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They aren’t bad at scouting big league free agents. They just don’t do it because they don’t sign big league free agents. They sign second tier free agents(sometimes. Mostly 3rd tier)

It's magnified by the fact there is another team in town that goes all out for theirs. And it's covered by everyone, who then also mentions the Sox, just like during the regular season, have nothing for their fans.

Rangers have an owner willing to spend on premier FA. Rangers hired a baseball person to run the baseball team. Rangers' prospects developed properly and didn't bust after injury or unearned high dollar extensions. Rangers didn't hamstring the FO with asinine short sided restrictions. Rangers reached out to a HOF manager who wasn't drinking away his twilight years while being out of the dugout for a decade.

The Glendale Desert Dogs were undefeated last week, and our Sox boys made some pretty solid contributions to that 6-0 streak. Colson Montgomery went 5-16 with a 2B, 3B, and 6 RBI. Jacob Burke was 6-22 with a pair of 2B, 2 SB, and a game winning grand slam. Bryan Ramos hit the ground running in his return, going 5-9 with 2 HR in his two games back. Fraser Ellard (4K) and Jordan Leasure (3K) both chipped in two scoreless appearances apiece. Jake Eder had 4K in 2IP, but was tagged for 1 ER when a walk, steal, and sac fly from a reliever scored his runner from first. Josimar Cousin was burned by 2 HR (4 ER) in his start. Adisyn Coffey once again looked great in the first inning of an appearance (2K and a flyout) before falling apart when asked for a second (and inexplicably being hung out to dry). The White Sox bats are responsible for 28 of the team's 80 RBI through 18 games (and 7 of their 22 HR). Unfortunately, it looks like they'll have to keep up the production without Colson Montgomery (whose 14 RBI lead the team) for at least one more game. He was pulled for a PR late on Friday, missed Saturday's game, and after an off day Sunday, he's out of the lineup again for Monday's game. Some highlights: The Week Ahead: Five AFL games this week, two of which (Wednesday and Thursday) will be streamed. Also, winter ball is officially underway! Of particular note, RHP Johan Dominguez (returned from TJ midseason, and a sneaky SP depth option IMO) is scheduled for a LIDOM start this week, and top-30-but-still-underrated Wilfred Veras has been getting in some more ABs and OF reps. Game 1: GDD vs. SCO (Gameday | No Stream) After facing the top AFL team at the time of both of his last starts, Jake Eder gets the ball today to face...the new top AFL team! His 10 K and 3.24 ERA through 8.1 IP are respectable (and his mechanics look back on track) but I'm hoping to see him go a bit deeper in this one. His last outing was shortened by a tight zone leading to lots of deep counts. The AFL is experimenting with some kind of individualized batting stance adjusted zone IIRC and it leads to some odd looking calls. The opposing starter is also a lefty, which could be a non-injury reason to rest Colson again...There's an off day tomorrow, so we'll see if he's back in for Wednesday's game. Burke and Ramos are batting 2 and 4, playing their usual positions.

The Bulls have been Reinsdorfed. Remember several years ago when broke JR almost bought the AZ team in the NHL? As bad as it’s been with them, they dodged a bullet there.

I think the only one that makes sense is that JR fully believes he is running this team correctly and that all the fans are out of their minds, calling for things like Tony to be fired and for him to sell the team. He doesn't think the fans are worth listening to, and he knows the fans would complain if there was any sort of Q&A at Soxfest. His people are too important to take questions, so they're not holding Soxfest.

I'd rather be in the Phillies shoes than taking the White Sox approach of misallocated spending and random playoff appearances wishing and hoping on a prayer...

