he gone.

Teams like the White Sox, who don't stretch an extra $50mm over $10 years for generational talents don't trade for $18mm contracts to acquire maybe prospects. That being said I think the Sox would have benefited a lot from this mindset over the past 2-3 years. If you're tanking you should be tanking like NBA does, just stacking draft picks/prospects (understand you can't really stack draft picks in MLB). That being said I'm sure JR has better use for $18mm than giving it to one-year bad vet contracts. Also is an expensive way to acquire fringe talent.

I plan on hitting up Kimski more than ever. Love that bar/food. I'll still hit up Cork and Kerry. I'll hit up basically everything around the park and drink beforehand. I will not be purchasing food inside the park. And VERY limited beer. No need to support the machine.

I'll take those scout seats! haha. You brought up a good point.. I don't think I can sit through three hours of Benetti stand up each night trying to be upbeat about the team. I'll lose my mind.

Admins can move this over to Ticket Exchange. I selfishly put it here just because that forum gets like zero views. So I apologize for intentionally putting this in the wrong spot. This group of Sox fans are the diehards, so I just wanted to ask does anybody have any Scout Seat contacts? I like to pick a few games a year and do Scout Seats and generally if you pick the right game you can get tickets for $125-140. Specifically there are people who either eat their seats through companies, or sell on StubHub. I'd like to cut out the StubHub fees. For instance for a bunch of games there's an individual in Section 133 Row 7 who always sells April games for $149. Rather than give StubHub 10% from my end and 10% on their end, I'd love to establish a direct contact and purchase like 3-4 games for the season directly.

I voted for buy less tickets and merchandise. I know this is the most emotional time - right after we were lied to. After we were insulted by our front office. The fact that this franchise puts out a terrible product and then lies to us with a straight face acting like we're the dumb ones ... that's an issue. At the end of the day the Sox are just a product, and I as consumer have a choice. There are 30 teams, no reason I have to purchase this product. Unfortunately we are in a position where going to the Northside for a baseball game costs $100+ a ticket. So I will be showing up for Sox games. I likely will just buy $6 ticket and move around throughout the game. I will also support the local businesses around the park. It sucks for them that they're livelihoods are going to hurt while the Sox continue to mock our intelligence. But that's it for me. No season tickets. And to be honest this stings so much because until now I looked at baseball as a mental getaway. Sox games still had a boyish charm to them. They reminded me of fun. Of grilled onions. Of cold beer. Crack of a bat. But now? All I see is $$ signs. I see JR sitting on his yacht or in some mansion just smoking a fancy cigar. He's no fan of the Sox. He's a fan of a balance sheet and income statement. And realizing that the Sox are just a business is just sad. Deep down I knew it, but my true mental getaway for 162 times during the summer has now become a business to me. And for that reason I'm sad.

I know we are the diehards and we take this harder than most, but I do truly wonder if the sox realize the blowback they will receive. like will it show up in the turnstyles? Will it matter? Or is this just a small group of over excited fans like us that are pissed, but still will go to 5-10 games because we love baseball in general? All I can say is that it truly sucks. baseball is basically the only sport I follow balls to the wall.. and now taking my team away from me? it hurts. I know for me, if they landed one of the two big fish I was looking at a partial season ticket plan again.. now I'm just going to pick 2-3 Scout Seats games and enjoy my time, but can't say I care at all about the outcome of the game or even the sox at all. i'll be there for baseball, not the sox.

