caulfield12

I guess a sub topic would be front office personnel to replace Getz lol.

Two errors or less per game would be nice to see...

Staying healthy enough to be a "qualified" batter would be though.

Right. And they got desperate to take any first tier pitcher when Wheeler evaporated. Keuchel was the very last guy left remaining at that level...at the time.

Vaughn/Robert and...hoping for Colson, but let's go with Teel instead. Benintendi another logical candidate if he wants to get traded away to an actual contender. Quero could do a reasonable Omar Narvaez impression...

They had another play where the ball got away on a relay throw from the outfield allowing a runner to advance to second. Was that when Smith was in? And then he failed to hold the runner at second...but managed to strand him with K's anyway.

Last time they won the offseason wate the consecutive Cabrera Robertson LaRoche signings. Didn't go so well. Or was it Grandal Keuchel and Lynn? Were Hendriks/Kimbrel (ddl) that offseason or the next? Don't want to think about it too much lol.

That's certainly the headline-gathering way to get more disenchanted Sox fans back on board and also a wake up call to Ricketts that he can no longer take the White Sox being irrelevant for granted. LAD would definitely be more interested in Tucker or Murakami... They probably want to hold 1B and DH for Freeman/Ohtani.

I'll play. Tucker pried away from the Cubs...shot across their bow and also because he's a true multi-dimensional player with Guerrero Jr. having so much value coming from the hit tool. Buehler (bounce back to Cy Young for) OR King (less overall mileage on his arm, comparatively). Wouldn't trust Cease to stay healthy for another five years. Professional hitter like a Schwarber or Arraez. 3 big additions. Then I monitor Luis Robert (could even reverse directions and extend), NPB players and transform Grant Taylor into a dynamic multi-inning closer.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/top-10-mlb-free-agents-for-2025-26-offseason-vladimir-guerrero-jr-leads-list-plus-contract-predictions/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjjzfDR0uOLAxU6IUQIHZiGFoUQFnoECAEQAg&usg=AOvVaw1WtW4UPsgXYrjNsqH304Jr You can use these salary predictions... Guerrero Jr., Tucker, Cease, Gallen, Framber Valdez, Walker Buehler, Michael King, Bo Bichette, JT Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, Luis Arraez...

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article/with-dan-snyder-gone-and-the-commanders-thriving-jets-woody-johnson-is-the-nfls-ownership-wart-022807379.html Reinsdorf at least isn't to Woody Johnson/Daniel Snyder levels of bad territory...quite yet. But that's not saying much. One does have to wonder if there have been private complaints to Manfred about the team's lack of competitiveness...lack of a new stadium plan and lack of a discernible media/broadcast strategy. It's not NY...but it is the third largest media market in the US still.

https://www.mlb.com/news/2025-2026-mlb-free-agent-class-preview Some always complain the tone is too negative around here. So let's come up with our positive/theoretical spending plans...keep the total commitments between $500-$750 million just to have a somewhat realistic framework. Can extend young players (Schultz, Smith, Colson) but more likely to invest that money in MLB and/or NPB free agents like Murakami at 3B or pitching help...especially the bullpen.

https://soxmachine.com/2025/02/new-network-new-tone-for-john-schriffen-in-second-year/ New Network, New Tone for Schiffren in his second year (and first with a new network) One of the comments at the end of the article was on point here... Listening to his segment with Bruce Levine and Ryan McGuffey on “Inside the Clubhouse,” I have the feeling it’s not going to be the quickest of fixes. I heard that interview and have to agree with this JM. This tough-guy, I am from New York, need to prove people wrong nonsense really bothers me. Who the hell cares? You went to Dartmouth. What is that the toughest of the Ivy League Schools(?). He comes off to me as thin-skinned, petty and not very good at his job and that interview on the Score only reinforced that to me. His disingenuous attempts to explain his performance and actions last year as caused by his being overly competitive and wanting to prove people wrong, makes no sense. You are a professional MLB play by play announcer. (Like GM's, it's just one of 30 such jobs in the world.) No need to prove anyone wrong. Just do better. I guess one of the other things that he did that annoyed a lot of players and front office people (probably because he felt isolated from Stone and Brooks Boyer)...was hanging around the players too much, getting too close to be objective with some of them (like Pham), trying too hard to be the "cool kid" and showing off that he wasn't Benetti but maybe pitching himself as the polar opposite in numerous ways.

The odds-makers were at 54.5 predicted wins before Spring Training...but if they were to put an updated line at Vegas, it might be down to 51-52 and just wait until Luis Robert, Jr., is traded. 49-50 at that point. Any record in the 40's with losses in the 110's would feel in many ways "worse" than the 2024 record. Because they need do show REAL, demonstrable progress, and at the very least, Vargas/Sosa/Teel/Quero/C.Montgomery will all start seeing major league action this year, even if they hold Smith and Schultz back for May 2026.

Even if he's now the owner of even 20-25% of shares...along with his sons...that's the most, $500 additional billion that the Ishbia's would have to come up with. THEORETICALLY. Capital gains would be $75-100 million, once again, based on what little we do know here.

Overall evaluation of the entire franchise was at one point $2.09 or $2.19 billion. $2 billion this was the beginning of 2024 According to Forbes’ MLB franchise valuations, published last year, the White Sox are worth just over $2 billion, placing them just inside the top-half of MLB franchises. The crosstown Cubs are worth $4.22 billion, making them the fourth-most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6156885/2025/02/25/justin-ishbia-white-sox-cubs/

https://www.mlb.com/news/kyle-teel-gains-fame-with-homer-off-roki-sasaki?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage “I didn’t know it was going to be with him until he hopped on the mound,” Teel said in the White Sox clubhouse Wednesday morning. “It was cool, you know. Just getting work in, getting things done on the back fields, working on my ball flight that day. And it ended up being good ball flight. “I’ve never faced him before, but really good pitcher. I’ve seen his stuff on Instagram -- really good pitcher for Team Japan. It was really cool facing him.”

You have to get on base first in order to steal...

And nobody will take that risk...watch if Paul Skenes signs long term with the Pirates.

Seemed to be pull happy...but grounders and not line drives.

The public pressure and national embarrassment is going to be be brought to bear...they might set the all-time MLB record for spring training futility while they're at it. You're not going to see a whole lot of tolerance or fan support for a team that's basically being held hostage by an 89 year old man whose best days are behind him and CAN STILL turn the cash-cow Bulls' franchise over to his son/s. Not to mention there's no way in HELL that Reinsdorf's in a position to get this stadium deal to the finish line without putting in $500 million and maybe $1 billion of his own money to get it done, that's money that only the likes of the Ishbia's and Hobson/Lucas group as secondary investors can possibly take on. Fwiw, the Pohlads run their Twins' franchise in the exact same way as Reinsdorf and had a sense that now was the best time to get out...and this coming from a franchise with basically 2 owners in 125 years (Griffith's as well).

This is where the Madrigal comps are going to come. He always seemed like a solid bet to be a 2ish fWAR player if he could actually stay on the field 150+ games. The comps will come not just because of his size and lack of a strong arm, but the power numbers might be fairly similar. We'll see how those high OBP numbers hold up. If they're going to play Rojas at 2B to give Vargas more rope to hang himself with...that blocks Meidroth and maybe even Sosa, who would seem to be the first man up due to his lack of options. Unless they use some of these guys at DH...it would arguably be better just to DH Vargas and open up 2B, with Rojas at 3rd.

CF improvement will last exactly how long until we have to watch Colas/Fletcher/DeLoach out there?