greg775

The headline reads: "VP Ken Williams: It's shame if White Sox portrayed as cheap" Yes it is a shame, a crying shame. The Sox are cheap. To a casual observer (me), it seems in retrospect we never tried to get Harper. As far as Manny, KW and Rick H deserve the fans' wrath, because signing Alonso and Jay told us one thing: The Sox DAMN WELL WERE GONNA sign Manny. To me, that's really all they did creative to try to sign Manny. They certainly didn't throw enough money around.

Ugh. I don't believe in booing athletes but I would be all for booing silently if that's possible.

This is a great great post, wegner. Here's my theory. The White Sox only have a core group of diehard fans who would be furious at the lie that they truly were pursuing Manny and Harper. Most of the casual fans don't follow this on Twitter, etc. They probably heard we had a shot at some free agents but truly didn't follow it 24/7, more like maybe thought about it one day a week max. The Sox front office ran the charade all winter that they truly were in the hunt for these guys but their actions ultimately showed they had no intention of paying what it would take to get Manny/Harper. Now the diehard fans who use message boards see through their lies, but so what? The Sox brass figure 50 to 60 percent of the diehards will still go to games while most of the fan base will do what they always do: Go to some games if the team is good. Go to fewer if the team reeks again. Personally I am shocked at the Sox flat out lying about their pursuit of free agents (not mad because I didn't really want either player). Jerry obviously had no intention to allocate that kind of money to 1 or 2 players. No way. So he will count his dollars during another year of the tank/rebuild. Great post Wegner, you are my kind of fan! Perceptive on your part IMO.

Damn. That's very sad. Hope everybody is OK physically and mentally. Take care.

Is there any way some cool person on this board could start a thread every day linking to video highlights of our ST games? It would be neat to see the highlights daily.

This board has long been very very tolerant of the owners and the front office types. The first majority rebellion has been caused by this winter's fake pursuit of Manny. People are pissed. Strangely enough I don't care a bit about Manny. I am way more mad about the tanking, the letting go of Avi and Davidson, the acquisition of John Jay and Alonso for gosh sakes. And of course the fact I feel we have a worst team than last year even and the rebuild is looking meh.

This is wrong. Sox fans have frustrated me during the rebuild by NOT wanting the front office to spend money. They made the one exception for Manny and to a lesser extent Harper. Aside from them, any sign of the Sox paying for a player has been met with scorn. They were OK with Jay and Alonso at first as it was a ploy to get Manny. Now they're not happy about paying them anything. But unless it's an obvious deal where we are to flip the player ... Sox fans don't want us spending any money at all except for the few whales.

Me too. I was a huge Davidson fan. And he's gone. And a huge Avi fan. He gone. The replacements sicken me. It's time to get rid of Hahn and Kenny. Let somebody else draft our next two top five picks. And let somebody else figure out how to get the Sox over .500.

I love the Chicago cops work in trying to get to the bottom of this. But now TMZ is keeping the story alive by saying the check was for personal trainer services. Smollett was trying to get buffed for his role. I may be a dolt and a jerk in many's eyes but I do not rush to judgment. Why can't people just let these stories play out? A lot of people first supported Jussie on this and then turned on him big time. Now with there being a reasonable doubt about the purpose of the check, what are they going to do? Say 'my bad' again and support Jussie? Our rush to judgment either way is sickening in our country right now. Let the facts play out. Geez. That said I still think Chicago cops are badasses in a good way.

Just say no to spam I mean Span. No disrespect to the guy, I just don't want to watch him play for the sox.

It really is disgusting all these veteran stiffs he's bringing in. Acquiring Jay and Alonso is a fireable offense, it really is. Also the Davidson/Avi situation. Why have these guys as long as we had them and just dump them. They are big leaguers and were not blocking anybody.

I just don't understand how Jay and Alonso fit in the rebuild. I mean both are veterans and average at best. Why do we want to give them at bats? Would SD take Alonso off our hands?

Jon Jay is so bad of a hitter I can't even comment. Royals fans danced in the streets when he left the club. Please dump him ASAP. There's no reason to have Alonso around, none. The least the Sox could do is dump both.

