Balta1701

Even if there was a comeback story...the best possible scenario is that it's a comeback story that lasts 1 year. He's not likely to be retained by this franchise, if he has a strong 2023 he'll be signing the best free agent contract he can, and the White Sox have a young SS coming up so they have a very good reason not to be the highest bidder. Imagining a comeback story that gets the White Sox a few more ticket sales and gets them all the way up to 74 wins before the guy walks as a free agent for the low price of $14 million is exactly what I mean when I say that would be classic White Sox behavior, that's exactly what Hahn would have done. Imagine everything rosy, turning out well, and go for that while spending money or talent in the process. More than anything else, that's why I would want them to do something different. Keeping him isn't the biggest waste of money in human history, there's some small chance he could be worth more than a pittance in a trade, but overall the upside is limited and unlikely. Stubbornly insisting it could work well and spending $14 million in the process is classic White Sox, and it turns out that those dollars add up.

I would definitely be up for one more game 7 tomorrow night.

While hard to calculate - this sure seems like a terrible idea in terms of maintaining a long term fanbase. Bringing a whole bunch of kids to a place where they can meet ballplayers and get autographs seems like a great way to make them into fans of that team for decades, to the point where their kids might wind up as fans of the same sport and same team. I get there was only so much you could do in 2020 and 2021, but failing to do this now seems like sabotaging the 2028 and 2035 attendance numbers.

Konerkos_grand_slam.mp3

Was it bad luck that Hendriks got sick? Yes. Was it bad luck that the most expensive bullpen in baseball couldn't replace him with even a tolerable performance for 2.5 months? Was it bad luck that a guy with a history of arm problems including last year had an arm problem and they had no backup plan for him? Was it bad luck that they rushed Hendriks back from bleeping cancer treatment before his arm was strong enough to pitch and when his velocity was clearly down, and his arm gave out as a consequence?

If you ever wanted a sign that a guy isn’t focused on the game and is letting fans get under his skin, there you go.

I will go to the point of agreeing that people used to like Tim. 2018-2021 he sure seemed like the kind of guy you could cheer for. Now he loves forever as a meme being knocked out by Ramirez.

But it is very White Sox to declare that it is. Especially when it’s because a reliever got hurt and that’s totally the kind of thing teams never can recover from.

I uh….what? just got an ESpN phone app alert about…Hitler and Michigan State. So this is both real and …yeah. I’m surprised I needed to say this, but I preferred having the number of ESPN alerts I’ve gotten about Hitler to be 0 and am disappointed that changed.

I really have been wondering lately how popular this team would be if it wasn’t for that scandal. Aside from them “always being good”, is there anything else to hate about them? Hell, in 2017 there was a part where the Rangers refused to play games in a different park in the series right after Harvey hit, people might even be cheering against Texas for that if not for this scandal.

Are you kidding? They had an attendance last year that was right with the rebuild years and I’m certainly hoping it goes lower next year. The last month of the season the number of people actually coming to games was probably in the 100s, the only reason they beat 2019s total attendance was they gave up and did a $1 ticket day. There’s a thread here about their already low ratings dropping by 40%, to one of the lowest in the sport. Anderson has become a tabloid issue for the team. The only benefit is that he occasionally takes the focus off of people being shot in the ballpark when his private life leaks out.

They were so desperate for defense last year that they had to trade a top 75 prospect for Marsh because they needed an OF who could catch the ball. If they didn’t have a top prospect to spare, this doesn’t work.

Stating that you are not interested in a free agent definitely affects the market for a free agent because it makes it fewer teams who might be bidding that we don’t know about. It is absolutely a market distortion, the most famous agent in the sport is legendary for his leverage of unknown mystery teams in the bidding process, that isn’t credible when people like Reinsdorf are allowed to flaunt the rules. Hete is a very similar example from Aaron Judge that if it happened was absolutely tampering, just as Reinsdorf’s was. https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/11/17/aaron-judge-free-agency-mets-yankees-tampering In this context, it is absolutely undercutting his newly hired GM, who should absolutely have the authority to make player personnel decisions himself. With their cleared payroll, Getz could have had an option where he comes in with a plan to offer Ohtani $400 million and aim for 2025 when his elbow is healed and it could be a real strategy. But this owner doesn’t respect his GM enough to allow him to work, and Ng is smart enough to see that- she just quit when an owner tried to pull that crap.

Remember how people were complaining about the lack of playoff drama? I don’t.

Now we know how they beat Indiana. We totes win that game straight up.

This just helps bring Kimbrel into our price range.

Every move you make - make with the idea that you’re looking towards the trade deadline. Pitching is often movable at the deadline, be cautious about bullpen money as middling relievers are getting 3 years now, but you have to add a few. Use the money you have to fill out a roster and then try to add talent at the deadline. Otherwise, keep the payroll under control, add guys on 1 year deals who might be tradeable -Rosario is a good example IMO, I can’t imagine him getting the same money as Anderson’s option, but if the market goes crazy then just settle for an Andrus or a DeJong.

But at least to me, it’s classic white sox safe thinking. There’s a remote chance they could get to 82 wins? Go for it! We got in this mess because we didn’t pinch every penny despite the certainty that we would have a spending problem. The 2019 offseason is my favorite example - trading for a closer, signing Herrera, they added like $50 million and traded away players for a 72 win team. That $10 million that is the difference between Anderson and Andrus or that was spent on Herrera - save that and add it to your offer to Wheeler or to the next version of him. This is not White Sox thinking, thats why I’d like to see it.

I mean. They will probably spend something, they need to convince themselves they have a competitive roster and they have only about $115 million in the payroll right now. The normal white Sox under Hahn would add $20 million for Perez, two $10 million starters, two $10 million righty relievers, a couple of utility guys and a swingman; and have a $170 million payroll or so. A little down from last year, probably enough to put them projected for 72 wins or something like that.

Nick Castellanos has produced 0.2 fWAR in 2 seasons for like $30 million. I agree he would be a perfect fit with the white Sox.

I’ve been thinking that the Anderson call is a great test of whether they will do anything different. If Rick Hahn was the GM, what would he do? I think we can all feel this, he’d declare that he thought they were right there and one player away, make a handful of mid level signings, trade for Perez and pay way too much, and hold onto Anderson. Gotta have him in that competitive 2024 roster and Hahn definitely will say he put that together. Hell, I can imagine him saying his team is one player away and will be right there at the end right now, while he’s unemployed. The odds of this team competing are low, not zero but so low that it’s not worth making moves aimed at being better next year. The odds of Anderson being worth a lot in a trade are very low, he’s not cheap, teams only trade for guys like him if they need an infielder, and he was worthless last year. For him to be worth a lot, you need him to be great, healthy for the first time in years, motivated and out of the tabloids, and you need a competitive team who has plenty to give up but a but middle infield need. Some team taking on $5 million of his deal and giving back a middling prospect is an optimistic view, but that’s precisely how things would go with Hahn. Let Anderson go, he probably won’t get $14 million as a free agent, no reason to overpay. Sign Andrus or maybe Rosario if his pride is low, hard to judge his market. Plan for Montgomery to force the issue at some point in the second half, save the money or use it in pitching, and at least show that you understand that “winning soon” takes more than talk. Make hard choices if they’re the correct ones. Do I expect the White Sox to make hard choices? I will believe it when I see it.

Houston still has to win a game at home. So far this is the 2019 World Series setup, the Nats won that because the Astros had home field advantage.

Was he asked about this or was this something he was clearly motivated to bring up?