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It’s absolutely wild that you’re still unable to see just how transformational this proposal would be for our franchise and you’re even more nuts for suggesting spending a boatload of money at the current site would somehow be better. I thank god everyday that you are neither a part of the ownership group or the city / state government.

#1, whether the Sox build there or not, Illinois taxpayers will be paying for around the same amount of whatever project happens there. #2, the ISFA will be funding a ballpark no matter what location they pick, and again, this will be tax funded. #3 Sox fans aren't stupid. They will figure out how to travel the extra 2 miles to a game even if it means using [gasp] more public transit. #4, Neither site precludes the Sox from building whatever park they want. My guess is they ate more likely to get creative in the middle of a broader project like the 78, then in the middle of Bridgeport as it would be an anchor to bigger things, vs just being a ballpark in Bridgeport. Nothing has happened there in 125 years. Why would that change now?

You think this matters much more than I do. I think spring training is mostly meaningless as a predictor of any future success. I don't really see the difference in getting playing time in big league camp over minor league camp. I'd DFA Sheets because I don't think he's any good but i'd be really surprised if he plays the outfield under this GM.

Many plugged in people really close to the team think this is happening.

I don't blame anyone for thinking that nothing has changed until proven otherwise.

Exactly. If Getz can’t cut a guy like Scholtens loose for a 24 year old lefty outfielder with good minor league numbers, he’s doing the GM thing wrong.

For a guy supposed to be good at business, he is blowing this one. When the $1 billion ask came out on Friday, it was clear there were two camps. One side was going to say "Not a dime of new public money", the other side was going to say "look this is how these projects get done, lets see what their actual estimates say for how they came up with this number and how it fits in with the larger project." I was in the latter group. It's now been a couple of days and they have given us nothing. The people who would be on board to sell this project if they showed us math for how it works out have no math to point to. They've given us nothing at all to work with, no details, no public numbers other than "you're going to pay the entire price tag for one of the most expensive stadiums in baseball and you're going to like it." This has the feel of Reinsdorf going "calculate how much money we'd make if they extended the hotel tax for 30 years. Then, round upwards. That's what we're going to ask for, and I'll bully them into giving it to me by threatening to leave again." If he was being a smart salesperson, he'd give the people open to listening to him something to work with. The politicians aren't in the same place as the ones 30 years ago, correctly so. Thus far it seems like he thinks the same game as last time will work, that they'd be scared to let him leave. They won't be. The Sox need to be selling why this is a good idea for the city and for the taxpayers, they need to be proactive, and they're being Reinsdorfy.

That’s Bannister

Rick Morrisey's column: Jerry Reinsdorf might not have much in the way of a baseball team, but he’s got a lot of gall. According to a Crain’s Chicago Business story, the White Sox chairman wants $1 billion in public money to help build the team’s proposed ballpark in the South Loop. He has at least two things going against him: 1) Taxpayers are tired of footing the bill for wealthy owners of professional sports franchises. 2) Fewer people are buying the assertion that the jobs and neighborhood investment that come with new stadiums more than offset the cost to pay for the buildings. Oh, and 3) Reinsdorf’s team stinks. That last one might seem immaterial, but Sox fans are more than a little upset about a rebuild that went off the rails, and some still haven’t gotten over the kick-in-the-teeth hiring of Tony La Russa as manager a few years ago. And now Reinsdorf is asking Gov. J.B. Pritzker to get behind a plan to subsidize a new ballpark? The Sox reportedly want the hotel occupancy tax that is paying for the Bears’ 2003 renovation extended to pay for their ballpark. Reinsdorf surely thinks state residents won’t feel the bite of that, but he’s missing the point, which is enough is enough. The Bears are facing resistance to their plan to build a stadium in Arlington Heights. The message seems to be: You have the money. Build your own home. Or get a loan, like the rest of us do when we take out a mortgage. Here’s another thought for Reinsdorf and the Sox. The weather’s very nice in Nashville.

I think JR has more than a couple of problems. First, office towers are not being built in Chicago anymore. One broke ground in 2023. None are scheduled this year. There are 9 projects with building cranes going on in Chicago, so not many high rise apartments being built either. That site alone, to get to what the renderings show, will probably need more than that. The state really isn’t in a position to give him a billion dollars. In fact, the only team who has ever received a subsidy of that amount is the Tennessee Titans, and they are the only game in town, and an indoor football facility. But I think his biggest problem is he has a state built park that appears to be in fine shape. He’s going to have to start telling everyone what is wrong with the park he basically chose. It will go on for years, but I bet the Sox wind up signing at least a short term extension to play at their current site. His best bet the next couple years is to make the team relevant. Ther looks to be over 20k tickets still available for opening day. People don’t care, and it’s all his fault.

