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You’re spending more time today writing about the Twins than their own fans are. That organization is screwed, I’m not concerned about them going forward.

If Drury hadn’t gotten hurt he would have been on the opening day roster

A couple NRI's get talked up every spring, and people read way too much into it every time. Last year the narrative was that the Sox hated Sosa/Meidroth/other in house IFs and were going to do everything possible to force Brandon Drury on the roster because they talked about his potential and experience and whatever. And then Drury had an excellent spring (1.260 OPS) and still took exactly 0 ABs for your 2025 White Sox.

Then he should be traded. Thinking him being used as a backup catcher for a season will somehow increase his value is crazy. If Quero doesn’t get 400+ PA’s somewhere then I’ll be pushing for Getz to lose his job.

The White Sox finished Spring Training 11-19 in 2025, and 9-20 in 2024. The games don't count, and the rosters are often haywire. That said, it's fun when they win, and I'm eager to see the new acquisitions do well.

I wish that wasn't the case. I'm actually one of those fans who generally just wants to go to the park, see the game, and then go home. But that's not what many people want in their gameday experience these days. I haven't been to as many other ballparks as @southsider2k5, but I've been to enough to see how much of a difference location and ballpark design makes. What I'm rooting for is for the Sox to consistently draw well so that they can have the resources to become and stay competitive in MLB. If they could do that at the current ballpark and location, that would be great. But the current ballpark situation creates challenges to that.

Prelander Berroa>>>>>>>>>

Blake Larson

I'll take only winning televised games if it extends into the regular season .

Think he only plays first and third

I think it started during Covid IIRC

The magic of spring training, Smith back in bottom of second.

Spring training outcomes making people crazy.

I’m sure the Sox are hoping Kelenic somehow achieves his former top 5 prospect potential, but not sure why anyone would expect any sort of outcome like that at this time. He was legit awful last year. Meanwhile, Baldwin put a 119 wRC+ in the second half of 2025 (his first season), which is better than Kelenic’s best season by nine points. I’m just blown away by these Kelenic & Baldwin takes.

Baldwin is 2 years younger than Kelenic and had a 92 wRC+ compared to Kelenic's 47 last year. The idea the Sox are hoping Kelenic wins the job seems farfetched to me. Baldwin is the better player, regardless of (now long gone) draft pedigree.

Based on what? What have the Sox said or signaled that suggests a lack of faith in Baldwin? I keep hearing this narrative and have yet to find anything substantial backing it.

I still don’t buy Kelenic being in our starting nine 9 come OD and not yet convinced he will even make the major league roster coming out of camp. Definitely possible on the latter, but it’s going to be an uphill battle to steal significant playing time from Quero & Baldwin.

Yeah, Baldwin and Hays for Wade and Kelenic. The Brewers look like their top 5 starters are all RHPs. Lefty loosie lineup.

Pretty sure after they took him to arb over 50k, that bridge is burnt.

No need to stop at 2013. You can go back all the way to 1995 - as soon as the new ballpark bounce ended. The Sox have ranked higher than 15th in MLB attendance only once in those 3 decades - 2006 when they were reigning WS champs. All the talk about how much fans just love having a stadium right off the expressway and surrounded by parking lots isn't supported by the numbers. Which other teams are emulating even a single aspect of what the Sox have when designing their stadiums and surroundings in even the slightest way? Absolutely none. People can get apoplectic, resort to ad hominem arguments, and slap laugh emojis all over the forum to their hearts desire....it still doesn't change the reality of the Sox stadium situation. Neither does anecdotal stories about how great the place is for individual fans. I used to be one of those fans with a huge chip on my shoulder whenever someone dissed Sox Park - blaming it on Cubs fans or people brainwashed by the Cub-loving, Sox-hating media. At some point, I realized that "rest of the world is wrong and we die-hard Sox fans are right" way of thinking was just me living in denial.

