Two-Gun Pete

Thats what I was thinking, but I literally couldn't read what he wrote and make sense of it 100%.

Got a link to prove any of this? It goes without saying that the Pentagon has civilian strategists, as well as general staff types working on this sort of thing all the time.

Can you edit this, and re-submit? I think your phone posted something weird here.

If memory serves, I think I remember RH telling reporters that he'd "like to have Rodon back, but not at $18MM." I remember thinking that at ~$8MM/WAR, Rodon would only have to be a 2.2 WAR token to be worth his contract. IOW, Rodon could suffer a 50% loss in effectiveness, and still be worth the QO. (Yes, I believe that Rodon will be healthy enough during 2022 to attain 2.2 fWAR this season.) When Hahn said that about Rodon, I knew he was about to fuck up the offseason.

Now, thats not fair. Most of the gerontocracy that is Chicago's baseball media are either asleep, or are actively rooting for their scrubs from the press box. Take useless piece of shit Bruce Levine, for example. He first said that the SOX "checked in on Semien," before pivoting to "Linking the SOX to Conforto," before finally bullshitting his way to hypothesize about a "SOX trade with Oakland." None of that came to pass, and none of it ever WAS going to come to pass. And he knew it. The overwhelming majority of the baseball-covering media in Chicago either actively sucks balls, or sucks the scrubs' balls, or both. To your point, the baseball media have basically let KW/RH off scot-free on all their various fuckups over the years. And so, its a fools errand to wish that they'd call RH put for being incompetent and stupid and weak and overmatched now. Why do you expect any different? They're mostly cheering for the scrubs in the press box. Therefore, its incumbent on you the fan to put a target on RH's/KW's/JR'S stupidity and incompetence. Don't accept their work as being "good enough." And don't accept the baseball media's bullshit.

And from The Yahoo Link You Posted Earlier: ..."other leagues have similar agreements..." The Reuters link you shared also emphasized the territorial rights agreement moreso than the antitrust protection. It was speculated upon by the author, but the key phrase to the piece was the one in your quoted link.

I did read that, and the author has one view on territorial rights and teams moving. But, many other businesses without antitrust protection have territorial rights as an internal agreement. Your Allstate and State Farm agents agree to territorial rights when they sign on. (When one of their recruiters calls me from time to time, its the same shtick.) I believe Edward Jones does as well, or at least they did a few years ago. McDonald's and other fast food franchisees agree to territorial rights within their chains. Even dialysis clinics have territorial rights negotiated with the state of Illinois department of public health, and with other states as well. When one of the publicly traded dialysis companies wants to open a new clinic, they have to go before the state, and prove that they're about to max out their capacity, and so, a new clinic is needed. (This is why Waukegan has more dialysis clinics than McDonald's.) None of these businesses have antitrust exemptions, yet all (and many others) have internal territorial rights agreements, or even, territorial rights negotiated with the individual states. In sum, killing the antitrust exemption would do little to impact franchise mobility within their leagues. But it WOULD enable MLB's books to be open, as part of a CBA.

And this is fair. But, I'm not seeing an insult in me snickering at his silly position that antitrust protection would substantially change MLB league rules, and thus, a team'srisk of moving. That said, exactly none of your post has anything to do with the antitrust exemption. Territorial rights are internal agreements within the MLB ownership group. Professional teams move, whether their leagues have antitrust protection or not. MLB teams have moved, WITH MLB having antitrust protection. NFL, NBA, NHL teams have moved without it. Thus, antitrust protection has nothing to do with a team moving. As it pertains to our White Sox, where would they even want to move? Every other open market is smaller, and thus, has lower profit potential than Chicago, full stop. That JR hasn't fully exploited the nation's 3rd largest market is fully on him and his org's silly operations.

I was just about to post the same thing. Do you have the link, though? I will agree with Chicago White Sox that there are a handful of players that have not-insignificant injury histories that a MORE prudent GM would have planned for. Now, add in the occasional square peg being forced into a round hole (Vaughn and Sheets). And add in your geezing geezers in the roster (Abreu, Harrison, Lynn, Keuchel, Kelly), and now you've got a risk factor that a competent FO really shouldn't ignore. But, to CWS' point, those bozos ARE ignoring this very real risk.

Nah, don't worry about this one. Once Harrison is DFA (think Memorial Day-ish) RH can either putz around, then trade for another guy in decline, or get another RP we don't need. Then, at year's end, some posters will b**** and complain as to why this team can't sign the next top FA, as geezing geezer Harrison continues to get paid. The cycle of White Sox.

Yeah, that antitrust protection saved the Expos from moving, just like it saved the Milwaukee Braves and the Seattle pilots. Dude, you're wrong. No need to insist on defending something that's just silly at it's core. (snicker) "MLB approval" and "antitrust protection" being reasons for a team not to move.... STRETCH!!!

