Dam8610

Maybe they'll be so embarrassingly bad that Jerry will sell the team. That's about all there is to hope for until Jerry sells the team or dies.

Can we add a clause that if the all-time record for most losses or worst winning percentage is reached by this club, the owner is forced to sell the team? That would be the only silver lining to this dumpster fire of a season, and I'd root for 2-160 at that point. It's not like this level of futility is even going to result in the #1 pick.

Wow, not even waiting 1 day into the season to be historically bad.

They won't field a competitive team until there's a new owner.

I initially read this wrong and thought the Sox had signed former Cy Young winner Corey Kluber, which seemed like a very White Sox thing to do, getting their man 7-10 years too late.

Just one large carving of JR with a caption that says "The money was spent".

Wow, 65 is generous.

So there was a 70 game stretch of the season where they were 34-36. That's...something?

This is honestly a refreshing change of pace from most of what's going on here lately. Thank you for posting this.

This is likely the future of sports contracts, especially in high tax states. These deferrals allow the player to pay much less state tax money on the deferred portion, resulting in more overall money flowing to the player.

Might as well do it, can probably get him for cheap, and as he pitches, the stink will wash off and he'll be a very flippable asset.

Jerry just leaning in to the pennypinching now?

$700 million is just a number to grab headlines, the PV of the contract is $450 million. Judging on those numbers, I'd say Yamamoto is certainly the bigger risk.

He very clearly did. He started out as an IRS attorney, which explains a great deal of his incompetence and unwillingness to spend on quality.

The problem is if you know your team will not spend big in free agency and they have a history of poor player development, then there is no hope. As a fanbase, if you have no hope for the product on the field, you begin to hope for a change in ownership to allow for hope for the product on the field.

Worst that would've happened is that Reinsdorf would've bought the team then, and at that point, we have 5 championships in 14 years to celebrate.

Okay? Would you take 5 championships in 14 seasons? I would.

He was also the owner of the San Francisco 49ers during the 1980s and 1990s when they won 5 championships in 14 seasons. I don't care if he was affiliated with the mafia, he knew how to build a winning franchise.

The worst thing MLB ever did to the White Sox was not allowing Eddie DeBartolo to buy the team.

He doesn't believe in spending in the right areas. If you want proof of that, compare the size of the White Sox scouting department to other MLB teams, or compare their spending on minor league wellness and development to other teams. Both are dead last or close, and these are areas where spending a fraction of a MLB payroll (think like 10%) could make massive competitive advantage differences. If he truly was just cheap, he would pump money into those things. But it's not that he's just cheap, he's cheap and stubborn to the point that he only wants to win if it's his way. Unfortunately for us, "his way" doesn't work in the modern MLB.

But could be with a different owner. Look at what Eddie DeBartolo did with the 49ers. He may not have had that level of success with the White Sox, but I think he would've been more successful than Jerry Reinsdorf. Get an owner that cares about winning at the head of this franchise, and you'll probably see much different results.

Let's put it this way: show me a White Sox roster that conceivably could compete for the AL Central while adhering to the following limitations: 1) No single contract with AAV higher than $35.625 million 2) No single contract worth more than $285 million 3) Total net spending increase for 2024 cannot exceed $59 million, which matches the 2022 White Sox for the highest payroll the team has ever had. I chose these limitations because the Machado contract is the highest ever rumored offer the White Sox made at 8/$285 and the payroll has never exceeded $193 million. If someone can show me a competitive roster given these limitations, I'll gladly adjust my full on pessimism.

There's no good way out of the current state of the franchise that doesn't involve either spending like Steve Cohen (and being right on all those investments, unlike Steve Cohen) or being bad for a few years. The talent on the ML roster and in the minor league pipeline is insufficient to compete for anything without significant upgrades. Those upgrades will have to come from somewhere. If you're not paying hefty sums of money for them on the free agent market, where are they coming from?

I will not buy any more White Sox merch or pay to go to a game until Jerry Reinsdorf dies or sells the team.

Whoever will do it cheapest.