I think this gets the whole "listicles" thing totally backwards. It isn't that potential paying customers are just sitting back and waiting for some online ranking of ballparks to decide whether or not to catch a game at Rate Field. It's that the rankings that are out there generally reflect what people think about MLB stadiums throughout the league. There's a reason why Rate Field is consistently ranked near the bottom, it's because that's how people outside of diehard Sox fans generally feel about the place. It's one thing to convince people that the place is much better than it used to be (true), not as bad as people think (true), a nice enough place to see an MLB game (true), and that there's nothing "dangerous" about the neighborhood (true). It's quite another to convince them that Rate Field is a must-see place that they want to devote their limited entertainment budget to (both money and time) unless the Sox are in contention for a pennant. Sure, you can find write ups out there that take unfair, ignorant swipes at Sox Park because they're just going on reputation. But that isn't what's causing attendance problems for the Sox and they aren't the only ones ranking the place near the bottom of the league.

We got a draft pick as well though

Santos looks finally healthy again

These kids talk way too fast. It's not like he's bringing twice the info as anyone else, either.

USA mixed doubles curling team knocked off the Italians, who I believe were the reigning Olympic gold medalists and World Champs. Team USA curls tomorrow for the Gold against Sweden. I just watched "Miracle" yesterday so I was hyped for a big upset. Suck it Italy!!!

https://antosports.com/collections/gu-ailing-eileen?srsltid=AfmBOorzq7Gu79hMWKrQGEvTwddH-jABduSzBMqJcQuqQ31PCMf4D605 Or, if you really want to stir up your anti-Communist/Socialist neighbors... Funny thing is it's a knock off or fake site. Anta is the actual Chinese sports brand.

All of the changes you mention did improve the park, but they weren't major enough to vault it into an upper tier of parks or anything. It was basically outdated as soon as it was built and those changes probably should've been part of the original design. One of the main knocks on the park has always been that it's just fine and nothing special, which is too low of a bar for a MLB park. Stadiums have evolved quite a bit over the years, especially with an emphasis on the ballpark village type of areas immediately surrounding stadiums these days. This is all why it'll remain at the bottom of lists. It wasn't great when it was built, hasn't aged well in the grand scheme of things, and is now being left even further behind as trends change and the idea of what makes a good park continues to evolve.

I have been to about 20 different MLB ballparks over the years. I think this typical praise of "it's not that bad" is remarkably accurate for it. It's not terrible, but it is absolutely nothing special. If you think of all of the typical things that make stadiums stand out, it has none of them. There is no special attraction, there is no skyline views, there is no activity around the ballpark besides the game (unless you want to drink at your parking place) and definitely none after the game, you enter at the very bottom of the stadium, giving an experience of everything being very high, even if it isn't that much different from low seat to high seat. The stadiums layering has no overlapping, which also makes the upper levels feel even more detached from playetc. It's a lazy attempt to disqualify those things as "listicles" instead of realizing that they are just easy ways to tell ballparks apart. The new park was a vast improvement over the 70's generic ballpark experience, but when the "new" park building phase really took hold, Sox Park got left behind. It just happened that the Sox went first in building their new park, and didn't have the 20/20 vision of seeing what others had done, that even 5 to 10 years of extra time would have given us.

There's nothing about the current stadium that sets itself apart from other venues. It's fine and much improved from the concrete monstrosity it was initially, but being "fine" with nothing to do in the immediate surrounding area isn't going to vault you up many rankings lists either. If they build a new stadium and learn nothing from their (JR) past mistakes then sure, it won't make a difference. I'd have to imagine that the new leadership will not be following in the footsteps of the old regime so I'd bet they're focused on what the best location for a new venue would be plus what would optimize the pre/post and in-game experience.

I ordered my USA curling baseball cap from New Balance so my wife or son can gift me something other than a Sox cap for Christmas....I'll be very happy when I unwrap it this December.

