Chicago White Sox

Portillo’s claims Mathis is being considered.

I’ve been a huge proponent of having him just throw a fuckton of sliders and seeing if he can be a weapon in the pen. That’s the benefit of this move is once Kopech is ready, there is still some real potential with him coming out of the pen.

I’d love Stafford if we’re determined to go for it!

I know this isn’t the Folty thread, but one nice thing about him is he’d be controllable for a second season (just like McCann was) if he signed and ended up working out.

Yup and I’m not trying to be a negative douche, but the only positives that came out of Dylan’s 2020 season was elite velocity and the fact he made every start. I truly think Cooper fucked up the majority of our young arms, so there is plenty reason for optimism but he’s got to make some serious changes or it’s going to be an ugly 2021 for him as well.

He was horrible by every important metric including K rate, BB rate, HR rate & hard hit rate. His expected ERA per Statcast was 6.65, which considers the quality of contact against him. It’s cool his ERA wasn’t horrible, but that has nothing to do with the primary things he controls and everything to do with him being lucky. I watched almost every single one of his starts and it’s amazing he didn’t get lit up each time he took the mound. Everything was bad last year except for the velocity.

Interesting comment in Merkin’s article. Would be fantastic if they started Crochet down in AA and worked him as a starter.

Pure speculation, but I feel pretty confident Mazara end up happening.

So now you’re just moving the goalposts? I want him in the rotation because I believe in the talent and hope that Katz find a way to unleash it, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t bad last year. And it wasn’t just his command (which was horrible), he also has a very low active spin rate which makes it harder for his 4 seamer to miss bats. Hopefully he finds a way to fix his mechanics to improve command and reduce the cut on his fastball, but until he’s a complete wild card coming off a really bad year.

He was 100% lucky and if you actually watched his starts or look at any of his stats other than ERA you would know this. He was horrendous last year and his luck would have almost certainly run out over a full 32 start season.

?

So with the addition of Rodon we’re looking at the following staff: Gioltio Lynn Keuchel* Cease Rodon* / Lopez 9th: Hendriks 8th: Bummer* 8th: Heuer 7th: Crochet* 7th: Marshall 6th: Fry* 6th: Foster 5th: Lopez / Rodon* Then at Charlotte you should have Kopech, Stiever, Flores, & Vargas in the rotation, with McClure likely in AA. The Knights’ bullpen would have Cordero, Burdi, Johnson, & Lambert. Our bullpen depth looks real solid to me, just need to hope Katz can work his magic with the young starters.

I just can’t see them adding another pitcher on a guaranteed contract. Folty on a minor league seems to make the most sense to me.

If you’re using ERA to somehow justify that Cease was good last year then you must not have watched him pitch at all. He was horrendous last year being both unable to command his pitches and generate any strikeouts. I’m a huge Cease fan and am hopeful that he take a big leap forward this year, but that doesn’t change the realities of how ugly his 2020 season was.

This directed at me?

Agree

Yeah, I see no way they don’t give Cease a job unless he looks absolutely horrendous in camp. Hopefully this ends up being Rodon vs. Lopez vs. Folty and one them emerges.

I’ve been very angry the past week ever since Bob said we were “tapped out”, but if we’re going to dumpster dive to fIll out our rotation I do like this move over possible others. I agree, it would be good to add one more arm to the mix if this is the caliber we’re going with.

Lol...there was nothing fabulous about that appearance.

A little early for Bob to be day drinking.

I’m an idiot and he was projected for $4.5M in arbitration, so he’s likely getting less than that. I could see up to $4M maybe.

Lol...good point. What was his projected arb salary?

This makes me wonder what the price is. I would have guessed somewhere around $3M, but if we had to “outbid” the Cubs for him I guess I could see up to $5M.

Beef said that and then self corrected a few hours later I believe, which is a bit odd.

I’m not optimistic about Rodon suddenly figuring it out and being healthy for an extended stretch, but I’m glad they added another arm to the mix. Hope they add Folty as well and then let them and Lopez battle for the 5th starter role in spring training. Not ideal obviously, but better than an older dumpster dive who lacks stuff.