Leaderboard

Vasil is the best reliever. They use him tonight in a lost cause, and don't use him last night when there was a game to be saved.

Haven't started one of these for awhile so what the heck. As always, remember in Gamethreads to..... Have Fun. Be Respectful. Feel free to criticize ideas, but not people. Enjoy. Oh yeah, if you haven't heard...Robert will not be in the lineup.

Sir, this is a Wendy's.

If he's out the rest of the year I don't see how you could blame them for declining the option in the offseason even after not trading him at the deadline. That would change things in my opinion.

Sorry to hear this Booter was a great interview and had a bunch of stories when I spoke with him. Another one of the 1983 team gone now. And he did actually score from 2nd base on a sacrifice fly. (No...I'm not kidding): May 15, 1983 – You certainly don’t see this every day. In the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium with the Sox leading 5-1 pinch hitter Greg Walker sent a George Frazier pitch into the deepest part of the ballpark. Center fielder Jerry Mumphrey ran a long way and made the catch but his momentum was taking him away from the infield. Mike Squires scored easily from third base but catcher Marc Hill standing on second, kept right on going and beat the throw home with a slide. Walker got credit for two RBI’s on a single sacrifice fly! The Sox would go on to win the game 7-3. Here are some of his stories to me: ML: One of your personal highlights that season came on May 15 at Yankee Stadium, You went 3 for 5 with three RBI's and two runs scored, one of them coming on a sacrifice fly....when you were on second base! How in the hell did you pull that one off? MH: "I don't know either! (laughing). Seriously Greg Walker hit a deep, deep drive into center field that was caught. I got a good read and was tagging up when I picked up Jimmy Leyland, our third base coach about halfway to the base. Jimmy was halfway down the line towards home plate and he kept waving me around. I made it home by hook sliding to get in. Afterwards I was really proud when Jim was telling the media that he decided to wave me home because, "he ran the bases the right way." That's what I tried to do for the team; little things that help win games. MH: "Oh man, I remember one with Roland Hemond. He and I were talking during batting practice at Comiskey Park by third base. Fans forget that I played third and first at times for the Sox so I worked out there too. "Bull" Luzinski was in the cage and I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was going to pull some shots down the line. " "Sure enough he hits a line shot that's headed right for Roland's head. I stick my glove out and catch it right before it hit him. Roland jumped in my arms! I carried him off the field and sat him down in our dugout! Everybody was laughing about it...Roland was the greatest G.M. I ever played for." "Another story was when I was only 20 or so playing for the Cardinals. It was in spring training. I was catching Bob Gibson. I think it was in the 5th inning, I give the sign for a fastball and Bob shakes me off. I thought, 'we'll he's just doing that because he wants to screw up the hitter' so I give the fastball sign again. Bob shakes me off then motions me to come out to the mound. I run out there...Joe Torre comes out there too, it's just the three of us." "Bob looks at me and says, “Son, I know you don't know this yet but my slider's almost as good as my fastball.” "So I go back behind the plate and call for the slider.....and Bob shakes me off! (laughing) He wanted the fastball!" "After the game I went up to him and asked why after he told me about his slider, he shook me off again. Bob said “hell everybody in the ballpark knew why I called you out there and that the slider was coming!” (laughing)

It's almost like he doesn't have the ability to spot talent.

Based on Dan Hayes revising the story afterwards to maintain his access to the team...

This was so predictable. Betting on Robert's health is just crazy.

Why would you have to pay anyone. Quality bullpen arms are available with good scouting and development for cheap. It's an indicator of poor scouting and development in that space.

Once Ishbia takes over, Getz will be standing right next to Kenny and Hahn…

For all of your delusional posts, this one takes the cake.

Not expecting any wins vs NYY.

You never know. It's that suck factor the organization might adore. It's a way of waiting for young arms to be stretched out who then will probably get traded if they are good. I wouldn't be shocked if 2026 is another 100 loss season.

