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Because it makes 162 largely meaningless. There are no great wins or crushing losses that may catch up to you at the end of the season because if you’re in at 81 wins or out 80 wins, are you really that good anyway? More than likely, your season will be over in 5 days. The final weekend with the Red Sox, Mariners, Blue Jays, and Yankees…meaningless to the baseball fan without a rooting interest. They’re all in. No drama. They have it right now. 5 of 15 in each league is good. 6 of 16 someday would be acceptable. It’s supposed to be a big deal to make the playoffs in baseball. Now it won’t be.

Here is my top 20 White Sox prospects. I did leave a few off that others have as their age to me drops them down a lot. 1. Norge Vera: the much anticipated stateside debut of Vera will come this summer. While in the DSL Vera showed improved fastball velocity (touching 101 mph) and command while also working on a splitter with Jose Contreras. The improved pitch arsenal and fastball velocity gives Vera easy Ace upside with a floor of an elite closer. However, if he can command the fastball while keeping the velocity late into games and show enough from the secondary pitches then buckle up because he will take off like a rocket. 2. Colson Montgomery: the White Sox's most recent 1st round draft pick will now focus solely on baseball. Much like Tim Anderson, Montgomery's upside will continue to grow as he moves through the system as a pro. His hit tool should improve with more centralized focus on baseball and allow for his power to develop from raw power potential to in game power. The risk the Sox took on a high schooler should pay off down the road for them. 3. Oscar Colas: don't sleep on Colas as many of the experts seem to be doing. Colas has had a long journey to just make it to the Sox. He began in Cuba, then minor league ball in Japan before finally getting a taste of the big leagues there while playing for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. His hit tool and power were on display as he hit 11 HR and batted .302 in the minors in 66 games and had 1 HR while hitting .278 through 7 games for the bug league club. What stands out between his time in Japan and now, is his dedication and work ethic to transform his body from an overweight-esque physique to a much more toned and muscular build. If he can stay that driven about improving his game stateside, he could quickly move up this list and through the minors. The rust that has surely built up from not having played a games in 2+ years is really the only thing that is holding him back from stardom. 4. Jake Burger: there is no one who deserves to be here more. Either by sheer perseverance or skill, Burger missed 3+ seasons because of a couple torn achilles and the pandemic but he still managed to prove there is a legit mlb caliber player ready to star. Burger hit .274 with 18 HR at AAA and looked comfortable hitting .263 with 1 HR over 15 games in the bigs. He is only going to get better with further health and time to actually hone his skills. I fully believe if the Sox ever trade him or man up and give him a playing time, he is a .275 hitter with 25+ HR potential. 5. Jose Rodriguez: the White Sox were pretty aggressive with Rodriguez this past season and he answered the challenge with ease. Rodriguez showed a nice power/speed combo early at low A, then he proved it was no fluke at A+. The Sox then quickly promoted him to AA at the end of the season for a handful of games. Over the entire season he hit .301 with 14 HR and 30 SB's. Depending on how the Sox's 2B situation looks like in September, Rodriguez could be pushing for a call up to the bigs if he hits similar to 2021. 6. Wes Kath: there is a lot to like about Kath and he will have to start showing it this season to stay this high on the list. Big power potential with a potential above average hit tool are in the cards for him of he can tap into his raw power. He didn't show much from his time at rookie ball but the tools are there for this high school product that the Sox took a chance on in the 2nd round of the 2021 MLB draft. His bat flip game is already off the charts 7. Yoelqui Cespedes: many sites and podcasts have stated that his calling card was his power, but that didn't show up in his stateside debut as he clubbed 8 HR's in 72 games, which isn't bad but definitely not "calling card" worthy. What was squarely on display was his base stealing acumen (18 SB's) and his bat (.288 average over A+ and AA). Maybe the power will show more in 2022, but with his smaller stature I'd bank on his power being capped some and his ceiling being a Michael Taylor type player. 