Spare Parts: Dallas Keuchel’s beard survived
When the White Sox signed Dallas Keuchel, I didn’t think he’d have to shave his beard, but with a Jerry Reinsdorf team, it’s hard to be sure.
Sure enough, he’s taken the mound for the White Sox wearing more facial hair than I can remember hovering above the black pinstripes. Bob Nightengale says the Keuchel and Reinsdorf reached a sort of compromise. Keuchel has shaped it somewhat, and Reinsdorf has backed off.
When White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf met last week with his team, telling his players he was available for anything they needed, he told Keuchel afterwards that he wanted to see him.
“I thought, ‘Oh, crap, I’ve got to trim this even more,’ ’’ said Keuchel, who has had a beard since 2014. “He was like, ‘Hey, man, you’re officially violating team policy. But I hear you’re a great guy. So let’s just keep winning, and we’ll be all right.’
If Keuchel’s beard doesn’t look robust, it’s only by his standards.
And if the White Sox get off to a poor start, I’d cite Adam LaRoche’s career and point out that Reinsdorf should’ve played the Mr. Burns to LaRoche’s Don Mattingly.
Spare Parts
For the second straight year, Keith Law said the White Sox have the 13th best farm system. It’s a less controversial opinion this time around, although leaving Nick Madrigal off his top 110 prospects list still gives it a little bit of spice.
Law continues to be an outlier when it comes to Madrigal, as Kiley McDaniel, on his own at ESPN, gives the Sox their usual four in the top 50. Madrigal brings up the rear at No. 47, after Luis Robert (5), Michael Kopech (16) and Andrew Vaughn (32).
Speaking of Vaughn, here’s a double.
And speaking of Robert, friend of the podcast Dan Szymborski lays out Robert’s spectrum of ZiPS outcomes and illustrates how a great season from him can really swing the White Sox’s win projections. What’s more, he also expounds on the idea that Robert could be a great center field defender, instead of merely a good one.
With Robert’s 50th percentile ZiPS projection and merely above-average defense, he says the Sox have a 22.6 percent chance of reaching the postseason. If Robert somehow immediately capitalizes on all his rookie-year potential, he almost doubles it by himself (44.1 percent).
- Chris Sale’s Tommy John scare the perfect moment for Red Sox to punt on 2020 — Boston Globe
- Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton won’t be ready by Opening Day — USA Today
Back when the Yankees added Gerrit Cole to a 103-win team and the Red Sox still had Mookie Betts, it appeared that the White Sox’s best chance for the postseason went through the AL Central instead of the wild card.
Now? The Yankees won’t have two-thirds of their outfield by the start of the season, and two of their top non-Cole starters are out for longer. The Red Sox lost Betts and David Price in the salary dump, and now it appears Chris Sale is on the verge of succumbing to Tommy John surgery. Superteams might be harder to find in 2020.
Sale looked smart in signing his extension from the moment the ink dried, even at a sum that failed to challenge records. The events of the past year have only reinforced that notion.
- Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers nearing record extension — MLB.com
- Rosenthal: Brewers, Christian Yelich close in on massive contract extension — The Athletic
Speaking of extensions a player would be smart to sign — so many segues! — the Brewers are getting a three-year head start on locking in their best player into his late 30s. Milwaukee has Yelich for two years and a club option, during which he is owed $41.5 million. This new deal would rework the original commitment and result in a nine-year deal worth somewhere around $215 million, with some money deferred.
It’s a situation the White Sox might encounter in the next decade, and it’s something that has to be carefully considered.
That said, the Brewers extended Ryan Braun through his age-36 season under similar circumstances back in 2011. It expires after this season, and the Brewers can say they survived it.
And if this post didn’t cover enough ground, here’s Jeff Passan going in so many other different directions. Competitive integrity is going to be a big part of league efforts, and that also expands to foreign substances pitchers use. It’s been a major gray area, because advocates say it makes the game safer, but Trevor Bauer showed it can make a big difference in spin rate.
Author
Fun with small sample size (positive version):
Collins and Vaughn have three times as many walks as strikeouts. Nicky 3BB : 2SO. Eloy 2 : 2. If Robert had a 2 strikeouts for every walk like he does now, then he’d probably have a great season.
Programming Note: Dan Syzmborski will be this week’s guest on the Podcast.
That was a fun article, especially the conclusion. Aside from the excitement over the specific case of Luis Robert, it’s a good one for considering the challenges of projection systems. Robert’s short minor league career and injuries shape the ways ZIPS projects his defense, and I like how Dan discussed this issue.
I am glad Keuchel can keep his facial hair and hope this is the crack in the dam to end Reinsdorf’s weird fetish on grooming.
It’s a bad beard, but I fear what lies beneath.
See Kevin Youkilis with the Yankees.
Or Jason Giambi with the Yankees.
A beardless Keuchel looks kinda like David Robertson to me.
When will it get to the point where you have to announce Dan is NOT gonna be on the podcast this week?
The regular appearances by Dan Szymborski and Jim Callis on the podcast are a couple of the reasons why a Patreon subscription to Sox Machine is worth every penny.
I was a little surprised with the ZiPS projection percentiles for Robert that Dan posted in the article. His range of outcomes, while still large, was not as large as I expected.
I would have expected his 90% outcome to be higher, more like 35 HR, 145 OPS+, and 5 WAR. But I would have also expected his 10% outcome to be lower, more like .235 BA, .275 OBP, and 0.5 (or lower) WAR.
Vaughn is so much fun to watch at the plate. You can just tell how frustrated pitchers must get throwing to him. I know it’s a long shot given the service time nonsense but I’d love to see him up late in the year if he’s mashing and the Sox are in contention.