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I don't hate everything Manfred has proposed like everyone here, but this is the dumbest thing I've heard floated in all the rule change conversations.

Mayo also with significantly more power than Vaughn was ever projected to have. I guess I just don’t see why just because Vaughn sucks that it follows that the Sox shouldn’t acquire another first baseman. Obviously if we could get a comparable bat at SS that would be preferable but good luck with that.

This is a horrible idea and not just because last year’s golden bat for the Sox would have been Paul DeJong.

This is so lame and gimmicky. Let’s not turn baseball into a cross between American Gladiators and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

I hate this, but if they're gonna do it, make it risky: Golden batter outs are two outs (and they can carryover to the next inning or some nonsense). Skip Bananaball. Go full Blernsball.

I can't do another offseason where weird Orioles fans come here to post 3,000 times to tell us our SP is worth only like Jud Fabian. Please trade him quickly to Boston or someone else.

So was Frank Thomas and Paul Konerko supposed to be quality RH 1b. Obviously almost any prospect could bust, but unlike Vaughn, Mayo actually successfully developed in minors prior to reaching the majors. I don’t thinking getting a right hand bat is that bad of an idea, either, since all of our top prospects aside from Ramos hit left handed.

What has he done in his 20 months time on the job. The OC hiring and retaining Eberflus shows me he is either bad at the job or was very hands off. Stadium thing seems to be no further along and is predicated on who they can shake down the most at the government level. They should have brought in someone with IL government ties then for that role like a Lisa Madigan. The fact that Waldron won the job over Kingsbury or Arthur Smith is a bad look and retaining Eberflus is another bad look. Poles can hang on to the Massive Carolina trade for another year maybe two before his seat gets hot and Warren another 5+

cease was projected to be a top 10 pitcher and ended up #5 on fangraphs. Sox got a 90mph SP with bone spurs for him after the brewers got Ortiz. every GM is going to lowball Getz because they know he cant properly negotiate. not getting my hopes up 🤷‍♂️

When the Cubs hired Counsell, he kept the staff that was in place for the most part. And lots of GMs hire the pitching and hitting coaches themselves. This isn’t a big deal

He's keeping the coaches that were under contract. They replaced the coaches that weren't under contract. Jerry's way.

You are free to believe that this organization will be doing the right things. I have learned my lesson

They fired three assistant coaches during the middle of last season. Venable is replacing two of those spots with McKinven as bench coach and a TBD as the new assistant hitting coach. Jirschele is sticking around as the 3B coach, which makes sense given his youth & stature. Beyond that, it’s mostly guys that were brought in last year under Getz with the exception of Katz. Thames as hitting coach, Bourgeois as 1B coach, Wise as assistant pitching coach, Butera as catching coach, and Sizemore as a “major league coach”. Ultimately, I don’t see this as being a big deal. Venable has only been coaching for seven years and probably doesn’t have a massive network. Hard to come in and replace the entire coaching staff if you don’t have obvious candidates that are currently seeking employment or that were part of your previous staff (and those guys are all tied to Bochy). We’ll certainly see turnover over the next few seasons as Venable learns who he likes and other options become available. Additionally, I think the pitching and hitting directors will (and should) have a lot of say on who are in those roles. It’s very clear that Bannister and Katz have a good working relationship and it was likely he and Wise were going to stay. I’m a little surprised about Thames just because of the addition of Fuller, but Getz did just bring him in as I mentioned above so perhaps their philosophies are more aligned than we realize. And they are replacing Tosar / Gellinger as the assistant, so it’s not like they are 100% sticking with the status quo there.

I’m not out for anyone, but this will make his 3rd manager. Giolito is long gone, and I’d say the majority of the pitching vastly underperformed last year. Time to bring someone new in, especially with the kids coming up in the minors

Dude, relax. I'm goofin'. There aren't even rumors right now. Just trying to fire up some convo.

I'm guessing you meant the starting pitching was reliable.....the bullpen was reliably abysmal all season, but I guess you can blame Getz more for that.

So if Judge strikes out with bases loaded and one out, you just turn around and have him bat again? What if golden hitter is still on base when his actual spot in order comes up? This would be ridiculously stupid

I can totally see LaRussa sending a .100 hitting Leury Garcia up for a bunch of these if this rule existed in 2022.

