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I'm guessing right now it has to be Colas which is not a bad thing. If he can stabilize the gaping hole in right field that would be a huge addition. The guy has got to be better than Adam Eaton and Nomar Mazara right?

Wow a lot of kool-aid being drank....

I just can't fathom how we can get worse with the following happening: 1. Got rid of Larussa. 2. Got rid of our DH who played LF. 3. Got rid of our 1B who played RF 4. Gradal, Moncada, Giolito, Kelly, Leury had career bad years. 5. Eloy, Robert, Lynn, Kopech and Anderson, missed gobs of time. crochet whole season I think people will be shocked how a competent OF makes a difference. Sure we lost abreu (though I'd argue this makes us better), Hendriks (assume whole year), and Cueto after his best year in 5 years. Obviously our injury prone players will get hurt again, but to that extent? And practically all of them? But our lineup is FAR more balanced (which matters) and our defense will take massive strides. Plus we have a coach that won't fall asleep each game. I just can fathom being worse than last year.

Looks like you are one of those fans who can't fathom reality. That's not my doing nor my concern. In sports the numbers don't lie, like TLR told me, at the end of the day it's all about if you win or lose. That being said the White Sox are part of my collective memory for as far back as I can recall. I became a fan around 1960 when I was five. This will be my 63rd season. I won't turn my back on them but I will keep calling out their stupidity and dysfunction (which the record clearly shows) and hope to outlive current ownership and see a better situation. If that bothers you, again, that is not my concern.

Then stop following the team.

I'm not being negative just for the sake of being negative. Being critical doesn't automatically equate to negativity. I don't have a lot of faith left to put in the FO, and rationally I just don't see all of the IFs bouncing the Sox way. There are simply too many questions unanswered for me to be confident that they will be significantly better aside from excising the massive cancer that was TLR. If that is negative simply for negativity's sake, then I can't help you. I may not share your optimism, but I'd like to think there is some level of objectivity in my views. Again, I hope I am wrong, and everything breaks right, and instead of rehashing everything that went wrong we are celebrating come October. I just can't squint that hard at this point.

A healthy & motivated Yoyo, would be a boon to this team.

He's just flailing at it. Not great

sox looked downright competent and cromulent compared to the brew crew today

That’s gonna get old really fast. I’m already a little tired of it.

Colas makes an out every game almost.

Will bring a nice return at the TDL.

Stone Pony or Don Cooper.

Didn't know you had an account here Stone Pony.

Given what has happened both on and off the field the last 18 months, the seemingly incompetent, dysfunctional and inept ownership/front office my goals are modest: 1. Play meaningful games in August/September 2. Finish with a winning record Anything over and above that is gravy.

This is horrible news. I LOVED Dave Wills pre and post game shows. His passion for the Sox was infectious! I listened to a few of his TB Ray broadcasts as well and he was awesome! The Sox should have promoted him, no doubt! May he RIP and my thoughts and prayers are with his family. P.S. nobody hated the Cubs more than Dave Wills. (legend!)

Pain

Cleve - 90-72 Minn - 89 - 73 Sox - 78 - 84 KC - bad Det - BAD

Exactly, he had a 97 wRC+ as recently as 2021. That's why you give him a couple months to start the season no matter what. Maybe he really did fall off a cliff in 2022 and will never be the same (mediocre) player he was before that. Or maybe he just had a bad season, where he was overused and hurt the majority of the time. I really don't see any point in eating $10M without at least trying to find out if he still has something left in the tank that's useful. It's not like there's some uber-prospect banging on the door that Leury is blocking - we're talking about Romy Gonzalez or a bunch of past-their-prime vets that haven't been good enough to earn an MLB deal.

The La Roche thing, and Sale breaking his foot doing some redneck ass s%*# out of the back of his truck were some trying moments as fans during Springs prior. I guess the Clevinger s%*# hardly even qualifies as a distraction compared to some other years.

I think he was referring to the 2021 Eaton. Not the productive, Drake LaRoche-backing version of Eaton we all loved.

Yeah unless he cools off, I think he will be in right opening day. They don’t really play the whole service time game.

This is just his shtick. Repeatedly complains and whines about the same things ad nauseum while frequently mentioning his "sources" and linking to his articles. He's been doing for it years on WSI and now he's made his way to Soxtalk. It's become beyond obnoxious.

Unless he cools off in the next 3 weeks, it will be hard to justify sending him back to Charlotte to start.

Can't that be said of every AL Central team and 90% of MLB?

