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I am at the point where I need to be shown progress not just get excited by some words during a softball interview. Obviously one is a little more serious than the other, but hearing that things are going to change is like hearing an alcoholic tell you they will now stop drinking , or a drug addict saying they will stay clean after countless times you have heard it before. I will believe it when I see it. Assuming they will f*** it up has been well earned. JR teams don’t usually have a formula for sustained success. It’s usually pissed away fairly quickly. I hope I am so wrong this time. Just remember he called the new hitting director the Brian Bannister of hitting. I guess the White Sox and their fans were just lucky Baltimore fired him.

Holy s%*# we need actual baseball to talk about...

Why would fans post their resumes here? It's not like the White Sox did a search.

No one should be thankful for any Jerry Reinsdorf ownership. Even the Bulls won despite of him and not because of him.

Stop what? Drawing a logical conclusion?

People in the comments saying they are worse than last year truly don’t understand how bad they were. It takes incredible luck to be that bad. They will still be dreadful but they will be 15 games better just by accident.

I have never liked the player and was vehemently against the deal as soon as it was made. That said, I hope he proves me wrong and hits and is able to be competent somewhere like 1b.

I look at Vargas like a lot here looked/look at Moncada, Eloy, Robert, Sosa, Colas, Burger (pre-breakout — the threads about him during his rehab were not kind), Vaughn and Sheets: I don't enjoy watching him and I want him gone. If Rick Hahn traded for him in 2022, he'd be getting shredded by everyone on this board.

It’s not about your or my resume’. We are fans, our opinion is merely that. Our arguments aren’t over qualifications, they are over assessments and predictions. I’m just not hopeful right now, and you are. That’s ok, I don’t begrudge you that at all, I just think right now we are all at such a malaise and impasse that we are just saying the same s%*# over and over to each other. Believe me, I want to be wrong about Getz and I hope he proves me wrong. Demanding a resume on a message board just doesn’t really make sense

Sign the best players has never been a JR strategy since twenty years ago...at least in free agency. Dunn Hendriks and arguably Robertson the only three close to elite for their positions.

It’s possible but not probable and not many get a chance at more responsibility when they didn’t handle the smaller load. The Sox made minor league staff changes every year Getz was there. What changed for the better? Was Josh Barfield the reason the DBacks got hot and made the playoffs in 2023? Maybe he’s upgrade. Maybe he’s not. It wasn’t too long ago when the thought was everone in the Sox front office was bad at their job except Rick Hahn. I just don’t know why it makes me any less of a Sox fan to think the guy who failed up to his current job and GMd the team with the most losses ever , needs to prove he knows what he’s doing before getting excited about what he says. I wish they would telivise the q and a at Soxfest and see how he reacts yo not so friendly fire.

And logically, I agree with this. This team is the perfect setup for him to try and grow. If he can actually succeed, I'll shut up. Just like I did for Yermin until he capsized. I'm just a sucker for homegrown guys. It's why I haven't given up on Jacob Gonzalez despite a giant 🚨🚨🚨 sounding above him. Or Oscar Colas — last year was perfect for him to try and get a shot at the big league level, but since he wasn't a Getz acquisition we had to bring Tommy Pham aboard to shadow-box his way into being a trade throw in. As for the Dodgers not disclosing something, that's what physicals are for. The Padres hid stuff in 2016 and the only reason I'm still annoyed about that is because the Sox were the only team not offered the opportunity to reverse a trade with them, not because acquiring James Shields was stupid from the start.

Good listen. He sounds competent certainly. a lot of talk about a “plan” and “core pillars” or whatever, which sounds nice, but what are the “core pillars” of a baseball organization and why? Wish the interviewer would’ve asked but that guy seemed tongue twisted the whole time, couldn’t get a word out! hiring competent people and tasking them to figure out what’s wrong organizationally is definitely a good thing and was likely missing from the previous regime. But how do we know if the people being hired are competent? Bannister certainly is. Will Ryan Fuller truly be a “Bannister of hitting” or is that marketing speak? What about that guy we “poached” from AZ? That seems to have resulted in a dumb trade and I think a pointless hire to the coaching staff. More importantly, why didn’t the AZ guy tell Getz to select Deyvison de los Santos in the R5 draft last year? He was obviously a stud in AZ’s system, now he’s a top 100 prospect.

