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The guy who voted for the bears has the same agent as Poles, Eberflus and Shane Waldren.

All the more reason to just pick your next GM without holding any interviews. That’s how you find the best talent.

In the 4 major sports, 78 teams received votes. The White Sox received 0 votes. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6007317/2024/12/30/nba-nhl-nfl-mlb-front-office-rankings?source=user-shared-article

Not a single person in the world has called his RF defense terrible…like no idea where you came up with that notion

When the Sox acquired Vargas he had a 108 OpS+ in 80 PA for the Dodgers, after putting up a .290/440/556 line at AAA in 191 PA, and having .900 OPS and .400 OBP over previous two years in minors. Not sure what happened in those 40 games with Sox, but prior to that, Fletcher wasn’t even on the same planet as Vargas. Basically an A- prospect vs a B- prospect. Sox definitely have to give Vargas at bats but Fletcher I’d say needs to earn any kind of role IMO

I mean, I'm on Team Getz Made Panicky Moves, but idk if they were early call-ups so much as Brad Keller, Nick Senzel and the parade of corpses that paved the path to the 121.

Has anybody in that pen solidified themselves as an actual MLB player yet? I would not be worried about bouncing any of them right now Plus, some will remove themselves soon enough due to poor performance

For sure, but their offense is HUMMING. It’s a shame though, because their opening day defense was really fucking good. It’s basically all second and third string out there now

The Dodgers front office and ownership runs rings around the incompetent, dysfunctional and inept Sox ownership/front office from top to bottom in all departments on and off the field. They may not be the "best" in the four major professional U.S. sports but they are damn close to it and a front office that most Sox fans would kill to have (to say nothing of 12 straight playoff appearances) It is literally absurd to think otherwise.

I do think there's a bit of "Jesus both of these guys are ridiculous this year, but Lamar has 2 MVPs and Allen has 0, so Josh should win 1". But, remember the year McNair and Manning split one? I'd be ok with that. When you can give a list of QBs who have done this, and the list is literally "Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson in 2024", how do you give Lamar a 3rd MVP and say that Josh still is a 0-MVP player?

https://dodgersway.com/posts/5-trades-the-dodgers-regret-making-under-andrew-friedman-01h50amjsssg/4 And O'Neil Cruz as well. Which demonstrates the strength of their LA scouting network.

But this feels like dinging the Patriots under Belichick and Craft for their politics massage trips or Brady being overlooked by everyone. The Chiefs are right up there...generational QB who signed a below value/flexible contract to accommodate more talent on the roster is 75% of it. The Dodgers with their deferrals and marketing to Asia and monetizing Ohtani/their brand globally are transforming how the entire sport does business. A Taipei investment company paid $4.5 million for that 50/50 Ohtani HR ball just to put it on display for customers. How many fans of the Dodgers on that island will result?

What does the current front office have to do with any of these players? I'm pretty sure Clayton Kershaw is old enough to be Friedman's daddy. Will Smith is the only player Friedman actually picked. He's the only one who was actually a useful player this season. Are the Dodgers ranked this way if they don't sign Betts, Freeman, Ohtani? Of course not and you can thank the city of Los Angeles for that, not a front office. Most of their recent prospects have busted or are in the process of busting. The Rays are more competent than the Dodgers, for example. This rating system is dumb and just some guys' "what have you done for me lately" opinions.

That 108 OPS+ was in 80 plate appearances over 30 games. In nearly double the plate appearances with the Sox, he put up an OPS+ of 14. 14! In 304 PA over 81 games in 2023, he put up a stat line of .195/.305/.367, good for a .672 OPS and a 82 OPS+. Feels more like his 2024 with LAD was an outlier based more on favorable matchups than him figuring anything out at the plate to me. I have absolutely no idea why he cratered so bad here, but he did. While some regression to the mean is plausible, but nothing about him screams 'definitely have to give more AB's.' Vargas should be in the "earn it" camp just as much as any other failed prospect/AAAA project.

Imagine questioning or trying to downplay the Dodgers on anything, while being a Sox fan. 🤣

2012 is the last time they didn’t make the playoffs. How ever you want to slice it, I’d take that front office any day.

The Dodgers bench players would be starters for the Sox and their front office also knew which of their garbage prospects/players they should deal to our back-to-back terrible talent-assessing GMs. But that’s probably like taking candy from a baby anyways.

