South Side Hit Men

Chris, I would like you to introduce you to John Middleton, the closest thing to Bill Veeck in the 21st Century. https://www.philadelphiabaseballreview.com/2022/12/theres-no-doubt-now-middleton-putting.html?m=1 https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-10-19-1922/sports-phillies-owner-john-middleton-acrobatically-gave-baseballs-philly-fans https://www.essentiallysports.com/mlb-baseball-news-john-middleton-mlb-will-fine-him-phillies-owners-awesome-act-stands-out-from-the-likes-of-unpopular-john-fisher-and-hal-steinbrenner-winning-fans-hearts/

Will update the tracker and AAV once the Snell deal becomes official. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/03/giants-to-sign-blake-snell.html Snell will receive $32M for this season, $15M in 2024 and a $17M signing bonus payable January 2026. Snell also has a $30M player option for 2025. So he locks in $62M if he gets injured and needs surgery this season. Setting that aside, the AAV is $31M for CBT purposes, compared to the initially estimated $28.6M over obviously a much longer period ($200M over 7 years vs. $62M over 2 years). Blake Snell will be 32 if he opts out before 2025, or 33 for his next free agent period barring an extension.

Well that and annual collusion and widespread tanking since 1918.

Mr. Getz, You should avoid spending most of your time on the job responding to internet criticism, which is what your predecessor obsessed about. Also, players should be prepared and you know like actually played the position they are being asked to do for the first time before being thrown into the s%*# on Opening Day. Primarily because your bosses, Jerry and Brooks Boyer, are throwing a hissy fit because there are several thousand, perhaps over ten thousand, unsold tickets on opening day. Smells like Vaughn in Left Field, rushing injured Liam to sell Memorial Day tickets, Dane Dunning / Garrett Crochet 2020 Game 3 all over again. If Tony is calling the shots, blink twice. Otherwise, do better, before you are looked back upon as Rick Hahn 2.0. Signed, White Sox Fans

Chicago native Don Cornelius, born seven months and a day after Jerry.

I’d like to keep him in Charlotte to get several pressure free starts, in warmer weather, to see how he holds up doing what he hasn’t done since the 2010s with limited inning starts at Tennessee. Feels like 2020 Game 3, or rushing Liam after 5 poor IP post cancer spring training/Charlotte rehab innings. They spent six months tearing down the team and assuring 0 games will matter in 2024. Yet between the guys they brought in, their likely opening day roster, and this decision, they continue to operate as they did throughout 2023 as though any of these games matter beyond player evaluation and player development. Getz built a 60ish win team. Operate accordingly. Crochet’s 12 1/3 Innings as a 2020s Starter: 3 1/3 vs. Wright State 3/7/20 1 2/3 at Los Angeles N. L. 2/27/24 2 at Los Angeles A. L. 3/2/24 2 1/3 at San Diego 3/9/24 3 vs. Los Angeles A. L. 3/14/24

I believe his MLB service time clock would remain frozen if he breaks down in Charlotte. Whereas if he does the same on opening day or a subsequent April start, doubling his start total this decade and surpassing 3 1/3 innings for the first time since the 2010s, it will continue accruing. I mean he has 12 1/3 innings as a starter under his belt this decade plus one more start later this week. What could possibly go wrong? 13 “Starts” - Tennessee 2018-2020 https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=croche000gar 4 “Starts” - Spring Training 2024 https://www.mlb.com/player/garrett-crochet-676979?stats=gamelogs-s-pitching-mlb&year=2024 12 1/3 Innings as a 2020s Starter: 3 1/3 vs. Wright State 3/7/20 1 2/3 at Los Angeles N. L. 2/27/24 2 at Los Angeles A. L. 3/2/24 2 1/3 at San Diego 3/9/24 3 vs. Los Angeles A. L. 3/14/24 Yes, let’s put added pressure on him to start on Opening Day since it will be our only crowd until after the trade deadline when the Cubs and Yankees visit in mid August.

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was Same as it ever was and look where my hand was….

