VAfan

This sounds nice, but it is a fantasy. The Sox had 1 hitter -- ONE -- Jose Abreu -- who was above average and showed up the whole year. And he's gone. Most of the key players are injury prone, can't field, and can't hit right handed pitching. Coaching cannot fix that. Of the offensive core -- Robert, Anderson, Moncada, Jimenez, Grandal, Vaughn -- only Andrew Vaughn made it to 500 ABs. Grandal hit the same as Adam Engel and worse than Adam Hasely. Moncada had a .273 OBP and a .353 slugging percentage. They are the second and third highest paid players on the team (behind Lynn), costing more than $35 million between then, and Moncada is due to earn almost $25M himself in 2024. The only good hitter on the team is Jimenez (with Abreu gone). He played 55 games last year, and 84 this year. Luis Robert, the superstar, has played 68 and 98 games the last 2 years. He barely exceeded league average as a hitter this year. You are looking at what these players were in the short season of 2020 and thinking they can magically return there. They cannot. The Sox would be better off dumping the lot of them and starting over, while they still have trade value.

I'll just post this here. It's from my post "The White Sox Cannot Be Fixed By Next Season" ****** Let me jump back in my own topic to break it down a bit further. CAN'T STAY HEALTHY Batters C - Grandal SS - Anderson 3B - Moncada CF - Robert LF/DH - Jimenez Burger (AAA/Majors) Mendick Pitchers SP - Kopech SP - Lynn RP - Bummer RP - Foster RP - Velasquez RP - Kelly APPEARED ON IL IN 2022 LF/CF - Pollock LF/RF/1B/DH Vaughn CF - Engel RP - Hendriks CAN'T HIT LEFT HANDED (or hit RIGHT HANDERS) Moncada Grandal Pollock Most of the rest of the right handers CAN'T FIELD Vaughn (OF) Sheets (OF) Jimenez (Anywhere) Anderson (SS) Grandal (C) -- can't hold baserunners Zavala (C) -- is he better this year? He was bad last year. HAS AN ALBATROSS CONTRACT 3B - Moncada C - Grandal (for 2023) LF - Pollock (player option) Util - Garcia IS BELOW LEAGUE AVERAGE SP - Giolito SP/RP - Velasquez RP - Ruiz RP - Kelly RP - Diekman 2B - Harrison LF - Pollock 3B - Moncada C - Grandal CF - Engel 2B - Gonzalez Util - Garcia The ONLY players who are above league average and who play every time they are called on are: Jose Abreu, who is a free agent Dylan Cease Johnny Cueto, who is also a free agent Davis Martin (barely above with 106 ERA+) Kendall Graveman Reynaldo Lopez Jimmy Lambert Not sure you can build your team around 7 guys, 2 of whom are free agents.

The thing about a "retool" is that if you trade the guys on my list above, you aren't likely going to get MORE productive major league players back. Teams want to IMPROVE by trade. So they aren't going to trade you a Tim Anderson who plays 145 games for one who played 80 this year, and never more than 120. Same for Jimenez and Robert, Moncada and Grandal, and Kopech. They will trade you prospects, however. The question is how far away will those prospects be? I could see dumping all the top guys for players a year away, then playing our backups to give them experience and see if any turned out. Bring up Colas and Cespedes for the outfield. We would be bad, but maybe not KC bad.

Hahn made some good deals in his time. The trade of Quintana for Jimenez and Cease was a total steal. As was what he got from Washington for Adam Eaton, even if Giolito has been up and down. The Sale trade has paid lesser dividends, but then Sale has mostly been hurt for Boston. Even the fiasco with Fernando Tatis Jr is looking less atrocious because Tatis is even less healthy than Tim Anderson, is on a PED suspension, and has a $340M contract. (Can they void it over the PEDs?) So I'm not sure I fault Hahn on the prospects trades as much as I do on his free agent signings (or lack thereof). He made a good effort to build a roster, and if they could stay healthy, they would have competed this year. It's been the deals for Keuchel after they lost out on the pitcher who went to Philly, the unwillingness to tag Rodon, the signing of Joe Kelly, the trade for Kimbrel/Pollock (though it's not as if Madrigal has amounted to anything, and he's hurt again), the failure to pay attention to defense and left handedness, that have undermined the team.

