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It is with great sadness that I inform our members of the passing of our beloved Alex (ie Heads). Alex was one of my dear friends - and was a friend to all on Soxtalk, around Ames Iowa (where he supported his cyclones) and to his friends and family. For anyone that didn’t know Alex, he had a heart of gold and he always treated people on this forum (and anyone) with the upmost respect and dignity. He loved his family, his friends, his White Sox and especially his Iowa State Cyclones. We will forever miss Alex, but we will always remember him. He was with Soxtalk from its infancy and played such an incredible roll in building out this site, developing our community, driving passionate discussion and ensuring civil dialogue. What I will miss most about Alex is his sense of humor, kind heart, and passion. We would share text over the years and always be joking with each other…whether it was over the Iowa / Iowa State game (My Hawkeyes would always win) or chatting about the Sox (and even the Dodgers - both of our dads favorite teams). I’ll always remember after all the years of texts and IMs when we finally met in person - somehow he was even nicer in person. From all those texts, it was always clear how much he loved his family, friends, the Sox and of course the Cyclones. I know without a doubt what has always made this place special is the connection our members have to each other and Alex was very much the epitome of that and we have all lost a tremendous friend and way way too soon in life. We love you Alex, we will forever miss you, and we send nothing but love and prayers to you, your family, and your friends. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family members and friends who were impacted by the tragic accident. https://cyclones.com/news/2025/5/6/isu-athletics-mourns-the-loss-of-alex-ernst

We know offensively we've been better in the second half. How it has been done has been reassuring to me that we are scouting and have a better young core. Offensively, I'm sure we are aware that post ASB we have been an actual very good offense. That has helped us be a .500 team in the second half despite a very bad pitching staff. But there is one area I appreciate because even if you isolate our no-good offense of April and May showed immediate, genuine progress. Team BB%+: In 2022, our 81-81 team had a BB%+ of 80, which is 20% below league average and also last in the league. In 2023, our team BB%+ was 75, which is both 25% below league average but also last in the league. That was a 100 loss team obviously. In 2024, our team BB%+ was 83, which is 17% below average and amazingly just 29th in the league. While 2022 could be passable because we struck out less, and did so with league average power, by the time that we get to 2024 we are striking out more, walking less, and when we do hit it, it's for grounders. In 2025, our BB%+ is 102, which is 2% above average and 11th in the league. Our K% is 100, so we are just average in strikeouts (17th in league). What makes our offense still relatively tepid is the power. So this is, finally, a real reversal into a trend that was just extremely stuck. Much of that was players, but we had a lot of differentplayers during that 3 year stretch. This year, the MLB vets we got were able to provide actual bases not just generated by hits, but so was our talent from the farm coming up and not being embarrassing in their approach. What makes me genuinely even happier is if you isolate it to just April and May of 2025, when our offense was bad, we had a 107 BB%+ which was good for 11th overall in the league. They struck out MUCH more early, and had zero power. So even if you say we are buoyed by a hot stretch, this pattern has seemed genuinely durable across some different groups of players. A funny part is - hey wait Colson isn't necessarily an amazing part of this - ... Well post July 4th, with our loss of a few vet hitters and rise of Colson and younger bats, our Walk rate does go down to 96 and 20th in league, but our K rate is actually 90 - so we strike out 10% less than the rest of the MLB. We actually have the 5th lowest K%+ since Colson came up. But our power IMPROVED. pre Colson our Power ISO+ was 73, now it is 106 post Colson. So BBs went down, Ks went way down, and power went way up. But most importantly, we stopped this 3 year long trend of being bottom of the league in BB%+. In 2021, when we had good offense, we were second in league in BB%+ at 114 (thanks Grandal). We have more work to do to be the best team in baseball, but this is the kind of real progress I like to see. Shows across the board better execution in scouting, coaching, and players.

I would say I’m satisfied…not over or underwhelmed. It’s nice not having to worry about Crochet’s elbow exploding

He had a 10 ERA in Charlotte and was topping out at like 91. No one screwed him over.

see a lot of these, and I think they are supposed to create this feeling of “wow we are so much better than last year!” But it hits different when last year we were one of the worst offenses in the 150 year history of baseball and has 41 wins. We could have rolled the exact same team back and struggled to hit marks that bad. This team is 100% more enjoyable, and I’m happy for our young hitters, but we’ll be clawing to hit 61 wins. 61 wins for any other franchise is horrific, and for us it’s being repackaged as incredible just because of our record setting ineptitude.

