The problem is talent

[dmbjeff]

Last year's team was awful, outside of Eaton, Abreu and Melky. They had 6 spots they had to improve in. They went and got Frazier and he has been an improvement over last year by a huge amount despite his recent struggles. Lawrie has also been an upgrade although he too has struggled lately. Every other position, SS, DH, RF, C...that's 4 spots of no upgrade.

 

DH is your biggest glaring issue. That needs to be a 30 HR, 90 RBI guy in that spot. Instead we get Avi. He is just brutal. Everyone on this board wanted him gone but, nope, he is still here. I know the LaRoche thing screwed things up a bit but he was awful in his own right.

 

SS, we went from bad Alexei to even worse Rollins. Just an awful, short sighted move. Saladino should have been given the job. Despite Saladino not being a great hitter, he was far better defensively and a rare bright spot last season after his call up because of his glove. At worse, let Saladino play until Anderson was ready. Instead, $2 million wasted on Rollins.

 

C, we go from Flowers to Avila/Navarro. Mediocrity to more mediocrity. At least Flowers was good defensively.

 

RF, we get rid of Avi's awful glove but then get Austin Jackson who good defensively has been pretty bad at the plate. Yeah I know Jackson is in CF and Eaton in RF, but Jackson was Avi's replacement. Jackson is a slight upgrade over Avi due to D, but really he should be a 4th OF on a good team like he was last year for the Cubs.

 

SO in summary, needing upgrade at 6 spots and we only upgrade at 2. That still means almost half of your lineup is still garbage.

 

There is just very little player development with positional players. I am really hoping Anderson develops and turns into something special. Until they start to develop their own talent, this will just continue on and on. You can rarely fill from dumpster diving and hope it works out. In 2005 they sort of did that letting Maggs and Lee go but they at least got competent talent back in return with Pods, AJ, Dye, Iguchi, Everett. It's like just because it worked once, it will work again. That team still developed their own guys(Crede, Rowand) or got guys super young from other teams and developed them(Uribe, Konerko) Unfortunately, they still need to develop and that's something they are awful at positionally.

[COACH612]

My son and I are going to the Sox game this Saturday. There is no way I am paying $40.00 per ticket. I can go on stubhub and get $7.00 and move to where we want.

 

That's how bad the Sox are. No one comes.

Why should they?

[daggins]

They can scout and develop pitching at the amateur level pretty well. They seem to have a lot of problems scouting guys already in the MLB, on all sides (pitching, hitting, defense). This extends to scouting other team's players for advance planning. They also have a real problem developing hitters, though that could be changing (Thompson, Semien, Anderson) even if those guys are elsewhere.

 

The problem is talent, yes, but after such a prolonged streak of mediocrity, you have to say the problem is more with talent evaluation and the front office than with the guys on the field. Fire the manager, sure. Robin contributes very little. Fire the GM, sure. Hahn has made logical moves that haven't panned out, and the Shields trade is a fireable offense.

 

But would that really change anything? It seems like they have to completely redo their player evaluation systems, if indeed they have an organized system, due to repeated failure. That is not a simple task.

[COACH612]

Can Steve Stone still pitch?

 

[caulfield12]

Last year's team was awful, outside of Eaton, Abreu and Melky. They had 6 spots they had to improve in. They went and got Frazier and he has been an improvement over last year by a huge amount despite his recent struggles. Lawrie has also been an upgrade although he too has struggled lately. Every other position, SS, DH, RF, C...that's 4 spots of no upgrade.

 

DH is your biggest glaring issue. That needs to be a 30 HR, 90 RBI guy in that spot. Instead we get Avi. He is just brutal. Everyone on this board wanted him gone but, nope, he is still here. I know the LaRoche thing screwed things up a bit but he was awful in his own right.

 

SS, we went from bad Alexei to even worse Rollins. Just an awful, short sighted move. Saladino should have been given the job. Despite Saladino not being a great hitter, he was far better defensively and a rare bright spot last season after his call up because of his glove. At worse, let Saladino play until Anderson was ready. Instead, $2 million wasted on Rollins.

 

C, we go from Flowers to Avila/Navarro. Mediocrity to more mediocrity. At least Flowers was good defensively.

 

RF, we get rid of Avi's awful glove but then get Austin Jackson who good defensively has been pretty bad at the plate. Yeah I know Jackson is in CF and Eaton in RF, but Jackson was Avi's replacement. Jackson is a slight upgrade over Avi due to D, but really he should be a 4th OF on a good team like he was last year for the Cubs.

 

SO in summary, needing upgrade at 6 spots and we only upgrade at 2. That still means almost half of your lineup is still garbage.

 

There is just very little player development with positional players. I am really hoping Anderson develops and turns into something special. Until they start to develop their own talent, this will just continue on and on. You can rarely fill from dumpster diving and hope it works out. In 2005 they sort of did that letting Maggs and Lee go but they at least got competent talent back in return with Pods, AJ, Dye, Iguchi, Everett. It's like just because it worked once, it will work again. That team still developed their own guys(Crede, Rowand) or got guys super young from other teams and developed them(Uribe, Konerko) Unfortunately, they still need to develop and that's something they are awful at positionally.

 

Melky and Eaton being terrible last year during the first two months were key factors in the Sox getting buried early.

 

While Melky was pretty good for the remainder of the year, it didn't really matter as there were too many teams fighting in the WC space and then Shark just decided to go south after the trade deadline...and that was all she wrote.

 

Of course, when we FINALLY get off to a good start, the first decent one since 2006/2008, we get completely buried in May/June.

Edited June 20, 2016 by caulfield12

[COACH612]

Unless I am mistaken, the Cards seem to be in the mix every year. They develop within. How hard would it be for the WS to do that? Maybe the firing needs to not be all Ventura, but with the talent scouts and the minor league coaches.

 

 

[caulfield12]

St. Louis and the Cubs definitely have the blueprint for success...although the Cubs are MUCH MUCH more difficult to copy/emulate.

 

Have you ever been to Busch Stadium and seen all the pennants/flags/retired or HOF numbers? They're not the Yankees, but that organization has been the most successful (taking into consideration payroll/ROI) in the majors since maybe the early 1980's. You could make an argument for the Red Sox, too, and the Braves, but the Cardinals don't have all those revenue drivers the East and West Coast teams enjoy...especially broadcast rights.

 

It's always going to be harder for the Midwest/Rust Belt teams, but the Twins (2002-2010) and now the Royals have had their runs too, the Indians in the mid 90's through 2001. Tigers from 2006-2014. Pirates again in the last decade. Not impossible, just difficult.

 

The Reds and the Brewers are probably the ones with the most in common with the White Sox right now. Some successful seasons, generally profitable, but never a really prolonged run of winning. The Mariners would be another good comp, although they're able to spend a lot more money because of their new deal with ROOT Sports.

Edited June 20, 2016 by caulfield12