Back in the lord’s year of 2007, I was spending a fair amount of time getting interested in Sports Betting. At the time I didn’t really know where to start, but my interest in poker and playing it slightly profitably lead me in that direction. There were tons of poker books that you could read to become competent and more being birthed into the marketplace seemingly every few seconds. You could also read forums like Pocket Fives (now defunct) or Two Plus Two (still very much alive). There were even people selling videos of them playing online as full tutorials. POKER WAS EVERYWHERE. Sports Betting however, wasn’t.

There were like two or three reasonable Sports Betting books and even those had limited utility given Sports Betting is more a market than your local poker game. You could also read forums, like the aforementioned Two Plus Two or SBR or any number of another ones. Most of these forums were filled with useless, no HARMFUL, bullshit! Yea, we are talking 98% noise to about 2% signal. Of all the places I pawed through on my search to learn anything I could, the Two Plus Two Sports Betting sub forum was the best.

At this time, in early 2008, the sharps in this forum were pretty vocal about what a great bet the Tampa Rays (or Tampa Bay Rays or Tampa Bay Devil Rays or whatever the fuck they were currently called) regular season win total over was at basically every book! You see, when someone who really knows what they are talking about gives you a bet, usually it’s only available at one book that is giving you a great price. This group was basically saying “bet all the money you can, anywhere you can, at the available market price, because it’s so great!” That is SUPER RARE.

If memory serves (and one of you internet archeologists can look up the exact numbers) the Rays opened at something like 68 wins. That got bet all the way the fuck up to 82 wins by close. Pretty sure I got over 76, for a whopping $200. That seemed like a big bet at the time, but was just a gateway to future much bigger bets.

The only time I think I have talked long-form about my Sports Betting journey….

Why Were The Rays Considered Such a Good Bet?

The 2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays finished in last place at an MLB worst 66-96. They were a team with some young talent and more on the way, but they were a TERRIBLE DEFENSIVE TEAM.

TERRIBLE! DEFENSE!

However, that was about to change in a big way. The Devil Rays traded for Jason Bartlett from the Twins to come in and play Shortstop. This allowed them to remove the defensive abomination that was Brendan Harris and Josh Wilson. They were going to move BJ Upton from Second Base (where he was horrible) to Centerfield (where his speed should lead to be him being far less horrible). Getting Ty Wigginton the fuck out of any infield position was going to be a big positive. Moving Akinori Iwamura from the Third Base to Second Base and replacing him with plus plus defender, rookie phenom Evan Longoria. Yes, the 2008 (Devil) Rays were about to improve dramatically on defense and my frents in the two plus two forum knew it!

The 2008 (Devil) Rays Defense!

You can look up the results to that season or whatever, who cares. You just try to get the money in good and move on…..but why is this applicable to the White Sox? Well let me tell you.

The 2025 White Sox are in a pretty similar situation to the 2007 Rays

The 2025 White Sox have some young talent, with more on the way, and their defense is NOT GOOD. Now those of yous reading this who watched the majority of the 2024 season might counter with me that “It’s better than last year”, and you’d be right, but they merely went from sub-human to just regular bad.

That’s fine and well, but the (Devil) Rays seemed to have a plan of attack as to how they would improve their defense. What should be the White Sox approach?

How Do The 2026 White Sox Improve on Defense?

Let’s Start At The Hot Corner

Let’s start with Third Base. With the hobbled Josh Rojas out of the picture in 2026, the team should instantly improve at the hot corner. He was pretty clearly one of their worst defenders in the 2025 season. The only issue…..who takes over? It doesn’t appear that the White Sox have a plus defender at the position on the current 26 man roster. Rojas was horrible, and Miguel Vargas wasn’t that great either. Curtis Mead looks slightly better in the table below, but that doesn’t account for how few innings he actually played there. Basically you got three guys that the metrics don’t like.

If you look at the free agent pool, it’s also not super helpful. There are good Third Base defenders, but few who can also bat their weight. Maybe we can ask Big Daddy Ishbia’s to blow his first wad on Alex Bregman? Other than that, we ain’t got much here.

Then I thought, well, let’s see if there is a guy hanging around on someone’s 40 man or in their farm system that you could trade for. I’m talking someone who is a 70 glove at Third Base that the White Sox could really use on their 2026 squad. And I can’t believe where this lead me.

