joeynach

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 11:44 AM) So it is beyond the realm of possibility that Rios missed a sign or was running on his own. The fact is, it is far more likely than Robin having him steal. Why would Rios run on his own, he knows who is up, he knows his teammates, he knows who is behind the plate (yes I know its Doumit not Mauer now).

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 10:38 AM) It's clear Robin knows far less about managing a MLB than about 95% of this board. I find it quite ironic that you are calling Ventura clueless and on the other hand saying he called for a hit and run in that situation. Konerko wasn't running at first. I would imagine Rios missed a sign or was running on his own. You realize I have referred to multiple incidents, not just the Rios steal of 3rd. Sure he could have missed a sign, but why are we feeding signs with runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out for Dunn, the point of that and paying him all that $$ is to try and hit a 3 run homer there. RV's cluelessness to me extends are beyond this one call. Did you see my comments on his calling for the Alexei bunt vs. Masterson in that Indians game after the leadoff double....completely mind boggling. Did you see his call to walk Kipnis to get to Swisher. Kipnis was something like 1-16 at that point. Do you remember last September at all. After about 5 months of basically not interfering with the offense, the Sox find themselves in a tightened race with Detroit. The offense tightened up a bit in September what did RV do....called for a hit and runs, a steal, a Sac Bunt in just about every situation where it would even be considered. The team got where it was getting guys to come through with big hits and timely HRs. RV stayed out of the way and let the offense produce, I even called him the Republican of managing (since he stayed out of the way, austerious like do nothing approach) and it was working. We get into a dogfight and all of sudden we are giving away outs in 0-1 games in the 4th with bunts and steals, getting De Aza thrown out trying to steal for example in the 4th inning after a leadoff single/walk with all the power coming up behind him. Why are you giving outs away, or risking giving them away with the big boys coming up who hit the ball over the fence more than they single home a runner from 2nd anyway. Asking guys who can pop the ball over the fence like AJ and Alexei to bunt a guy over in a 0-0 game in the 3rd inning after a leadoff single, etc etc. WHY??????

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 10:33 AM) Are you sure he called for Rios to steal? No, just assuming given his track record on no sense making managerial moves.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 10:12 AM) It's possible to evaluate a manager whether the team is good, bad, or somewhere in the middle. Yesterday's Rios steal is a great example. That isn't on Dunn for sucking. Even when Dunn is normal he would be the last person you would roll a hit and run with. Does RV now know he is one the league highest Swing and miss % guys, one of the league's highest amount of strikeouts along with lowest contact rate. Did RV not realize Dunn revitalized the three true outcome player discussion on a national stage thanks to fan graphs, walk, K, or HR. So if all that is set in stone reality, why on earth would you put on a hit and run with two strikes and 1 out, and with the leagues best catcher back there. If Dunn does make contact it goes over the fence, if he doesn't its an easy double play b/c he swings and misses a ton. Where is the recognition of these types of things by RV?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 07:08 AM) You do realize that if the Sox sell off, things like advertisers will flee along with attendance, right? Yes I do, if they sell off they lose revenue or they won't be able to obtain as much revenue from things in annual contracts like Advertising, but thats just one small piece of the revenue puzzle. Their media contract are long term and wont' change, they are getting more $$ than ever in digital media revenue through MLB.com share, they have $25M coming in for the new national MLB deals, heck they even started their own sports marketing firm named Silver Chalice I believe, to help drive revenue to the organization for something not even related to baseball........so like I was saying if anyone can adapt to low attendance and keep revenue streams in tact its the White Sox. They are and always have been very creative.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 09:13 AM) Nobody is a good game manager when his players have a .271 OBP. Thats true, I dont blame Ventura for having to trot out a lineup with a bunch of same low OBP, hack away, low contact, high K guys. He was given this roster by Hahn and Williams for the most part. He was an amateur last year, it was obvious get got little or no say in baseball ops, perhaps that changes in the future I don't know. But i 100% blame him for pushing the wrong buttons over and over again, stop giving away outs, stop hitting and running with low contact high K guys at the plate and the league's best catcher out there, stop asking Alexei to bunt, stop trying to get runners over to 2nd and 3rd to setup scoring sacrifice or base hit opportunies for guys who either strikeout or hit a HR anyway (rendering the bunt useless).....stop being an archaic by the book dead-ball era game manager in the high scoring American League!!!