The only guy who should truly care about ratings for the MLB playoffs is Phil in accounting, because it's his job to. Literally no one else should care about MLB playoff ratings. Go ahead and care about NBA playoff ratings, they matter for the sport a lot. The playoffs are 2 months, that's 25% of the length of the entire season, and TV revenue from that makes up a big percentage of league revenues. Baseball's playoffs are one month long, so they're 1/6 of the regular season. They are a far lower percentage of total league revenues, they have much less to do with the health of the league overall. They're nice, but they don't determine the health of the league. What we see instead - take a look at the Phillies attendance. In 2018, their attendance was down at 2.15 million. It jumped to 2.7 million in 2019 when they signed Harper, but it was down to 2.27 million in 2022. In 2023, their attendance was 3.05 million, an increase of 800,000 tickets in 1 year. That's for making the World Series, not winning it. Our experience with the 2005 White Sox shows that these attendance boosts from winning last for years, you could be talking about 4 or 5 million extra ticket sales for a team from making one world series altogether, that's what the White Sox saw and they fell apart after winning their title. The Phillies will probably draw 3 million+ again next year, and the following year, and even if they have to rebuild, they'll still draw 2.8 million, then 2.7 million, and it will only decline slowly. On top of just the ticket sales themselves, ratings for the local broadcasts will go up which puts money directly into the pockets of many of these franchises, parking revenues go up, concession sales go up, and ad sales in the park go up. This is where the real money is for baseball, it's in their long regular season. Bringing in smaller markets and putting them in the World Series is VERY GOOD for baseball even if the ratings are low. In 2022, Arizona sold 1.6 million tickets, Texas sold 2 million. In 2023 just by being competitive, Arizona sold 1.96 million, Texas sold 2.5 million. I will give you a strong bet that those will go up again for both franchises next year. This is big money for the local markets. Their ad sales rates will go up, their ticket prices will go up, Texas might sell 3 million tickets next year. Furthermore, there are long term benefits. Arizona will be filled with Corbin Carroll jerseys for years. Kids who are 6 years old are going to become fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks and want to get Carroll's autograph. Dallas will start being filled with Garcia jerseys. These benefits will last for years. Ballparks also hold 2 to 2.5 times the number of fans that NBA games hold. Baseball makes its money on the long regular season. It's why they developed their own streaming platform, which was one of the first sports streaming platforms and which earned them like $3 billion when it was sold. They're even able to do things like the TBS, Fox, and now Apple TV contracts for extra money during the regular season because they have so many games. It is a good thing for baseball to have a Boston New York ALCS every now and then, because it's great TV, it gets those markets involved, and it has some crossover effect. But it is also a great thing for baseball to have a lowly rated World Series because the Diamondbacks and the Rangers are in it, or the Phillies and Astros, or the Marlins and Royals. Having these small market teams make the World Series reduces the ratings at the time, but it massively boosts the revenue of the local franchises and it does so in a way that lasts for years and helps create lifelong fans of those teams.

I think you know what happened lol

Amazing that the concept of having good players on your team gives you a better chance to win than not having good players is controversial or difficult to grasp. Does spending big guarantee you postseason success? Of course fucking not. No one ever said it does. Stop being deliberately obtuse. Injuries happen. Cold streaks happen. It's baseball. But if you are arguing against the idea that spending money on good players is worth it because there's a possibility that you might not win the World Series, then have fun with your stars aligning, team of destiny bullshit.

@Milkman delivers Why are you always harping on ratings? I swear most of the posts I see from you are ripping on the ratings of the world series.

100% hurts fan interest. SoxFest was the one thing that has given my older son some excitement about the team. He keeps asking if we can go this year (and last year) and I have to tell him these losers are afraid to be held accountable for their sucking and it likely isn’t happening. Sucks for them because with that carrot I could have probably created a Sox fan for life. Unfortunately these cowards don’t seem to care about fan engagement.

Let's be honest, we are still watching the world series.

Whenever someone tells you it's not worth making the playoffs next time...just remember an 84 win Diamondbacks team with 2 good starters and 3 good position players ended up making the World Series.

Suburban stadium.

I always enjoyed Soxfest and I never got 1 autograph. I went to the seminars, and while there was a ton of fluff, it's just was you needed after almost 4 months of no baseball.

My man is passionate about this subject.

So are you Chris Russoing us or did the White Sox do something of importance?

JRs sons are trying to buy up shares of the team. JR wrote a letter to his investors telling them if they are interested in selling, maybe, possibly, sell to them.

Funny, I was eating at a restaurant last week and there were 2 guys sitting next to me. One was a trainer of some sort with the Cubs and he was talking about this job. For those who think I’m some freak who listens to other’s conversations, it was one of those communal tables and you couldn’t help but hear when we had our faces stuffed with food and weren’t talking.

