South Side Hit Men

JR is entering his 41st season as owner, and there is a difference between pointing out their poor past performance and assessing future prospects. A fair assessment of these 40 years is the team had two legitimate World Series pitching staffs and lineups (1983 and 2005). No Bueno, especially when you were owned in the division most seasons by smaller market teams for 35 of the 40 years. Their future does look brighter. As long as the team targets a starting pitching role for a healthy Crochet, they should have 3-4 solid young pitchers in 2022, not counting Lynn or Keuchel. If Lynn is solid, you can consider extending (1 year preferable, 1 + team option and buy it would be my max based on age). Can also replace Keuchel with a better / younger option after 2022 if he doesn’t vest. If they can sustain their improvement in domestic drafts, significantly improve player development (Katz, Cairo, Hasler, Menechino, Narron and the promotion of Getz) and continue with Marco Paddy’s solid Cuban Connection, they can sustain a legitimate WS competitive window beyond 2023/2024.

I only turn on the four letter network for a baseball game (previously National games, adding White Sox this year). Let us know if any of the talk content has improved or at least partially covers baseball beyond the one hour show they offered early evenings. My previous exposure to that station is nearly all coverage (national or local hosts) revolves around NFL/NBA/National Hot Takes. I’ll listen to Connor McKnight as well, though loved listening to Rongey lose it postgame after Sox losses. With the Score, I weed out the bullshit (Bears, Navel-gazing, Politics, etc.) and listen to baseball talk (White Sox, Cubs, MLB Baseball discussions) targeting online podcasts which clearly label baseball discussions.

I don't believe there would be much of an impact, beyond the White Sox losing more road games before Chicago fans went to bed rather than after. The only current AL teams which have won less division titles are expansion franchises (Houston (though nearly double NL + AL), Seattle and Tampa Bay. The biggest beneficiary of the new watered down format are NL Wild Card teams, claiming five World Series titles since 1995. MLB Division Titles: American League: New York 19; Oakland 17; Minnesota 12; Boston & Cleveland 10; Baltimore & Los Angeles 9; Detroit, Kansas City & Texas 7; Toronto 6; Chicago 5; Houston, Seattle and Tampa Bay 3; Milwaukee 1. National League: Atlanta 20; Los Angeles 19; Saint Louis 14; Philadelphia 11; Cincinnati 10; Pittsburgh 9; Chicago & San Francisco 8; Houston & New York 6; Arizona & San Diego 5; Washington 4; Milwaukee 2; Montreal 1; Colorado & Miami 0 (Yet Two Marlins World Series - Wild Cards are Bullshit, all of it). MLB World Series Titles by Division Champions: Pre 1994: AL East 7 (Baltimore, New York & Toronto 2; Detroit 1) AL West 7 (Oakland 4; Minnesota 2; Kansas City 1) NL East 6 (New York & Pittsburgh 2; Philadelphia & Saint Louis 1) NL West 5 (Cincinnati 3; Los Angeles 2) Post 1995: AL East 8 (New York 5; Boston 3) National League Wild Cards 5 (1997 & 2003 Florida; 2011 Saint Louis; 2014 San Francisco; 2019 Washington) NL West 4 (San Francisco 2; Arizona & Los Angeles 1) American League Wild Cards 2 (2002 Los Angeles & 2004 Boston) NL East 2 (Atlanta & Philadelphia 1) NL Central 2 (Chicago & Saint Louis 1) AL Central 2 (Chicago & Kansas City 1) AL West 1 (Houston)

Pathetic. Baseballs were standard for decades until Manfred, his fellow owners and a hedge fund purchased Rawlings in 2018, after which they began fucking with the regular season and post season baseballs. What other sport operates with players and front office not knowing the type of the primary sport ball from year to year? Answer, the same sport that goes in weeks before the season without know which players will be used (DHs).

I get what your saying, but Dye and El Duque were the only examples of it working here in 20 seasons. Fans clamor for the top of market signings, which doesn’t make sense in terms of roster construction for a team with self imposed payroll austerity. That said, it’s not wise to overpay contract length for the mid level older FAs in an attempt to lower AAV. Also no need to win December, win the off-season. It’s as though they are timing free agent deals and trades hoping to sell more tickets for Christmas, content with overpaying for trade and free agent options up front, when a patient team is at an advantage as the season nears. This and lack of player development, including poor domestic drafting until recently, have resulted in smarter small market teams owning the Sox since the creation of the AL Central. A well run ball club would own this division on a consistent basis, even with a JR payroll.

