Chicago White Sox

What’s the offsetting roster move for when Murakami comes back? To me, there are four options: Option Gonzalez to AAA; no other changes Option Perez to AAA; platoon Gonzalez & Meidroth at 2B DFA Acuna; platoon Gonzalez & Meidroth at 2B Trade Benintendi; use Gonzalez as the primary DH I truly struggle with demoting Gonzalez. Since ending his long hitless streak, he’s posted a 204 wRC+ and a .406/.457/.625/1.082 slash line. The .444 BABIP is obviously not sustainable, but his xwOBA of .388 would rank 11th in baseball (only .002 below Witt Jr.). Yes, it’s only 36 PA’s, but I love the plate discipline (8.3% BB rate vs. 11.1% K rate) and power (.219 ISO; 48% hard hid rate) he’s shown during this stretch. Even with regression, he’s a quality hitter to me. I may be Chase’s biggest fan on this site, but Gonzalez is likely a big upgrade offensively against RHP. Meidroth isn’t a pure platoon player necessarily and his defense brings a lot of value at 2B and with Colson as his DP partner, but I think you could get more value out of the position with Jacob supplementing him. But from a broader roster perspective, is that the best choice for us? In order to have a 2B platoon, it requires us getting rid of one of Perez or Acuna and opening ourselves up for other platoon disadvantages. Right now, Peters, Antonacci, & Benintendi all require platoon partners. Braden has also been very bad against LHP so far, but more time is probably needed there before drawing any conclusions given he’s a switch hitter. Grichuk obviously fills one of those roles, but conceptually we need two other. And while Perez hasn’t done much damage against lefties, this role should eventually go back to Periera and he’s been fantastic against them this year (174 wRC+). What about Acuna then? Is he worth holding onto? We all know he lacks options and has been playing better as of late. Since Jun 1st, he’s a 149 wRC+ hitter that’s clearly benefited from a high BABIP (433). However, his wxOBA is still .338 during this stretch, which is still way above league average. If he can hit even a fraction of that amount, he’s an extremely valuable role player given his speed and defensive versatility. Ideally, he’s Peters’ platoon partner, but only if some of this offensive output is for real. Candidly, I think the right move is trading Benintendi. He’s actually been very solid against RHP while DHing (116 wRC+) and has some big hits, but carrying a platoon DH (even a strong side one) is tricky with a four man bench and many other guys that require platooning. If Andrew can be traded and Jerry is willing to eat a large chunk of money, we could free up the spot for Gonzalez primarily and then a use rotation of guys on other days to rest them. You probably don’t lose any production from the DH spot and allow yourself more versatile roster. TLDR - Trade Benintendi and let Jacob be the primary DH moving forward.

Awesome news!!

What’s the latest weather report? A rain-out wouldn’t be terrible for us, but it also being a Sunday I’d really love to get a game in

This is looking at a single pitch with situational & other contextual factors at play. It’s not looking strictly at pure stuff, although it’s a component of the metric.

lol…the hate is strong in this one. You don’t even know what the metric is intended to do, but challenge its integrity anyways. Here is some background if you are interested.

Bummer he’s on the longer end of things, because he would have been a prime trade chip if healthy and producing.

Huge win yesterday. Burke has officially become our stopper and helped us reclaim a 1st place tie of the AL Central. Today’s game, if it evens gets in, is going to come down to who can hit more IMO. For the Sox, we’ll start things off with Murphy as our opener before going to Fedde. As I outlined in the “Trade Proposal” thread, Chris has been outstanding since Jun 1st and is setup for success today against a Guardians lineup who hasn’t fared well against LHP (85 wRC+) and is missing their best hitter against them in Jose Ramirez. After that is when things get murky. Fedde has been pitching well as of late (2.39 ERA & 3.41 FIP since Jun 1st), but it feels like smoke & mirrors with a 6.49 K/9 and he isn’t providing much innings (~4 1/2 on average during this timeframe). While I always want to be an optimist, I will continue to scream that an implosion is eventually coming for Erik. Let’s just hope it’s not today and that he & Murphy can keep us alive through the 6th. Meanwhile, the Guardians are throwing Tanner Bibee. On paper, his 2-9 record would suggests he really sucks, but that’s only partly true. On the season, he’s put up a 3.69 ERA, but expected figures like him much less with a 4.55 FIP & 4.52 xERA. Dude throws six pitches including three fastball with over 20% utilization. His K rate is down quite a bit this year sitting around 7.5 per 9. Overall it’s not great pure stuff relying on location and favorable extension to be successful. While he pitched incredibly well in his last start against us (6 IP of shutout ball), I still believe this guys is very much hittable in his current form. Just need to be a bit more selective and wait for pitches that can be damaged. Again, not optimistic this one gets played, but if it does I’m predicting the Sox squeeze a nail biter 5 to 4. Let’s fucking go!!

