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First half analysis...


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It's a mixed bag... pitching has been better than expected, hitting and fielding still awful:

“I have to remind myself that although that’s really frustrating and we need to get better there, to finish close games, so much of where we are right now is in things that are underneath, per se, in just the foundation of the organization,” Getz said.

That’s not easy to stomach for fans trying to remind themselves why they’re still paying attention to a team that entered Thursday with the worst batting average in the league (.220), lowest OPS (.638), fewest hits (583) third-fewest runs (263) and third-fewest home runs (64).

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2025/06/26/white-sox-season-halfway-smith-meidroth-vargas

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When the highlights of the 1st half of your season are some other guy should eventually buy the team and one of your fans became the latest pontiff.....you're having another rough year.

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47 minutes ago, wegner said:

When the highlights of the 1st half of your season are some other guy should eventually buy the team and one of your fans became the latest pontiff.....you're having another rough year.

You need to admit that those are two big highlights.

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37 minutes ago, poppysox said:

You need to admit that those are two big highlights.

Those are big, but I'd like a bit more on the field than Miguel Vargas might be ok after all and Shane Smith looks like a nice Rule 5 pickup.

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Honestly, outside of Robert imploding, it hasn’t been a terrible 1H.  We are starting to see a collection of young bats form and Smith & Burke (who has very good over the past month) look like long-term rotation options.  And some of the dumpster dive vets have performed fairly well, which is a step up from the Hahn days.  Still a ways off and I wish we had some trade chips this deadline that could actually move the needle, but at least not all the kids flopped and set us back even further.

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 Some of the things done by Getz  has baffled me. I don't know how he can justify keeping Baldwin and Elko in the minors but yet keep  Capra and Noda on the team. Some of this just hasn't worked out. I don't think anybody saw the career of Robert Jr collapse, They were counting on Colson Montgomery being a core piece. That hasn't happened and he appears to be a lost cause. It seems like the only offensive player in the minors who Getz values is Braden Montgomery and I think he doesn't figure into their 2026 plans. There have been reports ( Bruce Levine) that the team is going to spend some money on offense this off season. We shall see.

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1 hour ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Honestly, outside of Robert imploding, it hasn’t been a terrible 1H.  We are starting to see a collection of young bats form and Smith & Burke (who has very good over the past month) look like long-term rotation options.  And some of the dumpster dive vets have performed fairly well, which is a step up from the Hahn days.  Still a ways off and I wish we had some trade chips this deadline that could actually move the needle, but at least not all the kids flopped and set us back even further.

Its been a terrible first half man, they are 26-55 and pacing out for 50 wins. That's terrible.

You made good points about young bats forming and some pitching looking like long term keepers, I can't argue with that.

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3 hours ago, wegner said:

When the highlights of the 1st half of your season are some other guy should eventually buy the team and one of your fans became the latest pontiff.....you're having another rough year.

That actually matches perfectly with any optimism I have for the future.  Plans are in place for our current inept owner to sell this team to a deep-pocketed local billionaire and we pray that he'll totally turn this franchise around.  Sounds like as good of a rebuild strategy as any of the Sox recent failed attempts.

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2 hours ago, WBWSF said:

 Some of the things done by Getz  has baffled me. I don't know how he can justify keeping Baldwin and Elko in the minors but yet keep  Capra and Noda on the team. Some of this just hasn't worked out. I don't think anybody saw the career of Robert Jr collapse, They were counting on Colson Montgomery being a core piece. That hasn't happened and he appears to be a lost cause. It seems like the only offensive player in the minors who Getz values is Braden Montgomery and I think he doesn't figure into their 2026 plans. There have been reports ( Bruce Levine) that the team is going to spend some money on offense this off season. We shall see.

It's Bruce Levine remember, take anything he says with a large bag of salt.

With the almost certain lockout coming shortly after the end of the 2026 season and the impact it could have on the 2027 year, I don't expect JR to do anything this upcoming off season. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he ordered Getz to cut payroll yet again. 

