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I'm sure Bauer hired his agent based on her extraordinary negotiating skills and wealth of experience, doing something.... But regardless, he's the same guy who asked for an arb number that involved 420 and 69 in it, and likely lost his case and some extra money in large part because of it. And he turned around and threw the ball into the stands or towards the stands when getting pulled out of his last Indians appearance in a public hissy fit. For an overpaid #3 starter, I don't really think he's worth that much of a headache. Hoepfully Cease and Kopech develop as desired, because if they do, people will forget about all of this outside help stuff rather quickly.

And Obama is a White Sox fan. Who cares? What does politics have to do with this?

Right now JR has sent a couple of expensive bottles of champagne to KW and RH for ridding him of this.

I believe his already solid defense and base running will improve with a bit more experience and teaching. The few mistakes he made seem exaggerated by the very small sample size. The kid will hit, get on base, move runners over, and score some runs. What more do you need from a 9 hole hitter?

Part of this is also having a beat writer who respects that his audience cares about this level of detail

This is now a sexist comment.

No. I don’t care this is half personal. No. Go somewhere else.

Bauer is a so much more logical pick then Springer. It's not even close. Any World Series team can win it with a guy like Eaton in the lineup. Superior pitching every day will enhance your chances much more. Add Bauer and maybe you don't have to get the most expensive reliever on the market. Hendriks is a built in excuse not to add big money to the starting rotation. If Bauer is truly interested in just about any type of contract ,that's in the Sox wheelhouse. He may just be the guy that doesn't want and the longest highest contract he can get.

Thanks! There is a thread for that.

Just go the next logical step further. The federal govt owns and operates the sports leagues. Teams are portioned out such that all areas have 1 team and that 1 team represents a consistent population size. Players are government employees whose salaries are capped at a minimum and maximum, and bonuses are collected into a central fund and then portioned out at the end of the year equally based upon statistical performance. Players are well-paid patriots, all monies coming from al aspects of the enterprise including monies from private companies purchasing licensing rights, etc. are re-routed to fund educational structures and other necessary aspects of society such as infrastructure development and repair, etc. Why? Because when the Chicago White Sox play the Cleveland Indians in America before an audience of the people, Chicago and Cleveland, and their populaces and the country as well, are the ones who should "get rich" out of it, or profit out of it, if anyone does at all. The reality is that it is the reinsdorf White Sox vs. the dolan Indians, and the entire thing is funded by the workforce and predominantly the working class, and yet there's always this finger pointing between a bunch of overpaid players and a bunch of fat fuck owners as to who is broke / can't feed their family and who can. Etc. In reality you only need paying viewers and players, and there's no need for owners at all, and they are easily the most useless and unnecessary drains on society overall.

If Biden ran 4 years ago, none of this would have happened.

Ummmm...quote from Suze Orman? It sounds almost Hitlerian when you consider the redistribution is away from minorities/women and towards upper class whites. If you could prove it was going more towards those under 35, that would be at least one positive spin for the country, notwithstanding the completely unnecessary nature of inflicting most of this on ourselves.

Oh ok. Well, welcome to Soxtalk yourself then!

It is a greeting of warm salutation.

They’ve seen him a bunch physically in last year. He made it clear that from a baseball standpoint, he’s not far away. He needs to assimilate culturally though and learn how to play every day. The grind is a bigger issue. I’d bet he goes to Winston-Salem

My kind of guys. We do have the same owner who, in his reign has never, produced back to back playoff teams. Hopefully that changes this year but I'm not going to take anything for granted like making the playoffs every year for the next 6 years. If we can't win a World Series in the next 3 years there isn't going to be one in the following 3 years. It takes this team 10 years of coming close before they realize they can't/won't spend enough to get them over the top before they tear it down again. The Sox had good teams in the 90's. We kept hearing about 2nd highest winning percent for a cumulative period. It never got them in the playoffs in back to back years. It didn't get them a World Series . They won 1 World Series because ,in an unlikely chain of events, a lot of good things happened that you could say was planned, based on a number of roster decisions ending up working, but ,in the grand scheme was just so much going right at the same time, it can only be described as luck or fate. The Sox aren't real good at actually planning to win because they don't do it that often. They always suck at one thing or another , drafting, trading for or signing bums or trading away superstars ,international draft, MLB scouting but mostly not really caring about winning.

