Chicago White Sox

So fucking nasty and he never uses it. I wonder if he connected with his HS pitching coach over the weekend as Coop would never recommend throwing such a pitch.

Excellent article and thanks for sharing! This is exactly why Cease can’t be our #3 starter come October unless he shows vast improvement down the stretch.

We need they went hard after him before and may of had the best offer, but does he have the arm for RF?

Gotcha. And look, I’m not convinced he’s coming back this year, but by adding Stiever to the 40 man roster we could theoretically have to cut someone beyond just McRae. And as we saw with Herrera, the willingness to cut bait on guys in their final year of their deal is there. I’d say that Cishek’s tenure with the team is on very thin ice at the moment.

If he’s healthy, I’d certainly roll the dice on Carlos than Cishek, Flores, & McRae.

Yup, don’t get why Rick sits Nick so often

Why can’t Rodon come back this year?

His arm may be ready, but he could be rusty and he’ll also be on an innings limit. Why not get him some seasoning at AAA and buy us an extra year of team control?

I’m saying once Rodon & Bummer come back we’ll need to clear two 40 man spots and that Cishek might get the axe at that time.

Nick Madrigal is batting .362 with an expected batting average of .356 according to Statcast despite striking out 8.3% of the time (which is high for him). Think about that for a minute.

IMO, there is no way in hell I could trust him in the playoffs, which means he should be as good as gone come October baring a last minute string of quality appearances.

100% agree

Anyone else think this could mean the end of Steve Cishek by the end of the month? That’s assuming Bummer & Rodon both come back, but there isn’t much fat to trim off the 40 man roster after Alex McRae. IMO, the other most likely options to go would be Ruiz, Hamilton, or Zavala and they all have a degree of long-term value.

100% agree, Bauer is the perfect fit because he buys you time for Kopech, Cease, Dunning, Stiever, & Crotchet to develop in the minors or back of the rotation spots but doesn’t automatically block them long-term.

Yeah, it would seem pretty ridiculous if they just said “hey we got everything covered, no need for improvements” despite sitting on serious payroll flexibility and an insane young core that’s only a few pieces away from being in the argument for best team in baseball. That being said, it’s not entirely inconceivable that they’re planning a big pursuit of your boy Springer and try to go cheap with the rotation. That doesn’t seem likely to me given our pitching needs and the high probability we sign Cespedes or Colas (limiting the need to add a long-term RF), but you never know given Reinsdorf‘a general reluctance to long-term deals with pitchers.

His option clock is started though.

But why would we plan on no injuries? And why are we ignoring the fact Kopech hasn’t pitched in 2+ years and is only a two months minor league stint away from securing an extra year of team control? I still think us adding a TOR starter this offseason is likely, although calling up Stiever and locking up another 40 man roster spot makes me a little less confident of that. If he’s looked that good in Schaumburg to warrant a call-up, perhaps they think he can factor into the rotation mix as soon as next year.

Isn’t he already on the 45 day roster?

Reviewing this thread, I’m not nearly as embarrassed by my posts as I expected to be. My biggest concern was agreeing to a third year and I think that was a completely fair take at the time. What’s really remarkable though is how awesome Jose has been against RHP this year, which drove a lot of my concerns. Look at how we was trending against RHP coming into into the 2020 season. Who could have seen this coming? It’s very clear to me that Jose got himself into better shape this past offseason, but I also think having improved protection behind him and a guy who takes a ton of pitches in front of him in Grandal have really helped as well. Regardless, kudos to Jose on what has been a legit MVP caliber season. IMO, no position player has had a bigger impact on their team’s 2020 performance than Abreu and hopefully voters reward him with his first MVP. 2014: 155 wRC+, 20.9% K rate, 6.9% BB rate, .250 ISO 2015: 147 wRC+, 21.3% K rate, 5.3% BB rate, .240 ISO 2016: 120 wRC+, 17.4% K rate, 6.2% BB rate, .159 ISO 2017: 128 wRC+, 17.2% K rate, 4.7% BB rate, .239 ISO 2018: 107 wRC+, 18.3% K rate, 5.9% BB rate, .196 ISO 2019: 99 wRC+, 23.7% K rate, 4.7% BB rate, .215 ISO 2020: 166 wRC+, 20.8% K rate, 5.4% BB rate, .293 ISO

Awesome win! This lineup is an absolute monster! Lopez still isn’t starter material, but he did what he needed to tonight and may have bought himself a bullpen audition!

lol...I love it fathom!!

I just told my oldest kid that Bernardo is basically Cyclops and if he takes off his glasses he’d shoot lasers out of his eyes. Not sure if that’s true or not, but suddenly my son is a Sox fan and not a Cubs fan like his mother tries to make him.

Glad he left out the DH bit this time

Madrigal is an absolute monster

Feels like Yasmani gets a ton of shit calls go against him.