February 14, 20251 yr For now, let’s use this thread to predict what the opening day roster will look like. Once spring training gets underway and cuts start happening, we can update and discuss. Who do you got?
February 14, 20251 yr Lee Thais Vaughn Sosa Meidroth Baldwin Vargas Rojas Benintendi Taylor Tauchaman Slater Fletcher Is my prediction on the batter side
February 15, 20251 yr 1 hour ago, 46DidIt said: Lee Thais Vaughn Sosa Meidroth Baldwin Vargas Rojas Benintendi Taylor Tauchaman Slater Fletcher Is my prediction on the batter side No way Fletcher makes it. Meidroth feels unlikely unless he really outplays everyone.
February 15, 20251 yr 1 hour ago, 46DidIt said: Lee Thais Vaughn Sosa Meidroth Baldwin Vargas Rojas Benintendi Taylor Tauchaman Slater Fletcher Is my prediction on the batter side Replace Fletcher and Meidroth with Drury and Gallo.
February 15, 20251 yr rotation" Cannon, Burke, Martin, Perez, Iriarte bullpen Karinchak, Anderson, B. Wilson, S. Smith, Booser*, Varland, Ellard*, Murfee c - Thaiss/Lee 1B - Vaughn 2B - Drury 3B - Vargas SS - Baldwin OF - Benintendi, Taylor, Tauchman/Slater DH - Sosa bench - Rojas, Colas Anderson loses the closer spot to Karinchak after a few weeks. Thorpe starts the year rehabbing in AAA. Perez, B. Wilson, and S. Smith can't be optioned. Oh, and Robert gets traded. Edit: whoops, had one too many bullpenners. Took out Shuster. Edited February 15, 20251 yr by WestEddy
February 15, 20251 yr 16 minutes ago, WestEddy said: rotation" Cannon, Burke, Martin, Perez, Iriarte bullpen Karinchak, Anderson, B. Wilson, S. Smith, Booser*, Shuster*, Varland, Ellard*, Murfee c - Thaiss/Lee 1B - Vaughn 2B - Drury 3B - Vargas SS - Baldwin OF - Benintendi, Taylor, Tauchman/Slater DH - Sosa bench - Rojas, Colas Anderson loses the closer spot to Karinchak after a few weeks. Thorpe starts the year rehabbing in AAA. Perez, B. Wilson, and S. Smith can't be optioned. Oh, and Robert gets traded. Not very many people have seriously projected Iriarte into the rotation...so I guess that's the hottest take. Karinchak's stuff has degraded greatly from 4-5 years ago. CLE definitely knows their bullpens.
February 15, 20251 yr Is Karinchak even there? Sox never announced it as far as I can tell. Not on the NRI list.
February 15, 20251 yr 23 minutes ago, flavum said: Is Karinchak even there? Sox never announced it as far as I can tell. Not on the NRI list. Edited February 15, 20251 yr by WestEddy
February 15, 20251 yr 25 minutes ago, WestEddy said: Well that’s seems like pretty clear evidence. I started looking myself
February 15, 20251 yr 3 hours ago, 46DidIt said: Lee Thais Vaughn Sosa Meidroth Baldwin Vargas Rojas Benintendi Taylor Tauchaman Slater Fletcher Is my prediction on the batter side There are players on this list whose names I completely forgot 😂
February 15, 20251 yr C - Lee, Thais 1B - Vaughn 2B - Rojas SS - Montgomery 3B - Vargas DH - Gallo/a rotation of guys for rest/matchups LF - Benintendi CF - Taylor RF - Tauchaman/Slater 4th OF - Fletcher Util - Sosa Not how I would pick them, but seems like the right mix of logic + White Sox stupid.
