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Yes, Jerry and Co has been thinking of us the fan base the whole time he was spending less and keeping those profits. This is absolutely laugh reacts only type of stuff right here.

They're not trading Hendriks unless blown away with an offer or they're dogshit again come the trade deadline

Bryson Stott was handed a starting infield position on the world series phillies. Jeremy Pena handed a starting position on the world series astros. Steven Kwan, starting LF for the Cleveland Guardians. Julio Rodriguez, starting CFer for the Seattle Mariners Josh Lowe for Tampa Rays Andrew Vaughn 2021 White Sox Jake Cronenworth won a spot on the 2020 playoff padres as a 26 year old. Chas McCormick, starting in left field for the 2021 houston astros on opening day. Cristian Javier, starts in the rotation for the 2021 Houston Astros Not that novel. Romy and Sosa also were up last year. So they were given time to work into a role. That would make them similar to players like Sean Murphy, who was up for 20 games in 2019 before being handed the starting role on the 2020 contending As. Will Smith with the dodgers. Luis Garcia got a cup of coffee in 2020 before becoming a starter for the Astros in 2021 Then you have the teams that are relying on a player but holding him down to "let him work his way in" like Kris Bryant on the 2015 cubs.

So Jerry...when are you going to spend that money that was hoarded during the lean rebuild years? We were promised.

Jerry you son of a b**** I knew it was you!

" It’s the sure and certain knowledge that not only does the team not care about us like we care about the team if you think differently, you are a dew-eyed romantic...We see the team as a way to transform our hopes, our emotional investment, our literal financial investment," Your perceived financial investment consists of a couple of Polish and a dozen beers or so a year. Transform your hopes? Please. life is so much more than watching a few baseball games each year. If you are indeed older, you would understand that. "Ah, but they know how we conceive the team. It’s where we’ve made friends, where we’ve gone with our families more times than we can count, where on occasion we stand as one with a rising yell in our throats as a ball traces an arc in the night sky, ready to high-five strangers and jump like lunatics. It’s fun. It’s what we care about. It’s part of who we are." Oh come on. "So I don’t know where this anger is going to go. It’s very possible that it starts another cycle of lower attendance, Jerry using that to slash payroll, and so on, on and on, our endless Kali yuga, hoping to stumble into something lucky, waiting for it to all end. " OK, you are angry so just say you will no longer attend because the WSox are "slashing payroll" like extending Luis Robert, Eloy Jiminez, signing FA Liam Hendriks , Grandal, and more recently Bennintendi for 75 Million dollars and assembling one of the best rotations and bullpens in the league. Like maintaining the financial strength of the franchise to make sure that they stay on the South side for the next generations of Sox fans. It's not all about you. Grow the F up and quit whining.

Let me look up every contender of all time for you

I hope Hill pitches forever. As long as he's in the league, there's a guy older than I am and I still have a shot!

Question for the board, but what is it you needed to see from Lenyn Sosa last year to feel comfortable giving him the 2B job? I’ve seen several posters state that he needs more time in the minors, but what more does he need to accomplish there? After a rough start to AAA, he dominated the level and put up numbers consistent with what he did in Birmingham where he was one of the best hitters in the league. Sure, we could ask him to prove it out over a longer sample, but to me it’s quite clear he needs an extended shot in the majors. He 100% could fail and create a black hole at the position, but 22 year old middle infielders putting up numbers like this in the upper minors warrant a serious look. Again, Hahn should go acquire a LH bench piece to hedge this bet, but I really think we should give Lenyn a couple hundred PA’s to show us what he is capable of next year. Level | PA | BB % | K % | ISO | BABIP | OPS | wRC+ AA: 289 | 7.3% | 13.8% | .218 | .340 | .933 | 141 AAA (1/2): 86 | 3.5% | 23.3% | .074 | .323 | .600 | 58 AAA (2/2): 161 | 9.3% | 14.3% | .228 | .336 | .943 | 149 Majors: 36 | 2.8% | 33.3% | .114 | .136 | .367 | -4

Such an excellent article. I agree with everything the guy wrote. I've never been so apathetic about the Sox. As u know I see them going nowhere and it's just disgusting to see that new seating plan. I can honestly say I would love for Jerry to sell the team and the new owner build a new suburban ballpark to a abandon the city like the Bears are doing. I'm getting very close to saying, "Let them move to Vegas." Why do I feel this way? That author of the piece captured my feelings well. The Sox finally have broken me even though I got the WS title in 2005. Hard to belive the goodwill from 05 is lapsed in my mind. Sox have done too many disgusting things for me to love them as I did in the past.

I completely dropped the Blackhawks after them protecting a molester. I was following less than ever anyway, but that was a line I couldn't cross. Packed up my gear in a box, quit watching and listening to games, etc. The hire of TLR got me watching and going to fewer games than I had ever gone to in the past.