8. Matthew Thompson: Thompson comes in at number 8 because of his potential upside. His era in 2021 looks bad, but it was much better when looking deeper. His numbers after his months-long IL stint were much better than before the injury. He posted 9 games of 3 runs or fewer after the injury with five 0-1 run games. What stands out to me is his ability and willingness to use/command the breaking ball. 9. Romy Gonzalez: I think the organization was blindsided by how good Romy was last season. Romy hit a meager .244 with 4 HR's and 11 SB's at A ball in 2019 before missing a full developmental year because of the pandemic. In 2021 he burst onto the scene as a legit power/speed guy, between AA and AAA Romy hit 24 HR's while batting .283 and stealing 24 bases. Barring another 2B signing or trade by the White Sox, Romy could be in contention with Jake Burger and Leury Garcia for playing time on opening day. If he does manage to stand out, it will most likely come from his power and approach to the opposite field driving his numbers. 10. Luis Mieses: what does easy power and good contact get you, 15 HR, a .270 average over low A and A+, and a top 10 spot on this list. As his plate discipline and pitch recognition get better he should get to even more of that effortless power. 20-25 homeruns in a season or two seem to be the correct power progression. 11. Bryan Ramos: at only 19, Ramos was one of the younger players to start at Low A in 2021. His youth was not a detriment as he held his own over the entirety of the season by hitting .244 with 13 HR and 13 SB. The stolen bases most likely will fade down to 0 as he exits low A and their baserunner friendly rules, but the power could develop nicely with the bat. 12. Tanner McDougal: drafted out of high school in the 5th round of the 2021 MLB draft, McDougal only appeared in 5 games before needing Tommy John surgery. During his brief time in rookie ball, McDougal was showing a real knack for striking batters out with 17 K's in 9.2 innings. Look to 2023 for McDougal to show off the high spin rate slurve and mid 90's fastball. 13. Andrew Dalquist: command, command command. If Dalquist can increase his command with a higher strike % (58% in 2021) and a lower walk rate (6.1 BB/9), then there might be some real potential here. Dalquist was drafted out of highschool in 2019 so this past season was his first real taste of pro baseball, if this past season was mostly rust then watch for him to start making waves. 14. Wilfred Veras: stepping into rookie ball in Arizona without having ever played in the DSL because of COVID, Veras held his own and then some by hitting. 322 with 4 HR. At 6'2", 180 pounds and only 19 years old, there is plenty of growth and power projection still to come for Veras. The big factor that may be the make or break point for him is the strikeout numbers (~23%). If he can manage to drop the K rate to below 20% then his power and bat could be shining bright on the south side in a few years. 15. Jared Kelley: Kelley had a rough 2021 season marred by trips to the IL in the middle of summer. Very raw still with a potential plus fastball and plus change-up. A move to the bullpen might be a possibility if he cannot develop a breaking pitch to throw hitters off the straight stuff. He would land higher on this list if not for the lack of a strong breaking breaking ball. 16. Yolbert Sanchez: one of the few older prospects to make the list. Yolbert has his age knocking him down as he played at A+ being 24. He will be 25 once the season begins with only 39 games above A+ to his record. A good hit tool against much younger competition is fine but doesn't really do much to show the true skill that is or is not there. Yolbert will really have to come out on fire once the season begins to stay as a relevant prospect. 17. Victor Quezada: keep this name on your radar as he could start getting noticed on industry prospect lists as this next season progresses. Quezada is said to have big power and was one of the more recent signings that illustrated the White Sox's plan of going after power bats. Marco Paddy said of Quezada "Big-time power, very impressive to find in a young guy." This next season should provide the chance for Quezada to show the power and bat when he gets stateside at rookie ball. 18. Erick Hernandez: don't fall for the Juan Soto comparisons, the real takeaway from that is his ability to control the bat through the zone like Soto and hit the ball to all fields. Hernandez is still very raw as a 16 year old and has much to work on. If he can show progression with the bat over the next few seasons then the Sox would have done well with this signing. (No video) 19. Dario Borrero: Marco Paddy had this to say about Borrero, “He’s going to have a lot of power. The intriguing thing about him is he can hit line-to-line. He handles pitchers, goes the other way when he has to, reads the breaking ball very well. He’s a very impressive kid. You normally don’t see Venezuelan players that tall with that kind of swing, being left-handed.” Unfortunately, Borrero missed the majority of the DSL after a hot start due to an undisclosed injury. I am most excited about seeing what he can do once healthy and stateside. (No Video) 20. Benyamin Bailey: Bailey is a few seasons ahead of the younger guys on this list, but went through the same path. The reason Bailey winds up below the others though is the lack of production stateside. Bailey hit .193 with 4 HR's over 61 games between rookie ball and low A. He will need to drastically cut down his K rate (30%) in order to tap into his raw power and boost his batting average.

