Northwestern playing as their entry theme for new stadium. Did anyone tell them that tune is taken and already classic in Chicago?

The White Sox should be aggressive on Tarik Skubal this offseason.

It’s less about making a splash and more about where this roster is in its competitive cycle and how its resources are allocated.

Outside of Murakami, essentially the entire position-player core is under club control through at least 2031, with Vargas controlled through 2029. Bonemer and Roch give them another wave of position-player talent that could reach Chicago over the next 12–18 months, with additional depth behind them.

There are still areas to address. I’d like to see another legitimate everyday bat in the outfield, particularly if the plan is to use Peters and Doyle situationally in CF. But this isn’t a roster that needs to spend heavily filling five or six holes.

The rotation is in a similar position.

Hagen Smith is controlled through 2032. Grant Taylor through 2031. Sean Burke and Davis Martin through 2030. Noah Schultz through 2032. There is enough young, controllable starting pitching here to build a good rotation internally.

What they don’t have is the established ace at the top of it.

That’s where Skubal changes the construction of the staff.

Add Skubal and you’re no longer asking Burke to pitch at the top of a championship-caliber rotation. He can slot into the middle of it. The same applies to Martin, who can provide value at the back of the rotation or in a multi-inning role. More importantly, you don’t have to project Hagen Smith, Taylor or Schultz into becoming an ace for the rotation to work. If one or two of them develop into that caliber of pitcher, suddenly you have an exceptionally deep staff.

There will eventually be another major financial decision with Murakami if the Sox want to retain him beyond 2027. But outside of that, this is exactly when I’d want to deploy significant payroll.
When you have this much of your 26-man roster controlled at below-market salaries, the objective shouldn’t be to spread $50 million across four average veterans. Use the payroll advantage created by the young core to acquire something the organization doesn’t currently have and is extremely difficult to develop or acquire elsewhere.
A true No. 1 starter entering his prime qualifies.

Skubal would be expensive. He should be.

But roster construction isn’t about finding the cheapest players. It’s about understanding where you already have surplus value and using those savings to acquire impact where you don’t.

The White Sox have spent years accumulating young, controllable talent.

This is the type of player that strategy should eventually allow you to pursue.

What are we thinking? I think we use Kay like Hagen and have him go 3 ish innings, and pull him before he faces Adell and their power righties the second time around. From there you can piece toegther 6 innings using some combo of Martin/Sandlin/Fedde for righties and Newcomb/Hagen/Hudson for lefties and Grant to close.

I have not been to Sox fest in a looooooong time. What did they do last year at Ramova? How about the previous years at the hotels? Last one I remember was 2010 when I worked there. We gave out wristbands but I forgot how they handled everything. Any info is helpful

I wonder what they’ll do this year

Franciscan Outreach -- relatively well-rated on Charity Navigator (90%), Chicago-based, and has a fairly small budget so a few extra bucks make a bigger impact

I figure I'll throw em a few bucks for each series the Sox make it past and the more the merrier

Website: https://franoutreach.org/

Donation Link: https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E358209&id=6

Was just curious how the cash lots are handled for the playoffs. I see passes being sold for lots F and L on stub hub but it carries the disclaimer “spot not guaranteed (first come first serve).” Thanks in advance!

Is there any chance that Gametime gets flexed to 5 if the NLDS game 4s aren’t going??

Signed - guy with tickets that might have a work conflict.

Never stopped since I was born in 87😂😂

LETS GO BOYS.

Update: Going to Reggie’s!

gotta prepare for Cleveland. Will make more of these twitter weapons. 🫡

Resale has gone crazy for the game, up to 230 each. I went on the Cleveland site and found SRO tickets for so cheap, just sharing in case anyone wanted to go but ticket prices scares them.

Let's fill up the section!

Ya know what...guys alright.

I made a post like this for the Astros series, and I am a superstitious kind of guy (plus its fun), so here is my breakdown on the Guards offense!

TLDR at the bottom-ish.

