WestEddy

The Giants just announced they'd be looking into the cheaper mid-level pitching market this winter, which is probably what a dozen other teams are doing, and will price Houser, Ponce and guys like that out of their own reach.

MLBTR update on Cody Ponce, who has been linked to the White Sox just because of their experience with Fedde. Report: Cody Ponce Could Command More Than $30 Million - MLB Trade Rumors

Just realized this is an old friend alert. Brandon Hyde, the Oriole manager fired earlier this year, was once a White Sox minor league catcher. He played on the 1999 Burlington Bees team that won the Midwest League Championship, that year. Mark Buehrle also pitched on that team. Due to work and family responsibilities, I found myself single a lot that summer, so I'd jump in the car, and go see the Burlington Bees or the Cubs' Lansing Lugnuts play. I made it a point to visit every stadium in the Midwest League. The most beautiful one was the home of the Quad City River Bandits, which was featured in the film Sugar. Cedar Rapids had a great, old stadium, too. I really didn't like the new ones, like Kane County, or Fort Wayne. Oh, well. Just wanted to share that realization. Rays Hire Brandon Hyde As Senior Advisor To Baseball Operations - MLB Trade Rumors

The FutureSox dudes James and Ian interview Geoff Pontes of Baseball America on their recent podcast that looked at the current White Sox rebuild.

I think it's simplistic to just say the owners are stupid. The owners are multi-billionaires and CEOs. They're going to act in their own interests. The players had gotten their pockets picked for a decade or so, allowing the owners to claw back control in exchange for better post-game food spreads and better hot tubs. I agree with you that the owners might puff out their chests, get all tough to cancel all the winter meetings, and then they'll magically come to agreement in the middle of March for a quick 3-week spring training, then a full season. I believe they'll hold up the salary cap, and trade that away for more rule changes and pilferage around the edges.

In this SoxMachine Spare Parts article are two combined James Fegan radio interviews where he takes question from Bruce Levine and then White Sox Weekly on ESPN 1000. Fegan fields questions about the makeup of the 2026 roster, and when we might see some of the more interesting prospects make their pro debuts. Spare Parts: The pope gets a Nellie Fox bat - Sox Machine

Twitter string list of top Rule 5 possibilities:

Baseball America podcast about how the rebuild is going.

then call the police.

Valiant effort. I don't see any of this as evidence. I think the fact that as soon as he became GM, Getz did a massive upgrade of their minor league system - is evidence that he wasn't granted the budget or ability to stay on par with the rest of the league. Calling that an excuse doesn't invalidate that reality. Hostetler's drafts weren't very good. I seem to remember every one of his 4 first rounders being panned at the time. Most of what I read about Collins when drafted was that he had a serious issue with swing mechanics that was hard to rework. Burger and Vaughn were 1B waiting to happen, and Madrigal was a slappy hitting gamer. Madrigal wasn't a flop, BTW, he produced offensively in his time on the Sox. He was not a good defender. And he couldn't stay healthy. Neither was Steele Walker who graduated up to high-A in his 1st full season with the Sox before he was traded. Burger wasn't "abandoned". The minor leagues were cancelled in 2020, and the Sox approved of him playing in a college summer league. They then invited him to their alternate training site. Yes, the lack of a minor league system contributed to the precipitous drop of the 2020-2021 "dynasty". Their system was poor mostly due to a non-existent international presence. One could blame Hostetler for his drafts, but a good bunch of players made it to the majors from the 2018 class. His 1st rounders were not good. Any 2nd or 3rd rounders who showed promise were quickly traded. They didn't even have a 2nd or 3rd round pick in 2015 from signing David Robertson and Melky Cabrera the winter before. So yeah, Getz was there for all of that, but maybe he had a good story for all of that to tell JR. To blame this on Getz, though, is circumstantial.

You can just go back, find the other 2 or 3 times this blew up in a string, and reread those. I've answered all these questions, so now it's incumbent upon you to tell us how Getz didn't do his job as director of development. Don't whine about the "lack of major stars" or whatnot, give us names of players who were can't-miss, and he personally derailed them. Maybe you have inter-office emails where KW and Hahn were begging him to hire a Senior Pitching Advisor, or to buy Trajekt machines, and he defied them. I mean, you must have some tangible, factual evidence that Chris Getz did not deserve to be promoted to GM. You refer to a "decent amount of history". Tell us, then about this history you are privy to.

An article highlighting some targets for the Rule 5 draft in December. 2025 Rule 5 Draft Targets - TJStats

I want to see how these moves play out. A bunch here have decided on day one that he sucked, didn't deserve the job, and that every single move he made was insignificant, and also ... sucked. By pushing back on the people who will deride every single development, I have become a "Getz-lover" and "naive". I see reality just fine. I don't need to make sure everybody sees reality the exact same way I do like the people who barrel in and make sure everyone knows that JR is cheap, and that every move Getz makes sucks.

Iriarte just got permission to play.

No, deriving joy from anything concerning your son is eons beyond corporate sports BS. I envy you. Good luck.

As do you. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving, and a good Bears' win.

Dude, I'll be dealing with the rentals, and you and Liptak are on every string, making sure to piss on every non-critical post. Look in the mirror.

Again, you wouldn't. Maybe you'd be happy if a post-Reinsdorf White Sox won, but if this franchise won under JR, you'd still try to ruin it for everyone by whining about every single advancement like you do, now. You have a history, too.

LOL. No you wouldn't. You're not happy when they win. My point stands. 29 teams don't run 3 All-Stars out there with 2 more on the bench. The Sox are in a rebuild. They will get better, regardless of when Ishbia takes over.

I look forward to the non-stop World Series victories you just guaranteed.

#1 is just assuming Sophomore slump. Teams are going to figure out how to stop Colson from beating them and they're just going to pound him. I agree with you on #2, mostly because the biggest ding against Quero's defense goes away, somewhat. Colson could really make Billy Carlson expendable if he could really stick at SS. He could grow off of the position and the Sox just drafted 4 shortstops last year, have Bonemer, and may very well draw a high pick, and take another shortstop. It really makes the concern trolling here about the Sox not having a top SS in the game in the organization laughable.

You said the Sox can't do something other teams do. I just pointed out to you that other teams have black holes at positions, even playoff clubs. Every other org doesn't field teams of 26 robots who don't make mistakes. Every team stresses fundamentals in spring training, and every team makes errors during the season and post-season. Dave Dombrowski's Phillies were ushered out of the playoffs on a very fundamental error. Maybe Dave Dombrowski should go to Orion Kerkering's house this winter and drill him on ground balls for the offseason. But you do you.

"The White Sox suck and won't be able to compete with anybody until Ishbia sells the team" is an even worse marketing tagline. Keep working on it.

The White Sox got above average production from 3 positions on a 100-loss team in 2025, and then above replacement in 3 others.

No, the point is that many teams, even about a quarter of playoff teams, got crap production from their outfield. It's fun to pretend 29 teams are running 3 All-Stars out there and have two more sitting on the bench in order to crap on the White Sox. That's pure fantasy.