Tony

You're really bad at this.

I mean the Bears have pretty much painted themselves into a corner, no? You just restructured the Mack contract and I think I saw on PFF tonight that it indicates there is no way you can trade Mack now after doing that sort of deal. You franchised ARob. You re-worked other deals to give yourself more cap room....you can’t do all that and just bring back Foles. It doesn’t make sense.

His entry into the team and getting back in the dugout after all these years away was going to be one of the biggest hurdles. It’s only Spring, but the comments from the players are very encouraging and if they are “good” with Tony....I don’t a ton of us were really ever concerned with the X’s and O’s. Still a ways to go, but if this team does what it’s supposed to, and Katz comes even remotely close to the expectations that have been placed on him....this all could work pretty well.

Solid read https://theathletic.com/2448040/2021/03/14/tony-la-russa-wants-his-white-sox-to-determine-their-own-fate-it-is-about-the-players/

Anyone talking about Cease and Keuchle? Where are these guys?

Here is your answer. “But the rise of analytics also has resulted in another massive shift: an influx of white, male graduates of Ivy League schools and other prestigious universities into teams' front offices. In a data analysis conducted by ESPN, the percentage of Ivy League graduates holding an organization's top baseball operations decision-making position -- which, depending on the club, could be its president, vice president or general manager -- has risen from just 3% in 2001 to 43% today; while the percentage of graduates from U.S. News & World Report's list of the top 25 colleges -- both universities and liberal arts schools -- holding the same positions has risen from 24% to 67%. This rise coincides with a drop in former players running front offices over the same period, from 37% to 20%, while the percentage of minorities running front offices has risen, but from just 3% to 10%. Additionally, no woman holds the top baseball operations position for any of the 30 major league clubs.” https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29369890/inside-rise-mlb-ivy-league-culture-stunning-numbers-question-next Manfred is simply an extension of what has been happening across MLB over the last 15 years.

He’s absolutely exhausting to listen to. I have no idea how a Front Office put up with him for two decades + Man alive..

From a semantics standpoint you aren’t wrong, but I think the poster was probably talking about starts. Maybe PA’s are the better indicator, but the point sort of remains that Leury is a valuable piece when used right. But it should be in somewhere small doses...him starting at any position isn’t a good thing for this team.

A rational human would say May. A lot of Soxtalk would say tomorrow.

Well that was very enjoyable.

I think Jed has worked with Theo long enough, and is a smart enough guy not to need him around for another year. They've been together for going on two decades.

I think similar to the Bears in 85.......the Cubs overall are disappointed the rebuild only netted them 1 World Series, but I still believe when you look at what they accomplished from 2015-2020, they had a very successful window. They captured a World Series, and went to three League Championship series. That's a very good team. Would they have liked for it to be longer? At least another World Series appearance in there? For sure. And Theo made some bad trades. Eloy and Cease for Q being on top of the list. Heyward and Chatwood were pretty awful signings. Schwarber didn't develop like they thought. And the biggest issue is they can't develop starting pitching. Like, they are really really awful at it. So you add those things up..that's how a window closes.

The goal is obviously to win consistently and while you're winning draft well and keep the train moving with waves and waves of prospects......it just doesn't seem that easy for teams and most organizations can't walk and chew gum at the same time. When you're winning, it seems like most of the time the farm system of those teams suck.....either because of low draft position or trading of prospects for "win now" players. So I do think this will be the trend for the foreseeable future. I think the only thing that changes the formula is if the CBA really gets changed next time around.

I know this is stupid and I’m on the minority here... but I really think Pace would rather not go down the Watson road as the QB that replaces Mitch. He’ll be giving up a ton of capital to replace a failed No. 1 pick when he could have just drafted Watson. Yes, the Bears will get their QB 1 but you know that narrative is going to be out there. With Russ...that doesn’t exist. On top of it, you have a superstar QB that seemingly wants to come to Chicago. I don’t know, I think the Bears get crazy and do it.