Couldn't agree more with all of this. Leury is the longest tenured player currently and we should be rooting for him to be on a winner. Forcing him into an everyday role made him wear the hole in the lineup and shoulder the scorn from the fan base. Not fair to him.

Cairo said he wasn't playing because of back soreness. I think of the many things that Tony made worse while here, turning Sox fans against Garcia should be on the list. He's playing at the MLB level because he works hard, stays healthy, and does whatever he's asked without complaining. I'm thinking about a Bulls player Granville Waiters. Fans chanted his name to come in during garbage time and he'd get a standing ovation for scoring. Garcia should never be an everyday player and Tony forcing that on us was a travesty for Leury.

Seriously, just sell the fucking team already Jerry. Everyone hates you, and you will never, and I stress NEVER, win the management vs labor battle. Enough already. Time to cash out, release this team from your miserly penny-pinching clutches, and let the franchise move into the 21st century. For fucks sake.

A replacement level player is by definition 0 WAR per season. Leury has played 10 seasons (wow). That means, on average, he is a 0.3 WAR per season player. He is, effectively, on average, within error of a replacement level player for his career. That's a guy who, overall, you should have a decent chance of replacing with comparable production midseason by picking a guy up on waivers. Overall, no, that is not good enough for a role player. From 2017-2021, a 5 (ok 4.5) year stretch, he put up 5.8 WAR. That...is acceptable for a role player. It's not Chris Taylor who is an excellent utility player, it's not an average starter on a medium team ~(2 WAR per year). But for a backup, playing part time, getting some value out of being able to play at difficult positions, that's a tolerable role player. That isn't a guy who should be batting 2nd or 3rd on anything other than a 55 win team. That isn't a guy who should be batting 3rd while your recent #3 draft pick bats 7th. That isn't a guy who is so important you can't afford to put him on the IL when he's banged up. That isn't a guy who you need to get in the lineup every day because he's so important that he needs at bats to get out of his slump.

Should we sign insurance options/utility players as insurance? Yes absolutely. But what’s the point of having a minor league system and developing players if you aren’t going to actually play them? Colas is 24, a stud top 100 prospect by all accounts, and has proven himself in the upper minors. There’s no logical reason why the Sox should have signed an OF’er to a multi year deal to block him. Obviously Sosa isn’t the type of prospect Colas is, but he clearly has the tool set to be at least an average MLB starting 2B and also proved himself in the upper minors. 2B is also arguably the easiest position to get acceptable production from, especially since Sosa should grade out just fine with the glove. Like it or not the Sox are never going to compete with teams like the Mets, Dodgers, or Yankees in terms of payroll and acquiring players. We should be striving to be more like the Braves or Rays…which heavily involves getting production from home grown young players. Obviously having their front office instead of Hahn and crew would also really help…

Rookies are part of contention windows all the time. The braves season was saved by 3 rookies last year, and now they are turning SS over to one of them.

While I still cannot guess what the White Sox's payroll limit is, I continue to think it's worth pointing out that $5-$6 million for 1 more player puts them pretty much right onto last year's payroll. At some point, there may be an additional reason why they're not getting these done - all of Duvall, Segura, an extra catcher, and an extra swingman pitcher might make sense for this roster, but they may not be able to afford it.

Kemp is not a bad idea. 1.5 fWar last year, 11 out of 12 in SB so LH speed guy gets down the line pretty quickly and should benefit from the shift and pickoff rules. Many here like the idea of Duvall . He's not far removed from that 2021 season in which he hit 38 HR's and 113 RBI . Definitely high K guy and low OBP but as far as defense and power he's ideal unless they want the 4th OF to also be LH. He's 34 now and some have suggested he'd go to a place to get a starting job or more playing time. But I think he'd get plenty of PT here. He has to know what he is at this point of his career and a part time job that he could potentially get 400 PA's should suit him. I think it'll come down to who offers him the most money. Not sure that'll be the White Sox . He's there for the taking right now. Maybe he's hoping to get $10M a year and willing to wait but something under that should get it done quickly unless the Sox are again pretending to be financially strapped. He'd have a crucial role here.

They definitely should do that.

Just playing, my friend. That blood sausage quote is from one of my favorite movies Groundhog Day and I enjoy throwing it out occasionally. In all honesty, singing the jingle might have been amusing at some point but after a few years it is like a Saturday Night Live skit where they just don't know when to quit. And I do mute the thing every time the remote is close enough. But as long suffering Sox fans, we all know there are worse problems with this team. And for anyone here offended by my disdain for the jingle.....

Move on from Madrigal man. He's not a fit on this roster.

Of all of the positions we could try to fill internally, I think 2B is the one we have the most quality options. If they had done a bit more shopping in the OF and the pitching, I wouldn't even feel bad about them going internal here. But as it is, we have a lot of question marks. You can get by with a failure or two if everything else is solid. But the more questions you have, the more that can go wrong.

