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Cheap 1 year deal in March if nothing else materializes? Sure. Any sort of real guarantee right now? Nah. Try to do better; he’s not very good and has never play 2B. But I’ve been on record and remain convinced that just handing Romy/Sosa the job and relying on Leury to play a few days a week there is silly. You need to bring in some level of competition for the kids and make them earn that job, while also hoping they do.

For over 15 years I've been compiling news, notes, facts and factoids on the Sox franchise from a historical perspective. I call it, "This Day In Sox History." I thought this would be something fans would enjoy so I'll be posting my notations on a daily basis. I don't have something for all 365 days of the year, but I'd guess for over 300 of them. I hope you will enjoy this. Feel free to comment on any of the events, players etc. this brings to mind for you. Maybe some of you were even at the games when the events took place? And with that, here we go: January 2, 1986 – Former two-time owner of the White Sox, Bill Veeck died at the age of 71. Veeck owned the club from March 1959 through June 1961 and then again from December 1975 to January 1981 when he sold it to the group headed up by Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn. Veeck buying the team the second time, with considerable help from then Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, a big Sox fan, saved the franchise from being moved to Seattle with the Oakland A’s relocating to the South Side. Major League Baseball was trying to settle the lawsuits filed by Washington state, the city of Seattle and King County over the Pilots being relocated to Milwaukee in 1970. Moving the financially strapped White Sox to the Pacific Northwest would have ended the legal issues. Veeck saved the team but never really had the financial resources to make them competitive especially with the advent of free agency. Part of his syndicate included some of the richest people in America but he had made a promise to never go to them for additional funds and to always turn them a profit. He was however known for his promotions, stunts and off-the-wall ideas which ranged from installing a shower in the center field bleachers at Comiskey Park, to broadcaster Harry Caray leading the crowd in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in the seventh inning to the infamous “Disco Demolition” night. Veeck was voted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. January 2, 2020 – The White Sox signed Luis Robert to a multiyear contract without him having played a single Major League game. The future Gold Glove winner agreed to $50 million for six years, with team options worth 38 million more over two final seasons. Robert showcased five-tool talent and the ability to impact a game in many ways but his inconsistencies and the injury issues he’s faced caused him not to progress as far or as fast as the team and fans hoped.

Cause Billy is just a bad coach man.

Elvis will be the twins starting SS...and help them be awful....and we all rejoice

So the White Sox have no chance.

Exactly. Our 4th OF could easily start 100 games next year. And as currently constructed, that’s going to mean a lot of Sheets in the corners and a lot of Colas or Leury in CF. IMO, we aren’t serious about competing if we don’t acquire a legit 4th OF who can play all three positions capably and hit enough to play in a semi regular role. Duvall just makes too much sense and I’d 100% prioritize him over a guy like Andrus at 2B.

Yeah as like a gimmick jersey or especially a giveaway I'd be all over those, and I couldn't care less about the Bulls. I'd rather see those than the '83s at this point.

Here is the list of positions I have come up with where I feel the White Sox have sufficient depth to get through a season with no problems. 1. People named Reinsdorf. 2. The Grounds Crew. Thanks to Roger Bossard. Right now I don't think they even have enough marketing people, they definitely don't have enough radio and TV people under contract, I'm not sure they have enough vendors considering they picketed the bloody stadium at the end of the season, and there's literally no position on the diamond where I would say "They have enough depth that they won't have any issue during this season." So, would Elvis Andrus make sense for this team receiving an invitation to spring training? Absolutely. If they were to sign him, I would go so far as to say that between the injury histories of Moncada and Anderson, Leury's performance and injury history, and the inexperience of Sosa and Romy, there would be a high likelihood that he would make the team out of spring training. If he didn't' make the roster out of spring training we would probably need him for something by the end of May, and right now they have no one they could call up who could fill that kind of role. They would wind up calling up Burger and playing Leury or Romy full time at 2b or SS if someone struggled or got hurt, which is just a mess. The White Sox would be better with Elvis Andrus as an additional option than they are right now. Elvis Andrus is not a starting player on anything other than a bottom of the league team. He is a guy who can be slightly above replacement level, we shouldn't count on anything more than that. But, the White Sox right now don't have replacement level infielders in their organization if anyone gets hurt or if anyone (including Leury, who was awful and who had a back injury last year) struggles again this year. Now here's the problem. If Andrus was on this roster as a spring training invite, and the setup was for him to come up once someone had a chance to struggle through April or once someone got hurt, and he was in a spot where he might receive 200 plate appearances and play 50 games...that's not a terrible plan for $1 million. However, the question is whether we could limit him to that role. If Tony LaRussa was the manager, I would have to say "No you cannot sign him. If you sign him, he will receive 600 plate appearances regardless of how bad he is. It will not matter if a rookie can outperform him, he will get preference because he's a veteran." Can Pedro Grifol manage a veteran and 2 rookies at infield positions? I don't know. I don't have a lot of confidence that they won't screw it up, but if they could do it correctly, having him in the organization could make them better overall. It is also possible that someone could give an Elvis Andrus type player a big league contract. There are bad teams in the league, he could potentially start for one of them right now. The White sox should not offer Andrus that kind of deal, and if he would prefer that to a minor league deal with a team that has an outside chance of competing, then that's his business, find someone else who can fill that role.

