southsider2k5

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 07:54 PM) Loyalty is a two way street especially when you are dealing with a public trust. Baseball like business is a results orientated business. The results the last nine years speak for themselves. With MLB a nine billion dollar industry right now that's really the only thing the Sox don't have to worry about. They are making money rest easy on that score. I have this mental image of JR (like Nero) fiddling while the Sox (like Rome) are burning to the ground... Not a pleseant image on many levels. Mark And this is why the White Sox don't have nice things.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 05:50 PM) Would depend on whether or not JR can be expected to spend now to augment 2016 with the knowledge that $29 million comes off the books the next year with Danks and LaRoche- $39 million if they have re-signed Alexei. They won't spend into a deficit this year. If anything they wait until 2016 to spend.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 06:24 PM) Bandwagon fans means more money for the franchise to spend (hopefully) at least part of it on getting good players to keep coming in and continuing winning baseball. Mark Loyal fans mean money when things aren't good. Wouldn't that be nice now.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 05:16 PM) Not sure what handwaving is but I acknowledged your argument. I just don't agree that profit equals incremental increase in expenses... You are also taking Forbes estimates as fact even though I remember you being on the other side of that argument in the past. MLB's revenues are exploding. Owners are making the capital/labor split deeper every year. The Sox ownership was taking more than other teams before the serious revenue growth. The money is there. I don't believe I have been on the other side of the Forbes arguments. I think a company that can analyze way more complex organizations than baseball teams with hundreds of thousands of employees and multinational presences can handle a baseball team quite nicely. My basic assumption that the Sox won't intentionally spend themselves into a loss in a given year. It can happen with the bandwagon empties unexpectedly, and honestly I wouldn't be shocked to see it this year. Taking that number, we get an idea for a baseline of what this team can afford to spend. If we have already spent the extra money we had, I don't see there being anymore. Do you see revenues being higher in 2016, than 2014? I don't, which is why I don't see there being a lot of extra money to spend.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 04:28 PM) You didn't touch the crux of my argument which is the principal reason I know there's money if they want to spend/change. There's money there. I touched it in the last post, but you hand waved it away. We spent almost all of the profit margin we had from the prior year, and seeing as I don't believe we are going to see higher revenues, and will in fact see lower revenues in 16 vs 15, there is not much left unless we move contracts to make it. I don't see that happening either. I don't see money to spend.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 04:05 PM) Danks and LaRoche aren't currently FA's and I am aware of that, obvious typo there. My bad. I could have sworn that it was reported the Sox offered Samardzija a contract. Regardless, at face value, they were intent on at least vying for his services. He was a guy penned for a hundred million dollar contract prior to this season so they were aware of the expenditure's nature and that they had the ability to extend as much. I would have to see the offseason before I guessed on attendance but there are reasons to believe attendance will go down. I am not going to go into this quasi-accounting where year X's profit supposedly equals the succeeding year's maximum increase for operating cost. Nor am I going to take the Forbes numbers with any credence. The Sox have one of the most drastic capital/labor splits in baseball. We can't look at the numbers from 2011 and compare them to 2015 as if they are equal. You have to consider in 2011, after attendance went down 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. In 2011, the Sox had their highest payroll ever at 128 million. 128 million in 2015 dollars is much less than 128 in 2015. When you factor in inflation, revenue sharing, national/local TV deals the average payroll increase significantly and steadily annually. Despite the payrolls and average player salary growing tremendously, the players share of revenue has decreased 33% over the last thirteen years. In the largest two year growth ever, the average MLB player salary is up to 4.2 million for the 2015 season. That's a 16.4% growth rate over two years on the average player salary. Despite that, players got a lesser share of revenue in both years! Owners are raking in the money. This is a huge issue for the MLBPA with the CBA expiring after 2016. It's not a matter of whether the Sox have the money to spend, it's a matter of whether the Sox choose to spend the money and to what extent. I agree with the idea that they offered him a deal previously. But things have changed. The gains in attendance didn't materialize the way they though, along with all of the extra revenues from that and extra ads, etc. Just because they made the offer then, doesn't mean the money is there now. I don't see us having $20 million or more free payroll dollars to play with for 2016.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 03:48 PM) My favorite part of the article was where it said "Of course, the best way to fix a drop in fan support is to reel off a string of playoff appearances". I mean, who woulda thunk it!! Sure, load up the bandwagon.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 03:26 PM) They offered Samardzija ~90 million. Danks and LaRoche off the books after 2015 is almost 30 million off the books. Sox attendance went up over 1,000 per game from '14-'15. They were over 130 million in 2012 and 2014 and that's over 150 million in today's market. That's not including the profits they've mades since then. Sox operating costs are minuscule. The one thing that is worrisome about the Sox money situation is the lack of advertising interest with the team. The Sox have serious money coming to them in 2019 so if they have to back load a deal to make it happen it shouldn't be an issue. That's basically protocol for most teams anyways. Danks and LaRoche are on the books through 2016, not 2015. The Samardjiza offer was made with the idea that fans would actually care about the team in 2016, and that was before 2015 happened. Do you think attendance goes up or down in 2016? The White Sox came home with a $32 million profit for last season (2014). They spent $28 million more in payroll going from 2014 to 2015, so most of that profit was spent. The question is two fold, how much more revenue did they generate in 2015, and how much of it to they expect to stick around in 2016? I wouldn't expect much.

