Blow it the F Up

[flavum]

2 minutes ago, oldsox said:

I smell a QO for Gio.

His first start for the Rangers will be against the Sox. 😃

[Chicago White Sox]

19 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Just out of curiosity, when the did the Sox release a memo stating they had no interest in retaining Giolito?  I must have missed it because I keep seeing people say this.

FWIW, I don't think there is any chance to Sox resign Lucas - and frankly, not really sure they should, but they've never publicly stated anything about his FA pursuits to my knowledge. 

The Sox need to trade Lucas.  They can probably get some desperate team to give up a close to the majors back-end top 100 SP prospect.  That is exactly what they need with just Cease and Kopech currently penciled into 2024 rotation. 

I believe they had Nightengale indirectly leak it

[Chicago White Sox]

I think you gotta trade Lucas because the value will be too good to pass up.  If you can get a top 100 prospect or more, you have to take that over a QO.

[Balta1701]

5 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I think you gotta trade Lucas because the value will be too good to pass up.  If you can get a top 100 prospect or more, you have to take that over a QO.

This is as much of a "White Sox" complaint as I can possibly get, but this is the White Sox we're talking about, with their union rep, and with serious payroll limitations. So we're going to say this, and everyone here has a sneaking worry about this already with our owner.

There is a nonzero chance the White Sox would decline to offer him a QO if they don't trade him.

I don't know what the actual chances are, but we literally just had this discussion 2 offseasons ago and they let a guy go without a QO where they clearly could have offered one. He got a QO one year later from a better franchise.

[ChiSox59]

3 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

This is as much of a "White Sox" complaint as I can possibly get, but this is the White Sox we're talking about, with their union rep, and with serious payroll limitations. So we're going to say this, and everyone here has a sneaking worry about this already with our owner.

There is a nonzero chance the White Sox would decline to offer him a QO if they don't trade him.

I don't know what the actual chances are, but we literally just had this discussion 2 offseasons ago and they let a guy go without a QO where they clearly could have offered one. He got a QO one year later from a better franchise.

Lucas has a far better health and performance track record that Rodon did at that time.  Not sure its really a great comp.   

I think the Sox trade Gio in late July if they're more than 5 GB.  Not sure they will be, tho.  This division blows. 

[Lip Man 1]

18 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I believe they had Nightengale indirectly leak it

And don't forget the Sox took him to arbitration over a 50 thousand dollar difference. Giolito couldn't believe it and his posts made you think it really bothered him. 

[caulfield12]

2 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

I don't know what the next month will look like for Cease, but I will definitely listen on him if I were to get an offer with a strong return. The potential of having a guy for 3 postseason runs instead of 2 should make him far more valuable, and in the offseason teams needing pitching will be more likely to just splurge on a free agent like Giolito rather than make a big trade. 

Robert is more challenging. He is about to make his first all start team, and he is under control for 4.5 years! A team trading for him right now would be acquiring the guy for up to 5 postseason runs. The value of this player is so high that it's hard to fathom anyone actually putting the price on the table he would require. The Juan Soto trade, for example, was for a guy who would be under Padres control for 1.5 years, only 2 postseason runs, and he returned several top 100 prospects along with guys who were recent dropouts/graduates from the top 100 and a recent draftee.

Robert isn't on Soto's level, but he's cheaper and under control for so ungodly long. Could anyone imagine what "twice Juan Soto's cost to the Padres" would look like on paper? We're talking about what, 4 top 100 prospects and more beyond that? 

The cost for Robert is so high based on the years of control that it is difficult to see anyone meeting it. Most teams simply can't. The handful who have that amount of talent probably wouldn't do so.

Soto is under control through next season, so 2 1/2 years and potentially 3 postseasons for 5 organizational Top 10 guys with four of them at one point being legit Top 3-35 MiLB and Abrams Gore and now James Wood Top 3-10. 

Clevinger for CLE is what feels like the going rate for Cease right now... that was a pretty significant overpay in hindsight due to injuries. 

[pcq]

2 hours ago, Bob Sacamano said:

Yeah, I'd easily pick it up and listen to offers on him. If you don't like any offers, maybe you get a TA that is highly motivated for his next pay day.

I would pass on ss he is not qualified. 

