GreatScott82

The Sox will win tomorrow and most Cubs fans will say the typical, "It's fine, this is like your world series, it doesn't mean that much to us" Giolito looked nervous and spazzy. Hopefully he got it out of his system. I'm not worried about him overall. Just sucks it happens against the Cubs. On the brightside, maybe Lester has the cold arm syndrome and the Sox drop 4-5 runs this inning.

Lillian, I'm assuming Cease will be slotted in the rest of the year. Even if he struggles at times, he will be given the innings no doubt. In regards to that 5th spot (the black hole), I expect it to be a never ending carousel between the guys you listed above. It would be neat if Fulmer can fix his issues. Maybe that can even do the 'opener' route with multiple pitchers on that 5th day?

Since 2020 is the likely contending target year, I can definitely see the Sox going into the trade deadline in both buying and selling mode. They will be looking to acquire starting pitchers likely via trade with at least 3 years of control left on their contracts. I can also see them trying to unload guys like Alonso, Jay (if he's still alive), Castillo and maybe Abreu? Although, Abreu might be signing a 2-3 year extension if he continues to hit like this. Trading for a pitcher will be tricky. The Tatis trade put a dark cloud over this front office. So whichever prospects they do unload, they need to make sure its a guy they can live without in the future. Other than Washington, which other teams in the league will be potentially selling off assets? Or is it too early to even look at this?

I will always love Ozzie. But the writing is on the wall. They are clearly grooming Omar Vizquel to be their guy.

Another example of upper management's incompetence right here. Pathetic.

If you work for the White Sox you will be there as long as Jerry's around. He doesn't fire anybody. Even the managers have to fire themselves around here. White Sox fans are stuck with the guys in charge. And since they have been failures for over a decade, the odds of these same guys suddenly turning it around are slim. We should know by early 2020 if this rebuild will work or not. I mean even if it doesn't work, Hahn will still be around, and Kenny and Renteria and Coop etc.....

Exactly. The White Sox have been irrelevant for 10+ years now. They embarked on a rebuild that the fans bought into, because their old ways of doing business was piss poor and led to crappy records and uninspiring on-field performances. They set themselves up perfectly for this 2019 offseason to connect on a generational talent to expedite this rebuild, and got bogged down by $50 million. Pathetic. The dagger in all of this is that they probably were being ridiculously presumptuous in believing guys like Bogaerts or Arenado would be there the next winter.... NOPE! I've already heard Hahn mention, "When the time comes, we will eventually start looking to trade some of our prospect depth to acquire outside talent". Welp, so much for prospect depth and development. Due to their shortcomings, the White Sox will go back to their old ways of doing business. Not good! White Sox fans deserve better. JR is out of touch with the reality of modern baseball an KW and Hahn are bad at their jobs. For every good move they make, and there has been a few, they probably have made 2-3 bad moves. Not a good ratio if you ask me.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This x 2! Well said, Blackout Friday! My sentiments exactly. To make matters worse, next offseason's free agent class is trash. So stop telling us that the $$ will be spent. No it won't! Unless you go back to the old ways of doing business and spend $$ on acquiring a bunch of mid range talent and hope to catch lightning in a bottle. Or trading from within the farm system to bring talent in from other organizations. But don't worry, Hahn will keep telling us that the narrative has changed and they have spent $$ on international talent, made a trade with the Cubs and are indeed embarking in a rebuild. This is nice, Rick! How about actually converting on your major free agent target? Why the hell should white sox fans be jealous of Padres and Phillies fans? Makes no sense, unless your incompetent and/or cheap. I know, I know, KW HATES it when people call Jerry cheap, he just wanted to get Machado with insulting incentive clauses-- deep down knowing Machado would likely sign elsewhere. Oh, but we should be proud of their efforts though... give me a break!

Lol yep. That will do it. Hahn and KW failed well before the rebuild began. I think a huge part of the problem is JR. However, you see smaller market teams experience playoff success due to creativeness and fantastic scouting and development. The White Sox theoretically should have more financial resources of those small market teams, yet they can't figure it out. Not good.

Next years free agent market is officially trash. The dwindling 2020 free agent class was definitely worth saving the $50 million of guaranteed money for, right? And now, they plan on trading from the farm to supplement from their free agent pursuit failures? This sounds like old white sox stuff to me. You know the years where they were 'mired in mediocrity'.

