White Sox notes from The Bill James Handbook 2023

The only drawback to the White Sox hiring a brand-new manager is that there’s no data about what Pedro Grifol may or may not do.

Even when the White Sox brought Tony La Russa out of retirement, I could look up his managerial record from the last Bill James Handbook he appeared in to try to forecast what tendencies he might bring to the 2020s, because I still keep 10-year-old almanacs on my bookshelf. There’s no such record on Pedro Grifol — at least if you don’t want to make him culpable in any way for Mike Matheny’s track record, and I’d rather absolve him of all association there.

But hey, at least we can go back to that post and see how it fared. The data is not as precise as it could be since Miguel Cairo managed the last 34 games, and those 34 games go on his record since La Russa announced that he wouldn’t return, but with that caveat aside…

Lots of lineups: The White Sox used 153 and 158 lineups over 162 games in La Russa’s two seasons, which was above average, but not enough to lead the league in either year (AJ Hinch used 161 with the Tigers in 2023).

A variety of save lengths and sources: Liam Hendriks’ bout of arm soreness cramped La Russa’s style in his second season, as the White Sox only recorded two long saves after nine in 2021. Six White Sox relievers recorded a save in 2022, but that’s not a remarkable number because every team had at least five guys with a save (the Yankees led the way with 13).

Lots of active relievers: The White Sox actually had enviable stability in their bullpen. They used only 15 relievers over the course of the 2022 season, with only the Astros requiring fewer to get through the season (14). The Cubs led the league with 29 relievers used, and the Rays were one reliever behind them.

Fewer strikeouts: The White Sox finished with a bottom-10 strikeout rate over La Russa’s two seasons after logging the fifth-highest strikeout rate in the abbreviated 2020 season.

Three and a half tendencies carried over, and the one that didn’t was due to Rick Hahn’s (over)investment in the relief corps (and a shallow pool of worthy relievers in Triple-A that reduces the ability to churn for fresh arms). I’ll take it as a small victory, although it’s probably a Pyrrhic one because La Russa was managing in the first place. It’d be cool if Grifol had any kind of similar recent data to mine, but I’ll take consolation in the fact that the Sox actually had a process for him.

Anyway, here are some White Sox fun/”fun” facts that jumped out to me while thumbing through this year’s Bill James Handbook. Here’s a way to pick up your own copy (affiliate link; Sox Machine receives a portion of the proceeds):

Offense

*The White Sox’s top finisher in the ATP-style hitter rankings is Eloy Jiménez at No. 65, now that the 31st-best hitter José Abreu is on the Astros.

*Yoán Moncada lost more hits to the shift than any White Sox with seven, but the Sox only lost one hit to the shift on the whole, with 151 hits lost to 150 gained by thwarting them.

*Sox baserunners tied for 15th in baserunning with 26 bases gained. It’s a little bit overreliant on their stolen-base efficiency, but they finished -2 last year, so you have to take what you can get.

*Andrew Vaughn had the 10th-lowest first-pitch swing percentage among qualifying hitters, which makes it all the more confusing that he drew just 31 walks.

*A.J. Pollock led the American League with a .403 average in close and late situations. No, really.

Pitching

*Dylan Cease surged from No. 35 to No. 7 in the pitcher rankings, while Lucas Giolito slipped from 12th to 49th, and Lance Lynn 16th to 77th.

*Johnny Cueto benefited the most of any White Sox pitcher from the team’s increased shifting, gaining nine extra outs from defensive alignments.

*Cease threw the highest percentage of sliders with 42.9 percent. Shohei Ohtani came closest at 39 percent.

*Reynaldo López had the ninth-lowest OBP allowed among AL relievers at .255.

*Liam Hendriks went 0-for-2 in tough saves in 2022 after going 4-for-4 in 2021.

Defense

*The White Sox were the only team without a positive number in Defensive Runs Saved at any position. They broke even at third base, and everywhere else was in the red.

*The Sox had the most fielding errors (as opposed to throwing errors) in the American League with 59, and they won by 12. The Pirates blew the Sox out of the water with 72 of them.

*Sox catchers combined to lead all of baseball in passed balls with 15.

