82-85 wins.  They're still short an impact starter, an impact bat and a couple high leverage relievers. 

80-90 wins is the range. 

I'm in the 80-85 range. the AL is tough and it actually wouldn't shock me if they only won 77-80, but that's with no improvement from the young pitchers, Keuchel putting up a 4.40+ ERA  and rookie struggles from Robert and Madrigal. It's not implausible that all of that happens, because it's the White Sox and nothing ever goes according to plan. 

What would your reaction be if the following happened? 

1. Robert Puts up something like .240/.295/.725

2. Madrigal shows little power

3. Keuchel puts up a 4.40 ERA

4. Moncada, Eloy and Giolito continue to improve. Anderson takes a step back, but is still good. Hits .295 with 25 HR and 25 SB. 

5. EE takes a step back, Grandal disappoints a bit offensively. hits .235 with 22 HR. 

6. Gio Gonzalez has nothing left

7. Cease/Lopez continue to be inconsistent, and Kopech puts up a 4.30 ERA in ~100 innings, with ~ 120 K and a WHIP north of 1.40. Rodon doesn't pitch at all because he's made of glass. 

8. Mazara takes a step forward, but isn't a star. Hits .285 with 30-35 bombs, and a .325 OBP. 

Sox finish the season with 78 wins

What would be your reaction to something like this happening? 

 

Edited December 29, 20196 yr by Jack Parkman

They need to take advantage of their division.  

Dominate KC and Detroit.  Go like 14-5 or 15-4 against them both and split with Cleveland and the Twins.  

That's almost 50 wins right there.

 

Easy peasy. 

 

 

7 hours ago, VAfan said:

Wow, there is some real optimism here. 

To win the division, or even to make the playoffs as a wild card, a few things will have to happen.

1. Starting pitching will need to take a huge leap forward. We all expect Giolito to repeat, or even get better. Keuchel and Gonzalez have been pretty reliable, so we can likely expect normal years out of them. After that, Lopez and Cease need to take leaps forward, or at least one of them does if Kopech steps up when he can return. Rodon will also most likely be needed for depth because you never get through a season with 6 starters. 

2. The bullpen will need to be stronger. There will a lot more games where we will need our A pitchers to hold a lead or stay close, and fewer B games where we're so far behind it doesn't matter what the pen does.  That can burn a pen out quickly if it's not deep enough or managed well enough. Just ask the Nationals. We all expect the Sox to make additions here.

3. Robert will need to hit the ground running. He's much more important to the offense than Madrigal, who is going to hit from the get go, but doesn't have the power to change a game. It would be great if he signed an extension and started Opening Day. What would hurt is if he has the growing pains Moncada had as a rookie. 

4. We need pretty good health. Every team gets injuries, and we have more depth to cover than we did last year. But we can't lose one or more of our mashers or key starters for an extended period. 

5. Renteria has to manage the team he has, with appropriate adjustments for the players hitting and pitching skills. On the offensive side, that likely means less bunting, for example. For the pitching, managing the bullpen will be critical. Managers do make a difference. 

I'm not going to predict a W-L number. But I think the team will have a shot at making the postseason. 

I would guess by your post the win total would be 83 games with a shot at 93. You are correct though, well said. 

90 wins is within range.  I would say i would bet on us being between 85 - 88 at the moment.  

6 hours ago, Jack Parkman said:

I'm in the 80-85 range. the AL is tough and it actually wouldn't shock me if they only won 77-80, but that's with no improvement from the young pitchers, Keuchel putting up a 4.40+ ERA  and rookie struggles from Robert and Madrigal. It's not implausible that all of that happens, because it's the White Sox and nothing ever goes according to plan. 

What would your reaction be if the following happened? 

1. Robert Puts up something like .240/.295/.725

2. Madrigal shows little power

3. Keuchel puts up a 4.40 ERA

4. Moncada, Eloy and Giolito continue to improve. Anderson takes a step back, but is still good. Hits .295 with 25 HR and 25 SB. 

5. EE takes a step back, Grandal disappoints a bit offensively. hits .235 with 22 HR. 

6. Gio Gonzalez has nothing left

7. Cease/Lopez continue to be inconsistent, and Kopech puts up a 4.30 ERA in ~100 innings, with ~ 120 K and a WHIP north of 1.40. Rodon doesn't pitch at all because he's made of glass. 

8. Mazara takes a step forward, but isn't a star. Hits .285 with 30-35 bombs, and a .325 OBP. 

Sox finish the season with 78 wins

What would be your reaction to something like this happening? 

 

Happy with Mazara.

17 hours ago, mqr said:

If you get breakouts from a few pitchers this very well could be a 100 win team. Probably not. But they COULD be that good

This team has SO much potential, but with potential comes many factors and questions...we shall see

This team is on the right track obviously and should be fun to watch in 2020 and hopefully winning for the foreseeable future

8 hours ago, black jack said:

They need to take advantage of their division.  

