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There are other options besides "doom and gloom" and self-indulgent silliness. Of course, it's challenging to make a broadcast interesting when the team isn't, but unless you're lucky enough to work for a perennial contender, it's part of a baseball announcer's job. This year, Len and DJ are doing pretty well with the radio broadcasts. I've heard them call guys out for bad plays, get mildly excited for good ones, and spend a lot of time talking about more interesting things - like other games around the league, good players on other teams, baseball history, insider strategy, etc. I think one of Schriffen's problems is that he doesn't seem to bring much to the broadcasts other than the silliness and some notes from the previous day's post-game interviews. He relies a lot on repeating press conference pablum: "Pedro says Andrew is starting to see the ball better," "Jordan is happy to be back in the big leagues," etc. You might get away with that if you're calling a couple games a month for ESPN, but it's not enough to carry 160 broadcasts a year. He lacks Benetti's connection to Chicago, lacks Kasper's knowledge of baseball history, can't spin old yarns like Hawk, and doesn't seem to have any special access or insight into what's going on with the team. The silliness and funny noises will appeal to some viewers, but he'll need more than that to endear himself to a bigger audience.

The White Sox play Gavin Sheets in the outfield so nothing should be surprising.

I think it’s more so that us fans just want him to call the game without making cringe worthy animal noises and acting like a complete dumbass frat boy clown. SOUTHSIDE STAAAAAAND UP!!!!! RAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRRRR

I have probably been the most vocal about how annoying the “broadcaster critics” on Sox talk are…but Schriffen has broken me. The guy is made of cheese. It’s like listening to an elementary school assembly MC announce every game.

I drink your milkshake.

Not worth it, keep him and ride it out until the value increases. Those prospects aren’t moving the needle and he isn’t blocking anyone. This is one to be patient with.

It sounds like Tony the Tiger from Kellogg’s trying to do a bad impersonation of a Spanish accent.

i just want him to become Baltimore's GM. I think the Sox could get their top 5 prospects for Maldonado and Lopez if that were the case. Maybe throw in Sheets as a kicker. I just wish at some point, someone sit down with him, probably Brooks, and explain to him that 26-67 is really, really bad. The people listening and watching now, are not that dumb.

Dude is a clown, fits in perfectly with this Dollar General franchise

Good luck, man. He must really hate spring training.

He's a star. In a big OF fully healthy he's saving you 20 runs a year. CF is slim pickings right now in MLB. There is no doubt he's a star and people trying to say otherwise are foolish.

Maybe shopping for a Jeep Wrangler?

It's bad but as others have noted, it's not really the worst thing about him. The worst thing about him is that he's whistling past the graveyard regarding an 120 loss team while showing little if any baseball knowledge in the process. I can at times stand being talked down to by Stone, at least he knows a little baseball. But John? Hell no.

So what, is he supposed to call the game completely depressed and upset about how terrible we are? It's like most on this board want him to call the game as if he was a disheartened soxtalk poster. Have you ever in your life heard someone call a game/team like that? Of course not. Sure some of his stuff is a little silly, but the expectation that he deliver the game with the doom and gloom mentality that some of you wish is ridiculous to consider.

I am sure he's a nice guy, and I really want to like his calls, and probably would if the Sox were 67-26. But it's just too much. In the last 4 games I have actually heard him say he thought the now 41 games under .500 White Sox could get back in the race, and was marveling at how valuable Martin Maldonado was navigaing a rookie pitcher theough a 2/3 inning 4 run outing. What is he talking about? i get you are supposed to fluff things up a bit, but when you go obnoxious, you lose any credibility.

As someone who hasn’t been too annoyed by Schriffen this year, I found this call to be absolutely cringe worthy. Maybe if we were on a 100 win pace I could tolerate it more, but good god was it embarrassing and completely lacking any sense of how shitty things are at the moment. But honestly, some of the blame should fall on Brooks and him failing to coach Schriffen properly. You hired a guy for his energy ahead of a historically bad seasonal and probably should have had him tone it down a bit to avoid drawing mass hate from the fanbase. Schriffen isn’t the reason we are going to lose 110+ games, but he is as the face of it at times and while I can block that out I can understand why others can not. Know your customer better Brooks.

Hannah Montana led a successful double life as a superstar. Tony died on a mound of cocaine. So basically, Moncada or Esteban Loaiza.

Let him hit the dance floor in Scottsdale. If he's good, he's ready to play.

Does it really count if this was the 1950s and you have been gone longer than he has been alive?

I'd like Schriffen to: 1) Read the room a little bit. No, this does not mean he needs to sounds like a mopey Soxtalk poster. It means show a little more awareness about the team in a larger context. I understand part of his job is to sell the team, but when you're laying it on that thick it makes it hard for fans to connect with you and becomes a completely unrelatable experience. 2) Make the broadcasts less one-sided. Stop treating every opposing player and team like nameless faceless bad guys. Baseball is fun! Whoever the Sox opponent is probably has some interesting things going on in their season. The league is full of great players. Sometimes it's good to acknowledge those things instead of sharing yet another note about how Vaughn says he's seeing the ball better.

It's a non-issue. This board is really incredible these days. And I certainly get it: the team is so terrible to watch that you just want to be angry and complain, and rant and rant and rant some more. But this board just looks and works so hard for things to complain about, just the dumbest stuff, and bitching about a 1st year announcer's call, to the point of we're now up to three pages, just really shows the extent to which people want to complain; again, even on the dumbest of things.

In fairness - my 9 year old absolutely loves the call. When he first heard it - it was just a replay while driving in the car and he was laughing and smiling so hard at it (in a good way).

