Friday, June 26, 2020
State of the White Sox
The Chicago White Sox have had a troubled history dating back to the 1919 "Black Sox" betting scandal. They are currently in the upward trajectory of a brutal teardown/rebuild phase with brighter days on the field ahead.
Ownership:
Jerry Reinsdorf has been the principle owner for over 35 years. He made his stash after leveraging his experience as a CPA for the IRS into a real estate tax shelter business conglomerate. His main business holdings are now his sports team empire including the Chicago Bulls and White Sox. He is generally considered to be a hardliner in labor negotiations with the MLBPA and is the architect of the CBT and revenue sharing schemes which has pros and cons but has been mostly successful in achieving goals of improved competitive balance. He has generally been willing to spend money on his teams when they have a chance to be competitive.
Grade B+.
Management:
Baseball roster decisions are made by Senior VP/GM Rick Hahn since 2013. He unsuccessfully tried to build a winner in his first 3 seasons and made one huge mistake trading Fernando Tatis Jr. to the Padres for RHP James Shields. He went into full teardown mode after the 2016 season which is now starting to pay dividends in a much more competitive team with some of the top young talent in all of MLB.
Rick Renteria has been the field manager since 2017 and seems to to a competent job of leading the team.
Grade B.
Current Roster:
Starting Nine: Yasmani Grandal C, Jose Abreu 1B, Nick Madrigal 2B, Yoan Moncada 3B, Tim Anderson SS, Eloy Jimenez LF, Luis Robert CF, Nomar Mazara RF, Edwin Encarnacion DH.
Bench: James McCann C, Danny Mendick IF, Adam Engel OF, Leury Garcia IF/OF.
Starting Rotation: Lucas Giolito RHP, Dallas Keuchal LHP, Gio Gonzalez LHP, Dylan Cease RHP, Reynaldo Lopez RHP.
Bullpen: Alex Colome RHP(Closer), Aaron Bummer LHP, Steve Cishek RHP, Kelvin Herrera RHP, Jace Fry LHP, Evan Marshall RHP, Jimmy Cordero RHP, Carson Fulmer RHP.
That's a potential championship lineup but the pitching is very thin and not competitive with most other contending rotations.
Grade C+.
Farm System:
The farm system has an excellent top four in Robert, Andrew Vaughn, Madrigal and flamethrower Michael Kopech who is coming off TJ surgery. It tails off sharply after that. The White Sox did address a relative lack of organizational pitching by drafting LHP Garrett Crochet and RHP Jared Kelley in the 2020 draft.
Grade B.
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So this is basically what the Giants will look like in 3 years? Strong offense and iffy pitching. I guess I'm trying to convince myself that after 5 years of this rebuild, it will have been worth it.
ReplyDeleteHow hard is it to rebuild a team? After 2 years should our expectations be anything more than just be patient? If in 3 years we are going to be looking at what the White Sox have now, is that enough to say it was worth it to suck for 5 years to get here?
I'm trying to stay positive but I just don't see what is so special about what Farhan is doing with this team. We are blindly trusting his skills at scouting and developing while he basically does what all these other small market teams are doing, lose for 5 years and stock the farm.
If someone could explain how what Farhan is doing differs from all these other teams tanking every year (Marlins, Pirates, Royals, Orioles, Blue Jays, Rangers, White Sox, Tigers, and probably a few more) I would really appreciate it. The only difference I see is that we have the money to buy a competitive team and ownership clearly doesn't want to spend.
Those are tough questions. I guess I'll try to present the optimistic viewpoint in three parts here, while recognizing there are plenty of reasons for pessimism.
DeleteThere are very few, if any perfectly constructed teams out there. Almost every WS winner has to have a lot of things go right. Take the Nationals last year. They had a nice core but would almost certainly have not won had they not gotten terrific seasons out of multiple veteran role players who performed above expectations. The Giants had had their core too, but had an incredible run of good fortune with acquisitions like Andres Torres, Aubrey Huff, Gregor Blanco,Ryan Vogelsong, multiple bullpen pieces and midseason acquisitions. The first step is getting a core together that gives you to opportunity of adding those complementary pieces you hope will all click together into a magical run. The flip side of that is you can have an overwhelmingly talented roster like the Dodgers of recent years, come up short for crazy reasons and never quite get there.
That starting nine gives the White Sox an incredible window of opportunity. They are not going to need great pitching to be competitive. Maybe Carlos Rodon finally comes back to what they thought they had when they drafted him. Maybe Michael Kopech stays healthy and becomes an ace. Maybe some of the lower ranked prospects turn out better than expected. Maybe Garrett Crochet stays healthy and is an ace within a year or two. Maybe Jared Kelley is a fast moving HS pitching draft pick.
I don't think the Giants are as far off as they seem to a lot of people. Bobby Evans left the farm system in a lot better shape than he's generally given credit for. The veteran contracts are not quite the albatrosses that many have made them out to be. Farhan has done a nice job of adding to the farm system. The system is not totally bereft of pitching. Farhan added some potentially very nice midseason trade pieces like Kevin Gausman and Drew Smyly from which he can add pitching depth to the system.
It's really tough to predict another run of championships in the future. So much has to go right. I do see the Giants organizational talent as on the rise and the opportunity for an extended run of competitiveness is there. While the jury is still out on the effectiveness of the new development regime, I see a lot of really good ideas that deserve a trial. It will be fun to watch for the results.
Thank you for the explanation! Rebuilds are hard and filled with doubts. If the talent evaluation and development is what we hope then we should have a similarly built offense like the Sox. Like you mention, this will give the Giants at least a 5 year window with hopefully a primed pipeline of minor league talent that doesn't run dry!
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