The White Sox need to start over. They have NO hitters, other than Abreu, that are able to play every day and are above average. What could be the return if they traded: 1. Luis Robert 2. Tim Anderson 3. Eloy Jimenez 4. Yoan Moncada 5. Yasmani Grandal 6. Michael Kopech 7. Lucas Giolito Can you trade for healthy major leaguers who can play defense and hit right handed pitching? Or do you have to start over with a haul of prospects and wait 2 years for them to mature? The team would have lost next to nothing this year without these players. Sure, Anderson was an All-Star, and Jimenez is hot now, but neither one is going to play in even half of the games. Robert has been hurt significant parts of the last 2 years. Moncada has an albatross contract, as does Grandal, but maybe they could be offloaded as part of a package. Kopech has some promise, but why not trade in on it? It doesn't seem like it's going to bear fruit soon. Giolito will be a free agent after next year. You could field a team with the leftovers. Vaughn, Sheets, Burger, bring back Andrus, Gonzalez, Zavala, Engel, Pollock. Only Vaughn has any trade value out of this group. I'm sure they won't do it. But it's time to dump the underperforming, always hurt, overconfident guys who show no plate discipline or pitching consistency. If it is was JUST HEALTH that was the problem, you might HOPE for better health while trying to shore up depth. But it's not JUST HEALTH. It's the lefty-righty imbalance, poor fielding, and terrible plate discipline that give me NO hope the core of this team can turn it around, even with a new manager and new coaches.

Let me jump back in my own topic to break it down a bit further. CAN'T STAY HEALTHY Batters C - Grandal SS - Anderson 3B - Moncada CF - Robert LF/DH - Jimenez Burger (AAA/Majors) Mendick Pitchers SP - Kopech SP - Lynn RP - Bummer RP - Foster RP - Velasquez RP - Kelly APPEARED ON IL IN 2022 LF/CF - Pollock LF/RF/1B/DH Vaughn CF - Engel RP - Hendriks CAN'T HIT LEFT HANDED (or hit RIGHT HANDERS) Moncada Grandal Pollock Most of the rest of the right handers CAN'T FIELD Vaughn (OF) Sheets (OF) Jimenez (Anywhere) Anderson (SS) Grandal (C) -- can't hold baserunners Zavala (C) -- is he better this year? He was bad last year. HAS AN ALBATROSS CONTRACT 3B - Moncada C - Grandal (for 2023) LF - Pollock (player option) IS BELOW LEAGUE AVERAGE SP - Giolito SP/RP - Velasquez RP - Ruiz RP - Kelly RP - Diekman 2B - Harrison LF - Pollock 3B - Moncada C - Grandal CF - Engel 2B - Gonzalez Util - Garcia The ONLY players who are above league average and who play every time they are called on are: Jose Abreu, who is a free agent Dylan Cease Johnny Cueto, who is also a free agent Davis Martin (barely above with 106 ERA+) Kendall Graveman Reynaldo Lopez Jimmy Lambert Not sure you can build your team around 7 guys, 2 of whom are free agents.