This was a facebook post by Ron Kittle about Juice

Why would they stop now. They're on a roll.

But it’s equally the MLBPA’s fault!

If these assholes didn't sit on their hands for a couple months and got down to business we wouldn't be rushing up on a deadline

Putting the players "winning" this negotiation aside, why are you so against capping spending and making a more level playing field? I know the Sox have spent last year and would continue to have a higher than average payroll moving forward in a normal scenario but they have acted like a small market team for the last decade basically. I don't want the Yankees spending 100 million more than us. Obviously we both would want a payroll floor but that's not happening but capping spending so the Yankees and Dodgers can't dominate everyone in player acquisitions on the free market is something I, and I would imagine you, would want.

Being a millionaire =/= you make a million a year in salary. I agree that the minimum should be raised but that's a separate point. Guys on the Sox 26-man that make under $1 a year: -Cease - 1.5 million signing bonus at 18 -Kopech - 1.6 million signing bonus at 18 -Collins - 3.3 million signing bonus at 21 -Crochet - 4.5 million signing bonus at 21 -Vaughn - 7.2 million signing bonus at 21 -Sheets - 2 million signing bonus at 21 Then you have Ruiz, Burr, Lopez, Romy Gonzalez and Engel who never got 7 digit bonuses. Plus guys on the 40 man that have made 7 digit bonuses in Rutherford, Burger, Adolfo, etc. So less than 20% of the Sox active roster is players that haven't had a 7 digit payday.

I think there’s a serious pitching development problem. Who’s the last arm that the Sox drafted and developed into a serviceable starting pitcher? Rodon? He was drafted in 2014 and was a top 3 pick. It’ll be hard to screw that up. Crochet could be that guy but I don’t trust LaRussa to stretch him out. This is a serious problem. I’ve been told that the Sox don’t draft pitchers who don’t land straight to the plate. Their reasoning is that you can’t teach it. Something has to change here.

In his career to date, Max Scherzer has earned $221 million. That is 0.1% of his career earnings per day. I think he's fine.

Also of note. https://theathletic.com/3144541/2022/02/22/white-sox-open-minor-league-minicamp-with-vaccine-mandate-in-place/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983

I'm with you on the expanded playoffs. Adding playoff teams will make more teams competitive. There will still be teams that tank, whether purposely or not, but there will be more meaningful games in mid to late summer. And I don't agree with the notion that it's not fair for a .500 team to go up against a team that had 95 wins and knock them out of the playoffs because they played out of their minds for a couple games. Every team has to go into the playoffs putting their best game out there. If there's an upset, there's an upset. Happens in football all the time.

My high school team opened their season last night. I have several area colleges with D1 to NAIA teams, and the Frisco RoughRiders (Texas AA) come in to play the Missions (SD AA) on April 12th. No shortage of baseball here. How's Northwestern's team?

I’m going to be honest, but the CBT is not the problem. In fact, the game desperately needs a hard cap to improve parity. Set it at $240M or something and then have it grow based on some economic factor each year. At the same time, there are ways to get the cheap teams to spend more. I really don’t like the idea of expanded playoffs, but it should encourage less tanking. Same goes for a draft lottery and increasing the minimum salary for pre-arb players. But what I’d really like to see is a major shakeup to revenue sharing and to force recipients to actually spend what they receive on player payroll. It’s complete bullshit that some owners are pocketing that shit. With those tweaks I think you have something that would work for the players with minimal impact to the owners. And most importantly, you should have a game with much better parity.

The issue that they're after is to protect the guys who get a few cups of coffee, never to get a sniff of the big leagues again. I don't know what the numbers are, but I would venture to guess that the vast majority of players get < 1 year of service time in their lifetimes. I'm sorry, but making foodstamp money playing 5+ years in the minors, then finally "making it" and making a quarter of a million dollars over the course of 3 years until you run out of options and get released.... then get cast out into the "real world" where none of the skills that you've been honing for the past 25 years have any real value? I'll disagree with you and say those guys are underpaid.

Some forum members simply think that no matter how much the players make...they should get more. Jerry makes tons of money so he is a greedy owner, etc. For all we know he might give every dime he makes to White Sox Charities. I would fully support raising the minimum wage along the line that is currently being offered by the owners. However, I look at our major league payroll and don't see anyone being underpaid IMO. I just want this to be over and start the fun. If the owners want to pay the players demands...fine. If not...fine. I am very tired of rich guys arguing about money.

Sure they could but the goal isn't to just win it's to not give up anything.

They haven't even acknowledged the PA's offer. It's their favorite thing in the world. They don't want to give an inch because that would set a precedent.

215 is higher than the hard cap of 208 for the NFL and the NFL brings in more revenue. I don't see that number as being out of line.

Yeah, how much are the owners losing each day? Didn’t see your follow up.

The owners just want a CBA that saves them from themselves. If the higher revenue teams really wanted more competition, they would divide their money up more equally. And lower revenue teams can print money with the little revenue sharing they get, crying poor, and not trying to win.

