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First off, good call on the baseballs. They were 100% confiscating baseballs at security, so you saved me $20 and some major frustration. I still do not understand this policy (which was not communicated), as they were not even selling baseballs at the merch table. A few things turned out very well. As soon as you mentioned no baseballs allowed at entry, I started scouring through my baseball cards (an old hobby I have recently picked up again), and I was able to find a Colson and Bryan Ramos. Since time was limited, I ended my search there and packed both cards in cases. After arriving, we looked around for a bit and found the "meet and greet" room. The workers told us they did not know who would be signing next, but they would be receiving the wristbands and info soon. Once the "package" was delivered to the workers, we approached them and one of the two "meet and greets" just so happened to be Colson and Bryan Ramos together, along with Cubbie Mike Tauchman. It was fate and we secured our wristbands for that line. Colson was extremely outgoing and friendly with me and my son. He took the time to engage and joke around with both us, asking my shell-shocked son what sports he played, which I had to answer for him, and also giving me advice on which pens/sharpie worked best on baseball cards. It was by far the highlight of my son's night, and who am I kidding, mine too. Ramos appeared to be slightly less shell-shocked than my son, but understandably fairly overwhelmed by the event. He still managed to be friendly and welcoming to my son, despite slightly crushing the baseball card he attempted to sign lol. Tauchman kept his shirt on, thank God, and was also kind with my son. He was able to get separate pictures with all of three of the players. After that, we were able to get in the other line with Edgar Quero and Miguel Vargas since everyone with their wristband had already signed and there was still time left in the hour. For those two players, we did not have anything to sign other than the little Sox Fest poster they gave us at entry, already containing the Tauchman auto. While planning to get the posters signed, we struck up a conversation with two young gentlemen in the line behind us who had a whole book full of White Sox baseball cards. After a few minutes, they very generously offered my son a baseball card for each player. He very appreciatively accepted and we were able to get those two cards signed as well. During our downtime for the meet and greets, we attempted to check out the only other activities, which was whatever was happening in the main theater and the merch table (also in the main theater). Every time we checked, there was absolutely nowhere to sit as every seat in the theater was occupied, and even the standing room area was crowded and we were always in the way. We did check out the merch table and made a few trips to make purchases. They were selling "mystery" bags for $80, which included a "mystery" signed baseball, a "mystery" bobblehead, a White Sox Bluetooth speaker and a few other smaller things. The bag was a very nice White Sox cooler bag, which will come in handy for road trips. We went for it, and the Bobblehead was Luis Robert, but unfortunately, the mystery auto was the Cub Mike Tauchman, which was greatly disappointing so I decided to roll the dice again and get another cooler bag in the process. This time it was Yaz Bobblehead and Paul DeJong auto baseball. I was done "gambling" at that point and convinced him that Paul DeJong was an awesome autograph to have. We also purchased a Mark Buehrle slip and slide Bobblehead. Overall, I might have been able to experience more if I was attending with other adults, but that many people crammed in a space with nowhere to go is overwhelming for a child. You were not kidding when you said it was not kid friendly. Since there was nowhere to sit in the theater, we were not able to experience any of the programming happening on stage. When he got a little hungry, we bought a few hot dogs (pizza, hot dogs, and popcorn were the food options), but we ate them sitting on the floor in the hallway because there were no areas to sit and retreat. No tables/chairs outside of the occupied seats in the theater, unless I was missing something. This was also difficult for me as I was carrying around two cooler bags, a bag I brought in, and two Sox Fest posters. With nowhere to sit, it was difficult holding onto everything while trying to eat a hot dog, sitting on the floor in a theater hallway. You were not kidding when you said it was not kid friendly. It was also extremely unorganized where none of the workers seemed to know what was happening, and no schedule of events was provided. I hope they do not attempt this format again. I find it odd that prospects/younger players were the focus of the event, but not younger fans. I miss the previous formats with an open floor, a schedule of multiple activities to choose from at any given time, and an area with tables to sit down and gather yourselves. This event was a cluster, and felt more like an adult night out that requires alcohol to quell the chaos. Oh, and we got to ride on a school bus.

Woof. River Ryan is a nice prospect, but is 26, injured, and a pitcher. Oh yeah, and Gavin Lux is Gavin Lux. The hardest of passes.

The Sox have had the best system in baseball like twice in the last 30 years.

Why are we writing off a 18 year power hitting prospect who just finished his 1st year of pro ball?

Sports pessimism only is 100 percent right when you don’t place a bet regarding and using said pessimism

No, this isn't part of the thought process on keeping him at all.