This is why I don't care how many times I say it & get roasted for it as being a negative nancy .. we will not be seriously competing for a WS title until at least 2022. I don't care if that is 7 years into a rebuild and that's too long.. it's just the truth. I follow enough baseball and enough prospects to know that the Astros and Cubs were the major exception to the rule. Most of the time you run into situations like this.. where Giolito and Moncada don't hit. Look back at top 100 prospects lists from 2014 and just see how many of those guys are making a championship impact. Take a step back... here's the recipe for success. 3-4 MAJOR PROSPECT HITS. This is hitting on Bregman, Bryant, Rizzo, Altuve, Springer, Correa. You need these guys and you need 3-4 of them on your team. 5-7 MAJOR PROSPECTS that turn into everyday contributing players: This is the Schwarbers, Happs, Tyler White, Lance McCullers of the world. In our case this is Lopez, Moncada, Anderson. I think we actually are trending fine in this direction. We have guys who can play baseball fine. The guys who do things right, but have warts. 2-3 MAJOR FREE AGENT OR TRADE GUYS: for the cubs this was Lester. This is Verlander. Cole. Chapman. Brantley. 2-3 MAJOR FREE AGENTS that turn out to be contributing players: Darvish, Heyward, Reddick, Gattis, Gurriel 3-5 MAJOR PROSPECTS at the ready so that you can either trade for your last pieces or fill in injuries: Kyle Tucker, Forest Whitley, Josh James. Cubs? They are a little barron - but this was Eloy in the past, Torres, etc. Hence, I think the Astros did their rebuild a bit better. So if you go down that list, and we're a bit early. 3-4 MAJOR PROSPECT HITS: we're confident or hopeful in Eloy. I'd say the same with Kopech. Outside of that? I'd say Madrigal or Moncada have the best shot, but think we're on the outside looking in on actual MAJOR SUPERSTAR hits. Robert? 5-7 MAJOR PROSPECTS that turn into every day guys. I think we are more than set with a pipeline of these guys. I think Robert will be Jorge Soler. just my opinion. I think Rutherford can be a nice 4 OF. I think Adolfo can be a nice UTIL of OF, 1B, DH, but not necessarily a starter. Lopez a nice #4 starter. Madrigal and Moncada should be able to man the IF. Anderson likewise. We have a plethora of just above replacement level players on the horizon that should give us 80 win seasons. 2-3 MAJOR FA or TRADES: Well.. we struck out on Machado, not going after Harper. No Arenado. I think it's pretty obvious we are not going to do well here. So it'd have to be trades. which means we need evne more depth 3-5 MAJOR PROSPECTS: to use as trade bait or keep the system going. We may think we have good depth now, but I don't think we're even close. If we were to be good in 2-3 years I don't think people would be knocking down the door for Steele Walker or Hansen or Burger. So as I see it... we have a TON of holes, a FO that doesn't and won't sign FA for the proper market value, and a FO that still doesn't have the depth to trade for star players when necessary. I see a bunch of 75-84 win seasons in our future ... I see something like 68 wins this year.... 74 next year .... 80 in 2021 ..... 85 in 2022. And frankly I don't have the faith in Hahn, JR, or Kenny to go out there and spend CORRECTLY on FA or make trades when necessary. or to draft well.

Don't worry guys, Hahn said the money would be spent! We just have to trust him. They seem to have a very good read on the market and what players are worth. That was all sarcasm fyi. Sox have no idea what's going on and are so out of tune that it's crazy. Brewers are out there paying Braun. Rockies Blackmon and Arenado. Padres Hosmer and Machado. Diamondbacks with Greinke. Royals with Duffy and Gordon. Tigers with Miggy. Baltimore with Chris Davis. Cinci with Votto. Hell, Miami paid Stanton even if Jeter traded him. Twins with Mauer. Seattle with Cano... and now Mets with Cano.. We're really just the Rays, A's and Pirates of the world. Don't forget though that the Rays even went to $100mm with Longoria. We are a BOTTOM OF THE BARREL TEAM. Mired in BOTTOM OF THE BARREL.

Oh look JR and Hahn waited around too long and now Machado at $30mm looks like a good deal & the price on Harper just went up to $36mm per year instead of maybe being able to get him at 10/320. Clowns. We're mired in mediocrity.

I mean, it took what, a week? for the Machado deal to look pretty darn good. Once these MLB redoes their players association deal you better believe they'll get a bigger piece of the pie earlier in their careers. Owners are making more than ever and players aren't going to stand by. We'll look back at Machado for $30mm and laugh at ourselves even harder while we have Mark Teahen or Brent Morel manning the 2025 hot corner. The Sox FO is just terrible & isn't going to change.