*Keuchel’s absence was felt when it came to pitching defense, as the Sox finished with the second-worst DRS by pitchers (-12).

*Nobody shifted more from 2021 to 2022 than the White Sox, increasing by 1,070 to finish in the middle of the pack. Just in time for it not to matter.

PERTINENT: The White Sox are shifting more, but to little effect

Miscellaneous

*The La Russa/Cairo combination led all of baseball with 49 pinch-running substitutions.

*The White Sox only had the platoon advantage 47 percent of the time, which was tied for second-worst in the AL. However, the Astros had the worst platoon advantage percentage in the AL, so it comes down more to the quality of hitters.

*The White Sox were tied with the fewest overturned calls in their favor with 12, while 18 calls were overturned against them.

*The reconfiguring of Oriole Park means that Guaranteed Rate Field is now the most generous run-scoring environment in the American League, particularly for left-handed power hitters.

*Gavin Sheets has the fifth-highest injury risk among hitters entering 2023, which is weird since he’s never really missed time at any level. The risk seems to be attributable to playing out of position, and the uncomfortable nature of his diving attempts.

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Joliet Orange Sox

At least for me, logging in with Patreon no longer seems to be a thing.

GrinnellSteve

Ditto.

patrick

Two points stand out…

The White Sox were the only team without a positive number in Defensive Runs Saved at any position. They broke even at third base, and everywhere else was in the red.

and

The reconfiguring of Oriole Park means that Guaranteed Rate Field is now the most generous run-scoring environment in the American League, particularly for left-handed power hitters.

Given these two statements it seems clear to me that the organization hasn’t really planned this whole thing out, and is not considering a team as a sum of parts rather than just plugging players in that seem decent and that they have on hand. 1) You can’t be bad defensively at literally every position on the field and expect to be consistently competitive, especially if your team has trouble scoring runs, which leads me to 2) Why on Earth have they built a team that actively works against the profile that has success at your home park? I just…c’mon.

670WMAQtheElder

The former hitting coach reduced strike outs, somewhat increased walks, and de-emphasized power. This would have been an okay strategy with better players, but the guys we had in 2022 couldn’t keep the line moving to drive in runs.

The FO must plug the holes with LH hitting OFs and a 2B who can catch the ball.

I am surprised that Yankee Stadium isn’t the most generous run scoring environment with a 318 ft. RF, but if James is right we do need LH power. Sheets is not good enough defensively.

patrick

Ball go far, team go far.

LamarHoyt_oncrack

Sheets is not good enough offensively either, not if he is maybe the best left handed hitter on your roster.

kujoth

Yep, I lol’ed at the “particularly for left-handed power hitters” part!

Torpedo Jones

Good thing we’ve made an effort to fill the roster with…a bunch of right-handed hitters. Way to use the home field advantage, Rick!

patrick

Their position player strategy seems to be, let’s find a bunch of players that don’t strike out that much and put the ball in play, but somehow still don’t get on base, and don’t score runs consistently. But at least they also can’t play defense!

JR’s Culture Club

Hey, when your club is “wildly prognosticated to win the division,”
why make any off-season moves to get better?

Never mind two years of being weak vs right handed starters; pay no notice to two seasons of being well under .500 vs playoff caliber competition (15-24 in 2020 & 4-13 vs Astros and Yankees in 2021).

Without a couple of shocking acquisitions in the remainder of this off-season, I’m afraid I have an easier time seeing this club lose 90 than winning 90.

Who are we to question a prognostication?

Joliet Orange Sox

I don’t really trust DRS but I think the fact the Sox were not a good defensive team is indisputable. I do think much of the problem was a small number of players being somewhere between bad and horrific. The two players who I think will be back playing a lot of innings where they played poorly last year are Anderson and Robert and we have to hope they are better.

I want to point out that Moncada at 3b, Harrison at 2b, Abreu at 1b, Pollock in LF, and Seby and McGuire at C all were positive in DRS but other players brought the season number for the position down to zero or negative. Vaughn alone was enough to make LF and 1b negative (although Sheets and Eloy did their bit to make sure things ended up more negative). Grandal wiped out any positive work at catcher (where I think DRS is pretty questionable). Burger erased the good fielding of Moncada and Harrison at 3b. Leury, Romy Gonzalez, and Danny Mendick all did their part to make 2b negative despite Harrison’s positive DRS (btw, Leury was positive at all three OF positions).

