35thstreetswarm

I'm sure you do.

I think it could easily be competitive, and that history tells us over and over that projecting last year's results forward is a dangerous proposition. Why would the Twins go from a division champ offensive juggernaut to one of the worst teams in baseball in one season? Why would the Giants bust out and win the NL West? Who the hell knows what happens next year. The Twins could well make a few tweaks and return to form. Detroit improved rapidly this season and will spend in the offseason. The Royals are on the way up and could accelerate. Cleveland's rotation could be scary, as somebody mentioned above. I'd still take our divisional situation over most others but baseball is gonna baseball on us in unforeseen ways--that much I know.

With all due respect, that's not very precise. A "good season test"? What does that mean? "Good" by what measure? Why is best of 8 a "good" test, and best of 5 is worthless? More importantly, your solution hasn't addressed the problem of playoff randomness you identified. If the grind of a long regular season is accurate in sorting out the "best teams" and a short playoff series is a meaningless "few games"/crapshoot, why end the season with playoffs at all? You're not getting rid of your problem, you're just reshuffling the deck chairs. All you've done is arbitrarily changed the number of teams in the playoffs.

Given your outlook—why have a World Series at all? Why allow the “second best team” to be crowned “World Champions” when you could just anoint the “best team” based on the regular season?

For sure. I've long thought they'll be Soxtalk darlings this offseason and early 2022. Until we beat them, then it will be "we beat them so not impressed. It's just Detroit."

Why? We have far better division odds than all of them. We had a better record than Boston and Toronto this past season and beat them both head-to-head (tied Tampa, lost to Milwaukee, didn't play SF). We also have a more talented roster than most if not all of those teams. Pick your head up out of Soxtalk and, like it or not, the national take on the White Sox is "loaded young team, just won division, on the upswing."

The mighty Asterisks still looking for their first actual title. Love it.

Like I said in July when the sub-.500 Braves lost Acuna and Ozuna…NOW we’re talking

Braves, they of the 78-win PECOTA projection, lost Acuna and Ozuna after posting a sub-.500 first half and are about to win the World Series. Just a friendly reminder that your logic has no power here.

I agree, and I'd be happy with any of the three. But Conforto is getting talked up so much around here that I'm legitimately curious whether some see him as our true "#1 target" in any scenario, rather than our "realistic #1 target given embedded assumptions about budget." I assume most fans would prefer Semien or Seager at 2b to Conforto in RF in a perfect world, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

Would you choose Conforto over Semien or Seager (the good one)?

Yes, I can’t look at this positionally—in the abstract I would say RF because 2b might be easier to fill, but I’d look at player first. There’s a pretty big gulf in talent between some of the available names out there.

***Argument applies to every MLB team not called the Los Angeles Dodgers (who, incidentally, are sitting at home watching a World Series between two teams clearly "worse" than they are).

You'd be surprised. Lots of folks on this board hate next year's deadline moves already!

Somebody doesn't know what "hindsight" means. This is laughable, and reads like a test question in a class on logical fallacies. By the way, the Astros' moves at the deadline were all idiotic because they weren't going to get past the Braves--so what was the point? Unless the Astros pull it out, then the Braves' moves were all stupid. Stay tuned!

As far as I’m concerned they don’t have one yet. F the cheaters.

With most of these dumb names and traditions now in the dustbin of history, the few that remain will only become nastier—symbols of pathetic “defiance” and vessels for a particular kind of aggrieved white-guy rage. Can’t wait for it to be retired, which it will be eventually.

Nice - and I feel like 112 wins probably gets us over the top in the Central.

dammit

Yep. Even if he was right that was classless, and reflected poorly on the organization as it read like a message from the FO kicking somebody on the way out. Stone has become such a ball of grievance and scorn, which is too bad because he's really knowledgeable and helpful as a color announcer.

How many times are we going to "announce" that Tony La Russa is our manager just to gin up fresh outrage? Can I have your attention please: I'd like to announce that the Sox did indeed trade Tatis for Shields years ago. TURN ON THE FIREWORKS

What I want: -Sign Bryant to play RF -Sign Semien to play 2b -Sign Scherzer to a 1 or 2-year deal and let Rodon walk -Stop trading assets, including Kimbrel, who will figure it out and be a valuable reliever next season (with us or someone else) What they'll do: -Sign Semien -Stick with in-house options in RF (which I'd be OK with with Semien in the fold) -Hang on to Rodon -Trade some combination of Kimbrel, Crochet, Sheets, Vaughn, and/or Keuchel (plus prospects) for unexpected pitching names, a backup catcher and depth pieces

I was contacted by the team informing me that, since I elected to have funds spent on unplayed playoff games applied to my season ticket balance, I should log on to my account to transfer the funds to pay that balance. The problem: I paid my season ticket balance in full, and so did not elect to have the thousands spent on unplayed games applied to a zero balance. My account also doesn't show any "excess" balance from unplayed games at all. I emailed asking for my refund and haven't heard back yet -- more waiting, I guess.

I’m thinking 180-190 at least. If the Sox are ever going to spend (and I think they will, as they have in the past when Jerry really believed the team was a contender) it’s now. They’re squarely in their contention window and neither TLR nor Jerry is getting any younger.

I could easily see him presiding over an implosion of that volatile clubhouse, which wouldn’t be the worst thing.