WestEddy

That's exactly what I was going to say. My own thought is they'll win in the mid-to-upper 70s next season and competing for the division in 2027. They might be "really good" in 2028. He has them two whole years behind that.

I think it's been strongly hinted at that if they keep Robert, Getz has about another $10M to spend.

I don't follow the Padres all that closely to know whether the fanbase is still in love with the surviving brothers. I'm sure another Dodger World Series victory will only make the base love them more. Reinsdorf sucks as an owner. His weird, adversarial attitude makes it all personal. I find myself flabbergasted by the concept of a billionaire dealing with 29 other billionaires and corporations - let himself get played by a faction of them, becoming the face of an unpopular move to establish a salary cap and wiping out a season in the process, then while standing there with a big protest sign saying "Screw the players", turned around and saw he was alone, and everybody stabbed him in the back. We give rich people the benefit of the doubt on intelligence because they found a wrinkle in the financial system to exploit. I guess his answer as to why he keeps shooting himself in the foot is because it's going to feel so good when the gun's finally empty.

Okay, you got me. I was wrong when I was so specific in saying that all teams' fan bases except the championship winner hate their owners. You seem to agree with pretty much the rest of what I responded to you and WS23. I'm really not sure what I'm full of s%*# about, unless that's your own clever way of telling me that I've nailed it again. Your first point, I sure hope you find the guy who said that and give him whatfor. You agree with me that the White Sox went to the playoffs in 2020 and 2021. Liptak said he'd be happy with 5 appearances in 10 years, and I told him he wouldn't. I didn't say he should be grateful for 2 appearances in, what, 20 years? I said they get glossed over, therefore, the people who have been vociferous in their hatred of Reinsdorf for coming on 30+ years would not accept 5 playoff appearances in 10 years. And Lip's comment was in being argumentative over me stating that Cub fans aren't happy with Ricketts. Tony, I fully encourage you to not accept things you don't like. My argument in this thread is that billionaires and corporations buy baseball teams, now, to max out free money from the government under threat of losing a baseball team. The goal of their ownership is usually a new stadium in a stadium village where they get billions of dollars pouring down upon them. They will set up this cash flow, then sell the team for 20 times what they paid. Now, I realize I'm being too specific, and somebody will pop in and point out that one or a couple owners didn't do that, or a few teams are way profitable and try to win regularly without tapping into that money stream. That's great. There are also financially conservative dudes who would argue that the government should be putting money into owners' pockets. Good for them, too. Reinsdorf sucks as an owner. But he sucks as an owner for the actual reasons he sucks, many of which we agree on.

I'm not embarrassed. Reinsdorf is not a good baseball team owner. There are worse owners in baseball. His situation is unique, in that he's burned bridges with his attitude, and has made some bad business decisions that have run out the clock on his ownership. He's also made bad baseball decisions which are too numerous to list out. A new owner will run the business differently. It would not surprise me for Ishbia to take over, do some fan-friendly stuff, pour money into player payroll, win, then suddenly realize he needs to tighten the belt on player salaries. And either Ishbia or Reinsdorf, I'm going to guess the White Sox will suddenly be in a stadium crisis where the city and state need to stuff his pockets with free money, land, infrastructure, zoning changes, and labor law waivers.

And you're using recency bias during the worst years of a rebuild to make your own arguments. My argument is that your own misery isn't unique. All owners hold their cities hostage for free land, tax breaks and legislative preference. Sure, some owners aren't individually psychotic to the point of dropping a player a day early so they don't have to pay a $50k kicker, or so negligent they look the other way while members of the front office supply drugs to their players that kill them. The White Sox will post a winning record this coming season, or the next, and the goalposts will magically move, and everybody else will be settling for mediocrity by being happy about a playoff berth or a single championship, or whatnot.

I thought hypotheticals were for losers looking to validate their wrong arguments. A season was played, and they made the playoffs under the rules for that season. But hey, let's pretend something different so you could argue they didn't really make those playoffs.

View them however you want to. The argument you're picking a single sentence out of is that the guy who complains long and loud about every player acquisition says he would be happy with another team's situation, and I say he wouldn't. He would conduct himself the same way as he does now. All fan bases except the championship winner hate their teams' owners.

The Sox made the playoffs in 2020 and 2021, you all y'all try to ignore one of them, then whine about the outcomes assures me that y'all would b**** about anything. Just stop.

Counterpoint: No you wouldn't. You'd b**** as loudly as you did for the last 30 years.

His numbers struck me as a more consistent Michael A. Taylor.

Until it doesn't. Cub fans seem pretty unhappy with Rickets.

