Black_Jack29

It’s more accurate to say that he’s not interested in purchasing championships. He definitely wants to win, but is unwilling to go into debt to do it. And the criticism of that is perfectly valid.

I didn’t go on a “tirade”about anything. I simply agreed that he treats his employees well, and I know this based on the comments of an actual employee. If it bothers you that I didn’t say “Reinsdorf is Satan,” then you have some serious growing up to do.

“Our Sox”? Hate to break this to you, buddy, but “we” don’t own the team. My comments were strictly focused on how he treats his employees. If you want to dispute that, go for it. If you want to go on a tirade about how that doesn’t matter, go talk to somebody else.

Because some fans care about the character of their team's owner. If you're not one of those, feel free to ignore my comments on the matter.

Much can be said about Cubs fans, but at least they seem to enjoy being Cubs fans, regardless of what their team looks like. I'm sure that they complain, but they at least seem to enjoy watching and rooting for their team. Too many Sox fans sound like angry, politics-obsessed nutcases on Twitter. (Or pre-2004 Red Sox fans.)

To that list, we can add the childish and insulting way in which they tried to convince fans at the beginning of the year that they were going to sign Machado (signing Alonso and Jay, and leaking at least one offer that was undoubtedly never made). I agree that this is all way more off-putting than the product they've put on the field over the past decade.

Indeed. A former girlfriend of a friend of mine worked in the Sox front office (payroll) in the late '90s and early 2000's. She described Reinsdorf as "grandfatherly" and a "good boss." One can criticize him for many things, but not the way that he treats his employees.

Yep, because it’s 2019 and we all need to complain loudly about something, no matter how trivial.

It’s also exhausting. Most people aren’t into long work weeks in their mid-80s.

Jerry Reinsdorf is 83 years old and still runs the day-to-day operations. Why in the hell would he bother to do that if his interest was limited to putting an 85-win team on the field to maximize profits? If he wasn’t interested in winning, he’d sell the franchise for hundreds of millions in profits tomorrow, or hire an executive to run the day-to-day operations while he drinks pina coladas on the beach in Miami.

Please stop peddling clickbait hearsay as fact.

This is exactly right. JR plays the long game, where financial stability is paramount. We’d all love his way of doing business if he owned a widget factory and we were shareholders. But it doesn’t translate so well to the owner-fan dynamic.

Bingo. JR wants to win, but only on his terms.

That may or may not be true, but his comment about some Sox fans having Battered Wife Syndrome is spot-on.

It's nice to think that we might be able to trade him for another Matt Thornton, but we'll probably get a Joe Borchard in return instead. We're never going to get that lucky again.

Then the Sox need to hope that Fulmer pitches well enough in ST to give him some trade value. If he's out of options, he doesn't have much of a future in Chicago.

I agree with your strategy, but I think that Hahn would've given up on him a year ago if he didn't draft him so highly.

Fulmer should be out the door as well, but Hahn won't release one of his first-round picks.

As they’re currently constructed, that sounds about right. If they get a solid #2 and get decent production out of the bottom three, maybe 85-87 wins. I don’t see them jumping to 90+ wins without some key FA signings and a good amount of luck.

Given how much rope JR gave Robin, that's far from certain.

He'll have been recovering for a year and a half at that point, so I can't imagine that he won't be at ST. Upper 90s and multiple times at 100 is really encouraging news.

I wouldn't be surprised if he accepted a qualifying offer, but this is probably his last chance to score a two-year deal (I'm not sure if he'll be able to command a three-year deal) with a good amount of guaranteed money. Given the bounce-back season he just had, he'll be tempted to capitalize on it. It's going to depend on the FA market. He's in a position where he's worth less per year than his current (2019) contract, and that typically means that he lacks leverage. But he has additional leverage with the Sox because of his history there (including his relationships with the younger players), and the fact that the Sox front office strongly prefers to keep him around for a couple of years, and currently has the financial flexibility to do so. I think that Jose's situation with the Sox is more comparable to Konerko's than Melky's. In his mid-30s, Konerko got a half-million dollar AAV raise, compared to his previous contract. It was also a three-year deal. So there's precedent for the Sox overpaying for a long-time team leader in the twilight of his career.

Seriously? Ownership thinks that he has too much power or something?

If the Sox are at least semi-competitive next year, Ricky's job will probably be secure. He probably won't be on the hot seat unless they win fewer than 80 games. And even then, I don't see JR canning him unless they don't improve at all next year.

Weren't you the one who was suggesting the Sox guarantee Rodon $6M–$8M per year for the next few years when he won't be able to throw a ball until next summer, and nobody knows whether or not he'll be able to pitch effectively?