thedoctor

the division is still pretty dogshit so they have a chance.

i complained a bunch about larussa so i won't throw shade at articles about improved culture. i think that area is one where larussa was most detrimental, and i don't doubt that grifol will have a better and more accountable clubhouse. with that said, i also doubt it has a significant effect on the win-loss record. management's poor personnel and roster management decisions probably keeps this team's results pretty similar or worse than last year.

sox are setting a record for creating bad looks in one offseason.

i mean, it’s believable from this org.

not sure if you've heard, but he's from naperville.

davis martin, come on down.

it’s a great piece and sums things up well. josh nelson has a good twitter thread on the state of things today that is also excellent (although it outlines steps the org will never take). I’m sticking with the team, probably more out of habit and the hope we’re near the end of this leadership group and i find the possibility of a new ownership group and taking better advantage of being in a major market compelling. if they moved i’d have reassess. with that said, i think this season has the potential to be the ugliest I’ve seen. the fanbase is already super pissed and we haven’t played a game.

it would be annoying, stupid and another middle finger to “outsiders” (fans, media, etc). that said it isn’t going to influence how the team performs next year, so i choose not to care.

i actually like the players they have quite a bit. i don’t think the core they assembled is a massive failure, they just didn’t aggressively complement it enough and still haven’t, which is frustrating. regarding ownership, it obviously sucks. second-place jerry is a pox on the franchise. the only solace i take is that we may be near the end of his awful stewardship.

e.g., blow us away with an offer or go pound sand.

first time we’ve adequately addressed an obvious need in a long-ass time so great.

jesus

i’m gonna need confirmation from @haywoodjablome.

i refuse to believe hahn’s big offseason move would involve getting rid of a reliever. it challenges everything i know about the guy.

it's been a hallmark of this sox organization to do just not enough. whether it is signing over-the-hill vets instead of more established players, being just short of acquiring top free agents or willing to skip filling a known gap and hoping a cheap in-house option can work, they've done it again and again. all part of jerry's second-place strategy.

pedro with a new friend.

yeah, roster/budget management since we accrued the “core” has been atrocious. i have no idea what they are trying to do and it’s a way bigger issue than who’s sitting in the dugout (unless tlr was somehow responsible for overallocating resources on the bullpen and over-the-hill vets).

hey, at least mendoza's a mystery candidate from a team that's been successful. i half expected officer karkovice to emerge as a darkhorse.

i could be totally off, but i feel espada being out is more about him knowing he’ll be the astros manager in two weeks than anything white sox related.

i’d probably mind ozzie less if it didn’t indicate another instance of this org being dumb and insular.

i heard that more as them playing out a scenario where a coach they don't want was hired, but maybe i missed something else during the show. i have no interest in shildt as a managerial candidate, but i'd prefer him to ozzie/getz/thome/konerko/aj or any other internal candidates. at least he comes from an org with a way better track record of success than ours and spent last year with a playoff team.

this would be complete bee.ess and also completely typical.

i think i've reached the conclusion that i can live with just about any candidate as long as they are from outside of the org and haven't been a part of the way the sox have done things in recent history. sad thing is, i also have a very, very hard time seeing them make that kind of hire.

i don't disagree at all, but i don't think that type of more significant overhaul will happen until jerry is gone. he isn't going to do anything that makes him uncomfortable, so he'll continue to run things in the way he always has. the best we can hope for is that the talent that looked so great two years ago is actually that and that their decline was the result of some combination of bad luck/weird offseasons/a terrible management/etc. not exactly the type of thing to inspire confidence, but probably good enough to reach jerry's second-place goal.

honestly, if ta, moncada, robert, eloy and giolito don't have huge bounceback/leap in production years, it probably doesn't matter what they do. if the "core" is truly rotten, then we're back to where we started.