Yeah, pretending that the antitrust exemption serves any purpose to protect fanbases is moronic. All it does is to help make rich assholes richer.

This. Before the stupid Kimbrel trade, I couldn't believe that this FO could have been that stupid to trade for a piece they didn't need. When that trade went down, I couldn't believe they traded from the MLB roster to get him. Like or hate Madrigal, even if he's just a 2-ish fWAR token, he comes with a league minimum salary. Harrison will be lucky to put up 2-ish fWAR, while consuming $5.5MM in CBT space. More likely, geezimg geezer Harrison will be DFA, just like Eaton or Rollins before him; his salary will linger on the books like an incurable STD. And those morons never fucking learn anyfuckingthing. Overpaying for garbage, plus overallocation into RPs is why we can't have nice things. Like Semien or Conforto or Suzuki.

Wait, didn't MLB have an anti-trust exemption when JR threatened to move to Tampa? Isn't there NOW a shitty, dated turd of a stadium in Tampa NOW, because of JR'S threat to move there? Isn't there NOW a crappy (for IL taxpayers) stadium under JR'S control that was built while MLB enjoyed the antitrust exemption? Sorry, but you're flat-out wrong on this issue, full stop.

WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT DID YOU DO WITH CHICAGO WHITE SOX????????? That said, you lit me up all offseason for posting some of the same things. I truly would have preferred to be eating crow, and to be singing Rick Hahn's praises for doing the right things. Its simply more fun to have an organization that's doing the right things, through good process and good outcomes. I hope that we're wrong, and that RH was right to place his faith in a series of unlikely outcomes. I hope that Velasquez is a golden god, and that Harrison either takes a fuckton of roids. or finds the fountain of youth. I hope that Vaughn makes a quantum leap in performance, and that we have no injuries from our top guys. I hope that Lynn and Keuchel kick Father Time's ass, and we're all laughing our way to the WS. Back in '05, I called my dad right after the last out to celebrate our victory. I told him, "I never thought I'd live to see this!" He told me, "Neither did I!" He's now 86, going on 87. The fucking COVID pandemic took away our chance to take him to the park for his 85th birthday. When I see the impossibly stupid shit this FO does, and I get riled up, I think about my dad, and him taking me to old comiskey when I was a kid. I pray he lives to see another WS win.

I'm trying to give ptatc the benefit of a fair reply to his query.

Thank you for agreeing with me. And I agree with you: Counting stats do favor the players with greater useage. That means that everyday players > RPs, and SPs > RPs. Also, WAR corrects for leverage, and gives "extra credit" to RPs to account for leverage. Despite this "extra credit," Leury Garcia produced more WAR than all but 10 RPs. Again, this means that everyday players > RPs. Which meant that the RFer is/was more important to the White Sox than yet another aging, expensive 1 IP-type guy.

Wait, you just posted that the more pitches a pitcher throws, the more important he is. And wouldn't a player that can contribute both offensively and defensively have "a greater effect on the game" than one who only contributes in run prevention at only 1 IP/game? Look, no offense, but your (and RH's) position that RPs > SPs or position players is flat-out wrong. By extension, it was wrong to prioritize the least of our issues and the least impactful part of the game. Your defense of this strategy is impressive, but is ill-placed.

Sure. And you claim that position players are only involved in 4-5 PAs/game. What about the rest of their games? We'll turn back to that valued member of the White Sox, Leury Garcia: In 2021, in addition to his 454 PAs on offense, he also had 189 put outs, and 120 assists. IOW, he contributed 103 IP out-equivalents in outs recorded. He also appeared on base 147 times, hit 5 HR, and stole 6 bases. IOW, while his numbers may be middling in isolation, he contributed offensively and defensively. A RP can only contribute in run prevention, unless your manager stupidly doesn't know the rules of the game, and puts the expensive closer on to run in the 10th inning.

Oh, I'm sorry. Ill rephrase: So you believe that a walk machine like Reylo is more important than an efficient Mark Buerhle? (Hint: Are games measured by "pitches thrown," or are the measured by "PAs" or "outs?")

And, you may research that, and report back findings. It would be helpful.

So you believe that a walk machine like ReyLo is more valuable than an efficient Mark Buehrle? (Hint: are games measured by "pitches thrown," or are they measured by "PAs" or "outs?")

Usage alone dictates that SPs > RPs, and position players > RPs. That there were bigger holes in the rotation and lineup, as well as more injury risk than in the pen should have made clear what the priorities should be. After all, the "prudent man" principle, and common sense so dictates this.

You can search for that on fangraphs yourself, but yes, they've refined their formulai over the years.

Thank you for agreeing with me. Player usage, and the concomitant % of player involvement in a game is not the # of pitches thrown. It is the PA, and the impact a player has on the outcome of a PA that leads to the overall outcome of a game. Because position players have so much more involvement than RPs, it was foolish to prioritize RPs over position players, full stop.