Lip Man 1

If I remember right the post was from Jay Cuda. He also wrote the Sox had only five analytic guys but had 50 ticket sale individuals on the payroll. It was from a few weeks ago and honestly I don't know if I'm remembering it correctly.

Quin: Wasn't sure of the rules but this is not the entire story. It was simply his comments on the Sox, the rest of the story includes his views on all the other teams. No problem though, it won't happen again.

From CBS Sportsline. No surprise: Pedro Grifol, White Sox Earl Weaver couldn't have crafted a winner out of the White Sox rosters with which Grifol has been saddled, but it's hard to ignore all the losing. Since taking over prior to the start of the 2023 season, Grifol is 88-172, and this season finds his charges on pace for 117 losses. Now consider that general manager Chris Getz will likely pawn off multiple productive veterans leading up to the trade deadline, thus making a terrible team even worse for the stretch drive. Will Getz seek to deflect criticism by canning a manager he didn't hire in the first place? It seems quite possible.

Law on Sox draft:

I thought I recently saw a tweet that stated the Sox had only two full time scouts after cutting to the bone because of "supposed" financial losses. If that is true (I have no idea) that's cutting your nose off to spite your face. Scouting, drafting and developing are absolutely essential and crucial to any good organization.

Addition by subtraction in my book. What was it? Four million of JR's dollars wasted on another clown-has been. ?

Shirley wraps up the Sox draft: https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-finish-final-day-of-2024-mlb-draft

At least since 2007, before that especially in the early days of ownership, JR and EE did actually spend on good players.

And they are under .500 now starting in 1981 when EE and JR took over.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2024/07/16/white-sox-select-11-pitchers-in-draft

Many of those 19 year old guys rarely see the floor. One reason the fundamentals are so bad with this organization at least, is because guys are being brought up who have no idea how to play the game, do the little things. I'm not saying go back to the days of Gary Peters and Joe Horlen who basically spent five years in the minors learning their craft but there's absolutely no need to rush guys up, destroy their confidence and see them fall flat on their faces.

I was told by a person in the front office that there were a number of other better qualified broadcasters who applied for the position and they don't see what Brooks saw in him. I watch a lot of ESPN and rarely heard or saw him doing anything of substance, the KBO League and The Other Pregame Show doesn't move the needle for me at all and a sideline reporter (I've been both sideline and / PBP) are two totally different animals. But like I posted a few months ago, we'll see if he has improved next year, if he has learned more of Sox history and if he realizes baseball is totally different over the course of a 162 game season. And I understand having been through it myself, the absolute hardest thing for a broadcaster to do is keep a fan base involved when the team is miserable. That is not easy and I cut him some slack in that regard but it was and is clear he is trying to learn on the job and a Major League franchise shouldn't have to have guys "learning" about the sport or especially about the team they are supposed to be covering. I trust what the front office person told me that there were other more experienced, better qualified candidates. For someone who supposedly covered baseball it was bizarre how he doesn't seem to know all the rules and has made major guffaws in that regard on the air. Maybe they have different rules in the KBO League! ?

He is used by ESPN but... Majority of the time it is for things like "slamball" (WTF?) and the G-League basketball Not exactly the NBA, NFL, MLB or NHL is it? ?

Nice thorough draft report concentrating on Day 2 and an overview of who has been taken so far: https://soxmachine.com/2024/07/white-sox-2024-mlb-draft-day-2-recap/

This was in the Athletic today. I guess JR won't be paying much to the state in terms of rent again this season: "You might not be surprised to find out the team could also be heading to its worst attendance numbers since moving into “New Comiskey.” In 1999, the Sox drew just 1,338,851 at home. (They had only 80 home games that year.) That’s an average of 16,736. This year, they’re at 837,000 through 51 home games, which gives them a 16,412 average. The average is a bit misleading as they’ve played three doubleheaders, which only count as one gate, but also we’re counting paid admission, not actual butts in seats, so it’s kind of a wash."

Can't disagree with the voting: https://awfulannouncing.com/orig/2024-mlb-broadcaster-announcer-rankings-mets-giants-padres.html

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2024/07/15/how-did-the-white-sox-get-this-bad-all-this-losing-starts-at-the-top

I bet they are listing TLR's salary not Grifol's.

They are supposed to get two or three of those pitchers back soon, don't know how that may impact their decisions.

No way is this possible. ?

You don't need to worry about him losing 20 games. The right-handed hurler replaced opener Jared Shuster with two outs in the third and recorded the final out during what was scheduled as a bullpen day on Sunday in the team's first-half finale against the Pirates. He threw one pitch out of the zone to Jack Suwinski to start the third and signaled for the training staff. Soroka left with right shoulder soreness and will undergo further evaluations, per the White Sox.

Glad that they drafted a pair of outfield prospects high up.

The only issue with Hagen seems to be at times his giving up walks.

Sun Times story on draft pick: https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2024/07/14/white-sox-select-left-handed-pitcher-hagen-smith-with-the-no-5-pick-in-2024-mlb-draft

Fundamentals has been an unknown word in this organization for years, literally years. Seems every spring the manager talks about how they are working on things, yet nothing seems to change. These are simply "baseball stupid" players and an organization that is unable or unwilling to get through to them from a teaching standpoint. And my guess is it probably starts down in the minor leagues.