ChiSox59

As of now, I will go with the Zavala, Leury, Marisnick and Alberto bench with the Romy getting the first crack at 2B, and Sosa starting in Charlotte. RF is either Sheets or Colas with the other in Charlotte. If its Sheets, he goes down when Colas arrives. I also wouldn't be totally shocked to see a better 2B still added before Opening Day, Romy going to bench and Alberto to AAA.

The Sox won 81 games last year despite the following: They were managed by a corpse who's decisions more often than not seemed like he was actually trying to put the team in a position to lose. He also set a precedent that hustling was not important. Luis Robert recorded 2 RBI and 0 HR after July 14th - yes 2 friggin RBI - despite appearing in 25 games. Missed 64 total games, but played 25 with 1 hand. Robert basically missed the entire 2nd half of the season. Tim Anderson missed 83 games, although wasn't himself even after returning from the May groin injury. Yoan Moncada missed 58 games, and when he played, he posted a wRC+ of 76, a significant drop from 120 in 2021, and WELL below his career average of 108, which includes the awful 2022. Eloy Jimenez missed 78 games. While he did post a strong wRC+ when he played, he still missed half the season, although expecting Eloy to play more than 120 games is fools good. Yasmani Grandal was -0.4 fWAR and 68 wRC+ player after posting 3.6 fWAR and 158 wRC+ in 2021. Chances are Grandal didn't completely forget how to hit a baseball at 33 years old. We now know he was dealing with significant injuries all season. I don't have high hopes for Grandal finding the fountain of youth in 2023, but I think it'd be very difficult for him not to improve on his 2022 in a time share. The Sox spent the vast majority of the season playing two first basemen in the OF leaving them with easily the worst OF defense in the game. This turned a 113 wRC+ effort from Andrew Vaughn into a negative fWAR player. The days of Vaughn being anything more than an emergency OF are over. Lynn, Kopech and Giolito all missed starts, with Lynn and Kopech missing significant time. Bummer missed significant time. Basically, nearly everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong in 2022. Despite all of that going wrong, the Sox still were as close as 3 games back in mid September. I can understanding looking at this group and being discouraged. We lost a franchise pillar in Jose Abreu, which sucks. But in doing so improved the OF defense immensely which was, in my opinion, the biggest team need along with getting more left handed. While we didn't get as left handed as I would have liked, adding Benintendi and Colas will balance the lineup a great deal, especially if Moncada and Yaz bounce back, even modestly. This offseason sucked. Jerry is the worst. Hahn appears to be puzzled, and handcuffed. The Clevinger thing is terrible. Lots of bad. But this this squad still has a boatload of talent, and the division still isn't good. The Twins have hardly improved on a team that finished 3 games behind the Sox. The Guardians are the Guardians, and frankly were bad for most of the season before getting hot at the right time. I think all three of those clubs will finish above .500 and we'll have an entertaining 3 team race all season. I would be really shocked to see things go as poorly for The Sox in 23 and they did in 22. I have this team winning 88 games, and I think 90+ is in the cards if their best players can stay healthy enough play 130+ games. I, for one, cannot wait for April for some White Sox baseball. I think this club will surprise, and I think Grifol will be the freshest of fresh air for the boys.

Hitting well in ST and a few weeks in AAA. If he is awesome in ST, give him the job. I personally would trade 162 games for 15 games every single time, but I’d be fine with him breaking camp with the team if he earns it. But if that’s the plan, he should have been in Chicago the last 40 or so games of 22, tho.

There is a pretty big difference between trading Giolito and "blowing the whole thing up". Giolito, and any other expiring asset should be traded if the Sox aren't winning the division or within a couple games as the TDL approaches.

I have an extremely hard time believing this.

Betting on aging players that had their best seasons in half a decade+ generally is a terrible way to do business. That said, I'd definitely take Elvis for like $2M at this point.

Tony also punted at least 10 games. Even if you want to only give them credit for half that, that's significant if you get any improvement on health and/or performance from Robert, TA, Yoan, Grandal, Eloy etc.

No interest, tbh.

Seems about right but I’d lean towards the over myself.

Yeah, he'll hit at least 2 bombs in that series.

While I am not overly concerned about Colas, I do think he's going to K a whole bunch. 23% K rate in the minors, that spiked to nearly 40% in extremely SSS in the AAA would indicate as such. I personally would make Colas earn his way on the roster and not just hand him the spot. Super exciting stuff on Montgomery and Ramos, though.

Lip complains about everything. Been that way since the old WSI days. Just look at his Twitter!

Charlotte rotation is now likely Martin, Alexy, Stiever, Burke, and Bilbous…with one of Martin/Alexy having a decent chance at the 5th SP role of a vet isn’t added and Clevinger suspended. Improvmewnt from last year, but still think another arm or two would be good. Burke going back to BHam to start would be ideal.

Id take any of Minor, Archer, Kuhl or Bundy on milb deals. Same for the rumored Pineda deal.

That’s fair. And to be honest, I agree with most everything you said and as far as Sox fans / this board goes, side with your take on this much more than most. That said, Clevinger is a scumbag and I hope he never pitches a game for the Sox even though they’re clearly better if he does as currently constructed. I hope he gets hit with a 162+ game ban and blackballed from the league like Bauer appears to be. I am in no way condoning the DV allegations here, but the child abuse accusations takes this a very clear step further for me. It’s also just another distraction (as minor as it may ultimately be), that is clubhouse does not need.

I mean, I would hope some of the guys have a problem with sharing a locker room with a guy that pushed around his gf and throws/pours chew spit at his infant child…. and yes, I agree that they cannot just release him until the league has spoken. But do think they should tell him to not bother coming to camp if there isn’t a resolution in the next couple weeks, or ask the league to put him on administrative leave while they continue to sort it out.

Lol. Have you looked at this clubs pitching depth sans Clevinger? Sox should be claiming every SP with upside that becomes available. If you have to DFA the guy again a few days later, so what. There is no reason be upset about this move.

I don’t see how Clevinger in camp wouldn’t be a pretty significant distraction, at least initially. Also cannot image that multiple guys on the team will take major issues with the allegations. It’s just messy. I don’t think Sox should release him because I think they’ll get some of that $8M back if they don’t, and I’d rather they have that $ to invest elsewhere. But I also don’t really want him in camp.

This is good. We need like 2 more of these before April.

Lol, wouldn’t we all. One may cost $15M AAV, the other a milb deal. Id happily take Pineda on a minor league deal. We need all the SP depth we can get.

Has anyone else confirmed this?

A depth claim!

Since this team is a dumpster fire, they probably surprise us all and win 95 games.

It’s accessible, so that’s nice.

Already selling off TA, I see!