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The renderings just need TLR's stamp of approval first.

Sheets is listed far too many times for my liking.

I will take Harold reviving this dead thread as optimism that something is brewing.

Moving a top 15 team in valuations to a much lesser market is very much NOT in their best interests.

They always site this when asking for public funds, but it almost always turns out bad for the public. The state owes more money now than It did when Soldier Field was renovated. Sure White Sox fans were OK with JR getting his stadium built, but what about those who don’t give 2 shits about baseball or the White Sox? I like an earlier post. This guy puts very little effort in trying to win. We were sold a bill of goods that a new stadium would give them the wherewithal to be a sustained success story. Even when given the ALC, it never happened. There’s no reason to think it would happen if you built him another or spent billions upgrading the current one. The state needs to spend its tax money more wisely.

I don’t think JR has many bullets. Moving the team will required league approval, and the White Wox still have a viable place to play. When was the last time a team was allowed to move just because they sucked so much? jR owes the fans and residents of this state a heck of a lot. He doesn’t get the stadium built and moves to Tampa, well you see how they draw, and JR would never have them winning as much as they do. He also would have probably had to sell the Bulls, and this was before the dynasty. At least that was the talk back then. He prints money with the Bulls, has a sweetheart lease, and refuses to ever stick his neck out with the White Sox.

In terms of public funds for this - note how different this would be compared to what Vegas is doing or what Tampa Bay is doing. Those areas are paying to keep a team there, maybe not in an ideal spot, because they want to use it as a way to make their city seem important. This is also why the state spent money on the White Sox's park 30 years ago, and why the City paid to renovate Soldier Field. These are the projects that are big money losers for cities. If Chicago did this exact project with the White Sox, it is fundamentally different. This is an urban renewal project. This area is blighted, it has been undeveloped for more than 50 years. Between this site, the rail yard, and the river, it creates a large area of the city that is unwalkable and a barrier to high density development. It is also basically paying no tax to the city, it probably creates costs to police it, and it will be a drag on the surrounding neighborhoods. If the city were to find a tenant to develop this area, it might take more than 20 years to recoup any funds they invest, but if the city could turn this into a developed area - they can think about returns in the 50 to 100 year horizon. Furthermore, developing this site will allow denser development around it. Removing the blighted area in this spot will increase land values nearby and lead to the potential for significant development in this area and moving farther outwards. That's all true for literally any tenant here, which is why the city would likely put up some significant money for any development in this area. However, there have been several attempts to develop this region, all of which, so far, have completely failed. Other developers have different risks - the office market is currently pretty weak following COVID, so if the most recent developer was planning to add significant office space here, there's likely no funds available for that right now. For the city, the benefit of doing this with the White Sox is - the White Sox, as a baseball team, are likely to still exist in 30 years. Their funding situation and ability to raise funds is different from a business relying on other real estate markets. If they can get the White Sox on board as a key tenant here, and the city puts up some money, they will actually get the site developed. The White Sox aren't likely to cease to exist in 2027. This isn't a real estate developer announcing the project and then hoping to get funds lined up once they show interest from enough businesses. The White Sox building a high quality park here that draws 25,000 a night 81 times a year should also lead to additional business around the area. It won't take long before someone opens "Big Hurt Bar" across the street, hell I'd do that if I could. Add a hotel on the site, and you've now taken a blighted, undeveloped area and turned it into a center of activity and development in the city. The city should not pay the entire project, the White Sox should be putting up a significant amount of money as well. However, note the difference between rebuilding Soldier Field or building New Comiskey. In those cases, they were just spending money to keep the named thing in the city. Soldier field kept the Bears in the city, but spurred likely very little new development. New Comiskey gave Reinsdorf his parking lots, but I don't think there's any businesses in the area that rely on or cater to the White Sox. Hell, I think "Jimbo's bar" was the spot they showed on TV during the last game of the 05 World Series and that closed a couple years later. When the new ballpark was built at 35th street, people arrived on the highway or rails, went to the game, and left - it supported basically no other business. A walkable stadium, with businesses nearby, a hotel and other development on the site, with transit options as the main way to bring people in - this supports the entire area. It is possible they can't make this work, the two sides will need to agree on how much money each side is going to put in and that will always be complex. But this is fundamentally different from just building a new park to avoid losing the franchise - this is a redevelopment project. Any developer on this site would expect a significant contribution from the city to bring it back to the tax base, and the White Sox offer substantial benefits compared to your average developer. It is to the taxpayer's benefit to come up with an agreement and get this done.

So there was a 70 game stretch of the season where they were 34-36. That's...something?

Yeah, JR can’t make it work in a metro area with 9.5 million people, but would better off in a spot with 20% of that. That makes no sense it’s one thing if you NEED a new stadium, but he can’t play that card. He’s probably playing the ISFA for another sweetheart lease plus some upgrades, because he doesn’t want to spend his money building a ballpark.

For a second, I thought the Sox had signed a guy named Szymborski

So that gives us what… 73 wins (~23 WAR total)? See? This team IS improving.

