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I was told they're still doing final interviews and nothing has been decided yet.

The second part of your sentence is accurate...the third part is not.

Just imagining Jerry standing there and coming to the stunning realization that we need a pool and like 5 showers out there. “HOLY s%*#, I FIGURED IT OUT! WE CAN STAY HERE NOW! SOMEONE SEND TRAY HIS POOL PASS!”

Declan cronin was pennies and they paid john brebbia $4 million. Those are the kinds of decisions the sox are constantly bad at. Bannister, and the white sox, in fact do have to be better than other teams and be the best at a few. Our pitching can develop and still be the worst in baseball. It's that pathetic attitude that has led to this organization turning to rust.

Plus two high upside teenagers, yes.

Lmao swimming pools and showers in the outfield stands will bring the boys to the yard

How the f*** do you not know this?

As it turns out, 2020 was the window of contention. And as you said, Hahn did nothing to fix the pitching issue. Who knows how far they would have gone with some more pitching and if they could have gotten past the A's. It also was a problem that our MVP failed multiple times in that playoff series to drive runs in....that's right I said it.

this is actual a hilarious imitation of what the sox probably sounded like in their evaluation of Brebbia.

Yeah but the White Sox also have invested heavily in starters through the draft and if they have 2 strong pitchers in Smith and Schulz, followed by someone like Martin at the middle part of the rotation, and maybe a guy like Cannon can hang in the back of the rotation, that's a lot of resources already putting into pitching. They also might have enough arms to fill out a decent chunk of a bullpen. On the other hand, their offense is currently terrible, one of the worst we've ever seen, and they don't have much in terms of MLB-ready players. One catcher, maybe 1 or 2 infielders. If they dump $30 million into an extra starter, and they have nothing to trade, how do they ever stop having an awful offense?

What's funny is that I think we're probably pretty close fundamentally in terms of being skeptical of moves, not giving the org the benefit of the doubt and needing to see actual improvement and results before feeling optimistic about the direction things are headed (aka standard "being a sox fan" stuff). But then I see the bolded phrases above and wonder if we're even reading the same thread. I just reread the whole thing and don't see anything remotely close to people doing that.

Just not Nevin.

Hey we agree! There’s a huge swath of middle ground between the two extremes of 1) instantly praising or trusting moves they make and 2) being proactively angry about any and every move. I’m just wondering what big measures you’re realistically hoping to see this offseason.

Those same insiders told us these exact same things when the Sox started their first rebuild. "Hahn is finally in charge making all the moves we need as an organization." Five years later they told us nothing was done and it was all Jerry's fault lol.

Nothing Jimmy loves doing more than telling you how the current guys in charge is competent and doing everything they can. All their failures are the owners fault. Celebrating Chris Getz, the guy who set the MLB record for incompetence, tearing down and rebuilding another department is hilarious. The only person more incompetent than Rick Hahn is Chris Getz.

You just know that they are using the older TI-82’s instead of the newer TI-84’s because Jerry got a deal on them, but they are mainly using them to play Tetris anyways.

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.

Ready for work Mr LaRussa!

Yelled “holy s%*#” off the bat and wasn’t cheering for anything but the moment. Glad I didn’t turn this off!

Aw.

He wasn't even coming at you. Relax

It's not even internet smoke. Someone saw him there. I'm sure the other finalists have also been there.

Honestly...keeping Sizemore would probably poll as a more popular move with what's left of the fanbase than hiring Phil Nevin.

Correct. And when I say combined, I don't mean they shouldn't work together. I mean someone like Bannister shouldn't be identifying players to acquire that he can maximize. It's not his job or his skill. When you allow the developers to be the shot callers, you don't protect development from its own short comings, and confirmation bias that has gotten them here. "Every guy I've gotten like this before I turned into a stud" they may think, but the key was that before they weren't the ones identifying that player and his given fit, they were given a player and got the most out of them. While these teams/segments need to understand each other inside and out, the influence they have should be mostly siloed. For example, PE may say we're loving this guy, is there any hard stop we're missing but PD should never be able to sway an actual opinion (beyond the initial understanding of the players fit with your PDs strength) on that initial evaluation and they shouldn't be the ones that trigger the deep dive. I'd argue the GMs job is to understand the strength of both and find the fits.

