The Kids Can Play

I do agree we need to get younger, quicker and better defensively with youth. We need to keep the young core of Cease, 26 yrs old, Robert, 25 yrs old, Eloy 25 yrs old, Vaughn, 24 yrs old. the rest can all be traded.

I agree on Cease and Robert, Trading Cease ever down the road could be a disaster just like the Cubs made not signing Greg Maddux and letting him go as a free agent to the Braves. The only other player I would not move is Eloy. He probably won't bring back enough in a trade value so let's keep him and see if he can reach that huge upside potential. We leaned something valuable via Cairo and not TLR that by playing Eloy at DH only, he has a significantly better chance of staying healthy and maybe hitting those 40-50 home runs people think he can produce in time. I think the only other thing the Sox need to do with Eloy is get him in better shape by losing some weight and get more flexible through yoga and proper stretching to avoid hammy pulls running the bases.

I agree with most of your moves but since you might not get a lot or enough back for Vaughn, you are better off making him the full time first baseman and see where his celling and potential is. I think his hitting will improve without the pressure of playing the corner outfield positions. Vaughn will also improve and become a solid fielding 1B with more games and practice at it. Don't forget Abreu was a bad defensive 1B initially until he worked at it. Plus Jose power numbers are dropping other than his BA. To invest more money in an aging and less productive power hitting 36 old...is money we could use more efficiently on another SP, right fielder or 2b.

Sadly if the knucklehead Hahn gave more careful analysis to his roster in the minors and on the big league roster, he might have determined he didn't need another first baseman, since he drafted Sheets with a #2 pick a few years earlier and he also had one of the best 1B in baseball with Jose Abreu. Maybe he could have used that #3 overall first round pick more wisely for another SP or position player he needed more.

Yeah another idiot decision from the clueless Reinsdorf that will follow his worthless owner legacy. Let's get this straight: 1. Himes cleaned up the mess from Reinsdorf's initial stupid decision of hiring a play-by-play broadcaster Hawk to be a GM. 2. Jerry fired a GM that has turned around the Hawk Sox mess to a 2nd place 94 win season with the smallest payroll in baseball all because he didn't like him anymore. Real leadership from smart and successful owners, would sit their GM down and find out why they don't like them anymore, since initially Jerry must have loved Himes since he hired him in the first place. 3. Jerry was mad because he felt Himes was keeping him out of decisions. Again a good leader and owner would sit down his GM and discuss the issues of what decisions Jerry thought Himes was keeping from him. Maybe its a mater of just telling Himes to inform, copy or fyi him before Himes pulls the trigger in the future. 4. Jerry avoids coaching or working with Himes to address his concerns and its more important to just get mad and fire his potential best GM ever. 5. Jerry neglects to consider the success of Himes in the fact, Himes drafted in 4 consecutive years with #1 draft picks of Jack McDowell, Robin Ventura, Frank Thomas and Alex Fernandez starting in 1987, that allowed him to win 90 games in 1990. Not to mention in 1989, he sent an aging Harold Baines to the Rangers for 2B Scott Fletcher, pitcher Wilson Alvarez and 20 year Sammy Sosa. I said it many times before and I'll say it again, no mater what the successes with the Bulls or Sox, it had nothing to do with Reinsdorf and he still is a god awful POS loser owner and the worst ever in Chicago!

Unfortunately you're probably right and this that is so disgusting and wrong as an owner to be so uncaring and careless with his organization and fans! It won't be soon enough until Jerry either sells the team, lets his son or someone else from the outside come in to run it, or passes away, so the team can be sold. I wish and pray, no matter how unlikely it is...that a large majority of Sox fans get pissed about this and send a loud and clear message to this POS loser owner...and not pay any of their hard earned money on Sox games in 2023.

Just another reason this Circus organization is run by a bunch of inept Clowns. The Guardians have 12 and the Rays have 37 to the Sox league lowest of 5. Are you f*#king kidding me! No wonder the Rays do so well in the draft, farm system and putting out playoff rosters with lower end budgets. Yet with all we know and witnessed with our loser owner over the years, does this really shock anyone?

