jenksycat

QUOTE (reiks12 @ Apr 10, 2018 -> 05:05 PM) Very good article, I had no idea about this place. I wonder what Sox history would have looked like had we decided on Armour Park. Are we looking at 101 years without a title? What difference would the stadium have made on how s***ty the team was for decades?

QUOTE (Jack Parkman @ Apr 4, 2018 -> 05:58 PM) Ever think that the cold weather contributes significantly to the product being s***? Yeah Boston/Cubs/Yankees/KC sure have been terrible the last 10 years, wouldn't wish being a fan of those teams on my worst enemy.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 4, 2018 -> 11:27 AM) I'm definitely out on tanking next year btw. This crap is all out of sorts. THere is no way the marginal value of moving from effectively 10 to 6 is worth literally sabotaging the game of basketball. Would rather move to phase two of trying to accumulate good assets and wait for trade opportunities. But how do you accumulate those assets picking in the middle of the draft every year? The NBA in it's current format sucks if you're not a fan of the 3-4 teams that realistically have a shot at the title, not point in even playing for the other 27 teams.

QUOTE (Jack Parkman @ Apr 4, 2018 -> 05:46 PM) When they see early season attendance go up significantly because fans are comfortable and the players aren't freezing and playing better, they would find it worth it. Teams could double their early season attendance at places like Cleveland Minnesota and the south side of Chicago. It could go from 8-10 k to 20-25k. What would help attendance more than a dome: Not having a s***ty team for 10+ years. Attendance is going to be s*** if the product is also s***.

QUOTE (Tony @ Apr 4, 2018 -> 04:29 PM) So the roof is being paid by... The billionaire owners + league silly. They for sure would agree to each non-dome cold weather team spending hundreds of millions of dollars a piece to magically retrofit stadiums with massive domes vs. pushing the league start date back 1 week or having no cold weather home teams

@ChiTribKane 3m3 minutes ago More White Sox say forecast has improved and they’re hopeful they’ll get the home opener in tomorrow. The record for coldest Sox home opener was 37 degrees in 1974.

QUOTE (SoxFan2003 @ Apr 4, 2018 -> 01:15 PM) I think bad press was the wrong choice of words. I'm not sure anyone outside of Sox fans talked about it at all. All I really meant was that the people I know who were at the game, and the people on this message board were in agreement that everything about how last year was handled was terrible. As someone else said, I'm not stepping foot into the ballpark tomorrow until I know there will be at least an attempt at baseball being played. Yeah I doubt they give 2 s***s, they got to double dip concession sales so it was a win for them. I have 0 faith in them doing right by the fans so if you plan on not going unless there is a definitive 'yes' then I'd probably say you're not going.

It'd be real neat if they could make a call weather wise before 3pm Thursday this year. But I fully expect them to cancel it around 330p tomorrow after they get a few hours of beer sales in.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Apr 3, 2018 -> 01:14 PM) He not only sucks but trading our best bullpen man (David Robertson) for him was nuts. Is there anybody in this bullpen as good as Robertson? They also took all of the money in the Robertson deal. There's also 0 reason to have a good bullpen on a s*** rebuilding team.

I like the man on 2nd rule...but only after giving teams at least 2-3 innings to end the game normally. Getting rid of 17 inning games is fine

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 06:58 PM) The teams that sustain success in football (without cheating) get an elite QB, pay that elite QB well, acquire good talent to put around him mostly through the draft, then keep the players they draft that are worth keeping. Usually the best teams have a few players that they drafted that are among the best in the league and are paid like it, and the draft is absolutely vital to sustained success. In baseball it's almost exactly the same. Still a single extremely skilled position that you have to crush. You don't NEED a superstar shortstop to win a World Series and can easily mask holes on a roster. Can't hide a s***ty QB

QUOTE (Sox-35th @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 05:41 PM) Football isn't that bad. You can find a game-changer in the NFL in the first, second, third, or even fourth round sometimes. Basketball is downright horrible. The Bulls are too good to be bad enough to be good again. The system is totally broken. The NBA makes for good show, but that's about it. While true for football to find talent deep into drafts....its still too lopsided to a single player in the QB. You need an incredible defense to get by with anything less than above average QB...and you have to get all that winning done before you have to pay that elite QB who saps all your cap money.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 05:31 PM) And it is why I don't see "tanking" being a long-term big issue in baseball. You flat out don't get magically better based upon a couple years of draft picks. Baseball's draft and the way the game works is just so so much different than basketball. Basketball has a tanking problem...baseball might have too many teams trying to rebuild at the moment, but I don't think it has a "tanking" problem. I never have viewed the Sox rebuild strategy as being highly contingent on them getting a top X pick...now I do think the rebuilding strategy is aided by good drafting, but I think good teams draft well and how high you pick doesn't have near the correlation it does in other sports (not to mention in baseball..it is so hard for one player to carry a team...case in point, Mike Trout). I do think we will see many teams "humbled" by how difficult it is to tank/rebuild because everyone thinks because the Cubs / Astros did it, it is just so easy. The reality is that it isn't and older, more veteran players are the new "moneyball" as they have ultimately been devalued for the much more attractive, cost controlled young player? Just my two cents...we'll see longer term if I'm right. Yeah it's completely different in baseball. Only sport IMO where outlooks can change season to season and anything can happen in the playoffs. Football: If you don't luck into an elite QB OR a decent qb + dominant defense, no point in even playing Basketball: If you don't have (several) top 10 players on the team, no point in even playing I have no idea what they're doing to do to fix that, it's made baseball the only sport worth caring about for me.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 02:49 PM) The best is when you get to utilize the Scout Seats on an iffy game for a few hours before first pitch. You sit in warm, dry surroundings and then they call it without a pitch happening. Basically get a free buffet for 2 hours. I've always aimed for that, hasn't happened yet. Or they can screw over 40k+ people like they did opening day last year and call the game after letting everyone in to buy concessions for a couple hours. Such a scumbag move that still makes me question ever going to a game again.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 02:36 PM) The Marlins and Indians did the same thing at least twice. Now at least three times in Miami. The A’s have been cycling through tanks over and over again. The Rays? The Twins...the Padres, many examples. Otoh, without the Shields deal, the White Sox have the lowest payroll in baseball by $10 million and clearly the #1 farm system with up to five superstars or at least All-Star caliber talents in the system (Jimenez, Tatis, Kopech, Robert, Hansen, Cease...and, if you squint hard enough, Collins because of the dearth of legit catching prospects, or Micker Adolfo). So the unique differentiating point is teams like the Cubs and Astros based rebuild on hitting/positional prospects moreso than the Sox approach of pitching first. Of course, we’ve already taken hits there...Rodon injuries and inconsistency (compared to say a Bryant, Correa or Lindor)...Burdi injured...Giolito looking more like Gavin Floyd than a true frontline ace (still a net win) due to a dropoff in velocity...otoh, Cease looks more and more legit everyday. Let’s not forget Fulmer is also FAR from a sure thing. And then you have the Burger, Robert and Adolfo injuries. Not quite the linear path those two teams followed (Cubs/Astros), but undoubtedly faster to get back to competitive team, too. Financially, we might be in the best division to overtake rivals as well...over the long-term. The Padres do everything right, still have the Dodgers in their path, for example. Maybe NL East post Harper is equal opportunity for Braves and Phillies? The difference: None of those teams had ELITE chips to trade (sans the Marlins who just had a flat-out we don't care sell everyone sale because they're scumbags). That's the only reason the Sox may have a couple year turn around.