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Showing posts from July, 2019

The White Sox Hone In On Their New Avisail

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Avisail Garcia spent six seasons with the White Sox. They were mostly sub-par seasons, but they were marred by injury, and they always seemed a bit worse because the expectations were high for him. He just had so many tools, and damn it, once he put them together, and things clicked, he was going to be great. I mean, how often did Hawk tell you that Avi was the true five-tool player? Except it never really clicked. Avi had one great season with the White Sox, hitting .330/.380/.506 in 136 games in 2017, with an OPS+ of 138. It was the only time he finished the season with an OPS+ above 100 aside from the 2014 season. That year it was 105, but the catch was he only played in 46 games. After another injury-laden 2018 season that saw his numbers dip below league average, Garcia was let go over the winter, and it felt like a relief to finally be rid of the experiment. Now Avi is in Tampa having a league average season, and the White Sox, well, it looks like they're missing Avi

It's Time To Bring Adam Engel Back

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It's time to bring Adam Engel back. I'm sorry to startle you with that right at the top, but I've always believed in ripping the band-aid right off. Sure, it's gonna hurt a little as you rip the hair from your body, but it's going to hurt whether you go quickly or not, so you might as well get it over with. But it's time, and Tuesday night's game should have driven that point home. While we were all focusing on Eloy's injury and Dylan Cease's pitching, I was thinking about Adam Engel. As I watched Charlie Tilson run into Eloy (and after the game Tilson said he may have called for the ball too late), and then later take a horrible angle on a ball hit to center that soared over his head, I thought of Adam Engel. As I watched Ryan Cordell dive for a ball he had no chance of catching for like the fifth time this season, I thought of Adam Engel. You know things are going incredibly poorly when we reach this point, but this White Sox team needs Ad

Jose Abreu Does Not Care About Leverage

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Jose Abreu needs help. It becomes more apparent with every passing day that he has no idea of the concept of leverage, nor how to use it. Abreu will be a free agent this winter. He's going to turn 33 in January, and has already seen his skills begin to diminish. Yes, he's hit 21 home runs and driven in 66 during the first half of the season, but he also has an OBP of .316. In fact, since the beginning of the 2018 season, Abreu's OBP is at .322. During his first four seasons in a White Sox uniform, his OBP was .359. He also plays a position that has become baseball's version of the running back in football. It's a position that was long held to be one of the most valuable positions on the field. Now it's become a position for those with no other choice. Can't play left? Put him at first. Can't play third? Put him at first. Can't play first? Well, I hope you hit well enough to DH. These are all reasons why Abreu's market this winter coul

Fuck It, Let's Write About A.J. Reed

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Who would have thought that the first post I wrote on this blog in nearly a year, and only the second in almost two years would be about A.J. Reed? It certainly wasn't me, and I'm surprised by it even as I type these words. I suppose the best way to explain what's happening here is that it's the All-Star break, I've got my work finished up elsewhere, and I'm just fucking bored. So, yeah, A.J. Reed. The Sox plucked him off waivers from the Astros on Monday as James and I were recording the latest episode of White Sox Business , and I wish I could say it came as a surprise. It didn't. The moment I saw the Astros had designated Reed my first thought was "that seems like the kind of guy the White Sox would take a shot on." I mean, we saw Yonder Alonso all season long. We then saw Daniel Palka. And we've certainly seen the team take an approach where it seems to be willing to do anything in its power to make sure Zack Collins isn't get