Tony

I didn’t read the article as it was behind a paywall and I’m not giving any money, even a few dollars towards anything related to the Sox…but did the article get into the actual budget? Because you mention something important. The Sox may be operating with the same budget for “resources” but Getz simply invested that budget to other areas. Put more money into tech, but the scouting budget was gutted, as an example. Not saying 1. That’s the case or 2. The investment Getz is making isn’t the smart move, but I’d like to understand the picture better, because all these quotes came directly from the Sox, and you can say “We invested in ABC..” but not mention it came at the cost of XYZ.

I fear what I'm about to say is going to turn into another huge debate with some incredibly silly back and forth, but I guess we'll find out. When talking about the extensions around those three, I would hope there was a discussion at some point about the makeup of each player, and how they would "respond" to generational wealth before having really any ML experience to speak of. Each player is undoubtably different, but they do all share the unfortunate trait of appearing on the DL far more than the average player, and many of those appearances seemed to be related to muscle strains, pulls and soreness. I think it's fair to question some of the time missed by all three players, and wonder if it looks different if these guys are all playing for their first contract extension at the MLB level.

Not sure what is so hard to understand. The original reason this conversation even started was someone asking if other media members are reporting on this, which calls into question the accuracy of Fegan's report. As I said, in the post YOU quoted, we should believe what Fegan wrote as accurate information. They did make these investments, the things he reported on have happened. That is DIFFERENT than believing the investments that have been made will make an impact in wins and losses for the Sox. That is a totally different debate, and ones I have serious doubts about. But the information Fegan provided shouldn't be considered incorrect or not based on fact, simply because of his reputation at this point. He's a good reporter, I'm taking him at his word. We're not talking about his opinion.

It’s stupid at this point to be having a debate if we should take Fegan at his word, that really shouldn’t be a question at this point. He wrote a story with direct access to the team and provided fans with an update at what the FO is doing. There is a difference between believing what Fegan wrote and believing it’s going to work.

I guess I'm just going to repeat myself, but while those are all positives, and I'm glad Getz is taking those steps...But as a fan of the White Sox and Major League Baseball, I'm not going to be overly excited for my favorite team simply "catching up" to the rest of the league. We're celebrating something that should have been done decades ago. I'm not going to lower my expectations or hold the White Sox to a lesser standard because THEY are the ones responsible for trying to lower the bar so low.

1. It's a behind a paywall, I'm not a patreon member to Sox Machine. 2. Does it mention signing a 300 million dollar player? Because if it doesn't, that also goes into the proper resource allocation.

I think most people that follow the Sox closely are aware Getz has been making hires and doing things behind the scenes that have advanced the Sox out of 2002. Good. I also don’t give my kids extra credit for not doing drugs. Once again, it’s not that I don’t want to give Getz a fair shake. He should absolutely not have been given the role he was given based on past performance, and it was another lazy hire in the long line of lazy hires by the Reinsdorf family. I want Getz to be successful, I just have serious doubts he will be, because Jerry Reinsdorf is very bad at this. Additionally, I don’t believe Jerry will give Getz, or any GM, the proper resources to truly be “successful” against the rest of Major League Baseball.

Also should be noted there was absolutely zero projected lineup protection for him in 2024, and certainly won’t have any in 2025

I want my GM’s working with conviction. I always cite Ryan Pace trading for Trubisky. Terrible scouting, that move alone got him fired and it was deserved…BUT to this day I can appreciate a GM saying “We have identified the player we want to change our franchise and we’re going to get him, I’m staking my reputation on this, we’re taking a big swing.” When you’re caught in-between, very little good comes from that. Big swings cause large highs and lows, but as a fan I’m craving the highs, and you’re aren’t getting those highs by being cautious and hoping for the best.