[Squirmin' for Yermin]

42 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

This is as much of a "White Sox" complaint as I can possibly get, but this is the White Sox we're talking about, with their union rep, and with serious payroll limitations. So we're going to say this, and everyone here has a sneaking worry about this already with our owner.

There is a nonzero chance the White Sox would decline to offer him a QO if they don't trade him.

I don't know what the actual chances are, but we literally just had this discussion 2 offseasons ago and they let a guy go without a QO where they clearly could have offered one. He got a QO one year later from a better franchise.

It was CRAZY to not offer Rodon the QO.. However, the two pitchers didn't have the same situation.  Rodon had his first good and healthy year ever, and Gio had a few strong years. One is certainly an easier decision.

[South Side Hit Men]

3 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

Worth noting that ZiPS had the White Sox at 74-88, 14 games under .500, and they're right on track for that kind of a finish?

PECOTA had them at 77.7 wins. 

Every year I come here after these projections are released, fans are incensed at how low the team overall and several individuals are ranked, a mix of believing players will reach the highest range of performance and games played projections. Baseball Prospectus sucks, Fangraphs suck, Vegas sucks, etc. No, the White Sox (and many other teams) suck.

Some of these ideas are laughable. Promote Colas? He has a few dozen games in AAA and needs a lot more work there before being completely overwhelmed at the ML level. The problem is these guys (Colas, Sosa, Rodriquez) were clearly rushed to fill the pathetic depth needs. The problem is not they weren't promoted fast enough. Colas played 7 games at the AAA level. And was promoted, and failed miserably. Ditto what they have done with Vaughn, Cease, Kopech.

"Jerry's chickens, have come home to roost."

[The Mighty Mite]

1 hour ago, South Sider said:

We are in the worst case scenario.

-Our previous leader Abreu couldn't wait to leave, 3 years after saying hed sign pretty much any contract to stay.

-Our GM who has said would quit if he thought he wasnt the guy for the job, clearly still thinks hes the guy for the job. Ownership too loyal to cut the cord. KW likely has checked out and is picking up free paychecks for his title, reaping rewards of overly loyal ownership.

- Managerial changes too often. I honestly can't get mad at Grifol. He may stink, but the problems go far deeper than him.

-Rotten clubhouse that does not win and lose together or seemingly take ownership of the fate of this franchise. Is this TAs fault? It does not seem that he is a natural born leader and couple that with the TLR years, our clubhouse is just toxic to winning at this point. Someone tried to have some fun though and made that cool HR costume. 

-Our best contract ever given is to basically another Adam Eaton. Lose out or dont even try for the actual top talent.

- Publicly telling one of your best pitchers you are not going to keep him or even try. Yes he may have left anyway but imagine the message it sends to the rest of the league. Why play for us? Especially if you are a union rep... look at how miserable AJ Pollack was here. 

- During all of the bad years, save for the LaRoche drama, I could usually say that I really like the players and know they try hard. I cannot say the same for this group. They look miserable and unfun.

- We are stuck with terrible, antiquated ownership that has allowed this toxic situation to happen. Theres literally nothing we can do except wait it out, whatever it is, and I hope it ends with someone not named Reinsdorf running the show. 

Until then frankly enjoy a team that gives a s%*#. The Ray's are a nice neutral team to us with no hatred or rivalry but a great organization who can bring actual enjoyable baseball to people. Or be like me and partake in other hobbies or sources of entertainment. 

I hate this franchise. Why am I still here?

 

Because there’s a little bit of insanity in all human beings, especially White Sox fans.

[SonofaRoache]

3 hours ago, The Kids Can Play said:

I don't have the league average for the slash line numbers for all first basemen, but I can show you where Vaughn ranks in each slash line number relative to all other first basemen in MLB:

BA

1.Freddie Freeman LAD     .317
2. Yandy Diaz TB                  .316
3. Josh Naylor CLV               .291
4. Paul Goldschmidt STL    .286
5. Vlad Guerrero Jr. TOR     .284
6. LaMonte Wade Jr. SF       .283
7. Spencer Steer CIN            .282
8. Christian Walker ARI        .282
9. Nathaniel Lowe TEX         .276
10. Ty France SEA                 .274
11. Anthony Rizzo NYY         .270
12. Alec Bohm PHI                .267
13. Dominic Smith WSH       .259
14.Vinnie Pasquantino KC   .247
15. Andrew Vaughn CWS   .240

