The Kids Can Play

There is no doubt in my mind it's true. Look, if the Sox had this great baseball infrastructure and front office, then logically the present Sox organization wouldn't have 32-45 W-L record, a 26th ranked farm system and this horribly flawed ML roster. The baseball teams that consistently win at the ML level and have great farm systems like the Rays, Dodgers, Guardians etc, do not create those successful entities by luck. They have a specific blueprint which is successful and they don't deviate from it.

Glad it's an illness and not some arm, elbow or shoulder problem.

Does anyone know why Noah Schultz hasn't pitched since June 16? At the Kannapolis website for tonight's game, they have the starting pitcher as TBA. It seems they are one of the few teams in that minor league division that does not announce and list their starting pitcher. They do this on every single game. Having said that, since I'm interested in tracking Noah's career, I would like to find out why he hasn't pitched since June 16, or is there some injury they haven't told us about. You can't seem to get any information at their website.

Evidently Rick Hahn having JR as his owner is the secret recipe in surviving these pathetic results. Sadly as we are finding out, this Cat Hahn actually does have "nine lives."

Of course not, just go ask Kenny! ?

It's annoying how many times this season we have men on first and third and Grifol does not send the runner on first to steal. It's a free stolen base.

Hence why the betting odds for the White Sox this year to win the 2023 World Series championship is currently at +15,000.

I'm sure Mark is counting his lucky stars he played when he did and not during these current Sox years. There is no way in hell Mark Buehrle would have been as successful as he was, if he had to pitch with this current offense and defense behind him.

You could be right and that's fine with me, but even it's a corporation conglomerate, it will have deep pockets to spend. Case in point, the Guggenheim Baseball Management corp. owns the Dodgers. That seems to be working out just fine. The Guggenheim group is a bunch of rich investors who want to their Dodgers to be a perennial winner. They allow Andrew Friedman whatever financial resources he needs to produce a successful winning team.

I think a solid haul with a great GM, but since we don't have that and have our genius have Hahn at the helm, it will probably be another fleeced trade.

or "Dirty Water"

I agree with you and the new owner will have to be a rich liquid billionaire, because the price tag to buy a baseball team today or in the future doesn't allow for anything less. Thus anyone willing to spend that type of money to buy a team, is probably willing to buy this team because they love baseball and this will be their fun hobby and toy, so to speak...and not some stupid investment like the POS current owner sees it.

I went back to play by play stats and counted a total of 16 ground balls. Hence why we lead the major leagues in groundball %. It's beyond aggravating at this point how clueless Hahn was in every aspect in how he put this massively flawed roster together. I don't have the stats and I could be wrong, but I would bet the Sox under this hitting coach are worse than the guy we all blasted Frank Menchino.

Great point! Plus Nick Krall is doing this in a small market and the 25th payroll.

This is exactly why the Sox have such a horrible ML roster and one of the most pathetic farm systems. I can promise anyone here, if they spent a few weeks in the Rays, Dodgers or Guardians organizations just to name a few, and spent serious time in the field with their scouts and then spent time in the front office with their various executives on their approach to advanced scouting, analytics, modern day approaches, and theories on developing prospects in the minors, they would be stunned and appalled how clueless and behind the modern times, the Sox actually are with these critical areas in producing a winning baseball organization.

I didn't say they were the biggest reasons, but they are a part of the reasons. The fact is, as I've been pointing out in several various posts on the reasons Hahn sucks at his job is the following in addition to no playing or scouting experience: - He hasn't surrounded himself with people under him that are strong in scouting, drafting advice, coaching and developing prospects in the minors. - He hasn't hired the right managers and coaches at the ML level to support him. - He hasn't learned how to be successful at evaluating talent and making good trades - He hasn't learn how to sign successful FA's. He has been given a very sizeable payroll every year that could have produced a better ML roster.

Your point on analytics and modern day approaches cannot be emphasized enough. The Sox really are light years behind of number of people hired in the organization dedicated to these metrics and don't even come close to the Dodgers, Cardinals, Rays or Guardians in that area. Hence why the four mentioned clubs, always have highly ranked farm systems that actually contribute to their major league roster.