I take these more as Getz declarations than uninformed "predictions", but do with them as you wish. https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-2024-opening-day-roster Starting Lineup: C Maldonado; 1B Vaughn; 2B Lopez L; SS DeJong; 3B Moncada S; LF Benintendi L; CF Robert Jr.; RF Fletcher L; DH Jimenez Reserves: C Stassi; OF Pillar; 2B-SS Shewmake; 1B-3B Moustakas Rotation: 1 Fedde; 2 Soroka; 3 Flexen; 4 Crochet L; 5 Nastrini Bullpen: CL/SU Kopech; Leasure; Wilson MR Banks L; Chavez; Hill L; Leone Swing/Long Garcia

Claimed the 5th spot in the rotation to start the season. https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/braves-reynaldo-lopez-wins-fifth-starter-spot/

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits - Matthew 7:15-20 KJV

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2024/03/18/detroit-tigers-2024-opening-day-home-opener-tickets-start-times/72987926007/ Detroit Opening Day article lists Standing Room Only tickets are still available for $99, but fans can find much better deals for the White Sox home opener where tickets start $26 with seats available in nearly every section of the park. LMAO We must give Jerry billions today, so we can pay gauged ticket prices on Opening Day 2029 to watch guys like Fletcher, Maldonado, Nicky Lopez and Opening Day Starter through Closer TBD.

The Women's Draw was a complete debacle. https://thespun.com/college-hoops/ncaa-selection-committee-accused-of-screwing-over-iowa Iowa was screwed in their bracket, with eight Top 24 teams loaded on their side, whereas the other brackets have five (South Carolina and Southern California) or six (Stanford). Potential Hardest 1 Seed Roads to the Final Four: (1) South Carolina (Two Top 11 Teams): Beat the 10th and 11th best teams. (2) Iowa (Three Top 15 teams): Beat the 12th (Princeton in second round), 15th (K State Sweet 16) and 5th best (UCLA) teams. (3) Southern California (One Top 3 Team): 3rd ranked UCONN, also screwed with a 3 seed. (4) Texas (Two Top 13 Teams): Underseeded 4th ranked 2 seed Stanford and possibly 13th ranked Gonzaga, Women's RPI though Sunday: http://realtimerpi.com/college_Women_basketball_rpi.html Top 24 RPI Ranked Teams by Bracket Caitlin Clark Bracket: 1 Iowa (2); 2 UCLA (5); 9 Princeton (12); 7 Creighton (14); 4 Kansas State (15); 3 L. S. U (18); 5 Colorado (19); 10 UNLV (24) Californication Bracket: 3 UCONN (3); 1 Southern California (6); 2 thee Ohio State University (9); 10 Richmond (17); 7 Duke (22) South Carolina Top Overall Seed: 1 South Carolina (1); 4 IU (10); 3 Oregon State (11); 2 Fucking Notre Dame (16); 5 Oklahoma (21) Stanford Bracket: 2 Stanford (4); 1 Texas (7); 3 North Carolina State (8); 4 Gonzaga (13); 6 Tennessee (20); 7 Iowa State (23) I'll watch the Women's if I can find it until Caitlin is out. Could give a rats ass about the Men's tournaments (NCAA, NIT, CBI, College Insider, et al). I hope the Women's Tournament has higher ratings than the World Series for another year as it did last year. Caitlin Clark's Hawkeyes vs. LSU drew 9.9M viewers last year. Manfred's piece of metal series drew 9.082M viewers last year. This World Series was the least-watched World Series in television history.

It is toxic because of Jerry, who is still here, Tony, who is still here, Pedro who is still here. No free agent wants to go to a 60 win team run by idiots and fossils unless they have no other interested teams. Guys from Korea or marginal MLB players like DeJong grabbed something early so they wouldn't be the couple dozen guys sitting around in March waiting for something/anything. Collusion has been really bad post COVID, even at the high end of the market as Montgomery and Snell are learning and Bellinger learned. AJ Pollock got similar cash (within $1M) between the buyout and his new deal than if he stayed. Wish he would have stayed even though he was below average so they wouldn't have signed Benintendi for 5 years last offseason.

To me, and I believe a lot of folks here, all this defense and team chemistry is primarily Chuck Garfien fluff. The White Sox need to fix runs scored (29th) and runs allowed (26th). Don't see much evidence they will improve their standing on either front this season. And that's OK, this should be a 2-4 year rebuild process. We will have more to judge Getz on by August 1st. How the roster is managed, how Pedro is managed, did he get sign of on firing Pedro, how the draft went, what he did at the deadline, how he manages injuries. Looking for improvements on this front. We'll have to agree to disagree on Fletcher. Not sure if you'll take the L on that front unless his OPS is under .600 or he is limited to a few dozen games in his White Sox career. As a Sox fan, I hope I take the L and Fletcher can play the next four or five years with 100 + starts a year, a .730 + OPS and solid defense including adequate / slightly substandard covering games in CF. Just highly skeptical he can deliver on any of these metrics.