Is that Dave Kaplan getting an autograph from the baseball commish? https://twitter.com/CSNCubs/status/654015704748957696

Bob Nightengale ‏@BNightengale 2m2 minutes ago Rob Manfred said #MLB hopes to have a rule in the future to better protect middle infielders, just as they did with home plate collisions.

Vincent Goodwill ‏@vgoodwill 1h1 hour ago Hoiberg said Rose sitting the first handful of games is a consideration: "we'll take a cautious approach". Likely he'll sit all preseason

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 03:15 PM) Andrew Jones is only 38 years old....has no relevance to anything but I thought it was interesting how his career just kind of ended. In the post steroid era, not many players are going to be playing longer than that.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 03:12 PM) I think some people want the Sox to tear it down and get a bunch of young guys. Others want the Sox to acquire a bunch of veterans through FA. I prefer that the Sox do a little bit of both. 1.) One big expenditure. Preferably a guy who doesn't have a QO attached. For the right price, I think you can make an exception for a guy like Justin Upton who the FO covets. Seems like a lot of people are down on him so if you could get him for 6/120ish that's a nice deal for a guy who's averaged almost 4 WAR/year that past five years. 2.) Steve Pearce. He had a .233 BABIP which is 7th worst for players who had 300 PAs. His ISO is still over .200. You sign him cheapish to be the RH side of the DH platoon with LaRoche. He played at least 100 innings at 1B, OF and 2B for the Orioles last year. Give him a role in a position he should succeed in (hitting LHP) and if he excels there is more opportunity available. If his BABIP normalizes, which I suspect it will, he can be a great pick up. At the very least he's a cheap power option who cold hit 20HRs. 3.) Trade pitching for some YOUTH on the offense. If it's Q that goes, get multiple pieces that can step in and potentially join the core of Abreu/Eaton. I wonder where we come up with the money for a big signing. Reading between the lines of what Hahn has already said, I think they already know they are taking a big hit at the box office over what was expected, and aren't going to have the money for splash. I am hoping for more of a 2005 surgical strike with some targeted signings.

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 02:56 PM) he could probably get $3-5 million playing another year, and I doubt he'd turn that down. He could get more from one year, but this is a once in a generation chance at a life time type of job. That is tough to turn down.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 02:36 PM) Well, it certainly doesn't seem to be weighted towards actual team results. Our "ownership" doesn't have a whole heckuva lot to point to in that regard. Our highest ranking, besides affordability...

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 01:53 PM) Irony, indeed! Makes you wonder what criteria they use to render such a conclusion. Fan complaints, I am sure.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 01:25 PM) I'd go up to 8/160 for Heyward. But I think he gets more. And some team will offer him an opt-out after 4. Yeah, I don't see anyway that Heyward signs for that little. When all is said and done, I expect $200 million to be on the agenda.

Greg Johns ‏@GregJohnsMLB 20m20 minutes ago Mariners report that Robinson Cano underwent his surgery for sports hernia this a.m. in Philly. Recovery expected to be six weeks.

Ken Rosenthal @Ken_Rosenthal Source: Alex Cora will interview for managerial openings with #Padres, #Marlins, #Nationals. SD meeting first reported by @JonHeymanCBS. 3 retweets 2 favorites

Scot Gregor ‏@scotgregor 7m7 minutes ago Tough break for #Cardinals...Molina scratched from Game 4 with left thumb injury. #NLDS

The irony is that ownership is one of their highest rated categories.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 11:00 AM) Matt Spiegel today hinted at the possibility of the White Sox hiring AJ Pierzynski. He said he couldn't really talk about it but said he'd heard rumors. I wonder if they would replace Steve Stone with AJ or just go with AJ/Hawk with Stone. Interesting. AJ has the personality to be really good at announcing. He has a lot in common with Hawk.

QUOTE (shipps @ Oct 12, 2015 -> 04:32 PM) Is there more league wide injuries now then say 5 years ago? Is it because defenders are hitting in different areas then previously? There seems like there are far more injuries now that guys are striking the offensive players lower and more with their arms and not the shoulders. Maybe with lower hitting, guys are getting hit in the knees more often?

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Oct 12, 2015 -> 10:20 PM) Portis has looked very good, but with Niko/Gasol/Noah/Gibson, I don't see him getting more than 5 minutes per game barring injuries/trades. At least two of those guys will miss significant time.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 10:01 AM) Carson, Trump and Bush have all benefited from MLM scam companies. A good time to repost Perlstein's The Long Con. On the bright side, they are qualified to run Social Security.