Leaderboard

It's like the Antonio Brown list, which is worth a read. Let's just start from after the World Series. 2006: Gets rid of Frank Thomas. Thomas finishes 4th in MVP voting in 2006. After opening a hole in CF by trading Rowand for Thome, they trade top prospect Chris Young for Javy Vazquez. Brian Anderson is bad. Despite a monstrous offense powered by home runs in 2006, barely miss the playoffs. 2007: Thanks to Kenny gutting the farm system and marquee free agent signings like Darin Erstad, they get old and bad. Kenny's pseudo-rebuild/retool is built around top prospects like Josh Fields, Jerry Owens and Danny Richar. The first round picks are all "safe" guys. Sox miss out on acquiring Miguel Cabrera because Jerry doesn't want to take on Dontrelle Willis' contract. 2008: They get to the playoffs but their MVP candidate breaks his hand cause he was angry and punched a bat. KW Jr. drafted in the 6th round. The Sox trade re-acquired Gio Gonzalez and Ryan Sweeney for Nick Swisher. Dave Wilder scandal Swisher is shipped out after one year because he's toxic as hell. 2009: Ozzie is getting on Ozzieball now. Rios is brought in to replace Dye. Thome is shipped to the Dodgers. Beckham looks like the future at 3rd base, but the Sox decide they need Mark Teahen because even back then, they enjoyed trading with the Royals. Getz and Josh Fields are traded to the Royals. This creates a disastrous butterfly effect. Sox pick Jared Mitchell ahead of Mike Trout cause Jerry hates high school players. 2010: Sox trade Daniel Hudson for Edwin Jackson. Hudson is still pitching. Because of Teahen, Beckham becomes the second basemen. He later talks about how this kinda played with his head. The rotating DH Ozzie and his kids become a distraction. 2011: Adam Dunn Ozzie negotiates with Marlins to leave mid-season 2012: Robin Ventura hired despite no managerial experience. Jerry lets Buehrle leave for a reasonable contract Trade Chris Devenski for Brett Myers Trade Eduardo Escobar for Liriano 2014 and 2013 are just sad, but can be summed up with stuff like Jeff Keppinger and Adrien Nieto 2015: Sox go big! Melky signing Adam LaRoche Trade Semien, Phegley, Bassitt and Ravelo for Samardzija and Ynoa Sign Robertson but that was fine 2016: The death spiral begins Sox trade Montas, Thompson and Micah Johnson for Todd Frazier Fucking Drake LaRoche Trade Tatis (and Erik Johnson) for an imploding James Shields 2017: Trade Sale, Eaton, and Q because they colossally fucked up everything. 2018: Lose a lot, draft Nick Madrigal. Lucas Giolito goes outside the organization because the instruction he's getting sucks. 2019: Lose a lot, draft Vaughn to play first base. Don't sign Machado when they were the only bidder because they tried to toy with him. Don't even try for Bryce. 2020: Have a real shot at Wheeler. Miss. "We have an All-Star catcher. Sign another." Tbh I was fine with Yasmani, but still kinda dumb. Eloy gets hurt cause they never taught him how to play defense. Play Vaughn in left field. Rush Crochet to majors as a reliever. Botch his development. Burger and Sheets seeks development outside the organization. Omar Vizquel scandal #1 breaks. 2021: Hire TLR despite having their pick of the litter. Miss out on Joc because of a small amount of dollars. Omar Vizquel scandal #2 breaks, this one with organizational implications. TLR's nonsense. Leury extension. Rename Loretta's Lounge for no reason. Acquire Craig Kimbrel, use him wrong. Squabble with Giolito in arbitration. And I don't even need to start typing out the past two years. And I missed other moments from the past 18 because I was just going off Baseball Almanac and my memory, but there are organizational things like not spending wisely internationally, home grown players like Flowers and Semien becoming better defenders once leaving the Sox, trading international spending allotment etc. Being a Sox fan is death by a thousand cuts and Jerry is very pennywise/pound foolish. There's a reality where they have a homegrown infield of Semien/Tatis/Anderson/Abreu for the past few years. Don't even need to spend a Madrigal pick! Everything they do is so fucking stupid and self inflicted.

I heard him and he’s correct. Jason Benetti is better at his job than anyone else currently employed by the White Sox. Benetti will do final fours and super bowls etc. He’s one of the best at his job in the country and he wanted to broadcast White Sox games. Jerry didn’t pony up and he’s never liked his style anyway. He’s a short-sighted old f*** though and he can’t be gone soon enough.