I hate to say it but most of us know it's true. The only way out of this current White Sox irrelevance is new ownership. Until that happens, I expect more Tommy Johns, more bad draft picks, more free agent low-ball offers, consistent lack of development (especially at the position player side of things) and more excuses from the big guys upstairs. Oh but we will be continuously reminded that pre-existing narratives have changed and that the White Sox and Cubs made a deal, and that they will spend premium money on international talent. Okay, Rick, i'll give it to you, that was a Hell of a trade and the Robert signing was awesome. But you have made more questionable deals than good ones, so lets focus on that. The Sale deal doesn't look so good as of now, the Shields deal was tragic and I don't care how cute it was when you called yourself a jackass about it. The Eaton deal appears to be a wash at this point.. We are sitting here today with an above average farm system, a horrible MLB roster and a TON of $$ to spend that will NOT be spent on superstar talent (unless that notable superstar will take a coupon instead of guaranteed $$) .And with all of these premium superstars signing early, the free agent market looks very bleak the next few seasons. Seriously, what are White Sox fans supposed to do? We are supposed to give hope to a management that dug us this tremendous hole to begin with? Ugh. This is beyond rock bottom. This is baseball Hell! Someone please talk me off the ledge.... (not literally).

If you don't want to spend market value on premium free agents, then you sure as hell better be good at draft and development. The Sox are just brutal at developing from within. This has been the biggest problem over the years. Even teams who do not undergo full on rebuilds still bring up prospects to perform for their MLB clubs. Hahn has done a nice job bringing in some high level prospects, but the development aspect is the killer. Also, having an owner to fully commit to NOT spending market value will hinder any chance at accelerating this process. KW and Hahn will continue to take daggers for Uncle Jerry, but we all know he is the problem. Also, KW and Hahn have done a horrible job bringing in free agents as well. So not only has the prospect development be poor, but pro scouting has been poor. Where is the accountability here? None. We are forced to let these same guys who dug this horrible organizational hole be the ones in charge of rebuilding a team? For me, this is rock bottom as a fan.Let's not forget one of KW or Hahn lied to us after Machado signed with SD. One guy told us that money wouldn't be a hindrance when the time came for acquiring premium free agent talent. Another guys said "we just couldn't go to that $300 million level" Hmmm? Are we stupid? The trust level is completely shot. They need to do something bold very soon to earn our trust back, because it's gone right now. And we know nobody will be getting fired. Most organizations would have made changes to the front office a long time ago. Yes, Eloy will likely be good. And there is hope for guys like Madrigal, Rutherford, Gonzalez, and Robert, but there are no guarantees. And the track record has indicated that this rebuild will likely fail- due to the three guys who run this team.

It's not fun seeing Tim Anderson's low OBP. The reality of the situation is, that's really bad. His defensive metrics are on the rise, but he needs to improve this area of his game or he will simply not pan out.

For the love of God, can KW just pull a Ventura and fire himself? It’s the only way incompetent people leave this irrelevant franchise. ?

Are you kidding me? The best thing that can happen to this dormant organization is for JR to sell the team. The Bulls and White Sox both haven't been relevant for about a decade now. JR doesn't want to outbid other teams on superstars and is completely out of touch with the modernization of baseball. It is time for the old man to give it up and let a new ownership group take over. I read an article from 2013 stating that once JR dies, he wants his family to sell the White Sox and keep the Bulls. JR will never fire KW or Hahn (who clearly are not on the same page) their mixed messages after the Machado failure exemplified this. JR makes plenty of $$ each year for reaching the status quo and his sweetheart stadium deal pretty much lets him keep all profits. As fans, we are stuck in baseball Hell with JR and his cronies. The rebuild decision was a breath a fresh air, but so far the developmental aspect of it all has been disappointing. The payroll has been low for three years now and it will only get lower next season. Hahn said the $$ will be spent, but on who? The free agent class next winter is mediocre at best. And didn't Hahn say they were tired of being 'mired in mediocrity'? Umm heres an idea, spend $$ that you HAVE PLENTY OF and get a 26 year old generational talent, oh dang... these players will not be available next winter, or the winter after that.... so who the Hell does Hahn plan on spending the $$ on? More 32, 33 year old Todd Frazier and Melky Cabrera types? Yeah, that sure will generate excitement with this pissed off fan base. #TimeForANewOwner

