Southwest Sider

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2020/03/03/white-sox-dallas-keuchel-leadership-25000-team-dinner/4937202002/

It's amazing to think we all of a sudden have a logjam of catchers...

Can't wait to get to a game down there.

You're not going to be asking EE, Eloy, Abreu, Grandal, Mazara and (hopefully) Moncada, Robert and the batting average champ to bunt. The cast sure has changed. I always thought that the Sox would bunt less when they had less Yolmers in the lineup.

I'd sign Puig just to see him fight the entire Royals roster the first time TA gets plunked.

Western burb pizza joints: Salerno's on the Fox, Riverside Pizza & Pub. Definitely two of the finest pizza joints you can find in the far west burbs that I am aware of. Don't get to the city as much as I'd like for food, but I've had awesome pizzas at Pequods and Piece. Been to Burts Place, too. Other random food: Heaven On Seven has some really good food. I was sad when their Naperville location closed. Also Popeye's chicken sandwich destroys Chick Fil A's and its not even close. I'll probably be making a list of must-go to places for city food based on the commentary in this thread.

A game against the Twins in 2003 the day the Sox acquired Robbie Alomar. Paul Konerko busted out of his season long slump with a game tying HR I believe in the late innings when we all thought this game was lost (because PK was hopeless). So he hits that HR and the place goes into a frenzy. So awesome. But it got even better. Later in the game, Big Frank was up and he just missed one, from my view it was barely foul. The place went nuts when he hit it, just to have it turn into a long foul ball. I don't remember how many pitches later it was, but he did it again, and we all exploded again not caring if the stupid umps would call it foul. It was fair that time!! What a great time. Also Opening Day 2005 was pretty sweet, especially in hindsight.

Finishing my Bachelors this semester and got super lucky and scored a job as business consultant already! Almost no commute, good benefits, good to great pay, leader who wants to take on a mentor role. I'm very excited! I was prepared for the long grind of interviewing and blasting resumes all over the place for months on end. Avoiding that is really awesome. ?

Alright, I expect you to "lose interest" in the playoffs should the Sox benefit from this change ever. Go ahead, try. The regular season will still mean something. You will usually need to win more games than to lose to earn a playoff chance. I'd argue it doesn't cheapen the regular season at all. More teams will decide to compete since there will be more spots available. What's cheapening the regular season right now is teams like the Royals, Tigers, Orioles and what was our beloved White Sox for several years giving away free wins to other teams by fielding garbage teams. In your opinion, what cheapens the regular season more? Teams who basically forfeit games or adding more playoff spots, giving incentive to teams to compete? I'd argue for the former. MLB is still different from other sports in so many ways. It is still great, it is still going to be great, and unless they add hoops or ice to the ballparks, will still be able to differentiate itself plenty from the NBA or NHL.

I guess I'm going to be the minority on this one. For every sub-500 team that would make the playoffs (and lose) in the new system, a 90+ win team under the current system misses their shot despite having a terrific year. To continue my argument that more teams would go for it under this new system, that would mean less overall rebuilds, which means less free wins for all other teams, including the super teams. Hypothetically, we would have yes, more middle of the pack teams, but less teams winning 100+. Sure, every couple of years some sub-500 team may sneak in but I don't find that to be as much as an embarrassment as having teams with 90 or more wins like the 2019 Indians or 2018 Rays denied a chance despite having good years, winning many more games than they lost. With that said, it's better for the fans, too. Playoff baseball is so much more interesting than regular season. The parks will be filled, and they will be boisterous. Every year, there will be more groups of fans happy that their team did well enough to have a chance and get to enjoy that excitement of playoff baseball instead of just the few elite and occasional lucky or hot run. Anyways, I'd be happy as a lamb for the Sox to get a shot should they have a less-than-stellar, but still good season and sneak into the 6 or 7 spot with a chance to win it all. The 2006 White Sox had a pretty good year - not superb, but with that record they deserved a shot at defending that title.

The current format minimizes what it is to be a regular season team. With playoff spots so hard to obtain, usually requiring excellent and lucky rebuilds to pull off, this is the strategy most teams must face in order to make it. More playoff spots will give teams far more incentive to compete every year rather than sucking for many years to eventually become elite. It's healthier for the game.

It sure is fun to think about it but man, the PR hit they're taking by just exploring trades is bad... to the Sox would be an epic fail for their PR.

Absolutely awful. A complete eyesore. The hat without the SOX inside of it is still an excellent hat and should not have been messed with. That is hot garbage.

Sure hope so. The next few weeks will tell us a lot. I will say, they definitely have a chance simply because their goaltending is solid.

I grew up on Franziskaner (and Hacker-Pschorr). Good beers for me to do some reminiscing. Basically any hefeweizen will help with that.

Made it over to Noon Whistle last night and got some of my Gummy Banter! Sadly they had sold out of Fluffy Gummy, but I did get to try it on tap!

I've tried a lot of beer in the past year, and got royally addicted to buying every DDH IPA I could get my hands on. It has given me the opportunity to taste some awesome beers, but there have been plenty of duds as well and frankly, I really can't afford to be dropping the coin I was dropping. Heard my Binny's has some Gummy Banter in stock, though... might have to go get some of that because that's one of my all time favorites from Noon Whistle.

If you ever get out near St. Charles, give Riverlands a try. They are at least on par with the breweries you listed. Actually, they do distro a little bit so maybe you can find some of their stuff floating around. St. Errant has also made some amazing brews.

If it's nearly as good as 805 then that would be excellent.

Boras'll get him a 3 year deal.

Swoop in with the best shittiest offer and add this stud to the mix. If we can win with a package centered around Madrigal and much lesser prospects, I'd be all over that. Fuck it. Arenado > Madrigal

Covey DFA: A+ Cishek signing: B

How much were bleachers and upper reserved tickets? Thanks.

Maybe we can throw a Nagy and a Robin in there as well?

This is really all we need to care about. If EE somehow falls off a cliff, you release him and yeah, some money was wasted but that's the risk you take. If EE is good, there's really nothing wrong with that as I'm confident they would find Collins ABs. Yeah, it wouldn't be 600 of them but enough to continue his learning.