It's only April, but I think the jury is in on this pre-season debate as well, just like the Eaton v. Pederson dust up seems settled. 

So many commentators thought the Sox overpaid for Hendriks, when they had multiple in-house options, while the Twins were hailed as the smarter front office by waiting on Colome and getting him for a much cheaper price. 

Anyone still think that? 

Hendriks has not been lights out, by any means. He's already blown two saves, though the Sox bailed him out by winning the last one of those in the bottom of the 9th.  But does anyone still think the Sox had an alternative to Hendriks in house?  Bummer? He's been pretty bad. Marshall?  Look at his ERA.  Heuer is the only one who could have potentially closed, but if you took out Heuer from the crew getting you to the 9th, the Sox would be much thinner, and an area we thought was strong would have been much weaker and likely cost us more games than it has already.

So, I remain glad the Sox paid to get Hendriks to solidify the back end of the bullpen and let the rest of the guys focus on set-up work. 

I also don't think the Sox "overpaid" for Hendriks. They paid the market rate. Had they offered any less, he would have gone elsewhere and we would have been scrambling for alternatives. 

Meanwhile, the "smart" Twins have been crushed by using Alex Colome as their closer. He lost another game last night on a 2-run 10th inning homer.  It's not all been his fault. The 2 infield errors in a 13-12 loss to Oakland were on his team, though he walked 2 guys to make those errors meaningful. 

Chalk another one up to the Sox front office. 

Hendriks will be fine.  Colome would have been a fine addition to really any pen for the deal he got, but he's not a closer on a good team, and that is showing its face.  He was quite lucky with the Sox.  

It sure is enjoyable to watch Colome absolutely implode for the Twins tho.  

So far so good for Hahn's moves.  Liam needs to find his offspeed stuff but he's not going to carry a HR/FB rate of 31% all year.

36 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Hendriks will be fine.  Colome would have been a fine addition to really any pen for the deal he got, but he's not a closer on a good team, and that is showing its face.  He was quite lucky with the Sox.  

It sure is enjoyable to watch Colome absolutely implode for the Twins tho.  

This. Colome walked the tight rope so many times over the past couple seasons and it’s finally started catching up to him. Hendriks last HR he gave up was just bad luck and a good swing on a pitch I still dont know how it was taken out of the ballpark. He will be fine.

44 minutes ago, HahnsKiddieTable said:

This. Colome walked the tight rope so many times over the past couple seasons and it’s finally started catching up to him. Hendriks last HR he gave up was just bad luck and a good swing on a pitch I still dont know how it was taken out of the ballpark. He will be fine.

That was an amazing piece of hitting. He took a fastball way up and away and pulled it to hit a HR. Not exactly pulled pulled but to RCF. I could understand if he hit it oppo for a HR but pulling that pitch is something you don't see often.

1 hour ago, chitownsportsfan said:

So far so good for Hahn's moves.  Liam needs to find his offspeed stuff but he's not going to carry a HR/FB rate of 31% all year.

Yea lots of very wrong people around here SO FAR. Plenty wanted Hendricks some didn't think he was needed. Eaton, hardly anyone was pleased with his acquisition.

The Lynn trade was hated by many , maybe split half and half here on that. Still might be half and half. Rodon costs less than any of them and is paying off the most (arguably).

18 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Yea lots of very wrong people around here SO FAR. Plenty wanted Hendricks some didn't think he was needed. Eaton, hardly anyone was pleased with his acquisition.

The Lynn trade was hated by many , maybe split half and half here on that. Still might be half and half. Rodon costs less than any of them and is paying off the most (arguably).

The only move I didn't like was the Dunning trade.  Eaton, if healthy, is a productive player and if the Sox figured he'd be healthy who I am to argue otherwise they have his medicals not me.

58 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

The only move I didn't like was the Dunning trade.  Eaton, if healthy, is a productive player and if the Sox figured he'd be healthy who I am to argue otherwise they have his medicals not me.

It was hard to like the Lynn for Dunning trade even though I predicted it. I just wanted it to happen at the 2020 trade deadline so we had Lynn for the playoffs instead of Dunning and for all of 2021 . I liked it for 1.5 seasons of Lynn , and not as much for 1 season, but still thought a starter of his caliber was needed and since they weren't spending any money it was about the best starter we could get for Dunning taking Lynn's relatively small salary into consideration.

Eaton I liked and got into it about him with your arch rival.

Not sure the "don't give a closer all your FA money" crowd is the same as the bring back colome crowd. 

Bullpen hasn't really been worth pounding chests about and Hendriks has blown 2 saves in 6 chances so n idea why that is a "great signing" at the moment. Unless your goal was a 66% save % when they signed him for huge money.

Edited April 27, 20214 yr by Look at Ray Ray Run

 

I loved Colome last year, and I love him even more now.