Cheering for another team while the Sox FO doesn't care about winning is not a big deal to me. It's a game at the end of the day. I enjoy baseball and just happen to live in Chicago. My ever living allegiance doesn't belong to the sox.

That was me.. but I'm bad at leadership and penmanship, haha. I'll pass the torch to an admin or whoever has some literature background. Would be a fun group project as a board to put together. And think it would be fun and interesting to start tagging sox writers like fegan, garfein, l. holmes etc as well as news outlets to drum up interest and coverage. I bet we could get a decent story out of the newspaper ad.

I too will limit my games. I'll end up going to the park because I love baseball and there's nothing better than the crack of the bat on a summer day. However I will be buying $6 tickets via StubHub and will be supporting local establishments around the park and not Jerry World inside. I'll pick my games based on the opposing teams.. should be nice to see the Astros come to town. Or watch Mike Trout, that's always a treat. Would be cool if the Sox ever got the opportunity to sign a superstar in his prime! Would love to see that on an up and coming team

Exactly! I'm not less of a fan of Sox because I won't watch this product. It's also likely I will come back to them in 2020 ... or more likely 2021 ... but I don't need to support the Sox and JR through ticket sales, concession sales, and TV eyeballs for revenue dollars when he's not supporting me as a fan in any way. If nobody shows up during the bad times it will show the fans won't stand for this poor product. that's how changes are made. You don't earn any "brownies patch" for watching this terrible team. I feel like it's a pride thing for a lot of fans.. that they can "suffer" through the bad and it makes winning all the sweeter.. and I probably shared that sentiment up until I moved to Houston. It's like being in a bad relationship and then being in a good one. You don't know how bad the bad relationship was until you're in a good one. Then you go, that's crazy that I stuck around that long. If something isn't making you happy, you change it. In this case, I get no good feelings when I think or watch the Sox, so therefore I'm changing it. I'll still be in the fray, but not to this unhealthy level where it determines my happiness on any given day.

When I lived in Houston I jumped on the Astros bandwagon.. it was good timing since it was their WC season. But I'll say after watching their games and then turning on a Sox game? It's like night and day. To go Altuve, Bregman, Springer, Correa, Brantley, Gurriel, Reddick, Tyler White, Chirinos??? good lord. That's fun. Every inning has a chance to be a big one. Then they have that pitching staff... and Josh James coming up. Whitley too. McCullers goes down for the year & they don't even miss a beat. Kyle Tucker coming up... amazing in AAA, not so hot in majors.. so what do they do? Sign Brantley! It's just fun to see. They also have Derek Fischer who's been a beast in AAA and hasn't panned out in the OF.. and tony kemp. Basically their backups and AAA OF would be our starting 3 OF's without a doubt (until Eloy). That's how you run a team. Instead the Sox run out Engel who we know in the best case scenario has no shot of being anything on an actual playoff team... Same goes for Delmonico and Palka and Yolmer and on and on and on. Basically what I'm saying is Sox fans should turn on some other baseball and see how fun it actually can be. I love watching teams with talent. I'm still a Sox fan deep down, but no reason to be subjected to bad baseball.

Also, who cares about Ron. He can watch whatever he wants... there's really nothing wrong with supporting the Cubs. As someone said, baseball is supposed ot be a break from real life.. bring back childhood memories, a break from reality. Fun. The Sox have brought me almost no joy, and mostly anger and frustration for the past 3-5 years. It's not how its supposed to be. I've never actually paid for a ticket to Wrigley, and likely wouldn't, but I'll throw on a few games this year over Sox games. I just don't care anymore. It's about good baseball. We're really cheering for the piece of laundry they're wearing, not anything else. If Rizzo was a Sox we'd love him. If Abreu was a Cub we'd hate him. We already hate JR and the front office... so we're just cheering for laundry. This year that laundry might be red and blue and I don't care. (That being said I'd cheer for the pirates, brewers, cards, etc. every day over them).

