Sambuca

WAR is okay. Use it as data/information, but not the "end-all-be-all" stat that best represents the player and their production. It's not really as fair as you'd think it would be, and does nothing in terms of assessing a team's specific needs. Once a stat becomes subjective, it's not really that much of a true statistic. Not saying RBIs are a better stat because they are "true." Every statistic has its place. I said nothing. I said too much. Goodnight.

Madrigal arguments going in ovals.

I’ve said this on here before, but I had a really hard time watching him pitch last year. Before the season started, he was one of the players I was most looking forward to seeing progress. I love watching pitchers with good stuff. Even through the developmental stages when they kind of suck, I still enjoy eventually seeing that perfectly spun curveball that gives you so much hope and excrement. Cease was the opposite of that last season. I can’t remember having any positive thoughts because his control was so bad, his stuff was non-existent. How can we be excited about a curveball that starts two feet out of the zone and ends up getting blocked by the catcher’s body. No major league hitter is going to swing at a ball that’s already 20 inches outside the zone and spinning like crazy. And from the guy who has already thrown 70 pitches to get through 2.1 innings. They also are not going to swing at your fastball out of the zone when they know nothing makes it back in the zone. I’m surprised he didn’t get hit a lot harder when he was in the zone with his straight fastball. He clearly had a ton of luck last season to keep a 4 ERA. I think my point was that if Katz can figure out how to make Cease throw strikes, he will be extremely good. Katz also needs to work with Cease on how to use his pitches in tandem. I want to be more confident in Cease but I don’t know if he will ever be able to keep his control consistently. And no, that won’t really play in the bullpen either. That would be a terrible waste of guy with stuff (somewhat) similar to Glasnow. That’s the most frustrating part, when he has a hitter in a rare two strike count, he doesn’t even need to start it in the zone, he can keep in there. Guys will swing through his stuff, especially behind in the count if he puts it near the plate. Learning to use his fastball in tandem with his breaking pitches will huge, but that only works when you locate the pitches anywhere near his target. I do sometimes forgot how good this team would be next year and beyond if Cease blossomed into a #2 Thats all I have to say about that.

This guy is definitely at least two of those accounts. I can’t tell if he’s the leader, but he’s right up there.

I admit, I can’t look away from the fake insiders on Twitter (besides that Shins guy, f that guy lol), but Al’s Cheese tweets about Hendriks are getting really bad. What the hell is he even saying anymore. Also, most of the “insiders” seem to using somewhat of a blueprint for how the Machado “negotiations“ were going last year. I am starting to become more and more skeptical we are in that heavily with Hendriks right now.

Fuck, does this mean we lost Hahn to meth?

This could be bigger than Fight Club.

I am hoping meth is very prominent in the anonymous MLB Twitter insider community.

One day, they should make a documentary about ACB’s lone “source” in the White Sox org. What kind of weird life has the source led to develop this relationship with ACB? And now even more weirdly, making it his personal mission to feed any inside information he gets to his special friend/pet. If it’s a real thing happening, it’s just funny to think about the actual dynamic.

It’s been around since the deadline last year. There might be nothing to it, but I’m sure that’s the case with most rumors this site dissects for 50 pages at a time. They are likely just listening to offers, as they should be, and why it’s pretty safe to assume they only trade him for an insane haul (starts with Kopech and Vaughn).

Woodruff is the best pitcher out of the group rumored to be available. Not only is he currently the best pitcher, he has the most years of control with four. As a comparison, if acquired, he will still be under contract a year after Giolito is currently set to become a FA. Keuchel will be gone as well. He becomes a huge part of our core. Unfortunately, because this all sounds so wonderful, it’s going to be expensive enough where no one with the Sox is will consider. This is one trade that actually will cost Kopech, Vaughn, and a decent amount more. The Sox are just not set up in a comfortable enough position to trade two players expected to play at a high level on the ML roster the next 5-7 years. For cheap. If they could somehow manage to only give up one of them, you pull the trigger without a doubt. And we won’t lose sleep if we had to use Madrigal to get Woodruff to join the top of our rotation for the next 4 years. Castillo has the most potential and second best pitcher, also one less year of control, and Reds will probably demand something close to Woodruff. There is no match here because if the Sox were willing to give that up, I’d imagine it’s going to Woodruff (if still available). i would trade for Grey as he’s also under team control for three years and I’m guessing will be much cheaper than Castillo. If we can get him for multiple players outside of our top 5, I’m honestly not very concerned about who they are. I’m also a lot less concerned giving up prospects who aren’t close to having a role on the team and the acquired player has decent control. Not sure we have the mid tier guys to get this done, if it becomes a bidding war. Musgrove is another guy I’d love the Sox to acquire. I don’t want to get into the argument I quickly jumped out as it started, but he looks really nice at the back end of our rotation. He’s also a guy that has potential to follow up Kopech’s 10k game with 12k. It will be fun staff to watch. Musgrove has the least amount of control so you can’t overpay for him since we already just traded a potential 6 year player for a one year player. We cannot give up anything expected to play a role with this ML team the next few years. We need to keep adding, not teetering every move we make. I also don’t want to deplete the farm, but during our window we do have a ton of time to keep building the system having so many fixtures on the roster. A group with Stiever and a few other 8-20 type guys is perfectly fine with me. It gives us a very strong looking rotation for at least the next two. We can easily replace the guys we shipped in this package. I’m not entirely sure that gets the deal done though. I talked a lot.

