4 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

It is wise to not trust anyone but is it wise to continually think the worst of people ? You're going to be extremely paranoid and negative that way. How do you actually enjoy anything with a team that only won it all once in over 100 years ?

Google tells me this. The word you are looking for is misanthrope, cynic, or doom-monger, though a more informal and highly accurate term for someone who thrives on being miserable is a defeatist or a catastrophizer.

Because being a White Sox fan for 65 seasons I have low standards. I "enjoy" when they have a winning season (win at least 82 games) and at least until 2007 they did that pretty regularly especially of course in the 1950's and 1960's.

I absolutely am a cynic, JR's ownership and the incompetence of the organization has only increased that. But as I've stated before the Sox have been a part of my life since I was very young and there's something to be said for loyalty.

Plus Ishbia is comin and hopefully I'm still alive to see a better run franchise.

Also I'm not miserable at all and you've got some gall making that comment. I've got what I need in life, have a loving wife and family, had a wonderful career in broadcasting and outside of the rotator cuff surgery (still in a sling) have my health.

Basically you can kiss my ass.

2 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Well the real problem is that feast or famine high k high hr total teams often don't fare well in the playoffs against elite pitching.

See Baltimore 2023-24

Statistically, HR-based offense actually translates better to postseason baseball than small ball reliant offense.

2 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Because being a White Sox fan for 65 seasons I have low standards. I "enjoy" when they have a winning season (win at least 82 games) and at least until 2007 they did that pretty regularly especially of course in the 1950's and 1960's.

I absolutely am a cynic, JR's ownership and the incompetence of the organization has only increased that. But as I've stated before the Sox have been a part of my life since I was very young and there's something to be said for loyalty.

Plus Ishbia is comin and hopefully I'm still alive to see a better run franchise.

Also I'm not miserable at all and you've got some gall making that comment. I've got what I need in life, have a loving wife and family, had a wonderful career in broadcasting and outside of the rotator cuff surgery (still in a sling) have my health.

Basically you can kiss my ass.

Miserable about the Sox. You don't seem to enjoy following them. Loyalty to an abusive relationship is insanity

Edited Sunday at 07:01 PM5 days by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

2 hours ago, Autumn Dreamin said:

Statistically, HR-based offense actually translates better to postseason baseball than small ball reliant offense.

2014-2015 Royals?

Ofc Cleveland has been there 7 out of ten times...is there a way to control that kind of generalized assertion for payroll level?

What about Milwaukee or the Rays?

You could equally argue teams in the Top 10-12 in payroll have a much better chance of winning in the post season.

What about Detroit and Seattle last year, for instance?

You would have to define small ball vs. home run reliant.

The 2005 White Sox were 100% both.

But they also had great pitching throughout both the pen and rotation.

15 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Miserable about the Sox. You don't seem to enjoy following them. Loyalty to an abusive relationship is insanity

Or why not go back to when there was a positive-only Sox board lol?

WSI.

Forcing people to conform to others' viewpoints hardly works as a successful board strategy.

Just like the FCC can require two candidates for office to have equal opportunities to make a/their case, but they can't force peoples' opinions or feelings/emotions/sentiments to change or conform.

Murakami's HR yesterday was the first ever opposite field HR hit with a 49⁰ or more Launch Angle since they started tracking that stuff

Every other skyscraper HR was a pull-side shot

7 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

2014-2015 Royals?

Ofc Cleveland has been there 7 out of ten times...is there a way to control that kind of generalized assertion for payroll level?

What about Milwaukee or the Rays?

You could equally argue teams in the Top 10-12 in payroll have a much better chance of winning in the post season.

What about Detroit and Seattle last year, for instance?

You would have to define small ball vs. home run reliant.

The 2005 White Sox were 100% both.

But they also had great pitching throughout both the pen and rotation.

Sure, you can win in the postseason without hitting HRs. The Royals did win it all as a bottom 10 HR hitting team in 2015. But they are one of only ~4 teams to do so this century, and no one else has done it since.

Every WS winner after them has been top 13 or better for HRs during the regular season, 8 of the 10 have been top 10, and 6 straight have been top 4.

The 2005 White Sox were top 5 in HRs for the regular season and had the 4th highest % of their scoring from HR in the league that year. I made a related post about the "Guillen Number" (so called because of people underselling how HR-reliant those Sox teams were) when this came up in a different thread a little while ago.

All scoring goes down vs. postseason pitching, but the instant offense of HRs remains more reliable than stringing together multiple hits in the right sequence. Hitting a HR off ace pitching is hard, but getting multiple base hits off of them in an inning is even harder.

