Jack Parkman

My dad isn't even a Sox fan. He's a Dodger fan that lives in Chicago that also hates/likes to troll the Cubs. I used to think he was a Sox fan but I've learned otherwise over the last decade. He's never lived in LA(or anywhere outside of the Chicago area for that matter) but he's a fan of all of their teams. Lakers, Raiders(they used to be in LA), Dodgers. I don't get it. Most of my friends are Cub fans. I really don't have anyone to share them with other than this board. I'm seriously considering just abandoning the Sox until JR is no longer the owner, but I know that if they start to win I won't be able to stay away. I'm giving them through 2023 when Moncada and Giolito are up and if they don't win a division at the very least I'm jumping ship until new ownership arrives. You have 4 seasons JR.

Dude I'm a Sox fan- why would I want to believe this??? This basically rules out winning. I believe it.....if you look at the Sox behavior from 1995-2012.......if the shoe fits... This just sucks. I've always believed in tempering expectations, but now I have none whatsoever.

I hope you're right and this is taken completely out of context. but if you look at the Sox MO from 1995-2012..........It paints a completely different picture.

I don't know why you think this is nuts. It makes so much sense actually. It's confusing to me why everyone doesn't believe this unless they are just in denial. I don't want to believe it either, but the evidence is overwhelming.

It's a combination of stringing us along AND profitability. It drums up interest with the fanbase, keeps the media talking about the team, sells merchandise etc. It's a hugely profitable business model actually. He builds 2nd place teams and hopes that everything goes right and they win. In 2005 that happened. I wouldn't count on it again. I'm actually going to change the thread title to be less confusing.

What if he's found that 2nd and 3rd place finishes maximize profitability?

I think he's content. If they finish 2nd fine, if they win that's a bonus.

He rebuilt in the late 90s as well. It's all part of stringing the fanbase along. He's never going to put them over the top. He aims for 85-88 wins as the endgame. They'll ride this core out and do it again if he's still around.

If you look at player acquisitions and trades over the last 25 years, it's fairly obvious to me that he's actively aiming for 2nd place. It makes waay too much sense.

It's not pessimism. I was actually a lot more optimistic than M4Y until I saw this. You put everything into context from the last 25 years of Sox baseball and it makes perfect sense. It fits like a missing puzzle piece. I'm not even angry right now I'm depressed, and I'm questioning whether or not I should give the Sox the Dollar Bill treatment. They don't deserve my loyalty and fandom if they're going to behave this way. If you look at the way he runs the Sox and Bulls it's clear he's not interested in winning championships. He's keeping his teams just a notch below that level. I don't want to believe this, but 25 years of evidence points to it.

I'm going to laugh my ass off when the "Rotation Upgrades" are Odorizzi and Wood and the "lineup upgrades" are Corey Dickerson and Kole Calhoun.

The evidence is there. It's overwhelming. Just look at the last two and a half decades of White Sox baseball and it's clear as day. It puts all of the absurdity and madness into context. Everything makes sense now that didn't before.

On twitter, and yes that does account for it.

This is why we're negative: I believe this to be true, and not clickbait. It makes a metric shit ton of sense and explains everything over the last two decades.

I think Reinsdorf just got exposed here and a lot of you are in denial. If you look at the evidence objectively it points to this. Use your brain people.

Regardless, it fits his modus operandi. White Sox decision making has an entirely new context when taking this info into account, and it makes a lot of sense that this is true. This is being a worse owner than being just super cheap and being bad every year. He's stringing us along.

He hits the ball hard. His xBABIP was .386. His actual BABIP was .403. It's actually sustainable, wild as it sounds.

This actually fits Reinsdorf's MO if you think about it.

The rumor that Reinsdorf wants to build second place teams at best makes a lot of sense when you look at the context. That's why top talent is off limits.

Moncada would have approached that this season with 155 games. He put up 5.7 fWAR in 136 games. With 155 games this year he would have put up 6.5 fWAR, assuming similar production. It's not that crazy.

This explains a lot about the 2000-2010 White Sox. It seems Reinsdorf is only interested in winning if it happens by accident. His goal is to build a 2nd place team. This makes too much sense for it not to be true. TIFWIW.

It's one game overseas, but they looked like a bottom 5 team in the league today. Not enough of a sample size to draw any sort of conclusions, but I'm starting to question Colliton's system. Not ready to jump ship on JC yet but talk to me at Thanksgiving and again at Xmas.

Yeah, but what worries me is that Merkin is state propaganda so to speak. I was ok with the hitters on the list but they're aiming way too low on the pitchers. Yeah that was it.

Did anyone post the stuff from the Merkin Mailbag yet? The names on there were interesting, and not in a good way.

Watching this game makes me really want Strasburg. I know it's a pipedream though