You are absolutely right about Rick Hahn failing up. This is called "The Peter Principle", which is commonly known as a facetious and satirical theory that in any organization structure, a person can perform their job well and likely be promoted to the next level. They will tend to be promoted up the hierarchy until eventually, they reach a level of incompetence where they can longer perform their job well. i.e - Rick Hahn Most successful and Intelligent owners do not tolerate such obvious losing mediocre results. Sharp owners are proactive and fix those ongoing problems by firing their incompetent executives. Most smart owners would be extremely upset at their top executive if they granted that executive the go ahead in 2016 to tear down the club, trade away all the assets and do a complete rebuild and be in this position going into 2023. Most successful and winning owners after 6 years of a rebuild that is a failing miserably, would most likely be furious they allowed their top executive to have the 7th highest payroll in baseball, miss the playoffs and their team trending backwards. Most smart owners would probably question after 6 years, the poor roster signings, weak draft picks, inadequate (26th ranked) farm system, numerous horrible trades and the poor fundamental and dumb baseball being played on the field. I'm not sure any successful owner except Jerry Reinsdorf and would tell his top executive, "Ok Rick, I get it, it was just bad luck injuries and in 2023 the team will be healthy and your roster construction is solid and not full of any holes or flaws." "I'm confident you'll get us back to the playoffs next year in year 7 of this rebuild and contend for a world series title....even if I have to eat some expensive contracts and give you more money to spend."

Agreed! Not bad for a guy very hungry that wants to play major league baseball and hustles...and as a bonus...only makes $700,000.

He shouldn't be brought back for even a cheap discounted price. He had a remarkable 9 year career for the Sox, but we need to save the money for more important weak and flawed positions and players to address. I'm sorry but we don't need a singles hitter at first base or DH. This will be Jose's lowest home run total in his career and even less than the 2020 pandemic 60 game season.

It's comforting to know we get Grandal back in 2023 for one last year, so we can give him his final farewell gift of $18.2 million he so completely justified and earned from the Sox! I guess in baseball you actually can get away with stealing money and not get in trouble with the law!

Grandal used to have elite plate discipline. I don't think Grandal getting his legs back is the problem or will improve his hitting. He has lost his good batting eye at the plate. He isn't seeing the pitches as well as he used to, in terms of making contact or getting walks. He has way more swings missing the ball, especially swinging at more pitches outside the zone. The fact is he is 33 years old and will be 34 at the start of next season. Every player has a different falling off point, but at 34 yrs old, his better days are behind him.

Fair enough! Hindsight is 20-20, but me personally, whether it was right or wrong, I would have kept McGuire and tried to trade Zavala and if anyone didn't want him, then DFA him. Someday my hope is when JR sells the team hopefully to some smart rich billionaire, that new owner would be a guy that would not care about money loss and DFA the real loser here which was Grandal, just like Steve Cohen did for with the Mets eating Robinson Cano's 37.6 million.

How sad and pathetic this team expected by everyone before the season and even during a good portion of the season to win the central division, could lose this afternoon their 9th in a row for a three sweep, falling to third place and possibly 12 games back form Cleveland. And Rick Hahn deserves to keep his job for what reason again....?

I get that, but me personally, I would have optioned Zavala back down to Charlotte. McGuire was a better defensive catcher than either one of them. McGuire's BA was pretty decent at Toronto for a catcher and Zavala was never a good hitter, other than that small little streak which as we know was an aberration. Again my point I was making is, Hahns' trades always end up on the losing end. He seems to always trade away youth for older players on the downward path.

I agree JR needs to clean house and bring in all new leadership and a entire new front office. However I wouldn't want Theo doing it. If you are offering an ownership stake, JR would have much more probable success going with Andrew Friedman from the Dodgers. He knows how to build a winning club like he did for years in Tampa Bay with his usually smallest or near smallest payroll every year. His farm system were always near the top ranked yearly and never spent money on the free agent market. Then he went to the Dodgers where he could spend serious money, but still proved he could still build a farm system as Dodgers have the current #2 ranked farm system. I would make him our president of baseball ops and let him have a nice ownership stake...Jerry couldn't be involved for any decision other than the payroll budget. Yes Theo did it with two teams, but both Boston and the Cubs were big spending clubs and he never had to build a farm system. Plus when he did get the Cubs to the top, he let it fall apart and didn't maintain it as he promised the Cub fans from the very beginning when he initially announced the rebuild. Hence why Theo bailed and left, because he knew the Cubs were on a derailed trainwreck.