Regardless of how the end of this season goes -- fangraphs still gives us a 15% chance of making the playoffs -- many of us have started thinking about next year. I know it's a bit premature, but it's on my mind, so here goes. The White Sox cannot be fixed by next year. Let's look at the challenge player by player. I'll start by going around the diamond. This is written after 146 games. 1. Yasmani Grandal. C, 1B, DH. 2022. 88 games, only 55 as a starting catcher. 67 OPS+, -1 WAR. Only a .505 OPS as a lefty, .818 as a righty. 2021. 90 games, 78 as a catcher. 155 OPS+. 3.7 WAR. .909 OPS as a lefty, 1.031 OPS as a righty. Contract -- 1 year left at $18,250,000. Evaluation: Grandal went from being the best hitter on the team to nearly the worst. But he was still injured for a significant stretch of the season and caught fewer than half of the games. His contract makes him untradeable, but he's also completely unreliable. Plus, he hits worse as a lefty when the Sox are desperate for lefties. 2. Yoan Moncada. 3B. 2022. 90 games. 78 OPS+. .569 OPS as a lefty. .856 OPS as a righty. 2021. 144 games. 116 OPS+. .817 OPS as lefty. .700 OPS as a righty. Contract -- 2 more years at $17.8M, $24.8M. Club option in 3rd year for $25M. Evaluation -- his OPS+ has been under 100 in 2 of the last 3 years. He seems to be hurt a lot, and he has been atrocious this year against right handed pitching. Like with Grandal, when the Sox are desperate for lefty power, Moncada comes up short. Can you trade him? Off this year, no. Off last year, probably. But the Sox paid for 2019 breakout year and he hasn't come close since. Like Grandal, he's not a reliable player. 3. Tim Anderson. SS. 2022. 79 games. 108 OPS+. All-Star. 2021. 123 games. 118 OPS+ Contract -- Club options for $12.5M next year and and $14M in 2 years. Evaluation -- One of the main leaders of the team, he's never healthy for a full season. Since 2019 he's played in 123, 49 (of 60), 123, and 79 games. He made the All-Star team this year, but it was his worst OPS+ since 2018. He has great speed, but with regular leg injuries, you can't afford to run him. Given his shaky health, it's hard to see the Sox giving him a big contract after his next 2 seasons run their course. And you need a backup SS to cover at least 40 games. 4. Second base. The Sox have trotted out a lot of 2B over the last 2 years. 2022. Harrison 81 games, Garcia 46 games, Gonzalez 18 games, Mendick 6 games. 2021. Hernandez 53 games, Madrigal 53 games, Garcia 36 games, Mendick 28 games. Hernandez and Madrigal are gone, Sox have a $5.5M option on Harrison next year, is a free agent, Garcia has 2 more years at $5.5M each, Mendick has 4 years of arbitration, and Gonzalez is under 5 more years of control. Evaluation -- Garcia has an albatross of a contract. Sox cannot trade him, so they need to eat $11M to be rid of him and his 42 OPS+. Harrison, Gonzalez and Mendick could cover 2B, but they are all right handed and don't begin to address the lefty power shortage the Sox have. Kolten Wong looks like the best lefty free agent 2B, but he's 32 and declining. Adam Frazier has been subpar for San Diego and Seattle and is not an answer. 5. Jose Abreu. 1B. 2022. 144 games. 137 OPS+ 2021. 152 games. 124 OPS+ Contract. Was just under $20M, but he's a free agent next year at 36. Evaluation -- The ONLY Sox player who comes to work every day. He's the oldest regular, but has played 20 more games than AJ Pollock, 23 more than Andrew Vaughn, 48 more than Luis Robert, 54 more than Moncada, 65 more than Tim Anderson, and 73 more then Eloy Jimenez. This is the biggest problem with the White Sox -- they have only ONE position player who they can count on to play every day, and he's the oldest regular on the team and is a free agent. I'm going to end my analysis right here because Abreu tells the whole story. 1. Most Sox regulars cannot be relied on to stay A) healthy, and B) hit according to their expected hitting norms. 2. The Sox are built around Grandal, Moncada, Anderson, Robert, Jimenez, Abreu, and Vaughn. The best and most reliable of those players is a 1B/DH and a free agent. The first 5 guys are regularly injured and otherwise unable to match their hitting norms. If you bring back Abreu, you are still left with Jimenez, Vaughn, and Sheets, who should all be DH or 1B guys, but 2 of them have to play the field and weaken the defense. Plus, only one of them is a lefty. 3. It's not just the offense. On the pitching side, Lucas Giolito has regressed to being a sub-par starter. Johnny Cueto had a great bounce back year, but is a free agent, and can he be counted on next year? Dylan Cease is the ACE. Lance Lynn seems to be back to normal, but is older and has health issues. And Kopech seems okay, but his record was terrible and he's not fully stretched out or reliable to pitch an entire season. So that's 2 sold starters and a lot of question marks. 4. The bullpen looks like the best part of the team, especially if Crochet returns to form. Hendrix and Graveman are solid, Lopez has found his groove, Lambert has done quite well. Add back Crochet as a lefty and this is a strength. The bottom line is that the Sox can't really trade anyone for some reliable lefty starters who play good defense. They have Oscar Colas in the minors, but he's not ready for MLB. They could try some patchwork things, but it's not going to make Grandal, Moncada, Anderson, Robert and Jimenez into reliable everyday players. Of those 5, only Robert and Moncada play good defense. So, of course the Sox can let go of TLR (he should retire) and fire the hitting coach, but even if they had money they can't reliably win with this core. It's pretty sad as a Sox fan. But I think that's reality.