Why do you keep pretending that Benetti is the only thing driving this outrage. I know you don’t like Jason for your own PMed reasons but you should be able to compartmentalize that and understand, instead you are parroting the dumbest s%*# over and over in this thread waiting for people to come around to it or whatever. It’s not just Jason Benetti. It’s everything. Jason is a final fucking straw

This is really the crux. Benetti leaving is one thing, but leaving for the Tigers is another. And leaving because JR didn't want to pay one of the best of the best that actually wanted to be here. And or didn't like his style etc etc. JR nuking every ounce of goodwill left for his baseball team is what has so many of us at the breaking point. Losing one of the best announcers in the game is that proverbial straw breaking the camel's back. It's not just this, it's every goddamn thing that came before it. It's the culmination of a thousand paper cuts as the old man bleeds the fanbase dry.

I just don't understand how anyone can defend that he was a good White Sox announcer. He was a total goofball, almost at all times. The difference is on the national level he isn't working on his stand up routine like he did during White Sox games. He can be a great announcer and one of the best in the business while not being a very good White Sox announcer. They aren't mutually exclusive.

This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen on this forum and that’s impressive. It’s really embarrassing. It’s the White Sox under Jerry Reinsdorf though. Short-sighted, penny wise and pound foolish, etc. I’m sure Brooks Boyer has a fucking stiffy just thinking about putting a lame broadcaster from Notre Dame in the booth It’s not lazy. Robert is the best player on the team. It was a good way to point out how good Benetti is at his job. Saying he’s better at his job than Andrew Vaughn isn’t a compliment but Andrew Vaughn sucks.

Nothing. And that's the point. It's fine if you don't like Jason. Seen plenty of those posts in this thread. He's actually not my favorite either. But I acknowledge his talent, along with near universal praise within the industry. That means something. This organization is at the lowest point it's been, probably ever, and they let one of the only "strengths" of the organization leave for Detroit...because why? What I can't wrap my head around is people like @tray always giving the Sox the "benefit of the doubt." "Oh I'm sure there is more to this story." The "more" in this case is how poorly this entire franchise is run by one man. That's the more. It's not complicated, it's not a conspiracy theory, no matter how hard you want it to be. He's an old, out of touch billionaire that has shown NO desire to run his organization with any sense of purpose, drive, or desire to achieve something greater than the absolute bare minimum. But keep defending that, it's going GREAT.

Nobody will miss Benetti. Hopefully they bring Hawk back, or somebody of similar caliber.

Can you blame him with the goofball product on the field?

Be snarky all you like to begin this response...It doesn't raise your level of discourse at all. Also realize you (and others here) are in a incredibly small group being glad about one the best broadcasters in baseball is now leaving your club. He grew up a bigger fan than you, overcame huge obstacles and still became a top PBP man in Chicago and nationwide He is so highly regarded around the country compared to any of his colleagues. He will now promote, even indirectly, the Detroit Tigers, when he is on Fox and ESPN. Finally understand how this is symptom of the bigger White Sox disease and being complacent to it...helps them spread it.

One of Jon Greenbergs best lines ever For all the things the Sox do wrong — player development, pro scouting, the farm system, stadium operations, stadium security, ownership, management, ticket sales.”

We will survive the Benetti thing, but it gives me one more reason not to have faith in this organization. Benetti had a right to be ambitious. This was just another dumb Sox move.

He's not picking on Robert. He named the best player on the team on purpose. He's acknowledging how good he is, and then saying Benetti is even somehow better at his job in order to illustrate how highly he regards Jason. Being better at your job than Andrew Vaughn is a seriously low bar and not much of a compliment.

Home run calls arent the only thing that makes a broadcaster. Yeah.. we all grew up on Hawks HR calls but there is so much more to the job. HR Calls are a small part of the equation. The larger baseball community very much loves Benetti and people who dont like Jason are frankly in the minority. This is a huge L and further indication the Sox are an awfully run org and dont give a f*** about you.

First off, we have no idea if he left for more money. Since he was under contract, he couldn't just leave. He is working at least 127 games which is 35 off, same as what he was doing. Whether you like him or not, he was a White Sox fan long before he became a broadcaster, and he left, after being encouraged to listen to a rival by the team that he loved and worked for. Lip had a piece around a year ago where he talked to people and they came up with many issues. When I read it, my first thought was cmon man. Not that I thought Lip made any of it up, but I figured his sources were making things look way crazier than they could be. As time has gone on abd stories leaked, its been spot on.One issue was the broadcasters and how there was a lot of discontent there. Then Hawk goes on AJs podcast and let's Brooks Boyer have it. I've had a couple on encounters with Brooks, and he was great to me, but Hawk has an issue. Jason apparently does too as Jon Greenberg of the Athletic said their relationship was not the best. But I think where most are missing the point is this guy loved the White Sox, like most everyone on this site. He was under contract. Yet for some reason, and it may be money, but I just doubt it., I think itwas something else. He goes to Detroit? The percentage of people on this site, who if they were the television voice of the White Sox would just someday say, the one thing better than this would be calling Tiger games is miniscule. He isn't Harry. He isn't Haawk. But he's good, and he's one of us. Love him or hate him his replacement is almost certainly a downgrade. Maybe they figure so few will be watching it doesn't matter. I just hope someday soon they hire a guy who will be synonymous with the White Sox for a couple of decades.

