ChiSox59

I like it.

Palka hit 27 dingers and put up an OPS+ of 111 in 450 PA last season. He is interesting enough to give at bats to this season. He is obviously a flawed player, but he is the exact type of player that winning teams have on their roster and platoon appropriately. There is no good reason to not give him at bats this season.

lol

I mean, it makes sense to give Palka at bats right now though. Palka was likely going to be in AAA if the Sox got MM. But since they didn't, and this season is now about 98% chance to another rebuilding year instead of something closer to say 80%, Palka should be given every opportunity to see if be can become a future piece. We all know Yonder Alonso is not a future piece of the puzzle. He is a guy that will be on the 2019 White Sox, but that is about it. The fact that Alonso and Abreu are both on the roster pigeon holes Palka into the OF. But honestly, in a season where we'er likely to lose more than we win, I am fine with it. Palka has been straight awful to start the year (and in ST too), but it doesn't really make sense to sacrifice his at bats for a guy like Alonso considering where the Sox are in this process. Thankfully for now, we can get Palka his ABs in the OF.

The storyline that the Sox did the Indians this huge favor by taking a guy making $8M off their hands (maybe a couple mill than he'd get on the open market) for minimal return is so overblown around here.

People really struggle to spell such an easy name. A-L-O-N-S-O. No Z. 1 A. Alonso is a fine baseball player. He isn't the problem. I hope he plays a lot of 1B when he is in the lineup - he is much better than Abreu over there. We haven't faced a LH starter yet, so I am curious to see what RickyBoy does with the lineup when we do. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Hopefully Alonso is on the bench, because they're going to need to manage his PA with that 550 PA vesting option at $9M. I guess its not the end of the world if he's around next season, but I'd rather upgrade at DH/1B with Castellanos. Smoak could be another option that should be much cheaper. Maybe a lineup like this against LHP: Leury 2B, Moncada 3B, Abreu 1B, Castillo C, Jimenez LF, Anderson SS, Rondon DH, Cordell RF, Engel CF Still pretty gross.

This isn’t really what happened. First Machado did not get thrown out. The padres manager did. Machado was called out for interference, but was not thrown out of game. Also I thought it was a terrible call. You made it sound much much much worse than it was.

Have you watched the games this year? Yolmer has pretty much directly cost the sox two games with awful defensive plays, and had another horrible error today. He also looks like he's swinging a pool noodle at the dish. I am not quite in the DFA Yolmer category yet, but he definitely need a nice long sit on the bench once Tim is back. Rondon should be at 2B against LHP. Put Leury at 2B against RHP and put Engel/Cordell in CF.

You been hanging out with that other chap who was telling all us Machado was not a good 3B a week or two ago? lol. Machado is an elite 3B. Its not really up for debate.

Yoan has the looks of a man on a mission right now. I dig it.

Yolmer is worthless. Truly sad to watch him right now.

Generally agree that managers do not matter all that much. Disagree about yesterday. No reason to have used Herrera on back to back days Saturday and Sunday considering the game circumstances. Then not use him when he was actually needed on Monday. Putting the worst pitcher on the roster in when the game in on the line in the 8th is horrible bullpen management and isn't something that evens out in the long run. They have the day off today and again on Friday, those guys could have been used. Even Jones or Burr would have been better options than Covey. The Sox are spending about 20% of the teams payroll this season on Herrera and Colome, and one of those dudes should have been used in that spot. All around horrific job managing the pen by Renteria so far. You won't convince me otherwise.

Now there is a hot take.

I agree. I was just playing along with the question posted by JUSTBELIEVE.

Hah, nah don't recall that off hand. I take it you missed the game yesterday. Renteria's bullpen management has been horrific so far.

I think one thing we all can agree on. Renteria isn't a very good manager, and really should be replaced after this season. Not that it matters much, but when is his contract up?

I don't see how guaranteeing Moncada $60M over the next 5 would make any sense. He's pretty much guaranteed to make less than that thru the arb process unless he turns into a top 10-15 player in the league.

Say the Sox offered him a 7 year $60M extension. That would buy out his remaining two pre-arb years, 3 arb years, and 2 FA years. Structure is something like this: $4M signing bonus 2019: $650k 2020: $2.5M 2021: $6M 2022: $8M 2023: $10M 2024: $13M 2025: $16M Does Yoan take that? Do the Sox gain enough by getting 2 more FA years at $15M AAV? Maybe that would be of interest for him, maybe not. Who knows.

Who knows, but I think Moncada would prefer to bet on himself via the arbitration process than take a team friendly team. He's already a wealthy man.

Because all of those were nearing FA when they signed their deals, and FA is an absolute clusterfuck right now for the players. Very different.

Matt Davidson sucks.

Castellanos + Grandal + best SP we can get our hands on. I can dream on Cole, but I admit that is just a dream.

It’s the exact same defensive alignment as the first two games.

To be fair I followed it up saying I was full of hope and it wouldn’t take long for it to be sucked out of me. 2 games in and i am fairly hopeless.

I still think Collins could be a Mike Napoli / Evan Gattis / Carlos Santana early career type player that is a part time catcher. Maybe catches twice a week, DHs twice a week and plays first twice a week. Plenty of value there. I fully support the Sox continuing to allow him to catch. There is no reason not to, even if he is ends up being a part time catcher. You can always pull the plug on catching at a later dates - makes no sense to completely remove that possibility at this point.