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Because switching and/or abandoning your favorite sports team is unconstitutional and punishable by death…or at least it should be

214 wins with a no-hitter, perfect game, and WS ring. 100%, he is a 1st ballot HOFer!

I'm a fan only if I believe that my team is making a reasonable effort to win. I think that's fair.

Join me on the dark side and start streaming NPB lol. It’s all new, no previous loyalties, you get to let your fandom develop organically, and then there’s tons of history to mine. They’re twenty years behind MLB in terms of strategy, so you get to see lots of burning and slashing like people keep saying they want over here again. The talent range is twice as wide as MLB, so the superstars are extremely exciting. The worst players, though, still find a way to be useful by focusing on one thing like defense or contact at the plate. There are less than ten significant free agents every year and they all sign by thanksgiving. High end prospects see top team action often the very next season (draft occurs after the regular season). The only thing is you have to watch all the games on recorded delay and you can’t understand a god damn word anyone is saying.

Do we really want these dopes in charge of another half-assed rebuilding effort?

Remember fangraphs threw Zack Burdi into the top 100 too. Longenhagen consistently does the dumbest s%*# and it’s extremely hard for me to still care about his writeups.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/mark-buehrle-hall-of-fame-case

So Longenhagen goes by Future Value. I just think a 50 FV reliever isn’t the same thing as a 50 FV outfielder. He does

I keep coming back because I’m a fan. That’s it. I don’t die with the losses anymore, but I really enjoy the wins. The successes have been few and far between in my 40+ years as a fan (I’m 50yo) anyway, but my memories of those seasons outweigh the many, many bad seasons. Honestly, they were bad (really bad) when I fist became a fan, so I can find a positive in almost anything more than .500. I won’t stop watching or following when they suck, but I am able to relegate them to the lowest rung of my entertainment ladder when they do. Maybe this is the year…

One of my all time favorite Sox, but Hall of Very Good.

I’ll always be a fan, could never root for another team. Have too many childhood memories tied to the team and family. But my attention and passion has slowly dwindled every year for the past 10 or so years, even more so recently now that I’ve come to terms with how s%*# of an organization they are from top to bottom.

No need to alter the thread title at least.

Stop watching the games on television, and also cancel your streaming accounts. There are so many safe streaming sites to watch Sox games, I can help anyone find other alternatives along with adblockers, just send me a PM You'll be able to watch without the Sox making money off of you. I'd say stop going to games but I think turning off the TV/MLB.tv hurts them more than losing attendance Sox can afford to spend big, they choose not to. It's a choice theyre making to maximize profits. Steve Cohen is choosing to limit profits in exchange for building a super team. If you believe the Sox are poor and can't spend with the big boys, you're very very naive. Sox will spend if they feel like their brand is starting to suffer, and a ratings/advertising bomb is a huge red flag of this

In 42 of your ownership Jerry, the Sox have only won a playoff series in 2005. Don't you think you owe the fans more than that?

Thanks Greg solid analysis merry Christmas k

True but it's hard with 42 yrs of incompetence by ownership and no improvement on the horizon. I think the Tony thing was the final straw for fans that has had enough of Reinsdorf

Idk why I even care anymore. Nobody really should. Ownership doesn't care about winning, so why should we care about the team?

The ONLY thing that keeps me on this board and around this team is because of the memories i have as a kid with this organization, the amazing people on this board, and the fact that I LIVE in Chicago so its the #1 spot for MLB games and following the MLB is one of my great passions in life. I have tried multiple times to distance myself from CWS and I think I am getting close... I just have to find a way to follow the Padres games late at night that works for my schedule and I can throw this ugly franchise away!

They may have won 93 games but then went out tamely in the first round of the post season, like they did the year before. This team has a ceiling of qualifying for the post season (last season excepted) and then the inherent weaknesses that are constantly ignored or created by the FO are exposed when they come up against better teams.

The Sox won 93 games last year. Just grasping at straws and moving goal post to try and prove a team that basically meets your criteria to be a World Series contender doesn’t.

How about this one. Every single champion since 2003 has had a 94 win season or better. They may not have peaked in the regular season where they won their title, but they won at least 94 within 2 years of winning their title. The only one that peaked at 94 was the Giants. The Royals peaked at 95. The Red Sox had a run of 95 win teams. if you want to win a title these days, you need to put a 95 win team on the field. Sometimes your 95 win team will have a bad playoff run but gain experience to win the next year, but they won that many games for a reason, and it wasn’t a crappy division.

I’d actually like to know which team is this example of a team that is built to maybe win 89 games, sneaks into the playoffs, and then wins a title. The most recent example I have might be the 03 Marlins? 04 - Boston. Was a wild card team, improbable ALCS, but was also a perennial playoff team and will show up again soon. 05 - might be the team on here with the least sustained success. Might be the most out of nowhere title in 20 years. 06 - Cardinals - everyone makes a big deal of them winning 82 games, but the same team won 100 games the year before and was in the 04 World Series. That’s a sustained period of excellence. 07 - hey Boston again, maybe they weren’t a fluke. 08 - Phillies - was a surprise at the time but they made the playoffs 5 straight years. 09 - Yankees. Most recent example I have of a team getting a title in FA. 10. 12. 14. Giants. There were a couple wild card appearances in there but that’s seriously sustained success. 11 - Cardinals again. 13 - Red Sox again. 15 - Royals - complete rebuild, “best system in baseball history”, two straight World Series appearances. 16 - Cubs - made NLCS the year before, 5 straight playoff appearances. 17 - Astros. Bit of help from a trash can, but have made the playoffs every year since. 18 - Red Sox again. 19 - Nationals - was a wild card team, but had 5 playoff appearances and 4 division titles since 2012, never finished worse than second. 20 - Dodgers. Definition of sustained success. 21 - Braves - have now won the NL East 5 straight years. 22 - Astros again. This seems very non random to me. There are zero examples of the Rockies or Marlins or Diamondbacks or Pirates sneaking in with an 88 win season and winding up with a title. Teams like that have made the World Series a couple times but I don’t see a win. Every one of them is a multi-year contender who wins their division repeatedly, the shortest stint other than the 05 White Sox is probably the Royals who couldn’t afford to keep a team that made two straight World Series appearances together. Titles are going to franchises that are excellent for years.

