2059 Chicago Black Sox Preview
by Tony Toney, Boise Spuds beat writer
2058 Standings
Let's go ahead and say it: anyone in the Heartland is looking way, way up at Nashville, and that tips all of those teams' W-L records to the "L" side. 2058 marked the 10th season since Chicago went to the postseason, 2048 was also the last year of 7 consecutive tickets to October, and Chicago would duke it out in 2058 with the entire league for a Wild Card spot.
Chicago's battle left them in the middle of the pack with 75 wins. It's not hard to see why they belonged there. They were 13th in runs scored and 9th in runs allowed. The Black Sox were not a power team, placing 13th in homeruns as well and posting a .695 OPS. They were 9th in ERA and their BABIP of .291 doesn't point to a severe stretch of bad luck.
The Black Sox are clearly looking for the right mix as they shook things up. But they haven't entered a rebuilding phase opting instead to grab some free agents and Rule V picks after 8 batters and 4 pitchers left to test the FA market.
So now it's 2059. The slate is wiped clean and Chicago will attempt to fare better.
Pitching
Dirk 'Stocky' Bessi
2058: 33 G, 33 GS, 7-11, 3.85 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, +3.1 WAR
Addressing the obvious first, Chicago's road to reach a higher level took a huge hit when one of their best arms in Bessi went down with a torn labrum at the beginning of Spring Training and will require 8 months of rehab. The Black Sox were almost exactly in the middle of the FL in pitching in 2058 allowing 4.4 R/G, a 4.26 ERA, and 1.32 WHIP. It's just a gut punch.
Outgoing:
Marcus Olivares: Declined team option
Albert Krant
Felipe Méndez
Tim Gibbs
Incoming:
Pedro Guevera (Rule V)
Other than picking up a player in the Rule V draft it looks like the Black Sox are going to look to their own system to replace Bessi and hope some guys step up. The Black Sox also let 34yo RHP Albert Krant and his 31 games started walk.
The rotation does have some reliable arms returning. The Opening Day rotation should look something like:
SP Carlos Moya
SP Randolph Marable
23yo RHP Stevie Bodine
...and some mix of:
24yo RHP Azim bin Ghalib
30yo LHP Art Cherry
27yo RHP Bobby 'Fang' Sherman
The last three on that list being in-house options who made 16 starts or less.
The bullpen looks much the same as it did last season outside of the addition of Guevera:
Long relief:
RHP William MejíaRHP Murugayan Malabanan
LHP Wicaksono Nitisastro
Middle relief:
RHP Mike Baker
RHP Pedro Guevera
RHP Motuha Kalinda
Late innings:
RHP Vanya 'Greeves' Elliott
RHP Salvador Montáñez
There are a lot of players in the Chicago system who can hopefully expand on their roles from last season including bin Ghalib, Nitisastro, Montáñez, and Elliott. It will be tough going without the services of Bessi and it will be interesting to see if Chicago makes a move to fill that hole. It may sound tough, but breaking out of the middle of the pack without one of the teams best arms will be difficult.
Position Players
RF Ragheb Burhan
2058: 119 G, 25 2B, 3 3B, 13 HR, 48 RBI, 23 SB, .273/.345/.438, +4.0 WAR
As mentioned above, Chicago is not a slugging team and that's just fine. They use gap power, speed, and OBP to make their bones. RF Burhan is the brightest light of the returnees but their are other contributors that match the profile such as SS Ayyad Faisal and LF Donald Nixon. 1B Jorge Gutiérrez provides the pop for the lineup serving 38 HR, 96 RBI in 2058 with an outstanding .858 OPS.
Unfortunately, the Black Sox took a hit from the injury bug on the offensive side as well with RF Bret Powers, whom Chicago signed in 2058 for $20m over 2-years, going down almost immediately in April with a torn posterior cruciate ligament and taking his place on the training table for 8 months and compounded that with a setback in recovery that will have him missing another 12 months. In his last full season in the BBA, playing in Omaha in 2057, Powers launched 37 HR and delivered 83 RBI. Missing him is a gut punch we're sure.
Outgoing:
Chicago had a large handful of players move on to free agency, but they were not superior contributors even if 4 of them landed on BBA rosters
Incoming:
2B Adhyapayana Mehta - FA: $18m/3y
CF Gilberto Falchonelli - FA: $9.5m/2y
2B Candranibha Saswata - Ext: $15.2m/3y
Chicago did make a few significant moves in the offseason with Mehta and Falchonelli resembling very much the template of a Black Sox hitter. The depth chart looks mostly unchanged but the team will have to hope SS Ayyad Faisal stays healthy as they lost the bulk of innings behind him at the key position. The loss of CF Juan Lizarazo will leave a gap at centerfield and the OF in general. Newcomer Falchonelli is assumed to be taking Lizarazo's innings and his fielding numbers track closely with him.
Prediction
Chicago kept their core together and made an attempt to add more pop at the plate. But losing Bessi and having Powers remain in the clubhouse (not that he factored into 2058, of course) is just brutal. The Sox will have some internal arms stepping up. They are talented and have proven themselves in short- to medium-sized stints in the bigs, but that's quite an unknown. I have it as...
Chicago White Sox 72-90