Meh, it would have been a better owner wedge by the players. Some of these payrolls from the bottom 3 teams recently have been low even in early 2000s. Though I know post-trade deadline the team salaries of BAL, PIT, CLE weren't as bad. If you set a threshold of $45M you lose your competitive balance intl bonus slot money and at $40M you lose your comp balance picks it does 100x more to reduce egregious tanking than the players push of lottery style system for the draft. Those are low thresholds, it's crazy how the lowest teams are on par with the most cash strapped teams of the early 00s. No MLB team should ever below $55M nowadays.

The teams that cry poor spend as little as little as they want and then want the big spenders to spend less to suppress salaries. When a team goes over the cap the penalty goes to the smaller revenue teams. The smaller market / revenue teams then win with a lower ceiling as they get the penalty revenue and suppression of salaries for the middle tier players. They then do not need to spend any money. Cleveland and Tampa are prime examples of spend less, rake in the revenue share, spend on younger players and live off of revenue sharing. All small market teams are doing that and it works for them but doesn't seem to appeal to the fan base. The White Sox are caught in no man's land as they don't push the cap and don't reap the rewards of multiple picks and pool increases. The players are allowing a ceiling without a floor or taking part in true revenue sharing of the sport's wealth.

What would be nice is not having a salary floor, but having certain thresholds where if you spend too low of an amount you lose draft picks and intl spending

Sure but that's Manfred's job to get the owners together and figure it out. And frankly, if I were one of the cheap owners I would hold out too given the unions bargaining over the last several years. That dunce Tony Clark complains about this and that in between negotiations but when push comes to shove does nothing about the issues he highlights. He hasn't done anything positive for the players in years if ever.

It's really not. 70% of the league makes under $1 million per year and it's the lowest minimum salary in all of sports. What the owners are trying to do on the luxury tax would make it really tough on the White Sox the next couple seasons and the penalties are ridiculous. It doesn't force the small market clubs to spend and stops the largest market clubs from spending. Sounds like a hard cap to me.

I sure don't. This is millionaires vs. billionaires after all. Every other league has a cap. The luxury tax for the players is a better scenario than a hard cap.

We should all boycott the sport. What they're proposing for the luxury tax is a fucking joke. I hope they miss the season.

That is such a warm and awesome story from Kittle.

Sign Conforto and Brad Miller (hide his bat when a lefty is on the mound) to platoon at 2B with Leury. Suddenly, left-handed pop is a strength.

Man, you'll get no argument from me here. Whataburger >>>> In-N-Out. I'm just saying, these businesses are all Christian in some facet. Fwiw, Cracker Barrel used to be abysmal and mired in controversy, but has done a huge 180 under Sandra Cochran as CEO.

I think I agree with you but someone pointed out an important note last time I said something similar - adding in 2 more teams in the AL puts Vlad Jr and that team in the playoffs (Super fun) and 2 more teams in the NL last year adds an 82 win Phillies team that happened to have Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler. In Devil's Advocate mode - that's not as gross as it seems?

I am at the point where I don't care what they do. Get agree to something already. If they want to ruin the sport with expanded playoffs, there's nothing fans can do about it. They will probably find other ways to ruin the sport while they are at it.

those damn Christian businesses!

I will not be going to ChikfilA today even though I've gone there in the past. Admittedly it was a mistake I made then. In it's place I will be eating Kellogg's cereal which I boycotted during the worker strike. I will also choose Joanne Fabric over Hobby Lobby for a project I'm doing even though again, I made a poor choice at the time, and I am embarrassed to say I shopped there. I'm trying to be forthcoming about my past mistakes and the new decisions I'm making.

Both sides claimed that parity was the primary goal in these negotiations and yet no mention of minimum team payroll. Raising the cap just leads to more disparity.

Like they did with the DH? Because I prefer playoff baseball to April or late September? Baseball went from America's game to dying before our eyes while basketball and football crushes it. Move into the 21st century. I've been advocating for thirty years to go to eight teams. The rest of the world is finally catching up.

This is all so stupid. The players aren’t even asking for very much. Their ideas are nothing compared to what the owners will make on jersey patches and expanded playoffs. It’s just 8 short-sighted owners being shitheads essentially.

I respect your fandom but you're a frog in the pot right now. They done boiled it slowly on you and you're ready to just bake in it.

March of 2024. No baseball is played for the next 2 seasons. Then the Sox have to rebuild.

Is this from that 3rd Jason Bourne movie when he went to Russia??....

March 15th - I suspect we will see a 150 game season (this year) but players will be paid for 162 games but with expanded playoffs. March 15th agreement - means spring training kicks off about March 22nd-31st (as I figure you need at least 7-14 days for the rest of the off-season to finish and everyone to get reported etc).

Why would you think either side is going to come up with something anywhere near their best offer until there are a couple of seconds left on the clock?

I am all for Tony never working in baseball again. Any other crappy whatabouts?

Fuck that guy