We should get a fund together, everybody chip in like $5 or whatever they can via GoFundMe and write an open letter to Reinsdorf in the Tribune or something. It'd be a grassroots SoxTalk moment. I have no idea how much an ad costs.. but you get the attention of the media, etc. Make it a big story. JR will likely never change, but it would be interesting to see the reaction. That point aside, I'll say as lifetime Sox fan like all of you, this is the lowest I've ever been. I am 32, so the 94 White Flag trade didn't sting, so this is the first real bad sting for me. It's not even that I think we can't still execute our plan without Machado, it still has a good chance, however how this whole thing was handled was as poor as possible in the best offseason possible. Everything lined up perfectly & then this. JR is going to JR. And I for one am not going to support it. Not like my $1,000 or whatever means a lot to JR or the Sox, but I'm done. I had bought 7,14,20 game plans from out of college and for basically the next 6-7 years. This year? No more. I plan on going to maybe 1-2 games this season via $6 stubhub tix and to eat and drink beforehand. I'll pick my games based on the other teams coming to town, not the Sox. I plan to watch very minimal games.. maybe a dozen tops rather than the 150 or so I used to. I'm voting with my eyeballs and $$. Even at that it wont matter... the marlins make a profit. It's all Tv contracts and revenue sharing. We're screwed regardless cause JR has no incentive to spend. I also am done with an allegiance to the Sox only. Life is too short to watch Adam Engel be rolled out to me for 162 games. Or watch Banuelos take the ball every fifth day. There are too many other talented teams out there for me to watch the Sox day in and day out. So you can call me a fair weather fan or whatever & that's fine. I'll check back in 2020 or 2021 if this rebuild goes well and I'll probably start going to the park and watching again, but until that time I'm going to watch Astros, Rockies and Cardinals games. Much more enjoyable to watch those teams play good baseball than it is to watch the trash they roll out to Sox fans while they collect their bottom line profit margins.

there is no doubt in my mind the Sox sign Machado in 2028 to a 2 year deal for like $25mm. This will all come full circle as a joke. Cant wait.

Honestly? Vote with your dollars. Don't show up to the park. Don't turn on the TV. Don't download podcasts. Don't buy beer at the park. Don't buy merchandise. I for one will be following the Rockies and Astros and Cardinals. I enjoy baseball and I don't need to be tied to terrible baseball and ownership anymore. I want to watch a good, fun product and a good fun product is not Adam Engel and Wellington Castillo and Manny Baneulos.

Thank god we're Sox fans and not a fan of a team with an actual shot at winning this year. Could you imagine being the Indians and having viable (not great, but certainly viable) OF options out there for super cheap and not bringing one in before Spring Training? The list could go on and on ... a team needing pitching and being too cheap to sign Keuchel or Gio... Every team could use a Marwin Gonzalez...nothing... I'd just be upset if I was a 84-90 win team that isn't giving a few extra dollars to acquire these FA in a subdued market. Plus we're getting to the point on pitchers if you don't bring them in soon they're going to have a rough start to the season. Happeneed with Alex Cobb last year and few others if I rmember right.

He does have a polished bat and think he'll blaze through the minors. April 2020 is kind of my expectation at this point. I'm aggressive on that stance though. I'm hoping to see him in AAA by ASB.

by ripping people off. which is what he's been doing to sox fans for 35 years. lacing his pockets while we get strung along. he's got it down to a science.

also that renteria quote makes no sense. why would moncada play 3rd this year, on opening day, when madrigal (the guess of why'd they move him) is down in AA ball? I can see mixing him in, but you don't make your team better by flipping Yolmer and Yoan in the IF permanently. This franchise......... Which is exactly why I don't trust them until they earn it.

Now in my context was a relative word. Now equals 2020 not 2022 in my context.

Also, not to add to that if JR signs Harper or Machado my expectations would be significantly more. I'd then take JR seriously that he wants to win, and win NOW. Which I think sets the wheels in motion to not have Manny Banuelos as your #5.