"Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 - Page 4

jksander · 04-03-2025, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CBLCardinals

Wow surprised to see Arnold fall to 10 overall.

If you don’t mind can you post the first 9 selections?

I'll do you one better -- here's the whole first round

And apparently I glitched and was trying to take him 10th but it went with my f---ing scout recommendation ... so he dropped even lower. Will correct above. Jesus H. Crap lol if that shortstop doesn't plan out my scout's ass is fired. Arnold went to Boston, with the 15th pick ...

I'd be more pissed about it, but after I shut down for the night we had a tornado go through near downtown Indianapolis, and dodged any damage ourselves. So I'll take it lol ... my fat fingers in an offline draft hardly compare.

jksander · 04-03-2025, 10:46 AM

July 11, 2025: Noah Schultz (4-0, 1.54 ERA, 35.0 IP, 32 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) has done better than anyone could have dreamed as a rookie, and tonight against Cleveland, he battled Gavin Williams (7-8, 3.80 ERA, 97.0 IP, 100 K’s, 1.36 WHIP) as we hoped to gain further ground in the divisional race. We got going quickly, Brooks Baldwin hitting a leadoff homer, in his very first at-bat of the season, and Gallo hit one two batters later on two outs. Michael A. Taylor then hit an RBI single to add on a run, and we held a solid 3-0 lead heading into the second inning. Cleveland got on the board in the top of the second with an RBI single from Daniel Schneemann, but Miguel Vargas hit a solo homer in the bottom of the third to get it back, and in the bottom of the fifth we added on with a double by Teel that batted home Miguel Vargas from second. Craig Kimbrel took over for Schultz with two outs and men on first and second in the top of the sixth, getting us out of the inning with the 5-1 lead still secure, but we collapsed completely in the seventh -- easily the worst I’ve seen all year -- Brandon Eisert had come out to pitch with an out and two on due to walks, and he let Tyler Freeman hit an RBI single to get them going, and then Jose Ramirez hit a grand slam to shoot them into the lead by a run. Kyle Manzardo hit a solo homer off Penn Murfee a few minutes later, and Gabriel Arias had an RBI double, giving the Guardians an 8-5 lead heading into the stretch ... unbelievable! We, completely demoralized, stumbled through the rest of the game and lost by the same margin. Schultz had a great start, 5.2 innings with five hits, two walks, seven strikeouts and one earned run, but the bullpen as a whole completely failed him, and they outhit us 10-9. Brooks Baldwin, in his first game up from AAA Charlotte this season, hit twice and had his homer, and Teel added two hits and an RBI.

July 12, 2025: Sean Burke (5-7, 4.34 ERA, 87.0 IP, 84 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) pitched against Slade Cecconi (3-7, 4.28 ERA, 88.1 IP, 80 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) in game three of the series, and the Guardians broke a 2-2 tie in the third inning with five runs we had absolutely no answer for. This one didn’t offer much excitement as we quietly went down 7-2. They outhit us 13-8, our bats led by Gallo with two hits and an RBI, and Burke took the loss, not even getting out of the fourth inning -- five hits, six walks and six runs against him with five strikeouts, dropping him to 5-8 with a 4.78 ERA. One game left until the All Star break, and we can definitely use a rest.

Brock Sell, our third rounder, has agreed to his $850,000 bonus offer and will join our Arizona Complex League team. The 18-year-old is a long term prospect for sure, but profiles as a solid defensive player at multiple positions, and should eventually hit for solid contact and walk often due to his patience at the plate.

July 13, 2025: The All Star rosters have been announced, and second baseman Otto Lopez will be our team’s lone participant. Lopez has hit .327/.368/.435 with two homers, 10 stolen bases, 125 wRC+ and 2.2 total wins above replacement. Colson Montgomery will play in the All Star Futures game, at first base as the #57 prospect in the country ... but he’s only hit .200 this season at AA Birmingham. Hagen Smith might have made that game had he not sprained his ankle last week ... he won’t return to the Birmingham roster at AA until at least August, and his season to this point has been a disappointment from a development standpoint.

Tonight we played our final game of the four-game series against Cleveland, and after two rough losses we’d love to get a win here to at least split the series and give ourselves a dignified finish to the first half of the season. Ryan Weber (3-6, 4.23 ERA, 89.1 IP, 57 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) pitched against Hunter Gaddis (3-6, 4.98 ERA, 90.1 IP, 77 K’s, 1.42 WHIP). Cleveland scored first with an RBI single by Jose Ramirez in the top of the first, but Teel scored in the bottom of the second when Austin Slater reached on an E7 error, and in the bottom of the fifth we took the lead when Michael A. Taylor hit a solo homer, his ninth, to put us up 2-1. Teel hit an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to add a little insurance, and though Eduard Bazardo let Tyler Freeman hit an RBI single to get the Guardians back within one, we held our ground and escaped with a 3-2 win, splitting the series and sending us into the break with a 41-56 record. Weber improved to 4-6 with a 4.10 ERA thanks to five innings with five hits, five K’s and a run scored, and Bazardo got his fourth save of the year ... he now has a 2.87 ERA through 37.2 total innings. They outhit us 10-5, which makes the win even sweeter, Teel leading the way for us with two hits, a run and an RBI.

jksander · 04-03-2025, 12:27 PM

July 14, 2025: The American League Future Stars beat out the NL’s team in an 8-2 blowout, outhitting their prospects 13-7! Colson Montgomery was the designated hitter and had two hits, a walk, a run and three RBIs, earning the MVP award for the game! That’s definitely a feather in his cap, and hopefully his strong performance will spark him to compete in the back half of the season for AA Birmingham, as the Barons are currently in third place in a tight race in the Southern League’s North Division, just one game behind the Knoxville Smokies and Chattanooga Lookouts who are 43-36. The Barons led the first half at 39-30, so they’re hoping rally and win the back half as well.

Our seventh round pick, Marcelo Harsch, has agreed to his $950,000 bonus offer, and the 18-year-old may be ready to move up to the Carolina League to play for A-level Kannapolis next season ... but for now we’re going to put him on our Arizona Complex League team. He needs to sigificantly improve his two secondary pitches, but his stuff profiles as potentially well above average despite control issues that could plague him long term. He’ll definitely be a player we watch.

I don’t tend to put a ton of time into studying guys in our International Complex, but our scout did discover a player I’ll be keeping an eye on. Ed Garcia, 16, is a Panamanian discovery, and he profiles as a potentially brilliant defensive infielder. It’s obviously too early to get excited about a random player find, but if he is as good as I think he’ll be defensively, I’m damned glad we got him on a minor league contract and didn’t have to pay out big money as an IAFA. From what I’ve seen he’s already quite a confident young player, something he’ll need to maintain during the long development process.

HOME RUN DERBY

FIRST ROUND
Anthony Santander (TOR) vs. Taylor Ward (LAA): Santander struggled early, but picked up steam in the final minute, getting three homers in the final sixty seconds to finish with seven (would have been eight, but his final one didn’t get in under the buzzer). But Ward didn’t fare much better, stuck at four well into the third minute of competition. But he got two in thirty seconds, tied Sandander with :42 left on the clock, and ten seconds later he hit his final one to win it 8-7.

Shohei Ohtani (LAD) vs. Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD): Shohei hit eight dingers in this round, three of them coming in the final eighty seconds, but Tatis Jr. was on fire ... he tied it up with 1:16 to go, and with 44 seconds remaining he hit his ninth to win the round 9-8.

Jesus Sanchez (MIA) vs. Mookie Betts (LAD): Sanchez hit three in a row in the first thirty seconds, and he had ten by the halfway point, by far the best performance of this derby! He cooled down the stretch, but still finished with 14 homers, setting a very high bar for Betts. But after a slow start, Betts heated up ... at one point he’d hit three in a row, missed one and then hit four more, and in the final thirty seconds he hit back to back slams to tie it at 14-14 at the buzzer, and n a judges decision, Betts was declared the winner as the higher seed.

Corey Seager (TEX) vs. Brent Rooker (ATH): Seager fought hard and got himself a dozen homers in his four minutes of action, setting Brent Rooker up for another tough go ... would he be the first higher seed to lose this one? In this case, the answer was yes. Rooker had a terrible showing, only managing to hit five in his four minutes, becoming visibly frustrated down the stretch as commentators questioned what had gone wrong with the mechanics of his swing. Seager advanced with a strong 12-5 win.

SECOND ROUND
Taylor Ward (TOR) vs. Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD): This was not a great round by any means ... Ward barely managed to hit six during his time, setting up Tatis Jr. for what was expected to be a quick win. He too struggled with a lot of longball fouls, but he tied it with 1:22 to go and got the win with a little more than a minute left on the clock, beating Ward 7-6.

Mookie Betts (LAD) vs. Corey Seager (TEX): Betts came out strong, hitting 10 out of the park in his four minutes on the clock, and though Seager tried (getting five homers quickly in the first two minutes), he struggled down the stretch with weak contact and Betts advanced by winning this round 10-8. That sets up a final round between him and Tatis Jr, with both players having hit well in the first two rounds!

HR DERBY CHAMPIONSHIP
Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD) vs. Mookie Betts (LAD): Fernando Tatis Jr. gave the fans what they wanted in his half of the round, putting up 11 homers including one that squeaked through at the buzzer, ensuring Betts would have to put some work in if he wanted to win this challenge. And it looked like Tatis Jr. would win it, leading 11-8 with just 45 seconds left, but Betts locked in and hit four in the next 39 seconds to win it with six seconds to spare, beating Tatis Jr. 12-11! Incredible finish, and the fans loved every second of it!

July 15, 2025: Cody Frietas, our fourth rounder, accepted his $650,000 signing bonus and has been sent to our Arizona Complex League team. The All Star game played out in the AL’s favor as our American League All Stars stumped the NL’s stars 6-4, in a game with each team knocking in eight hits. Otto Lopez came in as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the fifth and stayed in at center field, and he wound up walking twice (fifth inning and seventh inning) though he was unable to join in the scoring fun.

We’ve got a couple days off to rest up, and then we’ll begin the back half of the season with a pair of road series against Pittsburgh (41-56, 5th NL Central) and Tampa Bay (46-51, 3rd AL East). We’ll then finish out our month with three against the Cubs (48-48, 3rd NL Central) and three against the Phillies (46-50, 3rd NL East) at home in Chicago. None of those teams have winning records, so it would be great to see our team come out kicking to finish July on a strong note.

jksander · 04-06-2025, 12:05 PM

OOC: Been battling migraines for the last couple days, but finally got back into this today. Hoping not to have the back half of the season drag on too long, since the offseason's going to be where I can really start putting my stamp on this team.

July 18, 2025: Yu Darvish (8-5, 3.63 ERA, 106.2 IP, 101 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) started our first game against the Pirates’ Mitch Keller (7-7, 4.54 ERA, 101.0 IP, 84 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). Unfortunately Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the second and we spent the rest of the game chasing them. We scored our only run in the top of the third, a Chase Meidroth sac-fly coupled with an E8 error let Michael A. Taylor tag up and score from third. But the Pirates added on in the fifth and sixth and were able to hold us off with relative ease to win 4-1. Darvish took the loss, despite six innings with six hits, a walk, eight strikeouts, all four runs applying to him, and we were outhit 7-4. Taylor wound up with our only run, and Otto Lopez hit twice but got nowhere.

July 19, 2025: Noah Schultz (4-0, 1.55 ERA, 40.2 IP, 39 K’s, 0.84 WHIP) pitched against Jared Jones (5-6, 3.25 ERA, 83.0 IP, 75 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) in our second game in Pittsburgh, and in the top of the fourth we took the lead with a Meidroth RBI double after three innings of excellent work from our rookie hurler. Meidroth would score thanks to a single by Tauchman, giving us a 2-0 lead midway through the inning. In the top of the fifth Austin Slater hit an RBI double and Michael A. Taylor added a two-run homer to expand our cushion, and Schultzie got us into the eighth unblemished! Shane Smith took over in the bottom of the inning with the five-run lead, and he shut them down efficiently as we locked in with a 5-0 shutout win! Schultz pitched seven innings with two hits, a walk and eight strikeouts as he improved to 5-0 with a 1.32 ERA, and Smith added two innings with a hit, a walk and three strikeouts as his ERA improve to 4.32. We outhit them 10-3, led by Meidroth who had two hits, two walks, a run and an RBI.

JoJo Parker, our first rounder, agreed to his signing bonus of $6,890,000 and he’ll take his spot on our Arizona Complex League rookie team. We’re still waiting on Ryan Reich (44th pick) and Bruin Agbayani (137th pick). Agbayani is destined for rookie league, but Reich, who is playing in the MLBDL right now, has the potential to rise quickly to AA Birmingham.

July 20, 2025: Sean Burke (5-8, 4.78 ERA, 90.1 IP, 89 K’s, 1.37 WHIP) pitched against Braxton Ashcraft (4-5, 4.05 ERA, 86.2 IP, 76 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) in our final game of the Pittsburgh series, and though poor infield defense nearly screwed us in the bottom of the second, Burke managed to keep us in the game early. Joey Gallo scored off a groundout by Kyle Teel in the top of the fourth to put us up 1-0, and Burke struck out the side in the bottom of the inning and got two more K’s in the fifth to give us a chance to build on it. But our bats stayed silent, and Julian Merryweather took over in the sixth, and he promptly blew the save by letting Andrew McCutchen drive in the tying run with a line-drive single. Eisert took over from there, a wild pitch allowing the go-ahead, but in the top of the seventh Teel hit a line drive single into right to tie it up again and an RBI double for Taylor put us back on top 3-2 heading into the stretch. We added on in the eighth when Gallo scored on a wild pitch to make it a 4-2 ballgame. Bazardo took the ball in the ninth, and he got three quick outs to secure the 4-2 win as we took the series two games to one. Burke lasted five innings with two hits, a walk and seven strikeouts, but he’s been cold lately so I understand why Guillen replaced him in the sixth. Merryweather got one out and the blown save but Eisert held tough for 2.2 innings and didn’t allow a hit or a walk, notching a strikeout as he improved to 1-3 with a 4.13 ERA. Bazardo got his fifth save, and we outhit Pittsburgh 6-4, led by Teel who had a hit, a walk, a run and two RBIs. Miguel Vargas also had two hits, scoring once.

We’ll head to Tampa next, and hope to be able to build on this series win.

jksander · 04-13-2025, 09:00 PM

July 21, 2025: Ryan Weber (4-6, 4.10 ERA, 94.1 IP, 62 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) pitched in game one against the Rays, facing Ryan Pepiot (8-4, 3.09 ERA, 116.1 IP, 118 K’s, 1.10 WHIP). And he did well until, two outs in the third, Yandy Diaz hits a ground ball into left to drive in a run for Tampa. But our bats woke up in the fourth, or at least Teel’s did ... he hit a three-run blast out of right to shoot us into the lead, which gave Weber the confidence he needed to lock in. Tauchman started the fifth with an RBI single, and Gallo scored off a sac-fly by Slater to extend the lead to 5-1, and Weber got two outs in the sixth before being replaced with no one on base by Jonathan Cannon. We tacked on three more in the top of the seventh, and we shut them down easily to win 8-1! Weber got the win, improving to 5-6 with a 3.96 ERA thanks to 5.2 innings with four hits, a walk, a strikeout and a run ... not flashy, but he got it done! Cannon went 1.2 innings with a hit and a walk, and Brandon Eisert pitched 1.2 innings with no baserunners, striking out two as we outhit the Rays 9-5. Kyle Teel was 3-3 with a walk, two runs and four RBIs, easily earning Player of the Game honors.

July 22, 2025: Martin Perez (5-5, 1 SV, 5.12 ERA, 63.1 IP, 41 K’s, 1.52 WHIP) pitched against Shane McClanahan (5-6, 4.53 ERA, 107.1 IP, 120 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) in game two against Tampa, and again they struck first, an RBI triple by Jonny DeLuca putting them up 1-0 with two outs in the bottom of the second. But we tied it in the top of the third with an RBI double by Meidroth, and Starling Marte singled in the go-ahead, Meidroth scoring from third to put us up 2-1. With one out in the bottom of the fifth Kameron Misner hit a solo homer out of left, his sixth of the year, to tie it up, but Perez got the outs we needed to avoid giving them a lead, and Penn Murfee came out to pitch in the sixth. Yandy Diaz hit a towering homer over the center field wall with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but Gallo had one in his back pocket that he unleashed in the seventh to send us into the stretch tied 3-3. Merryweather came out with one out and a man on second to get us out of a tight spot in the bottom of the seventh, doing the job on just five pitches! He got through the eighth with just 11 more thrown, keeping us in this one and showing why I traded for him. We weren’t able to get anyone across in the ninth, so Ozzie Guillen kept Merryweather on the mound in the bottom of the inning -- a questionable decision in retrospect, as with just one out and men on first and second he then brought out Noah Syndergaard, who suddenly had to face a high pressure situation that could have been avoided. He got one out by pop-fly to center, but was not lucky the second time around -- Ben Rortveldt came out and slugged a three-run homer over the wall in right to walk it off, in a game we could have won. Merryweather took the loss, pitching two innings with a hit, a walk, a strikeout and two earned runs, and we were outhit 8-7, Gallo leading the way with a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI and his 14th homer of the season.

July 23, 2025: Yu Darvish (8-6, 3.75 ERA, 112.2 IP, 109 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) started our final game in Tampa, facing Taj Bradley (4-7, 4.45 ERA, 113.1 IP, 131 K’s, 1.39 WHIP). After four and a half innings of neutral duelling between the two pitchers, Darvish blinked first in the bottom of the fifth and Jose Caballero got on base with a single that drove in the first run of the game for the Rays. Kimbrel took over in the botom of the sixth, still trailing 1-0, and immediately Brandon Lowe hit a solo homer out of right to add on. Jonathan Cannon came out to pitch in the seventh, and Tampa added an RBI single by Caballero with two outs to make it a three-run lead. A two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth sealed it for good, as our bats put up absolutely no fight in the 5-0 loss. Darvish pitched five innings with four hits, two walks and four strikeouts, taking the loss, and we were outhit 9-3 ... you can’t win if you don’t score any runs at all, no matter what your pitchers do. Joey Gallo was our only player to get on base twice, with a hit and a walk.

Next up we head back to Chicago where we’ll play the Cubs (54-48, 2nd NL Central) for three and the Phillies (50-52, 3rd NL Central) for three, with an off day for the final day of the month which will be the official trade deadline. At this point in the season we’re definitely not buyers, but we’re performing better than expected on the field ... I don’t want to overreact with big “seller” moves if they’re not going to help us significantly in the very near future.

July 24, 2025: Ryan Reich, our second rounder in this year’s draft, accepted his bonus of $75,000 and will continue playing in the MLB Draft League for the Trenton Thunder, after which he’ll be moved to the South Atlantic League to play for our A+ Winston Salem Dash. The Draft League will finish playing in mid-August.

jksander · 04-14-2025, 03:45 PM

July 25, 2025: Noah Schultz (5-0, 1.32 ERA, 47.2 IP, 47 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) took on Justin Steele (10-5, 3.05 ERA, 138.2 IP, 142 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) in game one of our crosstown series, and the Cubs took the lead in the top of the second off a one-out single with the bases loaded by Josh Rojas. Moments later a sac-fly by Ian Happ made it a two-run game. Our bats stayed completely quiet, and in the top of the fourth Rojas hit a three-run homer out of center to turn this into a 5-0 rout. Shane Smith took over in the top of the fifth, and he got us into the stretch without further damage. Mike Tauchman hit an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to get us on the board, and Eisert came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, but the Cubs were relentless. A two-run homer by Dansby Swanson made it a six-run lead, and Ian Happ knocked in two with a blast out of right against Jonathan Cannon in the ninth as they completed the 9-1 blowout win. Schultz lost his first game as a major leaguer, a four-inning effort with six hits, a walk, four strikeouts and five earned runs, giving him a 5-1 record and 2.09 ERA. The Cubs outhit us 10-7 but seven of their runs came off three homers, while Tauchman’s hit and a run were our offensive highlight.

July 26, 2025: Sean Burke (5-8, 4.53 ERA, 95.1 IP, 96 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitched in game two against the Cubs’ Matthew Boyd (8-4, 3.41 ERA, 121.1 IP, 128 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). The Cubs took the lead in the top of the second with a sac-fly by Pablo Aliendo and an RBI single by Happ, and our pitchers spent the rest of the game destroying themselves trying to keep the game close enough for our bats to do some work for a change. It didn’t happen. The Cubs didn’t score again, but we didn’t score at all, losing this one 2-0. Burke, who only had two hits in four innings, also happened to walk six batters with five strikeouts, letting the two runs score ... and we outhit them 6-2 and still couldn’t do a goddamned thing. What a waste! Starling Marte had two hits to nowhere in the loss, but the rest of our bats might as well have stayed home.

We completed two trades this afternoon ...

First, the Minnesota Twins sent us 35-year-old reliever Michael Tonkin, 24-year-old second baseman Brooks Lee and 19-year-old third baseman Hendry Chivilli in exchange for Tristan Grey, who has struggled to get past AAA for us this year and was therefore expendable. We then sent 29-year-old minor league left fielder Cory Julks to Cleveland in exchange for 32-year-old reliever Jacob Junis, 19-year-old first baseman Luis Merejo and 23-year-old middle infielder Yordys Valdes.

Tonkin we released immediately, at a cost of $351,000 and change, and Junis will replace Eisert in our bullpen for the moment, though his future isn’t secure. The biggest reasons for the moves were Lee and Valdes ... Lee is immediately going to replace Lenyn Sosa in the major league lineup, while Valdes will take over at shortstop. Both players immediately improve our team defensively, and they’re young with plenty of upside.

