When Chris Getz has needed an example to illustrate that turnarounds can occur faster than predicted, he's pointed to Dave Dombrowski's job overhauling the Tigers, opening with 119 losses in his first full season in 2003 before reaching the World Series in 2006.
Of course, Mike Ilitch gave Dombrowski the green light to spend plenty of his money to speed the process along, which is something Getz can't count on unless Justin Ishbia makes his presence felt sooner rather than later.
ESPN's Jesse Rogers highlighted another unhelpful comparison by writing about the diametric nature of Camelback Ranch, which is shared by the World Series-winning Dodgers and a White Sox team coming off the losingest season ever. Inside it, however, Andrew Friedman offered the most useful precedent yet:
"It's certainly a challenge, but in a lot of ways there are a lot of fun aspects of it, building up and growing the various departments. And it's critical for everyone to work well together," said Friedman, who helped build winning teams in Tampa Bay without high payrolls. "And it doesn't mean you don't disagree, but putting those processes in place and being more innovative when you're at this point, it's similar to how we were in 2006 and 2007 with the Rays.
"There is a lot of strong foundation you can build during that time period that while mired in it is not fun. But when you look back, when you've reached a point of a steady state of success where a lot of that can be attributed to those early years, it can be very rewarding."
The Rays lost 101 and 96 games in Friedman's first two seasons, then pulled their own stunning reversal with a 97-win season that culminated in an American League pennant. Faith in a similar trajectory for the White Sox would have you saving for World Series tickets for 2027, and while I wouldn't start making plans now, two things jumped out at me when scanning those Baseball-Reference.com team pages:
No. 1: The Rays went from allowing 944 runs in 2007 to 671 in 2008, an improvement from dead last to second-best. The offense finished in in the middle of the pack in both seasons.
No. 2: Joe Maddon was the manager for all three of those seasons.
The Rays bullpen posted a 6.16 ERA in that 2007 season, resulting in a unit that was somehow distinctly worse than the White Sox's edition that featured Mike MacDougal, Andy Sisco and the right-handed Ryan Bukvich. Just one year later, Tampa Bay boasted the third-lowest relief ERA with practically an entirely different cast.
That's the template that seems most available to the White Sox, whether it's because Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith are in line to top off a promising rotation of in-house options, or because Brian Bannister is successful in cobbling together an effective relief corps by collecting the stones other builders rejected. In the meantime, Will Venable -- who served as a coach under Maddon for two years on the North Side -- is tasked with being upbeat and open-minded until that help takes shape.
Spare Parts
One of the side effects of the spring training implementation of the automated ball-strike system? Players are required to take accurate height measurements, since the verticality of the zone is determined by 53.5 percent of the batter's height. Andrew Vaughn's days of being listed at 6 feet may be numbered.
Speaking of ABS, it's worth reading this research about the usage of challenges at Triple-A as you watch players negotiate the challenge system over the course of Cactus League play. There are all sorts of fascinating takeaways -- the way emotion clouds judgment, the zones that favor hitters' eyes, the pitches that trick catchers, and more.
For those who missed the original story or otherwise need a refresher, Derek Bender was a sixth-round pick who was cut by the Minnesota Twins before the end of his first season, for allegedly telling opposing hitters what was coming while catching for Single-A Fort Myers. The investigation remains ongoing, but talking to Sam Blum represented the latest item of professional advice he'd ignored, and he was dropped by his agency as a result.
The Orioles are exchanging their ugly cavern in left field at Camden Yards for an equally ugly but more reasonable wall distance and height, which should restore roughly half the homers that were lost in that direction.
Jeff Passan's article is ostensibly about Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell, Boston's top three prospects, but it's useful for understanding both the environment Kyle Teel came from, and how Trajekt machines and other advanced training ideas have been implemented for developing hitters as Ryan Fuller seeks to do the same with the White Sox.
Dylan Cease messed around with a two-seamer early in his White Sox prospect days, but now he's revisiting the idea with the Padres in hopes of rounding out his arsenal with a pitch that runs the other way from his four-seamer and slider.
