15 minutes ago, WBWSF said:

The White Sox will be Coming, Trs La, Tra La!!!!

They were initially STROKIN’ but unfortunately they never got to finish.

5 hours ago, fathom said:

The irony of the Pham situation is everyone in the media loved it when he yelled at Schriffen, but they act like he’s the worst person ever if he gets mad at anyone else.

I’m good with that

26 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

They were initially STROKIN’ but unfortunately they never got to finish.

6 hours ago, fathom said:

The irony of the Pham situation is everyone in the media loved it when he yelled at Schriffen, but they act like he’s the worst person ever if he gets mad at anyone else.

Dude punched a teammate over fantasy football. He's more than grouchy or unlikeable.

8 hours ago, WestEddy said:

The numbered list is the article. The paragraphs with the dash (-) are my own thoughts.

1) who is sox core - (Vargas, Droth, Taylor, Burke, Ant)
- Vargas is the star, Droth, Peters, Ant, Burke and maybe Teel are the established "core" of this bunch. Grant Taylor, Hagen. While Teel took an effort to return from injuries, he OPSed .808 in September. Mune, Colson and Braden require some heavy work to be considered solid pieces going forward. Bonemer and Brooks Baldwin give Getz breathing room to make a decision on whether Braden is MLB-ready again at the end of ST, or he still needs a month in AAA to consolidate any advancements he pursues this off-season. William Bergolla, Nick McLain and maybe Samuel Zavala have outside shots at bench roles.
2) 27 rotation - (burke, taylor, Hagen, FA)
- That's where it starts. They've also assembled a group of 4's and 5's. (Martin, Schultz, Sandlin, Schweitzer, Shane Smith, McDougal, Thorpe, a returning Mike Vasil, Ky Bush, and let us not forget Luis Castillo).
3) strikeouts - fix Mune, trade Colson, Droth to SS, Ant to 2B
- Teel also requires a productive off-season to get his bat going consistently. Even though he OPSed .808 in September, he sported a 33% K-rate. I've seen Luis Arraez thrown out there as a profile who could compliment the K-heavy lineup. His defense is still solid enough where he's probably not old enough to commit to a DH-only role.
4) Shoman and hitting adjustments - cites K rates in postseason
- The Sox were 1/2 (AL only) in many offensive categories, and top 5 overall. They led the AL in Runs scored. They did something right, even though the current trend of 3 true outcomes isn't quite as aesthetically pleasing. They also led the AL in walks. That's ambitious for a team starting 7 players who haven't logged a full year of MLB games, and then Vargas, who's the veteran of the bunch, coming into the season with 2.5 seasons of games under his belt. They're young. The Sox got a lot out of this bunch, for all the griping about RISP, bunting and platoons.
5) Pham is evil
- I never understand focusing on one player who is the 26th, 27th man, as if he's indicative of why this team stopped astonishing. It's an incredibly young team. Veteran presence matters. The Sox entered the year with the goal of not losing 90 games. Getz flippantly floated improving another 19 games from 2025. The exposure came from the team achieving too much too soon. So a team built to audition a bunch of options had to cobble together some experience while not sacrificing the future. Pham wasn't the reason the Sox set all sorts of strikeout records. He's not the reason the Guards put up 9 runs in 2 drop-dead games in a row.
6) Venable needs growth - cites analytics, sticking with Teel, bullpen games
- Analytics are what drive the game today. Sam Antonacci is a good example. He had huge platoon splits for most of the season, so they subbed in a RHH against some lefties. As he gained experience, they left him in more. At the end of the season, his slash line against left-handed starters was .318/.398/.430. As far as sticking with the regulars as they stumbled in the final three games, who else was Venable going to play? He got a young team thorough playoff experience. One can only hope these guys watched the Guardians pile on the Rays yesterday and get pissed at how close they were.

Sullivan's take is that the team is still rebuilding, has a lot of question marks - beyond a few "tweaks".

I honestly thought Droth was a star wars character for a second.

Meidroth is a defensive downgrade over Colson at Short in my opinion.