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How about shut up!

@Chicago White Sox's son on Christmas morning

To me he seems more like a defensive idiot instead of a “bad defender.” He does some dumb s%*# out there.

Getz keeps hiring awesome people somehow.

Kind of confirms they are landing Murakami. You don’t add an Assistant GM with lots of international scouting experience unless you’re planning a whopper of an addition in that area.

What does any of this have to do with free agency? Lol.

Some tidbits on the new guys: Denorfia and Venable were platoon mates in RF for SD in 2012. He comes over from 5 years with the Rockies, managing AA and then as outfield/baserunning coordinator. Also was on the 2019 Cubs staff as quality assurance coach. Local product Tony Medina shares Schaumburg Boomers ties with Shomon. His most recent title there was director of analytics, was a hitting coach before that. Has also worked in development/analytics with TEX/KC/HOU. His Twitter header is "chicks dig the xwOBA" and his timeline (which includes back to back reposts of the Ishbia news and Teel's call up) suggest a Sox fandom that predates his hiring. Markinson is the youngest member of the staff at 22. He's coming off of being Northwestern's starting catcher in 2025. Signed as an UDFA with the Phillies, but decided to pivot from a playing career last month. Matt Wise is the oldest member of the staff...and he's only 50. His title has changed from assistant pitching coach to bullpen coach, and Bobby Hearn gets his old role. 3 pitching coaches feels new? Hearn comes over from the Twins where he was assistant pitching coordinator. He was teammates with freshman Shane Smith at Wake Forest. This might be the youngest staff in the league. The staff is bigger than last year, but no longer has a dedicated catching coach. McKinven will handle most of those duties now. Leger is currently managing a DWL team. He comes over from STL where he worked his way up from their DR complex to "assistant field and baserunning coordinator." Won a manager of the year honor for leading their AA team to a franchise wins record in 2024. Also spent 7 years managing in the Mets MiLB system. Winning record over 1300+ games in the minors, seems on track to be interviewing for MLB managerial openings sooner than later. Definitely seems to be an emphasis on guys who can connect and communicate with players based on youth/playing experience/track record. Far cry from having TLR at the helm.

Think I’m going to order my son a custom made Murakami White Sox jersey for Christmas and do so today. Just can’t risk this gets announced Monday and the site can’t make & ship in time. That jersey needs to be under the Christmas tree come hell and high water.

This is a home run fucking hire. I’m actually shocked the Rays did not promote him to GM after Bendix left, but their loss is our gain. And candidly speaking, our front office size was still light compared to others prior to this addition. Glad that Getz didn’t rush to add muscle and instead waited for the right guy to come along.

I still would like to them just stick him at 1B and try to make him a decent defender there. Maybe he’s a guy who ends up being able to hit 30+ and the bat plays.

What in the f*** is BolaVIP and why are you sharing this AI slop?

Former Rays executive. Per Fegan. Seems like a good thing. https://soxmachine.com

Royals personnel seeing this news wrt to their career prospects:

Great hire. I wondered where he was going to land. Never dreamed it would be with the Sox. Getz has a near-magical ability to get people to buy into his vision. Let’s hope they’re right.

We signed a 27 year old, international 1B coming off a 99 loss season back in 2013 despite concerns over his “slider bat speed”. With a solid young core starting to form, some bigger prospects on the cusp, and the 1.01 pick in place next year with a rare elite college SS at the top, now is the time to take a swing on a 26 year old, international 1B with “contact issues” despite coming off a 102 loss season.

Did @Chicago White Sox write that?

There’s a lot of reasons why it makes sense but the biggest obstacle remains: Jerry

I love when we try to will the sox to sign someone and there is literally nothing at all from the agent or major writers on it but we are like "dark mode Getz" lol. Sox fans DID will KW to sign Iguchi though, so some parallel.

I'm not sure if murakami is a good idea, but I'm holding onto it just as some sign that the white sox are a major league baseball team that exists and is participating in baseball like the others.

nevermind. wander has nothing to do with anything here is the point.

Eh, so he was supposed to know that Wander Franco was a pedo? That’s a stretch, unless he was able to do forensics on Wander’s PC/laptop/phone while he was scouting him.

GMs do so much more then sign free agents. And I never expressed any sentiment about free agent spending. I in fact don't think they are going to spend this offseason and I dont necessarily think they should just yet. I just find it crazy that you watch these threads like a hawk to pre-emptively tell everyone why everything sucks and why we shouldn't have hope. Anyways. Cool signing. I'm optimistic.

Anytime the Sox can get someone from a successful organization with a history of developing young talent and winning is fine by me. Even better he has zero Royals connections.

Get that s%*# out of here and head back to the minor league board where you positive folk belong!!

Ooh. Am I allowed to let my optimism show?

Seems like a great move by Getz. Nice.

Big Christmas DFA'd. I'd take a flier

If the Sox snag Murakami they better credit WBWSF and Chisoxfanmike

he's a replacement level second baseman. we've been over this a number of times. he was as "bad" defensively as ozzie albies, colt keith, better than gleyber torres, julien, india, kristian campbell, plenty of other regular 2bs. his mediocre defense is fine because his bat is that much better than meidroth's. if you can get 25ish home runs out of your second baseman who can at least play the position, this is a good thing.