I am not sure what all the faux outrage over Bennetti is about here. He was never that well liked on this forum. He wasn't fired by the White Sox. He decided to look for more money, more flexibility to do national broadcasts, and more days off. Sox on the other hand, didn't want a play by play man that required several days off at whatever price he was asking. They also did not want to be forced to fill in several dates with guest broadcasters which is not easily done. Moreover, we don't know what might have gone on behind the scenes that may have caused some issues between him, Steve Stone or other members of the broadcast team or management. At the end of the day, good luck. It's just that this feels so weird to be happening right now and I am left with feeling that may be more to this than we know about.

I agree that he came off cheesy and corny at times, but that's the real Jason and he never tried to be someone he's not, which makes him Identifiable, and I don't think anyone is questioning his passion.

Longshot: I can see Carela being added.

That's what I don't get. They lost a guy who if he wasn't an announcer, was such a huge fan of the White Sox, he might have been a Soxtalk poster. He has what he as said was his dream job and he up and leaves to Detroit of all places. It's just a sign of how messed up the organization is. And if anyone thinks the position will be upgraded, they haven't paid attention for a few years.

Yeah I'm a fan who blogs and does podcasts. There's a huge difference. I've never met Jason Benetti. I'd never stop watching games over the loss of an announcer. That's insane. The product will be worse because of this though and it was avoidable. That was the whole point. Thanks for the diatribe though. I'm entertained.

The last straw for people should be if they trade Montgomery for Salvy.

Funny thing is, people complained about that as well. There never will be someone in the booth everyone likes. Some will have really big issues with who ever calls a game.

Letting a guy do national TV games and football games is not accommodating him, its the opposite, it is building your own brand stronger by having a well known broadcaster.

It's really JR and Boyer who are the main culprits. The only thing we lead the majors in is ticker sellers with high pressure almost extortionist tactics trying to guilt the 20% of ticket buyers who have always comprised 80% of attendance. If they spent that money on scouting and development instead, they would actually have fans begging to come to games. The product can and should sell itself. Iowa can fill up a whole football stadium to watch Caitlyn Clark play an exhibition women's basketball game...Nebraska even can fill Memorial Stadium for volleyball. Once again, f you have a great product and great players it sells itself. The opposite is what results from a putrid overpriced product that has forced one of the Top 3-5 younger/ish broadcasting talents in the entire country to leave the team he grew up adoring for the freaking Detroit Tigers. To add insult to injury...they're going to replace him with Beckham/McKnight/Huff or very best case scenario Mike Monaco...basically a hired gun who will jump at the first better paid opportunity that comes down the pike. Where's our next Hawk, Rooney and Dave Wills who live and die with the team? Instead, we end up with guys like Chris Rongey, who antagonized belittled and looked down judgmentally on passionate Sox fans like that call in show guy in the preseason who was arguably the only positive/uplifting highlight of 2023.

The Sox are stripping it down to the studs and preparing for some kind of sale imo. This is a horrible way to do it, but it's an archaic way so it's right up Jerry's alley. This explains pretty much every decision they've made.

I won't miss him one bit, Sox math and his other schtick was too much to take.

LOL I know there is some joking/trollage in this post, but bringing Hawk back would be hysterical.

Being honest, I liked him more when he called Bulls games. Maybe that's just because Stacey King is insufferable at this point, and Adam Amin just slobs on his knob all game. I'll miss having Jason call Bulls games on occasion.

Live in Brooklyn, so they're super blacked out. They're just the natural choice for a new team for me since I go to Cyclones games, most of my friends here that are baseball fans are Mets fans, and I just couldn't bring myself to be a Yankees fan.

Jerry is the dude who will spend $200,000 fixing a 2005 Ford Focus instead of just buying a new car.

My guess is Thompson gets added.

I'd add Eder and Mena and call it a day. I like Veras but don't think another team would select him in the ML portion. There's enough fat on the 40-man that adding him is fine, I just think the likelihood of a selection is low.

I will miss Benetti. However, I am also quite definitely no one.

Anyone remember Guy Smiley?

