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This only puts them in a better position to compete with us.

I ran businesses for ten years. When revenues went up, staff got raises to the tune of those revenue escalations. That's how good finance is supposed to work, but sadly it's not how it has worked for a while in this country leading to an immense inequality divide. I'm not sure what owning a business has to do with analyzing revenues vs salaries. NBA, NFL and NHL all tie salaries directly to revenue growth and share. So I guess those leagues/players/agents/GM's/Owners should come talk to you because they apparently don't know how to run a business either. Fact is, salaries should be compared to revenues. Given that revenues have gone way up, expecting salaries to follow suit is a reasonable expectation imo. Certainly not something to be "shocked by" or to ignore when discussing contract growth.

For a guy who complains about bitching, almost every one of your posts is bitching.

Hopefully this isn't the the Ricky Vaughn Eliminator

Fuck Trevor Bauer and Fuck the Dodgers. Time for MLB to get a grip. Salary caps + revenue sharing = Credibility and competitiveness. Economic Stimulus checks are too big you say? 40 Million / $1,400 = 28,571 people Sorry to wax about political/social ideology, but wealth inequality in this country just gets uglier every time you see something like this.

Nice to name it after Hector Gomez.

Some of these owners are so dumb spending actual money on good players

We’ve been led on by an incomplete sentence all along, this “The money will be spent” business. Spent on what? Premium available talent on the open market? Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, George Springer, and Trevor Bauer say “HELL NO! Not the White Sox! Not Jerry Reinsdorf!”. Only the Indians, Pirates, Athletics, and Royals have the highest contracts those teams have ever given out less than the Sox’ “franchise record” $73 million given to Grandal last year. It would be one thing if Reinsdorf’s frugal methods over his four decades as owner resulted in, you know, all kinds of winning. Championship after championship after championship. Yet we all know it’s been anything but that. Not one playoff series win in 39 of his 40 years at the helm. So it’s clear that at this time of a championship window of opportunity that winning isn’t the top priority the occasional Reinsdorf fluff piece would have us believe. We just have to hope now that the young, cheap talent can overcome the lesser talent that has been brought into augment them. In other words, hope the team can prevail in spite of the owner’s cheap ways.

2021 Payroll $40 million Trevor Bauer $43 million Cleveland Indians.

Glennon Trubisky Foles Wentz! 4th time's the charm

Great deal for Bauer. I’m a huge fan but will never complain that the Sox didn’t top this.

Fixable....by the Bears?!?!?

I didn't watch last season because playing baseball during a global crisis is fucking stupid and irresponsible. I still followed. This is the second most talented starting lineup and the most talented staff of my lifetime. I'll enjoy this season. Honestly, I post so little these days that I'm surprised you know who I am. I must have touched a nerve or something because I have no idea what you're even about.

Yeah, I for one want nothing to do with the current NL Cy Young winner. I can't wait to look at August when Carlos Rodon is giving up a long home run to Cruz. Hey we might lose this game, but at least he didn't do something on Twitter. Glad you have your principles. I could give a fuck if he puts on a puppet show on Twitter every Friday if he is the best pitcher available. I want that on my team. These principled people who don't want X person because it hurts their sensibilities are funny. I would rather get the best available player. The same people who hated AJ before he was here loved him here. Dennis Rodman, sure when he was with Detroit you hated him. I want the best player. If he is doing something illegal then no. Dont want him. But because he has X opinion or uses twitter or makes something about himself. Good lord.

If they're on the verge of giving Gio a 9 figure extension, then I would understand the penny pinching. Otherwise, it's disappointing. They had a chance to grab this division by the balls and they passed on that opportunity.

Too busy making up and tweeting Sox rumors to do this.

It's not really about "did they spend what they were trying to spend on Machado". Its: "the window is wide f'in open right now"...and they're rolling with no right fielder, a rookie DH, 2 young wildcards in the rotation, all while having a cheap core. Holes could EASILY be filled by JR parting with a couple of his coins. Instead what I fear is this time next year we go in saying "man if we just get a right fielder, a DH, and another starter and we just might make it to the ALCS"

You could fill a large lake with the water you carry for this organization. I am sold. They did their best. If we dont win the division or any playoff games this year. We can always have this.

