year results and most certainly would look for signs of improvement & development. Ultimately, I do believe he’s a much better SP than the guy you saw in his first 10 starts and closer to the guy who put up a 4.25 FIP over his last 18 starters. If I filter on SPs who pitched 100+ innings last year, that FIP would rank 70th of 119 SPs. Go down to 80+ innings pitched and he would be 78th out of 138 SPs. Either way, that production is approximately mid #3 starter level. Whether he can maintain that into next year or regresses some remains to be seen, but I don’t think a rookie SP who performed at that level for his final 18 starts “stinks” in any rationale way.

lol…you hate breaking up seasons of rookies? Yes, let’s pretend that development is linear and only full season metrics matter for first year players. The best part is you said that you watched his first handful and that he didn’t get better, which is objectively not true.

What in the f***? Thorpe was a consensus top 70 prospect prior to TJS. And Burke struck out over 12 per 9 in final 10 appearances last year. Apparently he was fooling plenty of people during that stretch.

Median outcome may be #4 starters, but I think both Thorpe & Burke have higher ceilings than that. I can’t really comment on Kay, but regardless, my main point is it’s ridiculous to say these guys all “stink”.

Rest of year wasn’t any better for Burke vs. his first few starts? First 10: 6.19 K/9 | 5.06 BB/9 | 1.69 HR/9 | 6.14 FIP Middle 8: 8.59 K/9 | 2.86 BB/9 | 1.43 HR/9 | 4.32 FIP Last 10: 12.33 K/9 | 4.68 BB/9 | 1.49 K/9 | 4.17 FIP He flashed much better control during his middle eights starts along with a better K rate and then really ramped the K rate down the stretch. While the consistency wasn’t there, he flashed significant improvement as the year progressed. I really have no idea what you are talking about in regard to him. I have no idea what Kay is or will be, but he’s a mystery box that Bannister had a lot to do with and hopefully that means he won’t stink at minimum. Anyone saying otherwise without having scouted him in Japan is legit full of s%*#. The Thorpe hate is just straight bizarre to me. People on this site have basically declared he sucks because of lacking 4 seamer velocity and a couple of bad starts during his initial cup of coffee when he was clearly injured. Regardless, this is a kid with a 70 grade change up and 70 grade command who generated extremely weak contact in the minors. If his velocity jumps up a tick post TJS, this is a kid I believe can become a quality #3 starter.

Interesting. So a former consensus top 70 prospect stinks because of why? Did you actually watch Kay pitch in the NPB? And I guess Burke performing fairly well down the stretch is meaningless for reasons unknown.

Historically awful in what context?

You think Burke, Thorpe, & Kay stink?

Yeah, I don’t think we need to add 4 high leverage relievers to perform at a semi normalized level in one run games. Add veteran like Fairbanks, use Taylor more in high leverage situations, and hope for some better luck. We don’t an elite bullpen to not underperform our expected W-L record by 10 games.

Which is why I’m saying we should invest in a high leverage reliever.

Their expected W-L record last year was 70-92. If their performance in one run games normalizes, this is already a much better team than people are giving them credit for.

I fully expect Antonacci to push Chase for the 2B job at some point. Whether he succeeds in dethroning remains to be seen, but at minimum I expect him to be a key part of the infield mix within a couple of months. He’s another guy I feel like should end up getting some LF time too. All that being said, eventually two of Vargas, Meidroth, Antonacci, & Sosa will be on the bench, so infield depth should not be a problem for us.

I think there is a shot to be competitive next year. Would I put money on that happening? Hell no, but I don’t think it’s impossible. If we keep Robert, I think there is a real possibility our positional group will be league average or better. So many of the young guys found their stride in the second half of the season and I expect many of them to continue to grow. And if we can somehow get 90 bombs or so out of Colson, Robert, & Murakami, then there is a real chance this group can actually be good. The pitching is what gives me cause for concern. Smith is the only dude right now I feel confident in, but there are a lot of guys who could contribute next year. I still like Burke’s stuff and he performed well over his last 10 appearances. If healthy, I expect Thorpe to surprise at some point. He’s getting slept on way too much for a couple of bad outings before he went down with injury in his rookie year. I’m not quite sure why Martin’s K rate was so bad last year, but hopefully they can make some arsenal changes and get him right. Kay is a wild card but should provide innings at least. Then you have the wave of minor league that could (should) hit next year at some point in Schultz, Smith, & McDougle. How this group all comes together is hard for me to say right now, but the amount of talent increases the odds of a few of them out producing expectations next year. Another veteran SP couldn’t hurt, especially if they are willing to pay up for a mid tier guy. Finally, I do think we need to add a legit high leverage reliever to improve our chances. We were terrible in one run games and a better bullpen is perhaps the fastest way to add a few wins. Right now, the pen is filled with multi-inning guys (which isn’t necessarily bad), questionable lefties, and two Rule 5 guys. Someone that can anchor the 9th for us would help a ton. A more established lefty would also help, but I don’t see us adding more than one semi-expensive reliever at this juncture and with the number of guys already in place.

I think we’re stuck with him for at least half of this season. I do think at some point they might consider cutting him.

Pereira is worth a gamble as the weak side platoon partner for Baldwin in RF. No guarantee there obviously, but he’s the exact type of player we should be taking a chance on for that role. The others I’m unsure on. I think people here are writing off Mead way too early though. He’s another guy I feel could eventually rotate in at a few spots against LHP, but he’s very redundant with Sosa. If we keep Robert, then Hill doesn’t do much for me. I think Lee is fine as a backup catcher, but he won’t serve much purpose other than injury insurance. I do think Antonacci will be a key bench piece by the 2nd half of the season. And one of our corner OFs will likely he delegated to a reserve role once Braden comes up. With the versatility of certain guys, I feel ok about a learn bench. But to me, that is assuming Sosa is the 10th man and playing quite frequently.

I agree on Sosa, but don’t agree on Benintendi. He can’t field at all and has bat is basically league average at this point. I guess he could fit as a role player, but I’d rather go find a LF upgrade and cut ties altogether. Again, I just don’t see a great role for him if we are planning to use Quero as our primary DH.

Was just about to post this. This kid just wants to fucking hit bombs and win ballgames. And the fact he’s already making adjustments for the MLB is fucking impressive. I haven’t been this excited about a White Sox player in years.

Does anyone know how to watch the Murakami press conference?

Yup. We’ve had a lot of signings go to s%*#, but thinking a light power, bad defending LF was the final piece was just terrible process and the final gift from an incompetent Rick Hahn.