Balta1701

Even I cannot fire him right now, the 4th time to fire him was the end of the 2016 season and we passed on that, so right now we can't evaluate the current set of moves. I'd agree on this schedule, that if this team is still in the crapper in 3 seasons then Rick Hahn not only should be fired, but he'll go down as the worst GM in White Sox history. He'd have been GM for 9 seasons and had a losing record in every one, in that case. He'd have the worst record in baseball for a decade, he's already had it for 6 years. But I still want him tarred and feathered for that 2016 season.

What you might notice from your list is that out of them, The Tigers, Diamondbacks, Padres, Mariners, and Marlins have all fired or replaced their general managers during the stretch where Rick Hahn has somehow avoided being fired. In some cases they have done so more than once. Furthermore, the Orioles and Tigers have Division titles during that stretch, and the D-backs have a wild card birth. The Mariners, Padres, and Marlins have all won substantially more games than the White Sox during that stretch as well. We will see if the M's can break their playoffless streak this year, but they're likely to be above .500, something we have yet to see Rick Hahn ever do. The best story, since you bring it up, is the Arizona Diamondbacks. At the end of the 2014 season, Dave Stewart was brought in to be their general manager. Prior to the 2016 season, they spent big, signing Zack Greinke. They traded away prospects to bring in underperforming pitching. They said "we are ready to win now". They dramatically underperformed and finished in 4th place. What did they do in response, declare that everything was fine and they were trying again? They fired their manager and GM. The new guys...made the wild card. That's what happens when better organizations make mistakes. That's how I can confidently say we will never see a run of failure like Rick Hahn's run of failure again, because no other franchise would have let it go on that long, and once the current ownership group changes, the White Sox won't let runs of failure like this go on this long either.

Does the NFL do the type of continuous monitoring blood-testing and isotope checking that you have criticized MLB for not doing?

Since Rick Hahn took over the Chicago White Sox, they have the fewest regular season wins of any franchise in MLB. Even I'm surprised by this one, I just checked. Frankly I thought the Padres and Reds would be worse, but nope, Rick's White Sox have lost 13 more games in that stretch than any team in major league baseball.

If Rick Hahn was told by Jerry Reinsdorf to do something that was literally impossible - take a 73 win team with a bottom of the league organization and turn it into a playoff team on the free agent market - and he did not say "This is impossible I cannot do it", then it does not matter what Jerry Reinsdorf's suggestions were he failed completely at his job. If he said that and was overruled he should have considered resigning as he was being ordered to do the impossible and it was his career on the line. If that pattern continued he should have drawn a red line and said he was going to resign if he was not given actual authority to make decisions since that is literally his job. For example, if Rick Hahn said " I need to replace Robin Ventura" after the 2013 debacle and was denied permission to change the manager he should have resigned, and instead he gave him a contract extension. If Jerry Reinsdorf is making the general manager's decisions then the general manager should resign because he is not needed.

Based on the entirety of his tenure I would rank Rick Hahn's performance as GM as the worst in baseball and I don't think it's even close. We will never again see a GM do what he did - insist for 3 years that he has a competitive roster, spend lots of money, sacrifice future seasons, and fail so spectacularly again and again and again, because 28 or 29 other franchises would have fired him at least 3 times, and the majority would have fired him 4 or more. The only reason I'm not putting him below Hawk Harrelson as the worst in franchise history is getting those 3 extensions done. He has one last shot to turn around his reputation and that's for the talent he acquired using those players he extended to break out and carry this team to multiple pennant races and a trophy. If we're looking at a bunch of busts in 2020 and 2021 then I will call rick Hahn the worst GM baseball will ever see.

I disagree. The biggest question is whether or not they can consistently turn these prospects into players. That's the step they're struggling through right now and we don't know how it's going to end. If they can do that part then free agency will take care of itself. You cannot build a team through free agency, you have to start with a strong team or the free agents will not be nearly enough. Some of the guys they sign will work out, one or two might overproduce, several will bust. If they have a strong team around it, then that will be enough. If their minor league talent systematically busts, then the FA signings won't matter.

If Rick Hahn truly did not believe in the moves he was making in 2013, 2015, and 2016 and he was being overruled by the president of baseball operations, he should have resigned. He'd have probably improved his reputation rather than shredding it, and would have wound up with someone else in a top role soon enough.

If Moncada breaks out and is leading us into contention, and Madrigal breaks out as a great looking prospect, then Madrigal is trade bait, and he will bring back a heckuva haul. It'd be very much like what the Red Sox did in getting Sale - they had a strong, young roster, with a lot of talent remaining in the minors. Rather than waiting on the talent in the minors to arrive, they went out and traded it for one of the best pitchers in baseball, and now they have the best record in baseball.

If Moncada were to break out as an all star caliber player and Madrigal makes himself a top 10 prospect, Madrigal plays 2b for the team that has the #2 system in baseball at the time after the White Sox trade for their best player.