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 11:13 PM) Agreed. Reminds me of the scare tactics over hyperinflation resulting if there's more quantitative easing (and rising national debt) and we don't go with austerity measures instead. A preponderance of the evidence points to the White Sox being a tremendously profitable enterprise. They'll be getting an additional $25 million next year because of the national baseball contract (as will all the other teams). Even if they went back to that $65 million 2005 payroll, they'd be in no danger of leaving Chicago. In fact, their lease and the guaranteed 1.5 million in attendance/tickets sold means the taxpayers have no other choice but the White Sox at USCF until at least 2029. Isn't it amazing that we as fans recognize that the White Sox as an organization place a priority on fiscal responsibility as a means of stability. They never over extend themselves, yet they never go off the proverbial grid. They speak publicly about their financial stability and importance in maintaining their organization from a sound financial perspective all the time. The strange thing to me is the White Sox could be one of the more risk taking organizations in baseball in they wanted to (financially speaking). They hold no debt, the public financed their stadium, they have a sweetheart lease with a contract that allows them to do what they want to the park and the surrounding area yet keep almost all if not all of their revenue privately. If any team out there can afford to actually be less fiscally prudent and just go baseball crazy from time to time.....it would be the White Sox.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 10:07 PM) Yes. The Sox lineup is not outstanding with Beckham and Viciedo in it. Without them, it's got to be one of the weakest lineups any pitcher could hope to face. The only way this lineup is above average is if Paulie and Dunn get red-hot at the same time IMO. Funny, I was talking about this with my friend at Bacardi at the Park today. We look at the Sox lineup now and we see a ton of easy outs and weak offensive production. A lot of free swining, a lot of strikeouts, a lot of struggling to get on base and put the ball in play. We were saying the Sox look like one of those teams who in fantasy baseball you just pick up the SP thats available that week that is facing them b/c they are just one of those light hitting teams now. The metrics would probably confirm, Im sure the White Sox have the worst team OBP in the league and a majority of their lineup with well below average wOBA, probably wOBA's below .300 which is dismal.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 05:22 PM) How will you avoid further erosion of their ticket and advertising base? 1.96 million isn't nothing. "The Kids can Play" year was 1.34 million in attendance. It would erode further for sure, but if any team can adapt to lower than expected attendance and still produce steady revenue and thus decent payroll its the White Sox. They have mastered this skill and they don't even have one of those crazy TV deals. Id say they have learned how to drive revenue from non team performance related sources so maintaining a good cash flow if they were to rebuild doesn't scare me nor should it scare management all that much.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 04:57 PM) I get the distinct impression that people tired of the 78-85 win teams last year. They'd rather see a 70-win team that has promise than whatever is out there now. I would too, If I saw a 70 win team out there that looked like it had an upward direction and promise of well talented youthful core I would be fine with trotting out a 70 win team for a few years. I don't see that with this team, I see a few nice pieces, but I see too many of the same flawed hitters and pitchers. Pitchers with explosive stuff with the same achillies heel of control issues, Hitters with plenty of power with same Achilles heel of poor plate discipline (high K, low BB rate).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 06:59 PM) Winning a World Series is much harder when you can't keep your good players around because the stadium is empty. No we have proved this point over and over, the White Sox payroll is not dependent upon ticket sales. The White Sox themselves have proved this old baseball adage false as they have adapted to proverbial low attendance while finding other revenue sources to keep payroll at or above league average for years now.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 06:36 PM) Having Rios steal 3rd base with 1 out and 2 strikes on Adam Dunn today...not sure where he comes up with that. Yes, this drove me crazy as well and is a gleaming example of why I think RV is a bad game manager. How on earth do you call for a Rios steal of 3rd on a two strike count with the highest swing and miss rate player in the history of the world at the plate......and with the one of the best defensive catchers in baseball behind the plate in Mauer. Even if Dunn doesn't strike out, we all know he a true three outcome player so its not likely Dunn is going to hit a single and Rios is going to score, he will most likely hit the ball out of the park or just strikeout that will most likely lead to a double play so WTF is RV thinking. Thats the point, is he thinking about these things, is he even aware of Dunn's tendencies from a statistical point of view, something Fangraphs pointed out last year as a true three outcome player. Drives me crazy to think the man in control of my favorite team could be a baseball dinosaur when it comes to the strategy and thinking part of the game.