Kind of hard to sort out what he was saying there with the double negatives, but are you guys saying Hawk was fake?? I mean say what you will about Hawk but he always came off as genuine to me

He's like a 4-6 WAR player assuming he averages 130 games played. He's got basically 3.5 years left at 60 million. If you assume that cost of a win in FA is somewhere like 20 million these days you could project him for about 150 million in surplus value on the high end. You have to get like a top 10 guy and then two back end top 75-100 types for that imo.

Boras probably wants to know who gave Kopech his number

That's brutal. If that's the return you just keep him.

I disagree with the panic selling on Robert. Robert does get injured a lot. Guess what - he's in good company with center fielders. But even with his approach, he's special for a true center fielder. Since 2021, he's 5th in wRC+, so I'm including his up and down years. 1st - Aaron Judge, who has only played 15% of that time in CF. 2nd - Mike Trout, who has played 80 less games than Robert and is questionably a plus CF now 3rd - Brandon Nimmo - now a LFer, not as plus a defender as Robert 4th - Byron Buxton - has played 42 less games than Robert, losing strength as a fielder That is the company Robert is in. And he's still comfortably a strong CF defender. After him. Bryan Reynolds - healthier, also mostly LF, not a great defender. Julio Rodriguez - at Roberts level offensively, hasn't been what he was since rookie year offensively. After that you continue to see marginal CF defenders or worse offensive players. Robert - warts and all - is in special company with others who have similar weaknesses.

I really feel like the Phillies are perfect trade partners. Ballsy GM. Three different top 50 up the middle position players down on the farm. It makes too much sense.

If Robert puts in a 2023 type season (and he's certainly capable of more) in the first half of 2025, he's worth a lot more than he is right now. There is no rush to take the best offer for Robert this July. If someone gets aggressive and makes an offer you can't refuse, by all means trade him. I certainly understand the risk in keeping him. But he's still just 26 and his enormous upside potential - the value will always be there, and the control is long enough that they could even withstand a somewhat serious injury and still get a nice return in a couple years.

We as Sox fans just want something organic, real, and not manufactured. If you don’t understand that, you’re not qualified for the job.

Exactly. It is one thing to be a homer, it is another thing to insult our intelligence. This will be the worst Sox season ever, and there is no way to sugarcoat that. This guy is probably harmless, but he is also a symbol of how badly this team is run. Again, the Sox put an inexperienced person in a high-profile position. Schriffen needs to learn more about baseball and something about White Sox history. His "stand up southside" is dumb because he knows nothing about the south side. He needs to learn his job, and he can start by doing some research. Then describe the game as it happens and forget the hard sell.

I did a five round White Sox mock for today: https://www.futuresox.net/2024/07/09/five-round-mock-draft-2-0-white-sox/

This isn’t getting better or coached out. This is who he is, so either you like second rate or you don’t. Enjoy the replacement

Shits garbage.

I did not realize this is what people were referring to on Twitter. Holy s%*# this guy gets worse with every passing day...

Amazing post, haha…

Then you use some of the 3.5 years of control you still have until it works.

Watch the White Sox trade Benintendi with Roberts....then they can claim they have payroll flexibility!

Ok so they don't trade him at the deadline and he gets hurt in August and misses 6 weeks. They won't get fair value for him during the off season so they wait until next years deadline and then he gets hurt again in April and misses another month. When does it end? Do they just keep kicking the can down the road? He's healthy now and there's a good market for him. I think they have to move him because every time he gets hurt his value will decrease.

We are currently looking at Orioles, Guardians, Mariners, Phillies, Brewers, Dodgers , Yankees, Twins, Astros, Braves, Cardinals, Padres as potential deadline buyers

Me too bro.

I would hope we wouldn't be dumb enough to pass if he unforceanly fell to us..

I will give him he has a next to impossible job. But give the audience a little credit understanding what they are seeing. If he truly respects his audience, he has to know they deserve better.

Love it. The dude has been ripped for being enthusiastic and different. If this team was 52-36 MOST would not care and in fact may enjoy his calls because people would be happier. John has a lot to learn and he should be given that opportunity. This is not your Dad's 1970's, 80's to even 2000's broadcaster who sounds the same as the next guy. I'm willing to let him grow and chuckle and enjoy some of his calls (including growling) in a miserable season for a miserable team run by a Miserable organization. (f*** YOU JERRY........had to get that out of my system today)

If you believe the stories, this is a guy who ran off both Hawk and Jason. He obviously doesn't give a crap as to what the fan base thinks.

I think Sox fans probably overvalue Robert and will be disappointed in any realistic return. At some point the production has to match the tools. He's 27, in his 5th year and has never had 600 PA's in a season. Even in his best season, his k:BB was atrocious. Obviously all the tools are there. At this point in Mike Cameron's career, he was a consistent 5 WAR player that actually played in games. Robert's production isn't a better version of Mike Cameron.

I think I can believe Cags as an OF I decided. Whatever, I know avi was bad but his arm made it playable. When scouts say “he can’t play outfield”…we’ll have those scouts been a white Sox fan their whole lives? We are built different. We have a higher pain tolerance. Just hit us dingers. Carlos Lee fucking ruled. I think I’d take cags last among the players there but saying he “can’t” play somewhere? I thought this was America.

I decided it is a non-issue.

Just saw a draft mock with us getting Condon.

The refusal to fire Grifol really just send a message to the the fans and the team that they just don’t care. The idea that “it’s not Grifol’s fault that the team is bad” just doesn’t get it.