July 27, 2025: Ryan Weber (5-6, 3.96 ERA, 100.0 IP, 63 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) pitched against Ben Brown (3-7, 5.49 ERA, 105.0 IP, 96 K’s, 1.58 WHIP) in our final game aginst the Cubs on our field. The Cubs built a 3-0 lead by the middle of the third, but we got a run through in the bottom of the third off a Chase Meidroth single that scored Michael A. Taylor from second. Jonathan Cannon took over in the top of the seventh still trailing 3-1, but Seiya Suzuki got the Cubs back to a three-run lead with a groundout that scored Happ from third. They added on a run in the eighth, and again our offense completely failed to deliever as we lost 5-1. Weber pitched six innings with seven hits, a walk and three strikeouts, allowing three runs as his record fell to 5-7 with a 3.99 ERA, and we were outhit 12-4. Vargas walked twice, and Taylor had a hit, a walk and a run, but we’ve now lost five games in a row while being outscored 27-5, and all the good work we put in before the All Star break seems to be sliding away.

We’ll take our 44-62 record into our next series agianst the Phillies, who come to town with a 51-54 record and third place in the NL East. We’ll then start the month of August on the road, with trips to play Hosuton (49-57, 4th AL West) and Seattle (55-51, 2nd AL West) for three apiece.

jksander · 04-14-2025, 04:55 PM

July 28, 2025: Early this morning we made a huge trade with the Diamondbacks, sending 27-year-old catcher Jorge Alfaro and $17,500,000 cash to Arizona in exchange for 26-year-old right handed starter Brandon Pfaadt! Pfaadt has a 6-10 record so far this year for Arizona, but has a 4.68 ERA through 130.2 innings, 144 strikeouts, and a 1.22 WHIP. He’s also got all his arb years remaining, though he may become eligible for arbitration after this season. We’re calling up 24-year-old defensive catcher Brandon Valenzuela from AAA Charlotte to back up Kyle Teel, and have brought up Pfaadt into the starting rotation while waiving / DFA’ing Jacob Junis, who we’re hoping to be able to keep as a backup option in the minors if he clears waivers. Pfaadt just pitched yesterday, so he’ll take the fifth spot in our rotation for now while he rests. But he should be a solid addition to our roster immediately with his excellent control of his arsenal, and gives us hope as we build our rotation for the coming seasons.

Yu Darvish (8-7, 3.67 ERA, 117.2 IP, 113 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) started against Philly’s Christopher Sanchez (5-5, 3.56 ERA, 103.2 IP, 93 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) this evening, and though the Phillies took the lead in the top of the first with an RBI single by Bryce Harper, Brooks Lee hit a two-run blast in the bottom of the second to get us our first lead in what seemed like weeks! Chase Meidroth hit an RBI double that got us another run with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, and a sac-fly by Miguel Vargas got Meidroth in to score, putting us up three runs. Martin Perez took over on the mound in the top of the seventh, and immediately the Phils got a homer off the bat of Brandon Marsh to cut our lead to two ... but Perez held his own, and kept us in the lead, as we went into the stretch ahead by a 4-2 margin. Brooks Lee hit an RBI single in the bottom of the inning, and a wild pitch allowed him eventually to score from third as we expanded our lead again, and with a four-run lead Noah Syndergaard took the ball in the top of the ninth. He did manage to get an out in there somewhere, but it came between a two-run blast by Edmundo Sosa and a solo bomb by Trea Turner that turned this into a one-run game with Bazardo frantically warming in the pen. Bazardo took over with two outs, nobody on, and A.J. Realmuto hit one to short, for a quick throw out to first as we held on to the 6-5 win by the skin of our teeth. Darvish got the win in a six inning effort with seven hits, six strikeouts and a single earned run, and Bazardo got the save with one out on three pitches, his sixth of the season. Philly outhit us 12-9, our bats led by newcomer Brooks Lee, who had two hits, two runs and three RBIs, as he made himself right at home with our team in his second game.

June 29, 2025: Noah Schultz (5-1, 2.09 ERA, 51.2 IP, 51 K’s, 0.85 WHIP) pitched against Philly’s Aaron Nola (3-11, 4.87 ERA, 114.2 IP, 112 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). It didn’t start out great ... Trea Turner hit a leadoff homer in the top of the first to spark the Phils. But Schultz kept his head, and Michael A. Taylor answered with a homer of his own in the bottom of the second to tie it up. Brooks Lee got us the lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, and Schultz got us through five. Shane Smith took the ball in the top of the sixth, getting us through two more scoreless innings, and Merryweather came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, the lead still at just one run. Eduard Bazardo came out in the ninth, and he pitched around a single by Realmuto to hold this one as a 2-1 win! Schultz, pitching on four days’ rest, made it through five innings with six hits, two strikeouts and the one earned run, improving to 6-1 with a 2.06 ERA, while Bazardo saved his seventh game and kept his ERA at 2.16. They outhit us 8-6, but Tauchman had three hits and a run, while Brooks Lee had a hit and the RBI that put us into the lead for good.

June 30, 2025: Our starters are exhausted, so today we’re hoping to get into the off day using our long relievers to craft a full game without having to start anyone on short rest again. Noah Syndergaard (5-5, 1 SV, 3.86 ERA, 79.1 IP, 58 K’s, 1.01 WHIP) started us out against Philly’s Ranger Suarez (5-7, 5.04 ERA, 105.1 IP, 87 K’s, 1.43 WHIP), and for the second game in a row their leadoff hitter (this time Justin Crawford) hit a homer in the team’s first at-bat. Syndergaard only lasted 1.2 innings but Shane Smith got the final out in the second to keep us within a run, and our bats got going in the bottom of the inning -- Starling Marte hit an RBI double to tie the score, Brooks Lee hit an RBI double to give us the lead, and after a wild pitch, an RBI single by Otto Lopez let Lee score from third to give us a 3-1 lead! Smith got us through the fourth inning, and Jonathan Cannon took over in the fifth to help keep our lead protected. Mike Tauchman hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to add on, extending our lead to three runs as Cannon stayed in to get us safely through the sixth.

Penn Murfee took over in the seventh, and with two outs and runners on the corners we brought out Martin Perez, who let the runner on third score off a wild pitch. But we went into the stretch still leading 4-2. With two outs and Bryce Harper on first, Otto Lopez got hurt sliding to make a catch and had to be pulled from the game ... thankfully we had Brooks Lee as our DH, fully capable of taking over in the field. But we were shaken up when Brandon Marsh hit an RBI double to cut the lead to one, sending us into the bottom of the inning with a much more tenuous 4-3 lead. Unable to add any runs on, Craig Kimbrel came out to pitch with the game on the line in the top of the ninth. With Trea Turner on second and Bryson Scott on first, two outs in the bag, Kimbrel faced down Bryce Harper and got him to strike out swinging as we got out of here with the 4-3 win and the sweep! Shane Smith got the win, improving to 5-3 with a 2.1-inning effort, allowing just one hit and three strikeouts with no earned runs as he improved his ERA to 3.84. Murfee and Perez each got holds, and Kimbrel saved his first game of the year (his 441st of his career!) as he improved his ERA to 6.17 in his 42nd appearance this season.

We did not do any further trading ahead of the deadline, and will focus on getting through the final two months of this season with class and composure. Our record is now 47-62 heading into the road trip through Houston and Seattle, and we still have an outside chance of finishing with 70 wins, which is something that would have been inconceivable four months ago.

jksander · 04-14-2025, 06:01 PM

August 1, 2025: Sean Burke (5-9, 4.53 ERA, 99.1 IP, 101 K’s, 1.36 WHIP) got our first start against Houston, battling Hunter Brown (6-5, 2.70 ERA, 126.2 IP, 124 K’s, 1.08 WHIP). Houston got on the board in the bottom of the first with a groundout by Jose Altuve that let Jeremy Peña score from third. We tied it up in the top of the fourth with an RBI single by Brooks Lee, and we unleashed on the Astros in the top of the fifth, when Joey Gallo hit a three-run double to rocket us into the lead! Brooks Lee added an RBI double of his own to send us into the bottom of the inning with a 5-1 lead! Jonathan Cannon took over for a gassed Burke to start the inning, They got a run back in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an RBI double by Ben Gamel, and we brought Merryweather out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh still leading by three runs. But with runners on second and third with one out, we had to go to Murfee in the pen ... Houston got closer with a sac-fly by Altuve, but we got out of the inning still leading by a pair. Craig Kimbrel took the ball with one out and men on the corners in the bottom of the eighth, getting us out of the inning with both runners properly stranded, setting up Bazardo to pitch in the ninth with a two run lead to protect. With two outs and men on first and third, Zach Dezenzo came to the plate ... and hit a three-run towering slam out of left, GAME OVER ... we lost 6-5 in a heartbreaker as the stadium practically shook. Bazardo blew his first save of the year and took the loss, falling to 3-2 with a 3.32 ERA thanks to three hits, a strikeout and three earned runs. They outhit us 11-8, ruining Gallo’s night ... he’d led the way with a hit, a run and three RBIs thanks to his double that would have won the game if we could have just held on.

Otto Lopez’s injury from two days ago was supposedly just a sore elbow, but doctors are now saying it could be a month before he fully has it back under control, so we’ve moved him onto the IL. Lenyn Sosa, who we came close to trading several times, will now step back up to the 25-man roster, where he’ll be our backup at both 2B and 3B for the forseeable future.

August 2, 2025: Brandon Pfaat (6-10, 4.68 ERA, 130.2 IP, 144 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) made his first start as a White Sox starter, facing Houston’s Ronel Blanco (6-7, 5.60 ERA, 107.2 IP, 121 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) in tonight’s game. Yanier Diaz homered off him to start the second inning, putting Houston ahead 1-0, but we tied it up in the top of the fourth with an RBI double by Michael A. Taylor. So Diaz hit ANOTHER in the bottom of the fourth, putting them back up 2-1, so we answered again in the top of the fifth with a Meidroth RBI double to tie it again. Pfaat couldn’t stop their power, however, and with two outs in the bottom of the fifth he let Taylor Trammell hit a two-run blast to give them the lead again 4-2 ... though he got us out of the inning he knew his night was over. Shane Smith took over in the sixth, and they piled on from there. Isaac Paredes hit a two-run blast out of center in the bottom of the sixth on two outs, and Jonathan Cannon got us through the rest of the game though we lost 6-3. Pfaadt took the loss, pitching five innings with five hits, a strikeout and four earned runs, all of those coming off homers. We outhit them 9-8, but all their runs came off the long-ball. Miguel Vargas led the team with two hits and a run, while Yordys Valdes added two hits, a walk and a run as well.

August 3, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-7, 3.57 ERA, 123.2 IP, 119 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) got the start in our final game in Houston, taking on Cristian Javier (0-1, 3.86 ERA, 7.0 IP, 5 K’s, 2.00 ERA), who prior to tonight had just three relief appearances and a start this season as an opener. In the top of the second we loaded the bases on Javier, and with two outs Chase Meidroth walked in a run to give us the lead! But Javier stayed out, so he wasn’t to be merely an opener this afternoon. Michael A. Taylor hit an RBI single on two outs in the top of the third to drive in another run, but we lost Darvish due to an undisclosed injury, which spiraled all our plans out of control -- he’d not allowed a single baserunner in the first two innings! He was going great! We had to go to Syndergaard out of the bullpen, and he acquitted himself well from the mound, getting us through the fifth inning without any runs scoring. Michael A. Taylor hit a solo homer to lead off in the sixth, giving us a 3-0 lead, and Julian Merryweather came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning, pitching around loaded bases to keep the Astros scoreless once again. Martin Perez took the ball in the seventh, and Brandon Valenzuela, our 24-year-old rookie catcher, hit a two-run blast out of left to extend the lead in the top of the eighth, his first major league homer in just his 17th at-bat! Perez got us through the rest of the game as we held on to the 5-0 win, a shared shutout that involved four pitchers! Noah Syndergaard improved to 6-5 with a 3.75 ERA thanks to his three innings with two hits, a walk and two strikeouts, and Martin Perez had a three-inning save, throwing 29 pitches and not allowing a single baserunner! We outhit the Astros 11-3 in this one, led by Michael A. Taylor, who hit 4-5 with two runs and two RBIs.

We’re incredibly pleased to announce that Darvish’s injury was just a badly jammed thumb, and he should be able to pitch at full strength for his next start.

jksander · 04-14-2025, 07:21 PM

August 5, 2025: We’re in Seattle for a three-game set against the 59-54 Mariners, and are hopeful that we can find some rhythm after getting the big win in Houston two days ago for our 48th win of the year. Noah Schultz (6-1, 2.06 ERA, 56.2 IP, 53 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) got the start against George Kirby (8-8, 4.65 ERA, 120.0 IP, 116 K’s, 1.27 WHIP), and we got him a lead from the beginning, with Mike Tauchman hitting an RBI single in the top of the first to score Chase Meidroth from second. Schultz got out of a bases-loaded jam in the second, leaving two more stranded in the third as we fought to hold the lead. Schultz held tough through six innings to hold the 1-0 lead, and Julian Merryweather took over in the seventh. Penn Murfee came out in the eighth, getting one out before Luke Raley hit a solo shot out of right to tie us up 1-1 ... and when we couldn’t get any runs to score in the top of the ninth, Murfee came out with ice in his veins to keep it tied into extra innings. With Yordys Valdes on second as the automatic runner in the top of the 10th, Chase Meidroth took a leadoff walk and with one out Mike Tauchman hit a shot into center field, driving in Valdes for the go-ahead! Both runners advanced on a strikeout by Joey Gallo, but Vargas batted out to center so we went into the bottom of the inning with just a one run lead. Martin Perez came out in the bottom of the inning, walking Dylan Moore and then striking out Lane Thomas and Cal Raleigh back to back ... that brought up Luke Raley, who had homered in the eighth to tie it, with Victor Robles in scoring position. Three strikes and he was out swinging, and we’d held tough to win 2-1 in 10 innings ... what a great win!

Murfee got the blown save, his fifth, and the win, his first ... he’s now 1-3 with a 4.02 ERA through 53.2 innings in 49 appearances. Perez earned his third save in a razor-tight situation, but it was all set in motion by Schultz’s six innings of work to start us out ... two hits, three walks, four strikeouts and no runs. We outhit them 11-3, so it was maddening to think that we only put up one run in regulation, but at least we got it done. Tauchman led the way with three hits and two RBIs, and our young catcher Valenzuela had three hits, bringing his average up to .273 through his first six games. We’d gotten him in the same trade that brought us Yu Darvish, and his defensive abilities are going to make him the real steal of that deal when all’s said and done.

August 6, 2025: Ryan Weber (5-7, 3.99 ERA, 106.0 IP, 66 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) got the start in game two in Seattle, facing Luis Castillo (8-6, 4.41 ERA, 122.1 IP, 132 K’s, 1.27 WHIP). This game was a real duel early on, with four scoreless innings for each team, We got two outs into the bottom of the fifth before Weber finally cracked as Victor Robles hit an RBI single, taking second as a trailing runner as the Mariners went up 1-0. But we answered quickly, scoring off an RBI single by Miguel Vargas in the top of the sixth to tie the game, taking the lead just moments later when Brooks Lee hit an RBI double to push us ahead 2-1! Noah Syndergaard came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning, and he got us through two solid innings before Julian Merryweather took over in the bottom of the eighth, still leading by one. He got us through the inning quickly, and when our bats didn’t add anything, Eduard Bazardo came out to protect our lead in the bottom of the ninth. Seattle thought they’d won it when, with two outs and men on first and second, Alex Call hit a hard flyball into deep center ... it looked like it might clear the wall, but Taylor made an incredible leaping catch and came away with it as we won another nailbiter, again by a 2-1 margin! Weber got the win, lasting five innings with five hits, two walks, two strikeouts and an earned run, while Syndergaard (2) and Merryweather (5) each earned holds. It was Bazardo who weathered the high leverage situation in the ninth, earning his eighth save with a hit, a walk, a strikeout and nobody scoring. They outhit us 7-6, but Brooks Lee led the way with two hits and two RBIs, and Yordys Valdes was involved in two bang-bang double player that helped us stay in the lead late.

August 7, 2025: Sean Burke (5-9, 4.35 ERA, 103.1 IP, 106 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) started our final game in Seattle, battling Jackson Rose (5-4, 5.55 ERA, 58.1 IP, 47 K’s, 1.47 WHIP). Seattle broke the stalemate in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out fly-ball double by Jorge Polanco that allowed Randy Arozarena to score, giving the Mariners a 1-0 lead. J.P. Crawford hit one to center to drive in another, the throw coming in too slow from Taylor to get the out at home plate, and we went into the top of the fifth trailing by a pair. We got on the board in the top of the sixth with a sac-fly by Miguel Vargas, and Penn Murfee took over for a visibly gassed Burke in the bottom of the inning. Unfortunately he gave up a solo homer to Cal Raleigh, the first batter he faced, and moments later he let Dylan Moore hit a three-run slam out of left to pile on big time. Shane Smith came out with one out to put out the fire, and Kimbrel took over in the seventh but there was no unringing that bell. We took a beating tonight and lost this one 8-1. Burke took the loss, falling to 5-10 with a 4.15 ERA thanks to five innings with just three hits, though he walked four with six strikeouts and allowed a pair of unearned runs. We were outhit 11-9, and though Tauchman, Gallo and Valenzuela each had two hits, neither of them were able to get anything done with them.

We’ll return to Chicago for a three-game set against Cleveland, with the Guardians at 60-55 and trailing the division leading Twins by just a pair. We’ll then face Detroit (56-60) at home and Kansas City (58-57) on the road, before playing Atlanta (74-42, 1st NL East) on the road before a six-game home stretch against the Twins (62-53) and the Royals. With 15 of our next 18 games against division rivals, we have a chance to play spoiler and show we can finish strong. Or we’ll fade quietly into the night as we dream of the future.

jksander · 04-15-2025, 06:12 PM

August 8, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (6-11, 4.78 ERA, 135.2 IP, 145 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) got the start against Cleveland’s Hunter Gaddis (4-8, 4.71 ERA, 114.2 IP, 98 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) in the first game of our series here at Rate Field, and in the top of the second the Guardians took the lead off a sac-fly by Tyler Freeman. Pfaadt got through five hard-fought innings without conceding any more runs, and in the bottom of the fifth, with the bases loaded and one out, Joey Gallo tied the score off an RBI single, and our next batter, Miguel Vargas, hit a three-run double to rocket us into the lead 4-1! Noah Syndergaard took over in the top of the sixth, and in the bottom of the inning we added on with an RBI double by Tauchman. Martin Perez came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, still leading by four runs, and a Tauchman homer increased our lead to five runs in the bottom of the eighth. Penn Murfee came in with one out in the top of the ninth and ended the game on a pair of strikeouts as we stumped the Guardians 6-1! Pfaadt had five innings with six hits, seven strikeouts and an earned run ... no walks, as he won his first game as a White Sox starter. We outhit Cleveland 10-7, led by Mike Tauchman, who had two hits, two walks, two runs and two RBIs.

August 9, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-7, 3.51 ERA, 125.2 IP, 120 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) started against Tanner Bibee (10-6, 3.45 ERA, 143.1 IP, 160 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) in game two against the Guardians. In the top of the first Cleveland took the lead with one out and the bases loaded when Bo Naylor hit a sac-fly into deep right. Johnathan Rodriguez hit an RBI single to add on, and Gabriel Arias reached to load the bags again thanks to an E5 groundball error. Darvish was having an awful inning, and when he let Tyler Freeman hit a two-RBI single off his 40th pitch of the inning we had to start warming arms. He got out of the inning with us trailing 5-0, and had thrown 53 pitches with four hits, three walks and five runs (three earned) against him. Out of concern that he’s dealing with a nagging injury, we pulled him for Jonathan Cannon in the second inning. Cleveland added a run in the sixth with a solo homer by Jose Ramirez, and though our bullpen played well all night, that first inning haunted us as Cleveland shut us out 6-0. Darvish took the loss, and we were outhit 10-6, Meidroth leading the way with a pair of hits ... nobody on our team walked. That was about as thorough a beatdown as can be delivered, and they did the bulk of it in that one inning.