Dominate KC and Detroit.  Go like 14-5 or 15-4 against them both and split with Cleveland and the Twins.  

That's almost 50 wins right there.

 

Easy peasy. 

 

 

Having DET and KC in the division is major, curious how this team would fair in the AL or NL East

Hoping CLE blows it up, but regardless I don't see them being competitive in a year or two

At least DET and KC have some arms coming up soon

MIN is a good team, but they somehow always overachieve

I think the twins will seriously regress. White sox are probably a mid to high 80s win team but the twins and indians might not be much better. The AL central is probably the easiest to win division in baseball next year and white sox have a shot at doing this.

 

I think all 3 teams have a similar shot of winning it unless cleveland dismantles the team more. So sox have about a 1 in 3 shot of winning the division. They need to do that though because I'm sure the wildcard will come from another division again, most likely the al east.

There is a realistic chance the sox win the division, depending on run differential luck and development of young players anything between 80 and 95 wins could happen with about 87 or so being most likely.

69-420

Edited December 29, 20196 yr by nickofypres

Looked at the Twins depth chart and I don't know if there are even three positions that the Twins are better than the Sox. MAYBE a slight edge at SS, DH and CF. Also the Sox seem to have a better rotation.

I think the twins have less talent, especially in the rotation. They have a really good player development though, they get their players to maximize their talent by optimizing launch angle and stuff like that and thus hit tons of homers.

They definitely need another starter though, if not two.

If Kopech and Cease produce the White Sox will make a shambles of the Central Division in 2020.

The Twins absolutely FEASTED on the Sox last year (playing the Tigers and Royals 38 times didn't hurt either). The Sox went 6-13 against the Twins last season. It's not a stretch to think that the Sox could gain 8 games on the Twins by simply starting guys that belong in the MLB.

Edited December 30, 20196 yr by oneofthemikes

15 hours ago, Orlando said:

Looked at the Twins depth chart and I don't know if there are even three positions that the Twins are better than the Sox. MAYBE a slight edge at SS, DH and CF. Also the Sox seem to have a better rotation.

And the three positions you listed will be manned by Timmy, EE, and Robert next year. So definitely not a weakness for our team anymore. 

1 minute ago, SonofaRoache said:

And the three positions you listed will be manned by Timmy, EE, and Robert next year. So definitely not a weakness for our team anymore. 

SS has always been manned by Timmy lol. He isn't a new player coming in like the other 2.

1 minute ago, SoxAce said:

SS has always been manned by Timmy lol. He isn't a new player coming in like the other 2.

Huh? What does that have to do with the point he was making?

3 minutes ago, SoxAce said:

SS has always been manned by Timmy lol. He isn't a new player coming in like the other 2.

I was saying the three position group as a whole was not a weakness anymore because of the other 2, and Timmy's new found offense. 

2 minutes ago, SoxBlanco said:

Huh? What does that have to do with the point he was making?

Because SS was never a weakness.

The Sox won 72 last year; arguably inflated due to excess games against Tigers and Royals (that will likely repeat as they figure to be terrible again).  They also had career years out of most of the bullpen (Frey excepted).  On the other hand, Eloy, Anderson and Moncada should continue to improve.  McCann had a career year, but Grandal more than compensates for that regression risk.  Mazara is an improvement - but how much is uncertain; there is upside though.  Keuchel and Gio  need to hold that WHIP at 1.3 or less; if they can, big improvement from the rotation.

In all, looks like 80ish wins to me.  A big improvement from Eloy, Anderson and Moncada, plus impact from some of Robert/Kopech/Madrigal/Rodon could pus the team to division contender category.

I would bet on Timmy over Polanco next year.  Both has awesome 2019s, and I expect both to regress a bit, but I think Polanco really took advantage of the juiced ball.  

The Twins IF defense is atrocious.  Even if the sign Donaldson, its still going to be really bad.  

2 minutes ago, SonofaRoache said:

I was saying the three position group as a whole was not a weakness anymore because of the other 2, and Timmy's new found offense. 

Ah thanks for clarifying. 

3 minutes ago, SoxAce said:

Because SS was never a weakness.

Yeah, but that has nothing to do with his point. His point is that the three positions where the Twins might have an edge are not weaknesses for us. 

EDIT: I see the confusion now, and I see it’s been cleared up. 

Edited December 30, 20196 yr by SoxBlanco

Just now, SoxBlanco said:

Yeah, but that has nothing to do with his point. His point is that the three positions where the Twins might have an edge are not weaknesses for us. 

Yea I already posted him thanks for the clarification. 

Just now, SoxAce said:

Yea I already posted him thanks for the clarification. 

No worries. I edited my last post, and I see why it was confusing.