Chicago White Sox

As a Bears fan, I will be distraught if we don’t land Johnson. As a Raiders season ticket holder, I will at least benefit some from the Bear’s incompetence.

I don’t like Vegas tempting the football gods like this…they will punish us Bears fans harshly by making Petzing the HC.

And that’s totally fair to some degree, but when his counterargument is using the eye test and applying subjective value to defense based on gut it’s a tough to take his position too seriously. The concept of WAR makes all the sense in the world, and while not perfect, it’s better than just shooting from the hip like vilehoopster is doing.

Baltimore is a tiny, dying city

@fathom - Please decipher brother

Yeah, I literally said “RBI’s is a very meaningless stat without context”. Where a dude bats in the lineup, who hits in front of him, the park factor of their home field, etc. all play a role in how many RBIs one gets. wRC+ uses linear weights to assign a run value to each offensive outcome. It’s purposely intended to strip out context and highlight the offensive value of what a player did on their own merits. While I agree there is an element of clutchness (or luck) that can lead to better outcomes, the reality is the vast majority of RBI’s require other players to be on base and that isn’t something Jose Abreu had control over in 2019. How would other comparable hitters fared if put in those same exact situations? And you say his job is to drive runners in but also say the goal of the game is to simply “score runs”. You can’t have it both ways. A low OBP means he’s not setting up the hitters behind him to help drive runs in themselves…you need to look at total run creation like wRC+ does to fully asses the value of a hitter. It may not be totally perfect, especially if a guy is more clutch than lucky (which is impossible to tell), but it’s completely objective and is probably one of best advanced metrics out there IMO.

Raiders may be the only NFL org more dysfunctional than us. I obviously could be wrong, but I can’t imagine Brady as minority owner changes the calculus enough to offset the lack of a QB, lack of pick high enough to draft a good QB prospect, lack of weapons outside of Bowers, and a poor defense. Despite our holes in the trenches, we are much closer to being a competitive team than the Raiders are and that’s a huge plus for a first time HC in the NFL IMO.

I think it’s they couldn’t commit to signing them day 1 and therefore the players used this opportunity secure more money and/or better security.

You’re welcome to challenge WAR, but you’re also citing volume metrics during the juiced ball year of 2019. Abreu’s 33 HRs ranked 37th in baseball that year whereas it would rank 14th in 2024. Given his mostly average OBP, his 2019 season was only 15% above league average or 60th overall amongst qualified players in wRC+ at 115. And RBI’s is a very meaningless stat without context and you lose a little credibility in your argument when you cite it as a key factor.

Ben Johnson should still be the dude over McCarthy. And right now, the cards have aligned in our favor for that to happen if the Deon rumors are true. Can Poles & Warren not f*** this up remains the question…

Stassi was a guaranteed deal though. Narvaez is a minor league signing with an invite to camp. This is more similar to when we signed Lecroy.

That’s 100% true, but given everyone has options you simply cycle through the ones working and demote the ones failing. Outside of Berroa, it’s not exactly a young group you have to commit playing time to. And I don’t think we’ll be lacking of relief options as Charlotte should have tons of guys warranting looks at some point next year.

Andrew Benintenti has put up -0.6 fWAR total for the White Sox with a 90 wRC+ and has been one of the five worst defensive OFs in that time per both DRS & OAA. We just signed a RF platoon for less than $4M that will likely outproduce Benintendi next year. Andrew Vaughn has put up 0.2 fWAR total over his past two seasons as a 1B with a 100 wRC+, poor defense, and negative running value. There are likely AAAA types who could provide similar or better production for a fraction of the cost. To rip fans for wanting more than replacement level production or worse from its players is an absolutely ridiculous take.

This franchise’s value exponentially improves with a change in ownership. I can only imagine how excited potential buyers would be to get a major market franchise on a discount because the previous owner was so incompetent. The problem is that Reinsdorf won’t sell his team until he passes and apparently is a vampire who will live forever so none of this matters.

What’s fascinating is that Steamer in general isn’t all that different in the lineup or rotation, but does have the bullpen at 0.0 fWAR vs. ZiPS’s -1.6 fWAR. I just don’t buy the bullpen being that terrible. Wilson put up 0.3 & 0.4 win seasons prior to 2024 and the stuff is still there…I think he comes back healthier and returns to form. Berroa put up a 2.26 xERA last year over 19 innings as rookie…he may not be great due to control issues but hopefully he’s a positive fWAR guy. Varland put up 0.4 fWAR with us last year over 26 innings. Anderson has had three straight positive fWAR seasons and flashes a ton of red on Statcast. Booser just put up 0.3 fWAR over 40+ innings in his first taste of major league baseball. That’s only five guys in a pen that will use tons of arms over the course of the season, but I strongly believe that group will exceed 1 fWAR on their own. And hopefully Smith & Gilbert can be positive contributors as well given they were identified by Bannister. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this will be a good bullpen, but I’m hard pressed to see a -1.6 fWAR protection out of them. I still feel having a more experienced dude at the top (even if coming off a bad season) would go a long way of adding some stability.

This is nothing more than an insurance policy in the event Thaiss or Lee gets injured in camp.

Good call…I was wondering something similar.

Or the rumors of KW & Harper making eye love during the interview. And then never proceeding to make an actual offer.

Just got to develop them extra fast!

A man can dream can’t he?!

Patino also got an increase over his original deal with the Dodgers.

Maybe he wants to take minimum so we can better build around him?

Agree. And obviously a lot of other things still need to work out, but SS & CF are the biggest wild cards at the moment.

My beef with Vaughn is twofold. We have had four years to work with him and haven’t been able to him turn into a quality major league hitter yet. Why do we think the fifth time will be the charm? I know the theoretical answer will be the addition of Fuller, but that brings me to my second, bigger concern. Andrew is no longer a disciplined hitter like he was in the college. His issues with chasing outside of the zone haven’t improved at all over his tenure in the majors and I struggle to think that’s something Fuller can completely fix. And let’s say Fuller does help Vaughn with his swing decisions to some extent, you are looking at an ok hitting 1B with negative running and fielding value with 1 1/3 years of arb inflated salary. I just doubt the juice will ultimately be worth the squeeze even if you can right the ship at all.

There are tons of free agent OFs in the 2026-27 offseason…there just aren’t a lot next year. Getting a LF will not be a problem for us eventually. Honestly, the biggest question is can Colson stick at SS. If he can, then CF becomes the main concern long-term with us likely needing to solve with our top pick in the 2026 draft, through a Robert trade, or eventually using some pitching depth to acquire. That’s why holding onto Robert makes all the sense in the world. A return to form and he’s suddenly a super valuable trade chip given the lack of good CF options in these upcoming free agent classes.