You are contradicting yourself. In one instance you are saying he will never sell the team while alive, which is likely accurate. On the other hand you say he wouldn't lower the value because he won't get as much when he sells. He may be 88, but if I didn't know that I would swear he is in his seventies. Unless he has something going on we don't know about its possible he could pull a Virginia McCaskey. And there is definitely a ballpark battle coming up. He is not getting more money from Illinois. If Nashville, or anyone else offers a new park with a ballpark village and all the cash flows that come with it the Sox are gone.And probably worth a billion more instantly. And MLB didn't protect us during possible moves to St Pete, Denver, Seattle or Milwaukee. Why would they now, especially if attendance and tv ratings are low?

"Minor league athletic trainers" (or strength coaches, nutritionists, etc.) are in demand by every org every offseason and being based at the ST complex but traveling to affiliates is standard practice. It doesn't necessarily denote a leadership role as opposed to being like...the guy who works with players in the Kannapolis weight room. Orgs have plenty of trainers/coaches that aren't the "named" folks/positions, and there's usually a fair amount of turnover. For example, the other Sox are currently hiring an undisclosed number of "Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coaches [who] will report to Fort Myers, FL for Spring Training and then travel with an affiliate team": https://www.teamworkonline.com/baseball-jobs/fenwaysports/boston-red-sox/assistant-minor-league-strength-conditioning-coach-2056252 And you can tell it's not any sort of high level role because previous baseball or coaching experience is merely "a plus" ?

Bochy had a previous relationship with Rangers GM Chris Young. That and the promise to get good players helped lure him out of retirement. I don’t think the Sox could have matched that.

The "generic" link is here: https://www.mlb.com/arizona-fall-league/live-streams But I can post a direct link once it's actually live at ~8:20 CST.

It's pretty much impossible to destroy the value of a franchise. The A's were purchased in 2005 for $180 million, and are worth around $1.2 Billion despite the fact that they have done everything possible to drive away fans as they relocate. that value will skyrocket once they are in their shiny new ballpark, something that will never happen here but could easily happen in Nashville. Explain why the Sox do nothing from a marketing standpoint, continuously drive away season ticket holders by ignoring them and jacking up prices, hire the least competent people for key positions, and don't bother hiring even the minimal number of staff to work the ballpark. Nobody is this incompetent, and you can argue with JR's decisions over the years, but there was never a point in his ownership before the last couple of years where everything went to s%*# at the same time as has happened.

Game 2: GDD vs. SRR (Gameday | Live Stream) Guess who's back, back again...Colson's back, tell a friend ? He's batting 3rd, Burke 2nd, and Ramos 7th. There's a stream for both tonight and tomorrow's games.

Sounds pretty spot on. I’d say one component for sure is that he has a real disdain for the fans. That’s something that seemed like a goofy conspiracy theory a while ago, but now actually seems like it has to be true.

I don’t think any of us can actually come up with a logical reason for what happened, there just is none. one day a book will be written about some of the nonsense the last 15 years, and there will definitely be a part where they address the press conference after the firing and how nobody understood what the hell was happening

I've bought the White Sox package every year, but I won't be doing that any longer. It breaks my heart.

Agreed. But then, what the f*** is JR doing?

No our plan is to hire him as pitching coach because this is how we find pitching coaches

The Bulls and Sox have common ownership. The fact that one team is doing this and the other is doing absolutely nothing is evidence that the Sox are intentionally destroying their fan base to justify a move. If the Sox are drawing 1.2 million, MLB will never stop the move to Nashville. JR will go from being loathed by his team's fans to being a local hero in Nashville, the team will have a honeymoon period of multiple years with the fans and media, and JR will end up with a statue on the concourse there as the man who brought MLB to Nashville. No more competing with the Cubs for local exposure and fans, no more dealing with a Cubs oriented media, no more listening to Sox fans complaining about what TV station they were on 40 years ago or the direction the ballpark faces. And a team located in a growing market that has proven it can support major league sports instead of a city with no growth prospects. The White Sox have long been in the bottom half of the league for attendance and TV ratings, 32 times in the last 50 years.

I feel like this group has extreme "late 70s/early 80s bulls" energy. Like a completely forgettable era where you'd hear people be like "yeah Bob Love was pretty good"

Reinsdorf would have long left the sports scene had he taken his tired ass to Florida. He got that sweetheart deal from the State with the expectation he could concentrate his resources on building a powerhouse team in a division where CWS was (and still is) the sole major market team. Instead he bamboozled us with his 40 + years of perpetual rebuilds. Reinsdorf did a desperation Mambo and got a one-hit wonder out of it. He got into the NBA HOF because of MJ - a guy he inherited and probably would not have drafted. No such call will ever come from Cooperstown.