I'm a fan of 2 main sports teams, the White Sox being one of them. I've been a fan since I switched off of the Cubs in 1970. I grew up in the Chicago area but haven't lived there since the mid 1970s. Thankfully the White Sox have won the World Series in my lifetime. (They didn't in my father's lifetime.) That 2005 season was magical in all respects. I wrote a 17-page tribute to that season mostly from memory. But I've found myself this season to have a very hard time watching the White Sox. This little run they've made once Tony LaRussa left for medical tests has been nice, but so much of the season was just painful. Whenever I start to watch a game, I find myself falling into griping and moaning about the Sox' many failings. Poor lineups, poor pitching, really bad hitting, swinging at bad pitches, defensive lapses, etc. The negative seemed to usually outweigh the positives, even in Sox wins, which have often been tight affairs. My other team is in football. It's not the Bears. They were once very good, but have been through an exceedingly long championship dry spell. Like the Sox, they had a poor offseason and it's coming home to roost. Which leads me to pen this post. Is it really worth being a team sports fan? I'd have to say the only real positive I can think of is that it's been part of how I've bonded with my son. But I wonder if that part could have happened if we didn't get so caught up in any particular team. Otherwise, I'm mostly in a place of negativity and stress about my teams, without a whole lot of joy. Should I just abandon the whole affair? I used to have a basketball team I followed and rooted for, and I gave that up, and the NBA in general, a couple decades ago. Should I do the same for baseball and the NFL? What is your fandom experience?

The Sox have to clear out the underperformers, especially the highest priced ones. It has to start with Moncada and Grandal. Moncada was a 4 WAR player in 2021, and Grandal was a 3.7 WAR player. But is that possible again? I don't see it. Just have to get another team to take as much of the contracts as possible and move on.

Gavin Sheets still has less than a full year's worth of ABs. For the season, he's the ONLY lefty on the Sox who has hit. Grandal and Moncada are at 68 and 66 wRC+, respectively. Sheets is at 111. In the last month, Sheets' OPS is above 1.000. His wRC+ in August is 187. He's still not a full time player, as his splits against lefties is very bad. And he's not a right fielder. But what are the Sox going to do? Sheets is a cheap, under control, power hitting lefty who is starting to figure it out after a slow start to the year. His upside is still pretty strong. Ideally, he'd be part of a DH or 1B platoon. But the Sox also have Abreu, Vaughn, and Eloy, who are best as DH/1B players, and none of them are good platoon candidates. So, good luck figuring it out. Just know that Sheets should be part of the solution because the Sox have NO other lefties hitting even league average. ********* Another thread should be -- what do to with Moncada and Grandal? If I were the Sox, I'd seek salary dump trades for both, getting as much salary relief as possible to get them off the team. Both might be able to bounce back, so there might be takers.

Gavin Sheets is the only Sox hitter who is hitting right now. He has a .946 OPS over the last month. He still has less than a year of ABs. If you dump him, he's going to rake for some other team. I'd say he's our best left handed hitter, BY FAR. He's really our ONLY left handed hitter, with Grandal and Moncada less than worthless.

Hendriks has blown too many saves, including the 0-2 HR pitch he served up in Baltimore after Engels dropped the foul pop fly. That was really the death knell game. They haven't won since. Kopech has won 4 games. He usually pitches just well enough to lose. Ironically, the day I posted this, Graveman lost to the Dbacks.

Unwatchable.

Sox should fire LaRussa and Menechino now so they can see how the team performs for a different manager and hitting coach in the last month of the season. It will give them some additional information when deciding what to do in the offseason.

Here's my list of the Sox players who have done their jobs this year. 1. Dylan Cease 2. Johnny Cueto 3. Jose Abreu 4. Andrew Vaughn 5. Kendall Graveman 6. Jimmy Lambert 7. Reynaldo Lopez It's not much to build around for next year, especially since Abreu and Cueto are free agents.

I'm fine with the front office doing almost nothing at the trade deadline. This team doesn't deserve to be saved from itself. At this point, there are no more excuses. They have the ability to play better, to play smarter, to manage better and smarter, etc. Success and failure is completely up to them.

If Eloy is still hurting, he should be in AAA or rehabbing.

Are the White Sox going to be better off in the second half if/when Eloy Jimenez and Yasmani Grandal return? So far this year, in 71 plate appearances over 19 games, Jimenez has put up a 53 WRC+ total. That's better than only Leury Garcia. Yasmani Grandal has not done much better, with a 59 WRC+ over 201 PAs in 50 games. That beats out Garcia, Jimenez, and Reese McGuire (58 WRC+). It's like anticipating Lance Lynn's return, only to see him put up a 7.50 ERA over 7 games. With Grandal, the Sox at least have the hope he might play something closer to the second half of 2021, when he duked it out with Luis Robert for best hitter on the team. With Jimenez, he had a very good August after returning from injury last year, but his Sept/Oct was pathetic, with a 68 OPS+. Also, Grandal can replace Reese McGuire, who is one of the few hitters who has been worse than Grandal. While who will Jimenez take ABs from? If it's AJ Pollock and his 71 WRC+, it won't be much of a difference. But is Jimenez a better choice against righties than Gavin Sheets, who has improved after a rough start, or Adam Engel, who has been on fire lately? The Sox can't really afford for these guys to spend a month trying to find their strokes. They need to be hitting at least at career averages right out of the gate or they should spend more rehab time in AAA until they find their footing.