Not sure why no one has ever said this to me before. If I’m hiring Sir. Nolan, I’m going back a little further to make my life more interesting.

I’ll do it because I can tell you care.

I don’t know, man. I feel like the entire board has been different since experiencing my presence. A lot of people feel it. I don’t know if it’s just the power talking, but I don’t want people to stop feeling it.

What year was this?

Am I the ignored person?

Sorry, I thought I might have gone a little too far with this one and the 28 minutes of no responses confirms that. Not sure what happened here.

I like Soxtalk because the “hyperbole” is bountiful, but the subsequent dashing dialogue about, not only the meaning of the word, but the art of its usage.

All you guys talk about is “hyperbole.”

Colome got the job done the last few years, and that is because he’s mastered a craft, one that is not driven by crazy talent. I am worried, will he have to re-master his craft when his stuff begins regressing more over the next few years. It’s possible he could get even smarter with his pitch selection and when/how to use his cutter. I’d just rather not bank on that. Give me the guy who misses more bats and puts less runners on base. I am also a big fan of high energy, dominating closers. I feel like it just brings something extra to the team. I also think the guys playing behind Hendriks will be more confident and comfortable during the 9th inning. If we end up with Colome, I won’t be like upset especially if it’s cheap, and because we have in house options. I just think it’s time to go in a different direction. As far as overpaying for Hendriks, I do understand it’s not our money, but it does dictates what other moves we make, including unloading prospects. I also don’t want them “running out of money.“ If they did have 25mil to spend and I had confidence they would spend it wisely to fill multiple holes, I’d be more against spending a lot on Hendriks. But I do not trust them to make those moves with the extra money, so when they are heavily rumored to finally spend big money, and the player they are spending on is elite, I fucking want this move to happen so badly. We are spending a lot of money on an elite player! Both are things we should be celebrating. I understand the money could potentially be used to get more value at another position, could be used more efficiently to fill multiple holes, etc., but they realistically could also not spend it all, or spend it on a bunch of garbage who don’t add up to Hendriks as a whole. Spend money on the elite player who will make the White Sox a better team. I’d rather deal with the consequences of this signing this offseason. I’m sure they will be able to grab a couple more guys anyways. And I’m writing this with an understanding that at times, this contract won’t be great over whole 4 years, but it’s not a contract that will cripple this team. There might even be decent opportunity to trade him depending on the situation over his contract.

It’s cute how you two so generously and selflessly provide each other with reading recommendations.

I honestly do not think a trade with Stiever as the “headliner” gets it done. If Stiever is in the package, the other piece(s) would be almost equal.

Right, there were more pitchers who weren’t strikeouts guys, but high strikeout pitchers still existed. Koch was not one of them, and even at his highest strikeout rate, he just barely had a 2/1 SO/BB rate (2.02). That’s not good, especially for a reliever. His 1.27 WHIP that season was also far from dominant. Foulke was a more overpowering pitcher sitting in the low 90s. Obviously, I’m still pissed off about this trade, ha.

Thanks for saving me time of citing stats, lol. I was pissed when that trade was made because not only was Keith Foulke my favorite pitcher at the time, he was the superior reliever. The most value Koch provided in his “good” season in 2002 was his amount of appearances and innings, which most likely led to his massive drop in velocity the next season with the Sox. All his other numbers were very pedestrian.

Billy Koch was never good.