Giolito primed for another standout season (mlb.com) This is exciting. “It’s like a 12-6 curveball, but it just goes down,” Giolito said. “It comes out of my hand almost like a slider variant. It’s hard to give it a real true name like curveball or slider. But the whole idea of it is it comes out on my fastball plane and then just goes down kind of later, whereas my slider is a little more right to left with that downward action. This one is more like out of the hand fastball plane, straight down late So...like a straight, slow, sinker maybe? With hard break on it?

This is the deepest this list has been in awhile. We didn't rank Vera yet because he hasn't officially signed but he'd slot in near Thompson and Dalquist. https://www.futuresox.com/2021/02/05/top-white-sox-prospects-starting-pitchers/

Isn't the main objective in sports to win championships? [Refraining from Jerry Reinsdorf jokes] ... Other than Watson, there is no QB on the market who makes the Bears a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Not Wentz, not Carr, not Garoppolo, or whoever else is rumored to be available. The rest of the Bears team isn't good enough. OL is average at best, we're about to lose our our best offensive player, and the defense is another year older... Keep Foles, ride out a shitty 6-10 season next year, and start to stockpile assets while getting the salary cap back in order. That's the strategic long-term play here. Except we kept a GM who is desperate and will make short-term moves to gain an extra win or two, leaving us in a long-term bind. On that note, Pace has zero understanding of asset management. He trades away draft picks like they're nothing because he always has to move up to get "his guy." The problem with this is that history/analytics show that trading up is a bad idea. Hell, per the Under Center pod a few weeks ago, Pace tried to trade up for Kmet last year (thankfully he couldn't). After all his bad trades, he still hasn't learned his lesson. What makes anyone think he's trustworthy of fixing this team?

They could offer him now 7/120. This would buy out the 3 arb years (maybe 35m or so combined) and then give them 4 more years which would make him a FA at age 32 and gives him another chance for a good payday.

And why would anyone give the Sox a hometown discount? They wind up trading them anyway.

Epic fail! Jeff Pasan QFT

Wow, what a contract. That is some insane money. I got to be honest, that makes me feel better about not getting him. It's not that I think the money will hurt the franchise.... it's just there's no way in hell Jerry was going there. I was thinking something along the lines of 4 years 30 million ... but 2 years 85 mil with all those opt outs? Amazing job by Luba and i'm happy for bauer, he deserves it! As for the Dodgers... jesus christ, what a staff. A dodgers overpay is honestly the only thing that would have made me not insanely mad at Jerry here. I'm surprised to say im OK with this.

If Jerry is still running this organization in 3yrs, Giolito will be traded.

I personally think the name goes great with the logo of our beloved stadium. Hell, he should advertise the pitch and have Guaranteed Rate sponsor it with their logo.

I’d rather roll with Trubisky over Wentz straight up with this OLine. And to give up tons of picks- oh my

Every MLB team has the finances to operate this way. Revenues have doubled since 2008 (to be exact, they're up 78%). payrolls have not. I have no idea why people choose to ignore this fact, but MLB revenues have soared, you guys are literally just stanning for ownership to pocket more and more money. This contract isn't crazy by any means.

Only the Dodgers and perhaps the Yankees have the finances to operate this way. All other teams if you can't pay cheaply for 2/5 or 3/5 of your rotation, you are screwed.

Wow, if they get Wentz for a haul and he doesn't work out, between the 4 years they completely wasted by drafting Mitch and the damage done from a bad trade, Pace could be one of the worst GMs of all time. I'll wait to see what it costs, but if it's a lot, this is an absolutely brutal move and why you don't let lame duck coaches and GMs stick around, they don't care about anything but next year and it's not like the Bears are a good QB away from the Super Bowl.

This is really the first year I know of where the main guys have reported done deals and been wrong. A lot of there other stuff is wrong. Their sources get fed bad info all of the time.