The problem with a Soto trade is that Soto has not named his contract price to the Nationals, and is unlikely to name his price to any team he is traded to. He's a Boras client and when Boras wants his player to establish his value in free agency, he just waits until free agency. Soto doesn't give a crap whether that hurts the Nats return on a trade. Why should he? So any team trading for Soto this year is getting 2.5 years of production and the opportunity to be among the teams bidding for his services when he's a free agent. Now even 2.5 years of Soto has value, but it doesn't have nearly the value that is being projected. That being said, the Nats should get the most value shipping him out this year, because it's an extra pennant race for the buyer. Every day they wait, their return is likely to decline. Also, since the Nats are TERRIBLE - worst team in baseball - they don't really want players already in the majors who will be needlessly using up their major league service time on a bad club. The deal has to be for controllable minor league talent. If the Sox were to bid, they don't have much in the minors, but they could certainly give the Nats their choice of 3 "top-10" guys plus 2-3 more lower level guys. For example, Montgomery, Colas, and Vera, plus 2-3 lower level guys. If I were the Sox, I would make that trade in a heartbeat. It's doubtful the Nats would take it.

Abreu has quietly reassumed his role as the best hitter on the team. If the Sox had more guys like Jose Abreu, instead of wannabes like Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez, and Yasmani Grandal -- all of whom seem always hurt or just plain incompetent -- the Sox would be in first place.

I became a Sox fan in 1970 because of the 1969 melt-down of the Cubs. Never looked back. The 2022 Sox are a disappointment, for sure, but they have never been in first place.

Abreu is one of about 3-4 White Sox hitters who is actually doing his job. The others are Tim Anderson, and Andrew Vaughn. Everyone else should be ashamed of their performances.

Moncada needed to be benched after that play, and probably Engel too, though Engel likely would have tagged properly if Moncada wasn't racing full speed ahead. I would bench Moncada for the series over it. It lost the ballgame. That and Luis Robert being asleep in CF on the 2 doubles that bounced in the grass. Plus, Joe Kelly has a fastball. Why doesn't he use it? Ball 1, ball 2, ball 3. He was not a good signing.

