2019 White Sox Review Survey
It is time to provide final 2019 season grades for Chicago White Sox players, managers, and front office executives. Please complete the form below to submit your grades, and the results will be shared on future Sox Machine Podcast episodes.
Podcast schedule:
- October 7: Infielders Review
- October 14: Outfielders Review
- October 21: Pitchers Review
- October 28: Management Review
Whew boy. That was a lot of Fs.
I gave out a good number of As, and a lot of Bs to guys I would’ve definitely expected to get a C at best (Leury, McCann), and some that I didn’t expect to have to grade at all (Cordero)
But man, that’s a lot of Fs. It’s one thing to have a lot of Bs on your roster, but when 60% are Ds and Fs, it’s very hard to be a winning team.
The last 2 questions made me lol
I’m confident the payroll will be around 100M next year. But I’m not confident the front office will spend it wisely because of their pre-rebuild track record.
I guess there is a little interpretation with how it was worded. Increasing 100mil from 2019 would be 177 million OR increasing for what is already on the books for 2020 would be 115 million.
I’m not counting on either to happen and agree with you on how wisely that money will be spent
Must….get….clean….
I wish you would’ve asked us if we think we can win the world series with Renteria.
I gave only 3 As (Yoan, Giolito and Bummer). Not too many Fs, but a whole bunch of Ds. Probably more than 50% were Ds and Fs.
I only gave two As….maybe I was harsh with Bummer and gave him a B. He was after all one of the most dominant relievers in the majors.
Same with me. Just Yoyo and Giolito.
You gave Bummer a B?
What would he have to do for an A, solve cancer?
I was harsh (I said that). He deserved an A
I gave Colome an A. I don’t think that necessarily projects for next year, but he was really good until the very end this year.
How could you not give Tim Anderson an A? I gave an A to everyone that exceeded projection, which included Cordero in my book.
Defense matters for a middle infielder. Yolmer led the league in defense at his position and Timmy… did not.
I gave him a B because awesome as Tim Anderson is, when compared with other SS, he looks more average than what we might think.
TA deserves an A. Of course he still has flaws, and the defense needs to be improved. But he beat his steamer and ZIPS projections by about 1.5 fWAR, and outperformed his 2018 season by the same amount despite playing 30 less games.
This is a position where being “average” is really more than just being average. This position, probably more than any other, is ridiculously talented right now—and he’s still above average (12th in fWAR).
If you would have told me that he (3.5) would have finished above Corey Seager (3.4) in fWAR, tied with Trea Turner (3.5), and barely below Gleyber Torres (3.6), I would have definitely said that’s an “A” season for him given his expectations coming into the year.
BABIP, Walk Rate, Defense
BABIP is not his fault, He’ll never walk a lot. That’s like complaining about a Duck not being like a Dog.
The D can improve. Has to improve.
My B was for a need to improve his Defense.
If the BABIP normalizes and he has a 2.9% walk rate, but plays slightly above avg. D next season, you’ll give him an “A”?
I agree with you for the most part about the Babip. But let’s also realize that there were some insane/historic babips by some lower launch angle players this year.
The ball may have something to do with it but Yoan, TA, and Tatis all finished with north of 400 Babips. Unless they change the ball back, we may not know what true talent level some of these guys can carry forward (albeit probably not what we saw this season)
I don’t think his defense was that bad. He was -0.1 dWAR on Bref and -3.2 defensive runs on Fangraphs. Over a 162 game season, that pretty negligible.
That -3.2 is dead last for SS, by a long way. He was 31st in UZR and 30th in DRS.
It’s still 3 runs over a long season.
It doesn’t mean 3 actual runs.
It does mean 3 theoretical runs compared to an average player. It means runs as much as WAR means wins.
https://library.fangraphs.com/defense/drs/
Fangraphs Def WAR is not DRS.
You said 3 runs, then cite DRS. His DRS was -10. Which, again, is bad.
Baseball Prospectus’ FRAA (Fielding Runs Above Average) actually gives Anderson a +1.7 FRAA for this year (He was an elite +9.1 FRAA) last year, so there is some validity to the argument that his range is both getting him low-percentage wonder outs and also errors from all the highlight-reel plays he’s constantly trying to put up.
I gave Nova an A. Did exactly what we traded him to do. Stayed healthy and pitched every 5th day, while throwing nearly 200 adequate innings. I gave YoYo, Timmy, Giolito, McCann, Bummer and Cordero an A.
I dinged him because he didn’t bring anything back at the trade deadline.
Never mind his first half absolutely blew.
Are you using the fact that he blew in the 1st half as a defense?
I think he means how can you give him an A when he was horrible for half of the season.
If he played the French Horn and “blew” in the first half of ” Theme for a common man”, I would give him an A if I was moved.
Your comment made me realized I assessed players based on performance rather than in what was expected from them. My results would have changed if so.
I have never given out so many Fs in my life…
Rodon should really get an incomplete. This exercise however is a good way of showing how you can have the Al batting title, the Al RBI leader, One is the best starters in the league, and a young stud in Moncada and still finish 17 games under .500.
When you’ve had three incompletes in a row, I think it’s safe to say that you’re failing.
I gave Ricky a B (for Bunting). Lucky for him it doesn’t start with a “C”.
The shocker for me was what I graded Anderson. He surprised me with his offense, but he also surprised me with the defense – I’d expected the exact opposite for both.
I didn’t give any F’s until I got past the first page. Right now the Sox are where they were in the Ventura era – a few great players and a whole lot of below average players. The player’s I gave C’s to I’d hang onto, but there were a lot more D/F players than B/C players. Which is the story of this front office for 12 seasons. I’m confident they know that, but I’m not confident they know how to fix.
We know there’s a gaping hole in RF, but I’m afraid they’ll sign a brick-gloved FA instead of considering moving Yoan to right – I’m not down on Yoan by any stretch but Rendon would be an improvement and we can’t afford two terrible defensive corner outfielders.
D = Designated
F = Forassignment
You let Jerry off the hook a bit at 100, that over under should of been about 125 which is what it would likely take to actually contend not just buy a lotto ticket.
Whole lotta ugh sounds during this exercise. Gonna be a long offseason.
Giving out a few A grades was fun!
“Jon Jay….has no grade point average. All courses incomplete.”
“Mr. Herrera………zero…point…zero…”
Had to stop myself when I realized the front office grade specifically said “Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams”. I.E., not including Jerry Reinsdorf…and considering I put the Machado Miss directly on Jerry (he took over negotiations, after all), I had to rethink. Ended up giving them a D.