Chicago White Sox

Grandal will for sure make the list.

Keuchel has averaged about 6.0 innings per start as of late, which means he’d only have to make 27 starts for that 4th year to vest. We’ll have to hope that Cease & Kopech pass him by come 2022 and (along with a Lynn extension) can push him down to the #5 spot in the rotation. That way we can skip him a handful of times and then hope he misses a start or two due to injury. He’s an important piece of the rotation this year, but I do worry about 2022 and especially 2023 with him. It would definitely be nice to have that $20M freed up for other things.

Jose will certainly regress but he’ll be better than what projection models are expecting out of him IMO. He legit was in much better shape last year and put up a xwOBA in the 93rd percentile.

Pretty sure Adolfo was awarded an extra one for missing so much time due to injury.

The reason depth matters so much now though is there will be five playoff teams instead of eight. The margin of error is simply much narrower now.

I think we have many players who are ascending and it appears Pecota is weighted too heavily on career vs. recent performance. For example, Tim Anderson is much better than a 2 win player and basic scouting over the past two years would support that notion. Unless you think he’ll forever be hampered by COVID, then Yoan’s projection should be more heavily weighted on his 2019 production than anything else. And how in the world could any model predict 5 wins total as the median outcome for Giolito & Lynn? Hopefully I’m reading something wrong here, because if true that’s just plain embarrassing.

Why is Robert an extreme risk? Even as a league average hitter last year he was on pace to be a 4 win player do to his elite defense. IMO, he has too much natural ability to be much worse than that in his sophomore year.

Some of these projections are simply way too conservative. Without question Robert, Moncada, Eloy, Anderson, Giolito, Lynn, & Keuchel will blow their numbers out of the water assuming they are relatively healthy. No reason to lose sleep over another insanely conservative projection model.

I mean, I don’t think any of us have a great understanding of what his full role is in the front office, but he’s certainly more than just the “contracts guy” and is definitely evaluating talent in some capacity whether through traditional scouting or analytics.

Nope! Jerry had a premonition in 1999 involving the future owner of the Sox telling him to keep the minor league teams in the Carolinas for the next three decades so it will be easier for said new owner to leave a top three market for the untold riches of Charlotte / Raleigh and therefore Jerry went along with the plan for...reasons.

This is the definition of insanity in written form

One first plus other stuff is fine by me given that we’re stuck with Pace & Nagy for another year, but two 1sts for him would be insanity.

This was a great listen. Some very interesting takes on the younger guys, including Bryan Ramos being the rookie ball kid he’s most excited about (said there was top 10 consideration).

Peacock & McHugh both make a lot of sense if healthy.

RIP Pedro Gomez

Glad I took the Bucs in this one

Don’t get me wrong, I think we would have been worlds better with Brady and should have more seriously pursued him. But with that being said, our offense lacked weapons after Robinson and had a shitty offensive line and I’m not buying that Brady alone makes us better than the Packers.

Pretty hot...look at the weapons Brady has vs. what he would of had in Chicago.

What don’t you like about Haber?

Just saw Al’s tweets. I have zero problem with bringing in Cespedes on a minor league deal.

Cause of Cishek’s tweet?

Is that you Jerry?

Here’s the problem. I’m hopeful that Ceases takes a massive leap forward, but that’s not a guarantee after a horrible 2020 season. He should be the #5 starter to open the season with a better #4 starter brought in. I love Kopech but there is nothing wrong with him pitching in AAA until an injury opens up a spot or until he forces the issue. Smart organizations plan for injuries and as constructed things could get real ugly quick with an injury to the big three. Perhaps Don Cooper was so bad at his job that there is a lot more optimism for guys like Rodon & Lopez, but it all seems like unnecessary risk driven by budget considerations. As for Vaughn, I think he’s going to be a star at some point, but that‘s a ton to put on the kid without a solid backup plan. That doesn’t mean we have to go sign Nelson Cruz, but even a left-handed role player would do wonders for this roster. Leury & Engel are both weak against RHP and Mendick is mediocre all around. I’m may be the biggest Zack Collins fan on this board, but it’s a bit scary to think that he’s our likely DH to open the season with only Mercedes to provide any real competition. Brad Miller has a career 111 wRC+ against RHP and can actually play a variety of positions. He’d give another option to throw into the DH mix until Vaughn is ready and would likely not cost all that much.

I want to be clear because my comments have been misinterpreted in the past, but on paper we have one of the best rosters in the AL (with the potential to be the best) and if healthy we could be a real post-season threat given the strength of our top three starters, what should be a deep & dominant bullpen, and an excellent all-round lineup. Where I disagree with you is this idea we’re a guarantee to make the post-season. Unless they magically return to the expanded playoff format, we’ll be in a dog-fight with the Twins for the AL Central crown and with multiple teams for those two Wild Card spots. Again, on paper I think we’re better than pretty much any of theses teams except the Yankees, but all it takes is some injuries to derail this thing. The rotation and infield in particular lack real depth. While not likely, it’s entirely possible there will be a stretch where we’re starting both Mendick & Beckham in the infield or are rocking a rotation that includes all three of Cease, Rodon, & Lopez. And it’s all but a certainty that we’ll be seeing a lot of Engel or Leury in the OF, but at least the former provides plus defense. Point is if we have bad luck with injuries then our roster could be exposed and we could definitely miss out on even a Wild Card spot. I’m not asking for Bauer here, I’d be content with roughly $10M more in spending to sign a Brad Miller type and a #4 starter like Quintana. That’s all it would take to provide much greater depth at two major areas of concern, but instead we’re going to roll the dice and hope we get super lucky and avoid any lengthy injuries. All because Jerry Reinsdorf doesn’t want to take a one-time $10M hit in a go for it season. It’s fucking ridiculous that Hahn has to work under these parameters and the likely outcome is trading from an already thin farm system at the deadline to add depth that would only cost a little bit of money now. It’s an unnecessary risk to take, especially when you claim to have Championship aspirations.

This I don’t agree with. Most teams don’t have a top 5 catcher and then cry because they don’t have a top 10 to 15 catcher as their backup. We had a luxury last year and that shouldn’t never be the expectation.