nrockway

I think it's hard to put the White Sox below the Mets or Padres, especially the Mets and their con artist owner. The Sox and Cardinals were worse than everybody thought, but in retrospect there's nothing surprising about their underperformance. It was a bad combination of bad, overpaid players. The not-Dodgers and not-Yankees were gilded losers and deserve far more scrutiny. The Mets are a worse team, were more overhyped to begin the season and, as far as I can tell, Steve Cohen is a bigger asshole than the other guy, but the Padres are stuck paying their losers for the next decade and have to make decisions on Snell and Soto. At least the Mets got rid of their most overpaid losers and turned them into maybe-good players. The Padres might also still make the playoffs, I don't know why they'd publish this article now instead of waiting literally a week. Anyway, the front office turmoil should be viewed as a positive for the Sox, it's a good thing that those guys got fired even if Getz isn't the 'right guy'. Not to mention, that fat fold shooting mystery is arguably the funniest thing I've ever heard about happening at a baseball game and ultimately baseball is about entertainment so that should be reflected in the rankings.

Mets put up 11 runs on the Marlins in the first game, now Johnny Cueto will face off against Kodai Senga. I feel like San Diego is gonna take the final spot at this point.

how about the cubs blowing a 6-0 lead. 2 run, 2 out error lol

Not many and they’ll move the second they’re old enough. There’s a lot of bias in this thread suggesting Arlington heights or orland park is accessible to the majority of potential fans. It’s very clearly not true. I’m not sure that I’m willing to prove it, but it’s almost certainly true that soldier field is more accessible than the horse racetrack. The difference between football and baseball though is that people will make the trek there to watch a game once a week and spend hundreds of dollars on the affair. There are 10 times as many baseball games and they’re considerably cheaper to attend. Anywhere in Chicago is 10000 times more accessible to people than any of the suburbs. the financial component of it is that there’s more money in cities than suburbs now. at least for an economy based on pointless consumption (baseball is purposeful). The inversion started happening a while ago.

The suburb discussion drawing in “more old school fans” is a dead end. The team needs young fans. Stay in Chicago, think about a fan base 20 years from now. Kids like baseball more then you think. Those tinley fans will be dead.

it seems like it basically just read that one article and plagiarized it. very impressive technology. if the sox do stay in town, the present site or soldier field seem like the best options. I don't like football but I love Soldier Field and it feels like a perfect site for a ballpark and still "on the south side", would love to see some home run balls ding those boats in burham harbor. I'm less impressed because I don't think it has any idea what the development ecosystem looks like in Chicago or anywhere for that matter. It seems like a surface level analysis that has already been performed by many different human beings. it feels like plagiarism. Something tells me it doesn't get trained on webpages like this or this when analyzing such an issue; ie regulations or public initiatives that might influence development in one area or another. I think it just read a couple articles (10 versions of the same 'report' that mentioned these 3 sites) and regurgitates the same point of view as the writer(s). This technology fascinates me but I think the end result is that everybody gets even stupider. everybody is already overly reliant on technology, now these programs are trying to replace critical thinking; what other fundamental human being qualities will AI try to emulate and replace?

Dylan Cease is the obvious one missing here. I'm not considering guys like Burger, Colas or Sosa. Burger was a high draft pick who is performing to expectations finally. Yaz was "better" last year but 200 slugging points worse than 2021. He's aging, so he doesn't count either (he does count but we're ignoring him for the sake of argument). Let's look at the regulars. Yaz: worse Elvis: worse Vaughn: bad and not developing how he's expected to...can't blame the Sox except for drafting him.. Tim: worse Moncada: worse Benintendi: worse Robert: better, young 5-tool superstar who will improve irrespective of his environment; particularly relevant to this argument because he's a loner and doesn't feed off the energy of his teammates. most normal human beings do. Eloy: worse Sheets: worse Hanser: bad and got worse Frazier: bad and got worse Haseley: bad and got worse popeye: good one day perhaps did anyone else get at bats this season and is still on the team? looks like every single player except the finally healthy unicorn took a step back. let's look at the pitching staff. cease: worse kopech: worse giolito: better than last year, anyway (not according to FIP). consistent. lynn: ? clev: fine pitcher, but a predator bummer: worse i'm gonna stop there because this is boring and the trend is obvious. the only players who didn't take steps backward are no name rookie Gregory Santos and Luis Robert. I really don't believe that every once-good Sox player just turned bad all of a sudden at the same time, I think they just hate coming into work and that has a noticeable impact on their job performance which is predicated on making good decisions at the level of a millisecond. And the team staff can't be expected to help them perform at the level that they're capable of. That's ostensibly why they even have coaches. Any "mental hurdle" is going to be a drain on a player's performance. I believe this was obvious even before the La Russa stuff and especially before Middleton said anything. Players play better when they actually like their jobs, nobody on this team likes coming to work. That's a matter of organizational efficacy not 'we need better players'

we thought we had "players" this year and last. as I said, I don't think it's a coincidence when guys with track records all underperform at the same time. Again, not saying Salvy is the solution but the GM should probably try to address the issue.