I think it’s very clear Getz was overwhelmed at the trade deadline and that at least particularly contributed to the fiasco that was the Fedde trade. Honestly, Getz should have brought in a former GM into his front office to help prepare for matters like this.

I hate even typing this, but we have seen some progress in terms of breaking up the insular nature of the org. Haber, Paddy, KW Jr, multiple long time pro scouts all gone and new people brought in. He’s added leadership positions in the front office to help build out pitching & hitting strategies. It sounds like there have been big changes in our analytics department. We also know that functions are now working with each other and not operating as silos. Will those efforts ultimately right the ship? Impossible for us to say, but it’s clear Getz is doing things differently than KW & Hahn and that’s a start.

The 2006 White Sox won 90 games…I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the best team to not make the playoffs in the Wild Card era. Unfortunately they came in short of expectations because the pitching staff was so worn down, but it was an extremely talented club. KW going out and getting Thome & Vasquez was awesome (despite the issues with the latter) and I will forever miss his aggressiveness.

This was literally my point, and I think it was obvious to most.

This has been a debate for basically the last decade, but I think the argument is a fairly simple one. The 2005 White Sox were an absolute force and absolutely deserved to win the World Series based on their play. However, coming into the 2005 season, there were not waves of predictions they were a World Series caliber team, from fans or media members. - A 31 year old Jermaine Dye doubled his WAR from 2004 - Podsednik had a 1.7 WAR in 2005, up from 0.6 in 2004 (He played in 25 more games in 2004!) - From 2002-2004, Konerko put up a 3.8 WAR total. In 2004 he had a 4 WAR season. - Two guys who I consider some of the most important guys in 2005, Politte and Cotts, came out of absolute NO WHERE and both had WARs over 2 as RPs. I could go on. There were a few guys that actually had somewhat down years from where they were before (Rowand, Frank obviously) but generally speaking, a lot had to come together from some unexpected places for 2005 to be as memorable as it was. That is often the case for World Series teams, but as history unfortunately showed us, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 weren’t playoff teams. It was a magical season, but the key word there is “season.” It lasted a year.

Given what we know about how Jerry runs an organization, the above seems totally ass backwards to me. Signing a 300 million dollar player is never going to happen with JR alive. I question if we ever see a $100 million dollar contract given. Player salaries will always tower over any other cost associated with the team when it comes to the balance sheet. Because of that, if I had the restrictions that I’m sure Getz has, I’d be investing as many resources as possible in pitching labs, new tech, and FO staff that can put you ahead of who you are competing against. FO expenses are fractions of a cost compared to player salaries. It’s why the Rays, Brewers, etc have been successful. Being “average” at everything is going to get you exactly what you’re asking for. A very average W-L record. If you gave me these two choices: A. Killer developmental staff but same payroll as Twins B. Average staff but $35 million more in payroll room I’d take Door A everytime for the White Sox

I think he does have a plan, but it’s not sexy. Build industry-standard or better processes/practices in all departments — scouting, development, analytics — outcompete other teams for young talent, then have a choice of players to form the core of a team. That is, don’t count on three guys you got from one trade to save the franchise. Then when you have that base, spend more to retain/acquire players for sustained success. That is easier said than done and is going to take a lot of time and money to complete, but it is perfectly rational. On the Future Projection podcast this week, Carlos and Ben talked about the successful teams have excellent communication between FO, PD, and scouts. The Sox have been remedial in all three areas and had terrible communication. Getz is trying to fix that and get them to at least league-average. It was clear by the second half of 2021 that the Sox needed a complete demolition of their org, scrape it below the foundation and then build something entirely new. Last year was year -1, this is year 0. Building something competitive is gonna take a long time.