I absolutely fathom reality. But from the looks of it, this team provides you no happiness whatsoever. If that is indeed the case, then I don’t understand what you gain from following the team.

Safe to say that Colas is opening day RF.

Things may change for the better when new ownership arrives, at least there is a chance it will do so. Until then enjoy what you can and hope to live long enough to see it.

After being pessimistic and grumpy for far too long, I decided to be more hopeful. I was just getting too angry. I recognize that the team should be better constructed, but that's not on the players. I do feel pretty good about the 2023 team, knowing that a lot of stuff has to go right. But a s%*# ton of stuff went wrong last year, and they still ended up at .500.

I’m not sure how anyone can look at the two rosters side by side and think the Twins are better.

Interesting take considering they were worse than the Sox last year, and did lose a good bit of their roster and didn't have a manager that was basically throwing games. As @Squirmin' for Yerminand @hogan873 alluded to above, it sure feels like most these takes of the Sox being bad are just being negative for the sake of being negative and completely ignore context and what has happened around the rest of the division.

"It was clear to veterans like Lance Lynn, who played for La Russa in St. Louis, that La Russa was not himself most of the year. He had little energy. He needed daily naps. His voice was so soft that it was often hard to hear him. " More evidence that he should have never come back. And what an awful awful job he did.

I don’t know about that, it greatly reduced the available time he had to go drinking and driving over the summer

Given the track record of this ownership/franchise it is well deserved.

It's more reasonable to believe the Sox will be better than last year than it is to predict a losing season. Key players were hurt for long periods of time, the team had a terrible manager, and more guys under-performed than over-performed. Moderate improvements in health and even slight returns to form for a couple key guys gets this team 4-5 more wins than last year. And the new coaching staff, and the resulting change in culture, won't hurt, either. They'll need some help to win the division, probably, with the balanced schedule. But the Sox should be able to take care of themselves. I would argue that the "woe is me as a Sox fan, we're gonna lose 85+ games" is a more kool-aid (poison kool-aid anyway) drinking view than being somewhat optimistic.

This is the one area I DO trust Cleveland to have success. Until they prove otherwise, I just assume their pitching prospects are going to be a success based on their track record of at least the past 8 years. I've got: 1. Cleveland. Youth, pitching, excitement, and everyone seems to like each other 2. Sox. Loads of talent, too many health/bounce back season variables. Lost Abreu#. 1 if everything goes right, #3 if more of the same. I think the new coaching staff has us close to #1 than #3 though. 3. Twins. Top-heavy talent. As a baseball fan, I want to see Buxton play 150 games. As a Sox fan, I expect he'll play less than 50. 4. Royals. Young talent is fun to watch, will be fun to see Greinke finish out his career in powder blue with a "f*** it, let's have fun" season 5. Tigers. What even are they.

White Sox 90-72 Twins 86-76 Guardians 84-78 Tigers 70-92 KC 68-94 Will be an entertaining race in the ALC and very fun season of baseball.

Hey watch it, buddy! You’re talking about the Baseball Palace of the World!

We have a new manager and it’s a new season. Let’s see real change and get back on the right trajectory.

Exactly. They are bench bat depth with an option left, which if used as such gives them some value to the team. AAAA guys like them are a dime a dozen, the type of that get exposed when played too much. Penciling them in as anything more is foolhardy except when injuries occur.

RIP Dave and condolences to the Wills family, always loved listening to Dave, and his big "White Sox Baseball...........NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXT" lead in on the radio would always fire me up.

Yes all my comments have been factual. Thanks for acknowledging that

If Leury is used IN THE CORRECT WAY, like every other freaking player that has so far failed during this contention window, he can be very useful.

So you're saying the Blue Jays might take him?

My reply was to all of your comments, and your overall message alluding to this being a side effect of the Covid vaccine. I have nothing more to say about this. Have a nice life.

Not sure if a separate thread for Sox in the WBC makes sense yet, so I'll stick this here for now: His line through two exhibition games is 4-4 with two walks, a double, and that HR. Really think the WBC experience will be good for him.

At first, I liked the Tony hire. Until I didn't. I am a fan, but he should have stayed retired. And Jerry should have let him. They must have been thinking great movie instead of great baseball team. I don't care how rich Jerry is. He's still a putz.

Thank you for your contributions to this wonderful series of films Mark. I saw you had at least 3 credits in the 1st part. Anyone who hasn't seen it should watch it. Just turn on your TV to Youtube and look up Last Comiskey. You'll be glad you did and will look forward to parts 2 and 3 when they come out .