If the White Sox are AL Central contenders, they’re also World Series contenders. It’s the nature of the sport. Win the division, get into the tournament and see what happens.

Can we change the title to 'Rick Hahn resigned'...just for fun?

There are people out there that will move to a new city, and will subsequently begin rooting for the new team. I mean, these are people I wouldn’t trust as far as I could throw them.

It’s not the losses that are aggravating enough to lose patience with following the team. I can live with endless failures of execution. But I can’t watch endless intentional brain dead philosophical stupidity.

Even the Astros weren't a "should win 100 games" team last year. They needed a rookie SS a 2nd year CF (who had barely ever been in their top 20 listings), a young pitcher who had been in the pen the prior year and a return of big-time Verlander. And to me, the Sox hope is a similar prescription. A young RF, a young 2B, some injection of youth into the pitching, especially as the season goes on, etc.

I get what you are saying here and we both agree that we want them to do much more to ensure a higher chance of victory, but I have to answer the question honestly, and yes it always matters to make the postseason. No matter how shitty a chance you have, it always matters.

You know Hahn's motto "if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again"

This window stuff is a fiction propagated on behalf of front offices that can't identify and develop talent. If an org can't develop talent, its "window", if it exists, lasts maybe 2 years, when everything comes together. Conclusion: for the Sox, the "window" is already closed, unless the young players rise (Vaughn, Sheets, Sosa et al, Colas, Kopech, Martin or some other young pitchers).

We will be back in the 80s starting Thursday. 70s on Wednesday, we just aren't use to this cold, it's all relative.

Copyright David Sampson.

Agreed! Our odds look very good. I particularly am excited about Pedro and staff...huge upgrade.

And the Sox from 00-08 finished worse than 2nd twice( once in a season they won 90 games btw) and won 3 division titles in that span. Also from 1990-2008 the Sox had the 5th highest winning percentage in baseball, despite only winning 4 divisions and one title. So was it really a fluke, or for one year did all of the right buttons get pushed?

No, just way too many ifs. There are at least 5 to 6 teams in the AL that are better. We had a chance to get better and ownership decided not to seize the opportunity. It’s too bad!!

I'll have some of that Christmas cheer you're drinking. On the surface I agree with you. But deep down we both know that isn't true. So I checked the definition of contender. You are exactly right. According to the denotation of contender then yes, the Sox are contenders. But so too are literally every team in baseball. The connotation of the word contender removes the weak contenders and the highly unlikely contenders, leaving the strong contenders. Currently that just isn't this team. But there are still a few months until opening day.

Lol, just stop.

The window closed the moment JR decided to drag his bestie off the barstool, slap a uniform on his reanimated corpse, and force a woefully incapable washed up hack on this team. Can they surprise and make a World Series run? Sure. Improbable isn’t impossible, but I’m not holding my breath.

No. I think they could win the ALC but nothing beyond that. Their ceiling is getting curbstomped in the ALDS.

Absolutely I believe they are WS contenders. Oops, wrong holiday, I thought it was April Fool's Day. Currently they could win as many as 85 games. They might even win the division. Then they get swept away like old beer cups.

Cease-Kopech-Lynn-Giolito/Clevinger is strong rotation and can win you playoff series if they're all on at the same time.

Almost 50 degrees on New Years Eve in Chicago...maybe I should see if any courses are open? The previously frozen ground should give me some extra roll off the tee.

The more money I see free agent relievers sign for, the more I can see a team wildly overpaying. In that scenario, I'm totally fine with it.

A Liam trade to the Yankees involving Gleybar didnt get a lot of play in this thread so far. O dowd made the intial suggestion and it included Crochet. Yankees do need a closer and have a nice amount of depth in the middle infield. They would also be selling the highly inconsistent Torres on a high note. The Yankess obviously have pieces they rather move 1st and a hole in LF. I doubt they still want Donaldson or Aaron Hicks, But they've also had recent good news involving LeMahieu's toe so that would solve some issues at 3rd base. Maybe the Yankees move Gleybar in a deal for someone like Reynolds. Or they move some of the prospects like Volpe, Peraza or Cabrera. SS is also a trouble spot for the Yankees so when you look at 2nd and SS for them it's tough to predict what they do. I think it's an interesting trade idea,Hendriks for Torres . Not sure of any other pieces but they both have 2 years left and Sox might save some money if it's straight up . I could handle Torres being RH since his D has improved and he hits for power . At least we then know all of our starting position players. Any trades from that point to fill BP and 4th OF could be minor trades or combo of trade with FA signing.

There's no world in which he's a top 10 prospect in the Sox system

I like Sosa better because I believe in the swing changes that have created power. Rodriguez could end up the better player for sure but he's more volatile due to the approach at the plate. I think both are big leaguers though.

Right, so no one in MLB holds & expresses extreme views at the other end of the spectrum? Pretty sure I've seen plenty of questionable tweets from MLB personnel, particularly during the summer of 2020 and specifically as it relates to overarching, toxic, and unfair opinions of law enforcement.

I will chose the radio option for as long as Kasper does tv.

who cares, mcclure sucks. Santos probably sucks, but he was also playing in PCL and had a better ERA in the majors than McClure did in AAA. He also doesn't give up 17 homers a year out of the bullpen.