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 10:51 AM) I wonder if this team financially can't do the full rebuild because 7 people will attend each game. I have tried to make this point in the past. The White Sox are a franchise that understands their fan and revenue base quite well. The cubs can get away with the tear down, stock high draft picks, develop talent, rebuild process, the White Sox can not. Demand for Cubs brand in general is much more inelastic (to performance) than the White Sox. The White Sox are highly dependent upon on field performance in order to drive interest, revenue, tickets, viewership, etc. The Cubs are not. If the White Sox tore it down to rebuild for half a decade you would see Miami Marlin like payroll, attendance, viewership, attention, interest, etc etc. The franchise would essentially become an afterthought in a huge market, so they will never do it, for better or for worse. Its pretty obvious the White Sox value 78-85 win seasons differently than we do as fans. Those are exactly what an earlier poster is talking about, season outlooks that with a little luck turn into 90 win seasons and playoff berths, without, turn into medicore record wise, but successful seasons financially (the Sox made a lot of $$ last year with 85 wins). So they have very little incentive to go all in every year Angels or Dodgers spending style, nor do they have incentive to tear it down and go into the cellar for half a decade. So they middle it, we all know this, it's no secret.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Apr 13, 2013 -> 10:17 AM) In this situation, with three batters to try to bring in Gillaspie, your best RBI guy is Ramirez -- BY FAR. He's also had a single on the night. So what does Ventura do? He asks Ramirez to BUNT!???? This is a HORRIBLE decision. First, Ramirez is a horrible bunter. I've seen him bunt into a triple play. Second, as mentioned above, Ramirez is the Sox best chance of getting a hit to bring Gillaspie home. What happens? Ramirez pops the bunt up to the catcher, one out. Gimenez grounds to second, easy out. DeAza is out, threat over. Even if Ramirez is successful bunting Gillaspie over, a pulled in infield would have prevented Gimenez's weak grounder from scoring Gillaspie. So a successful bunt was not the answer here. Having Ramirez swing away was the correct move. OMG thank you. RV's bunting decisions are probably some of the worst I have ever seen. While I believe bunting in general, especially in the AL is just giving an out away, its when RV does it that drives me crazy. To me, what he does, is defaults to the "old school" baseball book in crunch times or when an executive decision one way or the other needs to be made. I believe his intuitive knowledge of the game and players around him is what pushes him towards some of these play it by the book moves. As an amateur manager last year I think we saw the same thing from RV and the team in September, he managed too tight, felt very amateur, very unforbidden territory. He was calling for Sac Bunts, steals, and hit and runs probably at a rate 5x as much in Sept than he did most of the regular season. Its 0-1 in the 3rd inning with a power, free swinging lineup and RV is calling for Sac Bunts and such in the 3rd inning, trying to setup a runner on 2nd with 1 out for low contact hitting Adam Dunn or Viciedo. Again, by the book, with no feel for the situation. Pressing, nervous, whatever you want to call it. Either way I didn't see much feel for the game or situation from RV at this point nor did I see it when he decided to make Alexei the world's worst bunter, bunt against