Leaderboard

Hello Sox Talk bloggers. At the beginning of last year, I swore off my allegiance to all the sports teams I had followed since I was a kid, including the White Sox. And I've pretty much held to that. But with the horrific and comical season the Sox just finished, I decided to write a book about Jerry Reinsdorf's 44-year mismanagement of the White Sox. The book name is the title of this post. You can find the ebook on Amazon. Here's the link. The paperback will be up in a day or so. I'm giving away free copies of the book to members of Sox Talk because this has always been my White Sox blog home. You just need to message me your email address so I can send you a pdf copy of the book. All I ask is that if you like the book, you give me an honest review on Amazon. Here's that link. The book is a decade-by-decade review of all the incompetence of Reinsdorf's oversight of the team. Believe it or not, the "Sell the Team, Jerry!" title came to me in a dream. I wasn't even aware that was the name of the fan campaign to oust Reinsdorf, because I don't live in Chicago. But I have followed the Sox all these years, so this is the inside view of an avid fan and former Sox blogger on this site. The book is not all negative. I included my 10,000 word personal recap of the magical 2005 World Series winning season in an Appendix. So you can relive some joy too. I hope the book provides fodder for the ongoing campaign to oust JR, which has already forced Reinsdorf to give up his "never selling" mantra. With more pushing, we might get him to sell. But it will need to be to the right owners, not someone like Reinsdorf who threatens to move the Sox to leverage a new ballpark in the South Loop.

You literally said Comparing any change to a "Crony Hire" was unfair. Chris Getz has been loading up on the crony hires, and he himself was a crony hire!!!

Can't get fooled again. Nothing will change until the owner does.

They actually don't have to wait. They haven't revamped the analytics department. They've made hires for a big league coordinator to be a conduit to the staff but that's about it. There are lots of changes going on. Pro scouting, international scouting and research and development among them. It's late and they're behind but it's still encouraging.

The difference now is, you see, everyone was issued a scientific calculator

Ready for work Mr LaRussa!

Bought the ebook. Will likely order a hard copy too. What distribution gives you the most profit?

The White Sox would've been eviscerated for acquiring Tommy Edman. I'm sorry but this is horseshit. Chriz Getz is definitely not the hire I would've made but he's operated very similarly to how an outside hire would operate under this ownership. There are lots of new faces and they aren't all "idiot buddies from Kansas City". Josh Barfield, Brian Bannister and David Keller all come from pretty well run orgs. Now it's all about what they do though and developing players but it's ignorant and lazy to just assume that all these hires are bad. Who are the crony hires? I need to know so I don't get confused next time. "Leakers" lol. That's cute. I try to be as honest and transparent as possible. I wouldn't have hired him. I don't believe it's destined to fail though. If I did, I'd stop paying attention and I definitely wouldn't be wasting my time on a White Sox message board.

You doubt people who have connections on this board, then you pull out a fever dream like this.

I think it's because Chris Getz was a bad deputy, was hired because apparently it was a "shortcut" to the next good Sox team and that his stated goal of a better pitching and defense led team led to a league worst defense, an absolutely awful staff outside Crochet, and oh yea 121 losses. If that guy was named billy bean or dombrowski he'd be getting questioned. But when you are Chris Getz, with his track record? Any real org would have never hired him in the first place!

Yes we do. It's in the article Texsox posted. We also have confirmation from two board insiders that this is what they're doing. We didn't have that any other time.

You get historically bad by signing a bunch of guys that can’t hit under the guise of speed and defense and then…you still are among the worst defensive teams in the league and the base running looks like a circus. Then you sign guys like Mike Clevinger while giving away others at the deadline for near nothing.

We also heard from board insiders how one of the big changes that was going to make 2024 successful was that they were putting the "Baseball people back in charge". The first things we heard last year from Getz was about how they needed to bunt more, which is exactly what 80 year old "baseball people" have been doing with the White Sox for years. These moves led to 121 losses. Are they getting "baseball people" back in charge of the data analyses offices too? Because if so, I have no reason to expect that this will be any better than Shelley Duncan.

It's encouraging because of context. We have heard from board insiders and in the big expose about the White Sox that the org was ridiculously, comically siloed. That appears to be changing.

There seems to be a (slow) house cleaning going on, of course Jerry just won’t let Getz fire people so he has to wait for their contracts to expire, but it’s still encouraging.

8008

I mean, who gets less delusional after turning 80?

That's an easy prediction because more than likely in six years JR probably won't be around anyway. But the new owner or owners won't be moving them anywhere in my opinion because of solid financial reasons. His family isn't keeping the team that's for sure.

This is the end of the road… I’m pretty sure that @VAfan was one of the very last posters that would defend the White Sox on almost each and every move using extensive data analytics that always ended up being wrong. We have no hope now…

Reminds me of the book called Career Misconduct by Mark Weinberg. It documents all the sketchy doings of Dollar Bill Wirtz of the Blackhawks. Great idea. I'm in and will give it thumbs up

What an awesome idea.

"It's a bit early to call this move a failure" is not automatically praising Chris Getz. The fact that people interpret anything short of jumping on the dour wagon in full agreement as carrying water, or praising Getz is just weird.

They’re so slow to the analytics game, something new will come along before they get good at it.

