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Two weeks ago, I polled the Sox Machine community to see whether there was a consensus for which player would end up leading the White Sox in homers, because nobody on the White Sox really seemed to want the title.

Even though there was little separation at the top, the results basically went chalk.

Since then, Abreu ended a career-long homerless drought to briefly tie Vaughn, only to see Vaughn untie it with one of five White Sox homers in Cleveland on Thursday for his only homer of the fortnight, with Gavin Sheets joining him as well. Meanwhile, Eloy Jiménez is now tied for third as he tries to make a hard charge down the stretch.

So here’s another poll to see whether sentiment has shifted.

For now, at least. The absurdity of Tony La Russa’s absence creates the environment for an experiment that tests how well the White Sox perform against La Russa’s proximity to the proceedings.

If there’s any solace, the White Sox aren’t the only team in the AL Central that has a difficult time parting with underachieving personnel. In Kansas City, it seems as though none of their pitching development infrastructure is worth keeping.

In Kansas City, much of the ire has been directed at pitching coach Cal Eldred, who, aside from the shortened 2020 season, has not had a pitching staff finish better than 11th in the American League in ERA since his 2018 hiring. The Royals will make decisions on their major-league staff this winter, but a survey of rival executives, coaches, player development coordinators, scouts and former Royals pitchers reveals a fuller picture of the club’s struggles to develop pitching — particularly homegrown starters. Rival executives wonder about the speed at which prospects reached the majors. Scouts question pitch usage and the implementation of data. Former pitchers lament development methods that felt too rigid.

At 31, Trayce Thompson is finally having a season that bests the production from his debut season with the White Sox back in 2015, when he was good enough to be traded for Todd Frazier. It’s cool to see such a rebound, because the back injury that derailed his career after the trade spoiled what was a development success story for the White Sox farm system.

If Major League Baseball is requiring players to stand on the infield dirt, then it needs to be on the lookout for shenanigans from the Roger Bossards of the baseball world. There is a rule on the books, but there’s been no real need to enforce it before now.

It will allow up to a foot of leeway in either direction, to account for what one source described as groundskeeping “error.” So it’s still possible the back edge of the dirt in various parks could extend anywhere from 94 to 96 feet from the center of the mound.

“Interesting,” one AL executive observed, when we updated him on that leeway. “If they’re allowing for error, why do I think that everyone is going to err on the larger side?”

As long as Shohei Ohtani stayed healthy and continued producing at the plate and mound, I’d wondered how long it would take for MVP voters to take him for granted, but Aaron Judge is having the kind of season that would warrant consideration even if you placed him on a non-contender. He leads the AL home run race by 22, which is a staggering achievement in its own right.

Writing about the White Sox for a 16th season, first here, then at South Side Sox, and now here again. Let’s talk curling.

Dayton Moore seems to be doing his best Kenny Williams impersonation in KC. He won a World Series and the farther removed from that championship he becomes you wonder how the heck he managed to win one in the first place.

in defense of Moore, the Royals did go to B2B World Series and almost won both of them.

Speaking of Kenny, the Mets are looking for a new president. I hereby throw Kenny’s hat into the ring.

I’m not clear on where the battle lines are drawn right now. If Kenny leaving gives more power to Tony, then I hope Kenny stays around.

Eloy certainly looks like he’s capable of hitting one every game right now, so the recency bias is going to prevail.

FWIW, ZiPS has it Abreu, Vaughn 18 Jimenez, Sheets 15

Steamer has the same, except Eloy at 16.

Btw, I voted with the commentariat and against the protection systems.

I am calling Eloy will have 16 before the Sox play another home game.

I voted for Eloy because that seemed like the more fun choice? Although I guess an Andrew Vaughn tear to end the season would be good to.

When does it stop becoming “bias” and start becoming evidence

If I had a poor defensive infield, I would make the infield smaller to try to minimize other teams infield defense advantages.

Edit. I would also make it smaller if I had a lineup of lumbering sluggers that can’t beat out grounders anyway.

Which team are you referring to that has sluggers (at least in 2022)?

I know we have some contrarian posters. We could get an estimate of how many if Jim posted a poll of who will lead the AL in home runs and we could see how many people didn’t vote for Judge.

For the HR Battle, are we only including Home Runs while a member of the White Sox? Because right now, between Oakland and Chicago, Elvis has 14 with 6 being in a Sox Uniform

That being said, I voted Eloy…

Robert’s gonna get the Blutarsky in this vote. Zero point zero.

Hopefully only have to worry about White Sox laying eggs at home. I can’t help wonder if Tony would resort to voodoo if the Sox score too many runs or have too much fun away from home.

I’ll pick Eloy because his HR rate is so high at the moment, and he might as well keep swinging for the fences with less than 2 strikes since he can’t run.

And because he needs to keep doing that if the Sox have a prayer at post season play. Which they don’t deserve, but I’m a fan and I can’t help but want to see it.

Haven’t changed my mind. Voted for Sheets. The other interesting question is whether the Sox will have more than 20 HRs guy.

For tge MVP, it should be Ohtani again. 2 elite players in one is just impossible to beat.

The question is will they even have one 20 HR guy. Except for the 60 games 2020 season (Where Abreu still hit 19 HRs) you have to go back to 1990 for the last time a Sox team didn’t have a 20 HR guy. In fact in that time its rare for them to not have a 30 HR guy.

And FYI a 42 yr old Carlton Fisk led them in 1990 with 18.