Rookie status eligibility is 130 at bats, 50 IP or 45 days on active roster. Those are the parameters that we use for prospect eligibility at FutureSox and it's basically what everyone uses other than BA. For example, Drew Thorpe and Brooks Baldwin aren't eligible to win rookie of the year because they aren't rookies. Therefore, they shouldn't be on prospect lists.

When JR hired Getz, JR said that Getz knew the system and org., so he wouldn't have to spend time getting familiar with everything. I suppose from that one could infer that JR expected a fairly quick turnround. But I don't recall the Sox saying they expected to win. One could also look at their actions. They trade their best pitcher for 3 prospects. They trade their 2 best relievers; one for roster fillers and the other for prospects. The make a clever signing of Fedde and almost immediately peddle him. These aren't the actions of a team trying to win now. The organization has never recovered from December 9, 2014, when the estimable White Sox GM cut-short a rebuild that was actually working. Instead he decided to push in his chips and rent Jeff Samardzija for a year. Undaunted by the abject failure of that move, GM followed it with a series of terrible moves that deepened the hole. In July 2016, the GM announces he’s rebuilding again: that might have been the most asset-rich position from which to start a rebuild in ML history. And how, we’re at it again, with some assets, but nowhere near what we had in July 2016. Hahn did arguably his best work as GM grabbing some good young players when he cleared out the bullpen in 2023. Getz comes in and he doesn’t have a whole lot to work with. He likely goofed the Cease trade (there is still hope); He made a great move acquiring Fedde, but really effed up his departure trade. He did what his goofball predecessor should have done with Crochet; so far, it looks good. There is a long way to go. I don’t have great confidence that Getz can get this done. But he didn’t cause it and he didn’t hire himself. And hope and pray that we have some hidden farm talent like we had in 2014... and that Getz realizes it (something his predecessor never did).

"We asked seven MLB.com writers to each pick out a club they see as a strong candidate to improve its 2024 record by at least 10 wins. (The lower the ‘24 win total, the greater the opportunity for improvement, so we set aside the record-setting 121-loss White Sox for the purposes of this exercise.)" https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-teams-set-to-make-biggest-improvement-in-2025

This dickish comments made in response to your quickly sharing relevant information are perfect examples of why many chose not to post. Thanks for sharing good info. on a cold winter day.

No worries — any projectiles or weapons would have mysteriously disappeared before the event ended anyways.

Considering the reception Reinsdorf got, they probably didn't want projectiles in people's hands.

Not sure we need to bring presidential politics into this...our Filibuster section has long since passed away into oblivion with numerous casualties and hurt feelings left by the wayside.

And let’s face it. We all know if I wanted to scour the history of Soxtalk, that I would find plenty of evidence that those taking this position of guilt no matter what had an extremely strong bias against Clevinger’s “type” before any accusations were ever leveled against him. Don’t even try to deny it because I don’t want to waste any more of my time with your horseshit position when we all know it is true

I’ll acknowledge that many crimes are unreported. Now what? My point is, that to claim some one may be presumed guilty, as your side of argument is doing, until they have been exonerated when that person hasn’t gone to trial and therefore can never be exonerated, is an irrational argument that can never be defeated on its own merit because it is a fallacy. Point of my claim that you beat your wife and cannot prove otherwise since we can presume that according to your own argument she may too intimidated to come forward is that you can not disprove my claim. you witnessed nothing so not sure why you even brought that up. Those photos showing a couple light marks on some unknown person’s skin means absolutely nothing. You can’t even reasonably demonstrate the origin or actual nature of those photos. It is possible he did in fact commit the abuse, and youre free to believe what you wish. But to act as if your conclusion is based on sound premises that should be accepted on the face of it is entirely absurd. Given that both police and mlb investigation found lacking evidence, to conclude that he is not necessarily guilty is actually the reasonable position. yet here you are arguing people should be banned for stating a reasonable position, which just further illustrates the irrationality of your position.

I swear I remember reading that the accuser refused to cooperate with the investigation because they were worried about their kid being cut off from support and other vindictive actions, and nothing to do with the accuracy of their statement.

We don't want to sell low.

They either have major red flags, or very limited ceilings, depending on which one you are talking about.

He's only 23. And it wasn't "a normal free agent process."

Yep, it’s a lose-lose.

That was the money bet...although it really felt like more professional prognosticators were taking Buffalo and the 1.5-2.5 points.

Heath Ledger >>> Joaquin Phoenix

Boy if this isn't a description of what Sox fans are being asked to do for the next half decade, I don't know what is.

Comical. Kudos to Getz for turning down that move. Let the Cubs be constantly haunted by their Busch trade down the line.

