KW: "It's a shame" the Sox are being portrayed as cheap

[Frank the Tank 35]

I don't know if this post goes here or in the myriad of other rage posts, but here goes. I created some t-shirts with pertinent slogans for our 2019 White Sox. I sent the package to Brooks Boyer as a gift with this message:

To: Brooks Boyer

From: A Sox Fan

Message: This must be a difficult time to lead the Sox marketing efforts. As a concerned Sox fan, I'd like to help and have included some slogans for the entire exec board. Please distribute appropriately.

Mods: There is one shirt with a political tinge. You may need to remove if you feel inappropriate. 

To whoever is planning that billboard: I'm in.

 

Edited March 1, 2019 by bmags
removed political one.

[Harry Chappas]

2 hours ago, reiks12 said:

I hope Harper and Machado have all-star caliber seasons until they retire. The worst thing is if they fail and this FO says "we told you so".

 

Just like the Sox look like geniuses in the Belle opt out....in hind sight....in real time they let the best hitter in baseball walk away and then let the white flag rise just a few years after having a major hand in cancelling a world series they had a good shot at playing in.

[pcq]

3 hours ago, G&T said:

This is the KW motto from forever ago. We aren't cheap, we are poor. What's totally odd is that every other team points to player valuation for why they didn't pay for a guy, but the Sox have never said that.

Their excuses about signing a new core is so lame. Not one guy right now can be seen as a future core player. Eloy hasn't played in the MLB. Kopech is out for the year. Everyone else has been underwhelming or hurt.

It's ok to criticize but the money offered was pretty substantial. It just didn't get the job done. Not enough insight was owned or used. 

[yesterday333]

4 minutes ago, Frank the Tank 35 said:

I don't know if this post goes here or in the myriad of other rage posts, but here goes. I created some t-shirts with pertinent slogans for our 2019 White Sox. I sent the package to Brooks Boyer as a gift with this message:

To: Brooks Boyer

From: A Sox Fan

Message: This must be a difficult time to lead the Sox marketing efforts. As a concerned Sox fan, I'd like to help and have included some slogans for the entire exec board. Please distribute appropriately.

Mods: There is one shirt with a political tinge. You may need to remove if you feel inappropriate. 

To whoever is planning that billboard: I'm in.

 

 

The cost of these could hurt our chances of paying for our core players in the future. 

[Insp]

What's really important now is that the team spends the money that it would have spent on Machado on filling in the gaps that are on the team.  Failure to do so is inexcusable.

[Greg Hibbard]

I'm going to contacting Sox Marketing and tell them that I would have bought season tickets had they landed Machado, but with the debacle as presented, and with KW's awful spin on this, I am not planning to attend a single game because I'm so angry with the level of contempt with which KW is treating the fans. 

[Unknown]

2 minutes ago, Insp said:

What's really important now is that the team spends the money that it would have spent on Machado on filling in the gaps that are on the team.  Failure to do so is inexcusable.

Dumpster diving I think it's called

[Thad Bosley]

25 minutes ago, Harry Chappas said:

Just like the Sox look like geniuses in the Belle opt out....in hind sight....in real time they let the best hitter in baseball walk away and then let the white flag rise just a few years after having a major hand in cancelling a world series they had a good shot at playing in.

Ah yes, the 90s portion of Jerry Reinsdorf's amazing legacy here with the White Sox the past four decades.  The 90s with the strike Reinsdorf made happen in '94 that robbed that great White Sox team of its first chance at a World Series title in 70+ years, along with the infamous White Flag trade, both fanbase crippling disasters Reinsdorf caused.

That's not to be confused with the 80s which initially saw Reinsdorf choosing Sportsvision over WGN for us, holding the state hostage to build him a stadium for which all of the revenue would go to him and none back to the state, and of course the sweetheart lease deal he's enjoyed the past 30 years with all of it's guaranteed profits, a lease deal I remind you he said he must have in order to remain "competitive" with the high costs of operating a sustainable winning ballclub.  Meanwhile, there hasn't been a sustainable winning ballclub that has made it to the postseason in consecutive years since the lease deal was signed, and there's only been one premium free agent signed since the new stadium opened (Belle).

The 00s actually were pretty good, with three playoff appearances and one magnificent World Series championship (and what would our fanbase do without that one good year we've had!).  And then of course the current decade, which has been a massive disaster with all of the losses accumulated, the sell-off of stars in their prime, and now with this abject failure in this offseason. 

That's the Jerry Reinsdorf White Sox legacy in a nutshell, folks.  It sums up as Jerry Reinsdorf getting very rich over the past 38 years as owner, while the fan experience, with just five postseason appearances during that time, being one of a dismal nature, in general.  "Profits before fan friendly" appears his modus operandi.  Sadly, all we as fans can do at this point is just wait and ride this thing out to the end of his tenure as owner, which hopefully is much sooner than later.  

[Saufley]

4 hours ago, KiwiSox said:

Both Harper and Machado would've gladly signed with the White Sox if they were offered enough money.