The Sox have certainly underachieved this year. For some time, they've been hovering around .500. They've been pretty devastated by injuries, and massive underperformance from highly paid players like Yasmani Grandal and Yoan Moncada, both of whom have played hurt a lot this year. The question is -- what to do at this point? My own take is that they should not make major changes or trade off future value for present value. There are actually some positive things that could be built on. 1. The offense is finally coming around. Here are some OPS numbers for June. Tim Anderson - .855 (before injury it was .922 in May) Andrew Vaughn - .940 Luis Robert - .770 Jose Abreu - .911 Jake Burger - .980 AJ Pollock - .849 Reese McGuire - .690 or Seby Zavala - .781 Josh Harrison - .822 They have just lost Adem Engel to injury, but his June OPS is .594, so replacing him with Gavin Sheets is not an offensive downgrade, even if it is a defensive one. They also lost Danny Mendick, who was hitting at a June OPS of .771. Who knows what Lenyn Sosa will put up in his place? Who knows if they can sustain this, but this looks a lot more like what one would have expected before the season started. 2. The starting pitching is in better shape than it was to start the year. The Sox finally have 5 legitimate starters. Michael Kopech - 2.38 ERA Dylan Cease - 2.68 ERA Johnny Cueto - 2.95 ERA Lance Lynn - 5.79 ERA in his first 2 starts, but career 3.5 ERA (even if he doesn't return to last year's 2.69 ERA) Lucas Giolito - 5.40 ERA (but last year he went from a 4.15 ERA in the first half to a 2.65 ERA in the second half). And they also have spot starters in Davis Martin (4.29 ERA), Vince Velasquez (4.46 ERA) and perhaps Jimmy Lambert (3.29 ERA) or Reynaldo Lopez (3.16 ERA). They DON'T have Dallas Keuchel and his 7.88 ERA over 8 starts. 3. The bullpen looks like it may be the most stretched portion of the roster, but will get reinforcements Without Liam Hendriks and Aaron Bummer, the bullpen is thin. But we still have Kendall Graveman and Joe Kelly (who should get back to career norms) at the back end, and 2-inning guys in Velasquez, Lambert, and Lopez to shorten the number of pitchers needed for the back end of games. Plus, if the offense continues to produce and Lynn and Giolito do their jobs, we should have more games with some cushion to ease the pressure on the bullpen. 4. The team will get reinforcements in the second half without having to make trades. Eloy Jimenez -- who knows what he'll be when he returns. But at the very least he should be upgrade from Gavin Sheets. His career OPS is .813, but it was .891 in 2020. Yasmani Grandal -- he went on a tear after he returned from injury last year. His second half OPS was 1.154. Yoan Moncada - will he be an upgrade? It's not clear. When Eloy is back, to play Moncada you would have to sit either Pollock or Burger. His second half OPS last year was .780. No need to rush him. Danny Mendick - playing better than Harrison or Garcia. Adam Engel - good defensive replacement outfielder/spot starter. Liam Hendriks - closer Aaron Bummer - lefty set up man Kyle Crick - depth BP piece 5. They play in the AL Central, where Cleveland is leading with a .563 winning percentage. That is tied for the NL Central as the worst winning percentage among division leaders. It puts the Sox 4.5 games back right now. The Sox have 13 games against the Twins, with 6 at home, and 7 on the road, including 6 of their last 9 games. They have 14 games against the Guardians, with 7 at home and 7 on the road. (Last game is Sept 22). Needless to say, those head-to-head matchups with Cleveland and Minnesota will go a long way to deciding the division winner. 6. TLR's 1983 Sox went on a second-half tear. That Sox team was 40-37 in the first half, and 59-26 in the second half. They didn't add anyone significant to the roster during the season. They just started playing better. (This isn't going to ever happen again, just like no team is ever going to have 4 complete game victories again in the playoffs like the 2005 Sox did in the ALCS, but the starting pitching for the 1983 Sox in the second half was lights out. The trio of Lamarr Hoyt, Floyd Bannister, Richard Dotson went 42-4 starting July 12th to the end of the regular season. Hoyt won 13 games in a row from July 27 to Sept 30 (with one no decision) and 15 of 16 starting July 13th. Bannister won 9 in a row, and went 13-1 after July 12th (with 3 no decisions). Dotson won 10 in a row, and went 14-2 from July 15th to the end of the year (with 1 no decision). Crazy.) The Atlanta Braves were 44-45 in the first half last year, and 44-28 in the second half on their way to a WS win. I'm sure there are many other examples of a team not playing well in the first half and then going on a tear in the second half. 7. What would the point be of making deals? The Sox don't have a lot of depth in the minors or major league pieces to trade from. And if you trade guys like Burger or Sheets you are just weakening the roster for the next few years. Burger is looking more like the longer term answer at 3B than Yoan Moncada is right now. And Sheets had a rough start to the year, but otherwise had a stellar platoon role last year, and we're pretty desperate for LH power bats. I would consider trading Moncada, who doesn't look like he's going to earn his contract over the next few years, and Eloy Jimenez, who seems very injury prone. But they are also at their lowest trade value. Who would take on Moncada's contract and send anything of value in return? And could you get anything in an Eloy trade likely to have the same upside if he gains some health consistency? I would also trade Lucas Giolito, who seems too inconsistent to be worthy of a big money extension, but his value is also low at the moment. He's more likely to be someone moved in the offseason with only 1 year of control left. Conclusion I say ride it out with this group -- players, coaches/manager, and front office. See if they can turn it around with only minor tweaks that don't cost significant future value. The Ryan Tepera trade from last year, for example, not the Kimbrel trade. If they don't make it, consider significant changes in the offseason.

I'm so done with Yoan Moncada. He hasn't earned to even be on the ballclub at this point. Jake Burger should be the starting 3rd baseman for the rest of the year. Moncada should ride the bench, or the IL if they have reason to put him there. If the Sox could get anyone to take on even half of Moncada's remaining contract, they should dump him in a minute. Addition by subtraction. He's owed $41M over the next 2 years. We thought Keuchel was death to the pitching staff. Moncada is death to the lineup. He's not even outhitting Josh Harrison or Leury Garcia, who are both pathetic.