Marlins are one of the few franchises that are even worse than the Sox, and yet have a few WS over 25 years. I'm not entirely sure what their thought process has been over the last few years ... they've stock piled pitching talent, some that has panned out, others that have not and continue to tread water. Whats the real difference between Brian Anderson at 3B and Jean Segura with the latter costing more. By the way, I've said that name like 12 times this offseason .... Brian Anderson makes so much sense in my own opinion as a RF/3B until Colas comes up. He's also done LF, 1B, SS, and 2B for short, short time frames. He's not amazing but can give you .255/.340obp with some pop and a nice amount of doubles. In short, he's got a strong arm, can barrel and nice exit velocity plus take walks. 1 year and 4mm might get it done. Gives you a nice option at a few positions. Probably comparable to sheets honestly, so probably don't see a deal get done, but always thought he was a nice fit.

When your main value proposition as a player is your positional versatility, it is expected to be able to position shuffle.

Now I'm convinced Harold is just fucking with us every time he stans for Kelenic, the king of inconsistent hard contact.

Sure would be nice if as part of fans spending on the shitty milb package they could get the trackman data for AAA games (not single game feeds, like the aggregate stats)

When he was making contact, he was in fact hitting the ball hard. Your first sentence is stupid, we aren’t comparing 4A players to the general population. Compared to other ball players in the big leagues, Romy hit the ball hard. If he truly can’t stop swinging at everything and has a 2% walk rate that he had for 100 at bats, then nothing matters. But I guess we’ll just have to add him to the list of Sox players who need an improved approach at the plate, which is a list that includes every player in the team. Or we could sign Josh Harrison, that’ll put us over the top.

The endless bitterness here could drive me away. Whatever news comes out, some people are always extremely critical. Baseball is my main interest but I am spending more time following Bills football, who believe it or not still upset a lot of their fans but are 12-3 #1 AFC seed so far.

Could all this be a scheme to move the Sox to another city when the lease is up on GRF. Piss off the fans and watch attendance plummet to Oakland A's and Tampa Bay levels, and JR's heirs and partners sell to someone in another city, they would probably get more money from another city and buyers than they would if someone that bought the team while keeping them in Chicago. Nothing surprises me with the track record of Reinsdorf, I trust him as far as I can throw him. I'm sure some will say that the AL wouldn't allow the Sox to leave Chicago, well there is no AL anymore, it's MLB where money talks and BS walks. Let's face it, the Sox are not a premier franchise, a mediocre record down through the years with 3 WS Championships, very sad. The fans aren't exactly tearing down the walls to watch the team, the Sox drew 2 million last year for the first time since 2011, again sad. The Sox are one of the few MLB franchises that have never drawn 3 million fans in a season, pretty sad for the 3rd largest market in the country. Chicago is a Cub town and probably has 60-65 % of the Chicago market and at least half of the Illinois market who they share with the Cardinals, there are very few Sox fans in Illinois outside the Chicago metro area, the Sox market share is probably comparable to Cincinatti and Pittsburgh. All that and Chicago will probably be passed by Houston and Dallas by 2030 as 3rd largest metro area in the country while Chicago loses population. Other cities in the sun belt continue to grow, places like Charlotte, San Antonio and Nashville will be ripe for a MLB franchise. All that being said, it would pain me to see the Sox leave Chicago, I've been a fan since 1952 with many great memories but just think of the memories that Yankee, Dodger, Red Sox and Cardinal fans have. BTW This new seating plan is the most insane configuration I've ever seen, who was the genius behind that.

I just want to put my vote that I really like listening to both Jason and Steve. I think they do a great job together. Jason just seems completely the professional, and I think you have to be impressed with Stone's insights, especially how he can predict, from time to time, what is going to happen in an at bat. A player is up and whatever the count and Stone will say something like, "The pitcher will waste this pitch and then come back with a fastball high and inside and strike him out." and damn if not two pitches later that's what happens. Or the other way, Stone will say something like, "If that pitcher throws that pitch again, it's gonna be hit hard into left field, and that happens one or two pitches later. I know some will say that's what Stone does is obvious, but I haven't seen other announcers doing that. On the topic of the "Nationwide" song. I can't believe others hate it so much; it's a commercial, like other commercials. I see the Nationwide song like sweet potatoes with marshmallows at the Thanksgiving meal. Not at all my thing, but it's part of the tradition, and I would be a little disappointed if they were not there.

NO!!!!