Trading actual prospects for Gilbert and Booser was moronic in retrospect.

that might be the last we see of tyler gilbert

Seems like a totally different team without Montgomery and Robert...so much for all the feel-good vibes.

You absolutely can and should blame them. His injury risk should have been a huge factor in the decision to trade him or hold onto him. It’s the same crap as before. Crossing your fingers that injury prone guys suddenly stay healthy.

Oh, I could blame them. Anyone surprised by him missing another large chunk of the season? The answer is of course not, so this was true in July as well. You knew this about Robert. It shouldn't change much in their mind. I agree with your previous sentiment about there absolutely being a chance they decline the option, because it's Jerry. And it's his money, not ours. But again, because there isn't any sort of CF knocking down the Sox door, there really is no "risk" in bringing him back at this point, given it's simply money.

Robert has shockingly similar numbers in 2025 to 2024 2024: 425 PA's, .224/.278/.379, 1.4 WAR 2025: 431 PA's, .223/.297/.364 1.5 WAR You know what you're getting at this point...a 28 year old below average hitter who plays a very good CF and will maybe play 2/3 of a season. That's not worth 20 million or a valuable piece of your farm system, it just isn't.

I think some team will offer him two years and he'll walk. But if he wants to come back 10 million for a year seems fair. Someone has to eat some innings.

I love those mutual options when they work out....When AJ Pollock turned down his option in November 2022, I remember thinking "my feelings are fucking mutual fella!!!"

JR:

I'll start those again on January 1, 2026.

The ultimate blame goes to JR.

The usual people have taken over, got the topic reframed, done their name calling and finger pointing, were supposedly done days ago, are still going, but the point still remains despite those who think they alone should decide what Soxtalk should think... one does not have to groupthink on Soxtalk. If you think the Sox would be a better franchise under semi competent leadership and ownership, that is a valid opinion. Don't be gaslit into feeling validated by a world salad that just isn't true. Be free.

I assumed that they wouldn’t pick up the option. Once they decided to not trade him, my opinion changed. They can’t and won’t lose him for nothing. I’d be stunned if they declined the option now and it’s a fireable offense if they did.

Who cares?

OMG! You are not being persecuted. We are all Sox fans. You choose to think that tomorrow will be better than today. Rock on, positive attitude. Most of us see the SOS.

Man, I was in complete agreement with you for the whole post until this part at the very end. You lost me here. These type of comments never sit well with me. The assumption that because someone feels negatively about their team, they must be miserable in all aspects of their life (and are doing so by choice!) is incredibly judgmental and really just kind of misses the point altogether.

I would have never thought this would have been a discussion a month ago, but I believe Sox have to pick up the option on Martin Perez for 2026. According to the link below, it's a $10 option with a $1.5 million buyout if not exercised (essentially making it $8.5 million) With the way he fought to come back this year and the way he pitched since coming back, he could be a good role model for our young players and an important part of the rotation if we are to contend for a division title in 2026. What you all think? https://www.mlb.com/news/martin-perez-white-sox-deal

Reddit “evidence” for unhinged message board Lol…oh to actually care about results of the games and TLR again [–]1987 Capbtmalon 74 points 4 years ago I have a hard time believing there's a more negative fanbase out there. I'm over on the Mets subreddit (red-headed step child franchises need to stick together) and even with all the s%*# they go through every year they still have fun. Lighten the f*** up people. Like Steve says, "This is supposed to be fun" [–]DerangedProtege[S] 32 points 4 years ago Agreed. Obviously most fans weren’t happy with last night, but it’s baseball. It’s one game out of 162. The Sox were 7-3 in their last 10 before last night. As for the fanbase, I remember reading a post on that site, where a guy was serious that he was going to move his wife and kids from Illinois to a different state (Nashville, TN) in light of Machado signing with the Padres. If you’re living in a particular place because of a baseball team that you root for, please seek help. Wasn’t that always just a joke???

If only they'd start counting that instead of actual runs!