Why do we even care anymore? It just feels like the rest of Jerry's tenure is hopeless and the team will be playing somewhere else in 2030.

I'd be very happy to read the paperback and see if it compares with the notes/quotes/newspaper stories I have in my library and on file from over the years.

This is actually a good point. Most people will not dispute the value of analytics….however, one of the biggest things I learned during my MBA is that you can pretty easily skew data to support your pre-conceived position. I can easily cherry pick numbers that my boss wants to make the shareholder meeting presentation look like everything is sunshine, cotton candy, and unicorns. If the new “research and development” department feels pressure from above, and they absolutely will in an organization with Jerry and TLR, they’re just going to twist the numbers to support the way the bosses opinions. Just think you’re a junior analyst with the White Sox. Do you think you want to take an objective looks at the data and walk into an office or prepare a report that essentially says bunting is dumb. Or…do you want to filter out the data so you can make the data say bunting is awesome and probably get a promotion? I know what I’d do…

It really does come down to: When you're bad at your job and your friends that you hire are also bad at their jobs, they're crony hires. If Getz were experienced in anyway other than baseball man/ass-kissing and he and his hires didn't create the worst team in MLB history, it'd get papered over. But right now the chief qualification on their resume seems to be "friend with Getz."

Congrats on bringing the org into a 21st century chart. That means absolutely jack squat. That's like saying the pilot fixed the problem with the landing gear when the plane is about to crash at 500mph into the pacific ocean. Just to expand on this there are numerous necessary conditions to field a good team, they are, in no real order: 1) good scouting 2) good drafting 3) good FA signings 4) good coaching, MLB and MILB Now, analytics and inter org communication are probably necessary for those things, but they are certainly not sufficient. The single most important position is to install a GM who hires and runs a great org. There isn't a single data point we have in the last 10 years that JR is capable of doing that.

Tank Commander Miguel Vargas is insulted. He was brought in to ensure a top pick next year since we couldn't get one this year.

Hiring additional people would be great, but even just allowing them to talk to other departments is a big step in the right direction. I also can't believe I had to type out a sentence about "letting employees talk to each other".

No, I said comparing organizational silo removal to a crony hire was unfair. Not any change. If you want to say you don't trust Getz because he's a crony hire in an organization full of under-performing crony hires I would agree with you.

There was a lot more to this team's failure, and you know it. They didn't lose 121 games because the marginal players they signed this offseason performed like marginal players.

What does that have to do with removing internal silos?

No, the totality of terrible moves and internal nonsense of the last 5+ years led to 121 losses. You don't get historically bad without long term historic incompetence. There is also no universe in which removal of excessive siloing is a bad thing for the future of the organization, and comparing it to a crony hire like Shelly Duncan is just dishonest.

Why is it encouraging? We haven’t seen anyone who has replaced these folks, we don’t even know if some of them are being replaced, there could easily be downsizing happening in scouting departments that were already too small. This is the 4th analytics overhaul in the White Sox organization in 5 years. I’m sure this overhaul will get it right!

How many years did they refuse to pay the luxury tax while leading the league in attendance? Jerry has cared more about getting his revenue sharing free money than fielding winning teams for two decades. Different orgs, same JR.

After the Severance process, send them all to R&D

Land lines only. Most not even plugged in.

Yes. No communication between departments. Everyone was to report directly to Hahn/Haber because those two dipshits wanted to control everything. They destroyed every department in the organization.

What I don't get is JR asks for minimal help with the United Center and now it's re-development. It's so inconsistent.

Then Jerry and other business people can do the developing. Many times stadiums do nothing to develop a neighborhood. JR has had one free stadium. He doesn't deserve another. A businessman shouldn't be rewarded like this when he has run his business into the ground. If he wants help from the state, he needs to put up some real money. And then show a real effort to put a team together. He shouldn't get a new stadium for a team that loses 100 games. This isn't about developing a neighborhood. This is about JR making himself richer than he already is.

The Bears bought some land in Arlington Heights. That is where they will end up. The White Sox, who knows? But wherever they go, their owner will have to break out the checkbook.

Obviously overdue, but funny that despite the rationale for hiring Getz is getting a head start - we’ve been moving much slower in removing and replacing underperforming parts of the org than an outside hire would have. More like set us 2 years behind than 1, as our owner put it (apologies for elder abuse)

Gene Lamont managed the Pirates.

Rooneys_2005_World_Series_Call.mp3 The stupid Google Ad almost blocks my ability to insert this now.

Manfred is completely two faced, so I wouldn't take him at his word, especially on a local Chicago show. If there is a way to line his and Jerry's pockets by moving, he'll be all over it. Oakland is the perfect example.

Because even with this terrible team nearly 2 million people attended ballgames this year and that is a market that can be used to help develop a neighborhood in Chicago that has sat barren for 60+ years.

What do you mean? Manfred literally said, “I have confidence that things are going to work out in Chicago and we’re going to continue to have two teams in Chicago.” Manfred just questioned the location of the current stadium, which is a bunch of BS anyways. The problem is the owner and how every decision he makes turns to cow dung.

As with everything else, including his sports teams and chsn, JR is delusional with getting money for the new ballpark as well. He thinks his way will work, but it won't, and it will flop.