Leaderboard

The Dodgers built a brand and reap the rewards of it. If the Sox spent the money, filled the stadium every game, and built a competitive marketable product they would be printing money just like the Dodgers. While it does suck the same handful of teams are the only ones signing these players and trading for the superstars, they weren’t given an advantage they built it. It’s 2025 for fucks sake how do you get away with $75 million being the largest contract you’ve ever given out. Same goes for all these other teams that aren’t interested in trying.

Very well said.

There is zero reason for the Sox to not significantly out spend the entire ALC for starters. Same with the Cubs in the NLC.

Crazy how the Orioles title window already closed. Their starting rotation is trash and they have no help on the pitching front in the minors.

The WSox are playing a different sport than most of these teams. They’re never going to be competitive again under Reinsdorf.

He played a lot of CF in 2022. He’s been a positive defender in the corners based on DRS, UZR/150, & OAA.

🤣🤣🤣…imagine someone who literally makes 20 posts a day crying about the White Sox trying to be a keyboard warrior and calling someone out for making one post about not liking the lack of a salary cap in the MLB

Would be great if we still had fedde instead of giving him to the cards for nothing

Another guy to the Dodgers? God this is terrible for baseball.

Guys, its ok. They have Gary Sanchez.

You may be right, and probably are for the small market teams, but I need to see it to believe it for the White Sox. A quick google search shows me the largest TV markets in the US are Los Angeles, New York, and…. Chicago.

I have many layers to my disdain for Jerry (one here is he could have used his power in ownership to create more favorable competitive rules for his club, not just align against labor)… but it is true that the only real model for success Sox could emulate is the braves. And they may operate as a big market club soon, but they are similar in stretching up budgets with competitive teams, but not often players for big FAs. We can’t say Sox should be the guardians or brewers because they don’t get the additional goodies. They need to actually be better in drafting and player development while using the additional payroll they have extremely wisely (I.e. re-signing stars unlike Cleveland, but not just signing addl bullpen help). Thats actually an extremely tight rope to walk, and why I don’t really have tolerance for the Sox so often settling for being average at some aspect of team building when they need to be exceptional at 2-3 to survive

I unno I think the dodgers are smarter than me but if I could pick a misstep it would be signing a 32 year old outfielder for 3 years. They will survive but not the signing that sends shivers down my spine.

I mean, medieval times is still packing them in and globetrotters have been around for 98 years, so I guess getting old is fine. I never said tune into every bananas game like it’s a pennant race, I said going to a game would be a blast

Every team in MLB has access to more domestic and international revenue streams then ever before. More than enough to put good teams on the field. The White Sox have more advantages for one example than every other team in the division. Yet because of their incompetence, dysfunction and ineptness they have squandered them. It's not MLB's fault they are run by a miserly owner who seemingly has done everything possible to alienate his fan base. Your response is hilarious to me. And I again point out how many different teams have been to or won the World Series over the past 25 years.

Grew up in Chicago, was a Sox fan (while his brother Bryant was a Cub fan)... https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/2024/12/27/longtime-sportscaster-and-chicago-native-greg-gumbel-dies-at-78

Dude was the very definition of a homer. Only Orioles prospects ever pan out 100% of the time. Meanwhile, Cease, Crochet, etc. we’re just mediocre pitchers unworthy of trading top prospects for. Over time, we all learn that prospects are great and exciting but you never know when or if they will pan out. I would venture to guess that the majority of time, the team acquiring the established player wins the trade.

Can’t wait to visit the Hangout and see what Sportsguy has to say. Last I saw he felt that giving up Mountcastle for Luis Castillo was too much, so my guess is they aren’t going to be happy now that all the free agents are off the market.

That sounds like the 2nd half of 2021 after Rodon got tired and the Sox were around .500 for the 2nd half. That was the beginning of the end. Almost every decision they made after that ended in disaster. Baltimore still has superior young position player talent but injuries to them or the BP collapsing along with lack of depth in SP could lead to a worse than expected season. Probably not 81-81 like the 2022 White Sox but 85 wins wouldn't be shocking.

I don’t see any sort of financial rationalization for moving them to a smaller market when the league is already thinking about expansion. The potential of Chicago is far greater than other market without a team currently.

And a ton of the value add is tied to this market

Any franchise in theory is movable but where are you going to go? Again I refer back to the stories and the Sports Illustrated article that stated a Nashville expansion team could garner 2 billion dollars. That's a lot more than relocating the White Sox to Nashville, Montreal, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Portland or Timbuktu is going to bring in. And as we all know the most important thing to those running the show in MLB is $$$$$$$$$$. I know your position is the Sox are moving, my position is they aren't going anywhere (as TLR recently said). Time will tell who is right.

No idea what the O's are doing.

It was just a joke. I like your posts. I just can’t get behind trying to level the playing field in baseball just because owners like Jerry are cheap. The Sox, A’s, Pirates, etc. can all spend more money, but they choose not to. They can’t spend like the Dodgers but they could all spend much more than they do. If we were all Dodgers fans, we would be laughing at these pathetic teams, and rightfully so.

100% agree…it’s absolutely absurd. And that’s why the Sox will be attractive to future buyers. The potential is there to be a strong franchise given the lack of a salary cap and the size of our market vs. the rest of the AL Central, but need an owner who will take some losses early on, will actually sign stars in free agency, and doesn’t live in fear of a bad long-term deal.

