Lip Man 1

I'm a Sox fan but Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio say "hello..." Thomas is up there in that group, an elite right handed hitter with an incredible knowledge of the strike zone...but the "best" no one can say for sure.

Very true but that's what happens when you have incompetent, dysfunctional and inept ownership and people on the baseball side of the business.

Mariotti let his personal feelings get in the way of his reporting which was very unfortunate. A lot of what he wrote though especially about JR and the Sox was accurate as history has shown but again his personal grievances got in the way. His comments about co-workers like Roger Ebert, Rick Telender were reprehensible and when Hawk accosted him in the press box and took a swing at him it was well deserved. By the way the hatred Mariotii had for JR really reached a tipping point when JR called the owners of the Sun-Times at the time and demanded they fire him. Mariotti heard about it and from then on it was anything goes.

“We just got our ass kicked.”-- Pedro Grifol (How many times has this clown said that the past two seasons?) LOL.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/bears-stadium/2024/05/17/new-bears-stadium-lakefront-site-obama-center-lucas-museum-friends-parks-legal-battle

True they had the best record in baseball at the break. I simply wrote that some speculate this is when things began to go south.

When new ownership arrives the franchise will be in a position to start bringing in competent individuals to run things. That gives you an opportunity to start "winning" again. Why is it so hard to understand that under current ownership the resources and talent SIMPLY ISN'T THERE and WON'T be because the owner refuses to spend/invest money to bringing it in. Therefore the only current way to 'maybe' start winning is to trade assets get back young unproven talent and hope it works out. Yes...that's all the Sox can do...hope. Signing an unproven Fedde who will be in his early 30's does very little to win in two years given the absolute chaos at all levels of the franchise.

May 17, 2021 – In the Sox blowout win over the Twins in Minnesota, national controversy erupted centering around the ‘unwritten’ rules of baseball. With the Sox leading 15-4 the Twins used a position player, Willians Astudillo to pitch the ninth inning. He lobbed up a 47 miles per hour pitch to Yermin Mercedes who blasted it over the center field fence. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli took exception to it as well as many baseball traditionalists. White Sox manager Tony LaRussa wasn’t happy with it either saying what Mercedes did disrespected the game as well as he missed the take sign on that pitch. Some of Mercedes teammates and many Sox fans disagreed saying that using a position player instead of a regular pitcher also disrespected the game and that until the game is over players are expected to do their best regardless of the score. The next day, after the Twins threw at Mercedes, LaRussa ignited another controversy when he said that he didn’t think Twins pitcher Tyler Duffey deliberately did that, that it may have been a pitch that got away from him. Some Sox fans feel this was the moment when LaRussa began to lose the clubhouse and the Sox started sliding back towards mediocrity for the rest of the season and into the 2022 campaign.

?????

They'll spend money sponsoring racing cars and what not but spend money on top quality baseball players? You're joking right? ?

I loved the 77 season, have 20 minutes of TV game highlights in my library from it BUT....they folded down the stretch and "only" won 90 games finishing in third place. They didn't come close to making the playoffs after the All-Star break. As far as the highlighted comment all I'll say is Greg I admire your thoughts on "domination" but that is as far from reality as I am from Antarctica.

I'm all for that, as I've said before, if you are going to be bad be historically bad...that may be the only thing short of new ownership that could cause JR to have some changes in his philosophy. Now I'm wouldn't bet even that would cause him to change his ways but that's the only thing I can think of that MAY do so. Look I get it. I'm old enough to remember when owners and players had the mentality that if you couldn't finish first, you'd damn well do everything you could to finish second et al. Those days are llllloooonnnngggg gone. This organization is so incompetent, dysfunctional and inept, with more holes than swiss cheese they literally need every swinging dick they can get who may have any type of talent. And even then with this bunch there are no guarantees but again, it may be the only chance until new ownership arrives. If they can't even have a winning season (and this bunch wouldn't come close even by keeping the guys they traded because of a toxic clubhouse and brain-dead manager), and they have only had five, count em' five since the start of 2007, then blow it up and keep trying the rebuild route.... until an owner comes in who hires good people, stays the hell out of their way, signs the checks, sits in the owners box, keeps his mouth shut and let them do their jobs. Oh and who isn't phased by operating the White Sox as the big market team they should be.

Because at some point new ownership will arrive and so will the possibility of competent baseball front office people. Until then keep trying to stock up on young talent to give new ownership something to build with. Half of the guys you mention, especially on offense are stiffs, retreads, has-been's and bums. Yea let's win the division! Hoo Ray! (We won't talk about getting ripped to pieces by a real honest to God quality big league club in a first round playoff blowout) Haven't we seen enough of that garbage Greg?

Sure...and the Sox would go from 55 wins to 60. Big deal...

Not...even...close...not with this offense and defense. And don't look now but the division isn't as bad as many thought.

You realize who still owns the club right? And his stated "philosophy" on pitchers contracts right?

“I didn’t like the fact that he missed a hit and run [sign]. Nicky did a good job there and he missed a hit and run." - Grifol on Ramos. Oh,oh.....

In general terms because they are not Jerry Reinsdorf and (at least in theory) they will have much more financial resources available to use. Now granted, that doesn't mean they will use them but they'd have a lot of reasons to do so to make their investment even more profitable for said shareholders. And can you be a little more specific on who this new large minority owner is? I've seen on this board speculation about a Mellody Hobson yet she isn't listed at all in the 2024 Sox Media Guide, she is not listed as a minority owner nor on the Board of Directors. Researching her it does say she is part of a group that bought the Denver Broncos but that's all I can find sports-wise, no mention of anything to do with the White Sox. Is there some other individual you are referring to?

It's been stated actually by many others especially the part about the expansion fees which I completely forgot about. But feel free to keep sounding the siren of doom for the franchise. ? That is certainly your right. Here's the bottom line, it's really simply, the day JR no longer owns the franchise things IMMEDIATELY get better, it is hard to imagine ANY ownership group which gets the team doing worse. And my personal opinion based on what I've been told is that the odds are a corporation will own the Sox next and not a single entity because of how much they'll have to pay.

Actually they have been one of the worst franchises in baseball since the start of the 2007 season.

They aren't going anywhere. Not yesterday, not today and not tomorrow. ? You can put THAT on the board. The reasons have been stated time and time again but in case you missed it, MLB isn't going to move a club out of the 3rd biggest market in the country for a much smaller one PLUS the expansion fee generated by giving the Nashville franchise to Dave Stewart and minority ownership not only makes MLB look good but the fee is going to be millions and millions (maybe even a billion) of dollars into the pockets of the other owners. They aren't going to turn that down to make JR happy. Not for a second.

If you are going to suck you may as well suck historically in my opinion. Maybe total complete embarrassment is the only way short of new ownership to get anything to significantly change. It may not do a damn bit of good but winning 60-65-70 games isn't going to do squat either is it?

This season was D.O.A. after three weeks. They aren't getting back into anything.

Pedro quoted as saying he won't commit to keeping Ramos around when Mendick comes off the IL. Says he's taking it day by day.

Correct.