Balta1701

Domestic Violence enthusiast Chris Getz was not forced to take this job and only allows such things because he was so inexperienced that he took the job without knowing he had to establish ground rules.

Not really. The AL central is one of two divisions below .500 as a whole, and several teams are in the wild card race only because they have piled up wins against the below .500 teams (team?) in the division.

I spent like three years wanting Jake Peavy to shut up and I am ready to listen to this. Seriously, would never shut up.

Santander has been playing for the Orioles since 2017, worked his way up. He will be 30 next year. It’s possible he could have a qualifying offer attached to him that would limit his market if he declines it. His total career earnings are $25 million. if you are putting what, $20 million, $25 million a year for several years on the table? He will take the best money he can get and he will be happy enough about that.

But you just said he’s pitching better now. Which is it?

Dude you can’t quote large blocks of text that you don’t own without at least giving a link to The source. @Lip Man 1

What team will pay bigger money to a mostly DH in the last years of their career?

And when he gave up 5 home runs in 50 innings in August that was a symptom of them having overworked him in the first half. He’s fresher in September because they eased up on the accelerator.

I would have liked to see Crochet given more preemptive rest or extra days off early in the season, but especially the second half they’ve been quite responsible. Have him going every 6th day in April rather than rushing him back each turn would have been smart, you could have him a little fresher now.

Oh the environment is totally toxic, but bringing in Vetz was Getz’s plan last offseason. He spent the whole offseason trying to find leadership*, to find guys who “play the right way”, and look where it got the roster. Leadership and playing the right way can’t simply be imported. The guys who they bring in to be leaders are probably the ones who say “cmon man” when they step in an unusually shitty plane or however else they are mistreated. There’s a reason why so many veteran leaders keep calling out this organization on the record when they leave. You can’t just import white guys from other teams and think that now your organization is fixed. +leadership includes experience at punching women and children but managing to avoid suspension as that’s a must have skill.

Your probably not wrong, but Sizemore should seriously say no.

No offense to Sizemore, but he is simply not ready. He could be the next Joe Torre and still today he is not ready. Grady Sizemore was out of baseball for 6 years to raise his kids. This is an honorable and respectable choice. He took a minimum salary internship in 2023 to get back into the game. He has missed all the changes in training and scouting and coaching and data analysis over more than half a decade. He has missed a massive increase in how hard pitchers are throwing every pitch and how hitters have responded. He has maybe been a participant in 1 spring training since Robin Ventura. He is not ready to run a spring training and a regular season. In 2 years he might be, but he needs experience. Go be a bench coach or 3b coach for a couple years and we can talk, show me that he’s fully caught back up on the modern game and how things have changed since he played. This year can be a valuable experience on that road, but he isn’t ready. The team that might think about him is a team stuck in the 2000s who refuse to admit that the old strategies don’t work. This is unfortunately the White Sox to a letter. But I really hope that he is smart enough to understand that he isn’t ready - Domestic Violence Enthusiast Chris Getz wasn’t smart enough to understand this and the loss record is the result.

Well the White Sox have had such solid draft results and minor league hitter development that obviously this person is useful, we need the exact kind of results from minor league hitters that we are getting right now. Who could possibly find issue with the way the White Sox minor league hitters are performing? As soon as he gives an interview saying no one wants to win more than Reinsdorf we should promote him. Worked for the last guy.

If there is ANY move that is classic white Sox, it’s signing a DH in their 30s.

I know, let’s bring in Martin Maldonado, that dudes a winner.

36-117.

Oh yes that’s also a part of it, but it’s not all of it. Plenty of terrible teams don’t do this. The As last year played 1 game above their expected record and they were the worst team, if they played 7 games below they’d have won like 42 games. The Royals had the 2nd worst record last year and they played 8 games below they’d expected. In 22 the Nats were the worst team and they also played 1 game below expectations. The team far below that year was the Rangers, who were 8 below, added Bochy as manager, and won a title. The White Sox may be unusually toxic, but more so than the As last year?

Hopefully this is just the positivity we need for a 2-7 streak.

I think about AJ Hinch here, he managed a bad Diamondbacks team for 2009-2010, was fired, went to be a scouting director for the Padres for several years, and got back into managing when the right opportunity came around and he found a team where he meshed. The next manager probably won’t last a full contract, but for an assistant coach it’s likely a good boost in money and experience that you can leverage later in your career.

It is worth noting that the White Sox have underplayed their pythagorean record this year by a lot, their expected record based on run differential right now is 43-110. While that's not particularly good, it's 7 games better than their current record, and no other team in MLB is more than 5 games worse than their expected record. It's not impossible, the Cardinals are 7 games better than their expected record so 7 games better/worse happens, but just having this move back to 0 would be a major improvement. Whether that is luck, the effect of a really bad bullpen, or the toxic environment around the White Sox I will not surmise. If it's luck, it's fixable next year just by chance. If it's an effect of the toxic environment...

I think what would need to happen in that case is for an expansion ownership group to come forward, say they had the money for an expansion team, and to say that they'd put up money for the stadium that JR wouldn't. For reference, I still think that it's' a good business decision for the White Sox to put up $1 billion+ on a stadium at the 78 site if they had the city/state chipping in a few hundred million more than the tax credit zone that's been established so far. I think that is a good deal all around, I think the city and state would go for it based on economics and I think that the White Sox and Related would have their franchise values go up from doing so. I don't think Reinsdorf will do that, because I think Reinsdorf has clearly shown that he will only do this if he can soak the taxpayers in the process. So, an ownership group coming together and saying "We want to do this" as an expansion option does still sound possible to me, if MLB has the appropriate TV rights reserved.

The only way I think the owners would block things in 2028 is if they were staring an almost certain expansion plan in the face and Reinsdorf was somehow going to block that.

Today? Oh yeah Reinsdorf dropping "We're moving to Nashville in 2029" today would have the owners screaming. That would take away their expansion fee options so it would take money out of their pocket, and they'd legitimately be able to say that the White Sox owners were acting irrationally and hurting their brand as a whole in the process. Reinsdorf announcing anything today would clearly be him saying FU to the state and White Sox fans, and the owners won't hurt the league like that. It would be completely arbitrary and out of no where. The owners held onto their power for a reason, they have the power to say no and they'd use it. The White Sox have to let this play out through negotiations, and they know that. It's almost certainly why Reinsdorf started things right now, in 2024, because trying to negotiate for years and getting no where will be part of building support among the owners for allowing him to move. Whether it happens or not, it will make the threat of moving real, and JR clearly thinks he needs the threat of moving to Nashville as part of his negotiating strategy based on the fact that he's already threatened to move.

I believe they would probably block it today, but that watching these stadium sagas drag out will change the equation just as it did in Oakland. I think the owners will act as a break on anyone moving a team irrationally, I don't think they will block it in general just because a team has been in a spot for a century once every option for public-funding has been exhausted.