At age 21, Mayo walked 93 times between AA and AAA in 614 PA. Robert walked 28 times in 551 PA. Come on, now, that’s not even comparable

Another? I guess I don’t see all those quality firstbasemen in the organization. The Sox need the best bats they can get. They currently have none at any position. Bones spurs are an easily resolved condition though that should have no effect after healing

The extension is tricky, as there is arguably more risk for the club than reward with him being two seasons away from free agency There would have to be an element of team friendliness to the deal I would imagine?

I unno, keep hearing we need a football guy to make decisions, etc. Poles had a lot more info than us on Shane Waldron. It was acceptable for us to be like "wow he made geno smith work". But then 10 minutes of our beat writers asking other beat writers and players about shane waldron set off major red flags. We didn't get to interview him, a football guy did. Bears fans saw flus and thought immediately "HITS is stupid and he's a longtime defensive coordinator who has held good not great defenses, pass. We'll take harbaugh or mcdaniel or flores or daboll (bad one)". They had more football insight than us. Maybe just a guy who is extremely vain and wants to tack to public opinion will in fact get it right because the public has so often been more right than the bears. I am really struggling to think of a time the bears zigged when fans wanted them to zag and they were found to be more savvy and insightful. Well, ok. Kyle Long. That's really it.

I think he realizes he needs to capitalize off his Y24 season and push for an extension now or risking losing out on a ton of money. I’m expecting this to be similar to what happened with Glasnow to the Dodgers, but not with it being a requirement to the trade since he stills comes with two cheap years of control.

And all indications are that Crochet wants to sign an extension. So a team trading for him potentially gets legit ace production on the cheap for two years and then another three or four (most likely) at what should be something below market cost. The fact he’s likely a long-term addition is a huge plus for any team trading him as ace level talents are near impossible to come by in the first place and almost always inflated due to the free agency bidding process.

That future value also assumes that those prospects actually pan out, which many never do Crochet, assuming health, looks like a strong bet to perform in the next two seasons for whoever acquires him

What I hate about the way Katz is treated is that it's never his fault if things go wrong and its always to his credit when things go right. Cease is great in 2022 - great work Katz. Cease has a rough 2023 and substantially damages his trade value - Dylan just had a bad year. The bullpen is bad in 2024 - well they didn't invest in their bullpen, that's not Katz's fault. The Bullpen is terrible in 2023 - well they invested in guys Katz didn't like. The pitchers are great when using SpiderTack in 2021 - great work Katz. The starters fall back to middle of the league in 2022 and bottom of the league in 2023-2024 - well Katz didn't have much to work with. This is really the Martin Maldonado treatment. When something goes well, it's to Katz's credit. When things fall apart, Katz has nothing to do with the pitching staff. Katz is a guy who...weirdly for the White Sox, isn't one of the worst coaches in the league, but I don't think he's one of the best either. I think he has some positive impacts on some of his starters and we can see that clearly, but when guys have down years he somehow avoids the blame. I think he clearly struggles with his bullpen, whatever he's doing with those guys the bullpen and pitcher usage has been an issue all the way back to 2021. His bullpen is bad when they spend the most in the league on it, his bullpen is bad when they try to bring in young guys and go cheap. The bullpen specifically was the spot in 2024 where guys were awful with the White Sox and then tolerable when they went to other teams. If you look back to pre-2024, people were thinking the bullpen would be better than the 2023 pen, because the 2023 pen was awful and they brought in new arms. The 2024 bullpen was then terrible, but Katz isn't blamed for that. Right now, people are saying how they think the White Sox's rotation will be ok in 2025 due to the depth. If it goes poorly though, the excuses are already written - after trading Crochet they don't have any big name or heralded prospects in their rotation, so if its bad that can't be Katz's fault. He's not awful, they clearly could do worse than this, but particularly with the bullpen performance, this has been a weak pitching staff for years. The only time when this was a really good pitching staff was when he had most of his starters cheating.

Cal Mitchell, OF out of Pittsburg's minor league system, just spent the previous year treading water in El Paso for the Padres.