You're right a good catcher is hard to find especially a good defensive catcher that can hit. Hahn had a potential one in a young 27 yr old Reese McGuire. Hahn felt it necessary to trade this solid 27 yr catcher to Boston for 35 yr old Jake Diekman. Since Diekman came to the Sox: 22 games - 7.41 ERA, 16 Inn, 25 hits, 10 BB's, 2.06 Whip. Since McGuire went to the Red Sox: 31 games - .353/.398/.529/.927 and defensively not recording any errors or passed balls yet at Boston.

I just think most managers want their own people, even if Katz is a good pitching coach. It's simple...if you want to be successful or even worse case fail...you need to do that with your own people. The Sox need a clean slate with the manager and coaches.

Yes! Since we finished second or even third, your financial reward is you don't get one financial award from us anymore going forward! A smart and quality owner and FO would tell these overpaid losers that we are not going to continue paying you these ridiculous millions to play like s%*# and let our loyal fans down! As a result, we are going to DFA or trade you in the offseason. Go find another team to play like s%*# for and make those millions.

Way too many and only our boys can make loser pitchers look like Cy Young candidates all year consistently.

I usually go to 10-12 games a year. I absolutely and I will not go to one game next year even if TLR is gone which it looks like. I won't waste my money and put further money in this owner's pocket, until Rick Hahn and his entire FO handling the big league team and minor league teams are gone. Fans need to send Jerry a message. He is too stubborn, arrogant and non-caring of this team to make changes on incompetent personnel, unless he sees it loud and crystal clear with a horrible attendance every game that affects his bottom line profit. It doesn't mean I won't remain a die-hard fan and watch the games on TV, but when 25-30 thousand fans keep showing up for this pathetic excuse for a MLB team and more importantly, condoning and accepting that it's OK for loser Hahn to assemble this flawed and failure team...is not only wrong, but will never bring change!

TLR and his coaching staff were god awful and the FO also has to take major blame. However I agree the players have to take an major share of the blame. Even if they had the greatest coaches, the pitcher still has to make pitches and hitters still need to hit the ball for extra base hits, home runs and drive in runs. These guys were paid millions to do their job and they failed miserably. Maybe if more of these underachieving slugs on this team were paid the money Dylan Cease was paid at $750,000, maybe they might of had more incentive to stay in better shape and perform better in the clutch.

That is because of the wisdom and savvy of draft guru Rick Hahn who decided that we needed more 1B/DH type players while we already had one of the best 1B in baseball. Joe Abreu first 6 seasons with the Sox: Yr G 2B HR RBI AVE OPS 2014 145 35 36 107 .317 .964 2015 154 34 30 101 .290 .850 2016 159 32 25 100 .293 .820 2017 156 43 33 102 .304 .906 2018 128 36 22 78 .265 .798 2019 159 38 33 123 .284 .834 2017 - Hahn felt it important to use a high 2nd round pick (49th overall pick) to selected 1B Gavin Sheets. 2019 - Hahn doubled down and felt we really needed another 1B/DH and in the first round (3rd overall pick) selected Andrew Vaughn. There were many other first basemen taken during these years, but the point is, this is one of many reasons you have this DH/1B log jam.

The farm system is exactly the problem. This why we need an outside GM executive to come in from a team that is successful and knows how to build a farm system through proper scouting, drafting and developing of players in their organization. Cleveland and Tampa Bay seem to understand this concept. It ridiculous we have so many flaws on this roster going into 2023 and any help will come from the 26th ranked farm system, or big free agents which Jerry won't approve spending for, because Rick Hahn already has too much wasted money on the books from horrible trades and free agent signings.

Hahn said last October the team acknowledges shortcomings in fundamentals and areas of analytics, and he and the organization were committed to evaluating and improving in 2022. The team became worse in just about all aspects of baseball fundamentals this season. The complete INSANITY once again, is Rick Hahn gets to come back in 2023 and begin that re-evaluating of the organizations' shortcomings in fundamentals, analytics and roster flaws...and once again, promise us he is committed to improving the 2023 roster. Oh yeah btw, 2023 will be year 7 in the Sox rebuild to make the Sox a championship world series contender! Thank you Rick "Con Man" Hahn...may we have another!