I used to stick up for Leury because he was my adopt a prospect but Leury Garcia is a poor excuse to have playing most positions. He should be a getting his minor leagues and NRI contracts after last year. ANdrus got DFA by a non contender w 1.8 war because they no longer wanted to pay him more money when his bonus kicked in after 550 AB. He shouldn't be getting any games. The Sox should have a versatile 4th OF and a decently versatile INF who can provide way more than Leury does. I'm totally mystified by anyone being OK with him on a team that's supposed to care about winning.

I expect the Bears to be in the playoff hunt next season. Might not make it, but I expect them to be in the hunt all season. The year after, I would fully expect them to be the favorites in the division. If they aren't, they messed up. Fields might not be the reason why, it may be bad roster management by Poles, injuries, or a host of reasons, but it doesn't matter. If they aren't on that path, then they failed. (Should also be noted the "approach" the Bears have taken wasn't all executed by the current management team. Poles didn't trade that capital or draft Fields. But given the incredibly poor cap management by Pace, a "reset" to clear out dead money and players was absolutely the right decision.)

I agree in spades!

Not only is the jingle annoying, but then they have to make comments about how it sounded. Who cares?

With free agency coming into play for 1976 and with Finley knowing there was no way he was going to be able to re-sign Blue, Fingers, Rudi, Tenace, Bando et al, yes at the trade deadline in June 1975 (when the A's were at Comiskey Park ironically) he began to sell his stars off in return for young players. The Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers were all involved in going after his players. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn stepped in and voided all the sales, saying it was bad for baseball. Finley's argument (and factually he had a case) was that he built the club (and he did a lot of his own scouting) that enabled the A's to win back-to-back-to-back World Series titles in 72,73,74 and if given the resources he could do it again. Oakland won the division in 72,73,74 and 75 (even with all the turmoil) and in 76 with a bunch of his stars gone still won 87 games and finished 21/2 games behind the Royals for the division again.

It was a stupid cherry picked list and it’s a stupid argument. Anyways, the Bears were dumb to draft a QB first when the rest of the roster was hot garbage. When has that approach resulted in a Super Bowl over the past two decades? Build the roster out first, then draft or trade for the QB. They will have another few years of top 10 picks anyways and plenty of opportunities to draft or trade for a QB.

Keep in mind though Finley was from LaPorte, Indiana and his insurance company was located downtown in Chicago. He had been wanting to buy the White Sox as far back as 1959, when he offered 500,000 dollars (a gigantic sum at the time) to Dorothy Comiskey for the club. He almost got it too. Had he got the Chicago market by moving the A's to the South Side before the 1976 season it's a reasonable guess that he would have held on to the team longer than he did with the club in Oakland because he was from the area as well as his business interests.

Yeah, if he was going to be paid very little, then maybe. He would have to agree to a bench role though. It would be nice to have insurance at SS for when TA gets hurt.

Too much Elvis Kool aide here. 74 wRC+ from 2018-2021. Little chance he replicates his lin drive rate he had with the Sox which was over double his career rate and 20% of his flyballs were going over the wall. This is almost guaranteed to regress to the mean. And someone is going to have to pay at least a little bit more based on his 2022 numbers. If he would take total peanuts with incentives, fine, but chances are he would be no better just more expensive than the in house options.