I've been told the peripherals on a lot of those bullpen guys aren't bad though...so there's that.

Agreed. Pitching will be the key.

Just be nicer. It's only baseball. Baseball is fun. If baseball isn't fun, there are other hobbies. I don't think any of us are doing 'mental gymnastics', but any reasonable person would view the remark as personally insulting. I try to back my point of view up with data and argumentative evidence; I may be wrong, who can predict the future, but it isn't 'mental gymnastics'. I have literally zero stake in whether or not the GM is good at his job or not. I think the Bulls GM is bad at his job and my thinking would reflect that if we talked about basketball on this forum. I think when Getz was hired, I probably made some posts to suggest he wasn't actually qualified, I certainly thought that, but I feel like the burden of evidence is that I would've been wrong at that early stage. Historically, I like the Bulls more than I like the Sox. I only started posting on this forum because I'm fed up with the Bulls management, and if I felt pessimistic about the future of the team, the tone of my posts would be much different. There's obviously still a question about ownership, but that hasn't really been the discussion. My feelings aren't hurt, but there's probably a level of discourse that we could strive toward. Don't need to be on the attack. Take a walk to the Unity Temple, feel the aura of the Prairie School. No bad feelings when you're sitting in that park outside Pleasant Home. Take a bike ride along the Des Plaines River Trail, you can take it all the way up to Wisconsin and connect to their trail systems and explore a beautiful state -- in keeping with the theme, ride to Taliesin. Sometimes people have different perspectives on the team, there's no reason to be mean-spirited.

With how much money has been wasted on Clevinger over the last 3 years (20 million?), I don’t see why not. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Sox buy him out and offer him a smaller one year deal to save a couple million or so.

Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory

Seems like a no brainer to me.

It's nice they play the Cubs two 3 game series again. I don't like the 2 game series bs. I'm in the camp where the more they play the cubs the more exciting the rivalry is. Hey, just noticed that's my birthday weekend too lol.

It went from just horrid in 2024 to just fun bad in 2025. Nothing more

So the Detroit Lions managed to actually kill my fandom. Huge fan as a kid. Couldn't have cared less prior to the Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes era. When they lost the playoffs games the last two years I was a bit upset but I'm not even a fan like that anymore, the losses don't even sting that bad. So it can happen. At the end of the Dan Quin era in Detroit I don't think you had a single sunshine blower left. Some franchises just are not redeemable. The Lions found something finally when ownership changed. Maybe the Sox can do the same.

Oh here we go … “you’ll be on the bandwagon …” These are so tiresome. Is there some sort of prize awarded to fans by sports teams for unwaveringly supporting them during trying times? What do they get out of it? I saw the Blackhawks empty for plenty of years, just diehards showing up. When they were winning 10-15 years ago guess who were at the finals games. A bunch of corporate types that have never seen a hockey game in their lives. Congratulations on supporting them in the down times. Your fan rating must be through the roof.

Yep, when was the last time a Sox GM ever worked in MLB again? 30 years ago? Same with managers. Ozzie's the last one after he walked out on the team because he already had another job lined up and then crashed and burned after only 1 season in Miami. Nobody since then. Before that, Jerry Manuel went on to manage the Mets after he was fired after the 2003 season.

Maybe he'll get a gig on MLB network

Now that this thread has gone exactly as expected, can I take a moment to say something we should all be able to agree on? It's just really really nice not having to hear from Pedro Grifol anymore. (And no, this does NOT mean I think Venable should win manager of the year).

I love how you criticize Stearns because of his year 1 results, but then absolve Getz of any blame (as If he was an outsider brought in and not the guy in charge of PD on that historically bad team) because it was the prior regime. The mental gymnastics people will go through is remarkable. Also, I said it elsewhere but one sign of a great leader and builder is that when you leave, things don't miss a beat.

Lance Johnson says "hello"

Nah, that dude is a special talent. He shot up the Padres system and hit the majors at age 20, after only 3 years in the minors. I don't even think the Sox could've gotten in his way.