You do realize Cobra Kai signed La Russa and Eaton this off-season. I was told by Stone, Ozzie and others on JR’s payroll this too was Ricky’s fault, and the White Sox would have went 74-0 last season if Tony La Russa was manager.

I agree, without internal player development and recent success the FO has had in the domestic class, this will be a short lived window. For me, the coaching hires have been more important than the limited player acquisitions this off-season. Not expecting Katz to work "miracles", but just the continued progress of shifting from 19th-20th century baseball to the current game is encouraging and long overdue. The "Cuban Connection" is the sole available option among how they obtained the current core (tanking or the Robert signing are no longer available). Good question. I can understand being cautious with revenue uncertainty, but to me they jumped the gun again early the past two off seasons. This year was the most fortuitous off-season for teams looking for free agents and patience would have netted more in terms of quality and quantity with a similar or slightly higher payroll. $20M more spread over 3-4 more quality players would have gone a long way toward ensuring the younger position players and pitchers can make it through their first full season. When you are a $128M payroll team, you can't succeed splurging $30M / year on positional luxuries (Hendriks and Grandal). I understood the Keuchel signing, but it's really going to hurt if he vests in 2023. The one type of free agent the Sox has succeed with consistently over the years have been internal players they knew best. They need to commit to Giolito and Anderson if they remain healthy and productive, or younger external free agents (28-30) to secure players that are not at higher risk of significant decline and injury. Grandal's back problems in year one and Keuchel's implosion in Oakland are concerning given the heavy payroll commitment.

This. I felt a few GMs/Managers were/are incompetent, and there will always be players who don't work out based on talent, injuries or other factors (example poor decisions like La Russa dumping Fisk out in Left Field). However, in 45 years of White Sox fandom, there are only four people (two players, one manager and one owner - sadly two of the four returned this off-season) in White Sox history I ever booed, primarily based on actions outside of the field. The first base coach is now number five, I wasn't aware of his past until joining this board. The Sox had no intentions on having a legitimate contender last year (COVID/Central short schedule were the reasons), and this year is primarily for pitching development (Cease, Kopech, Crochet, Rodon and Lopez), hoping to have a solid 4-5 pitchers for 2022-2024. The time to judge whether they are cheap or not is not this season, but rather their true window of 2022-2024. They may catch lightening in a bottle this year, but it is likely they won't be serious contenders beyond the AL Central until next year at the earliest.

Based on projections from the two most commonly known online baseball projection websites, most positions have a clear advantage of one player over another. PS - Don't shoot the messenger about First Base. Projections: fWAR = Fan Graphs presented first vs. warp = Baseball Prospectus presented second Consensus Picks in Bold: (Both sites project one player over another) Catcher Yasmani Grandal (4.1 / 4.7) over Wilson Contreras (1.9 / 2.9) First Base Anthony Rizzo (3.0 / 4.7) over Jose Abreu (1.8 / 2.9) Second Base Nick Madrigal (2.3 / 2.7) over Nico Hoerner (1.0 / 1.3) Shortstop Tim Anderson (2.6 / 2.0) over Javier Baez (2.6 / 1.9) => (fWAR tied, BP with slight edge to Anderson - basically a coin flip) Third Base Kirk Bryant (2.9 / 2.8) over Yoan Moncada (3.1 / 2.3) => (slight advantage to Bryant based on larger BP difference of 0.5 vs. Moncada's 0.2 fWAR advantage) Right Field Jason Heyward (1.7 / 1.8) over Adam Eaton (1.3 / 1.9) => (slight advantage to Heyward based on larger fWAR difference of 0.4 vs. Eaton's 0.1 BP advantage) Center Field Luis Robert (3.4 / 3.2) over Ian Happ (2.4 / 1.5) Left Field Eloy Jimenez (3.2 / 2.6) over Joc Pederson 2.0 / 2.2) Starting Pitcher 1 Lucas Giolito (4.2 / 2.9) over Kyle Hendricks (2.7 / 2.6) Starting Pitcher 2 Lance Lynn (3.0 / 2.0) over Zach Davies (1.4 / 1.1) Starting Pitcher 3 Dallas Keuchel (2.5 / 1.4) over Alec Mills (0.8 / 1.4) => (BP tied, fWAR with large edge to Keuchel) Starting Pitcher 4 Dylan Cease (1.5 / 0.4) over Adbert Alzolay (0.8 / 0.8) => (slight advantage to Cease based on larger fWAR difference of 0.7 vs. Alzolay's 0.4 BP advantage) Starting Pitcher 5 Michael Kopech (1.0 / 0.9) over Trevor Williams (0.7 / 0.1) Closer Liam Hendriks (1.9 / 1.3) over Craig Kimbrel (0.8 / 0.7)

The better question is will billionaires and politicians have the audacity to shakedown taxpayers for hundreds of millions or over a billion in taxes, especially with the current state of city, county and states finances. Most people (taxpayers/fans) are fine with owners purchasing their own stadiums. Owners, on the other hand, in most cases have demanded taxpayers pay their capital expenses. I suspect owners will have less options in the future as other large cities are facing the same fiscal issues and constraints, and the shifting public sentiments against these extortion rackets.