With the amount of injuries he's gone through this year and limited time at A ball, do you have confidence that he'll be the starting opening day CF in 2 years? Heck, even if he motors through the minors the next 2 years, at that point we could be talking about keeping him in AAA for a couple weeks to buy another year of team control.

That's Peoria, IL's district.

Just to note, Kopech currently has pitched 106.1 innings this year. He pitched 134.1 last year. If he pitches out the month, then we can talk about him being at the point of innings limits, but I definitely want him throwing >40 more innings this year barring other issues.

I hate teams that turn all isolation at the end of a game. Run your **** offense.

A couple items I'm going to add to the list because why not. Back in 2015 and 2016 when we were rushing everyone up to the big leagues in order to save the seasons, there were 2 more arguments made for why it was ok to bring people up early that have yet to be noted in this case. I think they're poor reasons to rush a guy to the big leagues, but when a guy shows that he's ready I would consider them additional minor reasons for a callup. 1. When a guy gets called up to the big leagues, he gets to work with the best coaches and training staff in the organization. Previously this has been used mostly to say that pitchers get to work with Cooper, but throw in Herm as well here. The best facilities, the guys who have the best chance at teaching him how to hit big league pitching and helping him stay healthy are in the big leagues, not in Charlotte. 2. Holding him down in the minors does not just have an effect on him, it has the potential to have an organizational effect. When a guy who has earned a callup gets one, that is a message to everyone else in the organization that if they focus and do their jobs, they will be treated fairly and get their shot. Conversely, all the 18-20 year olds in the minors in our organization right now are looking at Eloy Jiminez and thinking "S***, they're going to play this same game with me aren't they?". Again, they're minor things. I don't believe they're good reasons to call a guy up when his on the field performance does not support it, but as far as this discussion is concerned we have a guy who has done all he can to demonstrate he's ready for a callup based on his play and I don't remember seeing these noted, including in this article.

People were literally dying, it has now cost them well over a billion dollars in settlements, it threatens the foundation of the game if parents stop letting their kids play football, they could very well wind up having Congress get involved and we know the league doesn't want that, and eventually there would be a corpse lying dead on a field in front of 70,000 fans and a TV audience of millions.

Can you tell it's going to be down the middle if it comes at you at 96?

It's been weeks and still no one has figured out how to teach him the difference between Great Britain, England, and the United Kingdom.

Actual haboob yesterday.

Kyle Schwarber's DRS/Year (using numbers normalized for the full season since his seasons weren't full) 2015, LF: -13 2017, LF: -13 Kyle Schwarber's DRS did not improve between 2015 and 2017. Unfortunately per your logic that means his 2018 improvement is impossible.

On Sanchez, here's the problem. Fair value for a guy who is under team control for a long time, who can put up 1-2 WAR per year while also being cheap, is a top 100 prospect, because top 100 prospects have higher bust rates than guys who are established. However, it is not common that teams will give up a guy who "Might" be a 3-4 WAR player for a guy who is a 1-2 WAR player right now. I wouldn't be surprised if Hahn listened on him, but I think he probably got offers similar to what the Twins got for Escobar. No, I would not deal Luis Gonzalez and another top 20 prospect for Tommy Pham. I would much rather have the guys who are under our control and in our system already than gamble on Pham returning to a 6 WAR player such that I could maybe trade him in future years. 6. Aside from Miguel Gonzalez and Hector Santiago, who we actually did sign, please name some of these pitchers we should have signed for the starting rotation? The guys who turn out to have been good investments, Anibal Sanchez and Edwin Jackson, did you honestly see those guys coming? They were even minor league deals I believe. The other side of that could easily have been Jaime Garcia or Lance Lynn, who were more expensive than the guys we signed and who have been quite poor.

So, guys who start off poor defensively in their age 22-23 seasons can improve by age 25? That's great news.

If the White Sox are looking for guys on short term deals, 1-2 years, who are looking to re-establish themselves after a down year to potentially hit one more contract, Dozier fits that description. If he's able to put up a .850 OPS again next year then he's tradeable or we could have an extra year with him, and if he's as bad as he is this year he only costs money and the team has a ton of it, there's no one he'd be blocking for playing time who is ready to take over that position.

I'll just note that no one yet has attempted to defend him publicly criticizing Pat Fitzgerald's investigation of the Plame leak without publicly disclosing that he was a part of that investigation because a source leaked to him, which remains scummy and true and a perfect distillation of his current character. Also a perfect illustration of how the rules only matter to little people.

Kinda wish MLB.com made finding earlier season archive posts easier, but I can note that 2 of the guys Tampa Bay gave up for Pham are now the #9 and #14 guys in the Cardinals system. Yeah the White Sox's system is a ****ton stronger, that might be something like Gavin Sheets and Jordan Stephens, or similarly ranked players, from our system in return for Pham.