I kind of feel like the Bears are going to end up with Russ. Don’t know why, feel like they are going to pull it off.

I put 2006 on the shoulders of Mark Buehrle and Ozzie. For whatever reason, Buehrle was just terrible that year and could never put it together. The entire starting staff was a disappointment that year but if he could have had a normal Buehrle year, they probably win 2-3 more games. Second, the way CF was handled was just a joke, and really believe the play of Mackowiak and the drama surrounding the CF position all season cost them significantly as well. That team was loaded on paper, couldn't put it together.

I believe Kap may have mentioned that both teams wanted 30%, Lightfoot came back with 20%, but that 30% could be worked in pretty quickly.

Heard Kap say on the radio today that his source said they are doing 20% to start the season, but if the first homestand goes well and there isn't some sort of outbreak, 30% will happen for the next homestand. Kap had this story last week actually so he clearly has a good source....so that's a positive as well.

Absolutely, although I do think (and maybe I'm being incredibly naive) that Theo knew 2020 was going to start them rebuilding/retooling and he knew he wasn't going to be there after 2020, and didn't feel right making those decisions when he wasn't going to be here. You mine as well let the guy who is going to see this through (Jed) make those calls and step to the side. I'm also a big Theo guy so I'm biased. Either way, we're basically saying the same thing. I think this was going to happen to the Cubs with out without COVID, but once the pandemic hit, it made it an open and shut case for the Cubs. The window was officially closed, time to start over.

Yep, they didn't even announce single-game tickets and when they would be on sale for the public.

This is will be my last post on the matter because it's dragging down the board and quite frankly you aren't worth the time. The one thing you've never understood and most likely never will is the proper definition of what "truth" is. Truth is objective, where you see it as subjective. "Your truth" is simply your opinion. Your opinion on something doesn't make it true, however much you'd like it to be. What you are doing is offering an opinion. That's when someone has a viewpoint on something that may or not be based in fact, but they hold it to be true to themselves. People can have LOTS of opinions, and often times people debate those opinions. That's called a conversation. Are we learning anything yet? Still with me? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter. You're always going to be the way you are. The sad part is, as I described with another poster a few days ago....is you spend hours on this site, post after post either correcting people who don't share your same opinion, or you're complaining about how ownership didn't do what you wanted, how this team isn't going to be as good as people think, and just generally how unhappy you are. The saddest thing we've dealt with people like you on this board before. Many times. You're all the same. It's SO important for you to be right, you'll activity root for the "team you love" to fail so you can get in front of your computer and say "See, I told you so! I was right all along!" And when the team is going well, we either won't see you around or you'll drop in with "Yeah but it's a small sample size" or "We'll see if it lasts the whole season." because it just crushes you when the "truth and logic" you spewed all those months turned out to be nothing more than an uneducated opinion. I'm fine ending the conversation because at the end of this....I'm excited the weather is changing and baseball is around the corner and the team I root for has one of the better rosters in baseball. I'm going to find a lot of enjoyment out of this season. And I'll know on the other end of the spectrum, you'll be hate-watching the White Sox, just rooting for a Liam Hendricks blown save so you can rush the computer and tell everyone how smart you are. I don't envy you. I feel bad for you.

I feel like it's going to be hard to judge the overall win total because unless they have a big lead in the standings by the Trade Deadline, which seems very unlikely, they aren't going to be buyers and should absolutely be sellers. The question will be how aggressive they get selling. If they want to really "start over" things could get UGLY in August and September for them.

By calling you an asshole and saying you're too stupid to argue with, in my opinion....is acknowledging the "logical argument" you were trying to make. I definitely understood, and agreed with what that poster was saying.

I think he can be an MLB manager again and I think he did some good things while here. I also think he lacks a killer instinct. Or even a winning instinct. He doesn’t manage to win. He managed to play for the bigger picture. There is a time and place for that. The 2021 White Sox weren’t it.