And what do other organizations typically do when a new coach comes in and his former staff is still tied to another club? Francona is keeping a ton of the Reds coaches that were already under contract and he’s probably got a much larger network than Venable. Again, not trying to justify past mistakes and get the Sox don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt, but just not sure the Sox are forcing anything on Will at the moment. It’s much harder to poach assistant coaches under contract in other orgs in the MLB than say the NFL. As such, the candidate pool is mostly guys just fired or have been out of work for a while. I just don’t see a reason to rush for replacements if you don’t love the options.

Ambivalent. I think he is not set up for success and I don’t think he will reach it here given the circumstances. It’s gonna be a long road back to mediocrity much less competitive respectability, and a lot of people are gonna be in and out of the doors. I don’t have a lot of excitement for this organization right now and honestly they have made that real easy.

The Chiefs kind of suck and I have no doubt they'll be in the Super Bowl.

I don’t disagree with your general premise, especially if they did in fact say “we picked your staff”. But in this particular case, I’m less concerned given that the bulk of Venable’s coaching experience has come from two orgs with very stable leadership (Bochy & Cora). And perhaps he plans to pillage a few people from Bochy’s staff after the 2025 season once Schumaker takes over. And while not deserved, I’d probably give them the benefit of the doubt for now that this was combined decision and not something Chris just forced on Will. It’s not we’re talking a subpar candidate in Pedro here. Venable had other options and likely would have passed on this job if Getz was going to completely control his staff. It’s also less of an issue for me because there are no obvious red flags on the coaching staff. First and foremost, there is no clear front office snitch like Daryl Boston. Second, all of Grifol’s lackeys have been fired. Finally, the two older coaches brought in mid-season as placeholders (Sisson & Gellinger) are being reallocated elsewhere in the org. I’m sure they are both good people, but they would have certainly have felt forced upon Venable if kept around. Ultimately, we brought in a young, but super interesting manager (42) and have surrounded him with a young and interesting coaching staff. McKinven (35) is a fascinating hire for bench coach on paper. Keeping Sizemore (42) around is a huge win given the respect he commands from the players. I’ve always been a big fan of Jirschele (34) and was excited when he was added to the coaching staff last year amidst the purge. Bourgeois (42) spent five years in the Dodgers’ player development system prior to this, which makes him a perfect fit for a rebuilding club. And Butera (41) is a long-time catcher who was still pushing for major league playing time into his late 30’s. To me, those are the core guys on Venable’s staff that he should have full say on and they all seem warranted. The hitting and pitching coaches are a little different, because I believe those naturally require more buy-in from the front office and their respective directors. I can’t really offer much justification for Thames, other than Getz just hired him last year and perhaps he still fits their broader vision. And they will be bringing a new assistant hitting coach and not forcing some org guy into that role at least. And candidly, I do like Katz as an extension of Bannister and am glad that he was brought back. Wise is a whatever for me as long as Katz & Bannister feel he can get the job done. Changing out the pitching coaches that already get along with Bannister would have a high risk, low reward move IMO.

I think it’s a big deal that it seems that the Sox are the only team in the league that tells prospective managers “we picked out your staff”. in isolation, yea Katz is fine he has some hits and misses. They just hired some of these guys last season so we don’t really know what they bring. But this isn’t in isolation, this is a regularly occurring thing for this ownership front office and frankly it sucks that these guys come in and they can’t even hire their own guys outside of a few positions. hope it works out for Venable, hasn’t really worked out for his predecessors save one

If you could theoretically get Dominguez for Robert & Eder (which I don’t think is remotely realistic) and then add a couple of positional guys in a Crochet trade (say Mayer & Montgomery from the Red Sox) then is a chance of putting together a competent lineup much sooner. 1B: <Free Agent> 2B: Baldwin# / Ramos SS: Mayer* 3B: Montgomery* LF: Dominguez# CF: <Free Agent> RF: Montgomery# DH: <Free Agent> CA: Quero# There’s a potential core there with only one premium spot that would liekly require an outside addition, but the margin for error would be thin. Still I’d take my shot on Dominguez then I hope I can do better in a Robert trade eight months from now.

Suddenly 121 losses don't look so bad.

