Look at Ray Ray Run

I like Ray

I've praised multiple moves and have praised Hahn countless times, besides that though great points.

Me and you are opposites, although not to an extreme because you're pretty positive year round, but I'm very positive about the team, players and during the season. You are insanely positive every single off-season. You've been tooting the "this is different, I think we're really gonna get him" horn since the Machado off-season. I'm not asking for Correa or Seager, the Sox have a SS. If the Sox want to sign a couple of 90-130 million dollar free agents then I'll start giving them the benefit of the doubt in future years. But... let's have them convert on just one player in that range in their entire organizational existence before calling people who are skeptical negative nancy's. You give me any combination of Gausman/Semien, Ray/Semien, Ray/Conforto, Gausman/Conforto, I'll be floored and happy to think the Sox will actually have good off-seasons. You give me one, and I'll be pleasantly surprised and start to give some benefit of the doubt.

Hahn is still my guy. I do my best to absolve a lot of blame that is likely his by placing it onto the shoulders of others.

I don't block anyone or complain about anyone or any posts to moderators. This is a forum that I choose to visit. Everyone's opinion provides to the level of entertainment received by stopping in here. Besides, if I miss one of your tweets as Steve Cishek on twitter I know I can come here and see it in your posts!

They won 93 games because of exactly what I laid out above; they acquired good assets during the rebuild. There is no argument from me there. Hahn, in general, hit a home run on all of those trades and acquisitions (Robert). The rest of it though? Just whatever... and I love Hendriks, but the guy is a closer. He's the last piece to the puzzle, and honestly the Sox are throwing huge money at relievers because they whiffed on their 1st round RP draft pick, and whiffed on development of their countless young guys coming up as RP's. I'm as excited as anyone, but my goodness if the water carrying for this ownership group isn't flat out exhausting every single off-season. We've heard this nonsense about the Sox playing with the big boys for three damn years now and the Rays are now lapping them in salary commitments to a single player. The Sox will earn the benefit of the doubt and the belief in these talking-head narratives that "we're gonna be happy and this off-season is different" when they actually prove that to fans ONE time in the entire existence of the organization.

Some say feel free to hit that like and subscribe button, I say... feel free to hit that block button.

Every off-season we hear about how the narrative is changing, the Sox are coming... they're all-in ready to spend big. Fast-forward two months:

Trust of the process is earned, not given. The Sox, from a signing MLB talent standpoint have been pretty abysmal. If we're being honest with ourselves, this team is only where they are because they were incapable of building around some stars and flipped them for young talent that pretty much all hit - which is a testament to their abilities at the lower levels to identify talent. Their supplementing of this group has been atrocious though and not at all what they promised. They have signed 1 nice asset - Grandal - and had to trade from the youth to acquire the other one (Lynn). Keuchel is a donut, Kimbrel was a shit show, Eaton was a flat out embarrassment, and their scouting of Cesar was amateur hour.

The dirtiest of dirty on wall street which is saying something.

This is like saying Ted Bundy was kind of a bad guy.

I'm still amazed people thought this guy would be a good owner.

Let's all relish in the thought that now even the Rays have signed a 100 million dollar contract. The White Sox are now cheaper at the top of the market than the Rays.

Wendell Carter is still not good pal. He's on an awful team, getting minutes. King of production without impact. Wendell still a poor post defender, terrible offensive game in the post (no footwork) and can't get by anyone on the perimeter. He developed a nice spot up corner 3 and that's about it. I was trying to tell you all two years ago that the Bulls needed to gut everything but Lavine because no one else on the team was any good... they do exactly that and now they're good. Coincidence? I think not! Sexton hurt pretty good all year, didn't help him much.

If the Sox go out and sign a RF and a SP, or a 2B and a SP, or even a 2B and a RF for big money, I will have absolutely no problem with the Graveman move even though I still don't think he'll be very good for very long. The odds of that happening seem very very slim though. Edit; I'll also add everyone celebrating getting a GB pitcher and that being great for our park.... wuhhh? Did anyone watch LaRussa last year? The Sox need FB pitchers because their manager is a complete moron. Bummer got screwed by infield positioning and defense more than any pitcher I've ever seen in my life last year.