The Sox were –35 DRS as a team (good for 27th place in MLB!). That was largely due to Vaughn (–17), Sheets (–9), Anderson (–7), Grandal (–5), and Burger (–5), Robert (–4), Mendick (–3), and Kopech (–3). No one else was worse than –2.

Last edited 1 year ago by Joliet Orange Sox
Foulkelore

This a great post, and I really hope Vaughn’s small sample at 1B isn’t indicative of what he will do there full time. We’re all kind of assuming he’ll be fine there. I’m sure his fielding range is going to be challenged due do his “leisurely pace”, like Konerko’s, but I’m wondering if his height will also be a concern at 1B.

jhomeslice

It truly amazes me that as obvious as their problems against right handed starters have been for three straight years, they have not done one thing to address it in all that time. Abreu was one of their lone decent hitters against righties, and now he is gone too.

This team is set up to be at a major disadvantage in every playoff series they might ever be lucky enough to play in, because the predominance of starters in MLB are right handed, and they can’t hit them well. This team is just built to fail.

Trooper Galactus

They liked their 2015-16 rotation so much they’ve spent all the years since designing a lineup to crush it.

PauliePaulie

Eye test, confirmed.

kujoth

Oh so close…

AJ Hinch used 161 with the Tigers in 2023

ForsterFTOG

Remarkable! Is there anything Bill James doesn’t know?

Willardmarshall

Injury risk!

joewho112

Typo aside, I’m surprised it’s even possible to create 161 different lineups with a roster of ~40-ish guy given position constraints

funkerdan

Even if you used only 9 hitters, you could make 511 different lineups. So they both failed to not see to 162 different ones on the year.

King Joffrey

The MLB site today features the 5 best outfield catches by the Sox in 2022. It’s telling how pedestrian the catches were. What a miserable season 2022 was.

Torpedo Jones

It’d be way more fun to compile a highlight reel of the wackiest plays ‘made’ by Andrew Vaughn skating around the OF.

Amar

I didn’t follow the OPP discussion much, but why not sell high and trade Lopez? Assuming the Sox are not contenders at the deadline, he would have more trade value now than at the trade deadline, no?

calcetinesblancos

The more I think about it and the more the Sox sit on their cheap & lazy asses doing absolutely nothing to improve the team, the more I think that trading Gio/Reylo/Liam/Graveman etc. makes sense. Just punt on 2022 and let’s start lying to ourselves that 2024 might be different like we usually do.

Last edited 1 year ago by calcetinesblancos
knoxfire30

Ive been resigned to this fate for a while as a best course of action, get what you can for Gio, Reylo, Liam, Gravemen, id add Lynn to this mix, hope like hell maybe Grandal or Kelley regain any value and get what you can for them. Start a mini rebuild and retool with better financial allocations starting your roster with Cease, Kopech, Anderson, Eloy, Vaughn, Robert…. I think Moncada is on the fringe of not being worth what is owed, and id assume this year we will get a good look at Colas and Sosa to see if they are apart of the future.

This scenario isnt too much of a doomsday event with a decent front office, of course at this point the front office we have is horrific at their job so we may be in a perpetual state of rebuild/retooling with crappy results.

Bonus Baby

For plan blow up the team, I’d rather them just really blow it up and plan for 4 years from now as the next contention window. Montgomery, Colas and whoever else we have in the minors that ends up being viable (Ramos, Sosa, pitchers, etc.) would be on the team and my hope would be they could just max out the farm by trading everyone with any value for prospects expected to be ready in 2-4 years.

For Cease, Hendriks and Lopez, it’s true that their highest value is probably now. Unless I’m missing someone, everyone else is coming off a down/injured year. As a group, probably better to wait for the trade deadline and hope some/most bring their value back up. More value to trade than they had in 2016.

Also 4 years is more chance that JR and Co. are gone than 2 years.

calcetinesblancos

If they truly did that, I would find another team to root for. I’ve already decided I’m not buying any tickets this year.