this is the hire that seems out of place. It concerns me that he hasn't played baseball since before Luis Robert was born, it concerns me that the Royals have a garbage farm system under him despite having all losing seasons and it concerns me that he evidently has a very deep, personal relationship with Dayton Moore. He seems like a balding nepo baby that has failed up for the last 30 years, but maybe that's inaccurate.

it's certainly a factor, maybe one that can't be quantified. Perez intrigues me because he has a good attitude, other players take him seriously and we have two young catchers on the team that could benefit from his presence. His contract expires before we'll ever have a chance to win anything and I tend to think "vibes" is a bigger explanation for every Sox player falling off a cliff at the same time than everyone just suddenly becoming bad at baseball. The vibes are rotten and this is a team game pretty much more than any other major sport; and a sport where the slightest mental hurdle can turn you from a superstar into a minor leaguer. Does that mean Perez changes everything? Assuredly not, but you need someone like that that can actually bring a team together. You can read between the lines and see that there have been two clubhouses for the last several seasons, I think they hired Grifol because he's Cuban and American and speaks both languages, but that didn't fix anything. Should the Sox stop bringing in Cubans? No, I don't think so, but it probably means something when half the team speaks a different language and had to defect (never to return home) in order to play for the Sox. They probably feel a deeper connection with each other than they do the rest of their American or Dominican-born teammates. Hiring a gusano was probably the dumbest thing Rick Hahn could've done.

personally I have a cyst on the inside of my mouth that I had surgically removed years ago but has come back in force recently. I think the gland or whatever produces a cyst is just screwed up.

imagine having a chance to win a game, finding yourself in a high leverage situation at the end of the game, having a fully-rested bullpen, and deciding to bring in the guy who hasn't pitched in months and has only pitched 10 innings in total this year.

Gavin Sheets has a career OPS of .698, .330 vs left-handed pitching. Oh, that sucks. Ok fair enough, he's a platoon bat, there's a role for a guy like that on major league teams. .733 OPS vs right, declining from .900 as a rookie to .643 currently. Ok, well maybe he plays good defense at a premium position ... this guy should be laying bricks in trempealeau county wisconsin, not playing professional baseball

what I worry watching Quero is that he turns into another DH/1B with no power. We already have enough of those.

why?

this is a wild game...just like that, 11-6

Steele tonight: 3.0 IP, 6 ER last outing: 6.0 IP, 6 ER the entire team is collapsing. but if they do manage to manage to make the playoffs, their offense can beat anybody

I actually think he would be a good fit on the team because he would cost nothing to acquire (maybe KC has to give up something else to offload the contract) and he gives Grifol (some) legitimacy. The question is why would you spend $20some million on Salvy when you could spend it on someone else? but is there anyone else worth spending on before 2026? IDK someone needs to play with Lee next year and it would be unwise to expect it to be Quero. Perez actually offers something the team desperately needs: vocal leadership and might have something else to offer to our two prospect catchers.

what a game from Clev, 'spoiled' by a scrub. I had to look up 'Dominic Smith', turns out he might be the worst starting first baseman in baseball.

This only impacts Grifol because it potentially impacts his job. Nobody cares about ‘records’ or ‘history’ except fans. Not even Jerry, he’ll be dead soon enough. Everyone else just wants to keep their job for another year.

Like what we've seen from Garcia for the most part. actual strikeout stuff. that "sweeper" looks so pretty

I totally agree but in principle a stadium could be a driver for economic development, there was an opportunity to 'reimagine' that area when they were building the present day park but totally blew the opportunity. The same firm designed GRF and Camden Yards at essentially the same time and begged the Sox to go in a different direction, alas. I'm not saying to build Wrigleyville at 35th and Shields but there's truly nothing to do after a game except get on the red line or in your car and go somewhere else. I think the difference between now and then is that large-scale developer money is flowing south and the city incentivizes these sorts of megaprojects. Not saying the city won't get ripped off on a new park, just that there's a scenario where Reinsdorf or whoever owns the team makes a bunch of money and the public gets something out of it. I don't mind if the city kicks in money if there's an actual public benefit to be derived and democratic oversight, tend to think that's better than giving a developer carte blanche to do whatever they want as long as they fund it themselves.

I don't know how he could be rushed when he's 24-years-old and has played baseball professionally for seven years already. He has an OPS in AAA of .894 over 245 plate appearances, what else is he gonna learn in AAA? he's ready for the majors, he just underwhelmed big time. What's he gonna do in the minors to prepare him for major league play? My theory was that he's sent down to work on some specific thing, but the season is over and he can do better work in the major leagues. Just an odd move.

In principle I agree, but in reality who's impacted beyond ballpark employees and parking lot operators? I don't think there are too many businesses nearby that bank on Sox fans coming before or after a game. Could be wrong though.

I wrote a long post and it got deleted when the train I was on went under a tunnel. I’ll rewrite it eventually but the gist is I don’t trust dWAR and I hope Jake develops into a star.