No, I wanted the White Sox to find an arm who may be prone for a breakout, or develop an arm who could find a new pitch or a new approach to take a next step. The Sox have invested so heavily in the bullpen in the last five years and they've whiffed almost every time but for Hendriks. They continue the same MO of buying at the peak instead of creating a peak themselves.

LOL, I've been called a Hahn Bot on this very site; Don Coopers son, Rick Hahn's Son and on and on. I have been blasted for being overly positive during the season (this past season), and about the players and after the season ended (after the post-season loss). DId you ever stop to think for one second that I just call it as I see it, and that I'm not negative or positive? My opinion doesn't change if the decision was made by a guy I like, or a guy I dislike. If I think a guy, Graveman, isn't that good I call it out. If I think a guy is really good, Grandal, I praise the move and get excited. This isn't that complicated. Everything doesn't fit in your bucket of positive and negative.

I'll b**** about the Sox paying for guys at their absolute peak value as long as they keep doing it. It will never stop being stupid; just as it was stupid for Kimbrel, it is stupid for Graveman. Find guys before their one breakout campaign, stop signing them after it. Just my thoughts. I'm not a fan of the sustainability of Graveman as a reliever. I could be wrong.

It's not over, but even by most optimistic payroll projections the Sox just spent about 20-25% of their off-season budget on a guy that I think will be lucky to have one full good season for the team.

Yes, most good/well run teams in contention lock up 25% of their payroll in their bullpen. How about bitching about the Sox making another big investment (by their standards) in a freaking bullpen arm when they have more pressing needs and aren't known as big spenders? Graveman's can be found/had/developed every year before they have their one breakout season. Maybe stop paying top of market prices for guys coming off career years?

1. The playoffs in 2021 were an anomaly due to the shortened season in 2020. Sp's faded down the stretch. Bullpens are important but a return to not having multiple bullpen games should be expected going forward. 2. None of those teams that performed well with good bullpens signed 3+ guys to big money bullpen contracts. Bullpen guys are volatile. Graveman has one good year as a reliever under his belt and even in that year he was the beneficiary of some luck. Fip was much higher than era and xera. Babip was 230. And he's 31 years old. I dont trust graveman one bit to be good for 3 years... not even 2.

Most teams find relievers on the cheap or development them. It's not a reliable position to lock in aging players coming off one good year doing it.

More big commitments to relievers. Hahn baffles me with his obsession with investing heavily in relievers coming off career seasons. Sox have big holes to fill and here they are buying more relief pitching. Smh

The guy who got the job directly out of FSU undergrad is still working with his team and has moved his way up quite a bit. And as for your second response, it's not really amazing given that the industry is a black hole of exploitation that only a very select few get out of the void, while the majority work long hours with very few guarantees, and no protection during a pandemic. The way baseball managed the pandemic was shameful given that they already exploit analysts and then kicked them to the curb instead of paying them the minuscule wages (in comparison to their skills and credentials) they were being paid. No, they have a better chance because many of the positions that exist are currently held by white people and psychology studies have shown us time and time again that people are more likely to hire people that LOOK like them, even if they don't believe they have any biases. You can read about this in "Nudge" or "Misbehaving" by behavioral economist Richard Thaler. You can also read about it briefly in "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahnman. It also explains, as I already explained, why the executive ratios in all industries do not equal the national population breakdown OR the college educated national breakdown. This isn't merely a race issue, it's also a gendered issue. Baseball isn't alone in this problem, although one could argue that nepotism is even more grotesque in baseball than it is in other industries.

Who says there aren't? Why do you assume that the promotion of minority hires into MLB only accounts for black people and not hispanic people or other people of non-white makeups? Also, how do Hispanics have three times the population? What data/numbers are you using to state that?