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First time posting in a long time because this drama has been the first time I have given the Sox more than two seconds of thought in years. JR is asking for lots of money, but the debate is missing the point. I have been mostly negative on his proposal once the ask came out, but with more thought, I think it really depends on how its all structured. Right now the ISFA has a ton of debt, mostly from Soldier Field. It is being paid off by the hotel tax. Everyone knows that. But the important distinction is that the city pre-pays the payment and then earns back the amount from the tax. In years when the hotel tax is less than the payment, the city government is stuck paying for it. Or, what has often happened, is that the city pays just the interest or refinances the bonds to lower the current payment so the current administration doesn't have to deal with it, leaving it to future city councils to deal with. That is how we end up in a situation where almost none of the principal of the Soldier Field deal has been paid off. With this new deal, it seems like JR wants to tap into existing TIF money for the area for infrastructure. That, to me, makes complete sense. Its basically what it was made for and makes sense from a common sense point of view. The city is basically paying for the infrastructure up front in exchange for future payments once the infrastructure is paid off. Its a good way to build up an area like the 78. On top of that, JR wants the city to pay for the stadium. That seems outrageous, but it depends. Technically, it could just be a way to tap into the city's ability to get better rates on debt. If that's all it was, I really don't think people could be upset. But the key point is how it is paid back, and specifically, how much is actually expected to be paid back by the business. Its been said he wants the hotel tax to cover it, but right now, that tax can't even cover the smaller amount of Soldier Field payments. So there would likely be shortfalls. So the question is, who covers the difference? If its the Sox, then its really not a terrible deal. There are no new taxes, the city pays for infrastructure, and ends up not spending any Chicago taxpayer money on the stadium. But JR doesn't want to pay the difference that he knows will occur. So he wants to also tap into the sales tax in the 78 and put that towards the stadium payments. That is a new tax as much as he will want to say its not. The city would then be looking at reduced tax revenue for the area that will cost city spending. That is straight up a cost to the city, which is indirectly a tax on city taxpayers. So really, the question will come down to who is taking the risk in this proposal. If the Sox are responsible for the entirety of the bond payment and are only given the hotel tax and the sales tax in the 78, its probably at worst a slight negative financial impact for the city with a decent chance of being a pretty big positive financial impact. But that assumes the Sox are the thing pushing the 78 development towards completion. However, if the city is the one ultimately responsible for the bond payments or if we think the 78 will get developed anyway, this could be a massive financial boondoggle. The thing that throws a wrench into all of this is the Bears. It has been stated enough times here: the Bears and Sox are competing for these ISFA funds. As much as that makes it seem like taxpayers are about to get screwed, it could actually be a great thing for the city's negotiating leverage. If we can use that to get a scenario where the financial risk is less on the city, this could actually turn into a good project.

Maybe he thought he could get more money than we were willing to offer, and when he couldn't he came back around to us? Or we were planning on spending on someone in an earlier round and they got taken before we could get them, so we had more available to get to his number.

https://twitter.com/IHSBCA/status https://twitter.com/IHSBCA/status/1415112944581500929?s=20 /1415112944581500929?s=20 https:https://twitter.com/IHSBCA/status/14151129445815009 29?s=20//twitter.com/IHSBCA/status/1415112944581500929?s=20 https://twitter.com/IHSBCA/status/1415112944581500929 Its confusing, but the tweet with the first all state team says that all drafted players are automatically all state. So he isn't on the lists, but he is still all state.

I feel like this is an interesting combo with Montgomery. Two guys who are probably 3B, but might be able to stay at SS.

He's been a favorite of mine for a while now. He had several really good international tournaments and apparently hit .400 in the CNS last season. Hopefully we still have some 2022 money left to go after him.

I can't take any analysis seriously when they spell catcher wrong.

That Arizona error effects a couple different news orgs. As I understand it, all the news orgs get their results from one of two sources that aggregate all the results. I believe Edison is the larger of the two.