Here's my rant. I'm one of the older Sox fans on here being around since the 1959 World Series. As far as I'm concerned this sorry excuse for an ownership group and front office no longer deserves my support, trust or respect! I'm pissed! I just wish they knew my feelings and the many like me, but they've shown they would not care anyway!

Edited March 1, 2019 by Saufley

[Eminor3rd]

49 minutes ago, Insp said:

What's really important now is that the team spends the money that it would have spent on Machado on filling in the gaps that are on the team.  Failure to do so is inexcusable.

This is exactly what got us to the point of needing to rebuild in the first place. Targeting second and third rate talent, refusing to step up for elite talent. 

[shipps]

I am officially at the stage of acceptance in my grieving cycle. And by acceptance I mean I don’t give a 💩 about this team anymore because I accept who they are. The owner and FO wasn’t who I had hoped. Not even close. They don’t deserve a fan like me. Not sure there is anything that they could do for them to win me back either. 

[Bob Sacamano]

3 minutes ago, shipps said:

I am officially at the stage of acceptance in my grieving cycle. And by acceptance I mean I don’t give a 💩 about this team anymore because I accept who they are. The owner and FO wasn’t who I had hoped. Not even close. They don’t deserve a fan like me. Not sure there is anything that they could do for them to win me back either. 

Seeing progress from the kids this season would be a great start.

[reiks12]

49 minutes ago, Fan O'Faust said:

Ah yes, the 90s portion of Jerry Reinsdorf's amazing legacy here with the White Sox the past four decades.  The 90s with the strike Reinsdorf made happen in '94 that robbed that great White Sox team of its first chance at a World Series title in 70+ years, along with the infamous White Flag trade, both fanbase crippling disasters Reinsdorf caused.

That's not to be confused with the 80s which initially saw Reinsdorf choosing Sportsvision over WGN for us, holding the state hostage to build him a stadium for which all of the revenue would go to him and none back to the state, and of course the sweetheart lease deal he's enjoyed the past 30 years with all of it's guaranteed profits, a lease deal I remind you he said he must have in order to remain "competitive" with the high costs of operating a sustainable winning ballclub.  Meanwhile, there hasn't been a sustainable winning ballclub that has made it to the postseason in consecutive years since the lease deal was signed, and there's only been one premium free agent signed since the new stadium opened (Belle).

The 00s actually were pretty good, with three playoff appearances and one magnificent World Series championship (and what would our fanbase do without that one good year we've had!).  And then of course the current decade, which has been a massive disaster with all of the losses accumulated, the sell-off of stars in their prime, and now with this abject failure in this offseason. 

That's the Jerry Reinsdorf White Sox legacy in a nutshell, folks.  It sums up as Jerry Reinsdorf getting very rich over the past 38 years as owner, while the fan experience, with just five postseason appearances during that time, being one of a dismal nature, in general.  "Profits before fan friendly" appears his modus operandi.  Sadly, all we as fans can do at this point is just wait and ride this thing out to the end of his tenure as owner, which hopefully is much sooner than later.  

Great post and it highlights the irony of the Machado negotiations.

The Sox FO claims they had the better offer and were surprised he would go for the higher guaranteed contract. It's exactly what Jerry did with the Sox.

Sure you could get more money by putting a competitive team on the field, but why try when you are rolling in cash already? He bought the team for what, 50 million? It's worth over a billion today. Why would he care?

Edited March 1, 2019 by reiks12

[Donny Lucy's Avocado Farm]

15 minutes ago, Saufley said:

I just wish they knew my feelings and the many like me, but they've shown they would not care anyway!

This, unfortunately is a big part of the problem. Regardless of whether or not the fans like or dislike what they franchise does (or in this offseason's case, DOES NOT) do... it's largely irrelevant to their bottom line. They will still have the same TV deal, same Merch royalties, same MLB Advanced Media payout, etc, etc, etc.......

JR very well likely stands to have the same profit margin from having a cellardwelling team fighting for a top-5 draft pick every year, as he would if he invested heavily in the roster talent via free agency. If he drops 300m on a 26 year-old on a hall of fame trajectory, it changes the culture of the franchise for fans, but does it bring him the same return on investment as the rest of the roster? Aside from the obvious "winning for the sake of winning" what does he have to gain? The fans' adoration? As if.....

I'm sure I'll get called out here for gross ignorance, etc.... but I make these decisions every day, working on software dev (most common case being "buy vs build"), obviously on a much smaller scale than ol Uncle Jerry. But think about it... if you were asked to either invest $100 to make a $100 - or invest $10 to make $25 - you stand to make the most by putting up the least. This has ALWAYS been the case with JR and the White Sox and it's never going to change.

[shipps]

15 minutes ago, soxfan2014 said:

Seeing progress from the kids this season would be a great start.

