With opening day a few days out, the White Sox find themselves in a position similar to 2017 — still a bit away from contention conversations and focused on a long term rebuild. By wins and losses, 2018 is shaping up to be a dismal campaign. The prognosticators have the Sox pegged around 70 wins (PECOTA has […]
Tag: Rick Hahn
Miracle on 35th Street: The White Sox Christmas Wishlist
Somewhere on 35th and Shields, Jerry Reinsdorf is reading his great-grandchildren stories of Paul Konerko grand slams, Scott Podsednik walk-off homers, and the greatest postseason run by a starting rotation in MLB history over a cup of hot cocoa. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic. The Winter Meetings are over and the rumors are swirling, which […]
Notes from Saberseminar 2017 featuring Rick Hahn
The 2017 installment of Saberseminar, the excellent annual baseball research conference, took place last weekend in Boston on behalf of the Angioma Alliance. (Disclosure: Baseball Prospectus is a keynote sponsor of the event, and co-organizer Dan Brooks is an author for BP.) Like most years, the talks and panels were a mix of front office […]
South Side Morning 5: Some pitchers are good, some pitchers are bad
1. Carlos Rodon struggled out of the gate when he returned from the injury that snatched half a season from him. Recently, however, he’s performed at a level much closer to the lofty expectations laid out before him. On Friday he went 7 2/3 innings without walking a single batter. He also allowed just two runs while […]
South Side Morning 5: More to say about Luis Robert
1. Since news broke Saturday that the White Sox have agreed to terms with Cuban star Luis Robert there’s been plenty of excitement about both his skill set and what that type of signing means for the White Sox future and their commitment to the future. The one piece that threw a bit of cold water on the […]
South Side Morning 5: Tim Anderson is struggling, but it’s not panic time yet
1. Tim Anderson’s struggles have gotten to the point of being well documented, if not worrisome. He’s now accumulated about one quarter of the plate appearances he had during his rookie season, and has acknowledged the fact that he’s not performing up to his standards. “This year has been one of the toughest times of […]
Revisiting the Infamous Catcher Decision
In their efforts to piece things together and stay competitive in the 2016 season, the White Sox made a big change at the catcher position. Tyler Flowers had been the starting catcher since the departure of A.J. Pierzynski, but the team opted to replace him with a platoon of veteran catchers in Dioner Navarro and Alex […]
Yoan Moncada’s alarm clock has not gone off yet
One of the unique aspects of this White Sox rebuild, as we’ve reiterated on a number of occasions, is that most of the prospects acquired during the winter were considered close to ready to contribute at the major league level. In fact, Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, and Reynaldo Lopez all saw time in the majors […]
Worrying about rotation depth
One of the problems the 2017 White Sox won’t share with their predecessors is a crippling lack of position player depth. Not because they have more depth than in the past, but because gaps on the position player side aren’t really a problem if you don’t care about winning games — if you lose a couple […]
Rick Hahn answers some questions
The White Sox made general manager Rick Hahn available via a conference call Thursday afternoon. Here are some snippets of answers he gave to various questions, as well as my thoughts on his answers: On if the White Sox are willing to go beyond budget caps in international free agency: “Certainly we are only talking theoretically, […]