Bonus Baby

Not sure why 2024 would be a better bet than 2023 for a decent/competitive team, but OK.

Torpedo Jones

I think this is what a savvy front office would do at this point – do some retooling and accept that you’re unlikely to top the Yankees or Astros in the post-season (and possibly not even beat out Cleveland to win the division once again). I like the idea that others have floated where we package players like Gio and Liam for some MLB ready prospects in teams that have some logjams (Hello Dodgers!).

Let Lopez try closing after moving Liam. If he’s doing well, maybe you can flip him at the deadline (assuming we aren’t doing well enough to make a serious run for next year).

I have immense respect for the way effective small market teams like the Rays and Brewers are willing to move good players while they still have high value and their orgs are intent on contending. If the Sox are too scared to play in the big money FA pool, this would be a smarter approach than just running back basically the same team as last year (minus Abreu, Cueto and Pollock; plus Clevinger and a new coaching staff).

upnorthsox

Dodgers have already signed Syndergard and will soon have a new closer.

Tiddlywinks while the southside burns………..

a-t

I don’t think “unlikely to beat Astros or Yankees in the postseason” holds any water. It’s making the playoffs you have to worry about. “Unlikely” in postseason baseball means like a 35-40% chance to win at worst. It’s just not a sport like basketball where upsets are really unlikely. We keep seeing the Dodgers put up crazy win totals— ostensibly juggernauts— and they have one singular Mickey Mouse title to show for it after a decade of that.

Dominant SPs are the main statistical contributor to teams really doing better than broadly expected in the postseason, and a duo of Cease + whoever of Giolito Lynn, Kopech, and Clevinger remembers they were/are supposed to be really good should suit that criterion just fine.

LamarHoyt_oncrack

Giving this Sox team with the current roster a 35-40 percent chance to beat the Astros in a playoff series is kooky talk.

Augusto Barojas

I agree with mini rebuild, rather than full. They should get what they can for guys who will be gone in the next year or two, but be patient if they don’t get good offers now. Giolito, Lynn, Grandal, and Kelly might have way more value in July than now. TA, Liam, and Graveman (plus possibly Moncada) would obviously have the most value since they are under contract next year. They can see where they are at mid season. If the season is in the tank, it’s obvious things don’t bode that well for next year either so they might as well make those guys available and get the most possible for them. I’d be all for trading Liam now if they worked something out with the Dodgers.

I have a feeling they are going to start out rather badly, just based on schedule. Thru April, 17 out of their first 29 games are vs playoff teams (the two World Series teams plus the Jays and Rays), the other 12 they play the Giants, Orioles, Twins, and Pirates. Would not be hard to see them go like 11-18, and struggle most of the first half trying to get back to .500. Could easily be big sellers at the deadline, which might be for the best.

roke1960

The only way you can blow up this team is to start by getting rid of Hahn and Kenny. Any new rebuild that starts with them in charge is a waste of time.

Augusto Barojas

You almost have to include the ownership with that. They had a good plan initially and had a promising core. Had the ownership allowed Hahn to do what the Phillies did and sign Harper/Springer plus someone like Semien, even with some of Hahn’s mistakes this team would look totally different, with enormously better chances the next couple years. I will still contend that the ownership is more to blame than Hahn, and that any GM including Hahn would have signed a couple good players to multi year deals if he was allowed, to at least give this team a much better shot. Really not that complicated, and other GM’s are not geniuses for signing good free agents – it’s the ownerships that allow them to do so.

If they replaced Hahn and Kenny but kept the same miserly restraints on free agents, I think the result would likely be close to the same. And of course they can do a lot better than Hahn, no question. But he isn’t the biggest problem.

Last edited 1 year ago by Augusto Barojas
roke1960

I would agree 100% with that if they didn’t have a $190M payroll last year that was so poorly constructed. Having 4 1b/DHs on your roster is on the GM. They are all to blame. Jerry is a bad, miserly owner, Kenny is a worthless figurehead, and Hahn is a clueless GM.