Didn't catch much chatter here about either signing myself, both were minor league deals. Sox had several more minor league deals (listed below), but they weren't included in Baseball Reference, my source for the pictures. December 17, 2020 Signed Matt Reynolds as a free agent. December 24, 2020 Signed Mike Wright as a free agent. Additional Off-season Transactions not pictured: 11/17/20: LHP Anderson Severino (Minor League Contract) 11/20/20: RHP Emilo Vargas (Claimed off waivers from Diamondbacks). Player contracts purchased from Birmingham: 3B Jake Burger, 1B Gavin Sheets & RHP Tyler Johnson. 12/10/20: RPH Martin Carrasco assigned to the Chicago White Sox. 12/11/20: LHP Dilmer Mejia (Minor League Contract) 12/30/20: RHP Ofreidy Gomez (Minor League Contract) 1/15/21: OF Yoeiqui Cespedes (Minor League Contract) 1/18/21: RHP Luke Shilling & LHP Matt Tomshaw (Minor League Contracts) 2/2/21: RHP Marcus Evey, C Henri Lartigue and RHP Sal Biasi (Minor League Contracts)

Barring any last minute signings, here are players acquired via trade or free agency for the 2021 Chicago White Sox.

Owners are supposed to be the stewards of the game, but have consistently without fail do everything in their power to destroy it. Sadly, the players must not only provide the lone reason cares about the sport, but also mop and sweep the owners mess in the luxury suite.

"You'll be back, soon you'll see You'll remember you belong to me You'll back, time will tell You'll remember that I served you well"

Permit "Evil Caulfield" to reiterate this stance is myopic. Nearly all MLB teams run through cycles, primarily fueled by player development regardless of revenue. The Dodgers went over 30 years without winning despite consistent Top 5 revenue numbers throughout this period. Now they have Andrew Friedman, so they will likely continue in a permanent state of excellence with these folks in charge. Reinsdorf/LaRussa/Williams/Hahn are not in the same universe in competence. The Yankees have gone over a decade without a World Series, despite a decent GM. This is the third longest non WS stretch since the Ruth era (1963-1976 & 1979-1995). Toronto will likely play once again in Buffalo (or their spring training site in Florida), and unlike most cheap-ass teams including the White Sox have significantly increased 2021 spending, despite the almost certain chance they will not return to their home city until 2022 at the earliest. Ownership has by and large failed in the sole reason of their existence, to maintain the integrity of the competition and put the best product possible on the field. This must be fixed in the next CBA, even if it takes one or more years without baseball to do so. I believe players will successfully negotiate meaningful changes which will also increase salaries for most of members, while at the same time pushing the owners in a direction to operate in both the short and long term interests of the sport (which will also help continue ever increasing club valuations). Regarding the other sports: The NFL/Packers are in a league with a tight window of player salaries, and unlike the pathetic Bears have proven they can compete in any era (championships in 7 of 10 decades) because they have a competent FO and ownership committed to winning. The NBA is a player driven league. It's harder to attract the top player to Milwaukee, but a competent FO can (and did) draft one. The two Rose Bowl Circle-Jerk conferences have sucked at football since the University of Chicago left the conference. The Big "Ten" (sic) is primarily a basketball conference. Outside of Papa Sam Gilbert's "Pyramid Scheme of Success" and a few Coach Robinson led teams, the PAC 12 is primarily a non revenue sports league. College Football National Championships (AP/UPI Era (1950) to present): 22.5 Southeastern: Alabama (10 + 3 Split); Louisiana State (3 + 1 Split); Florida 3; Tennessee 2; Auburn (1 + 1 Split); Georgia 1. 12.5 Independents: Notre Dame (3 + 1 Split); Miami, Fla 3; Pennsylvania State 2; Brigham Young 1; Pittsburgh 1; Syracuse 1; Michigan State 1. 12.0 Big 7/8/12: Oklahoma (6 + 1 Split); Nebraska (3 + 2 Split); Texas 1; Colorado (1 Split). 7.5 Atlantic Coast: Clemson 3; Florida State 3; Maryland 1; Georgia Tech (1 Split). 6.0 "Big" 7/8/10: "thee" Ohio State University (3 + 2 Split); Minnesota 1; Michigan State (1 Split); Michigan (1 Split). 5.5 Pacific 10/12: Southern California (3 + 3 Split); Washington (1 Split); California Los Angeles (1 Split). 2.5 Southwest: Texas (2 + 1 Split). 1.5 Big East: Miami Florida (1 + 1 Split).