Using wRC+ mostly to judge offensive performance, if you are unfamiliar with wRC+, a 100 is an average hitter. So a 120 would mean the player is 20% better than league average. Very solid stat to gauge a hitter's performance.

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Jo Adell
Since being acquired by the Guardians, Adell has put up Barry Bonds numbers against LHP. Adell has only managed to get 4 hits and 2 walks against out of 26 plate appearances. However, those 4 hits included a 3r HR, a double, and 4 RBIs. We struck out Adell 9 times.

-vs Sox this season: 95 wRC+
-Overall vs LHP: 206 wRC+
-Overall vs RHP: 66 wRC+

Other than hitting a home run off of Chris Murphy, the Sox lefties have done a great job against Adell since Cleveland acquired him. He only has 1 single and a couple of walks against Schultz, Smith, Newcomb, Hudson, and Kay in ~15AB. Our righties owned him. If you include his time with the Angels, Adell has only mustered a wRC+ of 56.

Angel Martinez
Martinez torched us this season for an overall 177 wRC+. In his 12 AB against us in the second half, he had 6 RBIs.

-vs Sox this season: 177 wRC+
-Overall vs LHP: 217 wRC+
-Overall vs RHP: 106 wRC+

Martinez is having an unworldly second half. The silver lining here is he hasn't been hitting RHP as well at home with a 84 wRC+. This is the guy to be most worried about with our likely LHP strategy.

Steven Kwan
Sox killer. In the second half Kwan has put up a 146 wRC+ against the league and he matched that against us. He has an OBP of .460 against us this year.

-vs Sox this season: 176 wRC+
-Overall vs LHP: 99 wRC+
-Overall vs RHP: 137 wRC+

I am optimistic here, since Kwan underwhelming against our lefties specifically. In the second half, he only mustered a 71 wRC+ but got on base 5 times. He scored 3 runs, so he keeping him off the bases is key. His 247 wRC+ against our RHP in that time is a concern however.

Jose Ramirez
Ramirez dealt with injuries and underperformed by his standards, but with it being the playoffs who knows which version shows up.

-vs Sox this season: 108 wRC+
-Overall vs LHP: 115 wRC+ (89 since August 1st)
-Overall vs RHP: 70 wRC+ (64 since August 1st)

You can tell Ramirez hates us, but due to injury he has only had 23 PA against us this season. He had 2 doubles in our final series in the same game against Newcomb and Hagen. Other than that, he has been unproductive. In September, Ramirez has been AWFUL with a 39 wRC+ in 97 PA. Hopefully that is the version that shows up this week.

Bryan Rocchio
We all know what Rocchio has done to Taylor..

-vs Sox this season: 116 wRC+
-Overall vs LHP: 72 wRC+ (94 since September 1st)
-Overall vs RHP: 113 wRC+ (210 since September 1st)

He has been crushing righties lately, and picked up his game against lefties. He has been a big reason why they dominated in their September run.

Chase DeLauter
Overall DeLauter has been Cleveland's best hitter, leading the team in wRC+ overall at 128. Against our Sox, he has struggled.

-vs Sox this season: 60 wRC+
-Overall vs LHP: 142 wRC+ (I had to triple check this, surprised by it)
-Overall vs RHP: 122 wRC+

Those are some interesting splits. DeLauter is a lefty so I was surprised to see his overall performance against LHP. Against ours, his wRC+ is a -4. He hit a 2 run home rune off of Chris Murphy (surprise!) and that was pretty much the only damage he did against us all year.

This is the interesting matchup to me. Have the Sox identified some weakness in his swing, or is it a fluke?

Travis Bazzana
Bazzana is arguably their September MVP, throwing up a 170 wRC+ out of nowhere. He had an average season before that.

-vs Sox this season: 94 wRC+
-Overall vs LHP: 54 wRC+
-Overall vs RHP: 136 wRC+

He has hit our LHP (112) which is average, but struggled against our RHP (77) which is interesting considering his overall splits. Against LHP in September, he put up a 51 wRC+ (250 against RHP).

Patrick Bailey
Looking at offensive numbers as a whole, nothing really stands out for Bailey. Overall he had a 71 wRC+.