Masterson in that 0-0 game in the 8th inning. With Connor on 2nd, he decided to trade taking three shots to get a base hit and get him in, in which he could control the "shots" with a pinch hitter if he chooses, for one attempt at a fly ball sac fly (runner on 3rd with one out) for Gimenez or a pinch hitter. Why on earth would RV or anyone think that getting Connor to 3rd with one out and Hector Giminez (or anyone on his bench) was going to come up and all of a sudden hit a nice long 300+ ft fly ball to score that run when the whole team including Gimenez had hardly hit the ball out of the infield all day on a cold windy day. Again, where is the recognition and connection to the game situation and player tendencies. So basically I agree I dont think he is a very good game manger, and I believe his amateurishness truly has an effect here.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 01:17 PM) A lot of people that have a problem with him now defended him last year. Historically, even his walks haven't led to many runs on any team he is been on. The reality is, his worth is putting the ball in the seats. I would imagine he will do that as much as any White Sox in 2013. I would also imagine his walk rate will be a little higher than it is now. You sound like KW and his infamous speech before the 2nd half of the 2011 season talking about how we should all expect to see the numbers on the back of guys baseball cards. Which obviously is another one of those old time baseball myths with no merit as Adam Dunn so kindly proved in 2011.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 10:48 AM) Throwing away $14 million on nothing seems pretty bad if the alternative is an .800 OPS DH. Hell, if you straight up platooned him you'd probably get a little bit better than that. As painful as he is to watch, there is some still value if he reverts back to 2012 form, even if he's overpaid. Also, let's be honest, how many left-handed power hitters will be available this coming offseason? How do replace his bat in the lineup against RHP? That's going to require money and/or talent and we're already going to need to use assets to replace Konerko most likely. If we had some internal candidate knocking at the door, then maybe you could make an argument, but right now we're better off getting Dunn back to normal and hoping for an .800 OPS player. There are always options available for .800 OPS at a low or buy low price. Youklis one year deal with Yanks, Reynolds one year deal with Tribe, Carlos Pena one year deal with Astros, heck even Chris Carter acquisition by the Astros looks like a good one for a buy low high production DH. We have a player in Dunn who already was on the border of no value. With the White Sox in two seasons he has produced -2 WAR. Now he has tinkered with his approach, failed miserably again, and is on his way to a -4 WAR year. At some point enough is enough, maybe taking a flyer on a Chris Carter type would offer more value to the team. Dunn already debunked the regression to the mean myth. What more do we need to see to call his signing a failure and his value to the team negative.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 16, 2013 -> 09:17 AM) I don't know how you can conclude anything on Dunn. I'm sure he's had stretches like this just about every year of his career. He's probably a .200 hitter with close to 40 homers and 200 k's. Not worth what they are paying him, but useful in today's game. Yeah you can get that in Mark Reynolds, the Indians signed him for something like 1 Year and $6M. We gave Dunn 4 Years and $56M for similar expected production. Terrible.

