Balta1701

So why was there an increase in ticket sales?

Yeah, I do think that was largely because of all the press they got in the offseason. Like you said, Sox fans don't turn out unless the winning is starting, and they certainly weren't winning anything that year, but they got a big boost of coverage that offseason that translated to a trickle of new fans.

Worth noting that the White Sox had a boost of 800 tickets/game in 2019 over 2018, also beating 2017s ticket sales?

1 year, $2.5 million https://www.mlb.com/news/rich-hill-rays-deal His 2020 deal with the Twins was for $3 million, but there were up to $9.5 million in performance bonuses and he was coming off of surgery that guaranteed he'd miss part of the year. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2020/01/07/rich-hill-could-earn-125m-from-twins-homer-bailey-8m/40956961/

Marte starts in CF this year and then transitions over to RF as Brantley's contract ends.

I think Pedro Leon is likely to rapidly take over that spot.

For a guy at Rodon’s level it is pretty big. We have 3 guys on our roster who were majorly impacted by it, for a second round pick Keuchel and Kimbrel both had to sit out half a season and Grandal took a 1 year deal to clear it before he could get a multi year deal. For a $200 million player teams don’t care, but for a $50 million player it matters a bunch. Notably, Verlander was right at that level, and stayed in Houston.

I don’t think Boras would go for anything like that. There might be a chance that Rodon had a couple of comparable offers last year and went with the White Sox on a handshake agreement to not use the QO.

Ironically, the more of these fake insiders there are, the more likely that one of them nails something by random guessing and then claims they broke the story.

The f*** happened here

I can see the White Sox being worse next year - but there's also an easy set of ways they could be better. Eloy has a "Tolerable, non-terrible year". Luis Robert doesn't have a catastrophic injury and continues developing. Kopech replaces the 130-ish innings they got out of Rodon with some level of effectiveness. Boom, even if some guys like Abreu, Grandal, and Lynn take a step back, that right there offsets it - entirely internally.

So far the guys signing seem to be guys who teams think might be a little undervalued, guys who get offers and then think “hmm this might not be here in March”. One guy who might fit that description could be Tepera.

It is impossible for there to be proof of what happens 10 years after exposure to a virus that has only been around for 2 years. That said, many viruses are known to have poorly understood, long term effects. The flu is far less severe than COVID but there are cases where people have issues from the flu several years later. This, it is entirely expected that COVID will leave some people with permanent declines in their quality of life. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17497-6 https://www.health.com/condition/flu/flu-long-term-effects https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/09/29/long-flu-also-exists-but-is-less-common-than-long-covid-study-suggests/?sh=1ca94f421305 I have a colleague who caught an unknown virus in 2011 and wound up nearly dying of pneumonia, ucla medical center saved his life, but he is permanently disabled from it. Had no known comparable issues prior to that.

Yeah he was a little earlier, he was traded to the Diamondbacks in 2010. Of course, the white sox’s system wasn’t good then either.

Worth noting that the MLBPA proposed fewer years of team control in their publicly available ask. Giolito is a guy who could be impacted if that did happen in a final structure.

I believe Maldonado signed a contract extension early last season with the Astros. They also have a catching prospect who should arrive this year so they are a good match for him.

The White Sox’s minor leagues stank in 2013-2016. Those same teams produced Semien, Bassitt, Anderson, and Tatis. There can and will be individual success stories in overall bad systems.

Hmph, he's still in his 20s, he had an ERA near 5 but the best FIP, K/9, and BB/9 (tie with rookie year) of his career last year. This could be a sneaky good signing with that bigger ballpark in Detroit as opposed to Boston. Looks like he jumped to a .364 BABIP last year.

I'd be ok with it, it generally seems realistic, it probably puts the White Sox in the neighborhood of $185 million if they don't get rid of Kimbrel so whether or not they are forced to move one of those contracts depends on what the White Sox's payroll limit is (and I still am not going to make a guess at that before we see a CBA finalized).

I’m sure they have. Scott Boras will meet with anyone who has interest in his clients. Other teams don’t know how strong any teams’ interest is, so Boras will always take the meeting because it’s more interest in his client and that interest will push competitive bidding. That is different from “the White Sox have a competitive offer for him”.