Heyman said on 670 that at the deadline the Dodgers offered Ryan River and Gavin Lux for Crochet

Baseball America and MLB Pipeline use different standards. I don't agree with BA's process. It makes no sense.

You’re just a hater, troll, or Cubs fan bro

That's because the prospect points awarded to the Sox are meaningless while the points awarded to other teams are 100% accurate. I get it, last year beat almost every ounce of optimism out of most of us. But, I do feel better about the team looking forward. Hopefully when some of these prospects make it and have the chance to be really good in the MLB, the team has a new owner and will actually try to keep them instead of trading them away before it's time to pay them.

“Jerry shouldn’t throw good money against a bad rigged game” ”might as well come out to some games” and put money in the pocket of the owner who won’t spend 😂😂😂 all time favorite tray boot lick right here. And in consecutive sentences, right after he calls his fellow fans peons this guy is the man of the Sox people

Uh-oh...

edit

No, that means you have not been proven to have stolen my beer at the appropriate legal standard. It is entirely possible that you 100% did steal my beer and did so in a way where I couldn't prove it. You could be 100% guilty of stealing my beer, but for whatever reason it did not meet the legal standard required.

Interesting the Sox kept Robert. Somebody decided we better have one player people might pay to see. Not for attendance mind you, just to make sure the team had one good player. If Robert was/is traded the Sox have not one player you would pay to see. That's kind of scary. You wouldn't pay to see any of those pitchers. You certainly don't pay to see Vaughn and the everyday lineup guys.

I preferred our new coach’s 30 minute press conference to that 40 second clip. Good lord, how can any player buy in to that phony s%*#. It’s not summer camp.

Law on Monty.

The other obvious thing with KC is that they don't beat themselves. They will come in well prepared and execute their game plan. It will be up to the opponent to be better. The Bills made a couple of fairly minor errors, but they were enough that they couldn't overcome it. They also had a notable pair of missing guys in their secondary, that clearly hurt a lot, it opened up the passing game a lot for KC. Had those guys been healthy I think that may turn the game. But other than that, you have to recognize when they're ready for a play and not keep running it.

Probably because it's the traditional way of sorting out rookie status, back to the days of the old Sporting News asterisk resignation. BA has been around since Miles Wolff was publisher in the 1980s...actually 1981. I think the service time parameters were added much later...just feels a lot more "technical."

25 days on IL 25 walks 25 days off because legs are hurting I can keep going. I was his biggest fan......I'm so done with this guy.

I don't believe there's a league wide conspiracy to help KC win it all, but with a team as good as KC, all it takes is a 50/50 call here and there go their way and they'll find a way to eek out a close win. Philly needs to blow them out because they aren't winning a close game vs KC. Fortunately the Eagles D is stout and hopefully Barkley can have a great game.

Robert should look at the career of Ernie Banks who is turning in his grave looking at Robert who is throwing his career away. Banks in his first 13 years with the Flubs played on losing teams but maintained a great attitude while winning 2 MVP awards.

Of course that means 25 days on the IL, and 25 more as walking wounded, but playing every day anyway.

What the Sox don't seem to realize is that they are not losing so-called "fair weather fans." They are losing some of their most loyal fans. And if that is truly happening, what do you have left? Denial is strong over there.

Fair prediction for a guy who’s played over 100 games once in 4 full seasons.

This is nearly unreadable. I have no idea who most of these guys are or what teams they are on.

It's ok to be frustrated with your favorite team being the worst of all time and run by an unqualified GM. Its also ok if you don't care, but why do you find it necessary to try to dunk on everyone that does care?

This is the most Jerry response yet. I am smarter than you, so stfu.

Otherwise, you have a 10-12 person message board of those who have ever worked in or around professional sports or reporting on it. They're fortunate at this point to have fans who care enough about the direction of the franchise to spend their time discussing it.

It’s not about your or my resume’. We are fans, our opinion is merely that. Our arguments aren’t over qualifications, they are over assessments and predictions. I’m just not hopeful right now, and you are. That’s ok, I don’t begrudge you that at all, I just think right now we are all at such a malaise and impasse that we are just saying the same s%*# over and over to each other. Believe me, I want to be wrong about Getz and I hope he proves me wrong. Demanding a resume on a message board just doesn’t really make sense

I hate even typing this, but we have seen some progress in terms of breaking up the insular nature of the org. Haber, Paddy, KW Jr, multiple long time pro scouts all gone and new people brought in. He’s added leadership positions in the front office to help build out pitching & hitting strategies. It sounds like there have been big changes in our analytics department. We also know that functions are now working with each other and not operating as silos. Will those efforts ultimately right the ship? Impossible for us to say, but it’s clear Getz is doing things differently than KW & Hahn and that’s a start.

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