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Hopefully pitching himself out of future plans. With that said, the “can they get to .500 thread” is going to age about as well as “do the Sox have too much pitching”

last year I remember listening to Mully and Haugh or maybe some inside the clubhouse where Haugh stepped in. The question was who had a better looking future, Colson or PCA. At the time, both were scuffling. PCA not doing much in majors or AAA, and Colson scuffling in AAA. By the time there was a question on here on Colson in April, I damn near wrote that it wasn't even worth thinking about Colson anymore. It was so disappointing. But others kept hope and pointed out the one thing he did well was a really good thing to have. he hits the s%*# out of the ball. And that's true, and it was what helped. The beauty of baseball is it keeps surprising you. That said, I can't remember debuts this strong since Trayce Thompson and Gordon Beckham. Baseball.

Listen to the podcast. They talk a lot about this. There are a lot of shapes and sizes for GM's. As they discuss on the podcast, a good GM has to have a ton of traits. In 99/100 cases, one person isn't strong in all of those traits. You have to be a good leader of people and management, and have a very good staff around you that fills in those weak spots.

According to BRef, he's got an 8.2 WAR over a 162 game average. So that's probably not going to keep up...but if he can be a 4 WAR player for the Sox, it would help the rebuild in a big way.

Well that changed in a hurry. Whether they win or lose, its nice to not have a team that doesn't just cave as soon as they go down.

He is playing like a superstar for the past month. Changing the game in the field, on the base paths and with the bat.

Yeah, 2020 wasn’t real tho

I really like @77 Hitmen's view, and I eco his sentiments - there's no one thing that makes the park bad, but it's the absence of a gazillion small things that makes the park "bleh" compared to so many others around the league.

Here's the thing, if you have been around MLB parks, the ones that stand out, are the ones that have something extra about them. Whether that is a retro design (BAL, etc), the skyline as a part of the view from home plate, some extra special activity or feature within the stadium or stadium complex (such as the KC waterfall, the Domes that open and close (TOR, HOU, TEX) the rockwall in ANA, the train in HOU, roller coaster in DET), unique designs such as water in play for HRs (Cincy SF, PIT), an entertainment district around the park (ATL, CUB, BOS), monument park in NYY, or even the history around the park (CUB/BOS/LAD) there is something that stands out about pretty much all of these parks ranked in front of Sox Park. Sox Park's biggest draws seem to be sightlines and adequate parking. It's ranked low because there is nothing exciting or unique about it. It ranks low because it is the Wal-Mart "great value" brand of stadiums. It has all of your basic ingredients, but there is absolutely nothing special about the park or game day experience.

In another thread a few days ago someone posted something along the lines of 'JR isn't that involved' which I immediately corrected. This should settle that posters fantasy. JR is involved in literally EVERYTHING regarding the franchise. Always has been, always will be until the day he leaves. Again the Athletic story by Rosenthal this past September should be required reading for every White Sox fan left.

They only start using MLB balls in AAA and Charlotte is an absolute bandbox. Im not sure why they send guys there if they are actual prospects.

maybe the coaching isn't good

He's coming into his own as a player. I think it's a real true talent jump. He went from like 1 WAR to maybe about 2.5 or even 3.5 this year. If you hit 280/300/450 and don't butcher it at 2B that's 3 WAR in today's run environment.

He's been taking walks too. That's like a really good heater or he's figured a lot out in the last 10 months or so.

Sir, this is a Wendy's.

Cannon has given them no chance in almost every start since the break. I understand why they didn’t pull him, but it was obvious he had nothing. Might as well bring a position player in to pitch the third. At least I can go to bed early.

Schiffren acting like it's his shot to sell Luis Robert to opposing GMs for an extended trade deadline....

He’s so bad. Hope they’re able to replace him next year.

Ironically he was seen as too old for a prep prospect by some as he was 19 when drafted -- but he's made MLB in his age 23 season and will have 1.25 seasons of MLB experience by 25 unless he gets hurt again.

Putting a few different pieces together, I wonder if with the change from Williams and Hahn, to a much less experienced Getz, and then adding in what we know from other threads about Jerry and Tony's continued involvement in things, if the problem is that Getz is out there trying to get things done, but getting told no by Jerry/Tony, and then having to crawl back to the people he was negotiating with to tell them it fell apart. Who knows if it is true or not, but when you are getting threads about MUCH more experienced guys being kept on a leash, and then threads about GMs getting frustrated dealing with Getz, those things would fit together well.