Here are the White Sox standings since 2013 with Rick Hahn at the helm: 2013- 63-99 (non-rebuild) 2014- 73-89 (non-rebuild) 2015- 76-86 (non-rebuild) 2016- 78-84 (non-rebuild) 2017- 67-95 (rebuild) 2018- 62-100 (rebuild) You would think with all of those losing records even before the acclaimed rebuild, the White Sox would have more prospect depth to show for it with all of those high draft picks. Scouting and development within this organization has been really bad over the years. Professional scouts have been brutal as well. Hence many of their free agent acquisitions fail to work out. We've encountered 6 losing seasons in a row and this will be the 7th. If it takes 5 consecutive losing 'rebuilding' years to reap the benefits of a winning roster, than we shouldn't expect a winning product until 2022. That would be 10 consecutive years of losing records. And yet JR, RH and KW will all still be around.... claiming not free agent is worth X dollars blah, blah, blah. Pathetic.

Because they told us that they were all in on him from day 1 of the offseason. They even traded for the dudes brother n law and signed one of his BFF's. And all but admitted that they 'wouldn't have any financial restraints' this offseason. And that they 'will have a seat at the table'. Little did we know they resorted back to old white sox ways and tried to get MM at a bargain price and set an unnecessary arbitrary line in the sand by stating they suddenly wouldn't go to $300 million. They essentially lied to us.

Yep. The White Sox just signed a mega tv deal with CSN Chicago too. Let's see, they have a low payroll, mega tv deal, a bunch of cheap pre-arb players (soon-to-be call ups) on the roster and they just "Cant' offer $300 million on a 26 year old superstar. Screw off!

I love the 'we still plan on spending the $' mention from Hahn. Sure.... you'll spend it on a bunch of mediocre joes like Todd Frazier and Melky Cabrera. The guy who ironically made the 'mired in mediocrity' quote as the guy who makes mediocre offers to generational talent. No chance in hell Harper, Arenado, MadBum or any other superstar would consider coming here when they will simply get low-balled by JR and his thrifty puppets known as Kenny "I'll never be fired" Williams and Rick "I say fancy bullcrap" Hahn. But hey, remember Sox fans, we should be proud of the effort they made to land these superstars. Since JR bought the team, the White Sox have made the playoffs 5 times. 5 times in 38 seasons! They haven't made the post season since 2008. Since that time 26 other teams made the playoffs at least once AND many of those teams have fired their GM's due to a lack of success. Meanwhile RH and KW keep strumming along and JR's commitment to winning remains questionable. Why do we cheer for this team? All they will do is let us down, over and over and over and over.

Don't let yourself be double disappointed when Harper inevitably signs with the Phillies. Once again, it's not JR's cheapness, its the ineptitude of the management to get a deal done. If you don't offer opt outs and can't reconfigure $$ to make it more guaranteed, what is the appeal for coming here? None. This team put up ridiculousness constraints to eliminate themselves from sealing the Machado deal. No chance in Hell Harper will take a deal with zero opt outs and limited guaranteed money. Harper will get 350 million of guaranteed $$ and based on what he brings to any organization, at just 26 years old- he deserves it. So unless, the White Sox wake up from reality, don't bother wasting your time as a fan. Apparently the team payroll at $25 million next season is too high to afford a player making $30+ mill per season when that player is in his prime.

It's good to be back. Just wish our team became relevant again.

Until they actually convert, I am not buying the whole "going against the grain of salt" narrative. It's not cheapness, it's incompetence. Unless they land Harper (which they wont) we should not give this front office our support. At this point, they do not deserve it.

We were all fools. What a waste of time to get excited about this possibility. We should have known this front office would blow it. Why did we give these guys the benefit of the doubt? These same guys haven't put together a playoff roster since 2008. Oh and lets not forget the horrible Robin Ventura 5 year experiment. This franchise is ran more like a country club than a sports team. JR just lets his buddies run a status quo operation. Bulls and White Sox are a lot alike. No accountability.

When is the next time a 26 year old generational talent is available via free agency? I'm not buying the whole "were serious about getting high impact guys, spending money" narrative. Until they actually convert, I don't trust them to bring in those "High impact" guys. They squandered this opportunity by losing to another mid-market franchise. Not acceptable. No i am not encouraged.

I remember back in the day, KW always saying "we have a plan B and C etc..." How come they never pull through with plan A? It's not JR's "cheapness" it's simply incompetence by the front office. They fumbled at the goal line and they dragged us all along for the ride. Shame on us for actually thinking this time would be different. And when I see "the money will still be spent" I don't want to hear it. Yeah the money will be spent on mid tier roster fillers, not superstars.