You don't even watch the team, isn't that correct? So how would you know there are no legitimate gripes?

I wonder what is next for the people who thought there was a chance the Sox were involved. They probably think Ryan Pace, who when he had the 3rd pick in the draft and 2 fuure HOFers would have been available to chose from, decided to trade up and draft the 2020 version of Rex Grossman. Mike Glennon and Nick Foltz were a couple more. But now that he has a lower pick and no cap space, he will probably make a sound decision.

LOL You're a troll right?

Someone needs to tell Lucas the truth that he is not good at naming things before this gets out of hand.

Grandal should be playing damn near everyday. Just has as he has done pretty much every season of his career. He was way under utilized last year, though I do know he struggled with back issues. Now that your loverboy McCann is gone, no reason Yasmani should not be catching pretty much all but the 1 or 2 day games after a night game per week.

Sounds like it's a hard curveball, Lucas.

Remember Gyroball mania...Downerball is going to the MOON!

I realize this is yet another thread that has evolved into "fuck the cheap owner, I hope he dies." I will stick to my stand of not being overly upset at how the White Sox spend their money until it comes down to retaining our own talent. That's where I will be holding pitchforks and stones with the rest of you. I don't want to hear Rick Hahn and Reinsdorf cry poor when it's time to pay up for Lucas Giollito. When it's time to re-extend Tim Anderson or any of the other young players we have that have broken out to stars at some point. If we have another bail out like in the 90s of losing our core in McDowell, Fernandez, Alvarez, Ventura all because we didn't want to pay the market on our own guys, I'm going to have a real big issue with that.

Precisely why Marwin Gonzalez needs to be brought on board. Can't imagine it would take more than 1/$5, 2/$9M type deal.

I do wonder if part of this is where the division we're in makes Jerry the worst version of himself. If we are instead staring at the Dodgers or the Yanks/Rays every year does it change? When you have the dodgers in your division you can't say "well an injury here or there". The Indians overwhelmed with star power most of these years. Same with DET. Sox haven't had to face the teams that try to hack the regular season with that kind of depth. Instead we are recreating the star model. And we have a lot of em. But a few injuries could crush this season.

Next year the excuse will be the CBA uncertainty/potential strike and financial losses incurred in 2020-21due to Covid...will they really go out and boost the payroll into the $145-165 million range heading into that tsunami of an offseason? Maybe the MLBPA will be licking its wounds from lost salaries over these two seasons, but you’re looking at two entrenched sides that won’t easily give in, especially with the owners gaining the upper hand the last 5-7 years.

You know what has vastly exceeded inflation, whereas salaries lost real value for MLB players (and most workers)? Most recent available data: Chicago White Sox ML Player Salaries increased 0.15% 2011 $127.8M 2021 $128.0M Chicago White Sox Net Income increased 239.1% 2011 $27.6M 2019 $66.0M Chicago White Sox Current Value increased 313.7% 2011 $526M 2019 $1,650.0M And Jerry and the other 29 lying owners all pose like this And before a pinhead replies "what about 2020", A. The players had to risk their lives and had their pay cut by 63%. Meanwhile, clubs continue to sell, even in COVID, for record amounts. They make so much net income in 99 of the past 100 years, and their valuations increase by such a high rate, that billionaires are fighting each other and outbidding each other by record amounts to get a piece of the action.

It's a lazy comparison, but the Padres are a perfect example of that not being the case. They have arguably the best SS in the sport, one of the best utility players in the sport (Cronenworth), yet were still able to sign Kim & Profar in free agency. If the Padres were able to sign *two* players in the mold I'm talking about, it doesn't make sense why the Sox wouldn't have been able to add one. Building a team with the expectation of everyone being healthy and not having a slump just isn't realistic. There's no such thing as having too many good players. Depth is a very underrated aspect of team building.