OBP

1. LaMonte Wade Jr. SF     .416
2. Yandy Diaz TB                 .404
3. Freddie Freeman LAD    .397
4. Ryan Noda OAK               .387
5. Paul Goldschmidt STL     .376
6. Spencer Steer CIN           .368
7. Nathaniel Lowe TEX        .368
8. Vlad Guerrero Jr. TOR     .354
9. Anthony Rizzo NYY          .353
10. Matt Olson ATL              .348
11. Christian Walker ARI     .346
12. Ty France SEA                 .343
13. Josh Naylor CLE              .332
14. Dominic Smith WSH      .331
15. Triston Casas BOS         .328
16. Vin Pasquantino KC    .  324
17. Andrew Vaughn CHW .323 

SLG

1 Freddie Freeman LAD      .549
2  Matt Olson ATL                 .537
3  Pete Alonso NY                 .529
4  Christian Walker ARI        .521
5  Yandy Diaz TB                   .518
6  Spencer Steer CIN            .493
7  Paul Goldschmidt STL      .486
8  Josh Naylor CLE                 .469
9  LaMonte Wade Jr. SF        .465
10 Vlad Guerrero Jr. TOR     .453
11 Andrew Vaughn CHW   .439

OPS

1   Freddie Freeman LAD    .946
2   Yandy Diaz TB                  .922
3   Matt Olson ATL                .885
4   LaMonte Wade Jr. SF       .880
5   Christian Walker ARI       .867
6   Paul Goldschmidt STL     .862
7   Spencer Steer CIN            .861
8   Pete Alonso NYM             .843
9   Vlad Guerrero Jr. TOR      .807
10 Ryan Noda OAK                .804
11 Josh Naylor CLE                 .801
12 Nathaniel Lowe TEX         .798
13 Anthony Rizzo NYY           .786
14 Andrew Vaughn CHW    .762

 

Extremely disappointing numbers for the former 2019 # 3 overall draft pick.

I would like to add this caveat. We drafted Vaughn with the 3rd pick in the draft after a tank year. Being average isn't good enough, which is why this team sucks. We invested a lot in these guys and we have Robert and a bunch of mid-bad position player wise. 

[TheBooneLoganEra]

This will not be a complete rebuild. JR had to be sold on the last one and it failed. That being said you need to keep Robert, Cease, Kopech, Burger, and Vaughn. Colas should be up asap. And get what you can for Gio, the relievers, maybe Yaz and maybe Eloy.

Package deals would prob net higher quality prospects. And they need to be major league ready....ideally middle infield that show some power. Texas and Baltimore have some impressive youngsters that fit that bill. Also a nice arm or two to rebuild some starting pitching depth.

Should Hahn and KW do it? Absolutely not. Will they? I think Hahn gets canned at some point but when is the question. KW has a job as long as he wants it. 

17 minutes ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

It was CRAZY to not offer Rodon the QO.. However, the two pitchers didn't have the same situation.  Rodon had his first good and healthy year ever, and Gio had a few strong years. One is certainly an easier decision.

If Rodon pitched with the sox last year I think they make the playoffs and I think Cease, Rodon 1 and 2 might have gotten us through at least one round. This front office f'd this up almost every way they could have. It's impressive incompetence to be honest. 

[GreenSox]

7 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

As the title suggests, it’s officially time to blow this team the f*** up.  This group of players is an absolute joke and even if we somehow lucked our way into the playoffs (which won’t happen) this team would be as dangerous as a butter knife come October.

As usual CWS, your post laid it out eloquently.
But, given their refusal to fire Hahn, I just think that a sell-off will be Hahn picking players off of prospect lists with half-assed negotiations.  

If he's parsed and analyzed the prospect lists of the 10 or so teams that will be in the trade market, then yes we should sell.  But at no time in his tenure, as he shown the ability, interest or energy to do that.

Edited June 27, 2023 by GreenSox

[pcq]

The notion of rookie Grifol managing under-achieving veterans is laughable. 

[hankchifan]

8 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

As the title suggests, it’s officially time to blow this team the f*** up.  This group of players is an absolute joke and even if we somehow lucked our way into the playoffs (which won’t happen) this team would be as dangerous as a butter knife come October.