As a result:

• the percentage of runs scored via HR in the playoffs is higher than in the regular season

• teams that score a higher percentage of their runs via HR lose less offense vs. playoff caliber pitching/defense

• the win% of teams who outhomer their opponents goes up in the postseason compared to the regular season (where it's already high)

The exact magnitude of these effects can vary from year to year, but it's consistently in the same direction (and large multi-year sample sizes show it routinely as well).

That doesn't mean that the best HR hitting lineup always wins it all. The rest of the roster matters and all of the little other things that go into winning baseball have their own effects too. The most valuable postseason asset (after health) is still a pitching staff that's elite at run prevention.

But it's exactly because good pitching beats good offense that you're actually better off "living and dying" by the offensive outcome that most directly puts runs on the board. No one hits a postseason HR and wishes it was a walk+steal or double to give the next guy a chance to (contact, BABIP, and defense allowing) "manufacture a run" instead.

(Related side note: TTO guys don't strikeout meaningfully more often in the postseason, but they do actually homer (and walk) slightly more. So against elite strikeout pitching, "swinging for HRs" doesn't magically make sluggers more likely to K than "swinging for a base hit"... it just makes them more likely to hit a HR.)

If you're interested in more analyses about HR offense in the postseason:

• https://www.mlb.com/news/homers-are-still-the-key-to-winning-in-playoffs

• https://www.mlb.com/news/home-runs-to-play-major-role-in-october

• https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/17470/overthinking-it-what-does-everyone-have-against-homers/

20 minutes ago, Autumn Dreamin said:

Sure, you can win in the postseason without hitting HRs. The Royals did win it all as a bottom 10 HR hitting team in 2015. But they are one of only ~4 teams to do so this century, and no one else has done it since.

Every WS winner after them has been top 13 or better for HRs during the regular season, 8 of the 10 have been top 10, and 6 straight have been top 4.

The 2005 White Sox were top 5 in HRs for the regular season and had the 4th highest % of their scoring from HR in the league that year. I made a related post about the "Guillen Number" (so called because of people underselling how HR-reliant those Sox teams were) when this came up in a different thread a little while ago.

All scoring goes down vs. postseason pitching, but the instant offense of HRs remains more reliable than stringing together multiple hits in the right sequence. Hitting a HR off ace pitching is hard, but getting multiple base hits off of them in an inning is even harder.

As a result:

• the percentage of runs scored via HR in the playoffs is higher than in the regular season

• teams that score a higher percentage of their runs via HR lose less offense vs. playoff caliber pitching/defense

• the win% of teams who outhomer their opponents goes up in the postseason compared to the regular season (where it's already high)

The exact magnitude of these effects can vary from year to year, but it's consistently in the same direction (and large multi-year sample sizes show it routinely as well).

That doesn't mean that the best HR hitting lineup always wins it all. The rest of the roster matters and all of the little other things that go into winning baseball have their own effects too. The most valuable postseason asset (after health) is still a pitching staff that's elite at run prevention.

But it's exactly because good pitching beats good offense that you're actually better off "living and dying" by the offensive outcome that most directly puts runs on the board. No one hits a postseason HR and wishes it was a walk+steal or double to give the next guy a chance to (contact, BABIP, and defense allowing) "manufacture a run" instead.

(Related side note: TTO guys don't strikeout meaningfully more often in the postseason, but they do actually homer (and walk) slightly more. So against elite strikeout pitching, "swinging for HRs" doesn't magically make sluggers more likely to K than "swinging for a base hit"... it just makes them more likely to hit a HR.)

If you're interested in more analyses about HR offense in the postseason:

• https://www.mlb.com/news/homers-are-still-the-key-to-winning-in-playoffs

• https://www.mlb.com/news/home-runs-to-play-major-role-in-october

• https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/17470/overthinking-it-what-does-everyone-have-against-homers/

But how many of those playoff winners had guys striking out as much as the Sox Big 3 and even Meidroth?

The Phillies with Schwarber would be one comparison...but they haven't won it all in this current iteration.

This game is ova.

On 7/3/2026 at 7:52 PM, WBWSF said:

I read this past off season that the White Sox wanted to sign Vargas to a long term contract. Vargas declined to sign a long term contract. I wonder if Getz will continue to try to sign him this off season.

I wish they'd sign him. He's a good fit with this team. Nice to have a big bat at third base, too. If Sox are a postseason surprise team he'll be so beloved. For us to win playoff games, he's got to be Vargas. Love this bat and range.

Feels like Mune Maria has come to a screeching halt...at the worst possible moment.

647 and 457 OPS numbers in August and September.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/4872595/munetaka-murakami

Tied for tenth in mlb homers despite missing six + weeks....in terms of WAR value, pretty much at par now with his contract $$$.

Okamoto has similar overall numbers...and he was supposed to be the much better "pure" hitter.

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by caulfield12