Yeah except he hates the media because it won't kiss his ass. He doesn't give a shit about whether or not the media is subconsciously racist like most of America.

I hope the next White Sox ownership group are affluent sportsmen - not these egocentric bean-counters. Actually, they'll have to be affluent to keep this budding star-studded team together. Reinsdorf bought the Sox for pennies on the dollars and got a great deal with the state - with the expectation he could then use his resources to turn the Sox into perennial contenders. We got played and that's why I loathed him. (And don't get me started with the way he's ran the Bulls needlessly into the ground). And unless he was bowled over by some Balmer-like premium, P.T. Barnum 2.0. will never give us the satisfaction of watching him hand over the keys to the White Sox kingdom to a new ownership group. He has a monopoly on NBA basketball in a tri-state area. That family will never sell the Bulls.

Katz will fix em

The #1 goal is to win a WS. I think it is foolish to think this is going to be some sort of dynasty especially with this owner. I am not suggesting to upload the farm for some mid grade players, but giving a closer a 4 year deal shouldn't be a problem. Win the WS, and then we can talk about the possibility of a dynasty.

To me this Hendriks pursuit is like watching a bunch of kids having an easter egg hunt in the back yard, and you know there's a landmine in there because you just saw the dog take a dump in the grass this morning, and you're just sitting there watching and hoping that it's not your kid who ends up stepping into the pile of shit while trying to win a prize.

I’m sure I will get pushback on this, but what exactly was Cooper doing with these guys the last few years

FWIW, I think it's cool that she's trying to break into a male-dominated business as a young woman. I think the people on Twitter saying she's going to cost Bauer a ton of money cause she doesn't know what she's doing is pretty sexist. Do I think that some of the stuff they're getting involved in on social is counter-productive? Perhaps. Bauer was doing that shit on his own anyhow. But I also doubt teams would not pay a guy as talented as Bauer just because he and his agent don't act like the rest of the agents in baseball. I do find it weird that they vlog all day and are clearly more than just friends. I'm not sure how many players would admit to having their significant other/girlfriend as their agent. But then again, Bauer is just weird like that.

In his first 29 career games last year Madrigal hit .340, and here we have a 6 page thread with people complaining about him. So bizarre.

This is the nerd saying he didn't want to date the prom queen because she wears too much make up, knowing damn well she has no idea who he even is.

Hitters are also up there to swing early if it is a fastball over the plate. Back in the day you would start with a fastball over the plate and the hitter would usually take it to get a little deeper in the count and then the AB would start. But today hitters have to attack every mistake over the plate because you usually only see one fat pitch per AB. That means pitchers need to be more careful with the first pitch which leads to deeper counts and more walks. But still strike 1 is important of course and especially reylo and cease have to improve that. Pitch one doesn't have to be a FB and it doesn't even have to be in the zone but it has to be close enough to be either called a strike or get a swing. That being said the "coop let the pitchers only throw FBs" is a bit overblown, I think it was time to replace him but he also wasn't that old school, the sox in 2020 were 8th in fastball percentage in the AL which is middle of the pack.

They have these as Podcasts now in your Podcast app. Inside the Clubhouse.

We...don't know. Especially when some of the Capitol police aided and abetted the attack on that facility, and there were other people from law enforcement nationwide in the mob...I would call that a legitimate concern.