August 10, 2025: Noah Schultz (6-1, 1.87 ERA, 62.2 IP, 57 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) has become a huge fan favorite already, and today he battled Cleveland’s Bryce Miller (9-7, 4.55 ERA, 120.2 IP, 114 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) who was recently acquired by them from Seattle ... in his two starts for the Guardians he’s yet to see a decision, but has thrown 10 innings with a 0.90 ERA, eight strikeouts and a 1.00 WHIP), so he’s definitely adapted well to the move. Schultz struck out the side in the top of the second, and in the bottom of the inning we took the lead off a bases-loaded RBI double by Michael A. Taylor that scored us two runs. Starling Marte beat out an infield blooper to reach first safely AND drive in the run from third, and Mike Tauchman piled on with an RBI single that made it a 4-0 lead heading into the top of the third. The Guardians got on the board in the top of the fifth with a two-run homer by Tyler Freeman, and they got another on two outs when Jose Ramirez hit an RBI double to drive in a third. The Guardians tied it thanks to an RBI single by Johnathan Rodriguez, and the collapse became complete when Gabriel Arias hit a three-run homer to ruin Schultz’s night. With two outs and the deficit now at 7-4, Noah Syndergaard came out to get the final out of the inning, via a quiet stirkeout, and suddenly we had work to do, and we absolutely were NOT up to it. Syndergaard pitched brilliantly, getting us through the top of the ninth with the same three-run deficit, but our bats had gone completely silent and we lost 7-4, showing zero fight once we got destroyed in that miserable fifth inning. Schultz fell to 6-2 in a schizophrenic game ... he allowed nine hits, but didn’t walk anyone, and he struck out eight in 4.2 innings, but they scored seven on him all at once in a brutal beatdown. Syndergaard kept it from getting completely out of hand, pitching 4.1 innings with a hit and two strikeouts, improving his ERA to 3.41 through 92.1 innings in 28 appearances. We were outhit just 10-8, led by Michael A. Taylor with two hits, a run and two RBIs.

jksander · 04-15-2025, 07:22 PM

August 11, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-7, 3.89 ERA, 111.0 IP, 68 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) pitched against Detroit’s Reese Olson (6-6, 3.86 ERA, 123.2 IP, 107 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) in our first of three against the Tigers. In the bottom of the first, Chase Meidroth reached on an E7 error, Austin Slater walked and Mike Tauchman beat out an infield hit to load the bases as we’d plated our first three batters. With Gallo at the plate, Meidroth scored off a wild pitch, both remaining baserunners advancing, but we left them both stranded and were unable to pile on when the opportunity presented itself. Parker Meadows hit a solo bomb out of right in the top of the second to tie it up, but we retook the lead in the bottom of the third with an RBI single by Gallo. Again they tied it up in the top of the fifth, this time with an RBI double by Gleyber Torres, and Jonathan Cannon came out to pitch in the sixth tied up 2-2. They immediately took the lead thanks to a solo homer by Kerry Carpenter to lead off, and when Merryweather came out to pitch in the seventh we trailed still 3-2. Martin Perez took over in the eighth, same story, and he gave us two great innings to still have a chance heading into the bottom of the ninth. We didn’t even put up an ounce of fight, and lost this one 3-2. Unbelievable! What will it take for this team to put up any kind of offense in tight situations? Jonathan Cannon took the loss, falling to 1-5 with a 4.50 ERA after a two hit, two strikeout one run sixth inning, and Detroit outhit us 10-5. Meidroth led the team with a hit, a walk and a run, while Gallo had a hit and an RBI.

August 12, 2025: Sean Burke (5-10, 4.15 ERA, 108.1 IP, 112 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) took on Detroit’s ace Tarik Skubal (11-5, 2.66 ERA, 154.0 IP, 103 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) in game two against the Tigers. Brooks Lee strained his back in the top of the fourth and had to be replaced by Lenyn Sosa, but we still got out of the inning unblemished as both teams took no-hitters into the fifth inning. Burke blew his in the fifth with one out, when Colt Keith got a base hit thanks to a slow-bouncing ball to second ... but the game stayed scoreless. We cracked, however, in the sixth when Matt Vierling hit an RBI single on no outs to give the Tigers a lead, and Penn Murfee took over on the mound with runners on first and second. By the time he got us out of the inning we trailed 3-0 in a game where their ace still hadn’t conceded a hit, and he’d only allowed a single baserunner to boot. With two outs in the sixth we got our first hit, a single by Meidroth ... but we didn’t score. Shane Smith took over in the top of the seventh with two outs and nobody on, and in the bottom of the eighth with Skubal now out of the game, we finally showed some life ... with two outs, Meidroth hit an RBI single to get us on the board, and Austin Slater walked the bases loaded, but we were unable to capitalize, leaving all three runners stranded. Noah Syndergaard took over in the top of the ninth, getting us into the bottom of the inning still trailing by a pair, but again our bats were silent when it counted and we lost 3-1. Burke took the loss, allowing four hits, three walks and three runs with seven strikeouts in his five innings. They outhit us 7-4, Meidroth showing our only signs of life with two hits and an RBI.

If we’d had any hopes of climbing back into the divisional race they’ve been dashed by now. With one game left against the Tigers we’ve now lost four in a row and five of our last six, and it doesn’t get easier from here. We’ve only lost five in a row once this year, and would love to snap this streak to keep from matching that stretch or besting it.

August 13, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (7-11, 4.67 ERA, 140.2 IP, 152 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) pitched in our last win, but tonight he’s got to face red hot starter Tyler Holton (6-6, 3.12 ERA, 127.0 IP, 109 K’s, 1.13 WHIP), who has given up just two runs (one earned) in his last two starts, neither of which saw him earn a decision. The Tigers took the lead in the top of the first off a solo homer by Andy Ibanez, but we were able to tie it up in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Starling Marte, and a two-run homer by Tauchman in the fifth gave us a 3-1 lead! Pfaadt pitched his way through seven innings, one of the best starts for any of our pitchers all season, but our spirits were dampened when Tauchman was injured in the bottom of the inning after being hit in the hand with a pitch ... diagnosis pending. Martin Perez took over in the eighth inning, and he got us through the remainder as we held on to win 3-1, snapping the losing streak. Pfaadt won his second game with our team, a solid seven inning effort with five hits, a walk, seven strikeouts and a single earned run, and we outhit Detroit 7-5. Yordys Valdes led the team with three hits and an RBI, helping the rookie keep his average above .200 through his 15th game.

We’re off for a day and then hit the road to face the 61-59 Royals of Kansas City, who are currently third in the division and just four games out of first. We, meanwhile, are 13.5 games back with a 52-69 record as we do what we can not to fumble our way to the end of the season.

August 14, 2025: Tauchman’s injury was as bad as I expected ... a fractured finger will keep him out at least a month and is more than likely going to end his season. Through 113 games, the 34-year-old hit .254, with 18 doubles, a triple and 13 homers, giving him 55 RBIs and 2.2 wins above replacement. We’re going to call up Terrell Tatum from AAA Charlotte, a utility player in the outfield who can capably play all three positions, though he’s best in left field. The 26-year-old has hit .280 with 20 doubles and 29 RBIs this year in AAA, and this will be his first trip to the big leagues as many wondered whethere he’d get the chance at all. In order to make room for him on the 40-man, we had to waive fourth-backup catcher Matt Thaiss, who at age 30 will be released if he clears waivers and refuses a minor-league assignment.

jksander · 04-16-2025, 07:47 PM

August 15, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-8, 3.62 ERA, 126.2 IP, 120 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) says he’s ready to go and our pitching coaches concur, so he started today against Shane Bieber (2-2, 5.31 ERA, 40.2 IP, 37 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) who was traded from Cleveland on July 26. But Darvish almost immediately gave up an RBI double to Bobby Witt Jr in the first inning, and it went pretty much like last time ... loaded bags on one out? Check. RBI single from MJ Melendez to add on a run? Check. On two outs he let Michael Massey hit a single that drove in two more, and we were in a 4-0 hole after one inning, though this time Darvish was at 23 pitches, not 60. He gave up another run on two outs in the third, and we tried to give him the fourth inning so we could preserve our bullpen but he gave up back to back doubles and a run, exiting the game for Syndergaard without getting a single out. He’ll get the rest of the season to try and work out his kinks, but it’s looking more and more like he’s hanging on to his career by a thread, and we’re the ones who will be stuck eating upwards of $46 million if he doesn’t see the light himself -- though at least we got Valenzuela in that same deal. Syndergaard had a thankless job, entering the fourth inning with no outs while trailing 6-0, with a runner in scoring position. He gave up a two-run homer to Bobby Witt Jr on his first pitch of the night, and that summed up the rest of our game entirely. We wound up burning through six pitchers tonight, and all it got us was a 12-4 blowout loss. Darvish took the loss, of course, allowing 10 hits, two walks and seven earned runs with no strikeouts, and he’s now 5-8 since joining our team ... not great results. We were outhit 15-8, our offense led by Bobby Valenzuela, who hit a two-run double in the top of the seventh.

August 16, 2025: Noah Schultz (6-2, 2.67 ERA, 67.1 IP, 65 K’s, 0.95 WHIP) faced off against Angel Zerpa (2-2, 2 SV, 4.59 ERA, 49.0 IP, 42 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) in game two against the Royals, and they got on the board in the bottom of the first with a sac-fly by Vinnie Pasquantino. Nelson Vasquez hit a two-run homer to add on in the bottom of the fourth, and our batters continued to hardly be able to hit the broad side of a barn. Another run scored off a wild pitch, and with Pasquantino on second and one out we had to bring out Penn Murfee trailing 4-0. He got us through that inning and the sixth and seventh as well, and Shane Smith took over in the eighth, getting us into the top of the ninth trailing by four with no hope at all. But we saw sparks at the start of the inning, with a leadoff walk for Slater, a single for Vargas and then another walk by Gallo to load the bags, no outs! Michael A. Taylor took the count full and then walked in a run, getting us on the board as the Royals started to look pained. But Brooks Lee and Starling Marte struck out swinging, and Brandon Valenzuela then did the same but looking ... and we lost this one 4-1, squandering a really great opportunity against a tough road opponent. Schultz took the loss, falling to 6-3 with a 3.01 ERA thanks to 4.1 innings with eight hits, a walk, two strikeouts and four earned runs. They outhit us 11-5, Miguel Vargas leading our offense with two hits to nowhere, while Talor walked in our only run.

Otto Lopez suffered a setback in his recovery from an elbow injury while already on the IL, and will now miss at least two more weeks. He will then likely spend the rest of his season rehabbing in the minors, so his major league season will end with a .315 average, 20 doubles, a dozen stolen bases and 2.3 WAR, as he batted in 32 runs for us.

August 17, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-7, 3.88 ERA, 116.0 IP, 70 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) started against Michael Wacha (8-12, 4.16 ERA, 145.1 IP, 122 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) in our final game of the series against the Royals. They took the lead in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Salvador Perez, and Noah Syndergaard took over in the bottom of the sixth still trailing by that one run. Julian Merryweather came out to pitch in the eighth, keeping us in the game ... but our bats failed again and we lost 1-0, proving to be incable of even the most rudimentary of offense. Weber fell to 6-8, lasting five innings with five hits, a walk, a strikeout and a run, and our two bullpen arms lasted three innings combined with two strikeouts and no baserunners. But in a game where we held them to five hits, we managed three, and even with two walks added were unable to make anything of it. Meidroth had two hits, and that’s about all I can say as we endured the sweep and fell to twenty games below .500 at 52-72.

We’ve got no choice but to drag our asses back to the airport, because tomorrow we start a three-game set against the 80-45 Braves, carrying a three-game losing streak with us that seems destined to expand while playing the second-best team in the majors (only the 86-38 Dodgers are better, with their Kajillion-dollar roster and all).

jksander · 04-17-2025, 12:35 PM

August 18, 2025: Sean Burke (5-11, 4.21 ERA, 113.1 IP, 119 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) pitched against the Braves’ Grant Holmes (9-4, 4.12 ERA, 118.0 IP, 125 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) who has been on a cold stretch that he’s only now starting to come out of. Atlanta didn’t waste a lot of time, taking the lead in the bottom of the first off a one-out solo homer by Matt Olson. Austin Riley hit an RBI double to add on, giving them a 2-0 advantage after one. Burke had to come out of the game with two outs and two men on in the bottom of the fourth, with Atlanta leading 6-1, and the remainder of the game was a blur of Atlanta hitting, Atlanta scoring, White Sox cowering. They creamed us 10-1, outhitting us 15-4 as we were completely dominated. Burke had eight hits and six earned runs in 3.2 innings, walking two and striking out four as he lost his 12th game of the season. Miguel Vargas had a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI to lead our meager offense.

August 19, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (8-11, 4.51 ERA, 147.2 IP, 159 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) pitched in game two, facing Spencer Strider (10-5, 2.69 ERA, 117.0 IP, 169 K’s, 0.97 WHIP). This one turned into a real pitching duel, with neither team getting much of a foothold early on. Pfaadt got us through six scoreless innings, and in the top of the seventh we broke through with a solo homer by Miguel Vargas to take a 1-0 lead heading into the stretch! Julian Merryweather came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning, and he pitched around a pair of baserunners to keep our slim lead. Noah Syndergaard took over in the eighth, still leading by one run, and he couldn’t hold it ... with one out Marcell Ozuna hit an RBI single, Austin Riley coming all the way from first to third in the chaos, but we were able to get into the top of the ninth still tied at 1-1. Of course we went down three strikeouts in a row to continue our offensive woes, so Kimbrel came out in the ninth to try and get us into extras. He was successful, setting them down quietly in the ninth on just six pitches, and in the top of the tenth Vargas and Gallo each walked, giving us loaded bases with Austin Slater, our free-runner, on third. Brandon Lee hit a sac-fly on one out to drive home Slater for a one-run lead, and Starling Marte hit one into right field, driving in another with a single! With a two-run lead in hand, Kimbrel came out confidently and was able to strike out Michael Harris II and Jarred Kelenic swinging, getting Ronald Acuna Jr to ground out harmlessly to first as we stunned the Braves 3-1 in 10 innings. Kimbrel pitched two innings with three strikeouts and nobody getting on base, improving his record to 2-3 with a 6.19 ERA through 52.1 innings. The Braves outhit us 8-4, but Vargas made things happen on the basepaths with a hit, a walk, two runs and an RBI as we manufactured a win out of whole cloth.

August 20, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-9, 4.03 ERA, 129.2 IP, 120 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) is officially on a cold streak, but he’s got the ball tonight in game three against Chris Sale (9-6, 3.44 ERA, 162.0 IP, 186 K’s, 1.07 WHIP). But Darvish came out strong tonight, striking out their first three batters swinging, and in the top of the second we took the lead off an RBI double by Brandon Valenzuela to go up 1-0! Darvish then let Austin Riley hit a weak single, walked Marcell Ozuna, and then struck out Jarred Kelenic, Sean Murphy and Orlando Arcia to get us into the third unscathed! Miguel Vargas hit an RBI double in the top of the third to extend our lead, and Lenyn Sosa hit another RBI double in the fourth to give us a 3-0 advantage! In the top of the fifth we got another RBI double, this time from Joey Gallo, and Darvish got us through the bottom of the inning safely, Shane Smith taking the ball for the bottom of the sixth with our lead at 4-0. Penn Murfee got us through the seventh, and Martin Perez came out in the eighth, letting the Braves get on the board with a solo homer by Matt Olson with one out, though he got two quick outs to end the inning with us still leading by three runs. We left nothing to chance, however ... Michael A. Taylor hit an RBI single to get that run back, and with two outs against us, Brooks Lee hit a three-run double to extend our lead to seven runs! Perez gave up another one-out solo homer, this time to Kelenic in the bottom of the ninth, but he shut them down from there and we won 8-2, stealing the series from the Braves as their fans looked on in disgust. Yu Darvish got the win, allowing just two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in his five innings. Even better, we outhit them 11-6, including SIX DOUBLES ... Brooks Lee led the way with two hits, two walks, two runs and three RBIs.

We’re off tomorrow, and will then close out the month at home, with three against the Twins (70-58, 1st AL Central), three against the Royals (66-62, 3rd AL Central) and four against the Yankees (74-53, 1st AL East). We’ll then open the month of September with four on the road at Minnesota, followed by three games in Detroit (60-69, 4th AL Central). Beyond that, our only other games left against the division will be on the road September 12-14 against Cleveland (66-61, 2nd AL Central). That’s sixteen divisional games left ... we’re sitting at 54-73, well out of any wildcard hopes, but we’d love to play spoiler in what has turned into an incredible divisional race between Minnesota, Cleveland and Kansas City, the three teams being within four games of each other and all in legit playoff contention whether as division leaders or wildcard contenders.

jksander · 04-17-2025, 05:53 PM

August 22, 2025: Noah Schultz (6-3, 3.01 ERA, 71.2 IP, 67 K’s, 1.02 WHIP) started game one against Minnesota’s Chris Paddack (7-6, 3.94 ERA, 118.2 IP, 105 K’s, 1.21 WHIP). The Twins took the lead minutes into the game when Byron Buxton hit an RBI double that drove home Austin Meadows, and a wild pitch seconds later scored another for them as Schultz looked gutshot. By the time he got us out of the top half of the inning we were in a 3-0 hole and he’d thrown 27 pitches for three hits and three earned runs, an incredibly rough stretch of bad luck. Miguel Vargas got us on the board with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning, and in the bottom of the second Yordys Valdes hit an RBI single to cut their lead to one. But they got one back in the top of the third with a solo blast out of center by Carlos Correa, and with two outs Matt Walker hit one of his own to make it a 5-2 lead. Schultz got us through the fifth inning, and Shane Smith took over in the sixth still trailing by three runs. But from there the game became a rout, as the Twins added on two more runs in the sixth and another pair in the eighth to crush us 9-2. Schultz fell to 6-4 with a 3.40 ERA, allowing five runs off five hits and a walk with six strikeouts in five innings’ work. He has struggled since mid-July, with four of his last six games featuring at least four earned runs, with three starts in a row resulting in losses. They outhit us 12-6, our offense led by Brooks Lee who hit twice and scored one run.

August 23, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-8, 3.79 ERA, 121.0 IP, 71 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) started against Zach Elfin (8-13, 5.21 ERA, 131.1 IP, 88 K’s, 1.29 WHIP), who was traded from Baltimore to the Twins about a month ago. Two batters in, Minnesota had the lead thanks to an RBI triple by Austin Meadows, and they crushed us from there ... by the time Martin Perez took the ball from him in the top of the fifth, Weber had dug us a 7-0 hole to drown in. Chaise Meidroth strained a rib muscle in the bottom of the inning after hitting the RBI double that finally put us on the board ... he’s out at least two weeks, go figure ... but he sparked a rally that got us back within three runs, thanks to RBI singles by Austin Slater, Joey Gallo and Michael A. Taylor. And incredibly, we made the comeback complete in the bottom of the sixth, thanks to RBI singles by Slater, Gallo and Taylor as all three hitters have come to life out of nowhere! Perez got us into the stretch still knotted up 7-7, but with two outs in the eighth Merryweather gave up a fat pitch to Byron Buxton, who hammered it out of left for two runs. Syndergaard got us through the ninth with the score unchanged, and with one out Brandon Valenzuela walked the bases loaded, as we had a real shot to get back into this one! Kyle Teel pinch hit for Yordys Valdes, and with the count at 1-2 a wild pitch scored a run for us, getting us back within one! But with two outs, Cadyn Greniuer popped out harmlessly to center and we lost this one 9-8. Merryweather took the loss, falling to 0-2 with a 4.40 ERA in his 14th appearance for us, allowing two hits and two runs in his inning. They outhit us 17-12 in a true slugging game, and Austin Slater had a great night, hitting four times with a walk, two runs and two RBIs.

We put Meidroth on the IL, and will call up infielder Andre Lipcius, 27, from AAA Charlotte -- he can capably play second and third, and has hit .250 this year with four doubles, three homers and 15 RBIs coming off the bench. To make room for him on the 40-man we had to waive 27-year-old lefty SP Jared Shuster, who is already getting too old to be this mediocre in the minors. He’s definitely not worth a 40-man spot, and if he gets claimed (doubtful) it’ll be no big loss.

August 24, 2025: Sean Burke (5-12, 4.54 ERA, 117.0 IP, 123 K’s, 1.39 WHIP) got the start in our final game of this Twins series, facing Bailey Ober (8-7, 4.11 ERA, 122.2 IP, 131 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). Two outs into the first inning and Minnesota had their lead, thanks to a solo homer out of left by Buxton. Emmanuel Rodriguez hit one in the second to add on, and Austin Meadows made it a 3-0 lead in the top of the third with an RBI double. We trailed by four runs heading into the bottom of the third, and the rout was on by the end of the fourth with two more runs scoring for Minnesota as our team simply looked dead on arrival. Cannon took over in the fifth, and it took a total of six pitchers for us to get out of this one, losing 12-1 in a brutal beatdown. Burke took the loss with four innings of six hit, four walk, six run baseball ... though he did strike out eight. They outhit us 10-3, the new guy Lipcius getting a hit and a walk, batting in our only run of the game. Uuuuugly.

We’re at rock bottom at this point, riding a three-game losing streak into our series against the Royals as the offseason really can’t get here quickly enough.

jksander · 04-19-2025, 12:18 PM

August 25, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (8-11, 4.33 ERA, 153.2 IP, 161 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) pitched against Shane Bieber (4-2, 4.50 ERA, 54.0 IP, 53 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) in game one against the Royals, and in the bottom of the second Michael A. Turner gave us a solid lead when he hit a three-run homer out of center! Yordys Valdes hit an RBI single to add on in the fourth, but Kansas City got on the board in the top of the sixth with an RBI double off the bat of Vinnie Pasquantino. Starline Marte got us the run back with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning, and Joey Gallo hit a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh to give us a five run advantage. Julian Merryweather took the ball with one out and a man on first in the top of the eighth, and Taylor hit his second homer of the night in the bottom of the eighth to make it a six-run lead. Merryweather finished the job and we were able to cash in the 7-1 victory! Pfaadt has gone 3-1 since joining our White Sox, making it through 7.1 innings tonight with six hits, a walk, five strikeouts and one earned run. We outhit the Royals 10-6, led by Taylor, who had three hits, a walk, three runs and four RBIs, hitting his 14th and 15th homers of the season.

