Jose Abreu

bummer

TA7

In addition to the point made by @Two-Gun Pete, which I agree with (batting your worst hitter in the cleanup spot [Castillo] and your 2nd or 3rd best hitter in the 7th spot [Anderson] alone likely puts the lineup in the lower half with respect to optimization), the issue with his lineups is also more than just scoring runs. To me, the constant placement of Anderson in the #7 spot is awful because it minimizes his plate appearances and gives him fewer opportunities to continue to develop. I would rather he bat #1 or #2 every game. The difference between batting 7th and batting 1st, for example, is about 83 plate appearances per year, so it's actually pretty significant and not just nitpicking. If we can't see Collins or Mendick, then I would prefer to see this most days, regardless of whether the opposing starter is a RHP or LHP: 1. Anderson (R) 2. Moncada (S) 3. Jimenez (R) 4. Abreu (R) 5. McCann (R) 6. Alonso (L) 7. Garcia (S) 8. Sanchez/Rondon (S/R) 9. Tilson (L)

Yes, and I agree that the increase in May strikeouts is the main factor in his lower output. He is clearly not producing as well as he was in April, even with normalized luck, as you outlined. However, the reversal of luck is still playing a role in his splits. I believe in his development and his contact profile, so I think that after the next few seasons, including this one, he'll be closer to the April (.945) version than the May (~.700) version. Taking that literally, I guess I'm basically saying that I still expect an OPS greater than or equal to .8225 this season, which would be a tremendous improvement over last season.

I know the pick will almost certainly be one of Abrams/Vaughn but I wouldn't mind Lodolo at all. He would provide some much needed stability to our SP depth, and his left handedness is a plus. I feel very strongly that he'll be an MLB quality starter, it's just a matter of him ascending from a #3-4 type to a TOR guy. I'm the one who wrote this preview by the way

Actually, the reason his production both was and is sustainable has nothing to do with people being hypocritical about SSS. It's because his BABIP and xwOBA/wOBA ratio normalized pretty early on. In fact, Moncada has been unlucky per his xwOBA/wOBA ratio (.370/.353). It isn't "regression to the mean" when someone is regressing further from the mean. While he has been striking out more in May, these metrics suggest that his batted ball luck has also decreased, below their expected levels.

You can't really use fielding percentage to judge a player's defense, especially in the minors. In person reports would be much more accurate.

You are correct. And to your prior post, I get it but the window seemed too tight

DVS says it’s doubtful that they play tonight due to the field conditions. Still am puzzled by the 5:30 restart despite the radar.

Which I don’t get, because from the Sox perspective you’d probably rather restart this than have it be suspended through 5

The decision to restart at that time given the radar really makes little sense.

Rain

I don’t know how you could possibly argue this

I know this is a joke but it also wouldn't be that surprising

Alcides Escobar starting games for the White Sox would be remarkably efficient in making me not watch any games

Abrams, Vaughn, Rutschman, Witt, Lodolo... Bleday/Bishop?

Yoan is such a smart hitter. That's a few times this year where they've done a shift on him where there's nobody in the general SS area, and he just eases a single right to that spot

Zavala is on the 40 and Collins isn’t. That’s how I see it

Really hope you're right. I just have accepted that it's Abrams at this point

His OPS has dropped about 600 points!!!

I definitely don't know the entire history of White Sox managers, but I do strongly believe that Ventura was a better in-game manager than Renteria is, and that is not a compliment towards Ventura

Absolutely. I was referring to the people who clog other threads with "____ is a bust, ____ sucks, this team won't even win 60 games" and whatnot. In those cases, it's oftentimes obvious that they are wrong but impossible to know for certain for at least a few months. In this case, the doom and gloom was killed in like 4 days. But yes, when it comes to predictions in general, all of us have been wrong about plenty over the years.

Maybe, but I think it would hurt us if anything

He said nobody ever talks about it though.

A lot of 0-1 win predictions in here. One of the rare Soxtalk threads where overwhelming negativity can actually be proven wrong in a short span