It’ll still happen. People are being so dramatic about this.

I do think it’s clear that Getz thinks he can import a culture. You can see that in detail from his player choices. my problem with this continues to be that I don’t believe it works. Keuchel was supposed to be a leader and a winner, you can still find Kenny’s quotes praising him for his leadership. Lynn was supposed to be a veteran leader. They all ripped the org while leaving, because the org itself was toxic. How are all these 38 year old former Royals going to react when they’re stuck losing every game 3-0, their manager is too busy bragging about how important he is to manage anything, and their staff is so small that they can’t get feedback when they’re not having the success they had in their 20s?

I don’t know how to argue with someone being this disingenuous. The act of bringing the gun into the stadium is the criminal act, not what could or did happen after doing so.

Couple thoughts. This obviously idealistic but if that money doesn’t go towards a stadium, it wouldnt get spent on the public good instead. It’s just a real world fact unfortunately. Also, Bears are still going to Arlington Heights. I’d be shocked by any other outcome.

New Self Motivational Coach

There are literally hundreds of companies in Chicago and IL that employ more people and produce more revenue , so make the state more money than the White Sox. I work for one of them. We rent a couple of floors in an office tower. Why doesn’t the state build us something nice and not charge rent? I really don’t think the White Sox have a leg to stand with MLB on moving out of town. It’s not like they have a crumbling stadium,. They have a viable home built to the current owners specifications which has had yearly updates. The South Loop site is better than their current home without a doubt. But for the state to build them another home is beyond silly. If Jerry wants the upgrade, he should pay for it himself.

If the team decides to threaten to leave once, hand them a printout of the directions. This should be a project where everyone can win. If the Sox need so much money that the governments think they don’t come out solidly on the plus side, then politely wave goodbye.

Yeah, who fucking cared that someone snuck a gun into a packed stadium…not a big deal at all and no reason to further assess the how’s or why’s.

This is going to be one of the most supremely brutal offenses I've ever seen in my life. But, since I already knew the window was closed during ST of 2023, I'm kind of over it -- and I'm legitimately curious just to see what a defense-only team looks like. How much will the pitching staff actually benefit? Will the dread I feel every time I watch them fail to convert a single baserunner be offset by the confidence I'll learn to feel about how they'll get out of jams? They're going to lose a lot of games, but they'll be clean ones. It's a sort of interesting experiment. At least on paper. In my head. Kind of.

I understand a lot of what you’re saying, but carrying a gun inside of a sports complex with thousands of other people is a little bigger than an accidental discharge. And it’s legally prohibited. You go after the person and make an example out of them to deter the next person. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen in this case due mainly to the actions of the involved parties, but you have to try.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2024/02/16/white-sox-chicago-lichtenstein-charlotte-knights-spring-training-mlb

I’m not even really referring to those guys. I’m more so referring the Tanner Banks, Sammy Peralta, Jesse Scholtens types. No one is going to be that devastated if those guys get claimed.

The sarcasm may have gotten past you.

Yea… hard to come up with a name. Las Vegas Stitches. 😆

You can tell how the team thought the $1 billion ask would go over based on the fact that it leaked around 4:00 Central/5:00 eastern on a Friday. They did not want people talking about this fresh on sports radio during the morning drives, or in a weekday newspaper, or in the offices on a weekday.

If it does, it won’t include JRs ask. They talk to the mayor and aldermen who may like it because apparently it transfers the responsibility of any shortage from the city to the state. Pritzker will be a brick wall.

They believed that if they leaked enough times that there was a hot market for him, it would lead to a hot market for him. They told everyone who would listen for two months how hot his market was and were surprised that didn’t work.

I think drafting properly is part of it.

Not just this one, but the last few in general.

This off season has given big time collusion vibes.

No they don’t. A real 40-man crunch implies they would lose someone of significance. This roster is trash and there are at least 10 guys they could cut today and very few people would care.

Since the Blackout game in 2008, this team has had little success. In fact, this stretch of time is the worst since the Reinsdorf-Einhorn group bought the team. Only in major league sports can an organization be run so badly, and yet it wants something like a new stadium built with public money. GRF was built because JR said he couldn't compete in the old crumbling Comiskey. In little over 30 years since GRF was built, the Sox have been in the playoffs six times, and one of those was in the pandemic-60-game season. Turn the team around first, and then maybe we can talk about a new stadium. And I mean maybe.