The stadium is 2 different ballparks. The lower deck is great. The upper deck is horrendous. I've been a season ticket holder for over 30 years. I wouldn't sit in the upper deck for nothing.

Early rest for Beni after a part of hard hit doubles in his first two ABs

Well, Kelenic ain't making the team with groundouts like that.

I always hope with pitchers who basically have a spot set on the team, that they are just working on stuff when they have a bad outing/spring

And he should go out there and play in what is likely a lost season anyway.

According to who?

Would be funny to see them playing both Sosa and Ramos.

On the pitching side, here is how I see things shaking pending no more injuries or trades: Rotation: Smith (R) Kay (L) Martin (R) Burke (R) Fedde (R) Bullpen: CL: Dominguez (R) SU: Leasure (R) SU: Taylor (R) MR: Newcomb (L) MR: Vasil (R) MR: Gilbert (R) MR: Hicks (R) LR: Paez (R) Pitching staff feels mostly locked in at this point. While the last two rotation spots may technically be open, I’d be shocked if anyone took over Burke & Fedde to start the season. That being said, I really think McDougal could be up by May. He is not eligible for PPI, so there is zero reason to force him onto the OD roster. However, after 4 to 8 weeks in Charlotte I think he could get the call if all goes well. As such, that just leaves the final two bullpen spots as legitimate battles, which I expect to go to one RH and one LH. The second LH reliever role is wide open at the moment and I only went with Gilbert due to option status. I think there is a high possibility of Murphy winning this role. Beyond those two, both Eisert and Borucki are possibilities, but feel like they will start at Charlotte baring big camps. As for the RH side, Paez is the hands down favorite for the last spot. I don’t think he’s a guarantee, but I think the Sox believe he‘s a long term major league starter and will try their best to keep on the roster this season. His Rule 5 counterpart is certainly another guy who will be pushing for a spot, but Alberto is going to need a massive camp to jump Paez. Gonzalez has one option left but is probably Paez’s biggest immediate threat, while Berroa is probably his biggest long term threat once healthy. I wouldn’t be shocked if a NRI guy also pushed for a spot, but my guess is the Sox would carry Paez into the season before promoting one of them.

Here is what I’m expecting on the positional side assuming no further injuries or trades. Positional Group: IF: Murakami (L), Meidroth (R), Montgomery (L), Vargas (R), Sosa (R) OF: Hayes (R), Benintendi (L), Baldwin (S), Acuna (S), Pereira (R) CA: Teel (L), Quero (S), Lee (R) Main Lineup vs. RHP: Meidroth, 2B (R) Teel, CA (L) Montgomery, SS (L) Murakami, 1B (L) Vargas, 3B (R) Benintendi, LF (L) Hayes, RF (R) Quero, DH (S) Baldwin, CF (S) Main Lineup vs. LHP: Meidroth, 2B (R) Vargas, 3B (R) Hayes, LF (R) Montgomery, SS (L) Sosa, DH (R) Quero, CA (S) Murakami, 1B (L) Pereira, RF (R) Acuna, CF (S) As you can see above, there is fairly good balance against both RHP & LHP. I don’t see much of a role for Lee, but I can see an argument for holding him for a month and hoping a team suffers a catcher injury and Lee suddenly becomes tradable for something. After that, maybe Kelenic is ready for a spot or even Antonacci?

God Sunday Night Baseball in the 2000s just hit differently

I love the oddity of the winter sports that I only need to see every 4 years. Curling, Luge, Biathlon, skiing. Not a fan of ice skating.

I thoroughly enjoy the Olympics.

I was rather smitten by the Italian woman yesterday.

Came down to the last throw or roll.....love watching curling every 4 years but I never know the correct parlance. My wife watched most of the match earlier in the day and said "it was like 3 1/2 hours!!" I told her that I enjoy watching an entire baseball game so curling is right up my alley.

Awesome ending to that and wow did Great Britain fall apart.