Cody Bellinger, Clayton Kershaw….yeah they suck.

Captain Panic (copyright pending)

Yeah not yet. Some were just out of need.

Yeah... don't think he's earned this "Captain of the Early Call Up" nickname.

Will Smith, Corey Seager, Gavin Lux (lol)

Oh, wait. Duke Ellis was another emergency call-up. Benintendi, Fletcher and Tommy Pham were all injured in the same 2-day period, so they called up DeLoach, Colas, and put Ellis on the 40-man to have enough OFs. That guy was chagrined that Getz made yet another roster move. Just as Getz should have known that all of Yoan, Eloy and Luis Robert would have been out, injured, by the 11th game of the season, he should have also known that Pham, Fletcher and Benny would get injured around June 3rd.

I really can't think of anyone beyond Ramos, who was kind of an emergency situation, the only infielder on the 40-man, at the time. I'm really amazed that the guy who twists every single move so he can complain about it is pretending that Getz rushes players so he can complain about it. But really, Thorpe, Iriarte? Both were jumped from AA to the bigs. Thorpe did well, Iriarte - 2 of his 6 outings were a little rough. He's on the 40-man. September call-up.

Who did he call up early? Besides Ramos's first promotion that was temporary, I can't remember anyone.

If Smith pushes the issue based on performance, I would understand it, I would rather not... but I would understand. There should be no scenario where we see Schultz this year.

I can see a realistic path for Hagen Smith. He is a highly polished and nearly finished product. He has pitched a lot of high pressure innings in college and other leagues. He still has some ramping to do, but not so low of a number that you worry about pushing him into that 140-150 range too much. Hopefully they don't Carlos Rodon him where they push him through the levels too quickly without really giving him any minor league experience. While Rodon had the stuff, much like Smith, it took him years to figure out pitching at the major league level. If Smith is ready he will show you, then move him. If it takes a year or two, so what, this team doesn't need to start his clock any earlier than they have to anyway. No need to rush him into a historical shitshow. Schultz on the other hand should be more deliberate. He's clocked pitching once a week, for a small IP total each start, and a small pitch count. Even if he is highly effective, the conditioning deficit for him alone is enough to say already that he should be in the minors for all of 2025 at least. Get him up into the 120-130 inning range, and get him pushing to 100 pitches in a single start. Get a feel for pitching deep and how to manage his stuff for that 100 pitches, because his mental approach will be different than when he knew he was only going 50-60 pitches. He should be a time line for mid to late 2026 if EVERYTHING goes right.

I would think the Sox continue to ramp up Schultz as they've been doing. He had one game where he threw more than 65 pitches this last season. He can't just throw 4 innings on Saturdays in the bigs. Same goes for the ramping up of Hagen Smith. I would think each has a good 5 months in the minors before we start talking about them.

That #1 front office on that list traded James Harden entering his prime on a reasonable contract and couldn't win a championship with two future Hall of Famers also in their prime. In other words, lol, Presti is the most overrated GM in the NBA The Dodgers, the #2 (💩) team, are also not a particularly well-managed team, their impact players are free agents who like being paid a lot of money to live in the Hollywood Hills and be Hollywood as Hell. Is their GM "the angel", the namesake of LA? Don't think so, I think it's some guy that loves trading for White Sox pitchers because they can't develop any. When was the last time LAD developed a player that was any good? The only correct answer is the Green Bay Packers, don't need to use some pseudo-statistical method to reach that conclusion. Speaking of pseudo-statistical methods in journalism, I keep waiting for an article like this to be based on a survey created using some sort of multi-criteria decision analysis, it might actually be meaningful to ask these GMs (or whoever they're surveying) questions in a structured and rigorous way. PS didn't anyone tell you guys we're boycotting the NYT?

Usually when you set a historic loss record, you have a lot of really bad performances.

I think that is dumb. Guy threw 88 innings last year, and 115 in his pro career. He's not ready for an every 5th day spot on a major league rotation. Get him up to 120-130 this year in the minors, then call him up in May 2026. But yah, you're probably right - if this regime is anything like the previous, we'll see him before he's ready.

