Lip Man 1

Another hamstring situation for the Sox. They've had a bunch this year.

Baseball sometimes is a funny game when Covey is better than Sale and Thompson drives in the game winner. ?

Agreed. he allowed a lot of inherited runners to score.

Lopez and Gio looked good, shame that Jones coughed it up for Lopez in the first game.

Some good points and that's the dilemma for a lot of Sox fans, they understand that the folks who drove the franchise into a ditch are the ones being asked to tow it out and get it going again. From spending money, to drafting, to signing free agents, its all a big question mark with this front office. All you can do is hope for the best I guess.

I may be wrong but I heard and read that Jose' isn't on-board with becoming a full time DH which obviously is an issue if the Sox were trying to force it on him.

I continue to think that this off season the Sox won't be a player for any of the "Superstars" that are going to be available. Too many things working against them. Hope I'm wrong, it would be a tremendous get...but I don't think its going to happen. So what the Sox CAN do, and should do in my opinion is concentrate on improving the pitching staff specifically the bullpen. Next year they need to show some progress on the field in the won / loss category. Getting some guys who can actually hold leads is the easiest way to do that. They simply can't bring back the same cast of guys next year in the bullpen...they just can't do that.

I think you are probably right in your guess but we'll see. JR has surprised folks before (Albert Belle) so you can never say with 100% certainty about what may happen. I've said before that I don't expect the Sox to land any of the "Superstar", "Game Changers" this off season. I also would be surprised if they offered any of them far and away the most money, but again we'll see, they could surprise everyone. I think they'll be attractive to guys to help upgrade the bullpen and the depth making them better in 2019...at least I sure hope so.

I can't believe I'm writing this but Covey looks like a decent major league pitcher now. If they can get anything out of him moving forward, God bless them. We'll see if it lasts.

Then the fascinating question will be who if any will take it. Time will tell.

"Frankly I don't really care about the rebuild right now. I care about winning. They keep talking about rebuild and I'm trying to win ballgames right now, period. I don't like losing. We are losing ballgames right now." - James Shields. I didn't see this posted but it brings up one of the main questions moving forward into the immediate future ,starting this off season for the organization / front office. Can they convince free agents, especially the good ones, to come to the Sox assuming the money offer is about the same among teams vying for their services? We'll find out soon enough since not all of the prospects are going to make it. The law of averages just about guarantees that and there will be holes the Sox are going to have to fill from the outside. It will be a test of the front office's ability to sell the rebuild and that progress will be coming soon.

None that I know of although I'm not sure of the connection with my comment. The Cubs have been fortunate to have ownership for the most part with excellent resources and money (P.K. Wrigley / Tribune Company), granted they didn't spend it wisely (especially the Tribune Company for many years) but they did make an effort to do so. And publicity-wise, the Tribune Company both owning the Cubs as well as major media companies in Chicago was as good as it gets.

In fairness they drew poorly because the only good teams they had in the time period from 1968-1980 was in 1972 and 1977. Plus both John Allyn and Bill Veeck did not have the money to really run the franchise properly. In Allyn's case it was because his outside business interests went south and he was almost bankrupt. One common thread among the Sox franchise is that regarding ownership they either had money and resources and didn't want to spend it or spent it modestly or they basically didn't have the money to begin with and were just scraping by.

Some truth in your statement... collusion headed in part by JR (at least according to Fay Vincent in his book) and the threat to move to Florida certainly didn't help things.

Not sure what the parameters are involving this discussion but the time period from 1951-1967, the "Golden Age" of White Sox baseball the Sox outdrew the Cubs in 16 of those 17 seasons, sometimes by a wide margin...they also got the lion's share of media coverage in the market and had a radio network of approximately 100 stations throughout the Midwest and down into the South including Jackson, Mississippi, Atlanta (before the Braves came) and most of Florida (because they trained in Sarasota.) Generally until the Tribune Company bought the Cubs in 1981, and used their tremendous marketing and media influence, the team that was winning more usually drew better between the two clubs. After that though because of John McDonough (who grew up a Sox fan by the way) and again because of the power of the Tribune Company (to say nothing of the Sox not being willing to even fight for their own market i.e. "we're Chicago's American League team...) the Cubs have dominated since 1984. I have in my library a story out of The Sporting News in 1993 where Ron Schueler was quoted as saying that the Sox were in first place, the Cubs in last, yet they were still outdrawing them. Part of that dynamic was because the Tribune Company had done a wonderful job selling the "Wrigley Field experience" as well as the Sox not being in the playoffs for 10 years at that time. There is no easy or simple answer to this situation. You have to examine history, understand the dynamics of the two fan bases and look at the outside factors that have played heavily into the situation.

Seemed like old home week for former Sox relief pitchers...and they pitched about as well as when they were with the Sox too.

I think you won't really see success until 2021 now because of all the injuries. I think next year they'll sign some free agents (not the major ones) to help stabilize things especially in the bullpen. Hopefully they sniff the .500 mark in 2019, contend for a wild card spot and a winning record in 2020 and then seriously contend in 2021.

He certainly has the speed to play in center. Who knows he may be pretty good there and make less errors.

The only way the Sox make the playoffs this season is if 10 other clubs in the league decide to forfeit the remainder of the year.

Speaking of Fulmer, this is a bizarre line tonight for him in Charlotte: 5IP, 6BB, 5Ks, only 1 ER.

Hell must of frozen over...Covey looked terrific. Of course the Sox have lost Castillo and L. Garcia for awhile. Can't keep guys in the lineup.

While I don't necessarily agree totally with Steve I can see his point. The last decade has been awful for the franchise. Unless the Sox are willing to offer way more money / years than another team you wonder if any of the "Type-A" "Superstar" free agents are going to really consider them. Potential is a nice word but these guys want to win and win now (again all things being relatively equal salary-wise). Given the circumstances and their history I'd be shocked if the Sox land one of the top guys this off season. I'd welcome it but I'm not counting on it. I do think however the Sox will be able to sign some guys who can make a positive contribution in 2019, especially in the bullpen but as far as signing someone that would send shock waves across the baseball landscape? Don't think so.

Jones continues to live on the edge but hopefully he keeps doing well and the Sox can get a prospect for him at the deadline.

Correct like Jeff Torborg told me he was out of place in right field, it wasn't his spot. They moved him to left in 1990 and he did very well.

I think this pretty much seals his fate with the Sox. They won't be able to trade him for anything at the deadline and with all the prospects coming down the line, given his injury history and production, it doesn't make sense to extend him. Guy can't stay healthy and outside of one season, which appears to be a major outlier, he's not that good.