February 15, 20251 yr Lineup: 1B: Vaughn 2B: Sosa SS: Baldwin# 3B: Rojas* LF: Benintendi* CF: Taylor RF: Tauchman* DH: Vargas CA: Lee Bench: BC: Thaiss* IF: Amaya OF: Slater UT: Drury Rotation: Perez* Martin Cannon Burke Wilson Bullpen: CL: Anderson SU: Karinchak SU: Berroa MR: Varland MR: Booser* MR: Murfee MR: Gilbert* LR: Smith
February 15, 20251 yr 16 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said: Lineup: 1B: Vaughn 2B: Sosa SS: Baldwin# 3B: Rojas* LF: Benintendi* CF: Taylor RF: Tauchman* DH: Vargas CA: Lee Bench: BC: Thaiss* IF: Amaya OF: Slater UT: Drury Rotation: Perez* Martin Cannon Burke Wilson Bullpen: CL: Anderson SU: Karinchak SU: Berroa MR: Varland MR: Booser* MR: Murfee MR: Gilbert* LR: Smith Big question is whether you really need both Amaya and Drury. Drury definitely can't play SS. Gallo just might sneak onto the roster depending on Spring results... Ramos Meidroth Fletcher Colas DeLoach to AAA sounds about right.
February 15, 20251 yr Author 5 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said: Lineup: 1B: Vaughn 2B: Sosa SS: Baldwin# 3B: Rojas* LF: Benintendi* CF: Taylor RF: Tauchman* DH: Vargas CA: Lee Bench: BC: Thaiss* IF: Amaya OF: Slater UT: Drury Rotation: Perez* Martin Cannon Burke Wilson Bullpen: CL: Anderson SU: Karinchak SU: Berroa MR: Varland MR: Booser* MR: Murfee MR: Gilbert* LR: Smith Solid prediction. I have two questions for you: 1. How would you change it if you knew Robert would still be on the team? 2. How would you change it if you knew both Robert and Colson were on it?
February 15, 20251 yr Baldwin would be gone to get regular AAA Charlotte at-bats...the Taylor question is trickier since they don't really need five outfielders. You'd theoretically have to choose between Amaya/Drury...and Drury can't play SS and Baldwin once again needs to play regularly (best utility profile). Vargas could also back up all four IF positions but you don't want him at SS more than 12-15 games per year. Ramos can also back up every single infield position, too. They could instead go with Gallo at 1B/DH to provide more pop with no Robert.
February 15, 20251 yr 6 hours ago, caulfield12 said: Big question is whether you really need both Amaya and Drury. Drury definitely can't play SS. Gallo just might sneak onto the roster depending on Spring results... Ramos Meidroth Fletcher Colas DeLoach to AAA sounds about right. It would be a very short term problem, I think. One of Meidroth/Ramos/Monty will be up fairly quickly.
February 15, 20251 yr 7 hours ago, caulfield12 said: Big question is whether you really need both Amaya and Drury. Drury definitely can't play SS. Gallo just might sneak onto the roster depending on Spring results... Ramos Meidroth Fletcher Colas DeLoach to AAA sounds about right. Just to be clear, this isn’t necessarily what I would do, but my best guess of what I think Getz will do. But my logic for the roster is as such: 1B: Vaughn the everyday guy with Drury filling in from time to time 2B: Sosa the primary guy with Rojas & Amaya filling in a little bit SS: Baldwin the primary guy with Amaya filling in against LHP 3B: Rojas the primary against RHP while Vargas starts against LHP LF: Benintendi the primary guy with Baldwin filling in some CF: Taylor the everyday guy with Tauchman filling in from time to time RF: Tauchman the primary guy with Slater filling in against LHP DH: Vargas the primary guy with Drury & Benintendi filling in some I’ll be honest, Drury isn’t a great fit with how the rest of the roster is built with him mostly filling in at 1B/DH and likely pinch hitting. I’d rather have someone who can fill in in CF as Tauchman probably shouldn’t get much runway there, but I also don’t want to carry five pure OFs if we go with someone like Fletcher.