And I'll add to that - Reinsdorf has become the person he loathed - Bill Veeck. No, he'll never be anywhere near as beloved. But now JR's the guy who made a string of bad/weak decisions, the game has moved to a place where he can't get to in his short time left on Earth, and some other big daddy billionaire has to swoop in and save the franchise from his relative poverty. I just wonder how, in today's climate, Bill Veeck would be perceived if his answer to a decade of losing was letting a clown hand out balloons in the stands and signing a bunch of retreads who might or might not put together a "magical season" and finish in third place. Maybe he'd even introduce a new milkshake and have a bunch of giveaway promotions. The beloved John Allyn Bobble-head doll.

Billionaire Daddy Syndrome. The belief that billionaires will ride in and save you. Winning is a by-product.

Road trip to see the inaugural Moose Jaw Marauders' season opener.

I stayed down the street from the Embarcadero, took the BART, and hopped off right outside of Oakland Coliseum. Easy peasy. I think the owner of the OKC Thunder did the same thing to Seattle. He's accused of moving out of spite, and he did, but I think he also wanted his free tourist village. It's important to keep saying that Ishbia isn't buying the team because he loves us, the fans, and wants us to be able to walk down the street, drunk, every November, high fiving strangers during yet another Championship celebration. He's buying it to hold Chicago hostage in his own way, cheat us out of our tax dollars, and then start his own rocket ship company to colonize Venus. There's no such thing as a "good" team owner.

Apparently

I hate billionaire owners as much as the next guy and wear out the FieldofSchemes.com link. However, Fisher made the investment to get free land, infrastructure and tax breaks to build a little tourist village. Oakland offered him something like that, but it wasn't his preferred location. He bought to fleece the city. There's no concept of "doing the right thing" and selling before he got his money pump.

Murphy does throw strikes. I wasn't paying attention to Schweitzer's handedness. Yeah, they probably select his contract. Murphy seems like the type of finesse lefty every team has a few of. We also have Jake Palisch and Grant Umberger. I think Preller head-faked a few GMs one year into protecting guys who were well away from the bigs. Preller took four guys in the 2015 Rule 5 draft and that spooked Hahn into protecting Micker Adolfo and LA Basabe years before they would sniff AAA, starting their clocks early, and forcing a situation where they had to be rushed.

These were the final standings of the 1994 season. I think you're a year off. East Division Tm W L W-L% GB New York Yankees 70 43 .619 -- Baltimore Orioles 63 49 .563 6.5 Toronto Blue Jays 55 60 .478 16.0 Boston Red Sox 54 61 .470 17.0 Detroit Tigers 53 62 .461 18.0 Central Division Tm W L W-L% GB Chicago White Sox 67 46 .593 -- Cleveland Indians 66 47 .584 1.0 Kansas City Royals 64 51 .557 4.0 Minnesota Twins 53 60 .469 14.0 Milwaukee Brewers 53 62 .461 15.0 West Division Tm W L W-L% GB Texas Rangers 52 62 .456 -- Oakland Athletics 51 63 .447 1.0 Seattle Mariners 49 63 .438 2.0 California Angels 47 68 .409 5.5

Coach or Manager? Pretty much every hitting coach who left has found other work. Apparently, TLR still haunts some people here who think LaRussa's "in Reinsdorf's ear".

Merk thinks they may add... Into The White Sox Off-Season With Scott Merkin

Sox in the Basement has a nice interview with Don Cooper. He talks at length about the 2005 playoff run, the 4 complete games, Jenks, and has thoughts on the game today. A Conversation With Don Cooper

I think the Sox protect McDougal, Pallette, and Adams. Shane Murphy is a toss-up. The White Sox had about 3-4 guys like him at A and AA. Crafty lefty who could just get hammered in the bigs if he isn't perfect. Pallette has special stuff. None of Coffey, Dalquist, Schoenle, Plymell or Kelly has forced the issue, and every team has arms like them. They would just run with their own fastball dudes who can't throw strikes instead of tying up a 40-man spot all year. McDougal is our Shane Smith. If we don't protect him, somebody takes him. Adams was getting reps as a starter in ST this last year when his elbow blew up. He would be in somebody's rotation to start 2027. It would be a mistake to start the clock on somebody like Aldrin Batista or Samuel Zavala.

I can't imagine the howling that would follow a White Sox pitcher dropping dead from asphyxiation after a fentanyl/oxycodone cocktail provided by team sources. The White Sox had a bad clubhouse with coach/spies throughout the org. Not saying the Sox are squeaky clean, but I don't think they've reached those depths.