The fact that they can't get ANY former players outside of Harold and those 3 (which are a good three) is so, so sad. For f***'s sake, Ozzie, Beckham, Pods and Frank are on the team payroll. Colson Montgomery and Noah Schultz will have to carry the entirety of SoxFest on their shoulders, because I don't think the other prospects will have endeared themselves at all to fans since their rises were during last year's horror show.

I said it last week against Philly, and it’s true again with Tampa — there is no team luckier than Washington. I’m definitely rooting for Detroit to stomp on their throats next week.

I think this is them doing him a favor and getting him in the news. It also is the first interview that counts toward the Rooney rule. I want nothing to do with Ron - unless it is as an assistant head coach.

Have they officially moved Zavala off of CF? The biggest concern for me when I watched video was an extreme bat wrap that elongated his swing, then you combine that with the leg kick, there's a lot of things going on there and lots of unnecessary movement. Ofc, as a corner outfielder, you're expected to be able to hit 25+ homers unless you're an anomaly at that spot like a Stephen Kwan with Cleveland. Always saw Zavala as a 15-20 homers, 30+ doubles guy, but we shall see this year I guess. Will also be interesting to see if he can retain his speed/remain a legitimate stolen base threat as he progresses through the minors and theoretically adds weight/strength. Birmingham's going to be just as challenging as A ball for a hitter because it plays as such a pitcher's park. And yes, I've been harping on C/CF/SS/2B for years and years...we have the catcher part of that, but we still don't have a long-term SS or CF, two of the three most important positions on the field. We BETTER have catcher covered at this point, that's a start, at least.

I still think Zavala is going to be OK, he wasn't ever really a center fielder, he was the key piece of the trade to me. I don't know a thing about 'hitting mechanics' but he seems to be reigning in the thing that scouts were critiquing, the leg kick, and he walks at a rate that is worth considering. I think he can be a stud right fielder, I bet he starts at A+ and quickly moves on to AA. Personally I'm more upset that there isn't a true shortstop or center field prospect in the system. I don't think they can trade Luis if there isn't somebody to replace him. He's a superstar player when his offense is on, he's still arguably the best defensive CF regardless...who can still, at the very worst, sort of swing a bat. Defense is pretty important at CF/SS and I don't see anybody in the system that excels at it, has ++ speed...specifically in the outfield. I think Justin Crawford is a player like that, I'm still hopeful he can be pried from Philly like Caba was. Maybe the basis for a trade involving Luis and a pitcher. Wish Caba could've been part of it.

Preller had actual MLB action taken against him and the Padres over concealing health info. Vargas seems to be the guy (to me) that came here, and fell flat on his face because of extenuating circumstances. I like the notion of "we can't just keep a revolving door of hitting coaches" without looking at the organizational processes regarding the exchange of information between levels.

The performance of our high bust potential/high ceiling Padres CFer in the minors wasn't exactly encouraging on that front, Mr. Zavala. Or our seemingly cursed LSU ss/2B who has gone from bad to worse, too. And Colas/Ramos have gone from Top 80-120 MiLB into the "suspect" category, at best. You basically had only the pitching and Baldwin going in the other direction....with positive trajectories. Maybe Wolkow.

It’s funny you bring up this example because I almost used it in my original post. I’m a teacher, and I’ve seen multiple examples of people who are shitty teachers and good department chairs. I do agree that a promotion shouldn’t happen if you’re bad at your job, but I see it all the time in education, too. Ten years ago, our principal was horrendous and they kicked him up the ladder to our district office. And just so it’s clear what my stance is, I don’t agree with promoting people who are bad at their job. I didn’t agree with the Getz hire. We had a chance to start fresh and hire outside of the organization, and we blew it. But I won’t go as far as saying Getz is a bad GM. That’s still an unknown, in my opinion.

If that’s true, the extra year would still provide considerable extra trade value

It's the same general malaise that results from a long losing patch, which disappears when they start winning again.

There’s nothing to suggest it will be any more successful than hiring any one of the commenters here on Soxtalk. What can we point to in his past that would suggest success at a higher level position?