Yeah the bullpen was awful but I guess that was by design, rebuilding teams rarely invest into their bullpens. I am expecting it to be better this coming season, they have lots of intriguing bullpen pieces in the system. And while we’re talking about the bullpen, I hope Getz doesn’t invest so heavily in their bullpen. In 2022, the Sox have a $203M payroll, $33M of that was spent on the bullpen. That’s 16% of their payroll. In 2024 the Dodgers spent about 10% of their budget on the bullpen. Couldn’t agree more

Why should anyone be expecting any other type of signing?

I think the only real catcher "WAR" worth anything is Baseball Prospectus, which one can access for free. There might be somebody else, but Baseball-Pro breaks out framing, the run game and blocking, I think. Yeah, Edman seemed locked in during the 22 season, on all sides of the ball.

I don’t get why people have it out for Katz, by all accounts he’s pretty good at his job and there’s an established working relationship with Bannister from their time in San Francisco. The Sox lost 121 games last year but the pitching was the only thing that was reliable all season. *********** I’m not upset for the Sox keeping the 2.0 coaching staff around, there was a clear difference with the team once Grifol and his lieutenants were given the boot but I was hoping for some new blood to join them. And for some new roles to be created on the staff.

This is A+ satire from WestEddy.

Yeah I'm taking that.

I don't expect this team to compete financially with the likes of the dodgers but we can't even get him to spend smartly on scouts, international free agents, and sign reclamation guys. Getz makes trades like we are the dodgers where it doesn't matter how high or low the current value of a player is if we decide to move him he's gone. It's just dumb and sad I have zero hope for this team right now

I'm not so sure Montgomery is that guy. We could've just drafted him, right? To me he looks like a corner outfielder that will quickly become a DH. I think Boston has a bunch of good players though. I'd really like to see Rafaela on the (appropriately-colored) Sox but I don't think he's the main piece you want back. His bat wasn't so good last year but his defensive versatility would be a good fit after Robert is traded and our Montgomery inevitably moves off SS. Mayer seems like a pipedream but maybe his injury history drops his status a bit; but would hate to wind up with another one of Boston's injury-riddled infield prospects. Mayer, Rafaela, Bleis for Crochet seems like a good starting point for a trade negotiation. Boston probably says no, so maybe you add in Robert and Boston adds Willkommen Gonzalez.

@caulfield12, you spelled “defecating” wrong. 🤣

I bought a 22 pound turkey from CostCo. I salt brined this b**** for 2 days. Now drying it out until I stuff it with fresh poultry seasoning, sliced apples, onions, and oranges. Going to dry rub the outside with butter, garlic, pepper, and a little brown sugar. Gonna cook it tomorrow morning on my outside propane grill. Should take around 4 to 5 hours at 325 degrees. Grandpa (my dad) makes fresh stuffing from bread, celery, egg, onion, seasoning, etc. and fresh cranberry sauce from frozen cranberries. He also makes fresh mashed potatoes, gravy, and an awesome veggie salad and Hawaiian salad. My 14 and 16 year old boys are going to eat so much they might puke. Going to make sure they don’t eat anything tomorrow until 3 PM or so when Thanksgiving dinner is served. 🤣

Without a salary cap even the off-season is not very interesting. The high salaries and payrolls ruin the game. Why even try to add significant payroll if other teams are just going to blow that amount away and make it a farce. You want Jerry to sell? OK, but that doesn't mean a new owner is going to play a losing game by trying to compete with the big boys. Reportedly there are only 4 teams in on Soto.

Hmm, that's next level genius. I'm always looking for something to contribute off my smoker, Blackstone, or grill for the peace and quiet. The kitchen is always too crowded. This year we are at my in laws and I have pickleball and a pool to escape to.

Yep stovetop....let's me add some labor to the meal....plus I get to enjoy a beer while also not having to entertain my in laws. My wife suggested my risotto so I jumped at the chance.

This team plays at an absolutely relentless pace. Pat is finally...showing... aggression? I'm worried about how bad the East is to this point. It might give AKME false hope.

idk, I married someone from my home town. We moved back when we were planning on having kids but never lived very far away. We live 10 minutes from either set of grandparents and my kids see their grandparents weekly (and even more when they were preschool aged). I've spent the last 20 years traveling all over with my wife. I live next to several hundred acres of restored prairie while being a relatively quick train ride from the best city in the world and two major international airports. Lots of different paths in life can lead to good outcomes.

He played for 17 years in MLB, much longer than I thought...descanse en paz, Toro.