14 minutes ago, Tony said:

 

Wonder if Baldelli will move himself to a lower leverage situation so he doesn't forget how many mound visits he's made and be forced to pull his starter early... on accident. Never saw that before last night in my entire life.

I don't really think you can compare the two. Colome is guaranteed 6 million or so, where as Liam has a 54 million dollar contract. I think it's obvious who MLB thinks is the better player. The criticism comes from allocating such a huge amount of limited funds to a CP. 

1 hour ago, Tony said:

 

So Taylor Rogers will be the man.

The best White Sox closers have been finds like Jenks, Santos and Foulke...because they were so cheap for a team with a middling payroll.

Otoh, guys like Koch, Robertson and even Dotel crowded other needed players out because they cost too much.  You could add Linebrink as well, although more of a setup guy.

 

 

42 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

So Taylor Rogers will be the man.

The best White Sox closers have been finds like Jenks, Santos and Foulke...because they were so cheap for a team with a middling payroll.

Otoh, guys like Koch, Robertson and even Dotel crowded other needed players out because they cost too much.  You could add Linebrink as well, although more of a setup guy.

 

 

Dustin Hermanson was really good before Jenks became the closer in 2005.

Also, I rewatched Moneyball recently and the highlights they showed of Billy Koch during the long winning streak nearly made me ill.

8 hours ago, wegner said:

Dustin Hermanson was really good before Jenks became the closer in 2005.

Also, I rewatched Moneyball recently and the highlights they showed of Billy Koch during the long winning streak nearly made me ill.

Yeah, although I'm not 100% sure he was brought in 100% to be the closer.   He was more of a "the guys put together with duct rape and baling wire, let's hope we can get a half season out of him" type of signing.

We were definitely in a transition period after Takatsu proved to be ineffective, and Marte was fading as well.

9 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

So Taylor Rogers will be the man.

The best White Sox closers have been finds like Jenks, Santos and Foulke...because they were so cheap for a team with a middling payroll.

Otoh, guys like Koch, Robertson and even Dotel crowded other needed players out because they cost too much.  You could add Linebrink as well, although more of a setup guy.

 

 

Making bigtime sense here, just 'cuz it's so, so true.  Not going to get an audience from the "You always get what you pay for" crowd, but it's still true.  You and I must belong to the "You always get what you pay for, except when you don't get what you pay for" crowd.

Remember when the bozo we called Juan Disgusto added a new pitch and became the hottest reliever in the NL?  RP's are a tricky bunch to evaluate.

Edited April 28, 20214 yr by Stinky Stanky

13 hours ago, ChiSox59 said:

Hendriks will be fine.  Colome would have been a fine addition to really any pen for the deal he got, but he's not a closer on a good team, and that is showing its face.  He was quite lucky with the Sox.  

It sure is enjoyable to watch Colome absolutely implode for the Twins tho.  

If anyone enjoys watching Alex Colome pitch, then they enjoy rain delays.  At least Hendriks throws the ball fairly frequently.?

49 minutes ago, Stinky Stanky said:

Making bigtime sense here, just 'cuz it's so, so true.  Not going to get an audience from the "You always get what you pay for" crowd, but it's still true.  You and I must belong to the "You always get what you pay for, except when you don't get what you pay for" crowd.

Remember when the bozo we called Juan Disgusto added a new pitch and became the hottest reliever in the NL?  RP's are a tricky bunch to evaluate.

Yes, I have a bunch of his baseball cards from the 1980's...another Latin guy was Ernesto Escarrega from that time period.  Joe DeSa, who passed away, along with Carlos Martinez and Ivan "Bubbling" Calderon.

Bruce Tanner (Chuck's son) was on one of those 1983 cards, Fleer.  He later would go on to the pitching coach of the Augusta GreenJackets (Pirates affiliate) when I was working there out of grad school in 1993/94.

I was fortunate enough to go to a game with comp tickets at PNC and sit with Chuck right behind home plate.

Edited April 28, 20214 yr by caulfield12

Colome has sucked... hendricks hasn't been too great himself either...

 

So yeah one guy is an F the other is a C- at the moment..

 

This happens all the time with relief pitchers... they are so up and down....

 

 

Edited April 28, 20214 yr by harkness99

9 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Yeah, although I'm not 100% sure he was brought in 100% to be the closer.   He was more of a "the guys put together with duct rape and baling wire, let's hope we can get a half season out of him" type of signing.

We were definitely in a transition period after Takatsu proved to be ineffective, and Marte was fading as well.

Haha, you mentioned one of the most perplexing favorite players of all time for my Dad...he loved Damaso Marte.  My folks lived close enough to Sox Park that people would park by them and take the bus or walk to the park.  My nephews would tell me stories of them coming back to the car after a tough loss and would be greeted by my Dad with a typical refrain of "Why did they take Marte out!!!"

So to sum up...Nellie Fox, Billy Pierce, and Damaso Marte...all with prominent places in my Dad's Sox Hall of Favorites