Timmy U

Moncada has got to get an Umpire Benevolent Society sticker for his helmet or something. Never seen a guy get so many bad calls against one guy.

I'm putting a lot of weight on the SSS of what he looked like in March both in sides and his one time on the mound. Stuff was electric. Normal Spring Training for pitchers is 7-8 weeks. That's a reasonable amount of time to shake off rust, especially considering he'll have a normal offseason to ramp up. I can see a world where he's in the minors until June 1, but if he can't go at all as a starter, they're basically screwed. Pitchers with Kopech's stuff just don't grow on trees. Bauer's an interesting name, but he seems committed to signing a one year free agent contract every year for the rest of his career. If true, can you imagine the Sox giving up their first round pick and $18 million for a guy who has been as inconsistent in his career as Bauer? I'd be surprised.

Also does not bode well for the development of Tyler Johnson, Ruiz, or Hamilton.

Alex McRae?! We now know the extent of our pitching depth. It ended at Flores. Hmm, I have a strong suspicion that Stiever is not 100% back from whatever was going on in March.

I feel the same way about this as I did when I thought we signed him: meh.

I think we gotta give him a break. He's still recovering from Covid. Amazing he's able to play at all, really.

I am old enough to remember when Torborg was fired because he couldn’t get the team from point B to point C, so they hired Gene Lamont. (Reinsdorf really wanted Leyland.) so I could imagine RR getting canned at the end of the rebuild. Not holding my breath though.

Huh? Everyone knows that. It's the rule for this year. You gotta be up by September 15th. That's not Vaughn, that's everyone. This is not insider knowledge. It's like tweeting "I have been informed that if kids want to dress up and get free candy, they must go around their neighborhood on October 31st."

I would love for that to be the last appearance of Cishek in a Sox uni. Give Steiver a shot?

And he threw strikes. For giving up two runs, he looked pretty good.

I like Dylan’s change. Surprised he doesn’t throw it more.

I think that’s who he is right now. I wonder if that “McCann calls pitches that get me back on track” idea would work with Cease and his slider.

My thoughts go out to Yoan. I know some people who've had Covid complications and the recovery can be months long even for people who weren't hospitalized. He's a long-term guy, so I hope they do their best to take care of him.

Wow. If you can play Eloy in left and Vaughn in right, Robert is league MVP on defense regardless of what he hits.

Ha ha. I’d give it a resounding meh.

Had to do it. Not like Cease is a lock to give you 6+. Rest of pen on fumes.

No. I'm saying that two organizations have chosen execs from Cleveland in the last 5 years, and I'll grant you that one of them was maybe the second choice. Do you honestly believe the White Sox front office is the envy of the baseball world? If you do, that's fine. You're welcome to your opinion. I don't believe that's the case. I believe the strength of our franchise is the integrity shown by Reinsdorf et al in the community, the character of the young men they bring into the organization, and their ability to lock up young players to team friendly deals. As far as analytics, player development, and maximizing wins out of the teams they construct, they have not excelled the way teams like the Indians, and Rays have. That latter skillset seems to be more valued, hence you see teams like the Dodgers and Red Sox raiding the Rays and the Twins and Jays raiding the Indians. My main point throughout has been, and I'll say it again: the White Sox have not done a good job developing/acquiring lefthanded hitting and that definitely played a role in them choosing signing Grandal over extending McCann. The number of people disputing that has surprised me, so I've probably been too adamant in my criticism of the F.O.

Yes, in 2015. So 5 years ago was the last attempt to raid the team. That job eventually went to Mark Shapiro and after 2016 Derek Falvey left Cleveland to run the Twins, which seems to have worked out pretty well for them. So, we'll see. Maybe some of the restructuring of the development staff and a successful rebuild will make the Sox a highly-respected org like Cleveland or Tampa. Don't see it yet, though.

I like Rick Hahn. I'm not one of the "fire Kenny" brigade, but c'mon. Toronto and Minnesota are both basically colonies of the Cleveland front office. The Sox do not have an elite front office that other teams are raiding. Maybe they will after the rebuild is over, but who is the last Sox coach or exec to leave for another team? There has to be a reason that they lost consistently for 10 years. Especially in the Central. Is it entirely bad luck?

All I'm saying is you cannot separate the Grandal/McCann discussion from the handedness of the players and the Sox overall righthanded hitting lineup. I don't really think it's news that they have struggled to find lefty thump for like 20 years or more.

I'm talking long-term philosophy. Feel free to ignore the last 15 years, but players like Brantley, Santana, Lindor, Ramirez, etc have helped them to a substantially better record than the Sox while both front offices have remained relatively stable. Look at which front office is consistently raided for talent and which one isn't. Cleveland has had a consistently better program than the White Sox. I hope it's going to change, but I don't think it's luck.

The mental gymnastics are what exactly? My point is that, if the Sox had another middle of the order lefty hitter, they likely wouldn't have signed Grandal, and would have been much more likely to extend McCann. But, because they didn't, Grandal's value as a switch-hitter was too much for them to pass up. I really like McCann. But he'd be a better fit on this team if, for instance, instead of taking Alonso's salary on from Cleveland, they had taken Carlos Santana's salary on from the Phillies. The Sox bad luck/incompetence signing/developing lefthanded hitting obviously played a role in their preference for Grandal over McCann. Do you disagree?

Okay, how about "passed on LH hitting HS hitters like Kelenic, Alek Thomas, Corbin Carroll, and CJ Abrams for physically maxed out right-handed hitting players." Look at who Cleveland drafts. They consistently value or overvalue switch-hitters and lefties. 5 of their top 10 position players hit left or switch, including 3 of their top 4. No Sox top 10 prospects hits lefty. Their top 3 lefty hitters are Sheets, Gonzalez and Rutherford. I don't see any impact here. Beyond them, there's nothing. Oscar Colas would instantly become their best lefthanded prospect, even if he's a DH. Gotta value something to get it.

Oh, I agree. Note that I said they signed Grandal long-term and then threw in Mazara. Next year, yet again, they're going to roll the bones on someone else outside of their system. Joc Pederson? It's weird, but the White Sox have a program that reallly values righthand power (or undervalues lefties entirely). So they consistently build teams that look like this -- see, Konerko, Mags, Carlos, and Crede -- while Cleveland has always valued switch-hitters and lefties. Until they make some fundamental changes in their approach to what they think wins games, I think you're looking at a ton of righties coming up through the system and then trying to find lineup balance from other people's rejects. So far in the last, what, 10 years the results have been atrocious. When you look at Dunn, LaRoche, Alonso, and Mazara, Nomar isn't even the worst case scenario. I want them to change their draft philosophy.

McCann is yet another victim of the Sox and their weird inability to develop ANY left-handed hitting. Even now, you look in the minors and if Rutherford busts, which is likely, they are not going to produce a lefty major league regular. Meanwhile, Vaughn just adds to what they already do well. It's why I was hoping they would draft Kelenic instead of Madrigal. With zero lefties developed that forces the team to roll the bones on Grandal long term and Mazara. As last night and virtually every game v. Cleveland proves, you can't have a lineup of 9 power-hitting righties who all swing at sliders/hard curves out of the zone. Way too easy to dominate. McCann deserves better, but you gotta have some balance in the lineup.