guessing Drew Thorpe is eventually called up for a start in the near future, I was looking at his outing last night in Charlotte on Gameday, his fastball is sitting 91-93, he's also throwing an 86mph cutter, an 80mph changeup, and an 81mph slider

5.0 IP, 5H, 2BB, 6K, 83 Pitches

2.86 era, WHIP 1.00 (xFIP 3.85, xERA 3.20)

Edited Thursday at 02:46 PM2 days by joejoesox

3 hours ago, soxrwhite said:

This season reminds me of 2000, when Sirotka, Baldwin and Parque were all slightly injured or just fatigued down the stretch and the Sox limped into the playoffs.

That's a good shout. But the landscape is different than 2000.

3 hours ago, soxrwhite said:

This season reminds me of 2000, when Sirotka, Baldwin and Parque were all slightly injured or just fatigued down the stretch and the Sox limped into the playoffs.

Loved the 2000 team. I was 9 years old and it was the first year that I really got all in on the Sox. Probably the best offense the Sox have ever had, followed maybe by 2006.

6 minutes ago, Bonemer, I Hardly Know Her said:

Loved the 2000 team. I was 9 years old and it was the first year that I really got all in on the Sox. Probably the best offense the Sox have ever had, followed maybe by 2006.

The 2000 lineup was money. The pitching, not so much. The Charles Johnson trade was amazing. I checked Baseball-Reference and here was his line with the Sox in the second half:

.326

.411

.607

1.019

He also hit 10 homers with 36 RBI in only 158 plate appearances. Insane. One of my favorite acquisitions of all time. Probably one of the best Sox trades of all time for a playoff rental player. It only cost them catcher Brook Fordyce.

But they unfortunately didn’t acquire any pitching. That was a brutal playoff series to watch against the Seamen. The bats went completely cold for that series.

Edited Thursday at 03:29 PM2 days by WhiteSox2023

20 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

The 2000 lineup was money. The pitching, not so much. The Charles Johnson trade was amazing. I checked Baseball-Reference and here was his line with the Sox in the second half:

.326

.411

.607

1.019

He also hit 10 homers with 36 RBI in only 158 plate appearances. Insane. One of my favorite acquisitions of all time. Probably one of the best Sox trades of all time for a playoff rental player. It only cost them catcher Brook Fordyce.

But they unfortunately didn’t acquire any pitching. That was a brutal playoff series to watch against the Seamen. The bats went completely cold for that series.

I remember the Charles Johnson run that year. Great trade. The other catcher on that team was Josh Paul, of Buffalo Grove HS. I liked him because I grew up about 5 minutes from BG HS so thought it was cool a local kid was on the Sox. I believe Josh Paul was also the catcher for the Angels in the infamous AJ drop 3rd strike in the 2005 ALCS

Johnson added another huge bat to a stacked lineup though. The only weak spot was Chris Singleton, who had a rough year at the plate in 2000. Everybody else mashed. But like you said, the pitching just could not hold up. I remember being so sad after the sweep lol.

2 minutes ago, Bonemer, I Hardly Know Her said:

I remember the Charles Johnson run that year. Great trade. The other catcher on that team was Josh Paul, of Buffalo Grove HS. I liked him because I grew up about 5 minutes from BG HS so thought it was cool a local kid was on the Sox. I believe Josh Paul was also the catcher for the Angels in the infamous AJ drop 3rd strike in the 2005 ALCS

Johnson added another huge bat to a stacked lineup though. The only weak spot was Chris Singleton, who had a rough year at the plate in 2000. Everybody else mashed. But like you said, the pitching just could not hold up. I remember being so sad after the sweep lol.

He was. My camp counselor growing up was cousins with Paul. CJ wasn't even a great hitter, definitely a defensive first catcher (one of the all time great defensive catchers IMO) but he had an insane year that year.

1 hour ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

The 2000 lineup was money. The pitching, not so much. The Charles Johnson trade was amazing. I checked Baseball-Reference and here was his line with the Sox in the second half:

.326

.411

.607

1.019

He also hit 10 homers with 36 RBI in only 158 plate appearances. Insane. One of my favorite acquisitions of all time. Probably one of the best Sox trades of all time for a playoff rental player. It only cost them catcher Brook Fordyce.

But they unfortunately didn’t acquire any pitching. That was a brutal playoff series to watch against the Seamen. The bats went completely cold for that series.

