Leaderboard

Like it would have been posted if Padres weren’t included

I am really hoping for a fast start to get me going again. I never have been so meh about baseball. After the strike years I was mad, and didn't go to a game for about 4 years, but that was anger. For me, it is just apathy. No excitement, no buying tickets, hats, etc. I just can't give it any energy.

I'm not totally sure of the rules, but I believe that caulfield is supposed to announce such things.

Why do you hope he did it? I hope the investigation finds him innocent. I never liked him but he's the guy to which a good chuck of the season is pinned. I agree with your stand if found guilty and never liked the guy to begin with but to hope he did this is an odd approach to me.

A hilariously bad product. Whether you like it or not, these guys provide a service that is in high demand and they're the best in the world at. Also, the uneducated dig is weak. These guys chose their career path because it presented itself. The Latino farm players are getting taking additional classes with the White Sox and learning a second language. There are four year college players in the system who might never make the show, playing for below minimum wage (personally a big Duke Ellis fan here). Yes, there are idiots playing baseball. But I also know idiots with advanced degrees. Both pull good money - obviously to different degrees - and plenty more than I'll ever see. But it's foolish to paint entire professions with a wide brush.

Can we all agree that this sparks joy?

?

JR owes everything to Michael Jordan. Without him, he would be known as one of the worst owners ever.

Your 2023 Chicago White Sox.....we tried to fix it but couldn't.

What is there to wonder? Haven’t we seen enough evidence to know that profit comes before winning? The only thing really newsworthy here is that it made into print, digital or otherwise.

Wait, a professional athlete does drugs and has lots of sex?

If he is answering texts it's going to be a great year.

I had to read that first sentence at least five times because I thought it was closer (distance) and not closer (pitcher). What? He wants a seat closer to the field in the dugout? What are talking about here? I am so smart. S-M-R-T.

But that's not the hobby. Are we all baseball fans, of course. But you've got over 15,000 posts on a White Sox message board and I've got way more than that. If the White Sox went away tomorrow, my consumption of MLB would go down drastically, and I assume yours would as well. I would say for most, 75% of your excitement comes from YOUR team starting the season, not the start of the entire MLB season. Yes, I'm pleased baseball will be back, but am I excited for 2023 White Sox Baseball?

"Simplistic questions" are usually easy to understand, but somehow I literally have no idea what you're asking. ? It's like: "Here's an easy one: who ISN'T the White Sox going to rely upon (ala 2008) from those players who Jerry believes are so important to have on a roster supposedly in the top MLB payroll tier (Cohen says hi, not to mention Steinbrenner of the 90s and 2000s ha ha ha), who doesn't have a team-friendly contract, which everyone says is Hahn's specialty (not exactly AJ Preller, even if best case scenario you consider us more like the Brewers - Yelich, Cain, Hader before he was traded, etc. etc.)?? It's a yes or no question."

Said yesterday? Nothing. Done previously? Refined his organizations background check and monitoring procedures following incidents like Vizquel and what they observed happening with Bauer. Not jumping to the front of the line signing this guy until appropriate personal checks were done. But that would have required effective leadership.

He is not selling. It would be akin to winning the lottery and taking the single payout losing 75% of the value once he passes it to his kids . Only reason he would sell is if his other business ventures lost money and could offset the tax hit or they needed the cash. He doesn't have business ventures that are losing hundreds of millions of dollars and the budgeting of the Bulls and Sox add whatever excess cash flow is needed .

Just get rid of the blackout bullshit.

This was always extremely implausible and thinly sourced so color me not shocked.

Hopefully all involved reevaluated and came to their senses.