Jerry Reinsdorf who is the worst owner in pro sports has turned the White Sox into an irrelevant laughing stock and if he has just an ounce of shame in him must sell the team. On another note has Chicago ever experienced such horrible seasons by their professional teams, the Sox, Blackhawks and Bears are all just about the worst teams in their respective leagues with the Bulls mediocre, in 2024 the Cubs were the only team that had a winning record. I remember things pretty bad in the 1970s but not this bad.

The only other guy who has been able to go this "route" was Ohtani.

But their drafting strategy has changed so much. Kenny Williams was focused on drafting athletes, Rick Hahn is after more complete ball players. This will be a major upgrade.

I'm sure the Sox "presentation' was probably laughed at. "We had a seat at the fax machine..." - Chris Getz

I don't think you can say Fletcher has to stay on the 40 man roster let alone play every day during the season.

Couple of things worth highlighting here. Fletcher will turn 28 before the end of next season. He’s a really short dude who is more or less physically maxed out. Despite not being fast, he does get good reads and he has a plus arm as well. He is a legit quality defensive RF, but the lack of speed hurts in CF and he simply isn’t as good making plays out there. Not sure if that would change with more reps in CF, but the lack of speed will certainly cap his abilities there. My big beef with Fletcher is a lack of bat speed and power. This dude actually had a really high LA sweet spot rate and squared up on balls fairly well, but did little damage because he’s so small and his bat was so slow. If he had more speed and high end contact skills, maybe there could be swing changes to make him more useful, but that’s not really who he is. I think with more experience the chase rate might improve, but an improved walk rate can’t overcome his other limitations. IMO, he has a 4th OF ceiling and that requires him to be able to play a decent CF and make significant strides with the bat. Vargas is far more interesting to me and more worthy of playing time. His best single trait is his elite plate discipline. As bad as he was last year, his chase rate was in the top 10% of major leaguers and had a double digit BB rate. He’s also been regarded a being plus plus hitter in the minors, although that didn’t really show up last year when I watched him or based on his Statcast metrics which reflect a slow bat and poor quality of contact. Honestly, I was a bit surprised at how bad Vargas looked given his minor league reputation as a hitter. I believe Getz mentioned that Miguel lost some strength during the 2H of last year, so hopefully there is some explanation here for why a 65 grade looked so bad beyond just swing & approach related things. And while he doesn’t have great power, he’s got a bigger frame and doesn’t seem completely maxed out yet. No doubt Vargas is a wild card, but I can squint and see the outline of a useful major league hitter. Where he plays I have no idea though. What’s fascinating is he’s actually really fast and has plus arm strength. Unfortunately, he seems to lack in all key skill areas and simply isn’t a good defensive player anywhere at the moment. Could he possibly get to average at a non 1B position? Maybe, but that’s harder to imagine than the bat turning around IMO. However, I’m willing to wait and see how the bat comes along and endure the defense for the time being. To me, the plan should be to stick him at 3B for three months and focus on that spot. If the bat comes alive but he’s struggling at 3B, then try him in LF. I would avoid moving him to 1B or DH unless all other options fail.

Any time you make a list of guys with that little experience and ceiling, stating they all should be ready on Day 1 is a nearly impossible statement to make happen in reality. Injuries and subpar performance will make sure of that.

Why are you worried about Jerry’s money, especially this season? The payroll is around $60 million. He should be approving anything that brings in more talent. Also, half of the pitchers you mentioned will bust just like @southsider2k5 always says.

Soroka was acquired to be one of the top starters in the Sox rotation, project or not. That was pretty obvious from the beginning. He started the second game of the season. Other than developing your own players, flipping players should be pretty much the main goal of one-year/short-term acquisitions such as these when you know your team is going to be horrible. The problem is, most of the players Getz acquired sucked. I think it’s possible to “buy a prospect” but like you said, you aren’t getting a top prospect for eating a bad contract. But it’s not a strategy Jerry would ever approve so it’s likely not worth discussing.

We will, but you only have so many major league roster spots. We will likely need to rely on guys like Nastrini, Bush, & Iriarte (and eventually Adams) to make a lot of starts. We also have Shuster & Scholtens to fill in as necessary. I think that should be plenty with a couple AAAA type signings.

I think they just "need" a veteran starter regardless.

We are going to go through a TON of pitchers again.

Oh no I pointed something out in regards to their current front office that wasn't even a dig. What a stupid thing to do.

Going to be a rough few years