August 26, 2025: Yu Darvish (10-9, 3.88 ERA, 134.2 IP, 127 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) pitched against Michael Wacha (9-13, 4.57 ERA, 155.2 IP, 125 K’s, 1.39 WHIP) in game two of the series, and the Royals got the lead in the top of the second off a solo homer by Nelson Velasquez. They added another in the fourth off the bat of Vinny Pasquantino, but in the bottom of the inning we tied the score on a two-run homer by Brooks Lee, and moments later Terrell Tatum hit a two-run double to put us into the lead 4-2. Joey Gallo added on with a homer in the fifth, and though they got that run back in the top of the sixth off a Pasquantino RBI single, we still led 5-3 when Kimbrel took over in the top of the seventh. Martin Perez came out to pitch in the eighth, and the Royals inched closer with an RBI double by Dairon Blanco, tying it with an RBI single by Bobby Witt Jr as Perez managed to blow the save opportunity. Penn Murfee took over in the ninth, still tied at 5-5, and they immediately took the lead off a solo homer by Velasquez, his second of the game ... two batters later, Michael Massey hit one to make it 7-5, and we brought Bazardo out of the pen with one out and Blake Mitchell on first, just wanting to end this one. We put up no resistance in the bottom of the inning and lost this one 7-5, a disappointing finish to a game we’d dominated through the seventh. Perez got the blown save, his fourth, and Murfee fell to 1-4 with a 4.69 ERA, allowing three hits and two runs with one strikeout in his one third of an inning. Each team had 11 hits, ours led by Tatum, who had two hits, a walk and two runs before injuring his shoulder in the outfield -- he’ll be day to day for at least four days as our outfield continues to get hammered.

August 27, 2025: Noah Schultz (6-4, 3.40 ERA, 76.2 IP, 73 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) pitched against Kyle Wright (1-0, 9.00 ERA, 8.0 IP, 9 K’s, 2.50 WHIP) in our final game of the series against the Royals. And Schultz had a great night, though our bats did him no favors ... he pitched six innings and when he handed the ball to Shane Smith in the seventh the score was still 0-0. With two outs in the top of the seventh, Kansas City broke us with a two-run homer by MJ Melendez, and an absolutely putrid showing by our hitters doomed us from there. Syndergaard came out in the ninth and had a rough go of it, loading the bases and giving up a third run, but he got three strikeouts in a row to get us into the bottom of the inning ready to see this one end. We lost his one as a 3-0 shutout, getting outhit 6-1, with just three baserunners the entire game. Smith took the loss, falling to 5-4 with two hits and two runs, and Schultz had pitched six innings with two hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. What a waste. Joey Gallo “led” the team with a hit and a walk.

We’ll end the month with four games against the Yankees, who lead the AL East with a 78-55 record, 7.5 games up on the Blue Jays of Toronto who are tied with Kansas City for the top wildcard spot. We’re now 55-78 and in last place in the American League, though at least we can say we have better records than National League bottom-dwellers Colorado (52-81) and San Francisco (49-84). But we’ve lost seven of our last ten, so we’re hardly in a position to boast about anything.

jksander · 04-21-2025, 09:51 AM

August 28, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-8, 4.18 ERA, 125.0 IP, 72 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) took on Marcus Stroman (9-7, 4.06 ERA, 150.2 IP, 119 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) in our first of four games against the Yankees here at Rate Field. We took the lead in the bottom of the third with an RBI double by Austin Slater, but they immediately answered with a solo homer off their first batter of the fourth inning, Aaron Judge, tying it back up. Michael A. Taylor hit an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to get us back into the lead 2-1, but they tied it again with an RBI double by Anthony Volpe in the top of the fifth. We came back at them with a three-run homer by Joey Gallo in the bottom of the fifth to go up 5-2, and Martin Perez took over on the mound in the sixth. They got a run back in the seventh with a solo homer by Anthony Volpe, and Cannon took over with one out and a man on second, letting them load the bases and then tying it up with a two-run single by Ben Rice. With two outs in the top of the eighth a wild pitch let Jazz Chisholm Jr score from third and they took their first lead of the game. We went down quietly from there, once we’d proven no lead was safe, losing this one 6-5. Cannon blew his third save of the year, but Penn Murfee took the loss, falling to 1-5 with a 4.76 ERA after allowing a hit, two walks, a strikeout and the final run of the game. They outhit us 13-7 and yet we had multiple chances to win and just couldn’t stomach it. Let’s give Gallo credit for the three-run homer and call it a day.

August 29, 2025: Sean Burke (5-13, 4.83 ERA, 121.0 IP, 131 K’s, 1.43 WHIP) pitched against Dylan Cease (12-7, 4.04 ERA, 151.1 IP, 174 K’s, 1.24 WHIP), who was sent to New York from San Diego back in July. The Yankees got out to a 3-0 lead after the first two innings, but Gallo and Lee each picked up an RBI in the fourth, and a sac-fly by Starling Marte tied it up 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth, an RBI single by Vargas giving us the one-run lead heading into the sixth. Syndergaard came out in the sixth inning and got us through a pair, as an RBI single by Marte and another by Vargas extended our lead to 6-3 heading into the eighth inning. Martin Perez pitched the final four outs as we held tough to beat the Yankees 6-3 and tie the series at its midpoint. Burke got the win, improving to 6-13 with a 4.86 ERA, allowing four hits, two walks and three runs with seven strikeouts in his five innings. Syndergaard earned his fourth hold and Perez his fifth save, and we outhit the Yankees 11-6, led by Miguel Vargas who had two hits and two RBIs.

August 30, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (9-11, 4.19 ERA, 161.0 IP, 166 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) pitched against New York’s Carlos Rodon (10-9, 3.86 ERA, 144.2 IP, 148 K’s, 1.13 WHIP). Pfaadt spotted the Yanks a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, and they added a fourth with two outs in the top of the sixth when Trent Grisham hit a solo bomb out of left. We scored three runs from there but were never in any real position to take momentum back, as the Yankees held us off easily enough 6-3. Pfaadt took the loss, with six hits, four walks and four earned runs in 5.2 innings, and they outhit us 9-7, our bats led by Ken Teel with two hits, a run and an RBI.

August 31, 2025: Yu Darvish (10-9, 3.90 ERA, 140.2 IP, 132 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) pitched in our final game against the Yankees, facing Clarke Schmidt (14-6, 2.24 ERA, 169.0 IP, 170 K’s, 1.00 WHIP). Darvish got creamed, seven runs in fewer than three innings, but we inched our way back into the game with four unanswered runs across the third, fourth and fifth to trail the Yankees 7-5 heading into the top of the sixth. They got an RBI single from Jasson Dominguez to get the lead back to three runs midway through the sixth, but Marte hit a solo homer and Brandon Valenzuela added an RBI double to get us within one run heading into the top of the seventh! The Yanks scored again with two outs, an RBI single by Jazz Chisholm Jr extending their lead to 9-7 as we went into the stretch, and a 10th run scored for them in the top of the eighth as Paul Goldschmidt singled against our beleagured bullpen. Valenzuela hit a sac-fly in the botom of the eighth to get us back within two, but that was as close as it got. New York stumped us 10-8 and we’ll enter the final month of the season with a 56-81 record, just 25 games left to be played. Darvish took the loss, allowing seven hits, three walks, seven runs and four strikeouts in just 2.2 innings of “work,” but our bats kept us in this one and we were only outhit 16-14. Our rookie catcher Valenzuela hit three times for a run and three batted in, and Starling Marte had three hits, three runs and two RBIs including two homers, giving him seven on the season.

This week we’ll hit the road for four in Minneapolis against the Twins (76-61, 1st AL Central), followed by three in Detroit (62-76, 4th AL Central), returning to Chicago to play Tampa (64-72, 4th AL East) for three and then finishing our season against the division when we play three in Cleveland (70-66, 3rd AL Central).

jksander · 04-21-2025, 02:32 PM

September 1, 2025: We’re waiting to make any September call-ups until we’re sure we won’t be bringing back Otto Lopez and Chaise Meidroth off the IL (decisions that should be made within the next few days. Noah Schultz (6-4, 3.16 ERA, 82.2 IP, 81 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) pitched game one of the four-game Twins series, facing Chris Paddack (8-6, 3.93 ERA, 128.1 IP, 113 K’s, 1.20 WHIP). Brandon Valenzuela hit a two-run homer in the top of the fourth to put us into the lead, and in the top of the fifth we added on with an RBI single by Joey Gallo, an RBI triple from Andre Lupcius and a sac-fly by Valenzuela to give us a solid 5-0 lead! Gallo hit a two-run homer in the sixth and Valenzuela hit an RBI single as the game became a blowout, but a bases-loaded wild pitch got the Twins on the board in the bottom of the sixth on two outs. With bullpen arms warming, Matt Wellner hit a two-run triple, and then Royce Lewis hit an RBI single to add on as the Twins suddenly were back in this one, trailing 8-4. Noah Syndergaard took over to get that final out, successfully ending the frame with our lead still safe. They got a run back with two outs in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a sac-fly by Austin Meadows, but Andre Lipcius hit a two-run slam out of left in the top of the eighth to get us back some momentum as we increased the lead to five runs. Martin Perez made quick work of them in the bottom of the eighth, but he loaded the bases without an out in the ninth, forcing us to go to Bazardo out of the bullpen. A sac-fly on one out by Willi Castro got the Twins to within four with runners on first and second, and Bazardo plunked Meadows on the shoulder to reload the bags ... but a pop-fly to short ended this one as a 10-6 win for our White Sox. Schultz pitched 5.2 innings and allowed six hits, two walks and struck out four while letting them score the four runs that started the whole Twins comeback attempt ... he still got out of it with a win, and we outhit Minnesota 16-9, led by Lipcius in the DH spot, who hit three times and walked once, scoring four times and driving in three while missing out on a cycle by just a base hit. Bazardo earned a save, his ninth, by coming in with the bases loaded and avoiding a complete nuclear meltdown.

September 2, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-8, 4.15 ERA, 130.0 IP, 75 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) pitched against Zach Elfin (0-3, 7.66 ERA, 24.2 IP, 19 K’s, 1.46 WHIP) in game two, and the Twins broke it open in the bottom of the third with an RBI single by Austin Meadows to take the game’s first lead. With two outs they got an RBI double from Matt Wallner, and Wallner scored moments later off a single by Emmanuel Rodriguez, digging us a 3-0 hole in the blink of an eye. Shane Smith took over in the fifth inning, but it was already over we just didn’t know it yet. Minnesota stumped us from there, winning 5-1 as they evened the series and kept control on first place in the AL Central. Weber took the loss and fell to 6-9, allowing five hits, a walk and three runs in his four innings, and the Twins outhit us 11-6. Yordys Valdes led the offense with two hits and an RBI.

Otto Lopez returns to our lineup ahead of tomorrow’s game, but he’ll be playing a backup role to Brooks Lee for the remainder of the season. No word yet on Meidroth, who would take our 28th roster spot if he returns.

September 3, 2025: Sean Burke (6-13, 4.86 ERA, 126.0 IP, 138 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) pitched against Bailey Ober (9-7, 3.93 ERA, 132.2 IP, 144 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) in game three, and we took an early lead with an RBI double by Miguel Vargas in the top of the first. But Minnesota answered quickly with a two-run homer by Byron Buxton in the bottom of the inning, though the game at least stayed close from there. Burke got us through the sixth inning without further scoring, and in the top of the seventh we tied the score off a Michael A. Taylor RBI single, getting us into the stretch tied 2-2. Julian Merryweather took over in the bottom of the inning, and with two outs he gave up a hit into left by Carlos Correa that scored three for the Twins and put this one to bed. They’d hold on to that lead, beating us 5-2 in what had been a hard-fought close battle until that inning. Each team hit seven times, and Merryweather took the loss, falling to 0-3 with a two hit, one walk, three run stretch in the seventh and eighth. Brooks Lee led our offense with two hits and a run scored.

Chase Meidroth will come off the IL and return to the leadoff spot in our lineup, as our starting third baseman, effective in time for tomorrow’s game four against the Twins in Minneapolis.

September 4, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (9-12, 4.27 ERA, 166.2 IP, 170 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) pitched against Joe Ryan (11-8, 3.94 ERA, 148.1 IP, 193 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) in our last game of the year against the Twins. We broke the stalemate with an RBI single by Brandon Valenzuela in the top of the sixth inning, and Martin Perez took the ball in the sixth as we hoped to keep the lead on a soggy night in the Twin Cities. Penn Murfee got us through the seveenth, but Syndergaard was not so lucky, loading the bases in the eighth and giving it all back with a two-run single by Willi Castro. He got the outs we needed to get into the top of the ninth, but he’d blown all our momentum, and Chase Meidroth grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end this one as a 2-1 loss. Syndergaard blew his third save and fell to 6-6, allowing four hits, a walk and two runs in his inning, striking out a pair. They outhit us 7-6, Valenzuela leading the way with two hits and an RBI for us.

jksander · 04-21-2025, 02:33 PM

September 5, 2025: Onward to Motown for three, as we pitched Yu Darvish (10-10, 4.27 ERA, 143.1 IP, 136 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) against Detroit’s Tyler Holton (7-7, 3.26 ERA, 138.0 IP, 122 K’s, 1.14 WHIP). After trading runs in the first two innings, we took the lead in the top of the fourth with a two-run homer by Michael A. Taylor that put us up 3-1 on the Tigers. Craig Kimbrel took over in the sixth inning, still up by a pair, striking out the side, and Martin Perez came out to pitch with one out, Matt Vierling on third in the botom of the seventh, promptly giving up an RBI double to Zach McKinstry and an RBI single to Colt Keith as we blew yet another lead. A three-run homer for Spencer Torkelson put the nails in, and Perez didn’t even get out of the damned inning. That job went to Jonathan Cannon, who got the final out and sent us into the eighth inning trailing 6-3 after the five-run bloodbath. Cannon stayed out the rest of the way, and we lost by that same 6-3 margin, Perez getting the blown save (his fifth) and the loss (his sixth) as he let them have five hits and four runs off him. We were outhit 13-8, Michael A. Taylor’s three hits, a run and two RBIs our only real bright spot after the collapse.

September 6, 2025: Noah Schultz (7-4, 3.36 ERA, 88.1 IP, 85 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) pitched against Thomas Szapucki (3-4, 5.14 ERA, 42.0 IP, 46 K’s, 1.50 WHIP), and we took the lead in the top of the second off a groundout by Valdes that scored Brooks, only to let them have it back in the bottom of the third with a Javier Baez solo homer. Schultz got us through the sixth with the score tied 1-1, but when our bats stayed silent he had to hand the ball off to Merryweather who got us through the seventh. Shane Smith pitched in the eighth, keeping us tied, and finally in the top of the ninth a Miguel Vargas RBI single put us into the lead! Eduard Bazardo came out in the bottom of the inning and kept them from making anything happen as we held tough to the 2-1 victory! Smith got the win, improving to 6-4 with a 4.50 ERA, and Bazardo earned his 10th save of the season as we outhit the Tigers 8-7 behind a three hit, one RBI night from Miguel Vargas.

Mike Tauchman is ready to come off the injured list, and we’ve waived Lenyn Sosa to make room for him.

September 7, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-9, 4.23 ERA, 134.0 IP, 76 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) pitched against Jack Flaherty (5-15, 6.55 ERA, 136.0 IP, 171 K’s, 1.46 WHIP) in our last game against the Tigers. Detroit took the lead in the bottom of the second with a sac-fly by Dillon Dingler, but Yordys Valdes tied it up with an RBI single in the top of the fifth and Weber got us through the sixth inning without letting them have an inch. Penn Murfee took over in the bottom of the seventh with the score still tied 1-1, but with two outs Colt Keith hit an RBI double to give them back the lead. Chase Meidroth hit an RBI single to tie it back up in the top of the eighth, and Merryweather took the ball in the bottom of the inning, keeping it that way into the ninth. Shane Smith got us into extra innings with three quick outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Gleyber Torres walked it off in the bottom of the 10th with a single into left, beating us 3-2 to take the series win. Martin Perez took the loss, falling to 5-7 with a 5.20 ERA with a hit, a strikeout and the unearned run. They outhit us 9-7, our bats led by Meidroth who had two hits and an RBI.

We’re off tomorrow and then will play Tampa (66-76, 4th AL East) in Chicago for three and then hit Cleveland (74-68, 3rd AL Central) for our last three divisional games. After that we’ve got two weeks of play remaining, including home series against Baltimore (73-69, 3rd AL East) and San Diego (70-72, 3rd NL West), followed by road series against the Yankees (84-58, 1st AL East) and the Nationals (61-81, 5th NL West). Our 58-86 record has us seven games out of fourth in our own division, and we’re now the worst team in the majors not playing in San Francisco (the Giants are 52-90).

jksander · 04-21-2025, 03:05 PM

September 9, 2025: Sean Burke (6-13, 4.77 ERA, 132.0 IP, 142 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) pitched against Tampa’s Taj Bradley (7-8, 3.75 ERA, 163.0 IP, 188 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) in our first of three games here at Rate Field. Tampa had a 4-0 lead going in the middle of the fourth, but RBI singles for Vargas and Tauchman got us on the board in the bottom of the inning and a Brandon Valenzuela RBI single in the sixth got us back within a run. But a solo homer for Christopher Morel got the Rays back to a two-run lead heading into the stretch, and they added on in the ninth to put the game well out of reach, beating us 7-3 in the process. Burke lost his 14th game of the season despite striking out nine batters, allowing them six hits and four earned runs. Tampa outhit us 11-9, with Vargas leading our bats with two hits and two runs.

September 10, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (9-12, 4.14 ERA, 171.2 IP, 176 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) pitched against Zach Littell (8-15, 5.09 ERA, 173.1 IP, 155 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) in game two, and Tampa took the lead in the top of the fifth with an RBI single by Jonny DeLuca. Pfaadt got us through the sixth, with Martin Perez taking the ball in the seventh still trailing 1-0. But in the bottom of the inning Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run blast out of right, his 17th homer of the season, to shoot us into the lead. Unfortunately in the top of the eighth they tied us on a solo homer by DeLuca, so it was up to Vargas to hit an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to get us back on top heading into the ninth, leading the Rays by one run. Noah Syndergaard struck out a pair and then quietly got them to ground out to end it from there as we held tough to win 3-2! Craig Kimbrel got the win, improving to 3-3 with a 6.05 ERA, getting through his inning with two walks and a strikeout, and Syndergaard saved his second game of the year to bring his ERA to 3.40 through 111.1 innings. We outhit them 9-5, led by Michael A. Taylor with two hits, a run and two RBIs.

September 11, 2025: Yu Darvish (10-10, 4.19 ERA, 148.1 IP, 140 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) pitched in our final game against the Rays, taking on Shane McClanahan (7-10, 4.33 ERA, 162.0 IP, 181 K’s, 1.35 WHIP). We traded runs in the first inning, but we took the lead in the bottom of the third off an RBI single by Michael A. Taylor, scoring another when Starling Marte reached on an E5 error that allowed Tauchman to score from third. But we blew it in the top of the sixth when, with one out, Yandy Diaz hit a two-run slam out of left to tie the score at 3-3. Pat Murfee came out to get the final two outs, and we went into the stretch still knotted at three-all. Kimbrel got us through the eighth without giving up any runs, and with two outs in the ninth and Ben Rortvedt on first we brought out Eduard Bazardo to get Jonny DeLuca to pop out to right and give us a chance in the bottom of the inning. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Starling Marte on second, Kyle Teel hit a single into left, giving Marte enough time to slide home as we pulled out the 4-3 win, our first series win since beating Atlanta two out of three on the road in late August. Bazardo got the win, improving to 4-2 on the season with a 3.02 ERA, through 44.2 innings, and we outhit them 7-6, led by Tauchman who hit three times for two runs and an RBI.

The win improves our record to 60-87 ahead of our road trip to face the 75-72 Guardians.

jksander · 04-21-2025, 04:27 PM

September 12, 2025: Noah Schultz (7-4, 3.24 ERA, 94.1 IP, 92 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) pitched against Gavin Williams (11-11, 4.09 ERA, 156.1 IP, 164 K’s, 1.31 WHIP), and it was a bloodbath after we took an initial 2-0 lead in the top of the second thanks to a two-run Valenzuela homer. After that, the Guardians scored six unanswered runs across the second, third and fourth innings, and we’d go on to lose this one 6-2, handing Schultz his fifth loss of the season in one of his worst starts of his young career -- seven hits, six runs and just two strikeouts through five innings. We matched them on hits with nine, with Valenzuela’s two-run homer our only offense.

September 13, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-9, 4.11 ERA, 140.0 IP, 77 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) faced Tanner Bibee (11-9, 3.41 ERA, 182.1 IP, 199 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) in game two, and in the bottom of the fifth Weber got shellacked, giving up four runs with just one out as we had to pull him for Shane Smith after what had been an incredibly quiet game to that point. It certainly got no better from there, and the Guardians put us to bed quietly as we lost 6-0. Weber fell to 6-10, allowing five hits and four runs with three walks and a pair of K’s in his 4.1 innings of work ... they only outhit us 8-7, but in this case eight was enough (okay, one more pun like that and I’ll fire myself). Brooks Lee led us with two hits to nowhere, but had to leave the game late with an undisclosed injury. Here’s hoping it’s not serious.

September 14, 2025: We’ve moved Lee to the IL with his injury still “undetermined,” and went into tonight’s final game against the Guardians with Sean Burke (6-14, 4.86 ERA, 137.0 IP, 151 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) pitching against Bryce Miller (9-7, 4.71 ERA, 149.0 IP, 142 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) who has done next to nothing for Cleveland since the Mariners traded him in early July. Cleveland got a run in the bottom of the fourth and we answered with one in the fifth, and Merryweather took over in the bottom of the sixth still tied 1-1. He got one out but gave up five runs as we got completely reamed, and the Guardians took the opportunity to crush us in the end as we lost 6-1 in a series sweep. Burke allowed five hits with a walk and six strikeouts in his five innings, allowing just the one run, but Merryweather took the loss while allowing five hits and five runs with a strikeout in a much smaller pitching window. Cleveland hammered us 12-2 on hits, and even adding on our three walks it was a rout we’d made look closer than it was. Only Terrell Tatum did anything offensively with a hit and an RBI, and we’ll return to Chicago to face Baltimore with our spirits about as low as you can get ... we just have to get though these last couple weeks and can then focus on the offseason and making this team better for 2026.