First of all, I’m struggling more with my fandom than ever, and I’m on the verge of not following the team this year. As constructed, I do not believe they can win, especially when compared to the Yankees or Astros. I now despise leadership and ownership, especially for TLR, and the water-carrying fan attacks Steve Stone carried out last year that poured gasoline on my on-fire fandom. That all being said, one of the things I recently realized is that the whole “number of playoff series won / championships won” barometer is a very flawed metric to evaluate whether an organization is “good” or “bad”, given the historic structure of baseball playoffs, wherein for decades, 2 teams out of 20, or 4 teams out of 24, or 4 teams out of 28 made it to the postseason. That, coupled with the lack of revenue sharing / salary cap, make runaway franchises a real problem in this sport. There were several times (notably, the 1967, 1990, 1994 seasons) where the White Sox were arguably a top 5 franchise in baseball, but had no postseason opportunity to speak of, when they definitely should have for one reason or another. Top 5 out of 20 or 24 or 28 - I’m sorry, but that is good enough. And that is the fault of the system. The “number of playoff series won” metric looks very bad for a number of franchises not named the Cardinals or Yankees or Dodgers from the 20s until the 00s - look at how many playoff series the Cubs won from 1909 to 2015 - I believe the answer is 1 (2003). Heading into the 2022 season, I went back to see how many organizations since 2000 had won 1 World Series and appeared in the playoffs in 5 seasons. The answer is I believe 10 teams, with the White Sox being one of them. Are the other 20 teams all worse than the White Sox? Are 25 of 30 orgs bad? The Major League Baseball system (unlike the NFL, which is the opposite) really punishes teams for not being super aggressive with payroll, trades, and other moves, and under the same microscope we put our own franchise under, I wonder how many other organizations folks would want to root for. Would you want to root for the Rangers? The Diamondbacks? The A’s? The Rockies? The Marlins? The Rays? That all being said, the biggest problem I have is that this organization continues to make bad faith moves towards its fanbase, which it treats with utter contempt. Stone’s antics are part of it, but there’s more. Canceling Soxfest, the one place we have an opportunity to actually call out these things and have the organization appear to be accountable, is inexcusable. As a fan I’m heartbroken.

He needs to work on his passing, but I don't know why this is a surprise to anyone. As Albert Breer wrote last month: Furthermore, in college, these are pass attempts: Justin Herbert – 1,293 Patrick Mahomes – 1,349 Andrew Luck – 1,064 Russell Wilson – 1,489 Matt Ryan – 1,347 Ben Roethlisberger – 1,304 Justin Fields - 618 Yes, Justin Fields needs to become a better passer. Given the athletic ability we've seen on display, I have faith he can get there. Having actual NFL WR's and a decent OL will help him get there much quicker.

If someone wants to offer him more than $1 million and a chance to play meaningful games in September, with what he has done the last few years, my reply to him is good luck. If the Diamondbacks want to offer him $2 million and a guaranteed big league slot and he wants to take it, then best wishes. He isn’t worth a guaranteed big league contract to these White Sox. The option to send him to the minors to start the year is quite important to this roster the way it’s set up. And comparing him to Rodon makes me physically recoil. Rodon was a young player who finally broke out after a series of injuries, with every stat saying he was excellent but wore out after 120 innings. If he could stay healthy he looked like an ace, performance wasn’t the question. Andrus is a veteran who had a 2 month stretch of extra home runs, without any support from higher exit velocities or anything else measureable, in fact many of his stats trended the wrong way when he got to Chicago, he hit a couple extra homers, with HR rates that rivaled the best HR hitters in the league for two months and way above his career numbers. Hugely important, was the difference between the White Sox winning 70 some games and being .500, but I will bet a lot he can’t keep up that Hr pace next year.

This all makes sense and I agree wholeheartedly with most of it. However depth pieces usually cost more than a $1M contract at least on good teams who are serious about contending. 4th OF is definitely the biggest priority but also if you don't want Leury , Romy , Hamilton or Reyes at 2b or in the OF, then depth will cost you. You can trade for Kemp I suppose , but then again you're going to have people equating him with Leury without the versatility of being bad at all positions. I didn't suggest the Kemp idea but I agreed with it because there are aspects of his game that are more of a sure thing . But that poster didn't start a thread for it to be scrutinized by the Leury's Lovers or Andrus Doubters ,however you wish to categorize them. Just like with Duvall the highest bidder will get them. I am doubtful Andrus is around to receive a generous Sox offer of $1M and I am also doubtful that Sox DFA Leury . My case for Andrus is more about depth then it is power , defense , stolen bases or a savvy veteran who does the little things and plays smart baseball. No matter how you slice it he had a very good year and he will probably get paid for it. How much he gets is unknown but I would imagine somewhere around what Harrison got last year from and Harrison wasn't coming off a 3.5 fWar season with 17 HR's. However unlikely he is to repeat that performance , it is the most recent sample we have. Leury's most recent sample was -1.1 fWar. People whined about the McCann signing too but he stuck around for a 2nd year in which he did well too. They are always going to whine about guys who appear to be who we thought they are. Most of the time they are right except for the recent string of good luck with McCann, Rodon , Cueto and Andrus. McCann turned back into a pumpkin once he left the Sox. Rodon turned into one of the best pitchers in baseball for 2 years. It remains to be seen how Cueto and Andrus do for another year. Just like with Rodon they would rather thank them for their service for the year and send them on their way with the righteousness of the odds being stacked against them due to injury concerns or the ravages of time and the most recent performance overshadowed by previous performances.

They still need a franchise QB. Unless they trade up with the Bears, Texans, etc. this year (or completely suck next year which I doubt) not too worried about Jared freakin' Goff leading them anywhere. They're in the same boat as Minnesota with Cousins. Great defense, great weapons and o-line on offense... all being held back by their QB.

It’s still a very dumb post/take. You’re using an emotional response from todays game to erase Weeks 6-7-8-9-10-11-13-15 (didn’t play week 12, bye was week 14) He’s also 23. He also had 132 rushing yards today. He is also throwing the worst WR core in the league, with a bad offensive line. He had a bad game. The Bears will be sitting on one of the most valuable commodities in the NFL in April, and using it to fill a position that is currently occupied by far and away their most talented player (who is also still on his rookie contract) is an awful use of resources, especially when you consider all the other needs on this team. You’re better than that

He was terrible. I was being a bit sarcastic but for example if Caleb Williams was in this draft I probably would take him and trade Fields. So not crazy. 7-21 and 45 yards - that is historically awful (and it was in a dome against one of the worse defenses in the nfl). Not like it was a blizzard game against the most dominating defense in the league. I do not think it is a slam dunk Fields is great. He has tons of flaws and will not have sustained success if he can’t learn to significantly improve as an on schedule passer. I have always said - his athleticism makes his margin for error much greater than most. If he was just a very good athlete I would have already moved on from him as a qb. Thankfully for the Bears he is an elite athlete.

Someone has to note the Blackhawks ownership covering up a sexual assault issue in this discussion. That’s a whole different level of stuff.

F it. Take a qb at the top. Let the best man win. Seriously - knowing Bears fields will end up crap and they will pass on the next generational qb this time around.

played well for us last year, but he'll probably regress to the mean over a full season. I'd honestly rather run the kids out there. Sosa or Popeye.

FWAR is a counting stat. If you look at raw offensive lines, their OPS over the last 5 years is essentially identical. Fwar is also rolling in all of the defensive additions from Elvis starting at SS during that time versus Leury being mostly a bench player. Elvis isn't playing SS here unless TA is gone and not replaced. At the end of the day they are both sub .700 OPS guys over the last 5 years. They are both trash.

Ok 43 games is a small sample size so lets eliminate 1.7 fWar from Andrus 2022, it would also eliminate his fWar his 2020 29 game -.3 . Let's also eliminate Leury's 2020 16 game .5 fWar in 2020. SO we eliminate both Leurys and Andrus 2020 due to being less than 43 game sample sizes for both. 2022 Andrus with the A's 1.8 fWar. Leury -1.1 fWar that's plus 2.9 fWar for Elvis 2021 Andrus 1.6 fWar , Leury 1.8 +.2 for Leury. 2019 ANdrus 1.9 fWar, Leury 1.7 . +.2 Andrus. 2018 Andrus 1.2fWar , Leury .7 +.5 Andrus 2017 ANdrus 4.4 fWar, Leury 1.0 +3.4 Andrus. Winner the last 5 years of non small sample size Elvis Andrus by 6.9 fWar You might not think this was fair but I was just going by your definition of small sample sizes which eliminated 2020 for both and so I had to add 2017 to replace 2020 in order to see if your claim that his last 5 years were on par with Garcia. But you also said "even with the hot streak" his last 5 years are on par with Garcia so let's eliminate 2017 and include all of 2022. 2022 is a fWar advantage now of 4.6 for Andrus over Garcia and 2020 .8 advantage for Garcia . So either way you slice it, With small samples included Andrus has 7.7 fWar more than Gracia and eliminating the small samples of 2020 and Andrus 43 game sample in 2022 it's 6.9 more fWar for Andrus. Take your pick 7.7 more fWar "even with the small sample size" as you said or 6.9 more fWar without small sample sizes. I'd hardly call that on par. @Squirmin' for YerminIf he's Leury minus the defensive flexibility. I could say Andrus is a better hitter and better defensive infielder, better base runner despite his lack of speed compared to Leury. I mean, come on Leury might be out of baseball when he's 34 which is when Andrus had a 4.6 f War advantage over Leury's age 31 season. Leury could be DFA'd or traded and Duvall and Andrus both signed, or Kemp or, Romy and Sosa. I don't care, but I thought we were all sick of the dependence on Leury Garcia to play a crucial role . But if you are really trying to say Leury Garcia is more valuable to the 2023 Sox than Andrus would be that's (to use your words) stupid. We still need a better replacement CF than Leury and a better IFer also.

Awful awful performance from Fields. Shows despite all the tools - he has so much work to still do. Yes the weapons stink but he has to make on time plays too. Oline was also terrible. But fields has to make some on schedule plays. Everything can’t just be him making ridiculous running plays or holding ball forever until coverage finally breaks down.

Elvis Andrus was the definition of a SSS hot streak. His last five years are on par with Leury Garica, even with his hot streak. Signing him and expecting him to be the guy who went nuts for a month last year would be the most White Sox of moves. Maybe as a utility guy and fill in, but no, not as a starter.

I think the plan is a return to a healthy team and the ability for those players to produce. We added Benintendi and I think Colas should be in RF from Day One. Hope springs eternal and we are equal to any team on opening day. Baseball is the greatest game ever and win or lose the Sox are my team. I accept the facts as they are and refuse to wallow in loathing and pity. The team belongs to Jerry R and he doesn’t have to sell if he doesn’t want to do so I don’t get all crazy about how much he wants spend on overpriced free agents or not spend. My suggestion is to relax and find a hobby to relieve your stress. .

Without reading this, I’m here to just comment that there is no place for him and signing him would be stupid. But like our front office, clearly can’t put it past then.. with 80% of this post revolving around “Sox need more power”, it’s funny that Andrus is that solution with his prior 4 years being 3,3,12,6 homers.

The potential of a new calendar. The road goes on forever and the party never ends . . .

Spot on. Outstanding accurate post.

I miss Alex and Ursula Snelius, our Lithuanian, $64M IL Lottery winners, HR sponsors. May they rest in Peace.

Yes Eminor nailed it. I've been super critical of the Reinsdorf regime . I temper that with optimism each spring because "hope springs eternal" and all that good stuff to prevent myself from being angry or sad about the Sox. I never felt like I was broken but rather just accepted that this is what being a Sox fan under Reindorf is. It wasn't any better under any previous owners in my life . While I am privately optimistic my posts are hyper critical because we've seen so many examples of how JR operates and we conveniently forget most of it when things are looking up. Now is an example of a temporary up time. Clevinger, Benintendi, new coaches all saying the right things. Hoping for best seasons from a lot of guys and Grifol the miracle worker all in the name of continuing to dangle the carrot but hoping our hunger will make us forget how bad they truly are again. Hell I'm still holding out hope that they do something about 4th OFer and figure out a way to find more power while not sacrificing defense. These little slap hitting types and waiting for Robert, Eloy and Vaughn's best seasons and pumping the hype on the new coaches is a huge fucking carrot if I ever saw one.

Eminor nails it. I’ve been one of the biggest apologists/supporters forever. They finally broke me this year and I think it’s like you say: The choices made are just sooo bad the only conclusion I can come to is maybe these guys really don’t have what it takes to compete with other front offices. There’s time to fix it but a few years has been lost. I’ve gone from excited to skeptical about this window that should have been a home run.

Or sprinting??

Lerner and Roe are the lawyers for you call 222-2222.

🎶Nationwiiide is on your siiiiide.🎵

I really don’t know why people would think this is even a remote possibility. Chicago is the 3rd largest market in the country. The AL will not abandon it

The Sox will be put on the market in a reasonable amount of time right after JR passes. https://www.southsidesox.com/2022/8/29/23325369/jerry-reinsdorf-selling-chicago-white-sox-not-on-his-life

I'm a fan only if I believe that my team is making a reasonable effort to win. I think that's fair.

In 42 of your ownership Jerry, the Sox have only won a playoff series in 2005. Don't you think you owe the fans more than that?

I'm looking forward to outliving current ownership and seeing what a new beginning brings.

We been in Florida going on 30 years and I still haven't been able to cut the cord with this franchise. I have no ties to the city anymore and haven't visited since 2015. I have a sister who lives in Arlington Heights but she visits us once a year. I was a die hard Blackhawks fan but am close to giving up on them as I am a big fan of the Lightning. I follow the Ray's also but something keeps me tied to the White Sox. This season might go a long way to deciding if I'm going to put up with JR's incompetence anymore, the 2022 season really tested me like no other season since 1952.

Because switching and/or abandoning your favorite sports team is unconstitutional and punishable by death…or at least it should be

At least not under this ownership...in the future? Who knows.