Interesting to look at this assessment coming into 09

[caulfield12]

#17: Chicago White Sox (from fangraphs.com)

 

Ownership: B

 

Jerry Reinsdorf has a reputation for being a lot of things, but most of those are leftover from his more aggressive days in the 1990s. Of late, he’s settled into more of a bankroll position, handing the White Sox enough cash to be an upper echelon team in payroll over the last five years. While they built the worst of the new stadiums, it still generates a solid amount of revenue, and the White Sox shouldn’t have too many problems maintaining a high level of payroll for the foreseeable future.

 

Front Office: B-

 

What can you say about Kenny Williams. He gets into public feuds with his manager, former players, media members, scouts… let’s just say he’s a challenge to work with. And, early in his career as a GM, he did some really dumb things. But he’s grown, he’s adapted, and now he’s more like that obsessive fantasy league owner who won’t stop trading until he has a good team again. He stole Carlos Quentin from the D’Backs and John Danks from the Rangers. He built a bullpen out of waiver claims like Bobby Jenks and Matt Thornton. He got bargains with veteran sluggers Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye (the first contract, not the second one). He’s always making moves to try and make the club better, and while he misses some, he’s shown a knack for snagging talent at the right time and putting together consistently good squads. Plus, he’s stayed somewhat sane while dealing with Ozzie Guillen on a daily basis, so he gets a few extra credit points.

 

Major League Talent: C+

 

Are they contending with an aging core (Thome, Dye, Konerko, Pierzynski, Contreras, Colon, even Buehrle to an extent) or rebuilding with a youth movement (Ramirez, Fields, Quentin, Danks, and Floyd)? Leave it to Kenny Williams to try both simultaneously. There’s some good young players in place, but the teams fortunes are still heavily tied to the aging stars of yesterday. On the positive side, most of those players are still contributors, and the White Sox should have enough firepower to keep up in the AL Central this year, providing they can fix their two gaping holes – center field and second base. With competent major league players in those spots, they’ll be a quality team this year, and the future salary obligations take a huge dive after the year ends, which should allow Williams to surround the young talent with some more productive high paid players.

 

Minor League Talent: C

 

Gordon Beckham’s move to second base gives him a quick path to the major leagues, and the offense is there for him to be an all-star caliber player at the keystone for years to come. Aaron Poreda is actually one of the more underrated arms in the minors, I think – his secondary stuff needs work, but his combination of velocity, sink, and command can get him through while his slider catches up to his fastball. After those two, it gets a little more tricky – Brandon Allen and Dayan Viciedo both offer intriguing power bats, but neither of them are much defensively, so where they fit into a future line-up is in question. Tyler Flowers was a nice pickup in the Javier Vazquez trade, and Jordan Danks and John Shelby provide some position player depth. It’s not a great system, but it’s not nearly as bad as most people think.

 

Overall: C+

 

Hard to believe that Jerry Reinsdorf is the strength of the organization, but there you go. The team has enough resources to consistently compete for high salaried players, and Kenny Williams has shown an aptitude for picking up enough good, cheap role players to surround his core and make consistent runs at playoff spots. The roster is in transition, but they should be able to avoid a total rebuild and win while reloading. They make some strange moves, but overall, the package mostly works. It could improved upon, but it’s not a bad time to be a White Sox fan.

 

 

 

Down to a 35-36% chance to win the ALCD, with DET in the 53-54% range now (www.coolstandings.com)....these last three weeks have put a huge dent in our chances.

Edited August 22, 2009 by caulfield12

[WCSox]

Since when was Reinsdorf "more aggressive" in the '90s? What a poorly-written and factually-incorrect piece of crap.

 

Edited August 22, 2009 by WCSox

[chisoxt]

Since when was Reinsdorf "more aggressive" in the '90s? What a poorly-written and factually-incorrect piece of crap.

Really...I thought that ownership operated very conservatively in the nineties, and in fact, if it had been more aggresive, may have had more to show than one division title

[clyons]

Since when was Reinsdorf "more aggressive" in the '90s? What a poorly-written and factually-incorrect piece of crap.

 

The Albert Belle signing was VERY aggressive. The Bo Jackson signing was mildly so. Everything else that decade, meh.

[southsidepride15]

Not far off IMO. And as he says...it's still "not a bad time to be Sox fan". I'm not happy about tonight's performance but something about this upcoming road trip actually turns me on. Play your best ball for the next few weeks or pack it in!

[Chet Lemon]

#17: Chicago White Sox (from fangraphs.com)

 

He built a bullpen out of waiver claims like Bobby Jenks and Matt Thornton.

 

False. Matt Thornton was acquired in a trade.

[Dick Allen]

The Albert Belle signing was VERY aggressive. The Bo Jackson signing was mildly so. Everything else that decade, meh.

Earlier in the 90's they locked up Frank Thomas, traded for Raines and Sax, got Belcher in a deadline deal, sign Julio Franco, but somewhere along the way Schueler became very gunshy.

[southsider2k5]

Ownership: B

 

Jerry Reinsdorf has a reputation for being a lot of things, but most of those are leftover from his more aggressive days in the 1990s. Of late, he’s settled into more of a bankroll position, handing the White Sox enough cash to be an upper echelon team in payroll over the last five years. While they built the worst of the new stadiums, it still generates a solid amount of revenue, and the White Sox shouldn’t have too many problems maintaining a high level of payroll for the foreseeable future.

 

Yeah, they totally miss the improvements made in the stadium over the last 7 years.

[WilliamTell]

The Albert Belle signing was VERY aggressive. The Bo Jackson signing was mildly so. Everything else that decade, meh.

 

Danny Tartabull and Ruben Sierra were EXTREMELY agressive too......................or not.

[Soxbadger]

What about Ellis burks!

 

Jamie Navarro

 

 

I basically lost any respect I had for fan graphs with the first sentence. I guess in their universe the Sox were more aggressive pre2003

 

I dont know if the ywere watching another Sox team, but since fangraphs said its true it must be so.

 

End opinion, what a joke.

[ptatc]

Since when was Reinsdorf "more aggressive" in the '90s? What a poorly-written and factually-incorrect piece of crap.

 

I think that is in reference to the supposed involvement in MLB management. Things such as pushing for pay-for -play contracts, pushing for the mid-90's strike, concsulting with Selig on breaking the union.....etc.

 

I don't think it is reference to being aggressive with the Sox but the overall landscape of baseball. It's this reputation that caused players like Schilling to say he would never play for him.

[Dick Allen]

Some of their "facts" are wrong, but their final grade seems pretty accurate.

[WCSox]

Some of their "facts" are wrong, but their final grade seems pretty accurate.

 

Their Front Office grade (B-) is ridiculously low.

 

[southsider2k5]

Their Front Office grade (B-) is ridiculously low.

 

Really, what does it take to get an A?

[SI1020]

I thought the assessment of Kenny Williams was pretty accurate, but I think by this time he's earned better than a B-. I'd give him a B or B+. I give him an A+ for boldness and guts.

[Quin]

Kenny can't get higher than a B+

 

Because it stands for Big Balls.

[caulfield12]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

 

And the White Sox are now 17th in attendance, too, and closing in on SEA for 16th.

 

Let's hope the next ten days don't knock us out of it, or the attendance down the stretch will really nosedive.

 

I think we have the Red Sox, though, for one home series, so that will do really well attendance-wise no matter what the Sox are doing on the field.

[ILMOU]

Really, what does it take to get an A?

 

The fact that it doesn't even mention the Floyd heist tells me they're not giving KW a fair shake. I'd like to see the GM's they gave higher grades to.