ESPN Rumor Central

[fattyguy78]

"A higher payroll would be realistic if the revenues were there. I just don't buy the fact that JR should have to drastically increase payroll to cover for all the bad contracts the Sox have. It is not a perfect world and if mistakes are made, they can't always be corrected the easy way, by throwing money at them. "

 

 

I do agree with you....but it's not like we traded for these bad contracts, with the exception of Schoenweis, but we didn't even have to pick up his option, these bad contracts are of our own doing and if he shouldn't be held accountable for them then who should? It's certainly not my fault or yours, or anyone else's on this board that they signed them to s***ty contracts...I agree with the revenue part as well but no one is gonna want to come see them if they don't put a quality product on the field...it's a catch 22 Reinsdorf won't spend until we win, and we won't win until he spends

[Rex Hudler]

"A higher payroll would be realistic if the revenues were there. I just don't buy the fact that JR should have to drastically increase payroll to cover for all the bad contracts the Sox have. It is not a perfect world and if mistakes are made, they can't always be corrected the easy way, by throwing money at them. "

 

 

I do agree with you....but it's not like we traded for these bad contracts, with the exception of Schoenweis, but we didn't even have to pick up his option, these bad contracts are of our own doing and if he shouldn't be held accountable for them then who should?  It's certainly not my fault or yours, or anyone else's on this board that they signed them to s***ty contracts...I agree with the revenue part as well but no one is gonna want to come see them if they don't put a quality product on the field...it's a catch 22 Reinsdorf won't spend until we win, and we won't win until he spends

I agree with you that it is not the fans fault, but a good rule in business is not to throw good money after bad. One could argue that it is KW's fault. JR sets the budget and KW has to deal with it. If KW hamstrings the budget with bad contracts or with players who don't perform, he needs to find a way to fix it, through trades or finding a way to get better players to perform. Throwing money at the problem is not the answer.

 

The Sox took their budget from $31 million in 2000 to $65 million in 2001, more than doubling it. That didn't get us anywhere. If I were the owner, I'd be gunshy about just throwing money at problems too. Perhaps a different GM is the answer?

[Harry Chappas]

You need to increase payroll if your minor league system is not ready to produce. When you can get Migel Cabrerra and Josh Beckett for what it cost to get Tony Graffanino you can win. The Oakland A's have never gotten out of the first round of the playoffs because of salary. Where were the Angels last year? You need to spend money to be competitive. Every season someone will be a surprise but they have great young players and they can get on a roll. We do not have this luxury. I do not agree with paying Chan Ho Park $14M/yr. but I would Colon. We use money as our excuse.

[fattyguy78]

Perhaps a new GM is the answer but, I do like KW in the trade aspect exception of course in the Ritchie deal, but he definately has much to learn about using the farm sytem and about signing players to reasonable contracts. I guess wouldn't be so impatient or a such a negative feeling if I could just see that stuff was being fixed...the White Sox have barely made a blip on the radar screen with the Uribe/Politte deals...everything else has just been failed attempts at trades....to me, its just the fact that actions speak louder than words, and so far this offseason there has been nothing but talk and that's it...but i still do have faith in KW's ability to pull off a decent trade.

[Guest JimH]

This is the make or break year for KW, IMO, if he isn't already on an extremely short leash.

 

Not just because he's tried some things that didn't work (Todd Ritchie), but because there seems to be WAY too much chatter about communication problems, issues of "disrespect", the on-and-off Frank Thomas situation, coaching changes, and so on.

 

I still think the biggest fault of this organization is player development. Here we have a situation where they look at the second base situation. They say "we're gonna give Willie Harris a shot at it, we'll have Ozzie teach him to bunt, he'll be fine."

 

OK, you want to give your young players a shot, that's ok by me (although I'd have rather resigned Alomar).

 

But here's a young guy who's presumably being entrusted with the starting 2B job for a major market franchise, and we are just now gonna teach him to bunt?

 

Say what?

 

Why on earth wasn't that done last year in Charlotte? Wouldn't that be called good player personnel management and planning? They knew he needed to beef up that skill, they knew Alomar might not resign, I mean c'mon get with the program.

 

And then you've got the scouting director who gets demoted because he wanted to discipline one of his employees, but apparantly was told he couldn't ... what kind of s*** is that?

 

There are just too many goofy things happening that they try to sweep under the rug, but the people on this site are astute enough to see right through that crap.

 

They need to plan better, scout better, and develop players better. That's what the Twins do, and they haven't won a World Series lately but they've been in a better position to do so than the Sox.