04-03-2025, 10:46 AM	#62
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	July 11, 2025: Noah Schultz (4-0, 1.54 ERA, 35.0 IP, 32 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) has done better than anyone could have dreamed as a rookie, and tonight against Cleveland, he battled Gavin Williams (7-8, 3.80 ERA, 97.0 IP, 100 K’s, 1.36 WHIP) as we hoped to gain further ground in the divisional race. We got going quickly, Brooks Baldwin hitting a leadoff homer, in his very first at-bat of the season, and Gallo hit one two batters later on two outs. Michael A. Taylor then hit an RBI single to add on a run, and we held a solid 3-0 lead heading into the second inning. Cleveland got on the board in the top of the second with an RBI single from Daniel Schneemann, but Miguel Vargas hit a solo homer in the bottom of the third to get it back, and in the bottom of the fifth we added on with a double by Teel that batted home Miguel Vargas from second. Craig Kimbrel took over for Schultz with two outs and men on first and second in the top of the sixth, getting us out of the inning with the 5-1 lead still secure, but we collapsed completely in the seventh -- easily the worst I’ve seen all year -- Brandon Eisert had come out to pitch with an out and two on due to walks, and he let Tyler Freeman hit an RBI single to get them going, and then Jose Ramirez hit a grand slam to shoot them into the lead by a run. Kyle Manzardo hit a solo homer off Penn Murfee a few minutes later, and Gabriel Arias had an RBI double, giving the Guardians an 8-5 lead heading into the stretch ... unbelievable! We, completely demoralized, stumbled through the rest of the game and lost by the same margin. Schultz had a great start, 5.2 innings with five hits, two walks, seven strikeouts and one earned run, but the bullpen as a whole completely failed him, and they outhit us 10-9. Brooks Baldwin, in his first game up from AAA Charlotte this season, hit twice and had his homer, and Teel added two hits and an RBI. July 12, 2025: Sean Burke (5-7, 4.34 ERA, 87.0 IP, 84 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) pitched against Slade Cecconi (3-7, 4.28 ERA, 88.1 IP, 80 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) in game three of the series, and the Guardians broke a 2-2 tie in the third inning with five runs we had absolutely no answer for. This one didn’t offer much excitement as we quietly went down 7-2. They outhit us 13-8, our bats led by Gallo with two hits and an RBI, and Burke took the loss, not even getting out of the fourth inning -- five hits, six walks and six runs against him with five strikeouts, dropping him to 5-8 with a 4.78 ERA. One game left until the All Star break, and we can definitely use a rest. Brock Sell, our third rounder, has agreed to his $850,000 bonus offer and will join our Arizona Complex League team. The 18-year-old is a long term prospect for sure, but profiles as a solid defensive player at multiple positions, and should eventually hit for solid contact and walk often due to his patience at the plate. July 13, 2025: The All Star rosters have been announced, and second baseman Otto Lopez will be our team’s lone participant. Lopez has hit .327/.368/.435 with two homers, 10 stolen bases, 125 wRC+ and 2.2 total wins above replacement. Colson Montgomery will play in the All Star Futures game, at first base as the #57 prospect in the country ... but he’s only hit .200 this season at AA Birmingham. Hagen Smith might have made that game had he not sprained his ankle last week ... he won’t return to the Birmingham roster at AA until at least August, and his season to this point has been a disappointment from a development standpoint. Tonight we played our final game of the four-game series against Cleveland, and after two rough losses we’d love to get a win here to at least split the series and give ourselves a dignified finish to the first half of the season. Ryan Weber (3-6, 4.23 ERA, 89.1 IP, 57 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) pitched against Hunter Gaddis (3-6, 4.98 ERA, 90.1 IP, 77 K’s, 1.42 WHIP). Cleveland scored first with an RBI single by Jose Ramirez in the top of the first, but Teel scored in the bottom of the second when Austin Slater reached on an E7 error, and in the bottom of the fifth we took the lead when Michael A. Taylor hit a solo homer, his ninth, to put us up 2-1. Teel hit an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to add a little insurance, and though Eduard Bazardo let Tyler Freeman hit an RBI single to get the Guardians back within one, we held our ground and escaped with a 3-2 win, splitting the series and sending us into the break with a 41-56 record. Weber improved to 4-6 with a 4.10 ERA thanks to five innings with five hits, five K’s and a run scored, and Bazardo got his fourth save of the year ... he now has a 2.87 ERA through 37.2 total innings. They outhit us 10-5, which makes the win even sweeter, Teel leading the way for us with two hits, a run and an RBI. Attached Images __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Last edited by jksander; 04-03-2025 at 03:03 PM.

04-03-2025, 12:27 PM	#63
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	July 14, 2025: The American League Future Stars beat out the NL’s team in an 8-2 blowout, outhitting their prospects 13-7! Colson Montgomery was the designated hitter and had two hits, a walk, a run and three RBIs, earning the MVP award for the game! That’s definitely a feather in his cap, and hopefully his strong performance will spark him to compete in the back half of the season for AA Birmingham, as the Barons are currently in third place in a tight race in the Southern League’s North Division, just one game behind the Knoxville Smokies and Chattanooga Lookouts who are 43-36. The Barons led the first half at 39-30, so they’re hoping rally and win the back half as well. Our seventh round pick, Marcelo Harsch, has agreed to his $950,000 bonus offer, and the 18-year-old may be ready to move up to the Carolina League to play for A-level Kannapolis next season ... but for now we’re going to put him on our Arizona Complex League team. He needs to sigificantly improve his two secondary pitches, but his stuff profiles as potentially well above average despite control issues that could plague him long term. He’ll definitely be a player we watch. I don’t tend to put a ton of time into studying guys in our International Complex, but our scout did discover a player I’ll be keeping an eye on. Ed Garcia, 16, is a Panamanian discovery, and he profiles as a potentially brilliant defensive infielder. It’s obviously too early to get excited about a random player find, but if he is as good as I think he’ll be defensively, I’m damned glad we got him on a minor league contract and didn’t have to pay out big money as an IAFA. From what I’ve seen he’s already quite a confident young player, something he’ll need to maintain during the long development process. HOME RUN DERBY FIRST ROUND Anthony Santander (TOR) vs. Taylor Ward (LAA): Santander struggled early, but picked up steam in the final minute, getting three homers in the final sixty seconds to finish with seven (would have been eight, but his final one didn’t get in under the buzzer). But Ward didn’t fare much better, stuck at four well into the third minute of competition. But he got two in thirty seconds, tied Sandander with :42 left on the clock, and ten seconds later he hit his final one to win it 8-7. Shohei Ohtani (LAD) vs. Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD): Shohei hit eight dingers in this round, three of them coming in the final eighty seconds, but Tatis Jr. was on fire ... he tied it up with 1:16 to go, and with 44 seconds remaining he hit his ninth to win the round 9-8. Jesus Sanchez (MIA) vs. Mookie Betts (LAD): Sanchez hit three in a row in the first thirty seconds, and he had ten by the halfway point, by far the best performance of this derby! He cooled down the stretch, but still finished with 14 homers, setting a very high bar for Betts. But after a slow start, Betts heated up ... at one point he’d hit three in a row, missed one and then hit four more, and in the final thirty seconds he hit back to back slams to tie it at 14-14 at the buzzer, and n a judges decision, Betts was declared the winner as the higher seed. Corey Seager (TEX) vs. Brent Rooker (ATH): Seager fought hard and got himself a dozen homers in his four minutes of action, setting Brent Rooker up for another tough go ... would he be the first higher seed to lose this one? In this case, the answer was yes. Rooker had a terrible showing, only managing to hit five in his four minutes, becoming visibly frustrated down the stretch as commentators questioned what had gone wrong with the mechanics of his swing. Seager advanced with a strong 12-5 win. SECOND ROUND Taylor Ward (TOR) vs. Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD): This was not a great round by any means ... Ward barely managed to hit six during his time, setting up Tatis Jr. for what was expected to be a quick win. He too struggled with a lot of longball fouls, but he tied it with 1:22 to go and got the win with a little more than a minute left on the clock, beating Ward 7-6. Mookie Betts (LAD) vs. Corey Seager (TEX): Betts came out strong, hitting 10 out of the park in his four minutes on the clock, and though Seager tried (getting five homers quickly in the first two minutes), he struggled down the stretch with weak contact and Betts advanced by winning this round 10-8. That sets up a final round between him and Tatis Jr, with both players having hit well in the first two rounds! HR DERBY CHAMPIONSHIP Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD) vs. Mookie Betts (LAD): Fernando Tatis Jr. gave the fans what they wanted in his half of the round, putting up 11 homers including one that squeaked through at the buzzer, ensuring Betts would have to put some work in if he wanted to win this challenge. And it looked like Tatis Jr. would win it, leading 11-8 with just 45 seconds left, but Betts locked in and hit four in the next 39 seconds to win it with six seconds to spare, beating Tatis Jr. 12-11! Incredible finish, and the fans loved every second of it! July 15, 2025: Cody Frietas, our fourth rounder, accepted his $650,000 signing bonus and has been sent to our Arizona Complex League team. The All Star game played out in the AL’s favor as our American League All Stars stumped the NL’s stars 6-4, in a game with each team knocking in eight hits. Otto Lopez came in as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the fifth and stayed in at center field, and he wound up walking twice (fifth inning and seventh inning) though he was unable to join in the scoring fun. We’ve got a couple days off to rest up, and then we’ll begin the back half of the season with a pair of road series against Pittsburgh (41-56, 5th NL Central) and Tampa Bay (46-51, 3rd AL East). We’ll then finish out our month with three against the Cubs (48-48, 3rd NL Central) and three against the Phillies (46-50, 3rd NL East) at home in Chicago. None of those teams have winning records, so it would be great to see our team come out kicking to finish July on a strong note. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Last edited by jksander; 04-03-2025 at 03:05 PM.