Tweet I saw on Hicks’ 4 seamer, which is pretty insane:

Diving a bit deeper into this bullpen from a trade deadline perspective. The Sox currently have three of the top 15 relievers in the American League in terms of both FIP & fWAR. Obviously the problem this year has been what happens when you have to pitch anyone but Taylor, Hudson, & Newcomb. On that front, we have seen two guys step up as of late. Since Jun 1st, Chris Murphy has pitched 11.2 innings for us and has put up a 0.77 ERA & 1.82 FIP with a 9.26 K/9, 1.54 BB/9, & 0 HRs. He’s been one of the better relievers in the game during this stretch and gives us a third LH reliever we can rely on. Then you have Jordan Hicks, who looks like a new man since coming back from his injury. It’s a very SSS, but in 4.1 innings he’s put up a 0.00 ERA & 0.11 FIP with a ridiculous 16.62 K/9, 2.08 BB/9, & 0 HRs. While I’m no pitching expert, one thing stood during this stretch: he’s starting to leverage his 4 seamer more (~4% to ~25%) at the expense of his sinker (~60% to ~32%). This along with a small increase in his sweeper usage has allowed him to generate significantly more whiffs & K’s. If these two guys can continue pitching, not even to this degree obviously, the bullpen is much strengthened. You’d still have the Dominguez situation to deal with, but having five strong relievers ahead of him would allow you to use him exclusively in low & medium leverage situations and hope he can get his control back to what it was between 2022 to 2024 (mid to high 3 BB’s per 9). That would leave two spots to potentially address. I remain confident Wikelman Gonzalez is going to be part of the 2H bullpen mix. He was dealing before he went down with his lat injury and has the type of stuff to be successful in the majors. With a well known roster crunch coming, already being on the 40 man will give Gonzalez an advantage over other AAA arms like Iriarte & Pallette. None of this addresses the closer spot if you want to continue to use Taylor in your highest leverage situations regardless if it’s actually the 9th. An outside addition would obviously be ideal here as it would allow everyone else to slot into a spot where they can excel. However, if prices are too steep and we can’t afford both a quality SP and closer, then I think you have to prioritize the SP. In that event, could the Sox pull a 2005 White Sox and go with a rookie as their closer? Both McDougal & Sandlin seem like guys who have the stuff to do well in that role, but would take them away from building up strength as SPs. Not sure which way I’d go there, but certainty something Getz must consider.

We’re sure this is true? I legit have seen this reported nowhere.

Vargas fucking deserves it though.

We only got one?

I still get what happened to Beroglla. I thought it was a bone bruise? Do you normally miss this much time with said injury?

Holy s%*# that’s a lot of important updates.

It’s a good question. Outside of the hit tool, where is he superior?

Massive game tonight. A win puts us back in a tie for 1st…a loss puts us two games out. Is Burke up for the task and can he give us at least six strong? That will likely decide our fate tonight. Let’s fucking go and happy 4th to all of y’all!

The latter point is totally fair. But I don’t think Getz deserves to be ridiculed for the pitching staff not being good. This team is a year ahead of schedule for many reasons that most here didn’t see coming. He also had a plan in place which relied on his young pitchers making a lot of starts. The problem is that plan has gone haywire due to injuries and Shane Smith shitting the bed. And now with a strong positional group in place, it puts what was planned to be a development pitching wise at conflict with an ability to compete in a weak AL. Getz needs to find a way to balance two competing priories: 1) continue to develop your young core that should be able to compete for years to come, 2) take advantage of a weak American League with a team ahead of schedule. That won’t be easy, but should be doable. He also has to take an honest look at what he has in-house to shore up the pitching in the interim. Who will be ready and what roles are willing to use them in. Tanner McDougal could really help shore up the bullpen, but do we want to risk his long term development as a SP in doing so? Those are the trade-offs Getz to needs to consider and act on fast.

@Look at Ray Ray Run - What’s so funny about this post? Would be awesome if you actually shared your thoughts & provided some counterpoints instead of doing a cowardly drive-by laugh emoji.

Lol…this team is a playoff team because of what Getz has done. The positional group is legit awesome. The pitching staff isn’t good, but has been materially impacted by injuries. Our 2025 All Star & 2026 OD SP struggled out of nowhere and then got hurt. The Sox had three top 100 SP prospects in AAA who they figured would be part of the rotation mix at some point. They took on Hicks’ contract to get Sandlin, who they also felt would be part of the major rotation mix at some point. Former top 100 prospect Drew Thorpe and former top 10 prospects Ky Bush & Mason Adams were supposed to be pushing for spots by the second half. Fedde and to some extent were brought in as placeholders to eat innings until the young guys developed. Becuase of injuries to many of the aforementioned guys, we’ve had to rely on these two more than planned. Context does matter and it’s really annoying when fans who thought this team was a lock to lose 90+ games are like “why didn’t Getz build a better pitching staff” and ignore all the factors that got us to this point.

We’d have to pay him his entire salary.

Two very winnable games…I’m still a believer, but my god is this brutal

Oh boy….

What a weird bunt

JFC…

In Newcomb we trust