In terms of production, our positional group is 28th in fWAR sitting at a cool 3.3.  If you take out our superstar CF (3.3), our slap happy LF (0.8), and a 27 year old rookie DH (0.8),  we’d have -1.6 fWAR.  That’s fucking incredible.  Tim Anderson has gone from being a legit superstar SS to one of the worst regulars in baseball.  Dude is now 30 and 1 1/2 years from free agency with what appears to be serious personal issues to boot.  Beyond that, the roster is filled with DHs who have stagnated or regressed offensively.  Eloy has gone from a 144 wRC+ in 2022 to a 99 in 2023.  The coaching staff can’t seem to figure how to get Vaughn above a 110ish level wRC+ despite him having the talent for more.  Sheets has gotten 184 PAs and is putting up a 94 wRC+ while continuing to factor into the RF mix.  After that you simply have a group old (Grandal), bad (Zavala), old/bad (Andrus), or chronically injured players (Moncada).  2B & RF continue to problem areas for us and this off-season we will enter no viable catching options.  To say things are bleak is a massive fucking understatement.

The pitching staff has been better, but is still below average (22nd in fWAR at 5.8) and is filled with veterans with minimal control.  Giolito (1.7) & Clevinger (0.7) are both free agents after the year and Lynn (0.8) only has a $19M team option remaining.  What is even more problematic though is that Cease & Kopech are only controllable through 2025.  The former is now represented by Boras, which means he is as good as gone the day he hits free agency.  The ladder has been a massive disappointment and not even worthy of a potential extension at this point.  Behind them we have absolutely nothing at AAA because Hahn has done such a bang up job creating a pipeline of talent.  As for the bullpen, it’s pretty much Santos and a bunch of aging veterans.  As should be painfully obvious to all of us, this pitching staff is going to be a disaster as soon as next year whether we sell at the deadline or not.

Unfortunately, the reality is we’re going to need to rebuild and it’s going to be a long one given how bad Rick has done at building a minor league system.  Again, it’s time to blow this team the f*** up and start from scratch.  Specific actions I’d like to see taken will be in a follow-up post.

Suggest to start by blowing Rick Hahn right out of Chicago.  He is the architect of most of our failures.  He has been GM for too long.  We need to bring in a competent outsider IMO.

[The Kids Can Play]

1 hour ago, The Mighty Mite said:

Because there’s a little bit of insanity in all human beings, especially White Sox fans.

I agree, especially when a loser owner and GM, make us loyal die-hard fans so insane, by putting this horrible team on the field and getting us so upset to bring out our crazy feelings.

[The Kids Can Play]

8 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

As the title suggests, it’s officially time to blow this team the f*** up.  This group of players is an absolute joke and even if we somehow lucked our way into the playoffs (which won’t happen) this team would be as dangerous as a butter knife come October.

In terms of production, our positional group is 28th in fWAR sitting at a cool 3.3.  If you take out our superstar CF (3.3), our slap happy LF (0.8), and a 27 year old rookie DH (0.8),  we’d have -1.6 fWAR.  That’s fucking incredible.  Tim Anderson has gone from being a legit superstar SS to one of the worst regulars in baseball.  Dude is now 30 and 1 1/2 years from free agency with what appears to be serious personal issues to boot.  Beyond that, the roster is filled with DHs who have stagnated or regressed offensively.  Eloy has gone from a 144 wRC+ in 2022 to a 99 in 2023.  The coaching staff can’t seem to figure how to get Vaughn above a 110ish level wRC+ despite him having the talent for more.  Sheets has gotten 184 PAs and is putting up a 94 wRC+ while continuing to factor into the RF mix.  After that you simply have a group old (Grandal), bad (Zavala), old/bad (Andrus), or chronically injured players (Moncada).  2B & RF continue to problem areas for us and this off-season we will enter no viable catching options.  To say things are bleak is a massive fucking understatement.