So that’s all any scuttle about the Jerry selling is gonna be: Leverage. You’ll miss me when I’m gone (to NASHVILLE, snort). Sure, if a megabillionaire wants to fly into Chicago and offer Jerry 150% of what the team is worth, covering what his family loses selling vs. inheriting his White Sox, sure, yeah, he might sell. He’s old, and his team is years away from getting back to the top of the division. Don’t let your anger toward Reinsdorf cloud what is a playbook move — if there’s been a move at all (don’t forget this is all tweet wrapped inside of a feeling in hearsay reporting at this point). Jerry may truly believe that the one thing that will outlive him isn’t Championship Plaza outside of the current park but The 78, a presumed marvel of locale and fan experience. And if we get past his enormous and offensive ask of a billion dollars from a state that can’t and shouldn’t afford it and recognize it as another negotiation ploy, Reinsdorf is probably right. The 78 would long outlive him or memories of 2005 (well, it would live until a new park in The 79 is built in 2080). https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/so-jerry-reinsdorf-is-going-to-sell-the-white-sox-and-lose-millions-for-his-family-and-send-a-125-year-old-team-to-nashville-of-all-places-at-the-same-time-he-s-building-his-sandlot-field-in-the-78-got-it/ar-AA1svY3o

Could that area near Kauffman and Arrowhead that had like a Red Roof Inn and a Taco Bell once upon a time look like a destination zone? Not likely. One of the reasons the Kansas side wants to start all over from scratch.

Because he was possibly at the stadium? Wouldn't that probably be where final interviews are?

So, based on this, are you suggesting that Player Evaluation (scouting) should also be responsible for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your Player Development process / system? That's an interesting idea / take, and I think it makes sense. I'm not sure I agree with the idea that they must not be combined (I always got the sense that teams like Cleveland did this, or at least had a nice symbiotic relationship between the two functions), but it does make sense for your scouting department to be able to see the trends in the players they put into the system vs. the players coming out of the system.

This isn't making the argument that you think it's making.

Can't Bridgeport be turned into nirvana? Build, build, build. Doesn't the mayor live there? Tell me why the Sox need a new stadium at this particular time in history?

I think Drew Thorpe is good. We disagree again which doesn't surprise me.

For sure. That trade was at least one player short and I said it at the time.

We're not, apparently, and that's been the major argument on this board for weeks. It's frustrating when people are just confirming their biases and not actually reading what you say, but also it's fun to pop in here sometimes and say "you know that could potentially be a not half bad move" and watch as people absolutely lose their MINDS.

My book is now available in 3 formats on Amazon -- eBook, paperback, and hardback. Here's the link. Please leave a review here. Though I stand by my opening post about being willing to send a free PDF copy to anyone who messages me with their email.

The same Barfield that said to take Fletcher over McCarthy.

I thought he was enjoyable with mets, he mellowed out a lot while still disciplining that team more (frankly the core of the mets then had a lot of white sox 2019-2022 core in em). Him and Dusty aged into that role much nicer than Tony did imo.

I'm not totally sold on Bannister. I don't think he's bad, I just don't know that he actually is better than what half the other organizations may already have. I can't tell if what happened in the minors was more just the large addition of pitching prospects we acquired vs him doing specifically better than any other pitching coordinator or status quo. The downside is just shock at how bad the bullpen was, and, I'm assuming, making decisions on who to cut bait with in apr/may that ended up being solid relievers vs. our trash.

So, nothing? (Signing Soto is not a realistic move)

I can't stand Showalter...but I hope he is the pick...would love to see what would appeal to him about this particular job? Desperation? The drama it would induce would be entertaining...and we need some of that because the product on the field will not be fun to watch!

I’m not arguing your logic and support. It was sound. The Sox just go above and beyond your average terrible moves. For example — Miguel Vargas’s numbers in the minors. It seems like the Sox level of scouting on him was looking at his minor league numbers and acquiring him based on the word of an assistant hitting coach that they fired a week later. Meanwhile, you watch him at the plate or in the field for a few games and the average person would never want to acquire him.

TL:DR We're against the moves and it's just a waste of time and really doesn't do anything.

It depends on Amazon making it live. I uploaded it about 24 hours ago. Could take a day or two more. I will post here when it's live. I also uploaded a hardback version that might take a bit longer. Thank you.

Not during the 2 years of his control that’s for sure.

What I said originally was that it is too early to call this encouraging, and I stand by that to the letter. We have no idea how any of this will used by the organization, we don’t know who is being brought in, we don’t know how they will mesh with the coaching staff. We heard literally that when Shelley Duncan was removed, and it was garbage. What we do know is that already Chris Getz has a horrible record of decisions and leadership, and doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt that this time things have been done correctly until some results are actually positive. If you tell me “wait and see”, fine, but I get to point out that we heard that for a decade, and that Getz’s first set of moves wound up with 121 losses. This wasn’t “ok let’s see if it works” it was “good work Getz this is encouraging”.

8008

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)

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.

Nah you aren’t expressing your opinion on this topic as much as yelling at anyone who supports it or merely talks about it. WE KNOW YOU DONT LIKE IT, TRAY. ITS PLAINLY OBVIOUS. just so it’s clear