I think there is a little more nuance there than you are giving credit for. As three former GM's discussed on the podcast, there were relationships built over time with counterparts, and you understood their mission and what they were trying to accomplish. Hahn talked about GM's he enjoyed dealing, based on how they conducted their dealings and what the ultimate purpose was, and all three hosts discussed frustrations with dealing with GM's that seemed to be more interested in fact-finding missions and information gathering than ultimately wanting to close a deal. Nightengale offered very little detail in his statement behind why teams may have been getting frustrated with Getz, but I would put good money on the fact Nightengale isn't just making up that anecdote. It would be very safe to assume 2-3 GM's told him that, and he felt confident enough to put that out there, given what he had heard. Again, doesn't get into why they were frustrated with him, and as I said earlier, I'm not using it as a shot against Getz at this point, none of us have enough information to go off of on this specific topic to form an informed opinion or take a passionate stance on the topic. But I personally don't believe when it relates to Robert/Getz and the trade deadline, GM's were getting frustrated with Getz simply because of the high ask. That happens every day in GM conversations. And if a team won't move off those asks, then they end up keeping the player, pretty simple. I take it as more related to what was discussed on this podcast. Mixed-messages sent by a GM to another team, a willingness to deal then all the sudden pulling back the offer, or spending a lot of time on something that continues not to make any significant progress....could be a lot of different things, and I think a lot of those skills get sharpened over time. Some people are very natural in negotiations, but as a former player like Getz, trade conversations with other GM's, GM's that have been in their roles for a decade+, that has to be an acquired skill that is learned over time.

Yes, THAT was the obnoxious post.

You think you know but you don't know. I was talking to my brother in law and we both thought Montgomery was a bust. Back injury, sent down to Arizona, the thought of getting called up to Chicago never occurred to me. All I can say is wow, smacking homers and playing both SS & 3rd , keep it going.

being unemployed for a few years may have something to do with that, he's auditioning for something somewhere.

personally I don't understand why he's doing media appearances and why he's on TV now. this is the least charismatic man I've ever heard of. I have the urge to give someone a wedgie just by opening this thread.

What the hell bmags, great post only with a nut punch at the end!

Let me watch Robert-Colson back-to-backs for years, please.

Very sad to hear this. I always enjoyed reading Alex’s posts and getting to interact with him back in the early days of Soxtalk. He always brought great insight and was a great guy. Rest in peace.

What if being traded was just a wake-up call? I thought it was interesting how, last season, Vaughn was being marketed as a 'fan favorite' kind of guy...then a few weeks into this season, he says something like, "I'm struggling but I'm going to keep doing what I've always done because it's always worked". I think he thought he was just punching a clock and there were never going to be consequences for his 'disappointing' play. That the front office and fans liked him a lot. So maybe now he's breaking out in Milwaukee because he's (correctly) thinking to himself, "I need to play better otherwise I won't be in the MLB much longer". Definitely think he's on a hot streak, he's not a 1.000 OPS player, but that he's also a better player than he showed during his time here. Maybe the Brewers are doing something different with him, but maybe he's just willing to do anything different at this stage of his career. In terms of his walks, the White Sox are much better at this aspect of the game than they were last year. They're actually one of the best teams in the league this season at it compared to last year when they were dead last. Even Lu, who hasn't taken a walk in about three months, is about double his career rate coming into the season (5.6% vs 10%). Meanwhile Vaughn halved his walk rate as a Sox this season and is doubling it up in Milwaukee. This season averages out to 6.1% while is slightly lower than his career rate. So why did the Sox as a team get better (individually and holistically) at taking walks except Vaughn who got worse? I think it implies he wasn't listening to the coaches' instruction and now that he's been traded and potentially non-tendered, he's willing to listen. I think he's a good fit to have his contract picked up in Milwaukee with his play there. I think you'd rather have Vaughnie at ~10mil than Rhys Hoskins for $18mil if he can even OPS at his typical .730. Hope he can continue his play and I'm also glad he's not on our team anymore. Meadzy seazon approaching...

The line Jon Daniels gave in his interview with Dan ODowd about having an MBA, and him asking if he said he was in the NBA was spectacular. Listening to the Rick Hahn part now.

I thought he could be Joe Crede-like. If he put up 15-20 bWAR at 3B, or LF, that would have been phenomenal for the #22 pick. It's just his rookie season, and the league doesn't seem to have adjusted to him, much, yet.