This is EXACTLY why you sell high on Houser, Civale, Altavilla, Tauchman, and anyone else who gets a bite after a resurgance. I have no idea if there are still teams interested in them all, but SELL SELL SELL MORTIMER!

Terrible day. I heard Ishbia runs a private equity firm.

The replies here are insane to me. Given all the evidence that has been presented to us over the last decade plus, and quite frankly what we’ve had to endure as fans, I have ZERO issues with a former player speaking out his experience, good or bad. And his comments track with multiple other comments that have been made by other players over the last few years. This organization has not shown any interest in keeping up with where the sport and their competition, and IMO Lynn and others have zero obligation to “cover” for this organization. He was asked a question and answered it. Good for him.

I think he does have a plan, but it’s not sexy. Build industry-standard or better processes/practices in all departments — scouting, development, analytics — outcompete other teams for young talent, then have a choice of players to form the core of a team. That is, don’t count on three guys you got from one trade to save the franchise. Then when you have that base, spend more to retain/acquire players for sustained success. That is easier said than done and is going to take a lot of time and money to complete, but it is perfectly rational. On the Future Projection podcast this week, Carlos and Ben talked about the successful teams have excellent communication between FO, PD, and scouts. The Sox have been remedial in all three areas and had terrible communication. Getz is trying to fix that and get them to at least league-average. It was clear by the second half of 2021 that the Sox needed a complete demolition of their org, scrape it below the foundation and then build something entirely new. Last year was year -1, this is year 0. Building something competitive is gonna take a long time.

As someone who watches unreasonable amounts of Sox MiLB and has seen Colson play at every level including AFL, I think this is the right move. The spot where they rushed him was from AA to Charlotte. I think playing on that first half Barons team last year for even a month or two would have been better for him, and I'm pretty convinced that he would have been up before now if he did. Championship aside, there was a group of prospects clearly developing winning ways together with no one shouldering the task of needing to be "the guy" every night. When he went to Charlotte instead, it was a team much more (forgive the pun) barren of that "next core" feeling which I think made him internalize a sense that he needed to hurry up and come be the franchise savior by himself. You're the top bat on the farm, you're bubbling up national lists, things in Chicago are miserable, they need you ASAP. Hitting in Charlotte is easy so this should basically be perfunctory, just rack up some numbers and we'll see you in September! Then you get a guy who had been breaking records for consecutive games on base swinging like he needed to hit the baseball from Charlotte into Lake Michigan to justify where he was at. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he finishes the season with an MLB slash better than his Charlotte one. Also wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't. Cags has a 14 WRC+ ~100 ABs in to his first taste of the bigs; PCA (hate him, but he's good) was slashing .188/.238/.271 coming into July last season. Would I like to see another couple weeks of great AAA production? Sure, obviously wouldn't hurt. But I think there's something to be gained from getting him up here while he's hot, getting him away from the sense that the next 1-10 stretch puts him another month away with not many months to go, with the ASB not far away if he does need a breather ten days in, and with the post-deadline freedom of a rebuilding team right on the horizon after that. If he struggles in the bigs, it's a new struggle and one that is basically expected. He'll be one of several rookies up here that can relate to that struggle, compared to on an island in Charlotte as a top prospect slumping in AAA. Even being sent down again with an MLB to do list would have a sense of progress to it (shouldn't happen really, they should have no shortage of ABs to give after the deadline). There's just less pressure for his first 100 ABs up here with the other young guys than there would be for his next 100 ABs in Charlotte in a way that I think lets him get back to himself mentally. Sorry for rambling, but I'm still high on the kid. Hope he crushes it.

I do not think this is good for him, and it’s based on a very small sample size of good ball

I caught slaters HR and made in memoriam video. Today was a good day

Everyone here defending the Burger trade lost. I won the message board argument. Acknowledge me.

Ishiba…end thread

Woah there Diddy

Disappointed they didn't include Benintendi though, the sox saving money was a big issue for me.

Wait I thought "something" was better than "nothing" and now people are complaining about it?

You might want to re read the press release. JR has ceded no power and won’t per the release for at least 5 years.