Either would have been fine as a waiver claim. I guess picking Fletcher's defensive edge over McCarthy's offensive edge made sense to Getz. Still think he will have trouble covering CF, which is the important piece the Sox need with Engel gone / injured since 2021, and no Billy Hamilton to serve as a quality defensive replacement. To me, there isn't much difference between DeLoach, Fletcher or McCarthy. Wouldn't give up anything for them. Don't think any of them can adequately cover CF beyond a couple dozen dicey starts a year. They are all cromulent 4th/5th final reserve OFers, good enough to muddle through until Colas can figure things out in Charlotte or they try to acquire a legitimate starting RF sometime in the future.

I'm all for a 10-30 start if that is what it takes to flush the veteran nonsense and Pedro down the toliet, Late May Target: Manager: Montoyo (Conduct a legitimate search for permanent manager including Montoyo after season end) Position Players: (2) Catchers: Korey Lee and either Chuckie Robinson or Carlos Perez (5) Infield: Vaughn, Sosa, Lopez, DeJong, Moncada (3) Outfield: Benintendi, Colas (1B backup), Robert Jr. (1) DH: Eloy (2) Reserves: INF Popeye if ready and play him, otherwise Mendick or Remillard; OF Fletcher or DeLoach

Yes, if Arizona felt he was capable of either covering CF and or contributing regularly as a 4th OF, he would have played last year and been kept this year instead of bringing in Randal Grichuk (Good Lord). Arizona has three solid OF starters, but their reserves are fungible, yet Fletcher was considered 6th or 7th best by Arizona heading into 2024. If you can't beat out the three players below in your prime years, you really shouldn't be considered a potential starting OFer, even on a platoon basis. 2024 Arizona OF Reserves 2024 Salary Player (current age) - Projected 2024 PA, OPS, FGDC Projected 2024 fWAR $0.8M Jake McCarthy (26.6) 312, .724, 0.2 $1.5M Randal Grichuk (32.6) 273, .701, 0.2 $3.0M Jace Peterson (33.9) 119, .673, 0.1 Odd Man Out $0.8M Dominic Fletcher (26.5) 420, .671, 0.4

It looks to me as though Getz is prioritizing winning games in 2024. Thought the veterans brought in were a good idea, but will sacrifice player development and service time concerns to win as many games possible now if he needs to swap injured or bad veterans with prospects. I know you have been adamant it’s smart to just try to sign and flip veterans for the future, and not burn service time. That makes logical sense, but I don’t see Tony/Getz/Pedro operating in this fashion. Tony/Hahn didn’t care about Crochet, Kopech or Vaughn’s development using them as he did in 2021-2022. I don’t see that changing except for the improvement that they aren’t forcing rookies as the lone option like Hahn did with Mazara/Colas in RF, Vaughn in LF after Eloy’s big injury, or Madrigal/Sosa (2023) at 2B.

Well, Pedro should have less standing than Dusty, and Getz should have the courage to tell Pedro we are going with younger players starting regularly. Otherwise, they are both culpable. Setting aside poor performance, I think this situation sorts itself naturally. I can't see both Maldonado and Stassi holding up physically beyond a month or two, just as I couldn't see La Russa holding up over three years of extensive travel and long hours as manager. Now he is very happy destroying yet another organization with minimal time and effort from afar in his Arizona Wine Cave / Cellar.

Sure, Brooks Boyer has 128 people working under him, but he is asking fans to create a free ad campaign as a favor. Jerry last tried this in 1995 when Jerry signed and fielded Scab Players in Spring Training during the 1995 owner lockout. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/03/17/chicago-white-sox-ad-campaign/

Only have listened to games, but is Stassi even functional behind the plate at this stage? Based on game thread comments, it sounds like there may be issues, though it could just be he's trying to build strength being off for near 18 months. I personally don't care if either of these two have a .000 OPS as long as they can perform decent catching, game planning, game calling and pitcher mentoring Lee. Hoping one of the two catchers bow out in some way by May, Lee can stay up and catch 15 + games a month. Keep Chuckie and or Carlos Perez around as well for potential call ups. Lee tuns 26 in July, think they should use the time to develop and evaluate Lee this year and next. Same with Colas and Sosa unless they already wrote off one or both. Think Getz has at least a rudimentary grasp of player evaluation, so better than Hahn, but whether he can run an organization, think big picture, work successfully within the confines of Jerry's budget and douchebaggery is an open question.

I like the idea of seeing if he wants to be a coach in the organization and convert his contract into management if he is open to it. Sounds like someone the Sox could benefit from if he was helping coach players and impart proper ways of doing things to the FO and coaching staff. I’d be fine with him serving as bench coach and or a unassigned coach under Montoyo after releasing Pedro in May.