14 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

The bottom three of the lineup could be historically bad with DeJong, Maldonado, and Lopez likely down there.

If Benintendi is batting leadoff, with his lack power, dude's gonna have like 12 rbis on the season.

3 minutes ago, Snopek said:

If Benintendi is batting leadoff, with his lack power, dude's gonna have like 12 rbis on the season.

1.Benny

2. Robert (?)

3. Eloy (?)

4. Vaughn (?)

5. Moncada (?)

6. Fletcher/Deloach/Pillar (?)

7. Dejong

8. Maldonado

9. Lopez

???

How the f*** is this team going to score runs?

33 minutes ago, fathom said:

Yes, “expected to return as the closer”

I’m assuming the team let Crochet say what he wanted about wanting to stretch out this season and did not contradict him, at least publicly. Was hard to envision him ever building up enough arm strength and remain healthy beyond 50-60 innings.

If the Sox initially planned to stretch Crochet out but abruptly changed course after these two trades, then this would be as bad or possibly worse than the previous clown show and what they did with Kopech in the bullpen likely forced by Tony.

I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, in light of Crochet’s limited workload throughout his collegiate and professional career and slim chance he could ever have sustained success as an MLB starter.

• 2018 63 2/3 IP (Age 19)
• 2019 65 IP (20)
• 2020 9 1/3 IP (21)
• 2021 54 1/3 IP (22)
• 2022 0 IP (23)
• 2023 25 IP (24)
• Average 36 1/3 IP

 

8 minutes ago, Tnetennba said:

How the f*** is this team going to score runs?

A healthy dose of athleticism and veteran leadership

Edited February 5, 20242 yr by Snopek

Just now, Snopek said:

A healthy does of athleticism and veteran leadership

Haha from whom and where?

29 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

The bottom three of the lineup could be historically bad with DeJong, Maldonado, and Lopez likely down there.

Doubt that.  Those are at least three legit major leaguers, even if offense ability isn't their calling cards.  

Probably not even the worst bottom three for the Sox last two seasons - they were routinely sporting 3 of Remillard, Lee, Sosa and Thompson at the bottom of the lineup in August and September last season. 

3 minutes ago, Tnetennba said:

Haha from whom and where?

Nicky Lopez reaches third on a softly hit grounder because he plays the game the right way. Maldonado strikes out on a passed ball but waves Lopez home because he is a good veteran leader. 

Just one example.

16 minutes ago, Tnetennba said:

1.Benny

2. Robert (?)

3. Eloy (?)

4. Vaughn (?)

5. Moncada (?)

6. Fletcher/Deloach/Pillar (?)

7. Dejong

8. Maldonado

9. Lopez

???

How the f*** is this team going to score runs?

Maybe they stumbled across some secret sabermetric research that shows character strongly correlates with runs scored.

That's all I got.

1 hour ago, ChiSox59 said:

Between him and Salvy, a lot of hand wringing for nothing.  

Like the Micker Adolfo hand wringing...as if the next Yordan Alvarez had gotten away.

3 minutes ago, Snopek said:

Nicky Lopez reaches third on a softly hit grounder because he plays the game the right way. Maldonado strikes out on a passed ball but waves Lopez home because he is a good veteran leader. 

Just one example.

Thank you. I needed a good chuckle.

2 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Doubt that.  Those are at least three legit major leaguers, even if offense ability isn't their calling cards.  

Probably not even the worst bottom three for the Sox last two seasons - they were routinely sporting 3 of Remillard, Lee, Sosa and Thompson at the bottom of the lineup in August and September last season. 

If I’m reading Fangraphs right, we were tied for dead last with a 59 wRC+ out of the 7 to 9 spots last year (that is so hilariously bad…lol).  Honestly, it’s hard to imagine a combo of DeJong, Lopez, & Maldonado could do worse.  My guess is we get around a 70 wRC+ or a little higher out of those spots this year, which is still terrible (still bottom four overall) but a slight improvement with hopefully much better defense.

1 hour ago, ChiSox59 said:

Who from the offensive side that they lost was any good tho? Burger and Andrus (all value on the defense side) were the only positive WAR players they lost.  And those guys are far from well rounded players at this point. 

TA and Yaz were god awful and well below replacement. All the fringy and fill in players were terrible.  

Even on the pitching side, everyone they lost was either literally awful, or decent but not spectular by any means (Gio, Clev, Reylo). 

I don't think this team is going to win 80 games or anything, but the defensive improvements will be significant and will help the pitching staff a lot.  I expect better seasons from Beni, Yoan and Eloy, with the latter two having by far the most critical season of their career for their future earnings.  AV should see some improvement.  

I am going with 70 wins right now. 

I thought 70ish wins was likely until the Santos trade. Can see them possibly trading Cease before OD after Snell and Montgomery are signed if there are any teams still trying to improve, including a contender SP suffering a major injury.

Its fine, because W/L isn’t the priority or measuring stick for success in 2024 or 2025. Getz and the FO need to focus on:

• Continued growth by Sox prospects
• Improved player development
• A solid draft and remaining international signings
• Prospect return for Cease
• Improvement by Vaughn, Sosa, Colas and the young off-season acquisitions.

So what do people think the Opening Day bullpen looks like now?  With Santos gone and Crochet theoretically in Charlotte, it’s going to be hard to keep guys like Berroa, Leasure, & Speas off the roster.  I know there have been several NRI guys added, but curious how people see things shaking out assuming we don’t anytime important to the mix.