.328/.414/.541 with 7 XBH (3 HR) and more walks (9) than Ks (7)

Wow the Pope is not fucking around.

I keep reading that the Sox are rebuilding so their record doesn't matter. The White Sox are not rebuilding, they're simply bad. Baseball has changed dramatically, and while people keep pointing to the Astros as a case of a team who was very bad and got good, they share nothing in common with the current White Sox. During the Astros "rebuild" years, they were able to draft at the top of the draft every one - unlike today. During the Astros rebuild, they had a top 10 farm system in baseball from 2012 to 2019! Seven straight years, with 4 being in the top 5. The White Sox, who have the 2nd worst record in baseball, don't even have a top 15 system today. Plenty of teams are just bad, and the majority of teams who are really bad don't become very good with those group of players. The White Sox are one of the laughing stocks of baseball, yet some fans believe their used car salesman GM that he's turning the organization around. Lastly, people claiming the Sox stopped spending on players so they could reallocate resources crack me up. The cost of the things the Sox have invested in are likely less than 5 million dollars total. Not even the cost of one player. The White Sox organization and fan base is dying, but some here love the direction the team is heading. It's is absolutely fascinating. To all the rebuild claimers, what are the White Sox rebuilding around? What is their edge in the market? What advantage do they have? The answer to anyone who is being honest is nothing.

https://www.mlb.com/prospects/stats/affiliates?teamId=145&date=09/24/2025 https://www.mlb.com/milb/scores/all/all/whitesox?affiliateId=mlbcom-milb Barons evened up the series yesterday. No starting pitcher announced though sets up for Hagen Smith. Tampa throwing their #20 prospect who is 14-3 on the year and 4-0 in AA with a 0.97 ERA. Secondly, thanks to everyone who helped/participated throughout the year. Appreciate the civility as well.

Nice call, dumb ass. I get 'em wrong plenty, but this was an all-time miss. Houser has looked really good, and not smoke and mirrors either.

Crap, bring back Clev!

It's not that big of a deal honestly. A storm moved in quickly and dropped a deluge in a matter of seconds. It could have happened to anyone, just mindless clickbait and more doomposting for Sox fans. Who cares

To be honest, the dream is Ishbia coming in, building a beautiful new park at the 78, and having a couple mega free agents to supplement young core. I love going to the Rate but it’s time for a new, better fan experience in an area that will drive better attendance and lead to higher, more sustainable payrolls.

What in the world are you guys talking about? Public ownership isn’t happening and it’s not worth wasting a billionth of a second talking out. It’s absolutely wild to me that there are actually posters trying to paint going from Jerry to Ishbia as anything but a positive.

Dude has numerous sexual assault accusations and goes out in the middle of COVID when he has sick managers/teammates...perfectly normal stuff. Dude checks his phone/internet when he gets woken up in the middle of the night...WHAT THE f*** IS WRONG WITH YOU

fucking hell. remember when all that stuff came out and the Sox were like "oops, we totally didn't know, we wouldn't have signed him" then they sign him like 8 more times

Crochet’s a bad example. The league adjusted to his slider after like 5 starts last year and he started to get hit. He then worked with both Katz and Bannister to change his arsenal, including adding a cutter to work both sides of the plate and took off again. When it comes to pitch shapes and developing attack plans for pitchers, coaching does matter. That’s why pitching labs aren’t just a radar gun and a box of balls.

No reason to get worked up minor league NRI guys, but I'm sure plenty of people will.

He was their hitting coach last year and they won the Southern League title

The White Sox and baseball in general were probably THE stabilizing force in my life since I was a child, the one consistent activity I had was watching and talking about white Sox baseball, hence why I joined this site 21 years ago and became a regular. After 35 years of constant disappointment with zero hope in sight I decided to relinquish my fandom and cut the team out of my life. Instead on being jaded and synical, constantly bitching about Sox minutea that will not improve anytime soon I decided to just stop following them one day and you know what? I'm a lot better off for having done so, I'm infinitly happier in my life doing things that I enjoy. My removing the one thing from my life that I held most dear was 100% in response to JR's dreadful fucking ownership, I have zero positive feelings towards that man and the way he chooses to run his sports franchises. Its just further proof that you can find tremendous success in the business world and still be an enormous fucking loser.