Ok, this is great and all but that’s not really what you are saying. You just keep repeating “I DONT KNOW WHY EVERYONE IS SO MAD JASON IS GONE” like it’s the only thing that has happened

Because that’s the type of stupid thing that should cause the ridiculous outrage we’ve seen the last 24 hours, in my opinion.

I think Matt Foster is the only real non-tender candidate. He'll be just a bit over league min, so depending on how his rehab is progressing, Sox aren't really in a position to be punting off potential relievers. Sox also in not really in a position to non-tender Touki, and I think he earned another look.

Nah, just the same. Nothing has changed. actually I’m gonna consider AKME marginally better because they didn’t fall ass backwards into the 1 pick and shove their hands in their pockets and not know what to do after that happened, yet.

November 10, 1948 - New Sox G.M. Frank “Trader” Lane made his first deal and it was a beauty. Lane traded backup catcher Aaron Robinson to the Tigers for a young left-handed pitcher named Billy Pierce and $10,000. Pierce would become arguably the finest left hander in White Sox history. He won 186 games in a Sox uniform with two 20-win seasons, seven All-Star selections, starting three games and four one-hitters. He led the A.L. at various times in wins, complete games, ERA and strikeouts. He was the first Chicago athlete to be put on the cover of Sports Illustrated which happened in May 1957. He also was on the cover of Sport Magazine later that same year. By WAR Billy was considered the best pitcher in baseball for the decade of the 1950’s. November 10, 1966 – The White Sox officially announced they had signed a deal to leave WGN-TV to start showing their games on WFLD-TV, channel 32, starting in 1968. The deal’s base payout was $1,000,000 annually to the Sox for five years for a minimum of 123 games televised including games from the West Coast which had never been shown on WGN. Much like the SportsVision decision made by the club in 1982, in theory it was a sound business idea but in reality the technical limitations and the fact that most of Chicago couldn’t even receive the UHF signal turned the move into a disaster as the Cubs, still on WGN, expanded the number of games they were showing and with the financial backing to go along with a talented team in the time period from the late 60’s through the early 70’s made the White Sox almost invisible in the market. November 10, 1993 - Frank Thomas won his first M.V.P. award on the strength of a .317 batting average with 41 home runs and 128 RBI’s. The “Big Hurt” was a large reason the Sox would win the Western Division championship. Even rarer, his winning the award was by a unanimous vote of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Thomas grabbed 392 points in the voting. Paul Molitor of the Blue Jays was a distant second with 209 points. The awarded netted Thomas a $100,000 bonus. Thomas would repeat winning the award in 1994. November 10, 2014 – White Sox slugger Jose Abreu was named the unanimous winner by the Baseball Writers Association of America as the A.L. Rookie of the Year for 2014. He got all 30 votes on the basis of a spectacular first season in the Major Leagues…a .317 average with 36 home runs and 107 RBI’s. He led the Major Leagues in slugging percentage as well. Pitcher Matt Shoemaker of the Angels was second. November 10, 2021 – Liam Hendriks was named the winner of the American League Reliever of the Year Award. The 31-year-old Hendriks signed with the White Sox as a free agent after the pandemic shortened 2020 season coming from the Oakland A’s and more than lived up to his contract in 2021. He had a 2.54 ERA and an incredible 113 strikeouts against only seven walks in 71 innings. He led the league with 38 saves in 44 attempts. Hendriks was the first Sox pitcher to win this award which began in 2014 but former players like Eddie Fisher, Terry Forster, Rich “Goose” Gossage and Bobby Thigpen were also relief pitcher award winners while they were playing.

I would love AJ though.

Anyone who says they aren’t going to watch because Benetti left isn’t really serious. They will still watch. Don’t take that take too seriously.

You media people are about as delusional as it gets.

I won't miss the guy. Maybe Stone will retire.

I definitely respect that. I’m sure he’s a great person too—the on-air act just never landed with me. People do come across differently in other people’s eyes. He came across cheesy and corny to me. I think we should be giving people more reasons to take us seriously at a time like this rather than more reasons to write us off as the clown show the broadcasts often turned into. This is not going to be an easy fix. They keep putting more and more lipstick on the pig. They need a rebuild AND a rebrand IMO.

I'm guessing that other GM's don't spend their time listening to 29 other sports radio shows to see if another GM tips his hand by giving an honest assessment of how their team is put together. If one of us can sit down and break down the Sox' outfield, any other GM has 20 times the information we have, and a team to evaluate the player they have interest in.

Crawford is #77, Miller is #90 on MLB's top 100 prospects list.

why would you put in a press release that two guys were offered lower positions than they originally had lmao that's such a white sox thing to do, you cant help but laugh