mcgrad70

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Dec 6, 2011 -> 01:02 PM) If Buehrle, Danks, Quentin, and possibly others move on this off-season, with the farm system in the current state it's in, do you see this club really competing for a title, or even the division over the next 2-3 years? The logical answer is no, and if that's the case, having a top notch closer is nearly meaningless. A team in no worse than baseball's 3rd largest market should never find themselves rebuilding...

The only thing Sox management is good at fleecing is its ever shrinking fanbase. Kenny Williams has been taken to the cleaners from west to east.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Nov 10, 2011 -> 03:04 PM) For once, I would love to see the Sox bend somebody over a barrel in a trade. It seems that we're seeing teams more and more make a trade that gets people saying, "I can't believe they gave up that much." I want us to have at least one of those.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 31, 2011 -> 01:27 PM) My guess will be something similar to the 1/$8m Berkman got last year with the Cardinals. Just more of this trying to catch lightening in a bottle crap. Why can't this organization just go out and get legitimate major league quality ballplayers? What is the problem?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 31, 2011 -> 09:48 AM) Which is fine with me. We really have no use for the other three. They are replaceable, and much more cheaply done. I basically have little use for most of these overpaid stiffs and the management that brought them in here

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Oct 28, 2011 -> 09:42 AM) meanwhile, the sox paid for the "chicago sports depot" completely on thier own. wow..imagine that?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 02:09 PM) Really though...the White Sox have been in the bottom half of MLB in attendance every year for the last 5 years (last year they were in the top 10 was 2006)...and yet they've been in the top 7 (or higher) in payroll every year since the Series win except for 2009. That behavior is not the norm. Since this isn't translating to more regular trips to the playoffs, it sure says a lot about the people who run the team....

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 01:30 PM) Haven't the Sox been named one of the most profitable sports franchises? I like to think that they put a lot of their money back into the team, but I've always suspected that they're making money hand over fist. And given the fact we've made to the World Series once in the 30 years that he's own the Sox tells me not much is put back. I don't recall us being All-In in 2005. We won because we got career efforts by a lot of marginal ballplayers. There is a grand total 1 ballplayer from that team that is bound for HOF. And he didn't even participate in the post-season except the parade.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 12:28 PM) Do you know anything about running a business? I ask because you don't seem to see the full picture. Tickets to the Sox are on the lower end of the scale in MLB, far lower than across town in the same city. And payroll is very high. The Sox simply don't make much profit, less than a lot of clubs, though they at least aren't losing money. Most of the money is plowed back into payroll enhancements, and the payroll has risen from about 50M to about 120M in 6 years. Also just as advice... one can always park somewhere else and take the train to the park if you don't like that level of cost for parking. The blind loyalty to this owner is astounding. What what would these people act like if they got an owner in here that was in it to win it. Sports ownership is supposed to be a rich man's toy - not their meal ticket. We have the same problem with too many of the owners in this city.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 11:45 AM) That's probably right, they are looking for any vague clause they can potentially use to extract more money. They may find one, who knows. Also, just to make sure this is clear... the ISFA only gets $1.5M annually in rent, but the state also gets all the taxes generated from ticket sales, concessions, etc. for the team to stay in town. If ISFA doesn't exist and the stadium isn't built, the team is gone entirely. And that would have necessarily been a bad thing? We would have had another team.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 10:34 AM) If they can get away with it, i am sure they'll try and change it. They know the Sox wont be leaving anytime soon. They weren't leaving in the 80's either. Reinsdorf would have been out of baseball a long time ago had he actually moved the Sox to Florida. It was just a big bluff by a master con artist.

QUOTE (PolishPrince34 @ Oct 29, 2011 -> 07:04 PM) We orginally traded for Edwin Jackson and his high contract 8.35 million for Daniel Hudson and Dave Holmberg who might be a Top 10 lefty prospect in all of the minors. Then we trade Edwin Jackson and Teahen for Zach Stewart and saving close to 9.5 million. That trade was horrible when we could of had Hudson/16 wins this year for 6 years before becoming a free agent and we threw in our Top pitching prospect even though he was in rookie ball. Pathetic job by Kenny Williams. Indeed it was. I hated the trade to get Jackson and I hated what we got for him. Jackson was a constant reminder to Kenny how he got played by Rizzo last year when he thought he had secured Dunn for Jackson. Recall how Kenny told the poor guy to stay at the hotel because he was so sure Jackson was heading to DC. Kenny no doubt figures had Dunn come here and stunk up the joint for the rest of 2010, he probably doesn't get a long-term deal. And of course there would have been no Manny either. If Jackson had won 25 games for the Sox, he still wasn't staying here. Edwin for all his trouble ended up with a World Series ring...there is cosmic retribution.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 17, 2011 -> 09:10 PM) Calling copper Kenny's b**** doesn't strike you as unnecessary at least? Really was praying he'd keep his mouth shut. I'm glad Guillen's gone too but nothing would surprise me about Cooper. He's grossly overrated as a pitching coach. The entire staff and Kenny should have been terminated.