Can you please tell this to "The Chicago White Sox", rather than to their fans? Because their fans are responding to their behavior, where they seem to have a strong payroll limit where they are flat out unwilling to go after the top players. Consider our competition in San Diego. This offseason, they just added a starting pitcher, highly paid but very effective the last year and a half, under contract for several years. They are about to sign their second $300 million+ contract. Some of the moves they make will not look good at the end - some already don't, but they realize they can beat the Dodgers right now and are acting like it. If they take losses the next year or two, they believe it will be worth it because they can bring a title to San Diego. Compare that to the Chicago White Sox. They see Lance Lynn, who has been almost as good the last few years, and say "this is a guy we need to add!". Yes! We can win this year! Then, they see a major hole in right field, where White Sox fans have been eyeing George Springer, a playoff proven player who would be a nearly perfect fit, who even hit righties better than lefties the last 2 years so that platoon thing isn't a big worry - and they say "We signed Adam Eaton for $6 million before someone else could get him!!!". They look at their need of a reliever, in this thread, where we could get this done right now if we were willing to go to about $50 million give or take, and see "yes, that would be a fair contract for that player, he is the best reliever on the market and would absolutely be a perfect fit for our championship team the next 2 years, and that's why we won't pay that price and will only take him if he's a bargain." If the White Sox are operating with such a stringent payroll requirement that they cannot risk losing money like the Padres, even though their stadium has been 1/2 full for a decade so there's plenty of opportunity for revenue growth and they've been immensely profitable in recent years...then they need to act like it and hoard years of control. If you cannot afford to play with the big boys in San Diego of all places, then you cannot give up 6 years of a potentially decent starter for 1 year of a hopefully very good starter. You cannot waste money in noncompetitive years (2019's wasted $50 million), you cannot trade young players for expensive closers who you hold in 1 competitive season, you cannot trade away your international signing dollars because your scouts are lazy and your owner is stubborn, you cannot put a potential long term starter in your bullpen rather than starting to stretch him out and preserving his service time, and this list of issues could go on. If you have such a salary limit, you have to run with the things you can develop and already control, and you have to try to steal guys with years of control. You may have a more money to play with, but you have to think like the A's, Baseball Club Cleveland, or Rays, and pinch every penny. Maybe you have enough money you don’t have to trade away every good player, but you have to constantly be thinking long term. If the White Sox are going to trade controlled young players for 34 year old starters who have been very good the last few years but have 1 year of control remaining, then they need to act like they're going to win right now and they're willing to lose money to do it.. Hendricks's contract may be Herrera bad in year 4, but if you have 2 straight world series appearances and a title, congrats on the 38,000 season tickets sold in 2024. If you're right, and this roster could be substantially weaker after 2024, then they need to act like the 2nd of these. If they can't afford to, then they shouldn't have put themselves in a position where they are giving away players they control after that point like Dunning and spending years of control on Crochet in the bullpen. Pick a path.

The Cat is Back!!!

I hope he convinces Lopez to work faster. With a runner on...he looks afraid to throw the ball. Needs some eye of the Tiger aggression.

Joe Biden. Which is why it's interesting that he didn't win by even more of a landslide, although part of that is probably due to Trump framing him as a radical socialist

Unfortunately our man has already moved into inflation threats and his brain has already retconned these thoughts

I will Venmo Hendricks $20 to make a decision today even if not sox to cover the loss of signing earlier

This is the one mistake the Sox made that no matter how hard I try, I can't stop being bitter about it.

Exactly

For the record, I believe this DeWon Day burner about Hendriks already agreeing w the Jays - 3 years, option year, $13mil AAv. Hope the Sox adjust accordingly or we're going to have serious egg on our face. Very disappointing. Not sure what Hahn is doing.

I would have hated to witness an actual vicious attack.

Time for thousands to cry about freedom of speech while ironically exhibiting that they don't know how it works

If he can get Cease and Lopez straightened out, he will be the best acquisition of this off season.

Wow! First time I have seen a pitcher by pitcher plan of action. I think we are going to like this Katz guy.☺️

Seems like just repeating "stay tall" may not work with everyone.

Adding Cutters.

WE GONNA CALL IT CODE BOOM

MLB needs to significantly raise the luxury tax threshold and add a spending floor. If the Yankees want to hand out to spend on star players whose contract will eventually hurt them later, let them. And honestly, it's pathetic that teams like the Indians and Pirates have what, $40 mill payrolls?

We pumped trillions into the stock market. 50 new billionaires! Bezos and Musk worth more than ever! Shame about the millions slipping into poverty and facing hunger and homelessness, though.

Oh and the economy is starting to tank again because surprise you can't actually chose economy over lives/public safety and let a pandemic rage unchecked

Madrigal was pick 4. Vaughn 3. Both will be getting rings as everyday players with the Sox. Enjoy the show.

I see Soxtalk is Soxtalking. Madrigal has played a grand total of 29 games and has had 109 plate appearances at the major league level...and we're writing him off as garbage because he made a few rookie mistakes. He batted .340 in those 109 plate appearances and played a pretty good second base. Maybe we give him a full season before deciding he's trash.