Dick Allen

Publicly emphasing you were right all along and your superior may have been wrong? I'm not buying that. Rick does go out of his way to kiss JR's ring every time a major player is signed or traded for. I doubt he would basically taunt JR and/or KW like that.

I did notice post strike, Ron Schueler, who, while not always right, did become ultra conservative. They had the outlier of Albert Belle, but other than that, it was Kruk and Sabo and the annual reclamation project in RF and of course the white flag trade. At the beginning, JR went after Fisk, Floyd Bannister was one of the more coveted free agents. Obviously the money is a bit different now, but you have to be very accurate if you are doing it the way the Sox have been doing it. KW was pretty aggressive but most of his moves were still half assed. Everything worked out in 2005. AJP, Dye, Iguchi, Hermanson was great until he was injured. Bobby Jenks as a minor league waiver claim. But perfection isn't going to happen very often. It seems the Sox, even when trying to win, want to save something for later instead of lets be stacked on opening day. Usually that leads to subtracting at the deadline, not adding. We will see how it goes. They are going to spend. They have to spend better. It would be nice if they develop a guy or two we never think to count on. But it's been the same thing for so long and very little organizational change leads one to think the results not being the same would be the surprise.

If being your own man here isn't allowed, how was Larry Himes able to stick it out 3 years? Obviously, if he would have placated JR a bit more, he would have been re-upped, but still, 3 years, builds a 94 win team with the lowest payroll in baseball, and really set them up for a really good run, only to be squandered. If Rick could have built this team up to a 94 win team in 3 seasons, if JR dropped him, he would have no problem finding another job. One difference, Larry hit on guys in the draft, and got good value in small trades. Although it is never mentioned, Larry drafted Ray Durham in the 5th round. When is the last time the White Sox have drafted someone after the first couple of rounds that became really good?

What's weird is JR thinks LaRussa was his biggest mistake, but he was eventually a high priced manager. He did go after Leyland. But because they screwed over his buddy Lamont, that wasn't going to happen. Joe Maddon isn't any more expensive than Fred Hoiberg. You would think he would be up for something like that.

I agree with that. But, unfortunately, with 2005 on his resume, there is no way JR ever rids us of KW.

Yet they are out there saying JR is going to unprecedented lengths financially to sign players they either do eventually sign, like with Abreu, and don't sign, like with Machado. Just remember, the money will be spent.

If anyone here won the lottery and could buy the White Sox and Rick Hahn's contract was up, is there anyone willing to admit they would make every effort to retain him as the GM?

I would think if another pretty smart guy like JR valued RH's baseball acumen, he would listen to his suggestions more often than not. So if they are not listening to him, and he is paid to be a scapegoat, I would think he would find something else to do. His fingerprints are on this organization.

I believe he said it, but I think it was tongue in cheek. I will never think JR wants to finish in 2nd place. It makes no sense.

I do think ultimately, that is what has to happen for this team to have a run like the Astros or even the Cubs, when people were b****ing at 95 win seasons. I like JR, but it's time. They are going to spend money this winter, but if RH goes 1 for 7 or 1 for 8 , next year won't be much better than this, and then money will suddenly start getting tight.

If he was thinking he could get Machado without being the highest bidder, that's incompetence. Everyone, except apparently the White Sox, knew he was going to wherever he got the most money. Maybe they need to write these things on their dry boards on executive row on 35th Street.

I'd take him if they were basically giving him away. Lopez is way too much. I think Lopez gets mentioned because a writer suggested it when it was first rumored Mazara was available. But that would really be a curious trade.

But this isn't the NBA. One player isn't going to move a needle between contention and being awful. So if it is one player that makes his overall number go from what a monkey could do to what a message board poster could do in a pretty large sample size, you would have to think he's closer to the monkey. I don't think Rick Hahn is a dumb guy, far from it. I just don't think he's a baseball guy. And I don't think he's the only problem. But he is a problem. KW is a problem. JR is a problem. Their scouts are problems. Their coaches are problems. Their minor league instructors are problems. Their manager seems to be a problem, but to be fair, no one is going to win 85 games with what he has been given. A thorough housecleaning is long overdue, and it seems to me the only way it will every happen is a sale of the team.

Neither would I. Their values aren't particularly close. Mazara has a career 1.7 WAR. He has never even put up a 1.0 WAR in a season. They can have Carson Fulmer, if that.