The pitching staff has been better, but is still below average (22nd in fWAR at 5.8) and is filled with veterans with minimal control.  Giolito (1.7) & Clevinger (0.7) are both free agents after the year and Lynn (0.8) only has a $19M team option remaining.  What is even more problematic though is that Cease & Kopech are only controllable through 2025.  The former is now represented by Boras, which means he is as good as gone the day he hits free agency.  The ladder has been a massive disappointment and not even worthy of a potential extension at this point.  Behind them we have absolutely nothing at AAA because Hahn has done such a bang up job creating a pipeline of talent.  As for the bullpen, it’s pretty much Santos and a bunch of aging veterans.  As should be painfully obvious to all of us, this pitching staff is going to be a disaster as soon as next year whether we sell at the deadline or not.

Unfortunately, the reality is we’re going to need to rebuild and it’s going to be a long one given how bad Rick has done at building a minor league system.  Again, it’s time to blow this team the f*** up and start from scratch.  Specific actions I’d like to see taken will be in a follow-up post.

[Balta1701]

Balta's version of a trade deadline while procrastinating on real work?

First, while Firing Rick Hahn is obvious and mandatory, that doesn't impact this discussion, this should happen regardless of who the GM is because of the White Sox's situation.

Second, because the farm system is so bare, there is little to no help coming from the minor leagues next year. Even Montgomery can't be counted on as making anything other than a rushed appearance in 2024 given his delay this year, and we need to stop rushing guys anyway.

Third, financially the White Sox are a mess. If there is no budget cut next year (one seems likely), they will have about $40 million to spend. They will be replacing 3 starters (Lynn, Giolito, Clevinger), they will have lost Kelly and Lopez from their bullpen, although no big loss they won't have Grandal or Andrus. At the very least, just to have some semblance of depth, you're talking about 3 starters, a reliever/swingman, and a couple of position players, and that's just to tread water below .500. You're talking about spending like $8 million per player, which means we are dumpster diving for literally everything.

So, we need to do two things. We need to find talent to repair the system, and we need to move money off of this roster as fast as humanly possible. Everything should be sacrificed for those two goals. If money is moved, then we can use playing time and money, dumpster-diving as we will be doing, to help rebuild the system. The White Sox have had some success at finding guys like this: Cueto would have had trade value last year, Rodon would have had trade value the year before, Clevinger has no value this year.

Thus, here's the trade format. First, guys who can possibly return something of actual value.
Robert: You listen to offers on him, but I don't believe anyone is likely to trade what it would take to get him with 4.5 years of control. You'd almost need the Orioles to empty their system to get a guy under control that long, and teams with 4 or 5 top 100 prospects won't give up that much. 

Cease: Move him if you can. The target is approximately 2 top-100 prospects or 1 truly high value target. I think there is a solid chance this could happen.

Giolito: He should be moved. Last year, the best starter to move on a 1 year deal was Quintana to the Cardinals, he returned a guy the Pirates have converted into a decent 25 year old starter this year (Oviedo) and a guy who was the Cardinals #10 prospect at the time, now the Pirates #14 prospect. He does not net you a top 100 prospect in return, but he can get you two players able to contribute within 2 to 3 years.

Burger: He is cheap, under control, and will provide power. He is already 27, so he is a poor fit for the White Sox to hold. He won't return a top 100 prospect, but if you can get a player who slots into the White Sox's top 10 or so prospects, this is more valuable to us than Burger at present.

Gravemann: Should return a prospect of some sort. Not a top 100 prospect, but someone useful who can be added to the system. 

The other young relievers: I'll listen on anyone if you're giving me actual talent in return.

Kelly: eh, he's almost in the next category. Take what you can get.

Guys you should try to move to clear money.
Grandal, Lynn, Lopez. If you have to eat 90% of their remaining deals, but you can save $1-2 million each, that is money I can use next year. Eat their deals as needed. Someone will give you $1 million for a backup catcher or $2 million for an experienced back of the rotation starter. I would.

Benintendi: I want him gone and will do what I can to make this happen. The White Sox cannot afford to pay guys like this to get older in the outfield in their current state, and the risk is all on the White Sox, if he gets hurt or struggles worse then they're stuck with his full deal. His contract was $75 million, if I can get someone to take on $40 million of his deal I would do it. Call $35 million the "Rick Hahn is a stupid head" penalty.

Eloy: Same setup as Benintendi, although you should at least get a player back. The White Sox are holding all the risk of him getting hurt and costing them money, and they barely have a place for him to play. Find some team with a strong coach and a DH hole and send him there for limited return.

