Dominikk85

Can't blame the front office imo. Kimbrel had a sub 1 Era with the cubs and 5+ with sox, nobody could have predicted that collapse. Also let's not forget madrigal now had his second season ended by a severe injury so maybe he is injury prone going forward.

BTW I don't think the pitching strategy was bad. Bummer had a sub 1 Era against lefties this year and he did get a ground ball which is what you want. The grounder just found a hole, that is bad luck.

The team is just not constructed very well for defense. The white Sox are one of the worst defensive teams in the majors (25th on fangraphs). Jose, eloy, Vaughn, sheets, Collins are all distinctly negative defenders only moncada, Robert and Tim are above average (leury about average). The question is what are you doing about it? Jose, Vaughn, sheets, burger are all talented hitters who should play nowhere but first or DH but there are only two of those spots.

The Sox had about a 15% chance of winning that game when it was 3-0. Imo it is the right decision to not pull your ace pitcher in the 4th. Either he gets out of it and you can still win it or you just take the L. Can't win a game if you put in the pen early and you don't want to burn your good pen guys early in a game you are likely to lose anyway. I mean reylo is basically your mop up guy, you are not winning with him either so you would have needed to bring in one of your big 4 to save it which you are not doing down 3 0 in game 1. I think after being down 3 0 it is right to take the gamble, either your ace somehow figures it out or you are losing anyway, can't waste your good pen guys in that spot.

Analytics say intentional walks are bad, mlb has basically stopped intentional walks except for in front of nl pitchers. Some of the more analytical teams don't do IBBs at all https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/intentional-walk-decline-let-mlb-teams-do-the-scouting/ Sox have 10 ibb all year, I'm pretty sure that is an order from the Sox analytics department to not pitch around guys but either get him or let him beat you.

Fangraphs live game odds still give Sox a 15% chance to win that game but at least the goal should be to get mcullers out and let the astros use their pen which isn't super deep

Burger really did similar compared to sheets in both minors and majors (120 wrc+ and 122 in AAA and mlb for burger and 131 and 125 for sheets) but I think sheets got more of a run because he is a lefty and the Sox are an extremely right handed line up. The Sox simply needed some lefty bats and sheets offered that and did well. Burger didn't really Hit worse but with so many right handers in the lineup he probably is more expendable

Just give him the 3 games off now and have him fresher for the playoffs

If you knew he would struggle toward the end of the season wouldn't the solution have been to limit his innings? If you have a pitcher with a history of fragility why not limit his workload more especially in such a week division?

The Sox managed him very badly. After 34 innings in 19 and 7 in 2020 Tony just overused him and Hahn did nothing to step in (like a fake DL stint earlier in the season or telling him to skip a start). I know he is a FA but the sox still need him in the post season, why wasn't he Already rested in July? What did they think? That he can easily throw 160 innings after 40 combined in 2 years before that?

2 runs in 6 is good and should have given the offense a chance to win it but 5 walks is really extremely high, there is something seriously wrong with his control.

Maybe he tried to play through an injury and made it worse and that was the reason for his struggles. Hopefully if he is without pain again he can hit like he has done during parts of the summer.

Interestingly fangraphs gives him a 60 hit (but only 40 power). I like his low k rate and I think there could be more like 45-50 power. Slight downside is that he seems to be allergic to walks but if he can hit 275 with 15-20 homers that plays in the middle infield

I wonder if all the talk about service time manipulation and that mariners exec who Later resigned who basically admitted service time manipulation played a role here. Mariners fans where saying all season he is just Service timed and should be up now and expected him to be an immediate star like tatis or acuna. There was a lot of pressure on him and also probably himself proving that the Mariners were wrong and then came that big 1 for 50 slump or whatever that was, maybe he developed a little mechanical glitch and then was unable to get out of it. Some players take time to develope but it is not that he was super raw. In AAA he struck out just 15%. It is normal that k rate jumps 4-5 ticks in the majors compared to AAA but a doubling in the K rate should normally not happen. I think he just needs an off season to work a bit on his mechanics and get his head right and he should be fine.

I think the Brewers ended the little chance there was left to win the division for the indians. Sox not playing good a sweep could have given the indians a chance but getting swept themselves now means they are Probably out

Why would the Brewers trade him, they are trying to win? Burnes would cost a ton, at least two top100 prospects with one of them top20.

I agree. The offense will come and go and as long everyone is healthy I'm not worried, the bigger issue is the pitching. The Sox need to pitch like in the first half and rodon coming back strong is extremely important.

Let him play and figure it out. Maybe occasionally sit him against a good eighty pitcher.

He is basically an auto loss currently. They need to start him his next turn since everyone is on the IL and I think they should keep him during September even when rodon, Lynn and giolito are back to have him eat some innings and keep guys fresh but no way he should pitch any playoff innings. Sure they could use him as a mpp up guy in losses but I wouldn't want to waste a roster spot for that in the playoffs

The rotation so far was the biggest strength of the sox (albeit line up and pen have been good too: 1st in AL in starter war, 4th in position player and reliever war) but recently this rotation was struggling a bit (4.9 era last two weeks) and their 3 best pitchers are currently hurt and cease got roughed up too last start. Are you worried starters have been overworked? Or do you think the DL trips are just fake to get some rest? How confident are you the top 4 can be as good as they were in the first half? if they are the sox could be very hard to beat

To be fair he made adjustments already a few times this year. Started out cold, then had a pretty hot phase, then cold again and then another hot phase, now struggling again. Pretty normal for a young hitter

They need him to eat some innings as long all those guys are on the DL and probably beyond as innings are managed. I think he is kept for the regular season but in playoffs he won't be on the roster because he is not useful in the pen either with his high 80s fastball. But of course as long Lynn and giolito they need him to pitch some innings unless they want to stretch out kopech or reylo.

The bigger issue is that there are not enough good markets already. As long you have teams Like the As and rays who regularly run out sub 100m payrolls and play in front of empty stadiums despite being in a playoff race you don't need expansion. Worry about improving the location/stadium situations of those teams first. The last thing we need is another small market owner crying poor.

Castollanos is a good hitter and at 29 I think a 3-4 year contract wouldn't be the worst thing but he is a bad outfielder who should be a DH and the Sox have enough of those. They have jose, Vaughn played well in the of but his speed indicates this might not be for forever. They also have sheets and burger and maybe Collins if his bat turn around. No need to get another DH type

NFL does have an issue with hamstring injuries. They even funded a study for hammy injury prevention with 4 million dollars https://www.med.wisc.edu/news-and-events/2021/july/nfl-to-fund-uw-led-study-on-hamstring-injuries/#:~:text=A team of researchers led,injuries for elite football players.