5 minutes ago, joejoesox said:

I had Gemini analyze the Brewers and Sox Front Office Directories listed publicly on MLB.com and break down the differences in philosophy between the two teams:

What the f*** does a senior advisor actually do? Besides just get paid to hang out. Can I be a senior advisor, as a White Sox fan?

In all seriousness, I know that the Assistant GM who runs the R&D department used to work for the Rays front office. I think they are basing themselves off the Rays. It's much better then it used to be.

11 minutes ago, joejoesox said:

I had Gemini analyze the Brewers and Sox Front Office Directories listed publicly on MLB.com and break down the differences in philosophy between the two teams:

The special advisor thing isn't that big of a deal. To me it's more marketing than anything legit.

58 minutes ago, joejoesox said:

Tied for 2nd to last is a big improvement...

32 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Tied for 2nd to last is a big improvement...

Braves are really sticking out cutting back on both scouting AND R&D but still humming along...seemingly.

TB CLE MIL all Top Ten here.

So are the Dodgers.

Edited yesterday at 02:04 AM1 day by caulfield12

1 hour ago, Colome's Hat said:

What the f*** does a senior advisor actually do? Besides just get paid to hang out. Can I be a senior advisor, as a White Sox fan?

In all seriousness, I know that the Assistant GM who runs the R&D department used to work for the Rays front office. I think they are basing themselves off the Rays. It's much better then it used to be.

Jim Thome.

Randy Gilbert.

Tony LaRussa etc.

The Rays offense hasnt done s%*# in this ALCS, if it wasnt for a Ramirez error they get shut out tonight. They have only scored in 3 innings so far.

I dont think the approach to hitting we have is wrong or bad by any means. We did better against this pitching staff. The 21k game is an exception obviously, but we never have to see that if we had any kind of pitching.

3 hours ago, wegner said:

My guess is you weren't a fan of the Szmarzjia special? Give up 5 or 6 early but still go 6 innings or at least that's how I remember him. And I am sure I misspelled his name but I don't care.

Considering what they gave up for him....that made it even worse.

3 hours ago, Texsox said:

This is one of the very few years in WS baseball that they could just stand pat and improve. @southsider2k5 brought up an excellent point about salaries potentially falling with the upcoming labor deal. Perhaps teams may not be spending like they have in the past. Hopefully, that brings some players into the market the Sox always shop at.

Just wondering. Not being snarky.

What's the fallback plan if (when) the owners position on a salary cap/floor is rejected by the union and after a period of time the owners fracture and their position collapses.

Just asking for a friend! 🙂

What are the Sox prepared to do payroll-wise?

Braden Montgomery in his first 100 PA against LHP… i am ready to move on:

184 AVG, 231 OBP, 263 SLG

Oh no wait, thats Elly de la Cruz’ first 100PA..

.202 AVG, .276 OBP, .298 SLG

Sorry that is actually Jose Ramirez’ splits against LHP in his first full season in 2015

.168 AVG, .211 OBP, .308 SLG

Did it again.. Cal Raleigh vs RHP (his vs LHP splits arent much better)

Braden’s 2026 was actually worse than the above, but im in for seeing how he develops with more experience. Id still want Getz to have a backup plan in place with a solid platoon bat vs LHP for if he doesnt however. Maybe thats Bonemer.

2 hours ago, reiks12 said:

The Rays offense hasnt done s%*# in this ALCS, if it wasnt for a Ramirez error they get shut out tonight. They have only scored in 3 innings so far.

I dont think the approach to hitting we have is wrong or bad by any means. We did better against this pitching staff. The 21k game is an exception obviously, but we never have to see that if we had any kind of pitching.

Or the prior 19 K game?

Wasn’t it better to learn that lesson now…or maybe this was the best chance of all to take down the Dodgers with a compromised Ohtani hitting much worse than Mune?

On 10/12/2026 at 6:14 PM, caulfield12 said:

Charlotte throws off all the numbers.

See Gonzalez, Jacob.

Not about a specific average with Bonemer, but the quality of at bats/contact.

Even 24-27 homers likely to be much more impactful than Braden's 2025.

Defense still a work in progress.

Huh? A season long BA IS the definition of "quality at bats/contact". Not all solid contact goes for a hit and not all soft stuff in an out. A season long BA takes that all into account and evens it out.

It's extremely rare that a player who peaks at .261 in AA ever has sustained MLB success.

He has to improve by quite a bit before any callup.

9 minutes ago, Rounding_Third said:

Huh? A season long BA IS the definition of "quality at bats/contact". Not all solid contact goes for a hit and not all soft stuff in an out. A season long BA takes that all into account and evens it out.

It's extremely rare that a player who peaks at .261 in AA ever has sustained MLB success.

He has to improve by quite a bit before any callup.

He's also impressed enough scouts to get a 25-35 milb Top 100 ranking as a lower round pick.

Nobody thought Peters would come close to his milb numbers either, or they wouldn't have dumped him for a nominal fee.

Without pitching you need to load up the lineup with guys who provide the most opportunities to score runs...Braden with the exception of that two run double wasn't much of a threat at all down the stretch.

Plus the White Sox haven't expressed that much concern about Kolson and MuraKami hitting .197 and .212 or whatever it was.

Finally, Sox always push prospects who light up the AFL.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by caulfield12

23 hours ago, joejoesox said:

To be honest, the size of the R&D department won't even be the most important thing in the coming years. It's going to be more and more about how well your R&D department can utilize AI to crunch the numbers, find patterns, and come up with new ways to think about the game more efficiently. A lot of teams were trying to use AI to call pitches from the dugout. MLB outlawed that, but you can see where things are heading. Players all have tendencies and it's much harder for people to see the patterns over a course of a guy's entire career than it is for some AI model to do it.

I'm not sure what teams already have, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see teams with models that can suggest pitch sequences based on a pitcher/batter strengths weaknesses and not just is he good against a cutter, but things like, how well does this guy's swing cover a cutter in this location with this kind of pitch shape? With how much raw and accurate data is out there with Statcast, the possibilities really are endless.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by chw42

7 minutes ago, chw42 said:

To be honest, the size of the R&D department won't even be the most important thing in the coming years. It's going to be more and more about how well your R&D department can utilize AI to crunch the numbers, find patterns, and come up with new ways to think about the game more efficiently. A lot of teams were trying to use AI to call pitches from the dugout. MLB outlawed that, but you can see where things are heading. Players all have tendencies and it's much harder for people to see the patterns over a course of a guy's entire career than it is for some AI model to do it.

I'm not sure what teams already have, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see teams with models that can suggest pitch sequences based on a pitcher/batter strengths weaknesses and not just is he good against a cutter, but things like, how well does this guy's swing cover a cutter in this location with this kind of pitch shape? With how much raw and accurate data is out there with Statcast, the possibilities really are endless.

Which is how you end up with a collective .199 BA and all those whiffs in the four divisional series.

One other aspect that the Sox underutilize is the steal. Sos have some fast players. Couple this with more contact and we could make a nice jump.

48 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

One other aspect that the Sox underutilize is the steal. Sos have some fast players. Couple this with more contact and we could make a nice jump.

But not all have the instincts/techniques for basestealing.

(Baldwin will be another next season, along with Peters Vargas Doyle Acuna Antonacci.)

That used to be Grady Sizemore's job.