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Here is his blurb on the risers/fallers piece. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/august-top-100-prospects-list-risers-and-fallers/

man gotta say I agree with caulfield. Every year, a player or players in your lineup will be below expectations. But teams like dodgers, rays, cards can bring up and mix and match their roster in season to find the group getting them wins day in and day out while the underperformers can work out the kinks. The dodgers have about the same amount of players as the sox throwing out some historically terrible seasons. Max Muncy, bellinger, Barnes. But they are 41 games over, have a top ten farm, and have the kind of scouting that when their outfield was struggling they saw that Trayce Thompson was playing at a level he could help. They literally traded for trayce thompson and he has been hitting an .868 OPS over 35 games since acquiring him. Nobody on the dodgers will suddenly believe he's a long-term fixture and sign him to a 3-year 16.5 mill deal this offseason. Who knows if the sox even found that in Adam Hasely, despite ample injuries in the outfield we have plugged in Leury garcia, gavin sheets and other struggling players without fail, night after night. And to my own hobby horse, we do need to acknowledge the elephant in the room that has defined the white sox awkward operation. The dodgers can sport a $300 million payroll and also one of the most expansive and expensive scouting and talent development operations in the game. The cardinals can sport a $200 million payroll, but don't unless something special becomes available, and don't need to because the league funnels the most premium assets to them - an additional top 50 draft pick every year, and an extra million to spend on INTL free agency. The sox don't get funneled extra picks because they are a major market team, like the dodgers. But the sox also act like an old school big market team, who believes they can buy their competitiveness through free agency. But the sox don't act like an old school big market team, because they routinely get outpriced by everyone. Except on DHs. Except on Relievers. When this reign mercifully comes to an end, the next owner and group need to realize that in order for the sox to be a permanent contender, they need to funnel more money into the scouting and player development to build something closer to the dodgers. Our major league payroll advantage will need to be slimmer, but unlike the Guardians, we should still be able to afford to re-sign our big players, while being more limited in free agency. That's a trade off I'd happily accept. Our scouting and development is not atrocious. But it HAS to be top 5 to make what Hahn wants to do work, and he seems completely disinterested in it, otherwise it wouldn't have taken 10 years to get to below average.

Interesting she didn't mention the drop in his spin rate after MLB cracked down.

I heard a recent John Mozeliak interview where he stated that the Cardinals never think in terms of a 'competitive window'. I doubt the Yankees, Dodgers, Rays or other well run organizations have that mentality. Mozeliak said the Cardinals approach every decision with a 'win-now' perspective and deliberately populate their roster with players who can be counted on to provide leadership in addition to on-field performance. Its no accident guys like Molina, Goldshmidt and Arenado dot the infield as well as provide mentorship and guidance to the Cardinals philosophy and culture. I'd love to remove the expression 'competitive window' from the lexicon of expressions describing WS fortunes. It implies we have no right to expect the sustained excellence as other well run organizations.

