Leaderboard

Think about the insane difference in how those players’ respective development paths were compared to Vaughn. The Sox were the only team to force their guy to the Majors despite not having a 2020 minor league season, the only team to force their guy out of position to one where he’s demonstrably worse, the only team to set MLB expectations on their guy without giving him the benefit of instruction and making him earn the shot. Idk why but thinking about the handling of Vaughn specifically next to his direct peers like that makes it seem comically abusive in a way that never quite struck me before.

Have some patience. Korey Lee was in that draft.

I don’t know man. I feel like the other side of the story is “don’t draft a first baseman too 3”. A hell of a lot of the WAR above is the sides of baseball Vaughn would never touch on any team.

It’s true. He wasn’t even “blocked,” in the sense that there was no need to force the issue. They just didn’t have anything resembling an OFer in the system and refused to pay to acquire one. So they decided it made more sense to compromise the development of their #3 overall pick and best prospect. Lol

I really believe if Vaughn was a part of the Braves, Rangers, Brewers, etc.....he's a much different player today than he is with the Sox.

We are all done cheering for the front office hires so it’s time to move on

Burger may fall off a bit, but predicting he will be on the Windy City Thunderbolts seems a bit dramatic at this point.

Imagine crying that the playoffs weren’t easy enough because you couldn’t beat a team that you don’t believe is good enough to be in the playoffs

It's been 25 days since the last White Sox loss. That hasn't happened since April 2023.

I tend to think if it there's some evidence that cricket fans will actually enjoy baseball and pay to watch it (why wouldn't they), why wouldn't MBS's sports driven economy extend to something "disruptive" and "innovative" like baseball? Maybe it's America's pastime, but it's a fun sport that anyone could like. And cricket is arguably South Asia's pastime despite colonialism... maybe baseball has a better reputation because it wasn't created by the British? There's some evidence to suggest that colonized countries appreciate American ideas because we weren't their conquerors, for right or for wrong. I agree, but personally I don't like the idea of paying 16-year-olds $5million on the expectation that "investing" in a child will pay dividends one day for an American corporation. I don't like the idea of getting into bidding wars with countries over prospects with even worse labor standards than us, I'd like for the sport to be publicly owned personally, but maybe this is proof that that's not possible unless you're relying on an entirely domestic player base. That saddens me. Maybe that only exists in the NFL. Frankly, I see no reason why a public good like sports should be profit-oriented, except that there might be competition with leagues that will make it profit-oriented. What a world.

That's certainly part of it. But I still contend that Vaughn in an average system stays down another year, tweaks his swing to lift the ball more, and probably at least becomes Rhys Hoskins.

Ever since Courtney Hawkins they have kinda neglected OFers in the draft. Which is a huge reason why RF has continued to be a long term black hole for them.

All I know is I didn’t do -ANYTHING- to Bmags to deserve this offensive post

2025 World Series White Sox vs Rockies Book It!!!

Just got our 1st smart TV and dumped cable and was looking to see what streaming service I needed to watch Sox games next season. But then I found the Mystery Science Theater 3000 channel on Pluto, so I'm all good now.

Should have gotten Breslow, lol...

Lots of hot takes about a fucking bullpen coach. The guy he's replacing must have been worth at least 3-4 wins. Weird times man.

So he’s gonna do fine at opening up a gate for pitchers to come out… cool.

Younger generations aren't as interested in sports these days. When I was a kid there was less distractions. We didn't need organized sports. Houses use to have lots or there were fields to play baseball. Schools didn't resemble penal institutions and you could go shoot hoops on a playground.

Waiting for someone to try and connect the dots on here and think this is an obvious sign we are in on Ohtani…?

Not to mention the proliferation of fantasy leagues and illegal and legal gambling that's helping to drive interest in younger/more statistically oriented fans. Interest in Asia and worldwide due to Ohtani. WBC with best ratings and excitement in ages despite loss of Edwin Diaz. Increasing interest in Mexico Caribbean and Latin America. Tennis and golf especially are under threat these days. NASCAR ratings have fallen dramatically. Soccer is crushing everything in its path worldwide and even the US is starting to catch up there. Women's college basketball set ratings and attendance records OTOH. It's not a singular story of MLB declining because revenues and profitability are still higher compared to NBA and LeBron is on his last legs.

Apparently no Royals or ex Royals pitching coaches were available. I’m not impressed, but it is a bullpen coach. He probably has to do what he’s told rather than using his own theories which apparently don’t work.

With the Padres and Astros jobs opening up, do you think either team will request permission to speak to Pedro about taking over their team.

Jealousy can be sad.

He hustled. Great with fans. Resilient/perseverant. Strong family man. Figured out ways to overcome Sox development issues. Improved considerably on defense over time with practice. Attempted to improve his hitting with the help of his own tech as well as his wife's interventions. Not associated with club's nightlife/attitude issues. Always cheered on his teammates. Actually seemed to have fun playing the game and appreciated the opportunities and responsibilities that came with it. Also wouldn't have been one of those players grumbling about Sox fest or offseason PR events/hospital visits/events with children involved. Unselfish.

Burger wouldn't have made the adjustments he made if he was still on the Sox. He'd probably have stayed a low avg/low OBP, all power hitter with tons of ks. It's time to just write it off and say it wouldn't have happened here.

Just staring at his dossier of why grifol is the perfect manager every night, weeping at its glory

You’re the one who is being obtuse. What people around the game are saying, which I largely agree with, is the fact that giving the best teams over the course of 162 games a marginal advantage of one possible home game waters down the value of the season, and disincentives owners to invest in their teams, especially along the margins at the deadline, when there isn’t a significant advantage finishing 14 or 16 games ahead of your opponent, when all that matters in the post season is winning a best of 3/5/7 series by one game. That spending like the Mets, Padres or Dodgers give a marginal edge that doesn’t come close to matching the EV (on field and current revenue and future goodwill revenue post a pennant or world series) of the meager edge a team has fielding superior regular season teams. To me, the obvious solution is to only have regular season division champions involved. If these owners are so desperate to squeeze a few more wild card dollars more out of playoffs most MLB fans don’t even bother watching if their team is out, to do it like the Japanese or Korean leagues where the regular season champion has the advantages winning the far more substantial regular season affords. Top seed only plays one round for the championship, higher seed hosts all home games, higher seeds start with a series lead before it begins, etc. Its ludicrous for a team to win their division by 16 games to have to beat the same team in the best of 5 or 7. The second, third or fourth place teams already lost their chance at a credible “World Championship”. They couldn’t even beat four teams. Not surprised most here seem to be fine with it, with Americans used to taking it up the rear in most other aspects of life from their “leaders”. That’s why over 75% of MLB fans don’t give a s%*# about the World Series anymore. May as well use lottery balls to conduct the playoffs. Fans see right through it and know it’s all bullshit, as is the 162 game exhibition season.

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'm sure if they actually spent the money on Harper and Wheeler, Moncada and Eloy most likely don't get the deals they got. Hell, Moncada might not have been as terrible if he actually had to perform for his contract.

Yeah, this is not going to be a good team next year haha