To me it comes down to very basic human psychology. You have an owner that has made it very clear in his actions winning is simply not anywhere close to the No. 1 priority. As owner, he's set an example that being mediocre is acceptable. Turn a profit and we're good. It's borderline unfair to expect Williams, Hahn or anyone else to rise above the expectations set by their boss. When you've been employed at a job for 15+ years, the pay is good, and you're very clear on what the expectations are to keep your job...why do any more than is expected? What percentage of the population truly would do that? It's why they've never made the playoffs in back to back years up until the COVID shortened season. You'll get lucky here and there, all the stars will align and you'll put together a solid 162, but as we've seen, it doesn't last. They're lazy. That's really what it is. There is no drive or passion with any of them. Davis Martin looks to be the 5th starter right now to open the year. There were plenty of options available to sure up that spot, but why do it? Why spend another 10-15 million when Davis Martin will be "semi-ok?" As long as the Sox are just "decent" that's good enough for the franchise.

Of course, the franchise has to make money, and it has to do what it can to say in business. But one way to stay in business is to provide a team that wins, and not have long stretches of not going to the playoffs. It makes no sense to tell the fan, who is a consumer, to keep paying for a bad product. Secondly, player salaries are going up no matter what JR does. If he can't compete in this market, he should sell.

Tough way to go about fandom. Just look for things to be miserable about daily for 50+ years. Woof.

To be fair, you've never been enthusiastic about anything related to the White Sox. You were even miserable in 05.

1. Fans control 0% of anything about the game, so being optimistic isn't going to change anything either. Not saying you shouldn't be, but lets not pretend anything we do has any impact on anything. 2. What fans can control is their own time. I've been to over 400 Sox games in my life. I haven't been at the park since 2019, and have zero plans to go this year. It's not any sort of hard boycott, I just don't feel any desire to continue spending money, and honestly more importantly...my time, on a franchise that has very little interest in providing a winning product to its customers. Don't hold it against anyone who does want to attend, the ballpark is a great time. But I've found other ways to spend that time I'm perfectly fine with.

If I’m not watching the White Sox, there is about a 90% chance I’m not watching baseball. If something momentous is happening, maybe, otherwise ChiSox only. That's what makes spending so much time on this, so painful, because the ownership and organization overall is such a clown show. Yet, here I am...

I appreciate the Friarstalk updates. I'm much obliged.

I know people think they got lazy after they got paid, but despite that thought, anyone with baseball IQ realizes that it is their NEXT contract that gives them multigenerational wealth.

Candidates for 4th and 5th starter, numbers 9 and 10 now in the fold, lol. Seth Lugo OR Nick Martinez likely back to the pen, with Wacha occupying that backend spot now. This Hamels move is also likely correlated with/to Drew Pomeranz's recovery (as Tim Hill is their only reliable LHR at current time.)

Yoan isn't done getting paid means we're going to get good Yoan the next 2 years. Same goes for TA.

I agree with this guy: I’m completely excited about the upcoming season. I was bummed out on the Clevenger thing for a while but now over it. If he pitches or not, let’s start playing ball. I want to see TA and Benintendi get on base and Robert, Eloy, and Vaughn coming up to knock them in. I want to see Colas. I want to see it all.

I guess I don't really see the difference. I am a huge baseball fan. I am a bigger White Sox fan. If the White Sox went away tomorrow - sure my consumption would go down some. But baseball is a huge part of my life, and I would likely adopt a new team, and over time become more passionate. It wouldn't be the same, but that love of the game doesn't just go away. Like I said, I am very excited for the 2023 White Sox season. I am 32 years old. The Sox haven't exactly been a juggernaut in my lifetime. In the last 30 years, the Sox have won over 90 games 3 times. The Sox current roster is easily one of the best 5 since I was in like middle school - so yah, I am excited. I don't see the point in pouting about s%*# I cannot change. I get the frustration - even as a more optimistic fan, I hate Jerry with a passion, and really struggle to understand how an org can make basically every wrong decision for 2 years straight years, how Hahn is still employed, how they let TLR ruin 2 seasons of this window, etc. But I am not going to let that take away my excitement from what is nearly certain to be a very entertaining baseball season.

Obviously, I hope he didn’t do anything because it means he didn’t abuse women and his kids, and didn’t drive around on drugs. But, like you, I’ve never liked this guy in any way. He’s looks like he smells. His delivery is stupid—and now illegal, by the way. And he’s had a pattern of saying and doing stupid things. I don’t like him. I don’t want to root for him on the one team I support. So in the end, I want this to end with him never pitching for the White Sox after March 30th.