Honestly the worst take you have had on this site. Woof f*** that lady, she didnt have any more right to it than anyone in that row

I completely support everyone here in being angry that this rebuilding team isn't in first place and vying for top playoff seed. But we're watching a rebuild. I know Reinsdorf said something at a press conference two years ago. I know we just watched a rebuild start about 9 years ago, after a false start 4 years before that. The reality is that this team has mostly released their starters who bottomed out, then traded the ones with any value. Now they're bringing up prospects as they earn their spots. I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to be competing for first place right now, but that's fine if you do. It's nice to have markers to measure how this team is improving. As opposed to regularly decrying the number of losses amassed in the last 3 seasons. If that's what you want to do, please do it. And there are certainly thousands of posts around social media that will help you do that. I'm more interested in watching this team get built. Just as I wouldn't show up at the work site of a future YMCA in my gym clothes, then scream obscenities every day I don't have a finished gym to work out in. I'm not attacking anybody's viewpoint here, so please don't tell me how I'm sub-human, or I'm doing everything I'm (not) accusing everybody else of. I'm not rushing in to defend Chris Getz, or Jerry Reinsdorf. Just explaining the mindset of those of us that watch baseball and find something to root for in any kind of season, championship, middling or rebuild. Keep calm and carry on.

This is an absurd post. Getz signed Slater right out of the gate, dude delivered as hoped, and now has returned a prospect ranked 18th in the Yankees system by BA. We have no fucking clue if Hayes would even have considered signing with us coming off a historically bad season and what that would have cost. And honestly, Tauchman is the guy you should be comparing him to because Hayes wasn’t coming here for a platoon role. Meanwhile, Tauchman has performed nearly identical to Hayes at less than half the cost and with an extra year of control. The fact of the matter is you called both Slater and Tauchman garbage additions and wastes of money the moment we signed them when they have been arguably better signings at a lower cost in total than the guy you really wanted (who to be fair, would have also turned out to be a good signing). Just admit you were wrong on Tauchman & Slater so can end this debate once and for all.

I mean let's be honest. They might say they want the Sox to be where players come to revive their careers, but in all honesty, right now it's the place they go when no one else wants them.

Brian Bannister had an interesting interview discussion about him. One thing that caught my attention was that one of the things that makes him so good is hie elite extension. Very few pitchers have that. In fact anyone who has it profiles as a reliever because starters with it are always injured. He used the example of Glasnow. Physiologically it makes sense. Muscles have a very small range where they can generate enough force to be useful. Its called the length-tension relationship. If the muscle tries to work at a length that is too short or too long they cant generate enough force so cramps and injuries are more common. If he is working at a longer muscle length with the tremendous extension, it could cause more injuries. Thus why pitchers with elite extension have difficulty with a starters load.

👀

Harold Reynolds is an idiot.

No, that is political talk which is banned here....this is religion.

Reconvert him to a free agent.

I think everyone is being way too short-sighted. I understand the lack of patience though. There’s a clear plan in place. Chris Getz totally revamped the organization in regards to pitching philosophy, hitting philosophy, research and development, international scouting and professional scouting and for the first time in like 25 years, linked all the different departments together. It had to be done. I don’t know that it’ll work because ultimately, they need to find good players but these changes put them in a better place to find good players. The trades have been uneven at best and while the draft record appears to be promising, we just don’t know yet. They’ll be awful in 2025 by design though. The owner won’t allow the front office to spend and it’s also imperative to draft as high as possible in 2026 so being a bottom 3 team this year is essential. They have to get more out of trades too and Luis Robert package has to hit like Crochet deal. They also need some surprise trade return somewhere like a monster Davis Martin package. In an optimistic view, they have a top farm system and clean financial outlook going forward. They’ll never spend as much as we want but I do believe they’ll spend because they have to. They have no commitments. I do think Chris Getz understands the assignment more than his predecessors though. He knows who he works for. Build a large core of young pitching, find a process to develop bats and focus on premium positions. They can spend on first base, DH, back end starters and bullpen once the time comes if you have a cost-controlled young core. It’s hard to give a grade. I’d probably go with a C overall but it’ll depend on drafting and developing players ultimately.

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Stop trading younger players for old, lefty relievers

This is the worst move Getz has made, he's awful, everything is terrible.

Morosi saying Boston caved today to include Teel AND Montgomery