Anderson: Same story for me. His option is going to be picked up, but I'd rather have a dumpster-diving $5 million backup SS next year or something like that than Anderson with what I have to do to this roster.

Bummer: Would anyone actually take on the majority of his contract? We'd have to do that if someone would right?

Guys you hold:
Moncada: There's no benefit to eating his whole deal. If someone would take on $10 million of his remaining $34 million, do that, but who is doing that for a guy with a back problem?

Hendriks: Either the White Sox destroyed his arm permanently by bringing him back too early, or he will be back and hopefully worth something of value at the trade deadline next year. If his arm is destroyed, then you have to turn down his option and play that mean game.

Clevinger: Will be pitching in Korea next year, no one will want him. Not worth the time, let him play out the year.

Kopech: Hopefully shows improvement next year, and anyway someone needs to pitch. Wouldn't return enough to make it worth it.

Vaughn: Not going to return enough to justify moving him. 

Zavala: will need someone to catch.

Next offseason you're still stuck with some bad money, paying off Moncada, Benintendi, Hendriks, with a dramatic drop in ticket sales again. But, you have probably $75 million to spend. I'm going to be putting out a rotation of Kopech followed by 4 fairly pathetic looking guys each making $10 million next year, and I'm going to have similar garbage at SS, LF, DH, and on the bench. However, some of these guys will play well enough to be tradable, and that's all I'm after out of 2024. The money I will have to spend will be spent trying to find guys who are tradable, and by claiming guys who have fallen out of favor elsewhere. At the very least, aside from Moncada and I guess Robert, I have removed the risk of holding onto these guys and getting stuck with their money on the books for the next 2-3 years.

This will not be pleasant, but it's necessary to undo the damage done already. It also will not happen, because we have to "achieve our goals for 2024". 

[caulfield12]

Trading the real Burger for a complete nothing Burger is par for the course.

Semien and Narvaez both made huge leaps defensively away from the Sox.

He’s one of the VERY few players the fans actually seem to enjoy cheering for in a current cold streak.

 

The only way you trade Burger is you’re sure about Montgomery or Ramos at third…and/or SS.  And there’s absolutely no way the Sox can feel that way at this point.

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-outfielder-luis-robert-jr-compared-to-mike-trout

Merkin is only three years late bringing this puff piece back to the forefront again.

 

[pcq]

No rebuild if Hahn is still around. 

[The Kids Can Play]

[Bob Sacamano]

19 minutes ago, pcq said:

No rebuild if Hahn is still around. 

Unfortunately Hahn trying to retool or build a contender is also problematic.

[tray]

If a franchise wants to compete year after year,  they should never get rid of all of their top talent. MLB is a game of stars. It is extremely  difficult to accumulate enough players and pitchers with star caliber that will perform at that level in the same year(s).

Just WAYYYY too much oversimplification and personal preferences and even some transparent grudges here to take any of these takes seriously.  This has been a tough year thus far with too many late inning heart breaking losses. Some changes need to be made, but the Sox are not going to conduct a fire sale and then have a perpetual bottom dwelling team for the next decade.

[Balta1701]

51 minutes ago, tray said:

If a franchise wants to compete year after year,  they should never get rid of all of their top talent. MLB is a game of stars. It is extremely  difficult to accumulate enough players and pitchers with star caliber that will perform at that level in the same year(s).

Just WAYYYY too much oversimplification and personal preferences and even some transparent grudges here to take any of these takes seriously.  This has been a tough year thus far with too many late inning heart breaking losses. Some changes need to be made, but the Sox are not going to conduct a fire sale and then have a perpetual bottom dwelling team for the next decade.

The White Sox are 12-12 in 1-run games. They are better in 1 run games than they are in blowouts. This is selective memory- because the White Sox have heartbreaking losses, we can pretend those go away to make the team better; but we forget the magic unbelievable victories that could also easily have gone the other way. The Twins are 8-14 in those games.

Case in point. They lost on a wild pitch last night. Totally unbelievable as bad luck right? They won on a wild pitch that bounced off an ump earlier this month! They won a game on a super controversial call earlier this month, when an earlier season version of the Sox lost on that same call.

They have the 6th worst run differential in baseball half way through the year. They are barely above the rebuilding Nationals and Tigers. These are not competitive teams