Take the stick out of your asshole

Owners will do anything for money, just remember the Dodgers left Brooklyn, the Giants left NYC, The Rams left LA for St. Louis, the Browns left Cleveland for Baltimore and the Braves left Milwaukee where they never had a losing season and were the first NL team to draw 2 million fans in a season. There were a lot of moves in pro sports that made a lot of sense and the Dodgers moving to LA was like finding a gold mine but at the time in 1957 baseball fans all over the country could not believe that the Dodgers were leaving Brooklyn, it was just about sacrilegious. Don't ever buy into the idea that the Sox would never leave Chicago, it came very close to happening 3 different times.

I didnt say JR was losing money, I'm saying MLB could care less if the White Sox moved and MLB would capitalize on a move with new merchandising in a new city.

I know back in was in 1988 or 87 when Illinois almost lost them to St Pete, I was ready to become a Brew Crew fan w a mild interest in the Florida White Sox

Replace Stone with a younger guy like Ryan McGuffey.

I know many don't, but I tune in for Jason and Walton. It is spectacular once or twice a year.

Agreed, its ridiculous. Every other fanbase clamors about Stone/Benetti but the Sox fans of course whine and complain like always. It makes you wonder if they have ever watched another teams broadcast because there are some AWFUL tandems out there. I am in both the Royals and Cardinals broadcasting regions and the announcing makes you understand how young people cant get into the sport. When Stone and Jason are gone and we have to endure Generic PBP/Beckham on a nightly basis maybe then Sox fans will understand what we had.

Can we just have Bill Walton one game a season?

People bitched about Hawk. Then the Sox brought in a guy whose style is exactly what they were clamoring. Now they b**** about him. It doesn't matter who is broadcasting Sox games, there is a certain faction that will say whoever it is sucks.

X2

Some times I wonder if people really understand how bad the typical MLB announcers are around this sport.

I've listened to far more broadcasts than watched, and Ernie was one of the best. Len sounds like Kermit the Frog, but it didn't bother me once I got used to it. I do agree with @Balta1701 there were times, especially at the onset of his tenure where he didn't provide the details a radio announcer typically provides (which is why I listened while following the ST game thread and or the MLB game box score). That said, I believe Len and DJ were more frank with criticism at times with TLR and strategy, vs. Stone's criticisms mostly centered on the usual suspects (Moncada primarily, Eloy defensively, and Ricky Renteria throughout 2020). DJ was absolutely livid the infamous May 5th game when Tony pinch ran Liam and then made a few other inexplicable moves, and I've never heard DJ upset over decades. He provided pointed commentary toward the terrible baserunning and defensive lapses, and at times poor plate approaches, throughout the past season. Sox have had solid radio broadcasts the past two decades, and I love Farmeo, Rooney and DJ, plus Len does a good job. Harry and Jimmy were great back in the day. Too young to appreciate The Commander, though I did get his autograph at Northwest Federal Savings (plus Ernie Banks, and down the road Jack Brickhouse and Carol Alt). To me, Jason's broadcasting style is more suited to action oriented sports like basketball, football, MMA, video game "sports", etc. There are times to be excited, but for a baseball broadcast it would be better if he was more subdued and let the game speak for itself. That said, I appreciate his passion for White Sox baseball, and bet he would be a great guy to have a drink or meal with and shoot the s%*#, be it baseball or other topics. Stone is a top baseball broadcaster with good insight, but doesn't seem to be a congenial person, including toward former co-workers. Jason would be able to shine with a different color partner that would allow him to be more open toward expressing his baseball thoughts and demanding to be acknowledged as "The Guru". Stone has become what he once despised (Hawk Harrelson). A more contemporary color commentator would result in a more natural sounding discussion/broadcast, without the need to lean on schtick or deference.

I dig the jingle. Hoping Steve and Jason are back.

Kasper and DJ have a decent set of discussions but I do miss the modern perspective of Benetti. One thing I’ve noticed with Kasper though is he still announces like he’s on TV. He won’t give all the details about a play as though I just watched it, but since it’s radio I didn’t see anything, so I wind up waiting for them to double back and reexplain it or trying to check Gameday to figure it out. This happens fairly regularly.

So, I never listened to Sox games with Rooney doing them, only Farmio and Kasper. Kasper is fine on radio for me, but I' a masochist and I miss Farmer and DJ and their weird ass chemistry. Watching Sox games in central Iowa since going to college in 2005 has been such an adventure. The cable provider in town has never carried whatever you called the channel the Sox were on, so the only times I got to watch for the longest time were WCIU games that were occasionally picked up in standard definition on sub channels of local channels. It wasn't until a couple years ago where I either logged in with a friends NBC Sports login or YouTube TV login that I've been able to watch most games. Where I live I'm unable to get DirecTV. The frustrating thing is I'm willing to pay for MLB.tv! If it wasn't blacked out I'd happily give them money! The long way of saying, make sure Jason and Steve are back.

Kasper seems like a perfectly nice human being, but if he replaces Jason for 2023 I'll be hoping for more national games where I can listen to Adam Amin on FS1 or something like that.