I appreciate your take, but comparing Rick Hahn to Chris Antonetti is comparing apples to oranges. Here are the differences: Antonetti has been with the Guardians for 24 years in much more successful winning culture and worked in a lot more critical positions than Hahn. The Cleveland winning tradition and culture is light years ahead of the White Sox especially in terms of building a top ranked farm system on a consistent basis. Since the Guardians have never been able to spend big free agent dollars being in a small market environment, they needed to concentrate and be great at building a strong farm system. Antonetti has been able to learn those scouting, drafting and developing lessons in a much stronger winning culture than the Sox. Over the years the Guardians have always had one of the top ranked farm systems. Obviously the Sox have not. Antonetti had the valuable experience working and learning from winners like Mike Chernoff and Mark Shapiro. Antonetti hired Francona back in 2012 and in that same time, the Sox hired Ventura, Renteria, LaRussa and Grifol. As you said, the academic background helps, but we can see now, as you clearly pointed out, "it's what you learn and accomplish along the way during your front office experience." Clearly Hahn hasn't learned very well along the way, but more importantly, Hahn didn't have the winning culture to be exposed around, like you would have in for example in the Guardians, Rays and the Dodgers organizations.

Thanks

Don't read into it! HAHA Everything Grifol and Hahn do absolutely needs major reading into...because many of their moves have been bad.

I get that, but Hahn still rolled the dice with too many people within the Sox org versus going to the outside for FO talent from the top teams. I also think if you look at the scouts and coaches in the Sox system and you compare them to perhaps the Rays or Dodgers, there is probably a huge difference in their approach and knowledge, which again is the responsibility of Hahn that he totally screwed up on.

You're absolutely right it once was ranked high like 5-7 years ago. However the Sox FO then they took them all up to the major league level. What the good teams like the Rays and Dodgers do, that the Sox didn't do, is keep replacing the talent they took away from the minors. Hahn failed miserably at that aspect and let the farm system fall to a disgraceful and unproductive level.

Your best point of why Hahn has failed, is he surrounded himself with people within the Sox organization who weren't good at there job or his Michigan buddies. What he should have done, which is what all top executives do in any corp or business, is go find the "Best Practices" type people. For the entire top to bottom White Sox organizational chart, Hahn should have recruited and surrounded himself with people at every critical position that came from successful teams like the Rays, Dodgers, Yanks, and Braves, etc. I also agree with you it was the right move in 2016 to do a total rebuild and some of his initial trades and signings looked good. However as time went on, he made several bad trades, signings and most importantly, allowed the farm system to become garbage. I'm sorry but if your start failing at your job there is no entitlement to keep your job. He shouldn't be able to live off his past record or that his intentions were good. He simply didn't keep the team moving in a forward positive direction. He doesn't deserve to keep getting more attempts at this.

Actually Freidman was a highly regarded baseball player in high school and went to Tulane on a baseball scholarship. He suffered a bad injury in his freshman year and then a second bad one his sophomore year, which unfortunately ended his college baseball career. His lack of baseball time in college was due to injury and not that he wasn't good player or didn't understand the game. The other fact is, Andrew Friedman knew the Rays owner Stuart Sternberg even before Sternberg bought the Rays. They knew each other from their investment/analyst brokerage days. When Steinberg bought the Rays he brought Friedman along with him for his Rays front office. Friedman's first job was as a player development director and not as an Asst GM like Hahn. All the years Friedman was in Tampa, they were always the lowest payroll in baseball or close to the bottom. Thus he had to learn developing a farm system because he didn't have money to spend on expensive free agents or make trades to get established veterans. In fact, in a interview with Friedman while with the current Dodgers, he was asked by a reporter why he was so successful. He alluded to the fact, that learning to be a GM with no payroll in TB, forced him to learn how to build a baseball team the correct way, which was through the farm system. Hahn never had to learn that aspect. This is why Friedman was so valuable to the Dodgers. He could now spend endless money, but still also bring his knowledge of building a successful farm system to the Dodgers. If you go look at the good successful younger GM's today like Mike Elias in Baltimore or Mike Chernoff of Cleveland and you look at their resume, they worked up through the organization in different critical jobs. They also played baseball. I'm sorry but, Hahn had none of these modern day executive training responsibilities as the top young GMs have experienced. I get there are other aspects of being a great GM other than scouting, like negotiating deals, knowing how make solid trades, hiring good managers, etc, but obviously Hahn hasn't learned any of those skills either. The bottom line is, Hahn sucks as a GM. The longer he is here, the longer it will take for the White Sox to ever be a successful winning playoff contender.

I know and his big claim to fame is he wrote a letter to Dallas Green at 11 years old suggesting trades Green should make. Evidently Green wrote him back and that's when Hahn was convinced he would be a great GM. LOL!