They are but LA is still way bigger than Chicago and the reality is the days of mega TV deals are over with. The Dodgers have a major locked in advantage for the remainder of their TV deal. Again, I’m not suggesting Jerry deserves a free pass either, but imagine being a Reds fan right now and watching the Dodgers sign a ton of mega free agents and still add $22M AAV role players. Every other league has moved to a salary cap / floor structure for a reason and they are all the better for it.

We are talking about the White Sox, an utterly cheap team that enters most seasons without even having a fifth starter. Remember when the Sox signed Cueto a week or so after the season had already started? Haha… Just like Flexen was signed for peanuts to be the Sox #4/#5 starter, Soroka was acquired to be their #2/#3 starter. Getz had it all planned out in his head when he acquired both bums. https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-2024-opening-day-roster

What does this even mean? If you're saying they were hoping he'd be one of the top starters, sure, why not. If you're saying they were expecting him to be one of the top starters, I'd like to know where you're getting your information from.

I don't know. You complain about every single expenditure, so maybe you can speak to that. I like the thought process behind bringing in a great arm to rehab for $3 million for the chance that he pops, and then you have a valuable piece. Montgomery is a junk-baller who may bounce back, but then you're probably eating some of the $7.5 million due him for the remainder of 2025 to trade him. I'm all for Reinsdorf spending more money. I don't need him to pay a beer vendor $1 billion to prove he wants to win, or something.

Why are you worried about Jerry’s money, especially this season? The payroll is around $60 million. He should be approving anything that brings in more talent. Also, half of the pitchers you mentioned will bust just like @southsider2k5 always says.

Which was the whole point of my comment. I'm not sure what is "wise" about taking on $22.5 million for a really bad pitcher to get another guy who could top out as a utility infielder. No, Jerry Reinsdorf shouldn't approve that. They have the makings of a stable rotation with Cannon, Martin, Burke, Thorpe, Wilson and Smith, plus Bush, Adams, Nastrini and Iriarte in AAA.

I said at the time that Odunze is the popular pick but the better pick for the team and Caleb was the best OL available.

I'm on record in saying they should've did exactly what they did the year prior. Trade the pick and got a haul like they did with Carolina. They weren't a Caleb Williams away from competing with all the holes they had and still have. With that being said, hindsight is they still either should've traded the 9th pick, or drafted an OT/DE.

The pick that should have changed is Odunze.

But don’t know why they can’t do both. You can land Ben Johnson without having Ryan Poles at the helm, especially if Johnson has a pro personnel guy he wants to bring in. To me, landing Ben Johnson isn’t the No. 1 priority. I say that because Ben Johnson will suffer the same fate as Matt Nagy, Matt Eberflus, and everyone else if the roster isn’t improved. He may have some great offensive ideas, but they won’t work with Larry Borom Matt Pryor and Jake Curran blocking for Caleb. It’s like hiring the best chef in the world and telling him he can only shop at 7-Eleven for ingredients.

They are talking about trading for Cease again

If you need some entertainment this morning there's some copium going on at their forum.

Elias trade a top 20 mlb prospect? Yea right.

Now we get to look forward to Austin Slater out there. I didn’t realize he was so bad defensively.

The Rangers went out and signed Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Jacob DeGrom, so it's not like the Rangers are the Tampa Bay Rays.

They could have afforded this one. They don’t need to get 10. Just get at least one and show your fans you are trying.

🤣🤣🤣…the dude who does nothing but post 50 times a day whining about the White Sox is calling me out for ripping the Dodgers one time for being able to outspend the competition. This s%*# is fucking incredible. I’m glad you think the volatility of the playoffs means it’s ok for teams like the Dodgers, Mets, & Yankees to spend whatever they like. Let’s see here, seven of the top 10 payroll teams made the playoffs (70%) last year, while only seven of the other 20 made the playoffs (35%). No correlation there whatsoever. Not sure what the Nashville dig is intended to mean, but please keep em coming!

You have turned a dig against a sports league being uncapped and allowing the couple uber rich teams to spend whatever they see fit into a hissy fit about Jerry being cheap. The former has nothing to do with the latter. So yeah, you are arguing against things I have never said. I would love to see a salary floor in addition to a salary cap. The NFL is a best in class product because all 30 teams have a shot. The same can’t be said about baseball…full stop.

Who is making this argument? Literally no one

Where in the fucking world did I make a single comment rationalizing Jerry’s conduct as owner? I’m just sick of people with zero business acumen cheering on one of the richest two organizations signing a f*** load of free agents and saying “why don’t they all do that”. This shouldn’t be that hard to comprehend. And your constant “Jerry loves rebuilds” comments are just plain dumb. The dude literally went years avoiding a rebuild even though it was the right thing to do. And the only reason he’s rebuilding right now is because KW & Hahn completely destroyed the org and there is no other option. It’s wild that there are countless things to rip Jerry for and yet you still somehow need to create your own ones.

These takes are absolutely hilarious to me. The Dodgers spend more because they have access to revenue streams substantially above almost every other team in baseball. They spend more because they can without going into the red. It fucking sucks for parity, but alas, the MLB could give two shits about trying to have a competitive product like the NFL.

RIP Greg. I remember watching him on channel 5 as a kid. Really good at what he did.

Other teams could have done this 🤷‍♂️

That clarification is sadly necessary, and it is really a sad state of affairs to have to seriously contemplate if we're going to lose 100, or 110+.