Some notes from recent Burger/Burke interviews: Colson Montgomery and Sean Burke lived together during the offseason. They trained with Jake Burger in Nashville regularly. Burke says Colas may be the most talented baseball player he’s taken the field with, citing his bat-to-ball skills plus “swagger and confidence” at the plate. He also noted that Colson is far more “mature and focused” than he was at the same age. Burke describes his arsenal as four seam, curveball, slider, changeup. He says he takes inspiration from Verlander, and the coaches have also had him watch tape on Cease to try to emulate a similar slider. Burke mentioned Duke Ellis as an underrated guy in the system, complimenting his speed, baseball IQ, contact skills, defense, and hustle. Burger says Colas’ power is legit, based on hitting behind him in CLT and watching his cage work. He says Seager comps are accurate for Colson, and Burke is one of the hardest workers in the org. Burke watched Buerhle’s highlight reel backhand play live. It was the first time he’d seen Buerhle pitch.

I feel like AZ would be the spot.

I don't know the writer or what was in their mind but as I read the story to me it wasn't what Rick could have said but the fact that the White Sox shouldn't have been in this position in the first place. The examples the writer pointed out is what struck me. But because there is no accountability the same mistakes are being made over and over with no repercussions. So the Sox keep falling into the same traps usually of their own making. That was my take on his story.

As we all know, Rick Hahn negotiates TV contracts.

I love that the Bulls are staring down the barrel of needing to tank again and need lotto luck to retain their pick. Of course that means Wembenyamba, Scoot, or another wing/guard up top. But let's say they get lucky. They'll need to clear out playing time. That means, depending on who they luck into, getting rid of Vuc, Drummond, Coby, Caruso or maybe even DeMar. If it's any of the first three, they get nothing back. Holding at the deadline for prayers at getting bounced during the play-in is such s%*# asset management.

Turns out this was just a rumor and not accurate. Hahn addressed this in his media availability yesterday and I quote "I don't suspect you'll see him (TLR) here - perhaps we can get him out to come sit and watch a game or something....to enjoy some ball." Pretty blunt and clear.

Thank you very much for sharing that video.

Worth adding to that post. Not only did Hahn watch the Dodgers eat $30 million because of their weak background checks and fail to learn from it, this isn’t the first harassment issue in the recent White Sox organization under Hahn’s management. The White Sox endured a harassment case involving Vizquel and whatever else happened after that to get Wes Helms fired from managing their AAA roster last year after he was previously on Vizquels staff and was then promoted afterwards. With that recent history of failure to monitor and failure to conduct appropriate background checks, “oh now we know that we should have done this” is a completely unacceptable third strike.

I complain about Jerry a lot but it's mostly about the following 1. Pick a damn lane. Either you're a large market team or you're not. Structure the organization accordingly. 2. Being overly risk averse. Jerry has had top 10 payrolls, but he's not willing to spend to put the team over the top. So he's not necessarily cheap, but rather overly risk averse. 3. Loyal to a fault. Giving your FO a fair shot is one thing, but sometimes they've been given plenty of rope and hung themselves with it. It's ok to fire someone if they deserve it.

According to Clevinger’s agent, he didn’t even know about the investigation until she shared her bruise photos. And even if his legal team was doing something, MLB should not have waited until February to be doing interviews with the victim. Clevinger doesn’t control her interview schedule. That should have been done months ago, all of them. People’s memories get worse over time, you don’t delay stuff like this unless you’re looking for reasons to cover it up.

It’s insane they’re (MLB) finally interviewing her this week after having all offseason. Hopefully we get a decision in the next few weeks, but Manfred sure screwed over the Sox here.

This sounds like someone saying they want to run a marathon but only if they reduce the mileage and change the rules to walking only.

If he cared about winning we would've had a different GM years ago.

That guy is just lucky Tony inadvertently left his can of Whoop Ass in the dugout.