Augusto Barojas

The only problem I have with focusing on the 190M budget is that Hahn is completely constrained because he has to allocate it almost a season at a time with 1-2 year deals mostly, which completely prevents him from adding any quality. Kelly, Graveman, Harrison, Velazquez was almost 25M. That’s Springer or Harper’s salary, and more than Schwarber. Kelly was a 2 year and Harrison/VV both 1 year deals.

I do get your point about the poorly constructed roster and 1b/DH types, but Hahn basically couldn’t sign any good outfielders to address that even if he wanted to. Because good players don’t sign 1 year deals. About the best he could have done was Joc Pederson, who was a 1.3 WAR player and would have been useful, but his WAR was like 0 the year prior. So it’s not like he’s a high upside/high probability player like this team actually needs. Hahn is forced to operate like a complete nitwit because of his cheap ass boss. No GM could do great things even with a 190M payroll if they can only sign players to 1-2 year deals. Quality players are what win championships, and they can’t add any quality this way at all.

Last edited 1 year ago by Augusto Barojas
roke1960

They did pay Grandal 4/$73M, Hendriks 4/$54M, Keuchel 3/$55M. I would think they could have signed someone like Starling Marte or even Schwarber who were both just slightly more than Grandal’s contract. Either of those guys would have really helped last year.

upnorthsox

Castellanos 4/$64M and he wanted to stay in Chicago. They were and continue to be out there.

Trooper Galactus

I’d feel more sympathetic had there not been guys like Rodon and Correa who didn’t sign long-term deals and were much better investments.

a-t

Why do it right now, though? Imo they should play out the first half of ‘23 with decent prob not great guys in 2B/LF, mostly hoping for contendingness via the core bouncing back to at least ‘21 levels. If it’s working decent, stay the course, bc meandering into the playoffs every year you can is always good. If it’s not, the half year of control you lose on those four pitchers is made up by deadline pressure esp for relievers. And at that point, they can really blow it up— not just those guys but also potentially Lynn, Grandal, Clevinger, Kelly, Bummer, and Diekman, as well as the currently purely hypothetical 2B and LF. If they’re really going nuts, TA and Moncada too.

Then you roll into 2nd half 2023 and 2024 with Eloy, Robert, Vaughn, Zavala, TA/Yoan if still here, Cease, Kopech, Crochet as the established major leaguers but still young dudes, and then Montgomery, Colàs, Ramos, Sosa, Rodriguez, Burke, and Martin as ready/close to it prospects, plus whatever advanced prospects you get from trading all those vets. I’m not expecting all the guys I named to be actual contributors, but then team suddenly has a base payroll of not more than ~$90M assuming both TA and Moncada stay. You have a mix of established okay to excellent still young players, a bunch of young guns to let loose, and (in THEORY anyways) a bunch of money to blow on, say, Devers, Machado, Ohtani, and a pretty strong pitching market in both SPs and RPs.

FishSox

I was really enjoying my day and this thread until the word, Diekman.

Bonus Baby

Completely agree that this is why “compete in 2023” has got to be Plan A.

But I still don’t see how 2024 makes much sense as the next hopeful year if 2023 does not go well. Aren’t there still so many holes (on top of an existing $90M budget), that might need filled with FA’s?

With the suggested departures, the team would need to add in something like 3 position players, 3 starting pitchers, and almost an entire bullpen. A little of that can probably be filled by trade returns, but beyond Hendriks, I’m not sure how valuable the proposed trade capital is.

If they shoot for 2025-26 instead, then at the trade deadline this year they’d probably want to also trade TA, Robert, Eloy, and Cease. And that would likely give them a pretty huge return in prospects.

a-t

It’s less clearly “hopeful” than it is “there is a clear direction”. Assuming keeping one and trading one of TA and Yoan— let’s say in that order— then there’s ~$70M payroll. 1B Vaughn, Eloy DH, and Anderson SS should be take care of those spots between adequately to very well. That leaves: Montgomery, Ramos, Sosa, Rodriguez, Mendick, Romy, Leury (ugh) and whoever’s bumming around Charlotte to fight it out for 2B, 3B, and utility INF. Burger could feature in the mix too— backup 1B/DH & PH, and can occasionally stick him at 3B vs LHP for a lefty-crushing all-offense look.