That's the only reason I would be moderately mad at the front office. The Sox acted sort of cocky in letting fans have the continuing fantasy we might get MM. Then as far as Harper, with a chance to maybe swoop in and steal Harper from everybody, it's anticlimactic with the Sox just fading away like they never really wanted him or something. Again, I didn't really want Manny but if I were to be mad about anything I agree the FO kind of fibbed about really wanting Manny.

Not sure if this is the right thread, but as far as who is available in 2020 ... This might be the right time to fire Hahn and KW if that's the way the Sox want to go. Why? This year we get a top draft pick again and frankly, I expect us to be one of the three worst teams in baseball again this season. Only way to avoid that I guess is Eloy Eloy Eloy. So we are gonna have a top five pick in the summer of 2020. If we're gonna have somebody else finish the rebuild, you are talking a great draft pick this summer followed by another great pick next summer. Our payroll is very very very low so the new GM could be in charge of signing the veteran free agents expected to put us over the top. Why have Hahn and KW continue when these next two draft picks could be VITAL and we still haven't started our signing of mega free agents. GO SOX!

I agree with all of this. I never thought Sox would move but ... everything you wrote seems right on, spot on.

So far it's our worst offseason ever because the only useful pieces added to a very very bad baseball team are pitchers like Nova and Herrera and some of those bullpen guys. Adding McCann, Alonso and Jay makes me very sad, if not mad. These are guys you just don't need to see play for your favorite team.

It really would be smart/nice to trade Alonso to SD right now for some minor prospect and trade John Jay to SD if they'd even take him for future considerations. I mean seriously. Having them here will be good for nobody. Negative vibes each and every time they step to the plate. Is there any way we could deal them or am I dreaming?

One way to rebel would be to draw 10,000 on opening day. That's the one day the outrage would be noticed (unless there's snow/ice/misery in the atmosphere). That would be way better than a newspaper ad that Cub fans would cherish.

I know winning cures everything and they are banking on the fact (probably) that in 2020 the Sox will likely begin a run of contention and all will be fine. But ... I feel like we've been awful so long that unless there's total Eloy-mania starting with his first at bat, the losing has been so constant that this year will truly be a setback for the Sox in all areas. I truly believe Eloy-mania will save interest and our attendance and relevance won't be much worse than last season, but .... the Sox are close to the point they need to do something dramatic for the fans, hence my free parking suggestion. I'm probably totally full of it, front office probably doesn't care at all. They are saving as much $$ as they can during the rebuild. Starting next year they feel the park will be packed for our division title team and they will be more aggressive in signing free agents.

I think if I were a talk show host I'd take the angle of "were the Sox ever really that serious about signing Manny or Harper?" They provided some hints that they were, but proof is in the pudding and the way this thing ended was awfully anticlimactic.

I haven't been reading much about Harper. But after the Padres allegedly swept in and nabbed Manny late, why don't the Sox who have a low low payroll, swoop in and do the same in the Harper sweepstakes? While I still am not mad we lost out on Manny, the devil's advocate of my emotions wonders if this was a ploy all along to occupy our fans' minds all winter (re. Manny and Harper), say 'ah shucks we didn't get either' and now we go ahead and play the season with a ridiculously low payroll and Jerry and the partners laughing all the way to the bank (i.e. 'if we gotta stink we might as well make a lot of dough') I still say: "The Anger Will Pass" should be team motto this year. But if the Sox do have a 50 million buck payroll and are out of it in mid May again, it'd be nice to give some of that money back to the fans. How bout free parking this season??

My new motto: This anger will pass. Trust greg (who is also mad: Alonso/Jay).

I respect you BA but don't do it. Don't give Cub fans the satisfaction we are mad at our team. This anger will pass (Eloy).

Actually you are wrong. In those "mediocre" years that I'm supposed to be ashamed at myself for wanting (in my way of building a team, not by tanking) we won a lot of games in a lot of consecutive years. The Sox only during this current stretch have really been pathetic. Not since the Bill Melton 70s have we been this bad. But during my "mediocre" years, we won a lotta games with Robin, Hurt, Ozzeroo, Buehrle, Paulie, Dye, et. all.