That’s how I know I’m at the end of my rope with them. The kids cannot win me back. I wish them the best because they didn’t do anything to deserve being in a terrible org either but the kids doing well doesn’t erase what Jerry and his FO did. I guarantee I will not attend a single game until they make it right. I don’t even know what they could do to make it right at this point either, maybe nothing.

[mqr]

The dumbest thing about this is people were finally slowing down on talking about. The people who had enough were ready to ignore the team and people who were ready to heal were paying attention to Spring Training. Then Kenny opens his big, dumb ass mouth and here were are, yelling about it again, a week and a half after the fact. 

He truly is an egomaniac moron.

[Saufley]

9 minutes ago, Charlie Haeger's Knuckles said:

This, unfortunately is a big part of the problem. Regardless of whether or not the fans like or dislike what they franchise does (or in this offseason's case, DOES NOT) do... it's largely irrelevant to their bottom line. They will still have the same TV deal, same Merch royalties, same MLB Advanced Media payout, etc, etc, etc.......

JR very well likely stands to have the same profit margin from having a cellardwelling team fighting for a top-5 draft pick every year, as he would if he invested heavily in the roster talent via free agency. If he drops 300m on a 26 year-old on a hall of fame trajectory, it changes the culture of the franchise for fans, but does it bring him the same return on investment as the rest of the roster? Aside from the obvious "winning for the sake of winning" what does he have to gain? The fans' adoration? As if.....

I'm sure I'll get called out here for gross ignorance, etc.... but I make these decisions every day, working on software dev (most common case being "buy vs build"), obviously on a much smaller scale than ol Uncle Jerry. But think about it... if you were asked to either invest $100 to make a $100 - or invest $10 to make $25 - you stand to make the most by putting up the least. This has ALWAYS been the case with JR and the White Sox and it's never going to change.

Yes sir. We all know how he operates!

[Thad Bosley]

16 minutes ago, Charlie Haeger's Knuckles said:

This, unfortunately is a big part of the problem. Regardless of whether or not the fans like or dislike what they franchise does (or in this offseason's case, DOES NOT) do... it's largely irrelevant to their bottom line. They will still have the same TV deal, same Merch royalties, same MLB Advanced Media payout, etc, etc, etc.......
 

The Padres and Phillies have great TV deals, merch royalties, MLB Advanced Media payouts, etc., etc., etc., as well.  The only difference is they have Machado and Harper, respectively, and we don't.  We have Jon Jay and Yonder Alonzo.  That's the difference between what other fan bases get to enjoy and what we've been stuck with for way too long now.  

[Donny Lucy's Avocado Farm]

Brooks Boyer right now....

[mqr]

4 minutes ago, Charlie Haeger's Knuckles said:

Brooks Boyer right now....

I don't think Brooks gives a shit either. How could you when you can't get fired?

Edited March 1, 2019 by mqr

[shipps]

Email Brooks Boyer. 

If he gets enough he will have to at least mention to the FO that things don’t look good if they don’t already know. They are so out of touch I believe it’s possible they do not understand the extent of outrage right now. 

[bmags]

25 minutes ago, Charlie Haeger's Knuckles said:

This, unfortunately is a big part of the problem. Regardless of whether or not the fans like or dislike what they franchise does (or in this offseason's case, DOES NOT) do... it's largely irrelevant to their bottom line. They will still have the same TV deal, same Merch royalties, same MLB Advanced Media payout, etc, etc, etc.......

JR very well likely stands to have the same profit margin from having a cellardwelling team fighting for a top-5 draft pick every year, as he would if he invested heavily in the roster talent via free agency. If he drops 300m on a 26 year-old on a hall of fame trajectory, it changes the culture of the franchise for fans, but does it bring him the same return on investment as the rest of the roster? Aside from the obvious "winning for the sake of winning" what does he have to gain? The fans' adoration? As if.....

I'm sure I'll get called out here for gross ignorance, etc.... but I make these decisions every day, working on software dev (most common case being "buy vs build"), obviously on a much smaller scale than ol Uncle Jerry. But think about it... if you were asked to either invest $100 to make a $100 - or invest $10 to make $25 - you stand to make the most by putting up the least. This has ALWAYS been the case with JR and the White Sox and it's never going to change.

while this is true, I think it can't be understated that baseball is not a traditional business. These people that own franchises do not want to have negative cash flow, but also aren't trying to suck actual wealth from the team. They get to have a cool toy that appreciates nicely, get interviewed and be a star, and try to compete.

Jerry is a more old school owner though that was around when baseball was more volatile. He's carried those instincts despite the situation changing, and it hurts the white sox. He more than any other owner feels the need to police the league and fight down costs for league health, and if he has to sacrifice the white sox to do it, so be it.

[ChiSox59]

Its grim, but Jerry is an old man.  At some point in the next decade, things will have to change.  

[ChiSox59]

4 hours ago, bmags said:

LOL Mully and haugh, quite the tough interview there.

 

You have a link by chance?

[mqr]

7 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Its grim, but Jerry is an old man.  At some point in the next decade, things will have to change.  

Not necessarily for the better though.