A decade of terrible performance and just two pretty good seasons mixed in can't be all written off as "bad luck." That's only 25% of the equation, at most.

Is that where you are?

My daughter lives in Houston, not so happy there. I was mostly pulling for the Rangers, they are the most "Sox-like" but knowing I'd be invited to a WS game in Houston would have been a great consolation prize.

Never been or even looked into pricing. Though I thought I remember a few guys from this site talking about bringing their kids there years ago. I figured that was a major draw of it. Either way, not having it is still going to hurt the overall fan interest in the team.

I'm sure if Hahn got to spend half a billion dollars on 2 players, this franchise wouldn't be the shape that it's in. jerry's insistence on nickel and diming his way to the money being spent worked about as well as everyone here thought it would. I understand his line of thinking, that spreading out the investment over several players would minimize risk. What he doesn't understand is that those individual players he got for less money also have a much higher risk of not performing than the expensive players.

Especially in a sport whose overall viewership and youth interest seems to be declining. And double especially for a team whose viewership and interest is definitely declining.

I would say a team that doesn't like its fans is sort of a problem.

What JR heard instead: "Spend money on relievers, hire LaRussa"

Spend money, hire Bochy

20 MLB Teams Hosting Winter Fan Festivals AL East Boston Red Sox Winter Weekend Tampa Bay Rays Fan Fest Toronto Blue Jays Winter Tour AL Central Cleveland Guardians Guards Fest Kansas City Royals Royals Rally Minnesota Twins TwinsFest AL West Houston Astros Astros FanFest Oakland Athletics A's Spirt Week Seattle Mariners Mariners FanFest Texas Rangers Fan Fest NL East Atlanta Team Fest Miami Marlins Miami Marlins FanFest NL Central Chicago Cubs Cubs Convention Cincinnati Reds Redsfest Pittsburgh Pirates PiratesFest Saint Louis Cardinals Winter Warm-Up NL West Colorado Rockies Rockies Fest Los Angeles Dodgers FanFest San Diego Padres Padres Fan Fest San Francisco Giants Giants FanFest Remaining Ten Teams Arizona Diamondbacks: Converted event to a Season Ticket / Corporate Sponsor Event in 2022. Baltimore Orioles: Cancelled before COVID (2019 last one held) - Moving to Nashville Chicago White Sox: Cancelled post COVID - Also Moving to Nashville Detroit Tigers: Winter Caravan cancelled post COVID. Los Angeles Angels: Held "Moving Day" event pre OD through 2019. Cancelled post COVID. Milwaukee Brewers: Brewers on Deck cancelled post COVID. New York Mets: Fan Fest cancelled post COVID. New York Yankees: Never held a Fan Festival. Philadelphia Phillies: In season Fan Festival cancelled during/post COVID. Washington Nationals: Winterfest cancelled post COVID.

strangely missing "did not try to fill their RF with Nomar Mazara during their newly opened window"

Won’t somebody please think of the millionaire professional game players?

I feel so bad for them. I hate spending money watching a team with no clue. That hasn't stopped them from continuing to do it.

IIRC personal appearances in and out of season are part of player contracts. New United States based players should attend their first available season. other Sox with the highest fan interest should rotate. Make it worthwhile for former players / featured team anniversary celebrations. Most teams accommodate their fans. The Sox need to fight harder to increase fan interest. "Fixing SoxFest" article, when people thought it might return for 2024. https://fromthe108.com/2023/01/31/the-5-fixing-soxfest-for-2024/

If you're on this message board and still spending a penny on this team, you're a goddamn fool.

While hard to calculate - this sure seems like a terrible idea in terms of maintaining a long term fanbase. Bringing a whole bunch of kids to a place where they can meet ballplayers and get autographs seems like a great way to make them into fans of that team for decades, to the point where their kids might wind up as fans of the same sport and same team. I get there was only so much you could do in 2020 and 2021, but failing to do this now seems like sabotaging the 2028 and 2035 attendance numbers.