? You are delusional. Just because the Sox acquired more players than the Cubs doesn’t mean they have had a better offseason than them. Which player have the Sox acquired that wasn’t dumpster diving? Apparently acquiring multiple negative WAR players means you are having a great offseason. Name one player the Sox have acquired this offseason that had a productive season last year. I hate them too, but the fact is that the Cubs have won a WS far more recently than the Sox and if you can’t admit they currently have a competitive team while the Sox are in the basement of the worst division in baseball, you are lying to yourself.

I must be missing something with Ramsay because he’s never been good in AAA in his many stops there. Shocked he’s even on the 40 man. Honestly, I think him or Lambert may get cut to make the Brebbia signing official.

Before the city or state provides any funding for a new stadium, the White Sox should show they are willing to invest in their team. Other words, no more tanking, no more slashing of payroll. Spend on the farm system, spend on free agents. Why should they get a money-making stadium just so we can see guys like Gavin Sheets play right field?

I would tell him: if it's publicly funded, then it's owned by the city of Chicago, it's going to have a retractable roof, and the city will use it however it wants for the 284 days a year that the Sox aren't at home, and keep all revenues from that usage. If you want anything other than that, pay for it yourself.

Maybe he wants to hear @Sports Guy's latest proposal

The A's value will go up in LV. The Sox value in Nashville would go down, bringing the leaguewide average down. This isn't a hard concept.

I don’t care about anything in a college hitter’s draft season after turning pro. I don’t like his swing but he’s a shortstop that gets on base. Wouldn’t have been my pick but salvageable imo

"Win 70 games?!?!?"

Just get an AI generated version of 90's Hawk and everything will be fine.

He must be pretty terrible to cause the Sox ZIPs projections to drop.

What are you hearing about Gonzalez? He looked terrible and all the metrics support that eye test. My hope is that we did not see the real Jacob Gonzalez. Maybe he was exhausted ala Montgomery at Project Birmingham? Or halfway through a significant swing change? Or he altered his approach, which he will then junk? I want to have some hope for the guy because my looks last year were not encouraging.

The key factor was trading nearly the entire starting pitching staff at the deadline. They obviously weren't prepared for that and it was a total tank after that.

Cespedes was fine.

If this ends up being close to true it shows how wretched last year’s roster was. It’s not that hard to win 70-something games.

When a team is so bad Zips doesn't even matter. I never quite understood the use for projection systems so I always leaned towards them pretty useless anyway.

Barlow probably makes it. edit: especially if Santos misses time. Does anyone even know if he’s hurt? I’ve seen like one person here suggest he may be injured and has no value but I haven’t really seen anything myself.

Aaron Leming had a great tweet about how Zac Robinson and Liam Coen seem like guys that would go to other teams and be like Slowik and Canales, but if they went to the bears they’d be just another run of Nagy/Getsy. Bears fans have been so quick to compliment, rightfully so, LaFleurs offense recently. Makes me have greater respect for what Eberflus saw in that offense when he nabbed Getsy. At the time we hired Nagy, we had no idea he “developed” the greatest modern QBs first year. These would be profiles that I’d be so pumped for to hire now. Yet we seem to pull the few examples of guys who cannot actually lead what they were taught. Id guess this is why we should value that Waldron and Others had called plays prior. But man I wish we could actually hit on one of these guys on the way up for once.

I was going to say in the belfry.

I like Dylan Cease a lot. To be completely honest, I'd feel really bad sending him to the complete dump that is Baltimore, home to possibly the dumbest fanbase in the county.

Just think if we calculated WAR based on the actual replacement level of our next guy in line for the Sox. We might have a positive WAR

Another dumb article. I don't blame JR for this. It's good business if he can get the politicians to pay for it. I blame the dumbass politicians. I wouldn't give them a dime to build the stadium.

You know the Braves will turnaround Bummer and Sale will probably have a healthy season. The rest of the ex-Sox are just bodies for AAA.

Difference is the Braves will still win 100 games.

Stiven Flores?

Pottersville

I just want to add my 2 cents to this thread. FIRE PEDRO

Bump. 25 days until we get ST snippets of Pedroball, culture, and some other nonsense.

If your basic job qualification is to be able to talk out of both sides of your mouth, replacing one of those sides with food intake seems like a logical next step.

This is ridiculous

Barry / Berry?

Building a better ballpark in a better location in town than the gorgeous dump on the north side is about the only thing Jerry could do to get Sox fans back. Amazing if that old bastard pulls this off.

Lol, I thought I'd toss one in correct to see if anyone noticed.

He claims he didn't knowingly use steroids, but was once provided a cream by Bonds to recover from a knee injury. Ortiz waltzing in has kinda ruined the sanctity of the Hall regarding questionable steroid use for me. Blatant use? Sure.

“While continuing to speak into the microphone, please consume this pulled pork mac and cheese funnel cake sandwich atop a slab of baby back ribs, during which you must display an unattainable level of elegance and sophistication.”

Every time I see Tony LaRussa's name mentioned in conjunction with the WS I get an upset stomach.

Also this guy. Im told Leury’s batting cage work was good enough that we will see him hitting third.

That sounds like a band name. Cage the Bear.