That’s right, using THE BOARD at Fangraphs, #1 with a bullet is someone we got right here in our own farm system. Someone that I have been worried about washing out lately. BRYAN. RAMOS.

The White Sox didn’t seem particularly enamored with Ramos coming down the stretch. They only really used him for a cup of coffee. They did not try him out as a potentially plus defender at Third Base for a longer residency. All that being said, Ramos is out options, and has had many starts and stops over the last three years. It might be worth it to at least carry him through spring training and see what happens. I don’t personally think running back Miguel Vargas at Third Base is a great option, especially if improving your overall defense is the goal that I and my fellow bettors and the (Devil) Rays of 2008 think it should be.

Left Field

Left Field has been a problem on defense ever since the White Sox signed the $75 million dollar man. It’s still an albatross of a contract (but less so these days) with 2 years and $32.2 million remaining. Andrew Benintendi is only problem number one in left field. You’ll have to do something with him that gets him the hell outta the way in that space, before being confronted with your second problem.

Brooks Baldwin is the primary back up, currently, on the White Sox, at all outfield positions. Although he’s not proficient in any outfield position at this point, he was especially stinky (by DRS) in Left Field.

So What Gives?!?!?! You could get the outfield equivalent coach to Ron Washington with infielders and drill the shit out of Brooks Baldwin to make him a competent Left Fielder. That is if you believe in the bat. The only other internal option for good corner outfield defense is Dominic Fletcher. Fletch as we call him in the 108 can definitely glove it. Probably more of a right field profile, given his big arm. That would move Mike Tauchman or someone similar to left to lift up defense in both spots. Unfortunately, ole Fletch sports a career .604 OPS, so not exactly rising all tides here. Remember, you want to improve the defense, without sinking the ship on the offensive side.

The Free Agent pool on the other hand is pretty flush with options for this problem….

For my money, Cody Bellinger just seems like such an obvious fit for a team that needs more left handed power, more on base skills and a guy that could play all 3 Outfield positions and First Base. Other than buying a hoss starting pitcher with the Ishbia war chest, my second favorite idea is paying up for Cody Bellinger and sticking him in the outfield at 35th and Shields.

I know we’d all be surprised if the White Sox actually went and spent some money. But honestly, it makes so damn much sense to spend on a quality outfield piece this off-season.

Catcher

The White Sox have their future catchers in tow. Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel both had very promising rookie years as tandem backstops in all respects, but one. FRAMING! Let’s re-rack that Fielding Run Value graphic, but we’ll sort by Catcher Runs. It’s pretty ugly.

*Squints eyes to see the breakdown between areas*

Basically the White Sox were the worst at catcher defense stuff. The Blocking doesn’t look too bad in total, but overall, Teel is much worse (by this metric) than Quero who is basically league average. Both are slightly below average throwers. Teel rated league average at framing, where as Quero was the WORST in the league at framing. Now in a way, none of this matters from a roster construction standpoint. Sure you could add a third catcher, but really you want these two guys and their offensive skills giving you a huge edge behind the plate.

But still, maybe the White Sox will get some help on the framing end from a recent rule change. And, just to be certain they do improve back there, Will Venable did not renew the contract of Drew Butera from his staff. Alleged catcher whisperer Walker McKinven musta not liked what he seent. My guess is they’ll probably hire a specific coach to work with these guys in the off-season.

If we were expecting internal defensive improvement from this squad, I’d expect it right here. The (Devil) Rays got it from Carl Crawford, we should hopefully get it from Teel & Quero Co.

Pitchers

According to Outs Above Average, the White Sox pitchers are bottom 4 in defense. No particularly large contributor (well maybe the guy pictured….but camera adds 10 lbs) just generally bad. I did see one interesting theory spun, that is worth a look in 2026 to see if this groups defense improves.

I wasn’t exactly a fan of Katz.

I hope the next guy emphasizes holding runners and fielding the position.

— Wendell JikaChikuAri 🙅🏽‍♂️ (@wenhardy) September 30, 2025

I’m currently enjoying playoff baseball, but as it chugs along and shortly after I will be closely monitoring Chris Getz and company’s attention to improving this teams defense. If they do, you can bet I’ll be jamming their regular season win total with both hands like last year.

-BeefLoaf