They could claim Smith-Njigba, then just bump Foster to the 60-day. I'd guess that the last week of spring training is a great time to DFA all the guys you want to sneak through, as everybody's under the same roster crunch. i don't think it's a matter of S-N being "better" than Fletcher or DeLoach, but one of the three can pop faster or bigger than the others. Then there's your RF or 4th OF. I'd rather be running a guy like S-N out there as a 4th outfielder than the end of career dreck we've been doing for the last 10 years. (tekotte, Shuck)

Yup, he’s just trolling as usual. And I love the “driving drunk and hurting someone but not killing them” example ignored the underlying element that driving drunk alone is illegal. There is this thing of escalating levels of criminalityand all can / should be pursued accordingly.

Looking at the 40 man roster, to the extent they have a 40 man crunch, it's only because they haven't cut a bunch of dead wood. If they have a bunch of guys that will need protecting in the offseason, than worry about that in the offseason. https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/roster/40-man You're telling me Sheets, and at least a couple pitchers, couldn't be cast off for a better, younger player should one come available like Njigba? We're gonna lose 90+ games, why in the world wouldn't we be bringing in guys like Njigba if available?

Burrowes is such a better SS prospect than Gonzalez. I just don't understand the draft pick.

The benefit is minimal. Look at all the studies. What is spent there is not spent somewhere else. And if JR get what he wants, you will even get less as the sales tax there would go toward paying down the ballpark debt. The housing market is saturated, hence Lincoln Yards also at a standstill. Taxes are high enough. If you give the Sox what they want, you’ll have to give even more to the Bears. No way the hotel tax can cover it. Not even close. Related can more than fund the whole project with the TIFs. And if the White Sox park is the one thing that makes the rest go, THEY can give JR the sweetheart, near rent free deal he requires.

Notice how he doesn’t mention “Have any offense whatsoever”?

You can't compare your company to a sports franchise. The public persona and impact are totally different. Just like trying to compare the problems between players or coworkers is different when it happens in front of the media. Unless you routinely have the media asking you questions and broadcasting your reposnses. I get you don't want this but that is just not a valid comparison. Plus having something built is a vacant blight of an area adds a whole different dimension to this specific scenario. That is a huge benefit here. Currently the city gets nothing from this area. Even if they make nothing in net revenue, it's a win because of the elimination of the huge negative area.

Juan Berroteran is $35K apparently.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mlb-jersey-controversy-cheap-looking-114214759.html And that brings us to the fans. When jersey dispatches trickled in from camps in Florida and Arizona, #DHGate began trending on social media. Less discerning shoppers might think that referred to J.D. Martinez remaining unsigned into late February. No, DHGate is an online shopping vendor that bills itself as a “Top-notch China Wholesale Marketplace.” And perhaps that’s not the association MLB, Nike and Fanatics imagined when they trotted these babies out.

Knowing the Sox, all these defensive studs will have career worst years in the field. joking aside, if the defense is amazing then hopefully Cease gets back to cy young form.

Accidental discharge that luckily didn’t kill anyone. Are you for real?!?

it's definitely amusing that a fatty snuck a gun into a baseball park and shot herself with it. it sounds like a bit from a European sketch comedy show mocking America but reality is often funnier than fiction. I choose to believe this is what happened even if there's conflicting evidence. Also, I was at this game sitting in left field a few sections over from where this happened. didn't hear a dang thing. I find this whole story very strange because I tend to think I would've heard the gunshot, the park wasn't that loud and I wasn't very far away, but maybe fat rolls are the perfect silencer.

They kind of have a point. The Sox and Relateds whole pitch is build the park and everyone will be so excited companies will line up to build apartment towers, office towers, restaurants, bars, retail…it’s kind of funny some actually believe it.

I don’t think it’s selective outrage. I think so,e are really concerned with how their tax dollars are spent, and are probably really skeptical a White Sox ballpark will bring all of the things they claim it will. Again Lincoln Yards would be a more desired spot to live, and they are dormant. They aren’t going to be building office towers. Restaurants? Bars? Maybe a couple, but if no one is living there, they have an 81 day year hike paying rent for 365. Only one team ever has been given what JR is asking for, and that is the Tennessee Titans, and football stadiums more expensive .

Yea why not. Sheets is a DH that can't hit. He's old enough now to where you can't even squint and see him improving enough to ever play a competent corner OF.

I would claim Smith-Njigba and DFA Sheets in a New York yesterday.

At this point, I don't care that the team is going to suck. This has been a long-ass winter, and I'm ready for baseball. Up until the past few years, I didn't pay much attention to spring training. Now that the Sox have some potentially exciting prospects, it will be interesting to follow what goes on in ST.