2014: Kansas City 2016: Chicago 2017: Houston I wouldn’t equate our current situation as long term forever, but unfortunately the players must actually lead a path to greater parity, by negotiating a firm and solid minimum salary ($2M-$4M) and team salary floor. The other alternative is to fight the absurd antitrust exemption in Congress. If there is to be a cap, total revenue must be fully available for audit by the MLBPA. Unfortunately, owners have been growing auxiliary revenue (internet, television, real estate, gambling, etc.) which they are not currently “sharing”, and by and large choking off salaries. Owners for the other three leagues have been far more trustworthy, transparent, equitable, and wise is their relationship with their players, the only reason 99% of fans care about the product.

Mira mi vientre, literalmente me muero de hambre.

I don’t agree. He got max AAV today for the next two seasons, and has the option to either secure more either of the next two off-seasons (will sign a new deal for 2023 unless he is injured). It’s also great deal for the Dodgers, the only team in baseball willing to spend money correlating with increased revenue in MLB. They also limit any long term injury risk/performance decline. Better to spend a few million more upfront and avoid length. The Sox would have been wise to do the same for their recent older signings of Keuchel (35 if vests), Grandal (34) and Hendriks (35), and God forbid they extend Lynn beyond 1 year guaranteed.

Epic fail! Jeff Pasan QFT

I don’t have article access, but thanks for posting. Any key points shared would be greatly appreciated. I created a thread regarding catcher development as an opportunity for improvement on Saturday, and this is exactly what I was looking for (the hire and information). Domestic draft player acquisition and position development have been the two crucial areas the White Sox have been lagging successful franchises. The recent improvement in draft selections, and the hiring of “modern” coaching staff such as Katz and Narron (and hopefully more/others) give me hope the White Sox can develop a consistent flow of ML ready talent and keep the White Sox as relevant contenders beyond a brief 2-4 year window. Kudos to Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams for continuing to shift the franchise into modern day talent evaluation and development.

You know what has vastly exceeded inflation, whereas salaries lost real value for MLB players (and most workers)? Most recent available data: Chicago White Sox ML Player Salaries increased 0.15% 2011 $127.8M 2021 $128.0M Chicago White Sox Net Income increased 239.1% 2011 $27.6M 2019 $66.0M Chicago White Sox Current Value increased 313.7% 2011 $526M 2019 $1,650.0M And Jerry and the other 29 lying owners all pose like this And before a pinhead replies "what about 2020", A. The players had to risk their lives and had their pay cut by 63%. Meanwhile, clubs continue to sell, even in COVID, for record amounts. They make so much net income in 99 of the past 100 years, and their valuations increase by such a high rate, that billionaires are fighting each other and outbidding each other by record amounts to get a piece of the action.

The OP had the right $ amount but wrong year ($71M was spent in 2018, not 2019). Paul Sullivan quoted the correct year, but was $3M different for both years than amounts reported by Cot's Contracts / Baseball Reference. I am waiting for the first post linking a "journalistic" article this year, praising Dear Leader for nearly tripling payroll from $50.2M (2020) to the current amount of $128M (2021) in one season. https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/white-sox/ct-chicago-white-sox-liam-hendriks-jerry-reinsdorf-20210116-rhgupqhn5rhivlpu7xh5jyqnxq-story.html?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true WHITE SOX PAYROLLS Year Opening Day 26/30 Year End 40-man CB Tax 40-man 2020 $ 50,204,444 (17) $ 52,591,640 (20) $178,251,672 (12) 2019 $ 88,902,000 (26) $ 97,304,607 (25) $115,472,746 (24) 2018 $ 71,217,000 (29) $ 71,604,110 (29) $ 82,889,649 (30)

As suspected, with willful and proud ignorance of the situation and relevant issues. Sorry, the real world can't stick their head in the sand and pray mommy and daddy will make it all go away and give them an ice cream sundae for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. You should refrain from your own bitterness, with attacks on others pointing to resources explaining issues you have the inability and/or interest in understanding. Unlike what's reflected in your post history, there are adults here who have the ability to discuss issues beyond those of which a child can grasp.

Collect Operator: "Will you accept a collect call from, Jerry Reinsdorf?"