I'll have no interest in the organization until someone not named JR takes over.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2021/09/11/among-the-secrets-to-rays-success-buy-in/ Read this article (3-4 minutes) and it will automatically cause you to make some quick comparisons with the Sox. A couple really jumped out. One is most Sox players other than Abreu and Harrison don’t seem to have that burning fire to be in the lineup day in and day out. Why is that? Particularly Moncada and Robert…but this team just seems so passive? Have guys like Pollock and Vaughn just learned to accept their inconsistent playing time? Do they even bother talking to the coaching staff or LaRussa? Have a hard time seeing any pushback happening from players…for way too many reasons. The Rays, otoh, seem to thrive on platooning, changing batting spots in the order constantly (which TLR gets hammered for creating instability or undermining “comfort zones”)…and being ready to pinch hit or enter the game from pretty much any point from the fifth inning on. Same thing with the entire pitching staff, relievers starting, starters relieving and everything in between. Nobody is totally comfortable. Everyone has to fight for playing time, they have to earn it and work hard to keep their spots. Sounds totally unfamiliar, right? Part of the reason this works is the massive amount of quality depth in their system in either AA or AAA. That also keeps players honest, they can never get too complacent when equally talented and younger/cheaper players are pushing up from behind them. Whereas the White Sox have so many guys like Anderson, Moncada, Robert, Jimenez guaranteed spots because of their contract situations or LaRussa favoritism (Leury and Sheets) and/or lack of any better options thanks to Hahn. Then there’s the biggest one to me, and this is more of a reflection from the 2014-15 Royals and also the 2013-22 Dodgers. To me the biggest successes from those teams all relate to scouting and development. The Royals must have had 8-10 players come up together on the same minor league teams…they learned to trust each other and win championships together. When they advanced to the big leagues, they created their own winning culture….swagger, whatever you want to call it. They didn’t care about the long losing history and playoff drought back to 1985 and being a joke franchise ever since George Brett left. Same thing with the Dodgers, having wave after wave of homegrown depth from both the draft and international signings…from EVERY region of the world, not just Cuba. Then the Dodgers have so many under the radar but ultimately massive scouting wins: Kike Hernandez, Chris Taylor, Turner at third, Max Muncy, Lux, Buehler at his draft spot, Tyler Anderson, Gonsolin, Urias, etc. Nobody else comes close. It’s why they will have 112-116 wins despite significant struggles/injuries to Bellinger, Kershaw, Buehler, Heaney, Dustin May (might have the best stuff on staff). Of course, they can always go out and get a Betts or Scherzer/Turner whenever they want. Only a handful have that luxury as well. Comparing to the White Sox, the Sox just don’t have hardly any guys who developed from A ball through the big leagues. Tim Anderson is the sole exception on the position player side. They have tons of talent, but have never gelled as a team. All of their most important players spent pretty much less than two years in the minors…and they all basically came up to the big leagues individually instead of advancing as a unit, year after year for at least three if not four seasons together. Hence, there’s almost no discernible team identity. It’s just a collection of imported talent around just a few homegrown players. I mean, not even Andrew Vaughn and Madrigal were able to stay together for more than a season. The White Sox, or any team in baseball for that matter, can never experience sustained success without 40-50% of the starting lineup and half or more of the pitching staff (ESPECIALLY relievers) being amateur draft and international pool players that spend at least 3 and as many as 4-5 years growing and improving and learning how to trust in each other on the field, most importantly. So between the front office, ownership, coaching staff, players, scouting, strength & conditioning/training, it’s quite apparent to an outsider that the trust level is low and morale is pretty darned low…as low as I’ve ever seen for a .500ish ball club with a $175-180 million payroll. Finally, there’s something really broken with Grandal, Moncada and Robert to a lesser extent…it’s hard to put a finger on, but there’s some kind of disconnect. Obviously, Abreu for his age might be having his most impressive season yet, but what explains the mysteries surrounding three of the five of the most important Latin American players, with Jimenez the other enigma? How to fix or address that? It might be the most important task of the offseason.

Leaving the abbreviation spring training we all knew that JR being the idiot he is allowed Hahn to put together a horrible roster and that Tony is the worst manager in baseball who has the worst hitting coach in baseball in the dugout. I expected a third place or worse finish and that's where we are at. These brave players are playing hard and giving us their best each day but low talent and no motivation is tough to overcome without great coaching. I feel sorry they are playing in such a horrible organization who values profits over their salaries. So I expect a loss each day. I'm not going to get upset when they are meeting expectations. When they win it's a miracle that will be celebrated. If they somehow can make the playoffs they will be the Miracle Mets x2.

The Rays are in a really bad area for pro sports. An owner with wisdom is forced to invest in scouting and development. There is starting to be more revelation that the Sox is an organization where there is no pressure.

I'm not very tech savvy. But is it possible to have a running thread that automatically updates every time chisoxfanmike tweets? Soxtalk needs to stay on top of what this dork is thinking at all times. Admins, please figure this out.

