Chicago White Sox

I hate when people suggest the ole “do him a favor” because a player isn’t given an ideal rope on day one. Teams don’t win World Series by eliminating all their depth so certain guys get more playing time.

Yeah, the Alan Hanson stuff was great, but I also love the “Toyota Corolla” comparison. I kind of forgot just how ridiculous / obnoxious Longo’s view of Moncada was.

The rule of thumb is if you think Zangari got hurt he probably did.

Wheeler >>>>> Bumgarner. Cole should obviously be our priority this offseason, but I’ll happily take Wheeler & Wood (on a pillow contract) as a consolation prize. Resign Rodon and have him replace Kopech or Cease down the stretch. Lopez starts the year in the pen and serves as the #6 guy until Rodon is ready. Going into 2021, the rotation would be Giolito, Wheeler, Kopech (second full season), Cease (second full season), and either Rodon or Dunning. To me, that’s potentially an awesome rotation.

Same here, the performance of Walker this year plus Madrigal & Sheets has restored my faith in Hostetler.

That line doesn’t reflect how good he’s been as of late. He’s been an absolute stud for a while now.

I go back and forth on this, but if we’re prepared to spend big in free agency then why the fuck not. My only rule is call him by August 1st or wait to mid April. Anything less than two months is simply not worth it.

Appears that Escobar found the fountain of youth and a fuckton of steroids!

This thread is an absolute blast with some legendary hot takes. I skimmed through pages 45 to 55 and here are some of my favorite posts. Good thing Tommy Longo isn’t around to read his “awesome” takes, although One Dog has seemed to take his spiritual place.

McCann is obviously due for some regression, but his xWOBA is still .345. For reference, league average across all positions is .318. And for comparison, here are the other All-Star catchers: Sánchez = .385, Grandal = .366, Contreras =. 354, & Realmuto = .353. The reality is he’s not that far off from Contreras & Realmuto with the bat even if his BABIP regresses to the mean. Outside of framing, he’s been everything you could ask for in a catcher, especially one that will continue to handle a lot of young arms. If you want to keep him around, the time to offer an extension is this coming offseason. Again, something like 3/$25M seems like a fair compromise. If he wants more, given his uncertainty with the bat, you quickly get to the point of pursuing Grandal and worrying what to do with James later. My guess is he quickly accepts that offer though.

Are you turning into a full blown Greg now? What’s with the 3rd person talk?

Are you still making this argument? Look at his quality of contact which is still fantastic. Statcast thinks he’s gotten a bit lucky and expects his numbers to improve. Jose may be inconsistent / streaky but overall he’s still been plenty productive offensively. And you were proven wrong on the “unable to catch up to high velocity fastballs” theory last year, so please stop with that narrative.

I’d shoot for a 2/$25M extension but would be willing to go 2/$30M given the intangibles he brings to the table.

I’m guessing something like 3/$25M gets it done with McCann.

Agree 100%.

Um, when has a high walk inflating an OPS ever been bad?

He’s also learning about the pitching staff he’s caught very little of. The reality is a catcher’s defense always lags behind his offense at first.

Right? And 14 months from now we’re hopefully on the brink of making the playoffs.

You think Yonder sucking for one year at $9M would someone erase the value of a 8/$250M commitment? This wasn’t about competing in 2019 but rather getting Machado in the door. I’m not going to defend the move because it ultimately didn’t work, but the production piece isn’t what this was about.

I think what Jimmy is getting at is that we wasted lots of at-bats on guys with very limited ceilings (Yolmer, Engel, Delmonico, etc) and could have used that playing time on former top prospects whose stock was down but offered some upside like Reed.

For the millionth time, Alonso wasn’t a baseball move.

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Nice write-up and fully agree that we should have taken more gambles like this throughout the rebuild.

Yeah, I’m probably overthinking it with Pilkington. I’d still probably put Stiever ahead of them for the moment. His mix of stuff & results is good enough IMO to warrant next best pitching prospect after Dunning.

I think sometimes it’s done as a favor for the affiliate.