Balta1701

Lets' imagine that he was willing to open up the checkbook - are you confident that, if he signed everyone other than Ohtani, that this is a playoff team? Bellinger (OF) Blake Snell (SP) Josh Hader (Bullpen) Aaron Nola (SP) Eduardo Rodriguez (SP) If I do that, I've probably spent the payroll basically up to the luxury tax, they're starting at about $100 million right now, each of those starters is probably getting over $20 million next year. That gives a rotation of Snell, Nola, Cease, Rodriguez, and Kopech. The bullpen adds Hader, but isn't particularly deep - you'd have Hader, Santos (may be out for the season), Bummer, Crochet, and then the mess of guys we saw this year. You'd probably want to sign 1 or 2 more RH setup men, and then maybe hope for luck from someone else in the system stepping up. The lineup is improved with Bellinger so your RF spot is actually filled, you still have a weak spot at 2b, you have a gaping hole at catcher so there's more money you need to spend (note that I just signed guys, I didn't trade for Perez yet, which is still more money). Aside from Bellinger's help, you still have a terrible problem with OBP, you still have tons of positions that are wimpy and where you're hoping guys stay healthy because there's zero depth. This might be a competitive team in the AL Central, but does this look like the best team in the AL to you? I've probably spent up to $250 million in payroll just while typing here, I'm well into the luxury tax, and I think this team would be in a fight for the weak Central division again, and if any team put it together they could be out of it again.

He's actually got something of a problem with trying to do this, because even if it's true, he took the job with the instruction that he was going to "Win soon" and he clearly wasn't willing to dispel the owner of that notion prior to agreeing to take the job. This is the part where if he was better prepared for the position, he'd absolutely know he can't have the owner thinking that or telling the press that because it's not reasonable, but he allowed it to happen.

Amed Rosario seems like a guy they could be interested in.

I can’t wait until this brilliant baseball GM gets to choose his own coach this offseason. Only an absolute idiot would have Pedro Grifol as his manager, no quality baseball person would have this guy coach for him in the first place, and this season made replacing him the easiest decision that any true baseball guy could ever make. I can’t wait to see who Getz uses as his coach next year, it has to be a massive upgrade over Grifol since Getz is a true baseball person.

If they’re bold, they can trade down from #2 to #3 and still get Harrison while adding an extra 2nd or something like that. Or they could actually draft both QBs and hope that one of them work out.

Yeah. When will they be firing these losers and hiring them?

Congrats. You got a 2 fWAR season out of him for $12 million. That’s, tolerable? Better than average for Rick Hahn? Not the worst Hahn free agent signing of last offseason?

My guess is they give up Quero or Schultz in that deal though.

Until proven otherwise I’m expecting them to massively overpay for Salvador Perez in a trade (hoping not to the point of Montgomery) sign 4 or 5 players to $10 million contracts, and declare that they think they’re competitive for the AL Central right now.

Let’s go specifically to his hitting attitudes, he makes it clear that he doesn’t want coaching, he doesn’t need those advanced scouting reports, he doesn’t want someone telling him he needs to be more patient at the plate. Hes up there to swing and he doesn’t need any help. That kind of attitude is ok with the White Sox, but do you think that would fly on a quality team? Would the Dodgers put up with that? And that strategy also is working now when he’s 25 &: still one of the quickest, most athletic guys on the field. Does it still work when he’s 28 and things have slowed down by a few microseconds on his response time? Or if he’s 27 and he has a sore hip or sore shoulder?

Giolito the union rep? Of course the front office thought their union representatives was a malcontent.

The obvious answer is “be honest”. Admit you’re in a tough spot and this will take time. Admit there are issues but say you are fixing them, and even tell the fans how. Give your fans some credit and respect them and they will tolerate any delay you have to do as long as it’s clear you’re trying.