04-06-2025, 12:05 PM	#64
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	OOC: Been battling migraines for the last couple days, but finally got back into this today. Hoping not to have the back half of the season drag on too long, since the offseason's going to be where I can really start putting my stamp on this team. July 18, 2025: Yu Darvish (8-5, 3.63 ERA, 106.2 IP, 101 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) started our first game against the Pirates’ Mitch Keller (7-7, 4.54 ERA, 101.0 IP, 84 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). Unfortunately Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the second and we spent the rest of the game chasing them. We scored our only run in the top of the third, a Chase Meidroth sac-fly coupled with an E8 error let Michael A. Taylor tag up and score from third. But the Pirates added on in the fifth and sixth and were able to hold us off with relative ease to win 4-1. Darvish took the loss, despite six innings with six hits, a walk, eight strikeouts, all four runs applying to him, and we were outhit 7-4. Taylor wound up with our only run, and Otto Lopez hit twice but got nowhere. July 19, 2025: Noah Schultz (4-0, 1.55 ERA, 40.2 IP, 39 K’s, 0.84 WHIP) pitched against Jared Jones (5-6, 3.25 ERA, 83.0 IP, 75 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) in our second game in Pittsburgh, and in the top of the fourth we took the lead with a Meidroth RBI double after three innings of excellent work from our rookie hurler. Meidroth would score thanks to a single by Tauchman, giving us a 2-0 lead midway through the inning. In the top of the fifth Austin Slater hit an RBI double and Michael A. Taylor added a two-run homer to expand our cushion, and Schultzie got us into the eighth unblemished! Shane Smith took over in the bottom of the inning with the five-run lead, and he shut them down efficiently as we locked in with a 5-0 shutout win! Schultz pitched seven innings with two hits, a walk and eight strikeouts as he improved to 5-0 with a 1.32 ERA, and Smith added two innings with a hit, a walk and three strikeouts as his ERA improve to 4.32. We outhit them 10-3, led by Meidroth who had two hits, two walks, a run and an RBI. JoJo Parker, our first rounder, agreed to his signing bonus of $6,890,000 and he’ll take his spot on our Arizona Complex League rookie team. We’re still waiting on Ryan Reich (44th pick) and Bruin Agbayani (137th pick). Agbayani is destined for rookie league, but Reich, who is playing in the MLBDL right now, has the potential to rise quickly to AA Birmingham. July 20, 2025: Sean Burke (5-8, 4.78 ERA, 90.1 IP, 89 K’s, 1.37 WHIP) pitched against Braxton Ashcraft (4-5, 4.05 ERA, 86.2 IP, 76 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) in our final game of the Pittsburgh series, and though poor infield defense nearly screwed us in the bottom of the second, Burke managed to keep us in the game early. Joey Gallo scored off a groundout by Kyle Teel in the top of the fourth to put us up 1-0, and Burke struck out the side in the bottom of the inning and got two more K’s in the fifth to give us a chance to build on it. But our bats stayed silent, and Julian Merryweather took over in the sixth, and he promptly blew the save by letting Andrew McCutchen drive in the tying run with a line-drive single. Eisert took over from there, a wild pitch allowing the go-ahead, but in the top of the seventh Teel hit a line drive single into right to tie it up again and an RBI double for Taylor put us back on top 3-2 heading into the stretch. We added on in the eighth when Gallo scored on a wild pitch to make it a 4-2 ballgame. Bazardo took the ball in the ninth, and he got three quick outs to secure the 4-2 win as we took the series two games to one. Burke lasted five innings with two hits, a walk and seven strikeouts, but he’s been cold lately so I understand why Guillen replaced him in the sixth. Merryweather got one out and the blown save but Eisert held tough for 2.2 innings and didn’t allow a hit or a walk, notching a strikeout as he improved to 1-3 with a 4.13 ERA. Bazardo got his fifth save, and we outhit Pittsburgh 6-4, led by Teel who had a hit, a walk, a run and two RBIs. Miguel Vargas also had two hits, scoring once. We’ll head to Tampa next, and hope to be able to build on this series win. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-13-2025, 09:00 PM	#65
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	July 21, 2025: Ryan Weber (4-6, 4.10 ERA, 94.1 IP, 62 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) pitched in game one against the Rays, facing Ryan Pepiot (8-4, 3.09 ERA, 116.1 IP, 118 K’s, 1.10 WHIP). And he did well until, two outs in the third, Yandy Diaz hits a ground ball into left to drive in a run for Tampa. But our bats woke up in the fourth, or at least Teel’s did ... he hit a three-run blast out of right to shoot us into the lead, which gave Weber the confidence he needed to lock in. Tauchman started the fifth with an RBI single, and Gallo scored off a sac-fly by Slater to extend the lead to 5-1, and Weber got two outs in the sixth before being replaced with no one on base by Jonathan Cannon. We tacked on three more in the top of the seventh, and we shut them down easily to win 8-1! Weber got the win, improving to 5-6 with a 3.96 ERA thanks to 5.2 innings with four hits, a walk, a strikeout and a run ... not flashy, but he got it done! Cannon went 1.2 innings with a hit and a walk, and Brandon Eisert pitched 1.2 innings with no baserunners, striking out two as we outhit the Rays 9-5. Kyle Teel was 3-3 with a walk, two runs and four RBIs, easily earning Player of the Game honors. July 22, 2025: Martin Perez (5-5, 1 SV, 5.12 ERA, 63.1 IP, 41 K’s, 1.52 WHIP) pitched against Shane McClanahan (5-6, 4.53 ERA, 107.1 IP, 120 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) in game two against Tampa, and again they struck first, an RBI triple by Jonny DeLuca putting them up 1-0 with two outs in the bottom of the second. But we tied it in the top of the third with an RBI double by Meidroth, and Starling Marte singled in the go-ahead, Meidroth scoring from third to put us up 2-1. With one out in the bottom of the fifth Kameron Misner hit a solo homer out of left, his sixth of the year, to tie it up, but Perez got the outs we needed to avoid giving them a lead, and Penn Murfee came out to pitch in the sixth. Yandy Diaz hit a towering homer over the center field wall with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but Gallo had one in his back pocket that he unleashed in the seventh to send us into the stretch tied 3-3. Merryweather came out with one out and a man on second to get us out of a tight spot in the bottom of the seventh, doing the job on just five pitches! He got through the eighth with just 11 more thrown, keeping us in this one and showing why I traded for him. We weren’t able to get anyone across in the ninth, so Ozzie Guillen kept Merryweather on the mound in the bottom of the inning -- a questionable decision in retrospect, as with just one out and men on first and second he then brought out Noah Syndergaard, who suddenly had to face a high pressure situation that could have been avoided. He got one out by pop-fly to center, but was not lucky the second time around -- Ben Rortveldt came out and slugged a three-run homer over the wall in right to walk it off, in a game we could have won. Merryweather took the loss, pitching two innings with a hit, a walk, a strikeout and two earned runs, and we were outhit 8-7, Gallo leading the way with a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI and his 14th homer of the season. July 23, 2025: Yu Darvish (8-6, 3.75 ERA, 112.2 IP, 109 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) started our final game in Tampa, facing Taj Bradley (4-7, 4.45 ERA, 113.1 IP, 131 K’s, 1.39 WHIP). After four and a half innings of neutral duelling between the two pitchers, Darvish blinked first in the bottom of the fifth and Jose Caballero got on base with a single that drove in the first run of the game for the Rays. Kimbrel took over in the botom of the sixth, still trailing 1-0, and immediately Brandon Lowe hit a solo homer out of right to add on. Jonathan Cannon came out to pitch in the seventh, and Tampa added an RBI single by Caballero with two outs to make it a three-run lead. A two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth sealed it for good, as our bats put up absolutely no fight in the 5-0 loss. Darvish pitched five innings with four hits, two walks and four strikeouts, taking the loss, and we were outhit 9-3 ... you can’t win if you don’t score any runs at all, no matter what your pitchers do. Joey Gallo was our only player to get on base twice, with a hit and a walk. Next up we head back to Chicago where we’ll play the Cubs (54-48, 2nd NL Central) for three and the Phillies (50-52, 3rd NL Central) for three, with an off day for the final day of the month which will be the official trade deadline. At this point in the season we’re definitely not buyers, but we’re performing better than expected on the field ... I don’t want to overreact with big “seller” moves if they’re not going to help us significantly in the very near future. July 24, 2025: Ryan Reich, our second rounder in this year’s draft, accepted his bonus of $75,000 and will continue playing in the MLB Draft League for the Trenton Thunder, after which he’ll be moved to the South Atlantic League to play for our A+ Winston Salem Dash. The Draft League will finish playing in mid-August. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-14-2025, 03:45 PM	#66
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	July 25, 2025: Noah Schultz (5-0, 1.32 ERA, 47.2 IP, 47 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) took on Justin Steele (10-5, 3.05 ERA, 138.2 IP, 142 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) in game one of our crosstown series, and the Cubs took the lead in the top of the second off a one-out single with the bases loaded by Josh Rojas. Moments later a sac-fly by Ian Happ made it a two-run game. Our bats stayed completely quiet, and in the top of the fourth Rojas hit a three-run homer out of center to turn this into a 5-0 rout. Shane Smith took over in the top of the fifth, and he got us into the stretch without further damage. Mike Tauchman hit an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to get us on the board, and Eisert came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, but the Cubs were relentless. A two-run homer by Dansby Swanson made it a six-run lead, and Ian Happ knocked in two with a blast out of right against Jonathan Cannon in the ninth as they completed the 9-1 blowout win. Schultz lost his first game as a major leaguer, a four-inning effort with six hits, a walk, four strikeouts and five earned runs, giving him a 5-1 record and 2.09 ERA. The Cubs outhit us 10-7 but seven of their runs came off three homers, while Tauchman’s hit and a run were our offensive highlight. July 26, 2025: Sean Burke (5-8, 4.53 ERA, 95.1 IP, 96 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitched in game two against the Cubs’ Matthew Boyd (8-4, 3.41 ERA, 121.1 IP, 128 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). The Cubs took the lead in the top of the second with a sac-fly by Pablo Aliendo and an RBI single by Happ, and our pitchers spent the rest of the game destroying themselves trying to keep the game close enough for our bats to do some work for a change. It didn’t happen. The Cubs didn’t score again, but we didn’t score at all, losing this one 2-0. Burke, who only had two hits in four innings, also happened to walk six batters with five strikeouts, letting the two runs score ... and we outhit them 6-2 and still couldn’t do a goddamned thing. What a waste! Starling Marte had two hits to nowhere in the loss, but the rest of our bats might as well have stayed home. We completed two trades this afternoon ... First, the Minnesota Twins sent us 35-year-old reliever Michael Tonkin, 24-year-old second baseman Brooks Lee and 19-year-old third baseman Hendry Chivilli in exchange for Tristan Grey, who has struggled to get past AAA for us this year and was therefore expendable. We then sent 29-year-old minor league left fielder Cory Julks to Cleveland in exchange for 32-year-old reliever Jacob Junis, 19-year-old first baseman Luis Merejo and 23-year-old middle infielder Yordys Valdes. Tonkin we released immediately, at a cost of $351,000 and change, and Junis will replace Eisert in our bullpen for the moment, though his future isn’t secure. The biggest reasons for the moves were Lee and Valdes ... Lee is immediately going to replace Lenyn Sosa in the major league lineup, while Valdes will take over at shortstop. Both players immediately improve our team defensively, and they’re young with plenty of upside. July 27, 2025: Ryan Weber (5-6, 3.96 ERA, 100.0 IP, 63 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) pitched against Ben Brown (3-7, 5.49 ERA, 105.0 IP, 96 K’s, 1.58 WHIP) in our final game aginst the Cubs on our field. The Cubs built a 3-0 lead by the middle of the third, but we got a run through in the bottom of the third off a Chase Meidroth single that scored Michael A. Taylor from second. Jonathan Cannon took over in the top of the seventh still trailing 3-1, but Seiya Suzuki got the Cubs back to a three-run lead with a groundout that scored Happ from third. They added on a run in the eighth, and again our offense completely failed to deliever as we lost 5-1. Weber pitched six innings with seven hits, a walk and three strikeouts, allowing three runs as his record fell to 5-7 with a 3.99 ERA, and we were outhit 12-4. Vargas walked twice, and Taylor had a hit, a walk and a run, but we’ve now lost five games in a row while being outscored 27-5, and all the good work we put in before the All Star break seems to be sliding away. We’ll take our 44-62 record into our next series agianst the Phillies, who come to town with a 51-54 record and third place in the NL East. We’ll then start the month of August on the road, with trips to play Hosuton (49-57, 4th AL West) and Seattle (55-51, 2nd AL West) for three apiece. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-14-2025, 04:55 PM	#67
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	July 28, 2025: Early this morning we made a huge trade with the Diamondbacks, sending 27-year-old catcher Jorge Alfaro and $17,500,000 cash to Arizona in exchange for 26-year-old right handed starter Brandon Pfaadt! Pfaadt has a 6-10 record so far this year for Arizona, but has a 4.68 ERA through 130.2 innings, 144 strikeouts, and a 1.22 WHIP. He’s also got all his arb years remaining, though he may become eligible for arbitration after this season. We’re calling up 24-year-old defensive catcher Brandon Valenzuela from AAA Charlotte to back up Kyle Teel, and have brought up Pfaadt into the starting rotation while waiving / DFA’ing Jacob Junis, who we’re hoping to be able to keep as a backup option in the minors if he clears waivers. Pfaadt just pitched yesterday, so he’ll take the fifth spot in our rotation for now while he rests. But he should be a solid addition to our roster immediately with his excellent control of his arsenal, and gives us hope as we build our rotation for the coming seasons. Yu Darvish (8-7, 3.67 ERA, 117.2 IP, 113 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) started against Philly’s Christopher Sanchez (5-5, 3.56 ERA, 103.2 IP, 93 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) this evening, and though the Phillies took the lead in the top of the first with an RBI single by Bryce Harper, Brooks Lee hit a two-run blast in the bottom of the second to get us our first lead in what seemed like weeks! Chase Meidroth hit an RBI double that got us another run with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, and a sac-fly by Miguel Vargas got Meidroth in to score, putting us up three runs. Martin Perez took over on the mound in the top of the seventh, and immediately the Phils got a homer off the bat of Brandon Marsh to cut our lead to two ... but Perez held his own, and kept us in the lead, as we went into the stretch ahead by a 4-2 margin. Brooks Lee hit an RBI single in the bottom of the inning, and a wild pitch allowed him eventually to score from third as we expanded our lead again, and with a four-run lead Noah Syndergaard took the ball in the top of the ninth. He did manage to get an out in there somewhere, but it came between a two-run blast by Edmundo Sosa and a solo bomb by Trea Turner that turned this into a one-run game with Bazardo frantically warming in the pen. Bazardo took over with two outs, nobody on, and A.J. Realmuto hit one to short, for a quick throw out to first as we held on to the 6-5 win by the skin of our teeth. Darvish got the win in a six inning effort with seven hits, six strikeouts and a single earned run, and Bazardo got the save with one out on three pitches, his sixth of the season. Philly outhit us 12-9, our bats led by newcomer Brooks Lee, who had two hits, two runs and three RBIs, as he made himself right at home with our team in his second game. June 29, 2025: Noah Schultz (5-1, 2.09 ERA, 51.2 IP, 51 K’s, 0.85 WHIP) pitched against Philly’s Aaron Nola (3-11, 4.87 ERA, 114.2 IP, 112 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). It didn’t start out great ... Trea Turner hit a leadoff homer in the top of the first to spark the Phils. But Schultz kept his head, and Michael A. Taylor answered with a homer of his own in the bottom of the second to tie it up. Brooks Lee got us the lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, and Schultz got us through five. Shane Smith took the ball in the top of the sixth, getting us through two more scoreless innings, and Merryweather came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, the lead still at just one run. Eduard Bazardo came out in the ninth, and he pitched around a single by Realmuto to hold this one as a 2-1 win! Schultz, pitching on four days’ rest, made it through five innings with six hits, two strikeouts and the one earned run, improving to 6-1 with a 2.06 ERA, while Bazardo saved his seventh game and kept his ERA at 2.16. They outhit us 8-6, but Tauchman had three hits and a run, while Brooks Lee had a hit and the RBI that put us into the lead for good. June 30, 2025: Our starters are exhausted, so today we’re hoping to get into the off day using our long relievers to craft a full game without having to start anyone on short rest again. Noah Syndergaard (5-5, 1 SV, 3.86 ERA, 79.1 IP, 58 K’s, 1.01 WHIP) started us out against Philly’s Ranger Suarez (5-7, 5.04 ERA, 105.1 IP, 87 K’s, 1.43 WHIP), and for the second game in a row their leadoff hitter (this time Justin Crawford) hit a homer in the team’s first at-bat. Syndergaard only lasted 1.2 innings but Shane Smith got the final out in the second to keep us within a run, and our bats got going in the bottom of the inning -- Starling Marte hit an RBI double to tie the score, Brooks Lee hit an RBI double to give us the lead, and after a wild pitch, an RBI single by Otto Lopez let Lee score from third to give us a 3-1 lead! Smith got us through the fourth inning, and Jonathan Cannon took over in the fifth to help keep our lead protected. Mike Tauchman hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to add on, extending our lead to three runs as Cannon stayed in to get us safely through the sixth. Penn Murfee took over in the seventh, and with two outs and runners on the corners we brought out Martin Perez, who let the runner on third score off a wild pitch. But we went into the stretch still leading 4-2. With two outs and Bryce Harper on first, Otto Lopez got hurt sliding to make a catch and had to be pulled from the game ... thankfully we had Brooks Lee as our DH, fully capable of taking over in the field. But we were shaken up when Brandon Marsh hit an RBI double to cut the lead to one, sending us into the bottom of the inning with a much more tenuous 4-3 lead. Unable to add any runs on, Craig Kimbrel came out to pitch with the game on the line in the top of the ninth. With Trea Turner on second and Bryson Scott on first, two outs in the bag, Kimbrel faced down Bryce Harper and got him to strike out swinging as we got out of here with the 4-3 win and the sweep! Shane Smith got the win, improving to 5-3 with a 2.1-inning effort, allowing just one hit and three strikeouts with no earned runs as he improved his ERA to 3.84. Murfee and Perez each got holds, and Kimbrel saved his first game of the year (his 441st of his career!) as he improved his ERA to 6.17 in his 42nd appearance this season. We did not do any further trading ahead of the deadline, and will focus on getting through the final two months of this season with class and composure. Our record is now 47-62 heading into the road trip through Houston and Seattle, and we still have an outside chance of finishing with 70 wins, which is something that would have been inconceivable four months ago. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-14-2025, 06:01 PM	#68
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	August 1, 2025: Sean Burke (5-9, 4.53 ERA, 99.1 IP, 101 K’s, 1.36 WHIP) got our first start against Houston, battling Hunter Brown (6-5, 2.70 ERA, 126.2 IP, 124 K’s, 1.08 WHIP). Houston got on the board in the bottom of the first with a groundout by Jose Altuve that let Jeremy Peña score from third. We tied it up in the top of the fourth with an RBI single by Brooks Lee, and we unleashed on the Astros in the top of the fifth, when Joey Gallo hit a three-run double to rocket us into the lead! Brooks Lee added an RBI double of his own to send us into the bottom of the inning with a 5-1 lead! Jonathan Cannon took over for a gassed Burke to start the inning, They got a run back in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an RBI double by Ben Gamel, and we brought Merryweather out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh still leading by three runs. But with runners on second and third with one out, we had to go to Murfee in the pen ... Houston got closer with a sac-fly by Altuve, but we got out of the inning still leading by a pair. Craig Kimbrel took the ball with one out and men on the corners in the bottom of the eighth, getting us out of the inning with both runners properly stranded, setting up Bazardo to pitch in the ninth with a two run lead to protect. With two outs and men on first and third, Zach Dezenzo came to the plate ... and hit a three-run towering slam out of left, GAME OVER ... we lost 6-5 in a heartbreaker as the stadium practically shook. Bazardo blew his first save of the year and took the loss, falling to 3-2 with a 3.32 ERA thanks to three hits, a strikeout and three earned runs. They outhit us 11-8, ruining Gallo’s night ... he’d led the way with a hit, a run and three RBIs thanks to his double that would have won the game if we could have just held on. Otto Lopez’s injury from two days ago was supposedly just a sore elbow, but doctors are now saying it could be a month before he fully has it back under control, so we’ve moved him onto the IL. Lenyn Sosa, who we came close to trading several times, will now step back up to the 25-man roster, where he’ll be our backup at both 2B and 3B for the forseeable future. August 2, 2025: Brandon Pfaat (6-10, 4.68 ERA, 130.2 IP, 144 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) made his first start as a White Sox starter, facing Houston’s Ronel Blanco (6-7, 5.60 ERA, 107.2 IP, 121 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) in tonight’s game. Yanier Diaz homered off him to start the second inning, putting Houston ahead 1-0, but we tied it up in the top of the fourth with an RBI double by Michael A. Taylor. So Diaz hit ANOTHER in the bottom of the fourth, putting them back up 2-1, so we answered again in the top of the fifth with a Meidroth RBI double to tie it again. Pfaat couldn’t stop their power, however, and with two outs in the bottom of the fifth he let Taylor Trammell hit a two-run blast to give them the lead again 4-2 ... though he got us out of the inning he knew his night was over. Shane Smith took over in the sixth, and they piled on from there. Isaac Paredes hit a two-run blast out of center in the bottom of the sixth on two outs, and Jonathan Cannon got us through the rest of the game though we lost 6-3. Pfaadt took the loss, pitching five innings with five hits, a strikeout and four earned runs, all of those coming off homers. We outhit them 9-8, but all their runs came off the long-ball. Miguel Vargas led the team with two hits and a run, while Yordys Valdes added two hits, a walk and a run as well. August 3, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-7, 3.57 ERA, 123.2 IP, 119 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) got the start in our final game in Houston, taking on Cristian Javier (0-1, 3.86 ERA, 7.0 IP, 5 K’s, 2.00 ERA), who prior to tonight had just three relief appearances and a start this season as an opener. In the top of the second we loaded the bases on Javier, and with two outs Chase Meidroth walked in a run to give us the lead! But Javier stayed out, so he wasn’t to be merely an opener this afternoon. Michael A. Taylor hit an RBI single on two outs in the top of the third to drive in another run, but we lost Darvish due to an undisclosed injury, which spiraled all our plans out of control -- he’d not allowed a single baserunner in the first two innings! He was going great! We had to go to Syndergaard out of the bullpen, and he acquitted himself well from the mound, getting us through the fifth inning without any runs scoring. Michael A. Taylor hit a solo homer to lead off in the sixth, giving us a 3-0 lead, and Julian Merryweather came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning, pitching around loaded bases to keep the Astros scoreless once again. Martin Perez took the ball in the seventh, and Brandon Valenzuela, our 24-year-old rookie catcher, hit a two-run blast out of left to extend the lead in the top of the eighth, his first major league homer in just his 17th at-bat! Perez got us through the rest of the game as we held on to the 5-0 win, a shared shutout that involved four pitchers! Noah Syndergaard improved to 6-5 with a 3.75 ERA thanks to his three innings with two hits, a walk and two strikeouts, and Martin Perez had a three-inning save, throwing 29 pitches and not allowing a single baserunner! We outhit the Astros 11-3 in this one, led by Michael A. Taylor, who hit 4-5 with two runs and two RBIs. We’re incredibly pleased to announce that Darvish’s injury was just a badly jammed thumb, and he should be able to pitch at full strength for his next start. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-14-2025, 07:21 PM	#69
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	August 5, 2025: We’re in Seattle for a three-game set against the 59-54 Mariners, and are hopeful that we can find some rhythm after getting the big win in Houston two days ago for our 48th win of the year. Noah Schultz (6-1, 2.06 ERA, 56.2 IP, 53 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) got the start against George Kirby (8-8, 4.65 ERA, 120.0 IP, 116 K’s, 1.27 WHIP), and we got him a lead from the beginning, with Mike Tauchman hitting an RBI single in the top of the first to score Chase Meidroth from second. Schultz got out of a bases-loaded jam in the second, leaving two more stranded in the third as we fought to hold the lead. Schultz held tough through six innings to hold the 1-0 lead, and Julian Merryweather took over in the seventh. Penn Murfee came out in the eighth, getting one out before Luke Raley hit a solo shot out of right to tie us up 1-1 ... and when we couldn’t get any runs to score in the top of the ninth, Murfee came out with ice in his veins to keep it tied into extra innings. With Yordys Valdes on second as the automatic runner in the top of the 10th, Chase Meidroth took a leadoff walk and with one out Mike Tauchman hit a shot into center field, driving in Valdes for the go-ahead! Both runners advanced on a strikeout by Joey Gallo, but Vargas batted out to center so we went into the bottom of the inning with just a one run lead. Martin Perez came out in the bottom of the inning, walking Dylan Moore and then striking out Lane Thomas and Cal Raleigh back to back ... that brought up Luke Raley, who had homered in the eighth to tie it, with Victor Robles in scoring position. Three strikes and he was out swinging, and we’d held tough to win 2-1 in 10 innings ... what a great win! Murfee got the blown save, his fifth, and the win, his first ... he’s now 1-3 with a 4.02 ERA through 53.2 innings in 49 appearances. Perez earned his third save in a razor-tight situation, but it was all set in motion by Schultz’s six innings of work to start us out ... two hits, three walks, four strikeouts and no runs. We outhit them 11-3, so it was maddening to think that we only put up one run in regulation, but at least we got it done. Tauchman led the way with three hits and two RBIs, and our young catcher Valenzuela had three hits, bringing his average up to .273 through his first six games. We’d gotten him in the same trade that brought us Yu Darvish, and his defensive abilities are going to make him the real steal of that deal when all’s said and done. August 6, 2025: Ryan Weber (5-7, 3.99 ERA, 106.0 IP, 66 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) got the start in game two in Seattle, facing Luis Castillo (8-6, 4.41 ERA, 122.1 IP, 132 K’s, 1.27 WHIP). This game was a real duel early on, with four scoreless innings for each team, We got two outs into the bottom of the fifth before Weber finally cracked as Victor Robles hit an RBI single, taking second as a trailing runner as the Mariners went up 1-0. But we answered quickly, scoring off an RBI single by Miguel Vargas in the top of the sixth to tie the game, taking the lead just moments later when Brooks Lee hit an RBI double to push us ahead 2-1! Noah Syndergaard came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning, and he got us through two solid innings before Julian Merryweather took over in the bottom of the eighth, still leading by one. He got us through the inning quickly, and when our bats didn’t add anything, Eduard Bazardo came out to protect our lead in the bottom of the ninth. Seattle thought they’d won it when, with two outs and men on first and second, Alex Call hit a hard flyball into deep center ... it looked like it might clear the wall, but Taylor made an incredible leaping catch and came away with it as we won another nailbiter, again by a 2-1 margin! Weber got the win, lasting five innings with five hits, two walks, two strikeouts and an earned run, while Syndergaard (2) and Merryweather (5) each earned holds. It was Bazardo who weathered the high leverage situation in the ninth, earning his eighth save with a hit, a walk, a strikeout and nobody scoring. They outhit us 7-6, but Brooks Lee led the way with two hits and two RBIs, and Yordys Valdes was involved in two bang-bang double player that helped us stay in the lead late. August 7, 2025: Sean Burke (5-9, 4.35 ERA, 103.1 IP, 106 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) started our final game in Seattle, battling Jackson Rose (5-4, 5.55 ERA, 58.1 IP, 47 K’s, 1.47 WHIP). Seattle broke the stalemate in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out fly-ball double by Jorge Polanco that allowed Randy Arozarena to score, giving the Mariners a 1-0 lead. J.P. Crawford hit one to center to drive in another, the throw coming in too slow from Taylor to get the out at home plate, and we went into the top of the fifth trailing by a pair. We got on the board in the top of the sixth with a sac-fly by Miguel Vargas, and Penn Murfee took over for a visibly gassed Burke in the bottom of the inning. Unfortunately he gave up a solo homer to Cal Raleigh, the first batter he faced, and moments later he let Dylan Moore hit a three-run slam out of left to pile on big time. Shane Smith came out with one out to put out the fire, and Kimbrel took over in the seventh but there was no unringing that bell. We took a beating tonight and lost this one 8-1. Burke took the loss, falling to 5-10 with a 4.15 ERA thanks to five innings with just three hits, though he walked four with six strikeouts and allowed a pair of unearned runs. We were outhit 11-9, and though Tauchman, Gallo and Valenzuela each had two hits, neither of them were able to get anything done with them. We’ll return to Chicago for a three-game set against Cleveland, with the Guardians at 60-55 and trailing the division leading Twins by just a pair. We’ll then face Detroit (56-60) at home and Kansas City (58-57) on the road, before playing Atlanta (74-42, 1st NL East) on the road before a six-game home stretch against the Twins (62-53) and the Royals. With 15 of our next 18 games against division rivals, we have a chance to play spoiler and show we can finish strong. Or we’ll fade quietly into the night as we dream of the future. Attached Images __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-15-2025, 06:12 PM	#70
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	August 8, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (6-11, 4.78 ERA, 135.2 IP, 145 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) got the start against Cleveland’s Hunter Gaddis (4-8, 4.71 ERA, 114.2 IP, 98 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) in the first game of our series here at Rate Field, and in the top of the second the Guardians took the lead off a sac-fly by Tyler Freeman. Pfaadt got through five hard-fought innings without conceding any more runs, and in the bottom of the fifth, with the bases loaded and one out, Joey Gallo tied the score off an RBI single, and our next batter, Miguel Vargas, hit a three-run double to rocket us into the lead 4-1! Noah Syndergaard took over in the top of the sixth, and in the bottom of the inning we added on with an RBI double by Tauchman. Martin Perez came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, still leading by four runs, and a Tauchman homer increased our lead to five runs in the bottom of the eighth. Penn Murfee came in with one out in the top of the ninth and ended the game on a pair of strikeouts as we stumped the Guardians 6-1! Pfaadt had five innings with six hits, seven strikeouts and an earned run ... no walks, as he won his first game as a White Sox starter. We outhit Cleveland 10-7, led by Mike Tauchman, who had two hits, two walks, two runs and two RBIs. August 9, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-7, 3.51 ERA, 125.2 IP, 120 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) started against Tanner Bibee (10-6, 3.45 ERA, 143.1 IP, 160 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) in game two against the Guardians. In the top of the first Cleveland took the lead with one out and the bases loaded when Bo Naylor hit a sac-fly into deep right. Johnathan Rodriguez hit an RBI single to add on, and Gabriel Arias reached to load the bags again thanks to an E5 groundball error. Darvish was having an awful inning, and when he let Tyler Freeman hit a two-RBI single off his 40th pitch of the inning we had to start warming arms. He got out of the inning with us trailing 5-0, and had thrown 53 pitches with four hits, three walks and five runs (three earned) against him. Out of concern that he’s dealing with a nagging injury, we pulled him for Jonathan Cannon in the second inning. Cleveland added a run in the sixth with a solo homer by Jose Ramirez, and though our bullpen played well all night, that first inning haunted us as Cleveland shut us out 6-0. Darvish took the loss, and we were outhit 10-6, Meidroth leading the way with a pair of hits ... nobody on our team walked. That was about as thorough a beatdown as can be delivered, and they did the bulk of it in that one inning. August 10, 2025: Noah Schultz (6-1, 1.87 ERA, 62.2 IP, 57 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) has become a huge fan favorite already, and today he battled Cleveland’s Bryce Miller (9-7, 4.55 ERA, 120.2 IP, 114 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) who was recently acquired by them from Seattle ... in his two starts for the Guardians he’s yet to see a decision, but has thrown 10 innings with a 0.90 ERA, eight strikeouts and a 1.00 WHIP), so he’s definitely adapted well to the move. Schultz struck out the side in the top of the second, and in the bottom of the inning we took the lead off a bases-loaded RBI double by Michael A. Taylor that scored us two runs. Starling Marte beat out an infield blooper to reach first safely AND drive in the run from third, and Mike Tauchman piled on with an RBI single that made it a 4-0 lead heading into the top of the third. The Guardians got on the board in the top of the fifth with a two-run homer by Tyler Freeman, and they got another on two outs when Jose Ramirez hit an RBI double to drive in a third. The Guardians tied it thanks to an RBI single by Johnathan Rodriguez, and the collapse became complete when Gabriel Arias hit a three-run homer to ruin Schultz’s night. With two outs and the deficit now at 7-4, Noah Syndergaard came out to get the final out of the inning, via a quiet stirkeout, and suddenly we had work to do, and we absolutely were NOT up to it. Syndergaard pitched brilliantly, getting us through the top of the ninth with the same three-run deficit, but our bats had gone completely silent and we lost 7-4, showing zero fight once we got destroyed in that miserable fifth inning. Schultz fell to 6-2 in a schizophrenic game ... he allowed nine hits, but didn’t walk anyone, and he struck out eight in 4.2 innings, but they scored seven on him all at once in a brutal beatdown. Syndergaard kept it from getting completely out of hand, pitching 4.1 innings with a hit and two strikeouts, improving his ERA to 3.41 through 92.1 innings in 28 appearances. We were outhit just 10-8, led by Michael A. Taylor with two hits, a run and two RBIs. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-15-2025, 07:22 PM	#71
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	August 11, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-7, 3.89 ERA, 111.0 IP, 68 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) pitched against Detroit’s Reese Olson (6-6, 3.86 ERA, 123.2 IP, 107 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) in our first of three against the Tigers. In the bottom of the first, Chase Meidroth reached on an E7 error, Austin Slater walked and Mike Tauchman beat out an infield hit to load the bases as we’d plated our first three batters. With Gallo at the plate, Meidroth scored off a wild pitch, both remaining baserunners advancing, but we left them both stranded and were unable to pile on when the opportunity presented itself. Parker Meadows hit a solo bomb out of right in the top of the second to tie it up, but we retook the lead in the bottom of the third with an RBI single by Gallo. Again they tied it up in the top of the fifth, this time with an RBI double by Gleyber Torres, and Jonathan Cannon came out to pitch in the sixth tied up 2-2. They immediately took the lead thanks to a solo homer by Kerry Carpenter to lead off, and when Merryweather came out to pitch in the seventh we trailed still 3-2. Martin Perez took over in the eighth, same story, and he gave us two great innings to still have a chance heading into the bottom of the ninth. We didn’t even put up an ounce of fight, and lost this one 3-2. Unbelievable! What will it take for this team to put up any kind of offense in tight situations? Jonathan Cannon took the loss, falling to 1-5 with a 4.50 ERA after a two hit, two strikeout one run sixth inning, and Detroit outhit us 10-5. Meidroth led the team with a hit, a walk and a run, while Gallo had a hit and an RBI. August 12, 2025: Sean Burke (5-10, 4.15 ERA, 108.1 IP, 112 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) took on Detroit’s ace Tarik Skubal (11-5, 2.66 ERA, 154.0 IP, 103 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) in game two against the Tigers. Brooks Lee strained his back in the top of the fourth and had to be replaced by Lenyn Sosa, but we still got out of the inning unblemished as both teams took no-hitters into the fifth inning. Burke blew his in the fifth with one out, when Colt Keith got a base hit thanks to a slow-bouncing ball to second ... but the game stayed scoreless. We cracked, however, in the sixth when Matt Vierling hit an RBI single on no outs to give the Tigers a lead, and Penn Murfee took over on the mound with runners on first and second. By the time he got us out of the inning we trailed 3-0 in a game where their ace still hadn’t conceded a hit, and he’d only allowed a single baserunner to boot. With two outs in the sixth we got our first hit, a single by Meidroth ... but we didn’t score. Shane Smith took over in the top of the seventh with two outs and nobody on, and in the bottom of the eighth with Skubal now out of the game, we finally showed some life ... with two outs, Meidroth hit an RBI single to get us on the board, and Austin Slater walked the bases loaded, but we were unable to capitalize, leaving all three runners stranded. Noah Syndergaard took over in the top of the ninth, getting us into the bottom of the inning still trailing by a pair, but again our bats were silent when it counted and we lost 3-1. Burke took the loss, allowing four hits, three walks and three runs with seven strikeouts in his five innings. They outhit us 7-4, Meidroth showing our only signs of life with two hits and an RBI. If we’d had any hopes of climbing back into the divisional race they’ve been dashed by now. With one game left against the Tigers we’ve now lost four in a row and five of our last six, and it doesn’t get easier from here. We’ve only lost five in a row once this year, and would love to snap this streak to keep from matching that stretch or besting it. August 13, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (7-11, 4.67 ERA, 140.2 IP, 152 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) pitched in our last win, but tonight he’s got to face red hot starter Tyler Holton (6-6, 3.12 ERA, 127.0 IP, 109 K’s, 1.13 WHIP), who has given up just two runs (one earned) in his last two starts, neither of which saw him earn a decision. The Tigers took the lead in the top of the first off a solo homer by Andy Ibanez, but we were able to tie it up in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Starling Marte, and a two-run homer by Tauchman in the fifth gave us a 3-1 lead! Pfaadt pitched his way through seven innings, one of the best starts for any of our pitchers all season, but our spirits were dampened when Tauchman was injured in the bottom of the inning after being hit in the hand with a pitch ... diagnosis pending. Martin Perez took over in the eighth inning, and he got us through the remainder as we held on to win 3-1, snapping the losing streak. Pfaadt won his second game with our team, a solid seven inning effort with five hits, a walk, seven strikeouts and a single earned run, and we outhit Detroit 7-5. Yordys Valdes led the team with three hits and an RBI, helping the rookie keep his average above .200 through his 15th game. We’re off for a day and then hit the road to face the 61-59 Royals of Kansas City, who are currently third in the division and just four games out of first. We, meanwhile, are 13.5 games back with a 52-69 record as we do what we can not to fumble our way to the end of the season. August 14, 2025: Tauchman’s injury was as bad as I expected ... a fractured finger will keep him out at least a month and is more than likely going to end his season. Through 113 games, the 34-year-old hit .254, with 18 doubles, a triple and 13 homers, giving him 55 RBIs and 2.2 wins above replacement. We’re going to call up Terrell Tatum from AAA Charlotte, a utility player in the outfield who can capably play all three positions, though he’s best in left field. The 26-year-old has hit .280 with 20 doubles and 29 RBIs this year in AAA, and this will be his first trip to the big leagues as many wondered whethere he’d get the chance at all. In order to make room for him on the 40-man, we had to waive fourth-backup catcher Matt Thaiss, who at age 30 will be released if he clears waivers and refuses a minor-league assignment. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-16-2025, 07:47 PM	#72
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	August 15, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-8, 3.62 ERA, 126.2 IP, 120 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) says he’s ready to go and our pitching coaches concur, so he started today against Shane Bieber (2-2, 5.31 ERA, 40.2 IP, 37 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) who was traded from Cleveland on July 26. But Darvish almost immediately gave up an RBI double to Bobby Witt Jr in the first inning, and it went pretty much like last time ... loaded bags on one out? Check. RBI single from MJ Melendez to add on a run? Check. On two outs he let Michael Massey hit a single that drove in two more, and we were in a 4-0 hole after one inning, though this time Darvish was at 23 pitches, not 60. He gave up another run on two outs in the third, and we tried to give him the fourth inning so we could preserve our bullpen but he gave up back to back doubles and a run, exiting the game for Syndergaard without getting a single out. He’ll get the rest of the season to try and work out his kinks, but it’s looking more and more like he’s hanging on to his career by a thread, and we’re the ones who will be stuck eating upwards of $46 million if he doesn’t see the light himself -- though at least we got Valenzuela in that same deal. Syndergaard had a thankless job, entering the fourth inning with no outs while trailing 6-0, with a runner in scoring position. He gave up a two-run homer to Bobby Witt Jr on his first pitch of the night, and that summed up the rest of our game entirely. We wound up burning through six pitchers tonight, and all it got us was a 12-4 blowout loss. Darvish took the loss, of course, allowing 10 hits, two walks and seven earned runs with no strikeouts, and he’s now 5-8 since joining our team ... not great results. We were outhit 15-8, our offense led by Bobby Valenzuela, who hit a two-run double in the top of the seventh. August 16, 2025: Noah Schultz (6-2, 2.67 ERA, 67.1 IP, 65 K’s, 0.95 WHIP) faced off against Angel Zerpa (2-2, 2 SV, 4.59 ERA, 49.0 IP, 42 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) in game two against the Royals, and they got on the board in the bottom of the first with a sac-fly by Vinnie Pasquantino. Nelson Vasquez hit a two-run homer to add on in the bottom of the fourth, and our batters continued to hardly be able to hit the broad side of a barn. Another run scored off a wild pitch, and with Pasquantino on second and one out we had to bring out Penn Murfee trailing 4-0. He got us through that inning and the sixth and seventh as well, and Shane Smith took over in the eighth, getting us into the top of the ninth trailing by four with no hope at all. But we saw sparks at the start of the inning, with a leadoff walk for Slater, a single for Vargas and then another walk by Gallo to load the bags, no outs! Michael A. Taylor took the count full and then walked in a run, getting us on the board as the Royals started to look pained. But Brooks Lee and Starling Marte struck out swinging, and Brandon Valenzuela then did the same but looking ... and we lost this one 4-1, squandering a really great opportunity against a tough road opponent. Schultz took the loss, falling to 6-3 with a 3.01 ERA thanks to 4.1 innings with eight hits, a walk, two strikeouts and four earned runs. They outhit us 11-5, Miguel Vargas leading our offense with two hits to nowhere, while Talor walked in our only run. Otto Lopez suffered a setback in his recovery from an elbow injury while already on the IL, and will now miss at least two more weeks. He will then likely spend the rest of his season rehabbing in the minors, so his major league season will end with a .315 average, 20 doubles, a dozen stolen bases and 2.3 WAR, as he batted in 32 runs for us. August 17, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-7, 3.88 ERA, 116.0 IP, 70 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) started against Michael Wacha (8-12, 4.16 ERA, 145.1 IP, 122 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) in our final game of the series against the Royals. They took the lead in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Salvador Perez, and Noah Syndergaard took over in the bottom of the sixth still trailing by that one run. Julian Merryweather came out to pitch in the eighth, keeping us in the game ... but our bats failed again and we lost 1-0, proving to be incable of even the most rudimentary of offense. Weber fell to 6-8, lasting five innings with five hits, a walk, a strikeout and a run, and our two bullpen arms lasted three innings combined with two strikeouts and no baserunners. But in a game where we held them to five hits, we managed three, and even with two walks added were unable to make anything of it. Meidroth had two hits, and that’s about all I can say as we endured the sweep and fell to twenty games below .500 at 52-72. We’ve got no choice but to drag our asses back to the airport, because tomorrow we start a three-game set against the 80-45 Braves, carrying a three-game losing streak with us that seems destined to expand while playing the second-best team in the majors (only the 86-38 Dodgers are better, with their Kajillion-dollar roster and all). __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Last edited by jksander; 04-17-2025 at 11:50 AM.

