I think Cleveland has a very good baseball team. The Sox are going to have to take it from them, not back their way into it like they thought they would do last year.

On 3/7/2023 at 9:16 AM, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

I just can't fathom how we can get worse with the following happening:

1. Got rid of Larussa.

2. Got rid of our DH who played LF.

3. Got rid of our 1B who played RF

4.  Gradal, Moncada, Giolito, Kelly, Leury had career bad years.

5. Eloy, Robert, Lynn, Kopech and Anderson, missed gobs of time. crochet whole season

 

I think people will be shocked how a competent OF makes a difference.  Sure we lost abreu (though I'd argue this makes us better), Hendriks (assume whole year), and Cueto after his best year in 5 years. Obviously our injury prone players will get hurt again, but to that extent?  And practically all of them?  

But our lineup is FAR more balanced (which matters) and our defense will take massive strides.  Plus we have a coach that won't fall asleep each game. I just can fathom being worse than last year. 

I agree with you but we are underestimating the franchise's ability to f*** up. 

Here's a few ways it can get worse. Players were largely left alone for a couple seasons are suddenly being scrutinized and someone is demanding better production. That could piss off a few players who chaff under the new leadership. They liked having a manager asleep in the dugout. 

We think guys will play better while relearning to play their "natural" position. Maybe not.

Another year older will be great for some, not so great for others. 

Pitching still matters. 

Once injured - twice shy or something like that. 

But more likely, they will find a new, even more spectacular way to be worse.

 

I would put the Sox as slight favorites to win the division.
If Cease, Gio, Lynn, Kopech and Clevenger each pitch 150+ innings, they will win it and have a chance to do a lot more.

Another MLBtraderumors poll.

 

Who will win the AL Central in 2023?

• Guardians 43.55%  (1,073 votes) 
   
   
• Twins 26.42%  (651 votes) 
   
   
• White Sox 20.54%  (506 votes) 
   
   
• Royals 5.52%  (136 votes) 
   
   
• Tigers 3.97%  (98 votes) 
   
   

I voted for the Twins in that poll. 

I think it likely comes down to the final two weeks. I'd think the Guardians will have a bit more injury issues. Though they have some depth coming through the minors + their ownership did commit to both Josh Bell and Abreu, so it seems they may be more aggressive in gap filling their roster come Summer. 

Twins have nice depth in their SP ranks, but many have injury concerns. I like the talent the most overall, but can also see more paths to a letdown. 

Sox I'm cautiously optimistic. i think we line up well for a bounce back, however if things aren't going well i dont have much faith in this locker room to keep it together. I can definitely see a 25% chance where we're trading Gio and Grandal and Liam and Anderson, etc. etc. Maybe not all of them, but definitely picking up the phone & then it's a free for all to the bottom. 

 

At this exact moment in time I'll go Twins 88 wins, Cleveland 87 wins, Sox 86 wins. 

 

 

 

 

Sox

Sox starting pitchers look good on paper. Are they all healthy? Our bullpen looks blah to bad on paper. That spells doom folks. We win the first 5 1/2 innings, then lose a ton of games cause of the pen.

Hope everybody stays healthy. But I pick Sox third or fourth. Only KC and the Tigers figure to be worse but Sox can't seem to beat anybody consistently in the Central.

I'll drink the Kool-Aid but prefer Cola(s).

Sox will hit RHP much better.

They will play better defense.

They will hit 50 more HR's than last year.

How they do late in games will be key without Hendriks.

Grifol gets Manager of the Year.

Sox win division . Kool-Aid and Cola(s) is sweet spring nectar !

 

I'm not making any predictions.  I went from being Mr. Optimistic on a board that hated the Sox to being Mr. Pessimistic, calling the team unwatchable. 

There are a lot of POTENTIAL improvements, but the only one that's for sure is the manager.  

The players still have to get away from their free-swinging tendencies and stay healthy for once.  The one guy who showed up everyday and hit above league average is gone. Can the rest of them do it?  I mean, can any of them do that? 

They've got to show me before I'm buying in.  

On 3/7/2023 at 3:18 PM, Snopek said:

I'm not all that optimistic about the Sox, but how can you say the Twins lineup is superior without, you know, overrating the crap out of the Twins hitters?

 

 

On 3/7/2023 at 6:03 PM, ChiSox59 said:

Byron Buxton, the guy that’s played more than 92 games 1 time in 8 seasons. I bet Parkman has him penciled in for 162 tho. 

He's at 64 so far.  Looks like Parkman had a decent idea.

 

 

 

On 3/7/2023 at 6:03 PM, ChiSox59 said:

Byron Buxton, the guy that’s played more than 92 games 1 time in 8 seasons. I bet Parkman has him penciled in for 162 tho. 

 

Halfway through the season looks like the prediction winners are:

 

Harold’s Leg Lift

Tnetennba

Lip Man 1

Jack Parkman

knightni

Jerry McNertney

he gone

greg775

On 3/7/2023 at 6:03 PM, ChiSox59 said:

Byron Buxton, the guy that’s played more than 92 games 1 time in 8 seasons. I bet Parkman has him penciled in for 162 tho. 

This did not hold up well.

 

On 3/7/2023 at 7:53 AM, ChiSox59 said:

 

White Sox 90-72 

Twins 86-76

Guardians 84-78

Tigers 70-92

KC 68-94

Will be an entertaining race in the ALC and very fun season of baseball. 

Whie Sox 70-92 is more like it

On 3/7/2023 at 3:38 PM, SoxBlanco said:

I guess that’s why they play games. Can’t wait to find out who is correct. 

Parkman hands down is your answer

16 minutes ago, kgrittenburg said:

Whie Sox 70-92 is more like it

They won’t get to 70 wins.

Rick Hahn has been tanking for years with very little credit. He is a wealthy man. It is the White Sox Way. 

On 3/7/2023 at 6:38 PM, Lip Man 1 said:

If what you say comes to pass then the Sox need to be sellers at the deadline.

that's a done deal

I was down on them but I didn’t think it would be *this* level of bad.  They were a worse team on paper and did little to improve the roster over the winter.  Everyone being injured all of the time was easy to see, but TA cratering I did not predict.  Nor did I think Pedro would be a completely incompetent amateur making the head-scratchingly asinine commonplace. 

I felt safe saying closer to 90 losses than 90 wins, but I didn’t think they would lose 90+, let alone close to 100. 

Think this yr is bad? I dread 2024,2025 & 2026 and maybe beyond as we enter the bottom of the barrel for standings that will make baseball history. Unless we hear these words:

"In other news, MLB is mourning the passing of Bull and White Sox owner Jerry Riensdorf who died yesterday at age..."

On 3/10/2023 at 12:54 PM, Texsox said:

I agree with you but we are underestimating the franchise's ability to f*** up. 

Here's a few ways it can get worse. Players were largely left alone for a couple seasons are suddenly being scrutinized and someone is demanding better production. That could piss off a few players who chaff under the new leadership. They liked having a manager asleep in the dugout. 

We think guys will play better while relearning to play their "natural" position. Maybe not.

Another year older will be great for some, not so great for others. 

Pitching still matters. 

Once injured - twice shy or something like that. 

But more likely, they will find a new, even more spectacular way to be worse.

BINGO

 

18 hours ago, The Grinder said:

 

"In other news, MLB is mourning the passing of Bull and White Sox owner Jerry Riensdorf who died yesterday at age..."

Like this classic SNL sketch?

 

I'm probably in a minority here, but I think the White Sox still have a chance of finishing third in the ALC. The odds are against them, but it's the best that can be hoped for in this miserable season.

7 minutes ago, Jerry McNertney said:

I'm probably in a minority here, but I think the White Sox still have a chance of finishing third in the ALC. The odds are against them, but it's the best that can be hoped for in this miserable season.

I would be surprised if there is a majority that thinks about this right now