312player preaching the gospel and short, concise statements. This says it all.

Ryan Pace has drafted:
Kevin White - Fail
Leonard Floyd - Undersized, injury pront. Fail to date
Mitch-a-palooza - TBD
Roquan Smith - TBD....bears as an org get a fail to date for not signing him appropriately.

The NFL draft differs greatly from MLB. You cannot fail on 1st round picks in the NFL...you just cannot. If you do, you're a shitty GM.

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He may be amped up and have two walks in the first inning.

6IP + one batter, 9K, 2 ER, 3 BB

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I'm selfishly hoping the game gets rained out tonight so he gets pushed back to tomorrow when I'll be at the game.

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6ip 2er 10Ks 2BB's and a W


That was Mark Prior's first start.

Quality start would be nice. I'm expecting a couple of years of growing pains, but if he hits the ground running maybe a Verlander type career given the similarity of their stuff?

I forgot how good Verlander was so early in his career:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... ju01.shtml

Oh if he could only be the great Mark Prior.

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Elections have consequences.

He'll almost certainly never have a season as great as Prior's 2003.

But I was just making the comparison of a top prospect strikeout guy making his first start, Michael.

I got it. I was simply reminiscing about the projections from the way Prior started.

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Elections have consequences.

Probably not.

He'll almost certainly have a better career.

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Decent chance. We'll check in after he makes 100 starts and see if he's got that .592 W-L% you put so much stock in.

I'm guessing he won't top Prior's career winning percentage, ERA, or WHIP, but he also probably won't die after pitching one full season so it's a wash.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Win % he has an outside chance with. Depends how good the Sox really are in 2020-2023.

ERA and WHIP probably not, but Prior had basically an automatic out at least 2 maybe 3 times every start with the pitcher batting.

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If he can avoid taking a line drive off his pitching elbow, he should make more starts.

Will he match Prior's 2 Playoff Wins?

If he doesn't at least double that, than the Sox rebuild might be a huge failure.

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Eh...what's the average start in the playoffs now? 4 1/3?

He could pitch well in route to a World Series and not get a Win along the way.

I think if the Sox are going to win another title and make the playoffs MANY times, they are going to need the Kopechs, Dunnings, Rodons, Giolitos, etc to pitch deep into the postseason games. Not saying they have to go 8 or 9 innings, but if they leave the bullpen to cover 12-15 outs more often than not, its gonna be tough to win.

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Yea, we'll see. The bullpenning thing seems to be picking up steam. It'll be interesting to see how the playoffs work out this year in that regard.

Umm, what? What do the White Sox have to do with a pitcher's win loss record?

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

If he doesn't drill someone in the back with a 105 mph heater they should send him down immediately.

Thats just my thoughts on it. Even if you have the best pen in the world, you probably aren't pulling a Verlander or Scherzer in the 5th inning when they are really dealing. A couple of these Sox arms are going to have be like those guys.

I think you can do it for a game or two, but its going to backfire more often than not if you decide to 'bullpen' an entire playoff series.

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I would take the over on that every day for the next ten years.

I would not be surprised if he had Prior's exact career.

Can you imagine what it must be like to wake up this morning and know that tonight you are standing on a major league mound facing major league hitters for the first time?

Hard to fathom. Hope the kid tears it up

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Does Rick Hahn's job rest on the shoulder of Kopech? Should it?

I think it does and it should. If Kopech flops Hahn should be fired. Problem lie in the timetable. Have to give the kid time to develop. Probably 2 years max. If this thing doesn't start turning around by next season Hahn has to be launched.

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It rests on Kopech and Jiminez.

If they're bums, he's done.

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But it IS turning around. They were 30 -60. Now they're 47-77. They are 3-1/2 behind the Tigers. They were 9 back.

Just my cursory knowledge of the Sox top 30 at mlbpipeline indicates they are pretty well covered with some great looking bullpen arms ready for the show in '19-20.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Phil Rogers
More
Weird look for @whitesox in Michael Kopech debut. Jose Abreu out of lineup, Ricky Renteria possibly not in dugout. He’ll be caught by Omar Narvaez, not Triple-A batterymate Kevan Smith.

I will be drinking Cub fan tears with my german beer at an Oktoberfest in late September when Rodon and Kopech shut down the cubbies with the division on the line.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.