 

8 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

So what do people think the Opening Day bullpen looks like now?  With Santos gone and Crochet theoretically in Charlotte, it’s going to be hard to keep guys like Berroa, Leasure, & Speas off the roster.  I know there have been several NRI guys added, but curious how people see things shaking out assuming we don’t anytime important to the mix.

Roster Resource currently lists the bullpen as this:

I would say Touki is the long-man and Barlow is in the pen instead of Crochet.

Edit: damn, image did not post. Here's the link: https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/white-sox

Edited February 5, 20242 yr by Bob Sacamano

28 minutes ago, South Side Hit Men said:

I thought 70ish wins was likely until the Santos trade. Can see them possibly trading Cease before OD after Snell and Montgomery are signed if there are any teams still trying to improve, including a contender SP suffering a major injury.

Its fine, because W/L isn’t the priority or measuring stick for success in 2024 or 2025. Getz and the FO need to focus on:

• Continued growth by Sox prospects
• Improved player development
• A solid draft and remaining international signings
• Prospect return for Cease
• Improvement by Vaughn, Sosa, Colas and the young off-season acquisitions.

I don’t think the weekend trades moved the needle on the 2024 win total. Perhaps the bullpen is weaker but the outfield should be better.

21 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

So what do people think the Opening Day bullpen looks like now?  With Santos gone and Crochet theoretically in Charlotte, it’s going to be hard to keep guys like Berroa, Leasure, & Speas off the roster.  I know there have been several NRI guys added, but curious how people see things shaking out assuming we don’t anytime important to the mix.

Important to remember too that any NRI added is going to require someone gets cut. Always an uphill battle for those guys, and even if some guys on the 40-man are meh to us, teams don’t exactly like to throw guys out if they can stash the NRI in AAA for a bit. Barlow seems likely IMO, especially with the closer role wide open.

39 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

So what do people think the Opening Day bullpen looks like now?  With Santos gone and Crochet theoretically in Charlotte, it’s going to be hard to keep guys like Berroa, Leasure, & Speas off the roster.  I know there have been several NRI guys added, but curious how people see things shaking out assuming we don’t anytime important to the mix.

Brebbia, Hill, Lambert, Deivi Garcia, Touki, Joe Barlow, Jake Cousins and Drohan is my guess.  40 man spots for Barlow and Cousins would be needed.  Due to that, preference may go to to guys like Berroa, Scholtens, Speas and Banks that are already on 40 man.  Though Speas and Banks are probably coin flips to survive the winter on the 40 man. 

“The White Sox have reportedly signed Cuban right-handed pitcher Yosimar Cousín to a two-year, $2 million MLB contract, pending physical. Source: Cuban RHP Yosimar Cousin (25) and the Chicago White Sox are in agreement on a two-year MLB deal, 2 million contract, pending physical. Cousin left Cuba in January 2022.”

 

Let’s not forget this little tidbit.

 

Lambert feels a player that could be gone entirely or the first closer candidate attempted before Leasure or Berroa (assuming they don’t start him at Charlotte).

 

Edited February 5, 20242 yr by caulfield12

1 minute ago, caulfield12 said:

“The White Sox have reportedly signed Cuban right-handed pitcher Yosimar Cousín to a two-year, $2 million MLB contract, pending physical. Source: Cuban RHP Yosimar Cousin (25) and the Chicago White Sox are in agreement on a two-year MLB deal, 2 million contract, pending physical. Cousin left Cuba in January 2022.”

 

Let’s not forget this little tidbit.

I think the MLB contract bit is why he had to be added to the 40 man.  That dude isn't close to MLB ready and Getz more or less said that in one of his pressers shortly after Cousin was added to the 40 man. 

4 hours ago, ptatc said:

Do you really think they will lose 110? Are they that much worse than last year?

I think that by replacing negative production at 4 lineup spots and a rotation spot, they've probably added at least 5 wins. Any regression to the mean from Yoan, Eloy, AB,  and some realization of prospect by Andrew Vaughn and Kopech could add another 5. 

I think that the people predicting 110+ losses need to explain why they think this team will win any games at all. 

2 hours ago, Tnetennba said:

I'm not trying to sound super negative, but it's hard for me to squint and see any improvement.

I would expect the White Sox to run 4 guys out there this year (Fedde, Soroka, Kopech, Flexen), whose production is somewhere between that of Clevenger/Giolito and Lynn/Kopech. 

Not improved, but not much worse. 

2 hours ago, Tnetennba said:

How the f*** is this team going to score runs?

30 HRs from DeJong, Maldonado and Lopez. 

3 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

30 HRs from DeJong, Maldonado and Lopez. 

That sounds about right, but the combined average .600 OPS isn’t going to be pretty.

1 hour ago, ChiSox59 said:

Brebbia, Hill, Lambert, Deivi Garcia, Touki, Joe Barlow, Jake Cousins and Drohan is my guess.  40 man spots for Barlow and Cousins would be needed.  Due to that, preference may go to to guys like Berroa, Scholtens, Speas and Banks that are already on 40 man.  Though Speas and Banks are probably coin flips to survive the winter on the 40 man. 

I don’t think Speas is going anywhere.  Super interesting arm with considerable upside that kind of snuck his way on the 40 man roster.  Check out Fangraphs’ updated top prospect list for us as they go into more detail on him.

1 hour ago, WestEddy said:

30 HRs from DeJong, Maldonado and Lopez. 

That’s likely as they had 30 last year.

Maldonado has power, had more four more home runs than Grandal over his four years with the White Sox, and 17 more over the past two seasons (30 vs. 13).