Oh no doubt. You will never hear me argue that he was qualified for the GM role and I fully that agree he bares responsibility for past player development failures. But despite big talk, Hahn didn’t change all that much during his time with the org. At least we can see Getz trying something different, even if it’s very possible he fails.

Wasn't that the only possible reading? Everyone but Buehrle would be there throughout the weekend?

Yeah, what an exciting time to be a White Sox fan. 222 losses in 2 seasons isn’t boring at all.

The Crochet last minute demands situation really seemed to overwhelm the front office at that time...and knock them back for a loop. Time will tell if holding out was worth it...but it's hard to imagine a better deal in the present prospect hugging climate.

The roster last year was not a 41 win team. They, too, should have been closer to 55 or so.

Of course it was extremely talented, but it speaks to my original point. 2005 everything came together perfectly, and a number of guys basically emptied their gas tanks for that season. End of the day, they won the World Series in 2005, and were third in their division in 2006. And as we know, 2005 is the only season in the last 100 years they have won a playoff series. So I’m not going to the take the advice of someone else on this board and be thankful for the wonderful ownership of Jerry Reinsdorf, or anyone that came before him. This is an embarrassingly bad franchise most of us were unfortunately born into.

Isn’t it possible for someone to be bad at directing player development but better at GM? They are two different jobs. It’s certainly possible that Getz is bad at both, but just because he failed at one position doesn’t mean he will automatically fail at the other. And I’m not directing this at you, DA. I’ve just seen several people point out his failure at player development the last few years as if it’s clear indicator of his ability as a GM.

He changed it, but all we know is it's different. We don't know if it's right. The Bears swapped out their Ryan's and Matt's a few years ago. It hasn't meant better results. I still think Getz wasn't the right guy for the job. I know it was everyone else's fault he couldn't develop s%*#, but he should have some responsibility, or wlwehe was just a coffee boy, and even less qualified for his current position.

Not at all. I hope Vargas becomes a star, cuz god knows Jerry won’t allow Getz to sign one in free agency. And whether you pull for Vargas or people think he sucks, none of it matters. Only Vargas can prove his own worth. So far in his career, he has failed to do so, and that isn’t a result of fans on a message board saying that he sucks.

I’d rather not live my life by what Hillary Duff and Wanda Sykes think, but you go ahead.

He basically did a " That's so gay " workaround, saying it without actually saying it. There were ad campaigns against that stuff 16 years ago by Hillary Duff and Wanda Sykes. It's grade school tactics using it as a negative connotation. Maybe you should try to get with the times. You seem to be the only one who thought it was funny judging by your emoji on the post. It's actually good positive baseball discussion that people can voice that they see a smidgeon of light at the end of the tunnel in the near term for the long term health of the organization . And there are quite a few of us judging by the positive responses to @Timmy U post. If anyone wants to try to put their grade school ,bullying, out of date sophomoric humor boot to that positivity then figure out another way to do it.

Yolbert never once had the bat to stick in the majors...neither did Cespedes.

Most players that are forced to sign with the lowly White Sox are probably crying on the inside at the very least.

I remember hearing he cried when the Sox traded him away....did he cry again because this is the best he can get now?

It’s a shame Getz didn’t just trade Kopech for Albertus and Perez and dealt Fedde in a separate deal.

LA dropping previous deals to make room for Sasaki. The Pirates already swooped in for Morel at $1.8m.

And by the way, we don’t need to be at the forefront of any key area. The reality is if we can be average or slightly better at everything, we should be able to parlay our market size into a payroll edge over the rest of the division. We don’t much crazier of a plan than that.

Getz is too dense to have a real plan. I will give him credit for one thing. He appears to have figured out that more baserunners equals more runs scored. He's now trading for guys who will take a walk. Say what you will, but Ken williams and Rick hahn never could grasp that in over 20 years with the Sox. That one single fact makes him an improvement. The true test though is being able to tell the difference between athetes and actual baseball players.

It’s just very weird that they haven’t had one since Covid and yea let’s go ahead and have one now after we really pissed the fans off