I’m thinking around 6/$110M with a $34M posting fee. Ends up being a $24M AAV which feels right to me in this market.

Here’s the million dollar question. Would you still want him if the plan was to move Sosa to 2nd base and Meidroth was relegated to bench duty?

Never said no one was in on him, just said no one is publicly linked to him yet. If a Yankees were in the mix, that s%*# would be leaked so hard to drive up the price. It’s a very promising sign of where his market stands.

lol…doubters grasping at straws trying to convince themselves Murakami is heading elsewhere. Unfortunately for them Christmas will be coming early this year in Tokyo & Chicago.

yeah, this is a big thing. I think Lenyn's bat has been so great compared to what I'd expect, but if you picture meidroth last year you picture that crazy creative slide to second base around a tag. You picture Lenyn it's not stepping on first base by like 3 feet when fielding a throw. Lenyn was unfortunate to spend his life since age 16 in the white sox org. Kinda does that.

Thanks…guessing Ellard retired to avoid any awkward moments with Murakami over numbers.

I think their comp pick is in the 35th overall range. I reckon the talent we could push down to that range would be better than any prospect we could trade for.

I reallllly want to trade for a comp pick for this draft. GIVE ME ALL THE MONEY

I’d like to be wrong. Just think we’ve already made our big MLB signing this offseason (Kay).

It’s also speculation that there aren’t many teams in on him, just because it’s not being reported on.

Imagine this lineup next year: Meidroth, 2B Teel, CA* Montgomery, SS* Robert, CF Murakami, 1B* Vargas, 3B Benintendi, LF* Quero, DH# Baldwin, RF# You might get 120 HRs out of the #3 to #5 spots!

Unfortunately I don’t drink while I’m rosterbating. As such, my posts on Murakami reflect very pure & highly objective thoughts based on countless hours of research & analysis. The evidence of Murakami signing with the Sox by Monday is clear: Getz has stated they have a big need for a LH corner infielder The Sox have financial flexibility given little payroll committed to next year’s roster and what should be a moderate increase YoY due to the new TV deal The Sox have zero long term commitments and new mega rich owner coming into the fold in four years The Sox have recently hired their first ever Japanese scout Very few big market teams have a need for a 1B at this time and concerns with his bat (see below) make him a harder sell as a DH Murakami has enough warts with the bat (primarily K rate) to scare off teams that need a higher degree of certainty and will likely shrink his market some Two safer 1B options are still available to contenders in O’Hearn & Okamoto and will come much cheaper He must make a decision by Monday and none of the big money clubs have been linked to him yet directly As you can see above, the evidence that Murakami signs with the White Sox is exhaustive and we should start getting very excited this is happening.

Sosa’s future with the team all comes down to where can he play on the field. As a 1B / DH, he doesn’t hit RHP well enough to be an everyday guy. As a 2B, that 101% wRC+ in the 2H against RHP would work just fine if paired with solid defense. For now, I see him as a bench piece you get into the lineup against LHP but who can also serve as a nice everyday fill-in somewhere in the event of injury. That could change with a little improvement in his BB rate or 2B defense. Until then, I’d have Meidroth be the primary 2B and give him a chance to fully prove himself before Antonacci forces his way into the infield mix. Full Season: Total: 100 wRC+ | 3.3% BB rate | 23.3% K Rate | .170 ISO | .309 BABIP vs. LHP: 103 wRC+ | 2.9% BB rate | 20.7% K rate | .164 ISO | .317 BABIP vs. RHP: 98 wRC+ | 3.5% BB rate | 24.3% K rate | .172 ISO | .306 BABIP Second Half: Total: 106 wRC+ | 3.7% BB rate | 23.5% K Rate | .203 ISO | .284 BABIP vs. LHP: 121 wRC+ | 2.9% BB rate | 17.4% K rate | .231 ISO | .280 BABIP vs. RHP: 101 wRC+ | 4.0% BB rate | 25.3% K rate | .194 ISO | .285 BABIP

#55

i feel like Rosenthal is putting this out there because buyers want it out there. But really i dont see any evidence of what Ken is saying.. for a few years now teams have been really reticent to trade top prospects. Even for Crochet, we had to take a catcher and an injured guy to get Top 100 guys. Teams now believe other teams are too good at evaluating their guys. Maybe we taught them that in the Semien and Tatis debacles

From Rosenthal Execs saying “no team wants prospects” if that’s the case Getz needs to get Jerry to pay whatever he needs to, to try and get themselves two top 100 prospects back for Robert

There is no other solution. At some point small market fans will just lose interest and the sport will gradually die.

If I’m Ishbia, I’m wanting a cleared deck and a clean slate as much as possible before I take over the spending. Maybe we will see modesty as the plan out of deference to the agreement

What, does this mean that the league now has its hand out for vendors to get approval?