Chimpton

I think that is the most depressing thing, even in the weakest division in the AL, the White Sox are at best the 4th team and probably the 5th team.

It would be just so annoying to see Eloy stay fit on another team and start racking up numbers like he is capable of. But the reality is that if he stayed he will probably pick up some freak injury shortly after spring training and miss half the season! And as you say even if Eloy has a return to his rookie season in numbers the White Sox will still suck in 2024.

How would the draft work? The AAA teams would surely want access to the better players. Also the system of putting players with MiLB teams and then just calling them up andsending them down again would need to be looked at.

Speaking as a Brit, relegation isn't stupid. It ensures all teams try all the season and gives teams in the lower leagues the chance to move up if they get an aspiring owner who will invest. However, whether relegation would work in US sport like baseball is problematic. How would the draft system work? Would MiLB teams have access to those players? If not then they would struggle to be competitve. Also as the MiLB teams are basically feeder teams for MLB franchises it would open up conflict of interest issues if they then played against eachother if the MiLB team was promoted. Also with the divisional structure of baseball, if a team was relegated, would it only be replaced by a team in that region? Any introduction of relegation and promotion would require the whole structure of baseball to be rebuilt.

As a fellow Liverpool fan, I can't totally agree with you about disliking FSG and John Henry, after all they did bring us Klopp, and winning the Premier League after 30 years of waiting and the Champions League again. But as a whole I agree with your sentiments about American owners in the Premier League, they certainly don't have a good reputation, Boehly at Chelsea is a classic example of someone who hasn't a clue, spent over 1 billion on players and made them worse! But as a Liverpool fan the longer the Glazers stay at Manchester United the better! And as for the Super League idea, I was really disappointed that FSG and John Henry were involved in that, disappointed but not surprised as most club or franchise owners are now in it for the money, and treat fans as customers.

If the return was big enough then trading Robert would make sense. Robert is a good player when fit and his trade value is high at the moment and the Sox won't be challenging in 2024/5 so losing Robert won't make a massive difference to the win/loss columns if they are already losing Cease. The only worry is that the Sox have a track record of not developing prospects acquired in trades or acquiring prospects who never really achieve their potential, like Moncada and Eloy.

They could always move Vaughan there and get someone else to play 1B, not that I am suggesting that.

Whilst I agree with you about Eloy to some extent, I get the feeling that if he stays at the Sox he will never achieve anywhere near his potential, so if he goes elsewhere and succeeds so be it. It is like the Tatis argument, whilst that was a monumentally bad trade, there is no guarantee that if he had stayed at the Sox they would have handled him well enough for him to reach the heights he has, even brilliant talent or potential needs some coaching and development. Basically if a trade can bring in some useful pieces then trade Eloy. It would be sad to see him performing well at another team but he has had enough time at the Sox and just hasn't done it often enough.

But if he had said he liked the team or was in any way happy he would have been jumped on for that as well. After a 100 loss season you would hardly expect a GM to say he liked the team, just looking at these comment boards many people have said get rid of them all etc. Not liking the team is different to not liking individual players, I doubt Robert would be happy putting up those numbers in a 100 loss team going forward. And some of these players need a kick up the backside to understand that a performance like last season is unacceptable. I know, and agree, that Getz was an underwhelming appointment at best, but at least give him the chance to undo the Hahn team that came out so bad. No matter who the new GM was this team needed massive surgery not just a bit of a face lift, and at least he acknowledges that.

That is one thing this team are already good at.

That's a rotation to win 100 games... over the next 2 years.

They lost 101 games because the 'talent' that they have is all on paper, in reality raw 'talent' alone gets you nowhere once at at MLB level you need to also have the right mental attitude and professionalism, something that most of the current squad lack, and equally they lack the leadership at player, coach, manager and GM level to change that attitude.

I didn't say there wasn't any 'bad luck', I just said there were other more important reasons for last season's showing. Every team suffers bad luck during a 162 game season, and I don't think if Hendricks was fit that the White Sox would have suddenly been a winning team.

Bad management, bad trading, bad drafting, bad player development, bad attitude and bad basic baseball principles were also factors, you don't lose 100 games and stink out the season just because of bad luck.

No, it's an unfounded rumour that he's qualified for the job!

Genuine question, but how much difference does the hitting coach actually make to established MLB players like Moncada, Jiminez, Anderson etc? And do you actually think those players are actually open to or capable of change?

I suppose you are right and its not as if they are going to challenge next season anyway, they need healthy bodies to pitch innings. And relievers may be important next year as the starting rotation looks a bit bleak.

The Getz 'rebuild'/'retool' starts! Just like Hahn he is searching the bins out back of other stadiums in order to build a team.

The season looks even more depressing when broken down into stats than it was watching it.

That is all the White Sox are reduced to at the moment, hoping the 'core' will bounce back and picking up a few players who will also be 'looking to bounce back', the result will sadly be all too predictable.

For $14 million I will happily give it a go as well!

What is the point of "coaching changes" if the head coach/manager who supervised this disaster of a season remains? It's not as though everyone, or anyone, thinks Grifol did a good job and was only held back by poor coaches, it's not as if anyone even thinks he did an average job. He took a team led last season by a senile drunk to a .500 finish and made it even worse. They looked absolutely clueless most of the time and certainly didn't look like they were trying hard for the manager.

After the game Grifol said of this season it was “Frustrating. Educational. Somewhat embarrassed,” Grifol said. “But hungry and committed to get it right.” If losing 101 games with a team supposedly in its 'championship window' is only somewhat embarrassing, what on earth would it take for him to be embarrassed enough to resign.

Don't worry Grifol will be back next season despite losing 100 games!

It would be handy if we had a manager and coaches who could help them improve but that may be asking too much of Pedro and co.