Leave her alone. She's just stating a fact that's very oblivious. More than she probably even knows.

He'll be a top 20 savage soon enough.

I think what’s frustrating most of all though, and an important thing for us all to keep in mind, is that baseball also is and has been largely set up so that the biggest spenders really have been able to buy their way into positions to win a championship. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Cardinals have won 11 of the last 25 championships. The Dodgers are always in the championship series or World Series now- and have been there many times before. The Giants are traditionally winners. Historically, those 5 organizations have won collectively over half of all the World Series. Over half. The rest of us have fought for scraps. It’s just set up that way. Which is why I think the mentality of “championship of bust” is toxic to fandom in baseball. We don’t have a salary cap and we don’t have revenue sharing. The rich always seem to get richer in this game. I know the ownership of the Sox does deserve blame for not making good decisions but it seems in mlb there’s no grace. Unlike football where even a buffoonish organization like the bears can back into a super bowl appearance accidentally every 20 years 😉

3B Leury Garcia 2B Leury Garcia RF Leury Garcia CF Leury Garcia C Leury Garcia 1B Leury Garcia SS Leury Garcia LF Leury Garcia DH Leury Garcia P Leury Garcia

Thread title: Sox at Royals ITT: Wild speculation about TA's aviation travels, Keuchel's mom is angsty on Facebook

Stone has been inferring Yoan is lazy and unmotivated for years. Steve Stone "pleaded the 5th" when asked whether Tim Anderson led the league in stupidity on Saturday. Stone historically found joy trashing Dusty Baker, Lou Piniella and Ricky Renteria. Yet he'll defend Jerry Reinsdorf, Tony La Russa and Frank Menechino, among other unqualified hacks to his last dying breath.

If anyone wants to read this stream of consciousness, they can just go to Twitter.

“Working with Andrew Friedman, depth was always something that was critical to our organization," Erik Neander, the senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager, told ESPN.com earlier this year. "For health and also for unexpected performance in both directions. Depth is a way to have guys who can surprise you in pleasant ways. In this division, we usually don't bully clubs with the top of our roster. It's really about flattening the talent slope from spots five through 40, making sure we're strong there." After Friedman's departure, the unorthodox approach to franchise building and willingness to stretch the impact of analytics on the field continued with an all-star quartet of executives, including Neander, who was named MLB's 2019 Executive of the Year. Matthew Silverman started his career at Goldman Sachs, where he helped Rays owner Stuart Sternberg structure his bid for the team before being hired as its president. Senior vice president of baseball operations (now Red Sox chief baseball officer) Chaim Bloom wrote for Baseball Prospectus before joining the Rays as an intern. Current Astros general manager James Click also rose from Baseball Prospectus writer to intern, then all the way to vice president of baseball operations with Tampa Bay. Together, they developed a front-office culture where decisions were collaborative, nontraditional ideas were embraced and negative reaction from others outside the organization was largely ignored. "Try to appreciate the strengths a player possesses at any given moment. ... You don't necessarily know what [paths] they're going to take, but the more options, the more possibilities, the more you have a chance for them to take that step. It's easy on any given player to focus on what they can't do, especially prospects."Rays GM Erik Neander on scouting and developing players Not that being in St. Petersburg, Florida, hurt. While the front office sometimes faced blowback from the national media regarding some of its forward-thinking moves, the lack of the daily scrutiny found in larger markets like Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Los Angeles meant more room for experimentation, according to former Rays executives -- not to mention the necessity to be creative with money. That relative freedom is something Rays alums say they've come to appreciate after moving on to bigger markets. In recent years, the success of Tampa Bay brought attention to Bloom, who interviewed with the Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants and New York Mets before taking the job in 2019 running the Red Sox. All of the final four teams in this year's playoffs -- the Astros (Click), the Braves (team president Alex Anthopoulos worked under Friedman in L.A.), the Dodgers and, of course, Tampa Bay -- have roots and ties to the Tampa Bay organization.” https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30146884/world-series-2020-how-rays-became-rays-brain-trust-mlb-most-innovative-team The strange thing is that Hahn by and large gets a free pass from the Chicago media…so that’s not an excuse either. Jed Hoyer on the Northside gets a LOT more scrutiny and that’s even after that 2014-2020 stretch of competitiveness the Cubs enjoyed before finally tearing it down last year. Ricketts is easy enough to dislike, but he also gets more arrows fired at him than anyone but the Bears’ front office/ownership group.