As someone who wanted Trump to lose, I should be happy right now because it looks like that might happen. But I can't help to just feel defeated by this election. Something in me feels like it broke seeing how this all played out. I see so many problems I feel we need to deal with, but no path to do anything about them. I had faith that things would be different. It felt different. And apparently it was, just not in the way I thought.

I don't believe that needs any amendments. It appears it hasn't been done because it is politically untenable. The whole thing about the fair tax allowing the government to tax retirement income was a quote taken out of context from a politician saying it would be more likely with the fair tax because it would allow the retirement income to be taxed at different rates so seniors who rely on theirs could basically be taxed at a 0% while other larger ones were taxed at a different rate. As for ways to raise more revenues? Pritzker could still try to create the fair tax with a loophole. The state could raise the income tax percentage on everyone, but then have varying deductions or waivers or something like that at the different income levels so it is effectively a progressive structure. It would probably face lawsuits, but if things are bad enough, maybe the state supreme court finds it as a tenable solution.

I'm not going to lie, I've thought about the Sox going after that Ha-seong Kim and then trying Tim and Yoan in right. I feel like that would give the team a lot of flexibility going forward.

If the Rays want him, then I definitely want him

It looks like Coffey played at Arizona State, transferred to San Jacinto, then to Wabash Valley and was committed to Louisville to finish out his last two years. He might not be a big name, but it seems like the right college programs like him. Hopefully this is one of those times a guy moving around a lot gets lost and we found him because he was local.

I'm hoping for Isaiah Greene

Please let Hassell fall to us!

There was another video of him running (that seemed to be after this video) and there were no Sox people and he wasn't wearing Sox gear. Almost definitely that workout was just at our facility.

We should trade for the max cap space in this period and go after Pedro Leon and try to steal him from the Astros. Colas looks good and Dyan seems interesting, but Leon is going to be a star and likely sooner rather than later.

Dyan Yamel Jorge seems to be a contact & speed oriented SS. Apparently he was running between 5.9 and 6.1 in the 60 yard during his showcase. To put that number in perspective, our draftee James Beard (who was compared to Billy Hamilton) was the fastest player in last year's draft and he ran a 6.2 60 yard. CJ Abrams is listed as an 80 runner on pipeline and he ran a 6.29 60 yard. Dyan was the starting SS for Cuba in the 2018 u15 World Cup. Check the video in that link. He is wearing a Sox shirt and the scout on the right seems to be wearing a Sox shirt too. I did see another video where he wasn't wearing any Sox stuff, so that showcase in the video above was probably just at our DR facility. https://u15bwc.wbsc.org/en/2018/player/22171 Stats from the World Cup. He had a pretty good day against the USA.

He doesn't have a QO attached. He was traded mid year so he was ineligible for it.

Okay there Owen Wilson?

Yeah, Hahn is helping his good friend Jon Daniels try to get Rendon so they can compete.

I would still only put the o/u at 5.5 of that lineup having over a 100 wRC+

Once again this FO thinks they can take a post hype prospect and turn them around. It still hasn't worked yet. We bought high on Rutherford and he hasn't done anything. We bought high on Casey Gillaspie and now he is in indy ball. And now we buy high on Mazara who is probably going to end up being nontendered going into next year. Maybe the 57th time is the charm, or maybe this organization should actually invest in player development.

IIRC, he basically pulls the ball on the ground and sprays it in the air which is basically the exact opposite of what you want. The ground ball pull tendency makes infield shifts easy and effective while hitters usually have their best power to pull side so he isn't getting that as often. In that regard, it seems like he might be a swing change candidate, so I can see him being good in the right organization, I just don't know if that's us.

Well yeah, but the point is the pipeline to trade from likely won't develop because we no longer will be picking at the top of the draft or trading useful major leaguers away.

But that requires development and as that Driveline study last year showed, we were far and away the worst organization at developing players.