OF: Robert CF. Colás is probably at least a strong side platoon guy in RF. Cespedes seems unlikely to hit enough to be an everyday guy, but since he can now defend center well, a role as 4th OF backup CF + PAs vs LHP in the corners seems not unreasonable for him. LF is a giant question mark, preferably they take a big hack for a star here. Maybe just hand Devers a blank check and an outfielder’s glove since he’s a butcher at 3B anyways and not gonna get better. Or aim lower for Ian Happ. Preferably both, realistically the latter.

Rotation: Cease, Kopech, ideally one of Burke/Martin if they seem to be a no. 4/5 starter. So 2, maybe 3 SP from a pretty deep SP FA class including: Giolito, Flaherty, Ohtani, Gray, Mahle, Marquez, Darvish, Montas, (Jordan) Montgomery, Nola, Severino, Snell, Urias, plus Scherzer, Stroman, and E-Rod if they opt out of their deals.

Bullpen: there’s Crochet as a decent start. just throw money around in FA. let Katz do some wizardry, or stick the various prospects like Vera etc in the bullpen, or just don’t trade all the bullpen. Not that tricky.

Bonus Baby

The biggest problems I have with it are the SP’s, the possibility of messing Montgomery up by trying to have him play 2B or 3B in 2024, and the loss of value for Cease, Robert, and Eloy — simply by losing a year or year and a half vs. trading them this trade deadline.

For SP’s, I would be really worried that JR is just not ready to allocate the kind of funds necessary. Chris Bassitt just got $63M over 3 years, he’ll be 34 next year, and he’s only projected for 2.3 fWAR by Steamer. If that remains the going rate next year, do we expect they’ll bite the bullet and sign 2-3 contracts like that, or more like they try to have Katz Macgyver a good rotation out of reclamation projects and question marks. If the latter, and they already didn’t do well as a team in 2023, I figure it’s unlikely they compete in 2024.

Losing value on the top value players is pretty self-explanatory. How much the difference would be, I guess I don’t know.

And unless Montgomery both looks like he’s ready and like he’s not good enough defensively to be a SS, then I would want him spending an extra year in the minors and wait for 2025.

Certainly not sure 2025 or 26 would be better, but it seems like a better bet to me.

a-t

2025 for Montgomery? Nah. He ripped through A/A+ this year and got a deserved taste of AA; I expect that at the very least he’ll end ‘23 at Charlotte. That translates to ready for a taste of the bigs mid ‘24, if not earlier. And I’m not at all concerned about “messing him up” by having him play 2B/3B: if you can play SS, you can play those well too, assuming avg arm strength.

As for spending… well, if there’s no spending on most of the roster, Jerry has to spend on SOMEthing

Bonus Baby

Well, 2025 is at least the year they have for him in MLB top prospects — and the thing that I expect would take the longest is trying to get his defense up to SS standards.

And yes, JR will spend on something. It’s more a question of whether he just says “yeah, I’m willing to pay market rate for players that everyone considers at least average or better,” or more something like, “I think we can pick diamonds in the rough by signing players to fewer years/less money and then having them revert to earlier form.”

Anyway, I definitely hope they just go ahead and do well in 2023, and punt on the rebuild.

Augusto Barojas

Kopech and Cease won’t be free agents until after the 2025 season. Eloy and Vaughn 2026, and Robert 2027. They can and should keep all of them for now.

It’s only the guys gone in the near term, after 2023, and 2024, that they should look to deal if they are not doing well by mid season. That’s a long list, and a ton of payroll space. If Liam brings a 2b that is ready to play on opening day like Lux, I’m all for trading him now.

As much as I would want them to keep Cease, it is interestng to consider that his trade value might never be higher than it is now. He could certainly regress, and never have another season quite that great. If they could get the Dodgers top 3 or 4 prospects, all in the top 40 including a power hitting plus defensive catcher in the top 10, then it might be worth considering. I could see a huge trade with the Dodgers at some point if the Sox were inclined to go full fire sale. Liam and Cease for the Dodgers top 4 prospects and Lux, something like that. I could get on board with that if the return was really high. Maybe that’s hoping for too much in return but you would think Cease would have enormous trade value and would bring something close to that if packaged with Liam.