there's only one thing that would bring us a total regime change (which is what needs to happen before this team ever becomes a perennial contender) but ppl don't wanna have that conversation

Sosa can play even if Leury plays. Either Leury at third to replace Moncada or at second to replace Harrison and let Harrison play third. Either way, anybody else is better at third than watching Moncada go 0-4 and swing embarrassingly at wild pitches outside the zone or not swing at good pitches in the dead center of the zone. Last 9 games for Moncada. 4-33, 0 doubles, 0 HR's, 1 lucky triple (only because of poorly played ball by Ranger's Garcia), 3 BB's and 15 K's! Last 9 games slash line: .121/.194/.182/.376 Continuing to throw him in the lineup at third and thinking something different will happen; is the pure definition of insanity! He needs to sit and sit for several games!

She's not way off although I wonder what Cease's mom thinks of the organization?

you can definitely see how baseball america has really shifted how they rate prospects. Far more younger, rising hitters, far less pitchers than they used to rank, far less immediate ranking of top college players right out of draft.

The wife insists I keep it on.

Rick Hahn has said for YEARS that he expects "multiple championships". LOL. Only a fool would have believed that knowing, for example , that the Cubs went over 100 years without winning once and the Sox have only won once in over 100 years. Without a salary cap and other equalizing factors in mlb, some teams will be lucky to win once in your lifetime. That isn't the fault of any one owner or franchise. It is the reality of the league as it is now structured and the complicated, unfair rules that favor certain franchises. Inflated, long term player contracts are just part of the problem. We got lucky once and the Cubs got lucky once in this century and that may not happen again for a long time. Multiple championships...come on.

TLDNR: You are tying to compare polar opposites when comparing Tampa and the White Sox. One team is run by Erik Neander, the other by Rick Hahn. Case closed. Details: Tampa has nine Batters with a 1+ fWAR, Chicago has five. Tampa has seven Pitchers with a 1+ fWAR. The White Sox have four. Tampa looks for bargains in free agency, makes smart trades, develops players and maximizes production for players on ML minimum contracts. The White Sox outbid themselves on players at/beyond retirement age. Their main priority is to wrap up market stupid free agent signings by early December to allow Hahn to enjoy a six week Christmas / New Years break. The White Sox make dumb ass trades during their "competitive window", are terrible at developing players, and look to pawn off their top draft picks for aging veterans because they are too cheap and stupid to acquire quality free agents when they are available. One team makes the postseason regularly despite being in a juggernaut division and having a bottom five payroll. The other team rarely makes the postseason and isn't competitive despite being a big market in baseball's worst division and having a top half to seven (this year) payroll.

You, not We, had these expectations of a shitty season. you don’t have to b****, but I have every right to b**** about a team that is by their own words in the middle of a championship window.

Stone seems to have an issue with certain players and favors others. That is his prerogative as a sports color commentator. He is also entitled to verbosity and redundancy and occasionally being wrong. I have always viewed him as someone who wishes he stayed with the Cubs and maybe still wants to go back there unless of course he decides to retire. I have some doubts that he would even want to announce for the WSox next season. I think he will be part of some major changes to the franchise that JR will make beyond just TLR

Thanks He gone. I will hold off on tickets til the day of. Appreciate all the feedback. I shall bring home a couple wins.