From 2021-2023, Robert missed 36% of games due to injury. Let’s not pretend the risk of injury was something new to Robert in 2024. He had a fantastic 2023, a career year to this point. (Also the only season is 5 career seasons he’s had over 400 AB’s) As everyone is familiar with, Jerry said the reason they hired Getz is because they “didn’t want to waste a year.” Now, in theory that can be interpreted a few different ways (all of them look bad for the Sox) but best case, it was Jerry saying they wanted someone to come in with a plan right away and start executing on their long term vision. Given what we have seen from Getz thus far, this is a complete tear down to the studs. If that’s the case, and has been from the start, then trading Robert after 2023 shouldn’t have been out of the question, at all. There was always going to be an inherent risk in holding on to Robert, and given his history on the DL, as well as value being removed every year because of control. When you talk about “value” for Robert in the winter of 2023…you take the best offer you receive, if it meets your internal criteria for what would be needed. That’s up to the Sox to set. You may feel like it’s not “proper” value for what a player should have with 4 years of control, but that’s meaningless if you project he’ll never have as high of a value as he does in 2023. It’s simply about how they project Robert. If they truly believed Robert would put up better numbers in 2024 and 2025 than he did in 2023, along with being able to stay healthy for a full season…that seems like a risky proposition. This is a very long way of saying at this point…they gambled and lost on Robert. It could still be changed, but if you don’t feel like a package that was offered in December of 2023 will never be offered again for Robert, then they made a mistake.

You have a gross misunderstanding of what you think people believe. You’re crafting a narrative that fans just want the White Sox to spend. That isn’t true. You can keep saying it, but it doesn’t make it any more true. You are wrong. Additionally, if you believe Jerry Reinsdorf approved a $75 million dollar contract because he wanted to “make fans happy,” I have some ocean front property to sell you in Nebraska. Fans don’t want the Sox to spend just to spend. They want them to spend on difference makers. You asked if you wanted the Sox to overpay for Wheeler. My answer would be absolutely. Since he’s signed in Philly, he’s put up a 25.4 WAR. When the Sox missed on Wheeler, they pivoted to Keuchle. During his three years with the Sox, he put up 1.0 WAR. I would have loved to see some conviction from the Sox to get the desired target Hahn and Co. wanted, and have the backing of the front office. “Zach, if this takes $140 million to get you here and make your family happy, that’s what we’re going to do.” Yes, there is a point where dollars no longer makes sense and no one is justifying that, but if they felt strong about the prospects of Wheeler being a No. 1, then you do what it takes to push the core over the top that you just spent years building up. But we know that’s not what the Sox did, because they don’t really have an interest in doing what it takes to win consistently. It’s not in their DNA.

Why?

Just got this in my OOTP sim...not only would this be the worst news ever, but they nailed the profile 😂

We don't know (and won't ever fully know) how bad the coaching was on the OL vs. talent, but there is no question Wright will grade out even better with more talent and stability around him. OL obviously works as a unit, everyone has to be doing the right thing for it to work as intended. But at the very least, Wright seems like a guy you can count on at RT for the next 6-8 years and it's not a hole you need to fill. He stays healthy and that position should be set for the decade, which is a very nice thing to have.

They made the wrong choice, but I do think there was some logic to it. I still understand the idea of not wanting to bring his “baggage” in, but that was also an inditement of the Bears having a shitty/bad locker room, not being able to support him. Also, if they totally wiffed on who they picked instead, it would be worse, but Wright has graded out and played very well for the Bears, and without him, literally they would have to replace all 5 players on the OL this offseason. I'd still pick Carter over Wright in a re-draft, but it's not like they took Velus Jones Jr. instead of Carter.

No one is paying you to say anything. High level members of the front office, both in marketing and baseball ops visit the board frequently. If you don’t want to believe it, that’s your choice, but it would make you wrong.

They absolutely care about this message board. You have no idea what you’re talking about, but you established that a few thousand posts ago.