July 29, 2000 - With the Sox badly in need of pitching at the trade deadline due to injuries to starters Cal Eldred and James Baldwin, G.M. Ron Schueler (a former pitcher with the team in the 1970’s) went off in another direction acquiring catcher Charles Johnson and DH Harold Baines. It was Baines’ third stint with the Sox and while he and Johnson helped offensively, it did nothing to lighten the load on the pitching staff.

That staff, even though they’d go on to win the division, suffered even more arm injuries to starters Jim Parque and Mike Sirotka and relief pitchers Bobby Howry and Kelly Wunsch. The Sox would pay for Schueler’s mistake the following season since the staff was decimated, many coming off surgeries.

It should be noted however, in his defense, that some of the pitchers the Sox were rumored to be interested in like Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling, said they would not accept a trade to Chicago for various reasons.

5 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

July 29, 2000 - With the Sox badly in need of pitching at the trade deadline due to injuries to starters Cal Eldred and James Baldwin, G.M. Ron Schueler (a former pitcher with the team in the 1970’s) went off in another direction acquiring catcher Charles Johnson and DH Harold Baines. It was Baines’ third stint with the Sox and while he and Johnson helped offensively, it did nothing to lighten the load on the pitching staff.

That staff, even though they’d go on to win the division, suffered even more arm injuries to starters Jim Parque and Mike Sirotka and relief pitchers Bobby Howry and Kelly Wunsch. The Sox would pay for Schueler’s mistake the following season since the staff was decimated, many coming off surgeries.

It should be noted however, in his defense, that some of the pitchers the Sox were rumored to be interested in like Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling, said they would not accept a trade to Chicago for various reasons.

Still an excellent trade but our lineup wasn’t the problem so I remember being confused that they didn’t acquire any pitching at the deadline. Ironically, the bats didn’t do dick in three games against the Seamen in the postseason.

On 8/19/2026 at 5:16 AM, Texsox said:

To answer one question and to keep it simple if there are three options that statistically

Option 1 is correct 45% of the time

Option 2 is correct 40% of the time

Option 3 is correct 15% of the time

It's easy to be correct 45% of the time. Just keep doing option 1. The best managers are those who have a success rate over 45%. They have decide when option 2 or option 3 is better.

But it is tempting to want to replace umpire and in game managerial decisions to a computer.

There is always a human element to the game and you cannot factor that into a computer . Who really needs the off day? Who doesn't perform well when not near 100 % ? What kind of AB are you looking for in a certain situation and will any replacement from a pinch hit appearance hurt you on defense. A computer cannot predict the future only anticipate projected outcome . Hard to calculate if that lesser jump in the OF with the bases loaded drives in 3 runs or ends up an out by a pinch hitter forced to play OF.

Baseball is such a different game . Head coaches run a certain offense and players run plays and have to fill gaps . Those are real team sports whereas baseball has a lot of players on the field but it comes down to individuals winning one on one matchups where no matter who you are you are likely to lose that matchup because you fail over 70% of the time.

The other sports have people who control you movements. Baseball has a little of that but its more about empowering players and getting them in the right frame of mind on how to approach things. I think the new Sox philosophy of empowering individuals in the front office and the players on the field is all about communication and positive reinforcement and presenting options. Venable is a good representative of that philosophy.

This is a hot take but outside of the Kimbrel debacle, I actually thought TLR was really good with the the bullpen, especially in 2021. Some of those pitchers were never better than when they pitched under him. Actually felt he had a good feel for what exactly that starting pitching staff needed as well.

Edited Thursday at 05:33 PM2 days by Colome's Hat

On 8/18/2026 at 10:19 PM, Bonemer, I Hardly Know Her said:

Our last 4 managers are Robin Ventura, Rickey Renteria, Tony La Russa, and Pedro fucking Grifol.

Will Venable in year 2 has this team in late August in position to win the AL Central.

Some of his decisions have been bad!

Let's SHUT THE f*** UP about him needing to be replaced.

Baseball is a game of failure for hitters and in the bullpen it's managing rest . Perfection is not an option though fans seem to think that way at times and I guarantee most fans do not keep track of what relievers are in line to pitch every game in their game notes. Fans fly by the seat of their pants. They see failure and losses and whine. Managers have stats and other coaches to help make decisions and still there are failures. It's an imperfect world. 55-60 losses for every team. That's a lot of failure and it's usually the most talented and less injured who wins.

Some classic Ron baiting / trolling in this thread! Love it. Makes me wistful for the days he used to double down on Abreu being finished as a player for the better part of 7 years. Who can argue with an eye like Ron’s?