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1 hour ago, T R U said:

Its been a terrible first half man, they are 26-55 and pacing out for 50 wins. That's terrible.

You made good points about young bats forming and some pitching looking like long term keepers, I can't argue with that.

Results wise no doubt it’s been brutal.  But unfortunately with where Hahn left things and Jerry bottoming-out the payroll, it was always going to be a very ugly season.  That being said, our current Pythagorean would imply a 60 win pace which is 15 games better than last year’s expected wins based on run differential.

What’s fascinating is the positional group is 29th overall at fWAR at 0.2, which is insanely fucking bad but still a big improvement over last year.  Regardless, that amount is weighted down substantially by guys who are no longer on team or guys who are easily replaceable.  Vaughn, Amaya, Palacious, Rojas, Noda, & Capra have combined for -4 wins in just a half a season.  Meanwhile, Robert & Benintendi have combined for just 0.1 fWAR despite +$31M in salary.  My point here is still there is a ton of low hanging fruit that can be solved for with relative ease with a bit more time (once real minor leaguers arrive) and some Ishbia money being spent.

IMO, Robert imploding and the TJS surgeries are the most frustrating parts of the first half at the major league level.  The former sets us back in terms of acquiring talented prospects and the latter wastes a golden opportunity for less heralded guys to establish themselves and give us additional trade assets to help fill out the holes in the lineup.

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24 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

It's Bruce Levine remember, take anything he says with a large bag of salt.

With the almost certain lockout coming shortly after the end of the 2026 season and the impact it could have on the 2027 year, I don't expect JR to do anything this upcoming off season. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he ordered Getz to cut payroll yet again. 

The White Sox have $17 million the books for 2026, assuming they turn down Perez and dispose of Luis Robert somehow (or or decline option).  Of course they will "spend" as they have an A's like payroll set for next year with literally only Benintendi on as a longer than this year deal.

It's not hard to envision a scenario where they spend a few bucks on a mid tier OF, corner IF, and a back end SP or two to fill up some holes, but this team isn't going to SPEND as in going out and hitting nine figure deals.

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Honestly, record-wise the Sox are where most of us thought they'd be - slightly better than last year.  There have been a few surprises, a few good, a few bad. 

Sosa has been steadily improving.  Vargas is looking like a cornerstone of this team for the future.  Meidroth, Teel, Quero, Smith, and even Burke have looked good in their first year.  Tauchman (when healthy) and Slater have been decent veteran pick-ups.

And for the less than good - The bullpen has been spotty at best.  Robert is lost at the plate.  Guys like Noda and Capra have jobs.  Perez is hurt after looking like another decent veteran signing.

Post trade deadline, the Sox are likely not going to have a higher win percentage, but they should be a more interesting team to monitor (notice I didn't say "watch").

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1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said:

It's Bruce Levine remember, take anything he says with a large bag of salt.

With the almost certain lockout coming shortly after the end of the 2026 season and the impact it could have on the 2027 year, I don't expect JR to do anything this upcoming off season. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he ordered Getz to cut payroll yet again. 

I don't see a lockout coming. The players will never agree to a salary cap. The only thing worth discussing is the deferred payments.

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Quero, Meidroth, Sosa, Vargas, Smith have all been bright spots. Book is still out on Baldwin but if he's given another real shot at the mlb level I think he'll do well. If Elko could cut down his k-rate I think he'd do well, but I have doubts on that.

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18 minutes ago, WBWSF said:

I don't see a lockout coming. The players will never agree to a salary cap. The only thing worth discussing is the deferred payments.

These two sentences seem to contradict each other.

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19 minutes ago, JoeC said:

These two sentences seem to contradict each other.

Lockout 100% is coming. Might not lead to a cancelled season, in fact it almost certainly won't, but it's coming. The owners don't know what they want as a group, which is a problem and will only be resolved with a lockout imo. 

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12 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Lockout 100% is coming. Might not lead to a cancelled season, in fact it almost certainly won't, but it's coming. The owners don't know what they want as a group, which is a problem and will only be resolved with a lockout imo. 