But I like Groundhog Day !

Your point being what? Any skyline view would be better than zero skyline view.

It was a podcast. Him and Jon Daniels talking about the GM job, how they got theirs, and the duties involved, how the position has morphed just over their time in the game. I found it interesting. Hahn was in baseball about 23 years and has a ton of knowledge.

Vaughn is definitely on a heater as of late. Back in March/April Carson Kelly of the Cubs started the season on fire. In 17 games he hit .360 7 hrs 21 rbi with an OPS of 1.347

those were awesome summers though.

Then that’s something they won’t be able to correct until they get a new stadium, because they’ll never be able to build up a “Comiskeyville” where they are now, because from my understanding the neighborhood won’t allow it. Even if they do, I still worry that it would flop because they’re the White Sox and they don’t have a large fan base.

Again fair enough. It's still a decent view of the city from there. I've taken some photos up there with my family standing at the rails and the skyline in the backdrop. The view would be significantly more impressive if Ishbia decides he wants to invest his money in a new stadium at the 78. And like I said before, this isn't a make-or-break issue for Rate Field. It's certainly not its biggest flaw and some of the "ballpark that turned its back on the city" cracks are a bit melodramatic. But it's just one more piece to the puzzle of why we're all still debating whether its a good stadium or not 35 seasons after it opened.

Futuristic.

in my view, they were dead on arrival. Fenway and Wrigley are actual cool places because they're genuine historical landmarks that speak to the history of our country and favorite sport. Baltimore's stadium is just an ode to nostalgia, 'the good ol days' that never existed, a piece of architecture that has no definitive place in time or space. Nothing about the game experience itself is 'retro'. It's expensive and they're shoving every advertisement they can of think down your throat. If it was really 'retro', there wouldn't be fucking ads and luxury boxes everywhere. New era of consumerism and corporate profiteering is very much derived from nostalgia. I think it's because we realize the world is not so good these days but all we know how to do is buy stuff and have no ability to imagine a better future. I'll give the 'retro' ballparks credit in the sense that they're actually parks and not multi-function blob stadiums, the only cool one in history being the AstroDome. But New Comiskey is a dedicated ballpark and I think it's a great stadium. I hate the sea of parking lots, but I've heard many of the residents of the area prefer it that way, that the ballpark is physically separated from the housing. In terms of 'futuristic' ballparks, I think there are ways you can make them 'environmentally-friendly' or even into a bird sanctuary. There are a lot of cool architectural innovations these days, the 1920s was not the pinnacle of architecture. Hell, go full retro and just rebuild the Colosseum.

Sure. Far off in the distance

Just $50M ? That's nothing. Sox player payroll was $82M this year. $150M isnt even that much. Mets $323M Dogers $321M Yankees $293M Phillies $284M Half the teams in baseball are north of $160M . No one mentioned moving to Tennessee as part of rebranding. Minor uniform changes are all that was mentioned. They do that with the City Connect uniforms every Friday anyway on all teams. Doesn't even have to be every day changes. It wouldnt even have to be called rebranding since people seem to be triggered by anything that isnt a better product on the field. One is not mutually exclusive of the other. Both can happen at the same time.

Naylor is the latest in a long line of Sox killers. They may want to 'consider' changing the pitching pattern on him...just a thought.

NEAD FOR MEAD OR NEED FOR MEED EITHER WAY I LIKE JOKES BUT THIS GENTLEMAN NEEDS A CHANCE OVER ROJAS AND CAPS LOCK

Hopefully they can take some momentum from that into tomorrow. Lineup is really missing Vargas/Meidroth who had both been heating up before their injuries. Need some more activity on the bases between the HRs. Mead should start tomorrow. Woo is a very tough RHP so I get if they wanted to protect him a bit, but if he's up you have to give him a look while Vargas is out. If Mead sticks, Rojas can be cut whenever Miguel is good to go.

The people that contributed positively are more important to our future than the people who contributed negatively.

God this sounds nightmarish.

The Sox have one of the coolest logos of all time. Remember all the Starter gear that rappers wore from the Sox and Raiders back in the 80’s and 90’s? We need a good team, not a new logo.

Zavala's been heating up lately. .270/.415/.365 in July, 3 doubles and this HR in his last 5 games

The Rate doesn't get much love from the media but the lower bowl is great.