The Sir

I was going to agree with your Rick Hahn hatred, but then you decided to not only be a grammar Nazi but an inaccurate one as well. I withdraw my support.

Why does Castillo play every other day?

I thought that was a shitty groundout that maybe doesn't even score Eloy, and then the camera shifted and I remembered the idiotic shift for that guy. I guess his weaknesses benefit us sometimes.

I know. Reread what I said, because I did say that. But beyond him and Berrios, there's nobody that I would have demanded to have on our team (OK, maybe Buxton and Kepler because those positions are ridiculously shitty for us).

In the AL, if it's a tie game in the ninth inning and your leadoff man hits a double, bunt. Anywhere else, do not bunt.

I hadn't really looked at this Twins roster before tonight, but it is seriously the scrubbiest looking thing I've ever seen. How did they compile this lucky shit into the best team in baseball a third of the way through??? Before this year, I would have ignored Kepler, Odorizzi, Perez, Parker, Harper, Buxton, Schoop, Cron, and probably even Polanco. I would have actively wanted Rosario and Berrios, but they're getting all-star performances out of every one of these guys. And their manager is rookie-leader-but-bigtime-bust Rocco Baldelli? WTF. If Hahn gets one tenth of the return for initial expectations that the Twins have gotten so far this year, we'll win the World Series every single year from 2020-2026.

A shot, absolutely.

98 pitches? Send him out there for the CG shutout. Short leash.

I think it’s an optimization issue. There aren’t many catchers who will hit 30 homeruns, so you’ve got to get yourself one of the dozens of first basemen who will. You might succeed otherwise; it’s just more difficult. But you’re right, the whole picture is the important thing, and that’s why I liked this.

He had a .796 OPS in 2017. He put up 3.2 bWAR in 2016. That might not be "star" per se, but both numbers are better than Moncada has done yet.

I don't want him to fail. I just fear he will fail. He did this last year. Started really hot and then cooled off for 217 Ks and a .714 OPS. I said then that he needed to limit his Ks, and he started this year by doing that, and the improvement showed. Now, in May, he's gone right back to it. Before anyone comes in here with that silly argument about whether he'll hit .300 or have an .870 OPS, I DON'T THINK THAT MATTERS. I've never thought that mattered. But to be a useful player, he needs to not strike out one third of the time. That will wreck him. Someone a minute ago said that the biggest difference between April and May is not K-rate, but BABIP. In April, it was .370 and in May, it was .326. This is faulty. If Moncada took those respective BABIPs and kept his April HR-rate, his OPS for the month would be .859. Instead, it's .702. It's the Ks, and not the simple luck (or lack thereof) for batted balls, that's driving him downward this month. I'm not loyal to players. I grew up and became a Sox fan because of one player, who was the greatest hitter this franchise has ever had, and we ended up invoking a "diminished skills" clause and then releasing him to free agency a few years later, instead of letting him finish his career with us. So if we weren't loyal to that guy as he sailed off into the twilight, I don't know why we'd be incessantly loyal to anyone else. So I'm loyal to the brand. I want the Chicago White Sox to win. If Moncada strikes out 33% of the time, he doesn't help us do that. Some of you might think it's blasphemous, but excusing the difference in team control, I'd rather have Javier Baez on this team all day long. Flaunt your former #1 prospect stuff as much as you want; Baez has actually played like a star at the highest level for several years now, with constant improvement as well. If you want to win, he's the logical choice.

Yes, the hyperbole of math.

Claiming I've written him off when I've clearly done no such thing is what's moronic.

It's 1000 PAs! What is it going to take to be enough for you? People will be on here talking about how K-rate is one of the quickest stats to "normalize" but somehow Moncada still doesn't have a big enough sample?

Strange, borderline useless numbers like the rates for everything he's done in his career thus far? C'mon man, I was almost with you until that line.

Hmm, because I've been a White Sox fan for twenty-five years, and would like to see them actually be good, rather than employing junky players that don't help us win ballgames? Seriously, why do we accept this? A competent FO would work towards replacing these sorts of players, but we get Engel and Sanchez and Delmonico and a shitty 1B/DH type year after year after year. Everyone acts like I'm an asshole, which I don't really care about, but my desire is that our team doesn't suck. My random joke about a guy I rooted for when I was a kid aside, players like Yolmer, whatever their limited talents, contribute to this team sucking consistently.

Dude, if you want to be so technical about this, I can't predict anything. Is that what you're upset about? Sorry if my phrasing sounded like an ironclad prediction. It's not supposed to be. People say things on this board all the time that are phrased like predictions, but cannot possibly be. How does Soxfan2018 know that Madrigal will probably hit 10 home runs in a season but Konerkofan2005 knows he won't even play in MLB? They're guesses. My guess is that Moncada doesn't hit .300 or have an OPS of .870 over the course of a full season, ever. Is that absolute? No, I'm not God. It's just what I think, and to defend myself, I did do some math (based on the only known quantities we have on the guy) to support my position. If it means that much to you, I'll caveat my message board opinions with "I think" so that you can understand my intent.

Yolmer is a huge reason I'm pessimistic about everything this organization does. Six years, and 2000 PAs, to the tune of a .659 OPS, and he still hasn't been DFAed and there are legions of White Sox fans who insist that he's useful. I'm old enough to remember when a useful bench player was someone like Lyle Mouton, who had a .767 OPS over three seasons, but we let him go play in Japan for some silly reason.

Why? People think with near certainty that Nick Madrigal is going to fail. He barely has a track record to go on. Yoan has over 1000 PAs with us. It's not yet enough to make some mathematical predictions on what he can and cannot do? Please. If Yoan cuts his K-rate to 25% (which he hasn't done yet) and has an HR rate of .042 (he's at .048 so far this year, but didn't reach even close to this in 2017 or 2018), and maintains his BABIP, he will hit .280 with an .855 OPS. Good player, but not at this magical .870 level you're all so obsessed with. If he keeps this high HR rate but strikes out a bit more (27%), and maintains all else, he will hit .277 with an .869 OPS. Sorry, but I don't think he maintains this HR rate over a full season, and his performance in May supports me (Ks are back up over 33%, and HR rate is down to .042).

I was just minding my own business, until one of you decided to bring up an out-of-context quote where I pointed out that Yoan strikes out too much to ever hit .300. Which is fine, because like I said in the post this guy was incorrectly quoting, he can STILL BE A GOOD PLAYER. He's not going to hit .300 and he's not going to have an .870 OPS, but he will still be a good player. So it's hilarious that you guys bait me out of the blue, get some facts and basic math thrown at you, and then find yourselves irate. Like children. Does this still seem like it was a good idea?

.870 OPS isn't really in the realm of possibilities at his career rates so far, so you lose there too. Thanks for playing.

I don't have to write a column; I can just show you a spreadsheet with his career rates and adjusted k-rates, and even at optimistic rates, he doesn't hit .300. But thanks for thinking of me.

Yeah, I only glanced at the replay as I walked back into the room, but I don't think that was gonna go.

Our 3-4 combo is pitiful. And Benetti's growing on me, but his excitement at routine flyouts is aggravating.

Everyone knows what I'm a proponent of, but if we're gonna just throw caution to the wind and say "fuck it", can we at least bat Robert higher? Let Anderson hit 7th, and put Robert in the two hole so he can get as many at-bats as possible.