The Sir

Yeah, I was optimistic about his bat, and suppose I still am. But his defense is embarrassingly bad. The decision to jump kick the wall was insanely idiotic. I have toned down on Eloy a bit, because with his glove, I don't know how he's ever more than a 3 WAR player. That's a lame result for a bat that good.

How about the 50 mediocre games last year? Can that factor into the relevant body of work? He's had 17 good games at this level. Classic SSS. Why is it ridiculous that he get more time there to show his stuff? That's the main thing I'm advocating.

24.4%.

Rutherford 1-1. I don't have much optimism about some of our B'ham guys, but we need to do something about the traffic jam. I don't care about playing time for Mercedes or Michalzewski. Between DH and the OF positions, LGon, Basabe, Adolfo, and Rutherford need to play every single day (or close to it).

Genuinely curious- do you think Robert would succeed at MLB right now? And yeah, I know "succeed" is a vague word, but I won't pinhole you into making some sort of measurable prediction on something we will never know.

My point was that I don't want our franchise to be dependent on one group of players. If Robert takes until 2021, like I think he should, then we as an organization should have drafted, signed, and developed other young stars to surround him AT THAT TIME, rather than panicking because we only have two to three years left with our current crop of stars, if that makes sense. Yes, it's idealistic, yes, it's contrary to how this shit organization runs typically, but I want it to get better. Improvement on that front will lead to continued success, rather than just four or five years before we go through another period of suffering (and we're already clawing into that four or five year window). Also, Vlad struck out 6% of the time at AAA. Yeah, he's probably the best prospect ever, but he was an actual exception. I don't think there's anything about Robert to make him an exception to my proposed development timeline.

Sure, because his OPS will probably be solid at that point, unless he's a totally one dimensional player. But if he strikes out at 26% at A-ball, he's going to strike out at an even greater rate at MLB, so he'll be less likely to do things like hit 30 HRs, or be on base enough to steal 40 bags. You guys act like I'm bringing up some random metric to denigrate this guy. Like, oh, his UZR at A-ball is poor, so don't promote him! Negative. His k-rate ties directly into his OPS and BABIP, and both of those things do pretty well to measure a player's performance and how sustainable said performance is. I mean, we haven't even mentioned BABIP. Right now, it's over .500. If anyone else was doing this well but with that BABIP, the sabesnerds on this board would be all over the place talking about regression to the mean. Great point! So when our multi-million dollar investment finally has a great stretch buoyed by that sort of anomaly, why isn't anyone concerned? I'm not saying the guy's gonna suck. But we need to slow the F down.

Also, Gallo had 2.1 bWAR last year. 2.8 fWAR. Not really spectacular.

Rushing Robert so that he can be paired up with players several years older than him to create a successful ball club, rather than focusing on improved player scouting, drafting, signing, and development in the farm system, so that it doesn't matter when Robert comes up because we will inevitably surround him with good players, is such a cynical yet typical White Sox attitude.

Not want him on my team? That's not the point of this at all. The point is that Gallo would be a MUCH better player if he didn't strike out so much. Last year, Gallo had an OPS of .810, despite hitting 40 bombs, because he struck out 36% of the time. If he could cut that to 25% and change nothing except hitting a few more singles so that his BABIP was the same, his OPS would rise to .869. Of course, Gallo isn't a singles hitter, so let's assume that instead of just singles, he maintains BABIP by hitting at his usual power rate with the extra 63 PAs which are no longer wasted with Ks: his OPS becomes .932. Striking out less would make Gallo better. Striking out less has made Moncada better. Striking out less will make Robert better.

Yes. Is this supposed to be a hard question? I'm glad he's improved this year, but we blew a year of control by having him up here K'ing 217 times. Fine, whatever, he's cut down on his Ks and is now looking like a superstar. That's great, but with Robert, let's be patient, let him work on his swing-and-miss issues in MiLB on a slow timeline, and come up when he's truly ready.

Well, because Yoan hits the dogshit out of the ball every time he makes contact, but last year posted a .714 OPS because he struck out 33% of the time. So, uh, k-rate is a bit important, I think.

He has 7 Ks in the last three games, and a 27% k-rate overall. Sox fans freak out when dudes get rushed up and totally suck, but never seem to learn to not beg for the same exact mistake in the future. What's the rush with this guy? He's 1.6 years younger than the average at WS. Let him spend his age-21 season there, his age-22 season at B'ham, and start his age-23 season at Charlotte, working towards a late season call-up in 2021. There is NO rush.

Sit your punk ass down, Dixon.

In all seriousness, do the Tigers drill Tim tomorrow?

It's also a great night for that couple that got engaged at the game. Must feel like their marriage is born under a star.

So...Anderson is out, and Jose has a two run blast?

What are they reviewing? On phone call.

You want to find something to enjoy? Get a dog. I want my lifelong favorite sports team to win baseball games. That means giving a talented but flawed player time to develop at the level he's currently at.

Yeah, that was dumb. I just hope we can take care of business in the next two innings, because Shane Greene finally found a place where he doesn't suck at pitching, and that's closing. Shit, should we have challenged that third out?

Once a season would be absurd. I vividly remember coming back from eight down against the Cubs in 2003 or so, I think there was another successful rally in the late 2000s, and then I remember the opposite when we choked against the Royals terribly a few years ago. These things are rare.

Fuck, that sucked.

Who's buying season tickets for Kevin and Ellie?

I've pointed out criticisms of Robert all year. He gets injured too much (check!) and he strikes out too much (with tonight, 22% at A-ball, check!). But he's finally put together a good 15 game stretch for the first time in two years on our farm, and we should promote him to B'ham and beyond? It's ridiculous. Nobody could use a SSS to claim that Eloy's start to this year makes him bad, but we can use to build our faith that Robert is a future superstar? No way.

I'm not saying we need that. But the problem is that we don't even produce Dexter Fowlers.