Still a bit early to think about extending Lynn...need to see him for at least a couple of months, as those long-term deals for players in their 30’s have the highest bust rates. You were talking about trading an Anderson/Giolito (well, maybe more in a general sense, just following the logic) for more pieces to extend the contention window beyond 2023-24. That’s a tricky game. Moncada and Jimenez certainly have their flaws/limitations...and even Luis Robert has a lot left to prove. Vaughn, as highly-regarded as he is by many, has to hit at the same clip as Jimenez or even higher to make up for speed/baserunning and defensive deficiencies. Madrigal’s weaknesses have been dissected to death. That said, it’s challenging to think of any combination of six hitters in MLB under age 27 that’s as highly-regarded. At any rate, it keeps circling back to either Anderson or Giolito. Those are the two at closest to peak value. If if weren’t for the Padres having Tatis, Jr., and Machado, a rotation that goes 7-8 deep, STILL one of the Top 5-7 farm systems in the game...it wouldn’t be nearly so annoying. They’re clearly a much smaller market team, but they operate like they’re unafraid of anyone. Imagine what Reinsdorf would do if we were in the same division as the Dodgers every year? We’d turn into the Cincinnati Reds. We can barely put the foot on the gas pedal when the Indians are basically surrendering and the Twins went for months without doing much.

I agree the contention window opened in 2020, and the Sox spent on major free agents - Grandal, Keuchel, Encarnacion - that they hadn't before, and committed much more to extend Jose Abreu than most fans thought wise. They also locked up two cornerstones in Robert and Moncada. This year they added Lynn. It's a one-year deal but gives them an inside track on extending him if it makes sense. They added Hendriks for several years. Eaton, meanwhile, is just a bridge player. But they are also bringing up Vaughn and Kopech and giving Collins a chance as backup catcher. The payroll is going to grow considerably as all the young guys move gain experience, and as their contracts call for. Take any of the studs they have on long term deals. Moncada - 2021 $6.8M, 2025 $25M Robert - 2021 $3.5M, 2025 $15M Jimenez - 2021 $4.3M, 2025 $16.5M Anderson - 2021 $7.25M, 2024 $14M Just for these 4 guys, 2021 $21.85M, 2025 $70M (fudging b/c Tim Anderson signed only through 2024). Add in potentially doing something about Giolito, who only receives 4.15M in 2021 and you have the potential to increase payroll with just 5 guys by $70M. If looked at this way, you can see why the Sox weren't in on Springer or Bauer, especially on long term contracts. They have been willing to supplement the core with short term free agents - 3-4 years tops - who they desperately have to replace with younger players in their cost-controlled years. So Lynn and Keuchel are bridges to Cease and Kopech and Crochet becoming TOR starters. Eaton is a bridge to Cespedes and/or Colas (if we sign him). It's hard to believe Collins will ever be a front line catcher, but he has 3 years to learn under Grandal before the Sox have to decide. Vaughn will eventually take over for Abreu. We all think the Sox are a major market team and should act like one. But we all know the Sox play second fiddle to the Cubs financially, even when the Cubs are bad and the Sox are good. Chicago is likely never going to become a Sox town. Though another World Series title would help. So I don't fault the team for it's approach. They have financial limits. I might not like them, but I can understand them. I don't think they are just cheaping out. I just want them to spend the money they have wisely, and to develop the players they have to play their best, and to win games with good management. I'm excited about the prospects for this team and think we have a shot. I think we'll win the division by several games and are set up well for playoff baseball. But that's another post.

Which leads to the conclusion that overall salary increases for MLB players are not even close to rising at the inflation rate over the last decade, despite a historic ten year stock market return when the billionaire class is getting exponentially richer and player share as a proportion of total team revenues (at least until 2020) has been decreasing by 0.xx% per year over that time. They’re rising at the top and bottom, but the “middle class” veteran players in their 30s are getting crushed. One of the few areas where salaries have risen during that time is for higher leverage relievers...a consequence of the Royals’ run, Andrew Miller in the postseason and the emergence of dominant multiple inning guys.

Long answer: no they have not Short answer: no

Collect Operator: "Will you accept a collect call from, Jerry Reinsdorf?"