I am not the only person on this site that thinks you defend Rick Hahn. One player averaging about 3 WAR a year as the feather in your cap in 7 years of work, and getting slightly better than replacement on the other $180 million you spent, isn't exactly getting it done. Maybe he's due to be right. I can't believe Hahn's performance is up for debate. It's as clear as can be.

It's not. Whether the ultimate goal is winning or not, he is signing free agents and trading for players he thinks can play. So many of these were just pissing away money. Jon Jay? Please. Alonso wasn't techinically a free agent, I guess that makes it even worse, but Yonder Alonso for $9 million? Really? Another trade, Nova, why $9 million on him? They spent $22 million on those 3. Why? What did they add to the rebuild? Why not spend it on 16 year old international guys and a bunch of lottery tickets? McCann was good for a losing team. Hopefully he can keep it up, and we can put him in Rick's win column. But If he snaps back to being what he was in 2020, not saying he will, and hoping he will not, is that a win when you are paying someone to be good on a bad team? Even with Abreu, he has spent over $250 million on free agents only to lose, lose, and lose some more. When he was "going for it", LaRoche? Trading for Samardijza? It's one colossal blunder after another. Even Robertson and Frazier, he salary dumped with Kahnle a guy they could still use, and got back a poor man's Ryan Sweeney who may never play in the major leagues.

If he continues his trend of his first 7 years, do you really think he can build a perennial contender?

I always liked Lovie. He took a team QB'd by Rex Grossman to the Super Bowl.

The problem is, eventually the Sox will be at their 2014-2016 level and will need to make additions to see it through. It didn't work then, it hasn't worked since 2005, except in 2008. With basically the same guys making the decisions, what do we have to hang our collective hats on? Money-wise, when they "went for it" in 2015, Sale, Q, and Eaton, combined, made less than Abreu will make even if he signs for less than the QO. Hey, maybe they can have a good season, and make the playoffs once. OK, I can see that. But sustained winning? They have never done it. Did they just need 15-20 years of seasoning? This period of hurt is supposed to pay off with winning. So much winning that the Sox wanted no part of giving a 10 year contract last year because it would make it tough in years 9 and 10.

So if the GM doesn't make trades, sign free agents, and ultimately pull the trigger on draft picks, who does? Rick Hahn gets paid a lot of money to put his name on White Sox personnel decisions. Just because someone is very intelligent doesn't mean they have all the answers in baseball. There are plenty of guys in sports making decisions you wouldn't want taking the SAT for you, and plenty of guys you would want taking the SAT for you, you wouldn't want in Rick Hahn's position. You said the organization is a joke. What does that say about Rick Hahn, a guy for those 10-15 years who has been a lot closer to the top of the organizational chart than the bottom. I think they all have to go myself. The most bizarre thing was every bad move was a KW/JR decision, every good one a RH move of a couple of seasons ago. That seems to have gone by the boards, although there still seems to be a holdout or two.

A much needed win, and Mitch looked good for a couple of series. But a crappy defense and back up QB and winning by the skin of their teeth isn’t exactly encouraging.

But he has been better offensively in the past. For the White Sox, he doesn't make sense because the other guys have to play. But it's not crazy to think he is capable of a 2+ WAR. He has done it before. He will make less than Yonder Alonso whose WAR has been pretty low most of his career. At the very least, you know Yolmer won't be totally useless because of his glove, something you can't say about many players in hi prie range. I am not saying it would be a well thought of prospect. Someone like a Cordell. Or Burr. A guy who probably sucks but you never know. The Sox are due for one of these types working out.

Maybe they can trade him for something. He did deserve the GG which in itself is pretty amazing the way he started out, and we know he can also play 3rd , and if he has to, SS. His arbitration number and his WAR aren't really out of whack, and plenty of teams can use his glove and Gatorade antics.

Even with them, Rick Hahn generally managed teams have never produced a draft pick lower than 11. So next year will be the 7th consecutive year the Sox pick in the top 11, including 2 pick 3s, 1 pick 4, 1 pick 8, 1 pick 10, and 2 pick 11s. Larry Himes totally rebuilt the White Sox with a 5,7,10 and 4. He is a smart guy, but maybe building MLB rosters isn’t his thing. There seems to be a lot of proof out there. He thought he had at least a couple of contenders, yet never won more than 78 games. At the very least, they need new braintrust. JR needs to say thanks for the memories to KW and RH, hire someone else and lose his or her cell number to stay out of the way.