I’m pretty sure season is gonna lose a lot of games.  May not be cancelled but it’s gonna be ugly and all these rich owners are gonna be turning their pockets inside out 

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15 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

I’m pretty sure season is gonna lose a lot of games.  May not be cancelled but it’s gonna be ugly and all these rich owners are gonna be turning their pockets inside out 

My only hope is that the JR faction is diminished and the Cohen faction is growing. The owners that realize their franchise value is the investment and not year to year profit need to talk sense into the rest of them.

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2 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Results wise no doubt it’s been brutal.  But unfortunately with where Hahn left things and Jerry bottoming-out the payroll, it was always going to be a very ugly season.  That being said, our current Pythagorean would imply a 60 win pace which is 15 games better than last year’s expected wins based on run differential.

What’s fascinating is the positional group is 29th overall at fWAR at 0.2, which is insanely fucking bad but still a big improvement over last year.  Regardless, that amount is weighted down substantially by guys who are no longer on team or guys who are easily replaceable.  Vaughn, Amaya, Palacious, Rojas, Noda, & Capra have combined for -4 wins in just a half a season.  Meanwhile, Robert & Benintendi have combined for just 0.1 fWAR despite +$31M in salary.  My point here is still there is a ton of low hanging fruit that can be solved for with relative ease with a bit more time (once real minor leaguers arrive) and some Ishbia money being spent.

IMO, Robert imploding and the TJS surgeries are the most frustrating parts of the first half at the major league level.  The former sets us back in terms of acquiring talented prospects and the latter wastes a golden opportunity for less heralded guys to establish themselves and give us additional trade assets to help fill out the holes in the lineup.

I mean, even a 60-102 season is still terrible. I agree though, Robert becoming worthless and all the pitching injuries really suck but at least there are some bright spots on this years team as opposed to last year when there was absolutely nothing. 

It will be interesting to see what they do, if anything, this offseason based on the potential loss of 2027.

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5 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Results wise no doubt it’s been brutal.  But unfortunately with where Hahn left things and Jerry bottoming-out the payroll, it was always going to be a very ugly season.  That being said, our current Pythagorean would imply a 60 win pace which is 15 games better than last year’s expected wins based on run differential.

What’s fascinating is the positional group is 29th overall at fWAR at 0.2, which is insanely fucking bad but still a big improvement over last year.  Regardless, that amount is weighted down substantially by guys who are no longer on team or guys who are easily replaceable.  Vaughn, Amaya, Palacious, Rojas, Noda, & Capra have combined for -4 wins in just a half a season.  Meanwhile, Robert & Benintendi have combined for just 0.1 fWAR despite +$31M in salary.  My point here is still there is a ton of low hanging fruit that can be solved for with relative ease with a bit more time (once real minor leaguers arrive) and some Ishbia money being spent.

IMO, Robert imploding and the TJS surgeries are the most frustrating parts of the first half at the major league level.  The former sets us back in terms of acquiring talented prospects and the latter wastes a golden opportunity for less heralded guys to establish themselves and give us additional trade assets to help fill out the holes in the lineup.

I think people who look at last year as an inevitable total crash out due to Hahn, KW and JR's mismanagement of the franchise over the last decade+ are the ones who see positives. Anyone who thinks Getz and JR only are main culprits does not. That's become the big divide here.

Edited by almagest
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18 minutes ago, almagest said:

I think people who look at last year as an inevitable total crash out due to Hahn, KW and JR's mismanagement of the franchise over the last decade+ are the ones who see positives. Anyone who thinks Getz and JR only are main culprits does not. That's become the big divide here.

This is complete misrepresentation of people's opinions.  No one thinks it was just Getz and JR.

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18 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

This is complete misrepresentation of people's opinions.  No one thinks it was just Getz and JR.

Certainly doesn't seem that way to me - how many times have you told people they must be absolving Chris Getz of any blame because they think Hahn and KW mismanaged this franchise into oblivion?

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