Using this thing called advanced metrics, which I know our always adaptable friend Hawk Harrelson doesn't like, we can see that Dunn's new approach to hitting has basically been a complete failure. The article basically proves that two weeks worth of games is good enough in this instance to judge Dunn's new approach as a failure b/c it was basically altered his style from a pitch type hitter to a pitch zone hitter. The results of which have produced more negative hitting results; one pitch at bats for outs, hitting in more pitchers counts vs. hitters counts, etc. "Dunn has basically adapted his approach to swing at anything on the inner half as long as it isn't at the knees. Instead of studying pitcher tendencies and trying to get into counts where he can guess what's coming, he's now just looking for a ball middle in at any point in the at-bat. And the results have been disastrous. He's hitting .136/.174/.295, good for just a .206 wOBA. Because he's falling behind more often than he used to, the more aggressive approach hasn't really trimmed his strikeout rate, but it's basically eliminated his ability to draw walks; he has just two bases on balls so far. Sacrificing walks for more hits and more home runs could be a worthy trade-off if that was the result, but what Dunn has really accomplished so far is trading walks for outs." http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/adam-dunns-failed-experiment/

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 31, 2013 -> 08:54 PM) It's not a new ballpark. It's a renovated ballpark. There Grand Canyon sized difference Nah just a 10,000 sq ft house in Scottsdale sized difference.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Mar 30, 2013 -> 09:19 AM) That Posey contract BTW is absolutely horrible. That's a lot of future money to a catcher. Giants learned nothing from the Mauer contract and how much that has hamstrung at organization's payroll flexibility now for years. And the Giants unlike the Twins dont have the option of using their stud catcher at the teams DH when he ages.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Mar 30, 2013 -> 08:51 PM) As long as JR is still around, the White Sox will never sign a stud pitcher to a 6-7 year deal. I was honestly shocked they gave Danks a 5 year deal.... (And i'm sure he is upset with himself by doing so if you look at Danks current health status). I don't blame JRs current mindset of not typically going beyond 4 years for a pitcher. The wear and tear risk is just too big. Hopefully we can continue to develop young starters so we can disperse the money elsewhere on the roster. I really hope Quintana can develop into a gem and the organization can develop one more youngster into a quality starter. (Santiago, Snodgress, Rienzo, Molina, Castro etc...) I was being a bit sarcastic since the current state of the game is getting crazy with the amounts of money being handed out to both average MLB talent (Victorino, BJ Upton, Pagan) and top tier starters (Wainwright, Verlander, Cain, Grienke). Looking it all straight up, they are all way overpaid and have been handed way too much money given their ages. That being said such is the state of the game today, fueled by the massive influx in capital teams have from TV rights deals. So like I was saying adapt or die. If the Sox maintain their status quo by the time they can react to new TV rights, 2019, they will have been left far behind the rest of the league.

The Sox can't do the whole tear it down, be bad, and rebuild it thing. If they could they would have done it already at least once in the last 15 years. They can't do it b/c the instant they tear it down their revenue, attendance, and profit would evaporate. A team like the Cubs or Red Sox whose ticket sales, general fan interest, and revenue streams are almost inelastic to on field performance can get away with it. Teams like the Pirates, Royals, and Rays who reside in weak markets, with small media, small fan bases, and low expectations can get away with it. A team in the third largest population, with the third largest media, in a huge baseball focused market with significant elasticity between on field performance and ticket sales, fan interest, and revenue simply can never afford a complete tear down and rebuild.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 29, 2013 -> 06:28 PM) Launched October 1, 2004 Network Comcast SportsNet Owned by NBCUniversal (20%) J. Joseph Ricketts Family (20%) Jerry Reinsdorf (40%) Rocky Wirtz (20%) Who can put a dollar figure on exactly how much that is worth? Plus advertising revenues...we know the White Sox experienced higher ratings last year for t.v. (making up for some of the falling attendance as well) as more and more fans have been staying home in the era of higher ticket prices and big screen/HDTV. This is a slippery slope. Usually in Joint Ventures businesses such as CSN Chicago the owners don't really extract profit from the business and pocket it. Usually they own the TV station so they can maintain a level control over the content, people, and operation of their main TV medium. Similar to Andrew Carnegie in our history books buying out the supply chain; railroads and trucking companies to maintain control and price control over his end product, steel production. Not to necessarily profit from owning the railroad company. Any growth or money CSN Chicago makes most likely is not taken out by JR and folks, pocketed, and used in team payroll or stadium construction, its most likely just re-invested in CSN Chicago's operations; technology, products, personnel, etc.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 29, 2013 -> 03:17 PM) To refute these numbers a team would have to open its books, and there is no way in hell that is happening. I would say guys like Scott Merkin, Mark Gonzales, Scott Gregor,etc can look at these Forbes numbers and say yeah looks about right or no no way off. And if it was no no way off you would see an article in the paper.

Yeah the sox should get out of the CSN Chicago deal as soon as they can and pursue a new TV rights deal that will influx the organization with hunreds of millions in revenue so they too can go off the deep end with player contracts and free agents. Adapt or die.