04-17-2025, 12:35 PM	#73
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	August 18, 2025: Sean Burke (5-11, 4.21 ERA, 113.1 IP, 119 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) pitched against the Braves’ Grant Holmes (9-4, 4.12 ERA, 118.0 IP, 125 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) who has been on a cold stretch that he’s only now starting to come out of. Atlanta didn’t waste a lot of time, taking the lead in the bottom of the first off a one-out solo homer by Matt Olson. Austin Riley hit an RBI double to add on, giving them a 2-0 advantage after one. Burke had to come out of the game with two outs and two men on in the bottom of the fourth, with Atlanta leading 6-1, and the remainder of the game was a blur of Atlanta hitting, Atlanta scoring, White Sox cowering. They creamed us 10-1, outhitting us 15-4 as we were completely dominated. Burke had eight hits and six earned runs in 3.2 innings, walking two and striking out four as he lost his 12th game of the season. Miguel Vargas had a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI to lead our meager offense. August 19, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (8-11, 4.51 ERA, 147.2 IP, 159 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) pitched in game two, facing Spencer Strider (10-5, 2.69 ERA, 117.0 IP, 169 K’s, 0.97 WHIP). This one turned into a real pitching duel, with neither team getting much of a foothold early on. Pfaadt got us through six scoreless innings, and in the top of the seventh we broke through with a solo homer by Miguel Vargas to take a 1-0 lead heading into the stretch! Julian Merryweather came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning, and he pitched around a pair of baserunners to keep our slim lead. Noah Syndergaard took over in the eighth, still leading by one run, and he couldn’t hold it ... with one out Marcell Ozuna hit an RBI single, Austin Riley coming all the way from first to third in the chaos, but we were able to get into the top of the ninth still tied at 1-1. Of course we went down three strikeouts in a row to continue our offensive woes, so Kimbrel came out in the ninth to try and get us into extras. He was successful, setting them down quietly in the ninth on just six pitches, and in the top of the tenth Vargas and Gallo each walked, giving us loaded bases with Austin Slater, our free-runner, on third. Brandon Lee hit a sac-fly on one out to drive home Slater for a one-run lead, and Starling Marte hit one into right field, driving in another with a single! With a two-run lead in hand, Kimbrel came out confidently and was able to strike out Michael Harris II and Jarred Kelenic swinging, getting Ronald Acuna Jr to ground out harmlessly to first as we stunned the Braves 3-1 in 10 innings. Kimbrel pitched two innings with three strikeouts and nobody getting on base, improving his record to 2-3 with a 6.19 ERA through 52.1 innings. The Braves outhit us 8-4, but Vargas made things happen on the basepaths with a hit, a walk, two runs and an RBI as we manufactured a win out of whole cloth. August 20, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-9, 4.03 ERA, 129.2 IP, 120 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) is officially on a cold streak, but he’s got the ball tonight in game three against Chris Sale (9-6, 3.44 ERA, 162.0 IP, 186 K’s, 1.07 WHIP). But Darvish came out strong tonight, striking out their first three batters swinging, and in the top of the second we took the lead off an RBI double by Brandon Valenzuela to go up 1-0! Darvish then let Austin Riley hit a weak single, walked Marcell Ozuna, and then struck out Jarred Kelenic, Sean Murphy and Orlando Arcia to get us into the third unscathed! Miguel Vargas hit an RBI double in the top of the third to extend our lead, and Lenyn Sosa hit another RBI double in the fourth to give us a 3-0 advantage! In the top of the fifth we got another RBI double, this time from Joey Gallo, and Darvish got us through the bottom of the inning safely, Shane Smith taking the ball for the bottom of the sixth with our lead at 4-0. Penn Murfee got us through the seventh, and Martin Perez came out in the eighth, letting the Braves get on the board with a solo homer by Matt Olson with one out, though he got two quick outs to end the inning with us still leading by three runs. We left nothing to chance, however ... Michael A. Taylor hit an RBI single to get that run back, and with two outs against us, Brooks Lee hit a three-run double to extend our lead to seven runs! Perez gave up another one-out solo homer, this time to Kelenic in the bottom of the ninth, but he shut them down from there and we won 8-2, stealing the series from the Braves as their fans looked on in disgust. Yu Darvish got the win, allowing just two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in his five innings. Even better, we outhit them 11-6, including SIX DOUBLES ... Brooks Lee led the way with two hits, two walks, two runs and three RBIs. We’re off tomorrow, and will then close out the month at home, with three against the Twins (70-58, 1st AL Central), three against the Royals (66-62, 3rd AL Central) and four against the Yankees (74-53, 1st AL East). We’ll then open the month of September with four on the road at Minnesota, followed by three games in Detroit (60-69, 4th AL Central). Beyond that, our only other games left against the division will be on the road September 12-14 against Cleveland (66-61, 2nd AL Central). That’s sixteen divisional games left ... we’re sitting at 54-73, well out of any wildcard hopes, but we’d love to play spoiler in what has turned into an incredible divisional race between Minnesota, Cleveland and Kansas City, the three teams being within four games of each other and all in legit playoff contention whether as division leaders or wildcard contenders. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-17-2025, 05:53 PM	#74
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	August 22, 2025: Noah Schultz (6-3, 3.01 ERA, 71.2 IP, 67 K’s, 1.02 WHIP) started game one against Minnesota’s Chris Paddack (7-6, 3.94 ERA, 118.2 IP, 105 K’s, 1.21 WHIP). The Twins took the lead minutes into the game when Byron Buxton hit an RBI double that drove home Austin Meadows, and a wild pitch seconds later scored another for them as Schultz looked gutshot. By the time he got us out of the top half of the inning we were in a 3-0 hole and he’d thrown 27 pitches for three hits and three earned runs, an incredibly rough stretch of bad luck. Miguel Vargas got us on the board with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning, and in the bottom of the second Yordys Valdes hit an RBI single to cut their lead to one. But they got one back in the top of the third with a solo blast out of center by Carlos Correa, and with two outs Matt Walker hit one of his own to make it a 5-2 lead. Schultz got us through the fifth inning, and Shane Smith took over in the sixth still trailing by three runs. But from there the game became a rout, as the Twins added on two more runs in the sixth and another pair in the eighth to crush us 9-2. Schultz fell to 6-4 with a 3.40 ERA, allowing five runs off five hits and a walk with six strikeouts in five innings’ work. He has struggled since mid-July, with four of his last six games featuring at least four earned runs, with three starts in a row resulting in losses. They outhit us 12-6, our offense led by Brooks Lee who hit twice and scored one run. August 23, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-8, 3.79 ERA, 121.0 IP, 71 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) started against Zach Elfin (8-13, 5.21 ERA, 131.1 IP, 88 K’s, 1.29 WHIP), who was traded from Baltimore to the Twins about a month ago. Two batters in, Minnesota had the lead thanks to an RBI triple by Austin Meadows, and they crushed us from there ... by the time Martin Perez took the ball from him in the top of the fifth, Weber had dug us a 7-0 hole to drown in. Chaise Meidroth strained a rib muscle in the bottom of the inning after hitting the RBI double that finally put us on the board ... he’s out at least two weeks, go figure ... but he sparked a rally that got us back within three runs, thanks to RBI singles by Austin Slater, Joey Gallo and Michael A. Taylor. And incredibly, we made the comeback complete in the bottom of the sixth, thanks to RBI singles by Slater, Gallo and Taylor as all three hitters have come to life out of nowhere! Perez got us into the stretch still knotted up 7-7, but with two outs in the eighth Merryweather gave up a fat pitch to Byron Buxton, who hammered it out of left for two runs. Syndergaard got us through the ninth with the score unchanged, and with one out Brandon Valenzuela walked the bases loaded, as we had a real shot to get back into this one! Kyle Teel pinch hit for Yordys Valdes, and with the count at 1-2 a wild pitch scored a run for us, getting us back within one! But with two outs, Cadyn Greniuer popped out harmlessly to center and we lost this one 9-8. Merryweather took the loss, falling to 0-2 with a 4.40 ERA in his 14th appearance for us, allowing two hits and two runs in his inning. They outhit us 17-12 in a true slugging game, and Austin Slater had a great night, hitting four times with a walk, two runs and two RBIs. We put Meidroth on the IL, and will call up infielder Andre Lipcius, 27, from AAA Charlotte -- he can capably play second and third, and has hit .250 this year with four doubles, three homers and 15 RBIs coming off the bench. To make room for him on the 40-man we had to waive 27-year-old lefty SP Jared Shuster, who is already getting too old to be this mediocre in the minors. He’s definitely not worth a 40-man spot, and if he gets claimed (doubtful) it’ll be no big loss. August 24, 2025: Sean Burke (5-12, 4.54 ERA, 117.0 IP, 123 K’s, 1.39 WHIP) got the start in our final game of this Twins series, facing Bailey Ober (8-7, 4.11 ERA, 122.2 IP, 131 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). Two outs into the first inning and Minnesota had their lead, thanks to a solo homer out of left by Buxton. Emmanuel Rodriguez hit one in the second to add on, and Austin Meadows made it a 3-0 lead in the top of the third with an RBI double. We trailed by four runs heading into the bottom of the third, and the rout was on by the end of the fourth with two more runs scoring for Minnesota as our team simply looked dead on arrival. Cannon took over in the fifth, and it took a total of six pitchers for us to get out of this one, losing 12-1 in a brutal beatdown. Burke took the loss with four innings of six hit, four walk, six run baseball ... though he did strike out eight. They outhit us 10-3, the new guy Lipcius getting a hit and a walk, batting in our only run of the game. Uuuuugly. We’re at rock bottom at this point, riding a three-game losing streak into our series against the Royals as the offseason really can’t get here quickly enough. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-19-2025, 12:18 PM	#75
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	August 25, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (8-11, 4.33 ERA, 153.2 IP, 161 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) pitched against Shane Bieber (4-2, 4.50 ERA, 54.0 IP, 53 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) in game one against the Royals, and in the bottom of the second Michael A. Turner gave us a solid lead when he hit a three-run homer out of center! Yordys Valdes hit an RBI single to add on in the fourth, but Kansas City got on the board in the top of the sixth with an RBI double off the bat of Vinnie Pasquantino. Starline Marte got us the run back with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning, and Joey Gallo hit a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh to give us a five run advantage. Julian Merryweather took the ball with one out and a man on first in the top of the eighth, and Taylor hit his second homer of the night in the bottom of the eighth to make it a six-run lead. Merryweather finished the job and we were able to cash in the 7-1 victory! Pfaadt has gone 3-1 since joining our White Sox, making it through 7.1 innings tonight with six hits, a walk, five strikeouts and one earned run. We outhit the Royals 10-6, led by Taylor, who had three hits, a walk, three runs and four RBIs, hitting his 14th and 15th homers of the season. August 26, 2025: Yu Darvish (10-9, 3.88 ERA, 134.2 IP, 127 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) pitched against Michael Wacha (9-13, 4.57 ERA, 155.2 IP, 125 K’s, 1.39 WHIP) in game two of the series, and the Royals got the lead in the top of the second off a solo homer by Nelson Velasquez. They added another in the fourth off the bat of Vinny Pasquantino, but in the bottom of the inning we tied the score on a two-run homer by Brooks Lee, and moments later Terrell Tatum hit a two-run double to put us into the lead 4-2. Joey Gallo added on with a homer in the fifth, and though they got that run back in the top of the sixth off a Pasquantino RBI single, we still led 5-3 when Kimbrel took over in the top of the seventh. Martin Perez came out to pitch in the eighth, and the Royals inched closer with an RBI double by Dairon Blanco, tying it with an RBI single by Bobby Witt Jr as Perez managed to blow the save opportunity. Penn Murfee took over in the ninth, still tied at 5-5, and they immediately took the lead off a solo homer by Velasquez, his second of the game ... two batters later, Michael Massey hit one to make it 7-5, and we brought Bazardo out of the pen with one out and Blake Mitchell on first, just wanting to end this one. We put up no resistance in the bottom of the inning and lost this one 7-5, a disappointing finish to a game we’d dominated through the seventh. Perez got the blown save, his fourth, and Murfee fell to 1-4 with a 4.69 ERA, allowing three hits and two runs with one strikeout in his one third of an inning. Each team had 11 hits, ours led by Tatum, who had two hits, a walk and two runs before injuring his shoulder in the outfield -- he’ll be day to day for at least four days as our outfield continues to get hammered. August 27, 2025: Noah Schultz (6-4, 3.40 ERA, 76.2 IP, 73 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) pitched against Kyle Wright (1-0, 9.00 ERA, 8.0 IP, 9 K’s, 2.50 WHIP) in our final game of the series against the Royals. And Schultz had a great night, though our bats did him no favors ... he pitched six innings and when he handed the ball to Shane Smith in the seventh the score was still 0-0. With two outs in the top of the seventh, Kansas City broke us with a two-run homer by MJ Melendez, and an absolutely putrid showing by our hitters doomed us from there. Syndergaard came out in the ninth and had a rough go of it, loading the bases and giving up a third run, but he got three strikeouts in a row to get us into the bottom of the inning ready to see this one end. We lost his one as a 3-0 shutout, getting outhit 6-1, with just three baserunners the entire game. Smith took the loss, falling to 5-4 with two hits and two runs, and Schultz had pitched six innings with two hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. What a waste. Joey Gallo “led” the team with a hit and a walk. We’ll end the month with four games against the Yankees, who lead the AL East with a 78-55 record, 7.5 games up on the Blue Jays of Toronto who are tied with Kansas City for the top wildcard spot. We’re now 55-78 and in last place in the American League, though at least we can say we have better records than National League bottom-dwellers Colorado (52-81) and San Francisco (49-84). But we’ve lost seven of our last ten, so we’re hardly in a position to boast about anything. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-21-2025, 09:51 AM	#76
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	August 28, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-8, 4.18 ERA, 125.0 IP, 72 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) took on Marcus Stroman (9-7, 4.06 ERA, 150.2 IP, 119 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) in our first of four games against the Yankees here at Rate Field. We took the lead in the bottom of the third with an RBI double by Austin Slater, but they immediately answered with a solo homer off their first batter of the fourth inning, Aaron Judge, tying it back up. Michael A. Taylor hit an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to get us back into the lead 2-1, but they tied it again with an RBI double by Anthony Volpe in the top of the fifth. We came back at them with a three-run homer by Joey Gallo in the bottom of the fifth to go up 5-2, and Martin Perez took over on the mound in the sixth. They got a run back in the seventh with a solo homer by Anthony Volpe, and Cannon took over with one out and a man on second, letting them load the bases and then tying it up with a two-run single by Ben Rice. With two outs in the top of the eighth a wild pitch let Jazz Chisholm Jr score from third and they took their first lead of the game. We went down quietly from there, once we’d proven no lead was safe, losing this one 6-5. Cannon blew his third save of the year, but Penn Murfee took the loss, falling to 1-5 with a 4.76 ERA after allowing a hit, two walks, a strikeout and the final run of the game. They outhit us 13-7 and yet we had multiple chances to win and just couldn’t stomach it. Let’s give Gallo credit for the three-run homer and call it a day. August 29, 2025: Sean Burke (5-13, 4.83 ERA, 121.0 IP, 131 K’s, 1.43 WHIP) pitched against Dylan Cease (12-7, 4.04 ERA, 151.1 IP, 174 K’s, 1.24 WHIP), who was sent to New York from San Diego back in July. The Yankees got out to a 3-0 lead after the first two innings, but Gallo and Lee each picked up an RBI in the fourth, and a sac-fly by Starling Marte tied it up 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth, an RBI single by Vargas giving us the one-run lead heading into the sixth. Syndergaard came out in the sixth inning and got us through a pair, as an RBI single by Marte and another by Vargas extended our lead to 6-3 heading into the eighth inning. Martin Perez pitched the final four outs as we held tough to beat the Yankees 6-3 and tie the series at its midpoint. Burke got the win, improving to 6-13 with a 4.86 ERA, allowing four hits, two walks and three runs with seven strikeouts in his five innings. Syndergaard earned his fourth hold and Perez his fifth save, and we outhit the Yankees 11-6, led by Miguel Vargas who had two hits and two RBIs. August 30, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (9-11, 4.19 ERA, 161.0 IP, 166 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) pitched against New York’s Carlos Rodon (10-9, 3.86 ERA, 144.2 IP, 148 K’s, 1.13 WHIP). Pfaadt spotted the Yanks a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, and they added a fourth with two outs in the top of the sixth when Trent Grisham hit a solo bomb out of left. We scored three runs from there but were never in any real position to take momentum back, as the Yankees held us off easily enough 6-3. Pfaadt took the loss, with six hits, four walks and four earned runs in 5.2 innings, and they outhit us 9-7, our bats led by Ken Teel with two hits, a run and an RBI. August 31, 2025: Yu Darvish (10-9, 3.90 ERA, 140.2 IP, 132 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) pitched in our final game against the Yankees, facing Clarke Schmidt (14-6, 2.24 ERA, 169.0 IP, 170 K’s, 1.00 WHIP). Darvish got creamed, seven runs in fewer than three innings, but we inched our way back into the game with four unanswered runs across the third, fourth and fifth to trail the Yankees 7-5 heading into the top of the sixth. They got an RBI single from Jasson Dominguez to get the lead back to three runs midway through the sixth, but Marte hit a solo homer and Brandon Valenzuela added an RBI double to get us within one run heading into the top of the seventh! The Yanks scored again with two outs, an RBI single by Jazz Chisholm Jr extending their lead to 9-7 as we went into the stretch, and a 10th run scored for them in the top of the eighth as Paul Goldschmidt singled against our beleagured bullpen. Valenzuela hit a sac-fly in the botom of the eighth to get us back within two, but that was as close as it got. New York stumped us 10-8 and we’ll enter the final month of the season with a 56-81 record, just 25 games left to be played. Darvish took the loss, allowing seven hits, three walks, seven runs and four strikeouts in just 2.2 innings of “work,” but our bats kept us in this one and we were only outhit 16-14. Our rookie catcher Valenzuela hit three times for a run and three batted in, and Starling Marte had three hits, three runs and two RBIs including two homers, giving him seven on the season. This week we’ll hit the road for four in Minneapolis against the Twins (76-61, 1st AL Central), followed by three in Detroit (62-76, 4th AL Central), returning to Chicago to play Tampa (64-72, 4th AL East) for three and then finishing our season against the division when we play three in Cleveland (70-66, 3rd AL Central). __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-21-2025, 02:32 PM	#77
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	September 1, 2025: We’re waiting to make any September call-ups until we’re sure we won’t be bringing back Otto Lopez and Chaise Meidroth off the IL (decisions that should be made within the next few days. Noah Schultz (6-4, 3.16 ERA, 82.2 IP, 81 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) pitched game one of the four-game Twins series, facing Chris Paddack (8-6, 3.93 ERA, 128.1 IP, 113 K’s, 1.20 WHIP). Brandon Valenzuela hit a two-run homer in the top of the fourth to put us into the lead, and in the top of the fifth we added on with an RBI single by Joey Gallo, an RBI triple from Andre Lupcius and a sac-fly by Valenzuela to give us a solid 5-0 lead! Gallo hit a two-run homer in the sixth and Valenzuela hit an RBI single as the game became a blowout, but a bases-loaded wild pitch got the Twins on the board in the bottom of the sixth on two outs. With bullpen arms warming, Matt Wellner hit a two-run triple, and then Royce Lewis hit an RBI single to add on as the Twins suddenly were back in this one, trailing 8-4. Noah Syndergaard took over to get that final out, successfully ending the frame with our lead still safe. They got a run back with two outs in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a sac-fly by Austin Meadows, but Andre Lipcius hit a two-run slam out of left in the top of the eighth to get us back some momentum as we increased the lead to five runs. Martin Perez made quick work of them in the bottom of the eighth, but he loaded the bases without an out in the ninth, forcing us to go to Bazardo out of the bullpen. A sac-fly on one out by Willi Castro got the Twins to within four with runners on first and second, and Bazardo plunked Meadows on the shoulder to reload the bags ... but a pop-fly to short ended this one as a 10-6 win for our White Sox. Schultz pitched 5.2 innings and allowed six hits, two walks and struck out four while letting them score the four runs that started the whole Twins comeback attempt ... he still got out of it with a win, and we outhit Minnesota 16-9, led by Lipcius in the DH spot, who hit three times and walked once, scoring four times and driving in three while missing out on a cycle by just a base hit. Bazardo earned a save, his ninth, by coming in with the bases loaded and avoiding a complete nuclear meltdown. September 2, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-8, 4.15 ERA, 130.0 IP, 75 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) pitched against Zach Elfin (0-3, 7.66 ERA, 24.2 IP, 19 K’s, 1.46 WHIP) in game two, and the Twins broke it open in the bottom of the third with an RBI single by Austin Meadows to take the game’s first lead. With two outs they got an RBI double from Matt Wallner, and Wallner scored moments later off a single by Emmanuel Rodriguez, digging us a 3-0 hole in the blink of an eye. Shane Smith took over in the fifth inning, but it was already over we just didn’t know it yet. Minnesota stumped us from there, winning 5-1 as they evened the series and kept control on first place in the AL Central. Weber took the loss and fell to 6-9, allowing five hits, a walk and three runs in his four innings, and the Twins outhit us 11-6. Yordys Valdes led the offense with two hits and an RBI. Otto Lopez returns to our lineup ahead of tomorrow’s game, but he’ll be playing a backup role to Brooks Lee for the remainder of the season. No word yet on Meidroth, who would take our 28th roster spot if he returns. September 3, 2025: Sean Burke (6-13, 4.86 ERA, 126.0 IP, 138 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) pitched against Bailey Ober (9-7, 3.93 ERA, 132.2 IP, 144 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) in game three, and we took an early lead with an RBI double by Miguel Vargas in the top of the first. But Minnesota answered quickly with a two-run homer by Byron Buxton in the bottom of the inning, though the game at least stayed close from there. Burke got us through the sixth inning without further scoring, and in the top of the seventh we tied the score off a Michael A. Taylor RBI single, getting us into the stretch tied 2-2. Julian Merryweather took over in the bottom of the inning, and with two outs he gave up a hit into left by Carlos Correa that scored three for the Twins and put this one to bed. They’d hold on to that lead, beating us 5-2 in what had been a hard-fought close battle until that inning. Each team hit seven times, and Merryweather took the loss, falling to 0-3 with a two hit, one walk, three run stretch in the seventh and eighth. Brooks Lee led our offense with two hits and a run scored. Chase Meidroth will come off the IL and return to the leadoff spot in our lineup, as our starting third baseman, effective in time for tomorrow’s game four against the Twins in Minneapolis. September 4, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (9-12, 4.27 ERA, 166.2 IP, 170 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) pitched against Joe Ryan (11-8, 3.94 ERA, 148.1 IP, 193 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) in our last game of the year against the Twins. We broke the stalemate with an RBI single by Brandon Valenzuela in the top of the sixth inning, and Martin Perez took the ball in the sixth as we hoped to keep the lead on a soggy night in the Twin Cities. Penn Murfee got us through the seveenth, but Syndergaard was not so lucky, loading the bases in the eighth and giving it all back with a two-run single by Willi Castro. He got the outs we needed to get into the top of the ninth, but he’d blown all our momentum, and Chase Meidroth grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end this one as a 2-1 loss. Syndergaard blew his third save and fell to 6-6, allowing four hits, a walk and two runs in his inning, striking out a pair. They outhit us 7-6, Valenzuela leading the way with two hits and an RBI for us. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-21-2025, 02:33 PM	#78
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	September 5, 2025: Onward to Motown for three, as we pitched Yu Darvish (10-10, 4.27 ERA, 143.1 IP, 136 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) against Detroit’s Tyler Holton (7-7, 3.26 ERA, 138.0 IP, 122 K’s, 1.14 WHIP). After trading runs in the first two innings, we took the lead in the top of the fourth with a two-run homer by Michael A. Taylor that put us up 3-1 on the Tigers. Craig Kimbrel took over in the sixth inning, still up by a pair, striking out the side, and Martin Perez came out to pitch with one out, Matt Vierling on third in the botom of the seventh, promptly giving up an RBI double to Zach McKinstry and an RBI single to Colt Keith as we blew yet another lead. A three-run homer for Spencer Torkelson put the nails in, and Perez didn’t even get out of the damned inning. That job went to Jonathan Cannon, who got the final out and sent us into the eighth inning trailing 6-3 after the five-run bloodbath. Cannon stayed out the rest of the way, and we lost by that same 6-3 margin, Perez getting the blown save (his fifth) and the loss (his sixth) as he let them have five hits and four runs off him. We were outhit 13-8, Michael A. Taylor’s three hits, a run and two RBIs our only real bright spot after the collapse. September 6, 2025: Noah Schultz (7-4, 3.36 ERA, 88.1 IP, 85 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) pitched against Thomas Szapucki (3-4, 5.14 ERA, 42.0 IP, 46 K’s, 1.50 WHIP), and we took the lead in the top of the second off a groundout by Valdes that scored Brooks, only to let them have it back in the bottom of the third with a Javier Baez solo homer. Schultz got us through the sixth with the score tied 1-1, but when our bats stayed silent he had to hand the ball off to Merryweather who got us through the seventh. Shane Smith pitched in the eighth, keeping us tied, and finally in the top of the ninth a Miguel Vargas RBI single put us into the lead! Eduard Bazardo came out in the bottom of the inning and kept them from making anything happen as we held tough to the 2-1 victory! Smith got the win, improving to 6-4 with a 4.50 ERA, and Bazardo earned his 10th save of the season as we outhit the Tigers 8-7 behind a three hit, one RBI night from Miguel Vargas. Mike Tauchman is ready to come off the injured list, and we’ve waived Lenyn Sosa to make room for him. September 7, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-9, 4.23 ERA, 134.0 IP, 76 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) pitched against Jack Flaherty (5-15, 6.55 ERA, 136.0 IP, 171 K’s, 1.46 WHIP) in our last game against the Tigers. Detroit took the lead in the bottom of the second with a sac-fly by Dillon Dingler, but Yordys Valdes tied it up with an RBI single in the top of the fifth and Weber got us through the sixth inning without letting them have an inch. Penn Murfee took over in the bottom of the seventh with the score still tied 1-1, but with two outs Colt Keith hit an RBI double to give them back the lead. Chase Meidroth hit an RBI single to tie it back up in the top of the eighth, and Merryweather took the ball in the bottom of the inning, keeping it that way into the ninth. Shane Smith got us into extra innings with three quick outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Gleyber Torres walked it off in the bottom of the 10th with a single into left, beating us 3-2 to take the series win. Martin Perez took the loss, falling to 5-7 with a 5.20 ERA with a hit, a strikeout and the unearned run. They outhit us 9-7, our bats led by Meidroth who had two hits and an RBI. We’re off tomorrow and then will play Tampa (66-76, 4th AL East) in Chicago for three and then hit Cleveland (74-68, 3rd AL Central) for our last three divisional games. After that we’ve got two weeks of play remaining, including home series against Baltimore (73-69, 3rd AL East) and San Diego (70-72, 3rd NL West), followed by road series against the Yankees (84-58, 1st AL East) and the Nationals (61-81, 5th NL West). Our 58-86 record has us seven games out of fourth in our own division, and we’re now the worst team in the majors not playing in San Francisco (the Giants are 52-90). __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-21-2025, 03:05 PM	#79
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	September 9, 2025: Sean Burke (6-13, 4.77 ERA, 132.0 IP, 142 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) pitched against Tampa’s Taj Bradley (7-8, 3.75 ERA, 163.0 IP, 188 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) in our first of three games here at Rate Field. Tampa had a 4-0 lead going in the middle of the fourth, but RBI singles for Vargas and Tauchman got us on the board in the bottom of the inning and a Brandon Valenzuela RBI single in the sixth got us back within a run. But a solo homer for Christopher Morel got the Rays back to a two-run lead heading into the stretch, and they added on in the ninth to put the game well out of reach, beating us 7-3 in the process. Burke lost his 14th game of the season despite striking out nine batters, allowing them six hits and four earned runs. Tampa outhit us 11-9, with Vargas leading our bats with two hits and two runs. September 10, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (9-12, 4.14 ERA, 171.2 IP, 176 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) pitched against Zach Littell (8-15, 5.09 ERA, 173.1 IP, 155 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) in game two, and Tampa took the lead in the top of the fifth with an RBI single by Jonny DeLuca. Pfaadt got us through the sixth, with Martin Perez taking the ball in the seventh still trailing 1-0. But in the bottom of the inning Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run blast out of right, his 17th homer of the season, to shoot us into the lead. Unfortunately in the top of the eighth they tied us on a solo homer by DeLuca, so it was up to Vargas to hit an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to get us back on top heading into the ninth, leading the Rays by one run. Noah Syndergaard struck out a pair and then quietly got them to ground out to end it from there as we held tough to win 3-2! Craig Kimbrel got the win, improving to 3-3 with a 6.05 ERA, getting through his inning with two walks and a strikeout, and Syndergaard saved his second game of the year to bring his ERA to 3.40 through 111.1 innings. We outhit them 9-5, led by Michael A. Taylor with two hits, a run and two RBIs. September 11, 2025: Yu Darvish (10-10, 4.19 ERA, 148.1 IP, 140 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) pitched in our final game against the Rays, taking on Shane McClanahan (7-10, 4.33 ERA, 162.0 IP, 181 K’s, 1.35 WHIP). We traded runs in the first inning, but we took the lead in the bottom of the third off an RBI single by Michael A. Taylor, scoring another when Starling Marte reached on an E5 error that allowed Tauchman to score from third. But we blew it in the top of the sixth when, with one out, Yandy Diaz hit a two-run slam out of left to tie the score at 3-3. Pat Murfee came out to get the final two outs, and we went into the stretch still knotted at three-all. Kimbrel got us through the eighth without giving up any runs, and with two outs in the ninth and Ben Rortvedt on first we brought out Eduard Bazardo to get Jonny DeLuca to pop out to right and give us a chance in the bottom of the inning. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Starling Marte on second, Kyle Teel hit a single into left, giving Marte enough time to slide home as we pulled out the 4-3 win, our first series win since beating Atlanta two out of three on the road in late August. Bazardo got the win, improving to 4-2 on the season with a 3.02 ERA, through 44.2 innings, and we outhit them 7-6, led by Tauchman who hit three times for two runs and an RBI. The win improves our record to 60-87 ahead of our road trip to face the 75-72 Guardians. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty

04-21-2025, 04:27 PM	#80
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,474	September 12, 2025: Noah Schultz (7-4, 3.24 ERA, 94.1 IP, 92 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) pitched against Gavin Williams (11-11, 4.09 ERA, 156.1 IP, 164 K’s, 1.31 WHIP), and it was a bloodbath after we took an initial 2-0 lead in the top of the second thanks to a two-run Valenzuela homer. After that, the Guardians scored six unanswered runs across the second, third and fourth innings, and we’d go on to lose this one 6-2, handing Schultz his fifth loss of the season in one of his worst starts of his young career -- seven hits, six runs and just two strikeouts through five innings. We matched them on hits with nine, with Valenzuela’s two-run homer our only offense. September 13, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-9, 4.11 ERA, 140.0 IP, 77 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) faced Tanner Bibee (11-9, 3.41 ERA, 182.1 IP, 199 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) in game two, and in the bottom of the fifth Weber got shellacked, giving up four runs with just one out as we had to pull him for Shane Smith after what had been an incredibly quiet game to that point. It certainly got no better from there, and the Guardians put us to bed quietly as we lost 6-0. Weber fell to 6-10, allowing five hits and four runs with three walks and a pair of K’s in his 4.1 innings of work ... they only outhit us 8-7, but in this case eight was enough (okay, one more pun like that and I’ll fire myself). Brooks Lee led us with two hits to nowhere, but had to leave the game late with an undisclosed injury. Here’s hoping it’s not serious. September 14, 2025: We’ve moved Lee to the IL with his injury still “undetermined,” and went into tonight’s final game against the Guardians with Sean Burke (6-14, 4.86 ERA, 137.0 IP, 151 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) pitching against Bryce Miller (9-7, 4.71 ERA, 149.0 IP, 142 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) who has done next to nothing for Cleveland since the Mariners traded him in early July. Cleveland got a run in the bottom of the fourth and we answered with one in the fifth, and Merryweather took over in the bottom of the sixth still tied 1-1. He got one out but gave up five runs as we got completely reamed, and the Guardians took the opportunity to crush us in the end as we lost 6-1 in a series sweep. Burke allowed five hits with a walk and six strikeouts in his five innings, allowing just the one run, but Merryweather took the loss while allowing five hits and five runs with a strikeout in a much smaller pitching window. Cleveland hammered us 12-2 on hits, and even adding on our three walks it was a rout we’d made look closer than it was. Only Terrell Tatum did anything offensively with a hit and an RBI, and we’ll return to Chicago to face Baltimore with our spirits about as low as you can get ... we just have to get though these last couple weeks and can then focus on the offseason and making this team better for 2026. __________________ "Oh No! We Suck Again!" -- Reviving the White Sox in 2025 -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty "The Rockies' Baseball Horror Show" -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty