Leaderboard

I mean, announcing TLR as manager with A.J. Hinch's signature is pretty great

Why anyone would want to invest more money in a bad ballpark in a mediocre location is beyond me. If the team is going to suck for years, at least the promise of a new ballpark in a better location is some sort of excitement.

Buiding stadiums for billionaires and saying how it will benefit us all is the same exercise as trickle down economics. It never adds up in reality.

Man talking about building a second deck on an-almost 35 year old stadium has thoughts on things not happening, lmao

You mean the “trend” of building downtown ballparks that’s been happening since oh 1989? The one with only a few odd outliers over the past 30 years? Let’s see, off the top of my head: Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Philadelphia, & San Diego all abandoned the suburbs and moved into new parks in the city. SF, Seattle, StL, NYY, NYM, CWS, Minnesota, Tex, Hou all built new parks in their city. Washington moved and built a new park in the very limited space in the District of Columbia and not an outlying suburb. Oakland wanted to and tried to move downtown before new ownership held the franchise hostage. Atlanta is the only team I can think of that abandoned a downtown location and moved to suburbia in the past 30 years. This trend you speak of simply doesn’t exist in Major League Baseball.

Mauer’s case was a pretty easy Yes. His damage was as a catcher. Three batting titles with an MVP. Over 2000 hits. A franchise player, Being a good guy doesn’t hurt him either. It’s an honor he deserves. Next year Wagner, Ichiro, and Sabathia are getting in.

Because it’s going to the owners pocket. I get complaints about the Rate. It is poorly designed and a huge handout to Reinsdorf. The deal is terrible and he got it with no real benefit to the city because the city was scared to lose the team for pride reasons. Do not do deals like that. I would rather they move to Nashville than do that again. Here, the city gets something valuable, this is an urban renewal project. Not just a handout. This makes the city better.

The problem is those stats are good for a white sox prospect.

Agreed and I will NEVER be convinced that the timing was not coordinated.

All this stadium talk is nothing but a distraction to how bad this team is, and the fact that we don't know when it will get better.

With gregs record of being wrong rivaling TLRs, this is very exciting to see.

I’d hate to be the team that give Bellinger 150++

First of all, I would like you to tell me how I’m being too optimistic. I’m pretty sure I’m the one describing the environmental rehab issues and costs - this is why the state must be involved. Secondly, the state spends money on lots of things. Eventually, whether with the White Sox or not, the state is going to have to spend money on this site. No developer anywhere will expect to be on the hook for previous environmental damage, if the state expects them to pay that, the site will never be developed. And importantly, failing to develop this site is spending money - on police, maintenance of the site, no tax revenue from here, and lower land values and fewer businesses in the area. This spot is currently generating zero sales tax. It is a strong benefit to the state to find a tenant here who can develop and anchor this property, and in the current market for office space that will be super tough. Getting this developed now is an investment, one that will pay off if the right business is out there, but which has significant costs and revenue losses every year where it isn’t done. Third, are you really ready to discuss soil quality issues with a geologist? Yes, they will be trucking in fill to this site because the land level Is too low and they have to ensure stability next to the river. While a problem for a ballpark, this would be a bigger problem for office or apartment development as high rises increase the pressure on the soil, while low intensity development isn’t going to have enough money available to justify rebuilding the site. All The issues with water you mention are also true for any type of development, and they are likely to prevent any other type of developer from salvaging this property for decades just as they have for the last 60. These reasons are why a ballpark on this land makes good sense, and why government support is well justified. Lets imagine a worst case scenario, they plan this and the infrastructure issues then our worse than expected. First, that would affect any business going into this spot, so in both cases public money would be required to fix the issues. Second, how many developers can survive multi year project delays? If I was building an office tower, I have revenue projections to meet - a multi year delay may bankrupt me. The single worst thing that could happen here for the state is they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure and cleanup and the developer loses their funding because of delays, so the state will have spent their money with no benefit. This however is almost impossible for the white Sox, because if site issues delay the project for years, they just play a couple extra seasons on 35th street. From a public perspective, that is amazing insurance for the site - my main tenant and developer will not go bankrupt if there are delays! There are always details to be worked out. A real estate business has a right to turn a profit on their investment. I will not begrudge the Reinsdorf group turning a substantial profit if they pull this project off. A project that makes them money and makes the city a better place is a true win for everyone. Hell put a hotel there and I will stay in it. But it also should be a good deal for the city - in the long run the benefits they get in taxes and development should be able to win out, on the 20 or 30 year horizon. That’s how much money the city should put in - this is an investment to grow the city and its tax base long term. If Reinsdorf can pull that off, then he has done something great for the city while also making money, and my version of capitalism likes that type of partnership.

and 7 miles in New York City is different than 7 miles in Kansas City. And frankly, 17 miles is different in Dallas too, because Fort Worth exists.

If we get to the point where Manfred is coming to town because they are demanding so much from the city, yeah enjoy Nashville. There is an obvious path here where each side gets pinched a little but where there is so much money in the asset and development rights for the extra land that JR would be flat out stupid not to take advantage of it. This sets the family up to take in billions while also making the city better, and if they sell the team at some point they sell a ready-for-development or already-developed land. If he needs to feel like he took the state to the cleaners in the process, then he can lose out on the money he would make for developing the rest of the land. It would be complaining about $300 million and losing $2 billion over the next couple decades.

Didn’t write it was an issue. In fact, I’m betting on it. Unless JR announces in the next couple of years he’s building a ballpark on his own with some state and city concessions, we will have to go through what all these towns with ballpark issues had to go through, save Arlington, TX. Rob Manfred is going to have to come to town and tell us how the team can’t possibly compete at their current location, which we were told before, only to build them something where they usually didn’t compete despite have several competitive advantages. And people can fool themselves all they want. JR isn’t putting up his own money to build a 10 figure ballpark.

Apologies, it's not moving to another city, but moving the ballpark elsewhere in Chicago. He did look long and hard at the UC and that is considered the backup site. There are valid reasons why they didn't use that as their first choice which I can't get into. He won't be. The Sox are a lot further along than what fans think. There are different financial proposals that have been submitted and they have been working closely with the city.

"As usual, Soxtalk is focusing on the negative. Clearly we were highlighting that there is no way to go but UP for Jake."

This one was especially dumb, but its also very on brand for Sox PR.

Ortiz being in while being on the 2003 list by his own admission while holding out other steroid guys is insanity. There's more evidence against him than say Roger Clemens or the same as Sosa.

Are you talking about Matt or Aroldis. Because he is talking about Matt, and Matt doesn’t seem to be done at all

Yeah I'm not sure he has the numbers to be in the hall. His peak was great, but very short. His bWAR and fWAR are both in the low 50s. That's usually not enough to get in, even at a position with shorter longevity like catcher.

I could care less about blocking him from cubs. I posted this as what is good for White Sox. Play RF everyday. Fill in for Robert in CF when he has day off or DH'ing Play 1B when Vaughn has day off or has to DH because Eloy is hurt Lineup: Bennintedi Bellinger Robert Eloy Moncada Vaughn 2B??? Dejong/Montgomery Maldonado/Stassi All of a sudden that lineup looks pretty decent with him in it

Are you trying to claim you don’t play against your own division more than the other AL teams?

It me. Parser

Chicago and NY have always had multiple teams, might be why none are located downtown or in the central business district. The Dodgers are a mid-century transplant and moved into a Chavez Ravine location near downtown when suburban flight was en vogue. Both Chicago teams have played in the same locations for a century, same for the Yankees. The Mets have always been in Queens, correct? None of these four teams were a part of the 90s wave of new downtown parks, although it was an option for the Sox and fairly universally considered a mistake to have not made the move.

I feel like NYC just needs to not be in that graphic. For starters — I'm guessing Lower Manhattan is being counted as downtown, but Midtown has a more classic "downtown" vibe. But then you have Downtown Brooklyn, which isn't built up to nearly the same degree, but keeps expanding (the Barclays Center is technically just outside of that neighborhood). I'm sure you'd get different answers from different people about Queen's Downtown, but Flushing is literally called Downtown Flushing by the city. As for Yankees Stadium, yeah. It's a 20 minute subway ride from Grand Central (6 miles). TL;DR - Balta is right and this graphic is dumb without context.

As does the entire metroplex in between. It's basically one city.

I’ll be there. I’m not entirely sure what to expect, but I do know private events at the Field Museum are quite nice.

I know, I wrote that. Was agreeing with you premise.

Well, we are at the beginning of what appears to be a large snow dump today, my area(mchenry county) is looking at 8-15 inches of snow followed by sub zero for a week, so that’s fun hope everyone stays safe, happy shoveling/snowblowing/paying someone else to do it

I suspect JR won't be around to make any decisions like that when the time comes and has been previously posted MLB is not going to turn down expansion team money so a current franchise can move to a smaller location.

Anyone snags a photo of Carl Everett and Sue, please post.

A "full throttle" pursuit of talent....that's a good bullshit line....not as good as "unprecedented financial flexibility" but good.

The Cubs poop money and none of these potential contracts are going to impact them very much in the grand scheme of things. They aren’t like our Sox in which one bad signing like Benintendi screws their payroll over completely. Also, would you rather have your favorite team be in position to sign a guy like Bellinger, or would you rather see your team’s big offseason acquisition be Fedde?

I was refuting the notion that there was a trend in baseball of moving to the suburbs in recent years. All of the teams I listed either moved closer to downtown or remained adjacent to. MLB teams aren't looking to move out of urban centers any more with rare exception.

Kind of seems like the players are making the call here. Have to think giannis and dame were sort of leading the charge in getting Adrian fired, and they probably made the call that they wanted Doc.

HE'S DEAD ALREADY STOP BEATING HIM!

Quite a few stadiums built in the last 10-15 years or so have been built in cities. The 78 is a great spot for a ballpark with plenty of room. Moving there would not be stupid at all. It would be one of the best things the Sox have done in a long time. Granted, that bar is low, but they have a chance to have one of the best, if not the best, ballparks in MLB with easily the best background.

The easiest place to build a new park is usually in the parking lot of the one it's replacing.

Well they will always have you to tell them it’s all good

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-parks-from-oldest-to-newest I don’t believe most of the last 10 stadiums built in the MLB support your theory, but the last two were out of their respective cities (Newest) Globe Life (Texas Rangers) Truist park (Atlanta Braves) Loan Depot Park (Miami Marlins) Target Field (Minnesota Twins) Yankee Stadium (duh) Citi Field (Mets) Nationals Park (Nationals) New Busch Stadium (Cardinals) Citizens Bank Park(Phillies) Petco Park (San Diego) if I am not mistaken, all but the last two are right smack dab in their cities

Buehrle lives!

But Colas was already anointed the RF of the future... oh wait...

Teams that have the No. 1 overall pick didn’t usually finish the season with 7 wins either. If they draft Williams, add a WR and/or a good OL, the offense is pretty much ready to compete. This isn’t Bryce Young coming to a Panthers team that had nothing to work with..

Thank you Caulfield, for posting the weather report for Wuhan in a blizzard thread. We all found it helpful and most importantly, topical to what Kyle had posted. Keep up the great work.