Sorry, I just have to say it... I am absolutely thrilled for Edwin Jackson. Kenny treated him like crap for his entire stay in Chicago - told him to stay at the hotel back in the summer of 2010 because he so sure he was moving on to DC for Dunn. Then, Kenny couldn't wait to unload him during this past season as Edwin was a constant reminder of how he got played yet again - this time by Mike Rizzo. Kenny's no doubt figuring that if Dunn had shown even a glimpse of what was to come, he would have been apprehensive about offering Dunn a long-term deal. Now, Edwin gets a chance to pitch the Cardinals to the World Series - the perfect cosmic retribution. And we have the never-even-coached-little-league Robin Ventura managing MLB's version of the SS Titanic. Well done, Kenny Williams, well done indeed!

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 11, 2011 -> 01:52 PM) Great post. Glad to see you admitted that. Refreshing post. That is the danger of hiring a former player. It's why the Royals wouldn't let Brett or White ever manage. Ventura will be hated at some point just as Ozzie is despised. That is a given. Hopefully he'll win a WS though as that will give him some love no matter what. But it will end badly. It almost always does. I will never hate Robin. But I am disappointed that he allowed himself to get caught up with an organization at the threshold of a steep decline. He's never shown any interest in managing. He should have spent at least a season cutting his teeth at the minor league level to see whether this was appealing to him. Unfortunately, with the sorry of state of affairs on the South Side, Robin Ventura was all we were getting. Robin won't save us - only new ownership that comes in and completely changes the culture will.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 7, 2011 -> 12:28 AM) I don't think any of us hope we'll do worse. It may seem that way. It's not the case in my opinion. I'd like nothing better than Robin open 20-10 the first few weeks. I hope he's opening as manager is better than his opening as player...yikes

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Oct 6, 2011 -> 09:33 PM) Am I missing something? Why do people think this? If we are "All-In" again next year, we hire the most unproven commodity there is to manage the ball club? (I'm not against his hiring) What about Kenny's comments that he doesn't expect Ventura to hit the ground running, and that he will have to grow into the job over the years? The reiteration that there won't be a marquee signing this offseason? The comments about reining it in and playing the kids because of always trying for that knockout punch? Maybe I'm completely off-base, but it seems to me that they are hiring a younger green manager (which I'm okay with) to go along with the younger inexperienced roster of this year and perhaps next. Maybe it's just me but I ASSUME a team in no less than the 3rd largest baseball market is in it to win it - every year. So Jerry-Baby has been holding out on us all those years, uh? He's committed one time and one time only and goes 79-83. When you settle for mediocrity, that's exactly what you'll get from Reinsdorf. Well, he'll do it next year with one less season ticket holder.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 6, 2011 -> 09:21 PM) Do you really think this was KW's idea? If it was, it most likely was to keep him in the good graces of the Chairman, not that it wasn't genius, even if by accident. Then Williams has no pride and he's just desperate. If Reinsdorf once again interfered in his managerial decision, he should have resigned on the spot.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Oct 6, 2011 -> 09:18 PM) No one else seeing this move as Kenny putting himself on the line even more now? MattSpiegel for example sees it like that, so does my huge Sox friend that doesn't frequent the board.. he also thinks we're not in rebuild mode and that he expects a solid offseason and competing next year, TTFWIW. not at all...this reeks of Reinsdorf... Kenny's in no more danger of losing his today than he was yesterday.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 6, 2011 -> 08:00 PM) He's not going to be. It will probably be Manto or Laker. If anyone thinks KW will ever have Frank Thomas on his coaching staff, just remember this quote, "the man is an idiot" And KW is highly qualified to speak of idiocy.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Oct 6, 2011 -> 07:57 PM) I quit. Funniest post of the night!

QUOTE (ptatc @ Oct 6, 2011 -> 07:23 PM) That's true. Every ownership has teams with at least 7 championships Assuming you are talking about Reinsdorf, 6 of those 7 are in another sport and were made possible by at least 3 current HOF players and a HOF coach. And then he insulted those players and that fanbase by saying he would trade all of those 6 championships for 1 baseball championship. Considering the one-hit wonder that was the 2005 team, looks like mission accomplished. Now good night Jerry Jr.

QUOTE (PolishPrince34 @ Oct 6, 2011 -> 07:20 PM) I loved it during the conference when Kenny mentioned that his scouts and player development has drafted and developed a lot of gems in the farm system. Whose he crapping!!! this gets more hilarious as the night goes on...you just can't take this seriously anymore...our favorite team is just stuck with the management from hell