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Steve Stone with a dose of reality for Sox fans


caulfield12
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Via his Twitter feed...

https://mobile.twitter.com/stevestone

We can’t tell anyone how to feel or when to vent. We can’t tell you how to express your frustration. That’s up to you. Do what you need to do. Just remember that there are many people in life who are behind you win or tie. Let it all out. Stay with us or don’t. Your choice...

A beautiful house takes 5 yrs to build. The builder tells you that. After 2.5 years you rant and rave that it’s not good. Is that shocking to you? It’s an instant gratification society. You’re not happy. We get it. The job is halfway done. Enjoy the process or don’t. Up to you...

Slumps are frustrating. Bad baseball isn’t cause for celebration. The “all is lost” fan view is no more realistic than sizing the rings after a hot streak. Plenty of twists and turns. We’ll be here every game as will the team giving our best. Sometimes it’s not good enough...

Sometimes when you lose a player you lose his stats and not much else. When Tim Anderson went down the Sox lost they’re (their) identity. He brings a swagger and aggressiveness to the team that is greatly missed. His bravado is his calling card. He’ll lead this team. It’s who he is...

 

Edited by caulfield12
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The only problem I see with his house building analogy when it comes to the Sox is that in our scenario is like having faith in a builder that accidentally knocked our house down while doing simple repairs. 

 

I was/still am all in favor of a rebuild. It was the right thing to do. I just don’t have any faith in our front office to do the job correctly. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be pessimistic about the situation. Obviously it’s 100% out of my control and I just have to accept it, but I find it pretty damn hard to be positive 

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Just now, Lip Man 1 said:

Phil Rosenthal has a story on this in the Tribune today. (Paywall). Sox fans weren't very happy about Stone's comments and fired back in droves using words like "clown show", "tire fire" and "disaster."

Next year there won’t be the injury excuse and they will have unprecedented financial flexibility.

Yet Hahnbot will still be able to talk his way out of trouble, probably by sacrificing Renteria and promising the new coaching staff will have the same effect as pre-2012 changes did in turning things around.

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1 minute ago, TheFutureIsNear said:

The only problem I see with his house building analogy when it comes to the Sox is that in our scenario is like having faith in a builder that accidentally knocked our house down while doing simple repairs. 

 

I was/still am all in favor of a rebuild. It was the right thing to do. I just don’t have any faith in our front office to do the job correctly. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be pessimistic about the situation. Obviously it’s 100% out of my control and I just have to accept it, but I find it pretty damn hard to be positive 

Yes, in Stone’s analogy, Frank Lloyd Wright is the designer/architect...which is pretty much the equivalent of Luhnow/Epstein/Friedman.

Or the unfinished house got destroyed by a tornado and there wasn’t yet any homeowner’s insurance in place.

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I replied to Steve that I completely understand where Sox fans are coming from. That if you took a poll the majority of them would say they do not trust ownership / front office to get the job done and that when you've had six straight losing years and nine of the last 12, its hard to be "patient." Rebuild is being slowed by poor drafting, bad trades and God-awful free agent signings. Hell the Sox can't even keep their rebuild core pieces healthy.

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I do agree with Stone on this. We were never meant to win this year. it was fun being around 500 for the first half. But next year we should have at least a decent lineup and an improved pitching staff. if we add a couple big pieces this off season next year we should be winning and competing for the playoffs.

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2 minutes ago, yesterday333 said:

I do agree with Stone on this. We were never meant to win this year. it was fun being around 500 for the first half. But next year we should have at least a decent lineup and an improved pitching staff. if we add a couple big pieces this off season next year we should be winning and competing for the playoffs.

"If" the biggest little word in the world...and if those pieces actually perform and don't turn out like Keppinger, Dunn, LaRoche, Frazier, Alonso, Nova, Herrera and so on. The onus will be on the front office for sure next off-season...we'll see what happens.

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4 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

"If" the biggest little word in the world...and if those pieces actually perform and don't turn out like Keppinger, Dunn, LaRoche, Frazier, Alonso, Nova, Herrera and so on. The onus will be on the front office for sure next off-season...we'll see what happens.

I totally agree. That is a big IF. I get why didn't go after anybody last year besides MM and Harper, but this year you had better be going after the top players. I think coming away empty handed or a couple of B or C FAs it will be worse than missing out on Harpchado...

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Since when does a beautiful house take 5 years to build?

Seriously though, I'm not sure who he's referring to. Sox fans have been ridiculously patient with this rebuild and the ones I know at least, they still are. Those guys have gotten more fan support for this rebuild that they ever deserved.

