Well, it finally cost a game.  After watching all those great outfield plays by the Orioles last week, Sox butchered two playss that led to all four runs scored against them.  Sheets and Robert should have caught those two balls.

23 minutes ago, oldsox said:

Well, it finally cost a game.  After watching all those great outfield plays by the Orioles last week, Sox butchered two playss that led to all four runs scored against them.  Sheets and Robert should have caught those two balls.

Robert didn’t butcher that play…he just doesn’t get along with walls and pulled up.

And the outfield did make a play that should have eventually resulted in a runner being cut down at home.  Zavala didn’t make that play, and cost another on the basepaths as it should have been 1st and 2nd, no outs, one run in already.

Edited June 28, 20223 yr by caulfield12

All four runs last night were gift wrapped. Makes it hard to win. 

11 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Robert didn’t butcher that play…he just doesn’t get along with walls and pulled up.

And the outfield did make a play that should have eventually resulted in a runner being cut down at home.  Zavala didn’t make that play, and cost another on the basepaths as it should have been 1st and 2nd, no outs, one run in already.

Baltimore CF Mullin catches that ball in hip pocket.

It's hard to imagine Rick Hahn doing a worse job of putting this team together.

9 minutes ago, oldsox said:

Baltimore CF Mullin catches that ball in hip pocket.

So does Kevin Kiermeier.

Let’s be honest…if we didn’t have a team OPS of .683 and have a putrid 59 team HR’s there would be a lot less complaints about the defense. We could have a defense full of GG’s and would still be struggling to win games 

22 minutes ago, TheFutureIsNear said:

Let’s be honest…if we didn’t have a team OPS of .683 and have a putrid 59 team HR’s there would be a lot less complaints about the defense. We could have a defense full of GG’s and would still be struggling to win games 

So I keep hearing JR's personal spokesman tell Jason Benetti that the ball is the reason power is down, so I did some fact-checking.

ISO is down league-wide by 15 points from last season, from .167 to .152. Let's call that 15 points the effect of the ball.

Looking only at guys who were on the team both seasons. First number is actual change, second is adjusted for the league change. Some of these are small sample sizes for one or both years but I still think it's telling information.

Danny Mendick +88/+103

Andrew Vaughn +1/+16

Jake Burger -1/+14

Seby Zavala -12/+3

Yoan Moncada -35/-20

TEAM -41/-26

Leury Garcia  -45/-30

Jose Abreu -54/-39

Eloy Jimenez -77/-62

Gavin Sheets down -102/-87

Luis Robert -103/-88

Adam Engel -134/-119

Yasmani Grandal -228/-213

 

That's too many guys with severely decreased power numbers for it to be just the ball, weather, guys playing hurt, etc. Especially when combined with the decreased K rate and also decreased BB rate, it's pretty clear the team is emphasizing putting the ball in play over power.

Should the people running the Sox have built a team that doesn't have to consistently play 1B/DH in the outfield? Yes, but when you aren't even getting the offensive benefit that the extra 1B/DH in the lineup gives you, that's just compounding the problem.

I think you just simply have to find a LH hitting RF that can go get it in the OF for next season.  AV/Eloy split LF/DH.  Obviously its not getting fixed this season.  Would help if Luis actually gave it his all out there.  xBA on that 2 run double for Ward last night was .720, so definitely not a routine play but fuckina Luis.    

For example, same xBA that Abreu had on his flyout to CF to lead off the 9th that Trout caught rather easily. 

Sheets fuckup had an xBA of .150.....more routine that I thought. 

Edited June 28, 20223 yr by ChiSox59

15 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

I think you just simply have to find a LH hitting RF that can go get it in the OF for next season.  AV/Eloy split LF/DH.  Obviously its not getting fixed this season.  Would help if Luis actually gave it his all out there.  xBA on that 2 run double for Ward last night was .720, so definitely not a routine play but fuckina Luis.    

For example, same xBA that Abreu had on his flyout to CF to lead off the 9th that Trout caught rather easily. 

Sheets fuckup had an xBA of .150.....more routine that I thought. 

Damn I thought Sheets even looked shaky on the more routine fly ball earlier in that inning.  He looked better at the plate yesterday though,  He just is not an OF.  Goes to the thought earlier in this thread about the team that has been put together.

26 minutes ago, wegner said:

Damn I thought Sheets even looked shaky on the more routine fly ball earlier in that inning.  He looked better at the plate yesterday though,  He just is not an OF.  Goes to the thought earlier in this thread about the team that has been put together.

He is a platoon DH and if they had any LHH depth he could play a little first.  

  I just wish that they had built a team around solid pitching and strong defense, instead of a team of dh's, that have no idea how to play the field properly.

2 hours ago, ChiSox59 said:

All four runs last night were gift wrapped. Makes it hard to win. 

At some point you have to out-slugg your mistakes.  This team was suppose to do that coming out of Spring Training. 

The crappy OF defense (which should be of no surprise to anyone - not sure why all of a sudden it's become a hot topic here) is highly magnified because we can't hit for shit.   

Someone posted on twitter that the Sox have like 1 HR in their last 250 or So ABs.   Even with the injuries, this is completely unacceptable.   

1 hour ago, ChiSox59 said:

I think you just simply have to find a LH hitting RF that can go get it in the OF for next season.  AV/Eloy split LF/DH.  Obviously its not getting fixed this season.  Would help if Luis actually gave it his all out there.  xBA on that 2 run double for Ward last night was .720, so definitely not a routine play but fuckina Luis.    

For example, same xBA that Abreu had on his flyout to CF to lead off the 9th that Trout caught rather easily. 

Sheets fuckup had an xBA of .150.....more routine that I thought. 

 

I still didn't see anything routine about this.   Sprint to the ball, wall approaches, drops ball, hits the wall.   

 

Edited June 28, 20223 yr by HOFHurt35

2 minutes ago, HOFHurt35 said:

 

I still didn't see anything routine about this.   Sprint to the ball, wall approaches, drops ball, hits the wall.   

 

I didn't think it looked routine live.  I just think alot of that is because a lot of RFs are just camped under that ball.  .150 xBA is pretty low...

4 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

I didn't think it looked routine live.  I just think alot of that is because a lot of RFs are just camped under that ball.  .150 xBA is pretty low...

Right, I looked at the replay just now and he didn't even have a late break to the ball.   For him, it was pretty dead sprint at 100%.   The approaching wall sure didn't help.

However, he and Vaughn are very slow to get camped under the ball, as you said. 

22 minutes ago, White Sox Park said:

  I just wish that they had built a team around solid pitching and strong defense, instead of a team of dh's, that have no idea how to play the field properly.

And worse, it's not even a team of DHs that can mash like the Phillies did with Schwarber and Castellanos, just hitting dingers. Instead our guys are being told to slap it the other way.

If you're creating a team with zero defense and speed, they at least better be let loose to swing away.

1 minute ago, MiddleCoastBias said:

And worse, it's not even a team of DHs that can mash like the Phillies did with Schwarber and Castellanos, just hitting dingers. Instead our guys are being told to slap it the other way.

If you're creating a team with zero defense and speed, they at least better be let loose to swing away.

For what its worth, Castellanos would fit right in on this team.  He's been BAD in 22.  -0.5 fWAR.  wRC+ of 93; 87 against RHP.  

22 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

For what its worth, Castellanos would fit right in on this team.  He's been BAD in 22.  -0.5 fWAR.  wRC+ of 93; 87 against RHP.  

Hey, we dodged that bullet, nice!