100% Agree. I noted Tampa's strengths is patience / bargains for FAs & smart trades, player development and prioritizing players on pre-arb contracts. The Sox are struggling due to the the lack of player development / poor selection of not only their first round picks beyond 3 Vaughn (Busts - 8 Fulmer, 26 Burdi, 10 Collins, 4 Madrigal; 11 Burger a DH/reserve 3B, 11 Crochet an injured reliever), but the lower rounds as well. The highly rated prospects obtained in the tanking trades have not developed as expected between injuries and non-optimal approach. The Core generally improved and played well under Ricky, but stalled or even regressed the past two seasons outside of Katz' work with Cease, Rodon, Lopez, Kopech. Player development and having 10-15 solid contributors in their year 0-3 seasons allow a small-mid market team compete at the highest levels. The Sox are on the opposite end, very top heavy in terms of payroll and fWAR production, and few players playing at $0.7M-$1.0M making a big impact. Failure to improve scouting and player development his is where Hahn has failed most the past decade, more so than the poor FAs he signed that most people focus on (Leury, Keuchel, etc.).

At the minimum if he does fall asleep he won't roll off the bench.

We call that "Corking the Bat"

What is strange about all of this is that when the Reinsdorf-Einhorn group first bought the team in 1981, JR said it made more sense to build a solid minor league system. He got some pushback because many fans, impatient after the awful 1970s, wanted him to spend money like George Steinbrenner. But it does make more sense to spend more within than trying to buy championships with free agents. Regardless, money has to be spent somewhere, and it has to be spent wisely. Instead, we got Adam Dunn and LaRouche and other veterans past their primes. If the team developed young players, it wouldn't have to tank seasons to trade for young players that other teams have. So, now I wonder if this rebuild fails, just what strategy will follow?

Fuck it. Easy win.

It’s really a middle-ground hybrid of the Rays/A’s/Giants (effective platooning galore) and Guardians/Brewers (pitching pitching pitching) and then the Dodgers. I read somewhere recently that the Cardinals had never exceeded a $165-170 million payroll in franchise history, and never sold out the farm system completely for “all-in” seasons, and that approach makes so much sense with their attendance advantages but overall lower-tier broadcast rights deal. And then the ebb and flow of talent in the much easier Central divisions (especially post-Cubs) vs. the four East/West that is soon to be equalized. But Mariners-esque or Rangers-esque in terms of scope and scale should be a reasonable expectation…and that requires a new stadium eventually.

Vaughn HR. Gio pitched decent. 4 guys with 3 or more hits . 15 hits total. A walk in the park. 8-2

There's 8 guys on this team underperforming. How did you determine that he is the cancer and not any of the other 7?

Isn’t this a functional 1 game suspension? TLR won’t play him in both games of a double header anyway am I right?

If TLR returns next year we need to run a big boycott campaign

Then don't b****. /problem

Zero excuse to not play Sosa every day at 2B or SS. I truly despise that rotting piece of shit corpse excuse for a manager. Keep trotting out the player with a solid 41 wRC+ Tony.

Two years ago he just got here and barely had a chance to install his offensive philosophy. More importantly, two years ago there was a juiced ball and that allowed for different approaches to be successful. This is classic Steven Stone water carrying and the dude needs to simply STFU when it comes to his Twitter usage. I seriously doubt there is another professional sports announcer who spends the bulk of his time ripping his team’s fanbase.

Saw this on FB and it's just an A+ meme

Ban Vin Scully from Soxtalk!

I live 100 miles west of Chicago and many locals here just wont visit CHi Town any more

I'd stay away from the city. Fly into O'hare and Stay in Rosemont right next to the airport. Take the Blue Line to the Red Line transfer to get to the ballpark. Great restaurants in Rosemont (Gibson's, Carmine's, Harry Caray, Morton's, Capital Grille , Giordanos (if you crave Chicago deep dish)). You also have our best Casino there in the area.

Too dangerous here man.