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NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY, not one person, from the White Sox organization should ever say anything even remotely negative about the impatience the Sox fan base is having with this rebuild.  Not after only one playoff appearance and just one measly playoff win in the 14 years since the World Series in '05.  They should be grateful they even still have a fan base.   

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I don’t think anything Stone said was necessarily wrong. People should try to have a patient outlook at the way the rebuild is developing. That doesn’t mean you should not be critical either. I actually think this team has shown more growth this year than any of the previous ones, despite all the injuries throughout the system. The injuries to Jimenez, Anderson, and Rodon just point out the lack of depth right now, which is something that can be addressed as the team gets closer to their competitive window. 

I really dislike the house analogy he uses. I don’t think you can compare something like that to a fluid rebuild. Rebuilds are not linear IMO. There are absolutely ups and downs. 

I have serious doubts whether this FO can get to the finish line, but in their defense, they have surprised the hell out of me throughout the process. Robert signing was unheard of at the time. Eloy’s extension is the largest contraction team history to a guy who never even had a MLB at-bat. This offseason is going to be huge. If they fail to improve the team through FA again, it’s going to be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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3 minutes ago, Sarava said:

Since when does a beautiful house take 5 years to build?

Seriously though, I'm not sure who he's referring to. Sox fans have been ridiculously patient with this rebuild and the ones I know at least, they still are. Those guys have gotten more fan support for this rebuild that they ever deserved.

Sox fans have not been ridiculously patient with the rebuild. The Atros who many people use an example had 3 or 4 100 loss seasons during the rebuild. The Sox have had one.  People can be pessimistic but let's not go overboard.

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1 minute ago, Fan O'Faust said:

NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY, not one person, from the White Sox organization should ever say anything even remotely negative about the impatience the Sox fan base is having with this rebuild.  Not after only one playoff appearance and just one measly playoff win in the 14 years since the World Series in '05.  They should be grateful they even still have a fan base.   

I would say they have been impatient during the 3rd year (this year) of the rebuild. The Sox played way over their heads with this rotation in the first half. This caused this losing streak to really hurt. 

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6 minutes ago, ptatc said:

Sox fans have not been ridiculously patient with the rebuild. The Atros who many people use an example had 3 or 4 100 loss seasons during the rebuild. The Sox have had one.  People can be pessimistic but let's not go overboard.

They have a remarkable record with their top draft choices since Castro....even the clear mistakes they have made, Appel instead of Bryant and then Aiken the following year, that directly led to Bergman, Tucker and Daz Cameron (big part of Verlander deal).     

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Houston_Astros_first-round_draft_picks

 

ae58a423-5eb3-4e2d-8836-2349e5604bd5

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I didn't even know any fans were complaining? They can't be referring to soxtalk. Twitter isn't exactly ablaze with anti Sox posts. I mean the Sox are totally insignificant to a country and a city it plays in. Kind of dumb to tweet that. But I still love Stone. He should have praised Jose. The fact he didn't shows he's a company man which is fine. Again, I love Stone.

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18 minutes ago, Sarava said:

Since when does a beautiful house take 5 years to build?

Seriously though, I'm not sure who he's referring to. Sox fans have been ridiculously patient with this rebuild and the ones I know at least, they still are. Those guys have gotten more fan support for this rebuild that they ever deserved.

He needs a do-over. Those tweets assume anybody cares about the Sox. Yeah 20 or so diehards on a message board are furious. Big deal.

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19 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

So now they wheeled out Stone to make the excuses.

Which rebuilder took 5 years, Stone?  Certainly not Epstein, Luhnow, Beane, and the GMs of the  Braves, Phillies, Brewers, Twins and Rays.

Yeah, but has Beane every actually built anything? How many rings? How many pennants? 

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My only thing is why are people so irritated they didn't add guys that would make this like an 80 win team? The core isn't quite ready to produce but it will be soon, why does it matter who holds their place in the meantime. 

It's clear to me that they are looking to flip a switch as opposed to ramping up. Whether they can flip that switch or not remains to be seen. I'll start sweating this time next year. 

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Just now, mqr said:

My only thing is why are people so irritated they didn't add guys that would make this like an 80 win team? The core isn't quite ready to produce but it will be soon, why does it matter who holds their place in the meantime. 

It's clear to me that they are looking to flip a switch as opposed to ramping up. Whether they can flip that switch or not remains to be seen. I'll start sweating this time next year. 

Sadly the last time they tried to "flip that switch" it resulted in Shark and a bunch of losing.  Let's fucking hope the MLB scouting has improved.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that Yonder and Jay were brought in as Manny concierges and not purely for on-field reasons.  Which, is absolutely mind blowing and beyond dumpster fire level of a fail but whatever we covered the insanity of the "Friends and Family" plan pretty well this off season that ground is well sowed.

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