This is...a weird post. 1. Yoan Moncada was with the White Sox from 2017-2024, 8 seasons. Out of those 8 seasons, two of them would be considered "really good" and the other six can only be described as "really bad". His career WAR with the White Sox is 14.7 over 8 seasons. Not really what I'm looking for out of a 72 million dollar investment. 2. Incredibly small sample size, but in 31 PA's in the playoffs, he put up a .172/.226/.172 slash line, with no XBH. 3. Not sure how we really judge the "good teammate" comment. Were you in the lockerrrom and we just didn't know it? If you weren't, not really sure what you're basing that on. He didn't really leave his team in a good spot with his injury history (who remembers when he had his rehab halted last year for "anticipated soreness"?) 4/10/24 Abductor 6/15/23 Back 4/10/23 Back 8/25/22 Hamstring 7/6/22 Foot 6/17/22 Hamstring 5/28/22 Quad 4/7/22 Oblique 7/1/21 Hand 6/15/21 Illness 8/29/20 Leg 7/30/19 Hamstring 6/26/19 Knee 6/16/19 Back 6/10/19 Back 6/2/19 Leg Soreness 5/5/18 Left hamstring tightness 5/4/18 Left hamstring tightness 4/21/18 Sore left hamstring Not trying to be overly critical, and I have zero issues if you want to pull for him with LAA, that's cool. I just don't feel like his time should be remembered here fondly, he was a pretty massive disappointment and was a key reason why that "core' failed.

Here is the way I look at it. The Lions took Jahmyr Gibbs 12th overall in 2023. He's been fantastic, the combo of him and Monty has been great for Detroit. But if the Lions kept D'Andre Swift lets say, but still added Monty, running behind the same OL in Detroit the last two years, how big of a drop off do the Lions have? It costing them multiple games? I'm not really sure of that. Now do the same exercise with someone like Penei Sewell, who was drafted 7th overall by the Lions in 2021. Replace him as your RT with a mid level FA (as Swift was for the Bears at RB.) How big of a drop off do the Lions have? I would say much more significant than the first example I gave. DO NOT SPEND SIGNIFICANT DRAFT CAPITAL ON THE RB POSITION

There is simply no way AK believes this. A basic fan can understand why the premise is flawed. There is a reason it feels so similar to what other FO's have said that have run the Bulls and the Sox. It's coming from upstairs. As already mentioned in this thread, this idea of having no superstar but a deep 9-10 man roster of "good" has worked once in the last 25 years. It's an antiquated way of building a team. You know who's antiquated and stuck in the past? Dude was bringing up Branch Rickey in a press conference in 2023. Both the Sox and Bulls are stuck on a road to nowhere until the Reinsdorfs are removed from ownership. It's not anymore complicated than that.

Waited to beat the Packers and said ✌️

Seriously, having an extra third could really help, allows them to get a lot more flexible (obviously have to hit on the pick, which is easier said then done)

Believe I already posted it in this thread a few pages back, but I'll say it again because I really thought it was spot on. The RB position should be considered a "gasoline" position. They're an accelerant. The OL and scheme are the wood and matches. Gasoline doesn't start a campfire, but it can turn a simple campfire into an absolute blaze. The Bears are still short a few logs. Go build the campfire first, then go get your gasoline.

You sign Trey Smith, and add Kelvin Banks, you're looking at: LT: Braxton Jones LG: Kelvin Banks C : Coleman Shelton RG: Trey Smith RT: Darnell Wright I think you can possibly get by with Braxton for another year (but not crazy about it) but still need a C. And it's still not a deep line. If the right guys are there, I'd just much rather invest in another tackle or center rather than a luxury item like a 2nd round RB.

I agree, and if the Bears offered their No. 1 and a 2nd, I'm not totally convinced another team couldn't beat it. And that's without question as far I would go if I was the Bears, and I'm not sure I could stomach a first and a second. If they were one DE away from being a SB contender, I'm totally for it, but not with as many holes as they have on both sides of the ball. Doing that trade makes it nearly impossible to truly fix the OL this season, and if Caleb is the No. 1 priority, you can't make that deal.