Then with the 110M or whatever set to come off the books after 2024, things could be looking really good if they have several really high level prospects ready for MLB to go with Robert, Eloy, Vaughn plus Colas, Montgomery, Kopech. Then do it the right way and sign two of the best damn FA’s available!

Anyway that’s my one post to contribute to your rebuild discussion, I can’t keep up with you beyond that!

Last edited 1 year ago by Augusto Barojas
a-t

I think he probably needs more than just one really good season as a RP to be selling high, even if he is still cheap

metasox

After that one more season, Lopez will be a free agent and can determine his own worth

knoxfire30

What’s our record Miguel? -Tony

81and 81- Miguel

81 and …..Eight Tee Onnnneee – How’d we ever win 81?-Tony

Its a miracle- Miguel

ITS A MIARACLE- Tony

Foulkelore

“This is a simple game. You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball.”

After checking the White Sox performance in The Bill James Handbook … this is not a simple game.

HallofFrank

I hear Katz used to sell Kenmores to old people. Nasty work.

Foulkelore

Sears sucks, HallofFrank.

Matt

Read the mailbag and then this, gotta say Sox Machine provides great insight to things I’ve wanted to know about the team but don’t know where to even start looking. Appreciate the coverage despite the current mood surrounding this franchise.

FishSox

*Yoán Moncada lost more hits to the shift than any White Sox with seven, but the Sox only lost one hit to the shift on the whole, with 151 hits lost to 150 gained by thwarting them.

So, what Sox player led in beating the shift? Sheets?

upnorthsox

I’m shocked Yoan could beat Yas but maybe its because Yas couldn’t even hit it to the shift last year.
I would want to say Jose but did they even put a shift on for him?

shaggy65

Sheets would be my guess as well. Teams always played him as the dead pull hitter he looked like instead of the spray hitter he was.

Trooper Galactus

Yeah, he was actually really good at hitting it the opposite way when the situation called for it.

steelydan52

Adam Frazier to the Orioles. Unless there’s a trade it looks like Hahn is ok going into spring training with whatever he can muster from the current roster.
I know Frazier isn’t much of an upgrade but for 1 year $8 Million he would be worth the risk. In my humble opinion, of course.

Augusto Barojas

Frazier screams mediocrity, to me. Of course Fraizer projects to be better than Sosa, but I’d rather see what Sosa does for free than pay 8M to watch a guy coming off a sub-1 WAR season who can’t hit homers. Segura is the only guy with enough upside to be worth signing, my opinion. Otherwise let Sosa have a shot, his quick ascent in the minors and his power makes him interesting.

Trooper Galactus

Well, it’s either Segura or Brandon Drury, and I’d sure as hell have taken Frazier over the latter.

Foulkelore

The Yankees got Rodon for $162 million over 6 years.

Foulkelore

So, that’s $522 million for Judge and Rodon. The Sox just aren’t playing in the same universe as the contenders right now.

dwjm3

The problem we have is middle market teams like Seattle, Rangers, and SD now give out 9 figure deals. We could survive with the Yankees and and maybe one or two other teams giving out big contracts, but we can’t survive with this new dynamic where spending is coming from all over. Even the Cardinals are giving out larger contracts than us.

Last edited 1 year ago by dwjm3
Trooper Galactus

White Sox are chumps when it comes to committing serious money. They’re down with the Royals and Tigers while even the Twins and especially the Tigers dwarf them in their own division.

https://www.mlb.com/news/every-team-s-largest-contracts

jhomeslice

The Sox have never been playing in the same universe as contenders. Three years of doing nothing is long enough to render themselves basically irrelevant.

Last edited 1 year ago by jhomeslice
shaggy65

Thank goodness we didn’t risk the QO to that guy last winter or–God forbid–sign him to an extension. Might have really disrupted our great roster plans for ’22 and beyond. Hahn remains a great evaluator of talent both external and internal.

jhomeslice

The Padres were finalists, they offered 18 years, $450 million.

(stealing from very funny post on mlbtr)