There’s still a clear and obvious problem. This guy is the assistant GM in an organization without a president of baseball operations. Hes one step below where Rick Hahn was for a decade. He has multiple operations to oversee, dozens of employees, salary decisions, player decisions, draft decisions. He should be receiving hundreds of reports yearly on players, performance, new ideas for things to try, all sorts of other things. Those organizational philosophies that we want the White Sox to develop and practice at all levels? It’s his job to help develop and oversee the implementation of those and then find ways to evaluate their effectiveness. This is NOT a guy who should be personally working with pitchers. When he was first brought into a front office role, working directly with pitchers and bringing in new training techniques was his job. In a management role, his job is to find the people who have positive and helpful new ideas and hire or contract with them to work with his pitchers. To make good decisions at his level that empower the staff who are below him and give them the tools they need to succeed. These sound like the jobs of assistant pitching coaches and development staff. Or of physical trainers or digital coaches or guys who are software experts. Not of an assistant GM. He not only can’t possibly do his job well while working with pitchers personally, he shouldn’t even be trying. If he’s working with pitchers directly then he can’t possibly do his other job well: If he is trying to, then we are perfectly set for more of the same.

1. Is there a point to trading Cease after a second half with an ERA over 5? Is anyone giving up multiple top prospects for that? Even Kenny Williams didn’t pay that kind of price for struggling pitchers. At least have to wait until the deadline. 2. Robert being traded is still something I’d consider if I were the white sox GM, but I wouldn’t pay a fair price if I was an opposing GM. The opposing GM would be paying a premium talent price for 4 years of control, for a player with a substantial injury history, who also seems to be very difficult to coach - he’s relying solely on athletic ability and doesn’t want to learn more. The trade deadline problems still exist, only a handful of teams can afford him and for those who could it’s a very risky deal.

I do have to give these fans some props. The owner stood up their and said that because of he fans are demanding, he doesn’t need to listen to them or care about them. They’ve clearly responded “right back at ya”.

Plus, when he has surgery in April or May of 2024, they'll still think he can come back in 2025.

I would bet that Jerry Reinsdorf would be ecstatic to add a few years onto the current White Sox park agreement as long as the deal remained the same. It's so ludicrously pro-Reinsdorf that he'd probably jump at that.

I think they'd have tried to finish it this morning if weather would have allowed.

The guy came up in Atlanta's system and started 2023 with Cleveland.

See ya Monday.

We don't know the structure yet, but the fact that these guys are getting such broad-ranging titles makes it seem pretty obvious to me that they are just replacing the overworked guys who were here with new guys in the same basic roles. The new guys think things will be ok, then they are going to be hit by the amount of tasks on the table for them, try to do the best they can, and wind up half-assing everything because they can't possibly do all the tasks they're supposed to do but somehow things need to be finished. Just like the guys right now.

No. He's a starting pitcher who is arb-1 with an ERA of 5 this season that matches his career ERA of 5. His FIP this year is 5.01 and it's 5.2 for his career. His WHIP is 1.41 this year and 1.46 for his career. He could very well wind up in the rotation of the White Sox next year, because the White Sox have so little in their organization that grabbing guys with an ERA of 5 to be their 4th or 5th starter is ok to them, but that's what bad teams do. On even a decent team, he's a guy who gets picked up when they have had 4 different starters go on the IL at the same time, because guys like him are available on waivers.

You can say that at the KW and Hahn level and it appears accurate. HOWEVER, at all the other levels of this organization, we constantly are talking about failing to do basic jobs - basic advance scouting, basic big league scouting, minor leaguers who are unable to obtain the type of coaching and feedback that they need to have success and who are sort of on their own to figure things out. We see people who are sloppy, we see people who aren't doing their jobs well. The Dodgers give AJ Pollock a huge amount of information, a giant book every day to prepare for his at bats, he comes to Chicago and they tell him that there's probably a pitcher who throws with an arm who will be on the mound tomorrow and he should get to work. The ticket sales and customer service departments have sounded awful the last few years, events and outreach and even just the general things that leave people feeling good have been stripped away. There's no one to say "Hey maybe Clevinger using 'gold digger' as his walkout song" doesn't reflect well on the team, so it just slips through. They haven't established a clear structure at the top, fair. However, at all the other levels of the organization, people are overworked and incapable of providing the type of information that players and decision makers need. They're all swamped, they're doing the best they can but the organization is so completely bare-bones, built to save money on staff, that it hurts everything else. That contrast shows up dramatically when you compare to the Cubs. The White Sox have 1 guy getting the same title as 3 or 4 guys there. They have a pitching expert, an international scouting organizer, etc. The White Sox just lump all that onto one guy, and we've seen how bad the results are.

That’s one hell of a thing.