February 15, 20251 yr 2 hours ago, SoxBlanco said: Solid prediction. I have two questions for you: 1. How would you change it if you knew Robert would still be on the team? 2. How would you change it if you knew both Robert and Colson were on it? If Robert is on the roster, then I’d assume Drury doesn’t make the cut unless they feel Sosa can be the backup SS. If they think he can, then Amaya would be the odd man out. With Colson on the roster, then I’m sending Baldwin down to play everyday. I am good with Baldwin ultimately being a 10th man type who plays all over the place, but I also don’t want him getting short-changed on the major league bench while development is still needed.
February 15, 20251 yr 1 hour ago, PaleAleSox said: It would be a very short term problem, I think. One of Meidroth/Ramos/Monty will be up fairly quickly. I agree…I assume come May or June at least two of those guys are up and very possibly all three.
February 15, 20251 yr 17 hours ago, caulfield12 said: Not very many people have seriously projected Iriarte into the rotation...so I guess that's the hottest take. Karinchak's stuff has degraded greatly from 4-5 years ago. CLE definitely knows their bullpens. Jairo Iriarte throwing heat. Some good early buzz about him in camp. He’s competing for a starting spot in the rotation. pic.twitter.com/l15kEMGpmM — Chuck Garfien (@ChuckGarfien) February 15, 2025
February 15, 20251 yr 53 minutes ago, WestEddy said: Garfien also lists Vargas at 3B/1B and not second. We shall see. https://www.mlb.com/news/gus-varland-fun-social-media-white-sox “Who the hell is this guy? Varland having fun w/ social media…”
February 15, 20251 yr A couple things before hand. I see Gallo being this year's Mousotakas, cut before the season starts. Last year Cease got traded before ST was over because he was really great in ST. I don't see that with Robert. He'll be completely unmotivated like he was as the trade deadline approached last year; this nick or injury and chasing balls low and away. He'll be starting in CF for the Sox, and we hope he shows something so we can trade him at the deadline. So, here's my lineup, (not so much bench pieces). 1. Vaughn at 1st 2. Drury at 2B. He will be this year's DeJoung. The Sox will hope he has 10 or 12 home runs by the deadline and they can flip him. Then it's Sosa 3. At SS will be Rojas to start the season. All this talk from Merkin and the Sox PR people that Colson has a great chance to leave ST as the starting SS is total BS, and the fact that they're all saying it, makes me really think it is BS. They want that extra year of control. When the time is over, then he'll come up. 4. Vargas at 3rd. Rojas will be the back up with Vargas doing some 1st and DH. 5. in LF, a platoon of Fletcher and Stater. 6. In CF, Robert until the deadline and Getz will be forced to give him away because his stats will be less bad than last year, but still not very good for him. Then Taylor. 7. LF - Benintendi 8. At catcher: first Lee and Thaiss. The two minor league guys will be up after the all-star game. Starting pitching -- I am really concerned with this. I keep hearing on various podcasts that it seems likely at Perez will be our opening day pitcher. If this is true, the rotation is in horrible shape, horrible. What is Perez? The 3rd, 4th, or 5th starter on a team with a real rotation? If we can't get, at least, two starters clearly better than Perez, our rotation will be terrible. I don't know; maybe the Sox will have him as their opening day starter to give him some false credit so we can flip him later. This is who I see as the Sox best starting pitchers in order: a. Cannon b. Martin c. Perez d. Wilson e. Burke But if anyone knows me on this board, I am a huge Thorpe fan. If he is not injured, (that is a big if) I see him as the ace of the staff when he comes up, maybe after a 3 or 4 weeks. I don't know about the bullpen. Let me use the same logic for Anderson as I did for Perez. If Anderson is our closer more than a few weeks into the season, the bullpen must be and will be absolutely terrible. So that's my opinion. Edited February 15, 20251 yr by vilehoopster Wrong name at catcher
February 15, 20251 yr Man Lee really finished last season poorly. Looking at this ZIPS is depressing. Maybe he can make a leap but he's got a long way to go after looking fairly promising early last season.
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