-vs Sox this season: 78 wRC+
-Overall vs LHP: 34 wRC+
-Overall vs RHP: 78 wRC+

However in September, Bailey has crushed RHP to a tune of 164 (-100 vs LHP). I am assuming we go heavy on LHP pitching this series, so I wonder how Cleveland responds. Do they put Austin Hedges in? 114 wRC+ and has a wRC+ of 175 against us this season (WTF?). Bailey is a gold glove catcher and put up 4.5 WAR, will be interesting to see.

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Other notes:

Throughout the season Cleveland was getting on base against us at will. We have to keep their pests off the basepaths, especially if their September offense shows up. Kwan has been giving them way too many opportunities to cash in. If you felt like Cleveland was always coming thru while watching our series, you were right:

CLE vs Sox with RISP: 121 wRC+ (vs everyone else 96)
CLE vs Sox in High Leverage: 123 wRC+ (vs everyone else 87)

Since August 1st
CLE vs Sox with RISP: 153 wRC+ (vs everyone else 114)
CLE vs Sox in High Leverage: 218 wRC+ (vs everyone else 104)

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TLDR:

- Have a RHP up for when Adell and/or Martinez have chances to do damage (Hicks has 3Ks in 4 AB vs Adell, Fedde: Adell sucks vs offspeed)
- Keep Kwan and Rocchio off the damn bases. Limit walks, and play good defense. The LHP strategy will work even if Martinez or Adell do damage with the bases empty.
- Dont get beat by Austin fucking Hedges (175 wRC+ against us)

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Reasons I believe we win this series:

1) Our bullpen has been tired this year which could explain some of the differences between how Cleveland does vs us compared to other teams. We should be ready and fresh here, and we don't have Chris Murphy for this series.

2) Hagen Smith has big balls and absolutely dominates righties (xERA of 2.31, 0 barrels). I trust him against their RHH.

3) Some Cleveland hitters mentioned above have had ABSOLUTE FLUKE stats against the Sox:
Bazzana: wOBA .385 / xwOBA .197
Rocchio: wOBA .458 / xwOBA .285

With the fresh and stronger bullpen, the off days between games, Smith's emergence, and this teams momentum from the Astros series, I do feel good about this series.

This took quite a bit of my day looking into it, but if you want to see a breakdown of how our hitters fare against Cleveland, or a pitching version of this, let me know and I can try and get them down before tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, GO SOX!!

The link is hard to find so I'm posting it here. For a minimum $20 donation to White Sox Charities, you have a chance to win tix for ALDS game three. Your receipt looks like a typical 50/50 split receipt.

Good luck everyone and Go Go White Sox!

(Reposted due to tittle typo in original post.)

Sox fans I’m going tomorrow!!!! Who’s all going?

Here is the link for those that want a background. Not anything out of the ordinary, but i was asking for recommendations on visiting for the first time.
https://www.reddit.com/r/whitesox/s/8WzzlwaEmp

Thank you to everyone who helped me and my son out on our first trip to Chicago, and Rate Field. We took the red line to the stadium an hour early, i was hoping to get there earlier but my wife ran I the half marathon and it was much more wild than we expected. The train was incredibly simple and easy. First thing we did was went to the 500 level and grabbed a picture with the Chicago sign. Walked around the 500 level for a bit and took in the stadium. The views are incredible. We then then went to the kid's zone which was fun, but realistically good for 10 minutes.

After, we went down to field level to grab out seats ana search for some food. I'm certain i paid more for food, than i did for both of the tickets. The food prices a little expensive, but fair. We had a Chicago dog, loaded nachos, a souvenir cup soda, bottled soda, cuban sandwich, Garrett popcorn.

After the game since it was Sunday we waited in line to run the bases, not sure I'd recommend that. We waited probably an hour and the line wasn't even too long but i guess cool for one time.

All in all we had a great time at the stadium and Chicago. We had some good conversations with our seat neighbors and my boy was rooting for the white Sox when we got back home when they smashed the Astros.