caulfield12

Menu ESPNCompare and contrast Sox with the worst teams/franchises in other sports.... 1) Iconic black white and silver logos 2) Unstable franchises...have occupied major market/s but second team to 49ers/Cubs...never found home in LA or St Pete or Nashville 3) Terrible at drafting and signing FA's 4) Al Davis and JR iconic owners who aged out of relevance 5) Bowers/Crosby=Crochet/Robert Davante Adams=Benintendi 6) Proud histories/historic franchises...only major difference the two stadiums and 70s 80s early 90s winning tradition of the Raiders. "The biggest problem is the same one that has faced this organization for years. I wrote about it repeatedly at the end of the Jon Gruden era in 2021, then again when it traded for Adams in 2022. After nearly a decade of poor drafts and short-sighted decision-making, the Raiders are missing virtually an entire roster's worth of homegrown players. Across an eight-year window from 2016 to 2023, they essentially would have done better drafting out of a magazine with 10 minutes of prep like your friend who forgot about his fantasy draft: Earlier versions of the Raiders tried to make up for the absences by getting very aggressive in free agency. The 2024 team is fielding the league's fifth-youngest roster, which is at least a testament to change. They're playing a young group of receivers after the injuries, paced by rookie tight end Brock Bowers, who has been fantastic. The offensive line has three starters on rookie deals, while the same is true for five of the six regulars in the secondary. Young, cheap talent doesn't necessarily equal breakout players, but the Raiders were often too confident that signing veteran free agents would solve their problems. I'm not sure they're any more likely to whiff by giving the same chances to young players." https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/41911328/nfl-worst-teams-2024-which-need-rebuild-roster-depth-chart-salary-cap

Or a VPN...

Just hope they don't recycle Joe McEwing or Jose Oquendo from the ex-Cardinals list. Can someone actually conceive of a White Sox identity and not simply adhere to the Cardinals' Way because you need your own organizational vision, something that's original and not derivative.

90's Braves...but only one World Series title in that era, right? mid to late 90's Yankees...that's the closest you're going to get in MLB in the "modern" era then the current Braves run since wherever you want to backdate it to, with just one more title? Dodgers from 2013 through today, but only one World Series victory and that was the Covid year So we're basically left with the Chiefs and Patriots in the NFL...almost an impossible bar or standard

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/41916472/new-york-mets-run-2024-mlb-playoffs-world-series-future Passan on Mets' future looking up, organizational changes under Stearns/Cohen

Or Rock Chalk Jayhawk and beers with Ozzie…

Well, except Edman is the quintessential Eckstein clone...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Comcast/comments/swep5o/comcast_is_evil/?rdt=34382

When the Dodgers got Edman in a three-way, trade-deadline deal with the Cardinals and White Sox that also brought them reliever Michael Kopech, the former Cardinal hadn’t played a game this year and was still rehabbing from offseason ankle surgery. Fast-forward to the postseason, and Edman showed exactly why L.A. wanted him. When he took over for the injured Miguel Rojas in Game 3 of the NLDS, no one knew how big a role he’d play over the next 10 days. But in addition to starting at shortstop in every game, the versatile Edman crushed Mets pitching in the NLCS, slashing .407/.393/.630 with a homer and 11 RBI, tying him with Corey Seager for the franchise record in a postseason series. While filling in as the team’s cleanup hitter in Game 6, Edman hit a two-run double and a two-run homer in the pennant-clinching victory. ..... Ohtani disagreed. “Tommy, I think, clearly is the MVP,” he said. “He does things — not just this postseason but during the regular season — contributing in places where it doesn't really reflect on the stat line. https://sports.yahoo.com/mets-vs-dodgers-la-showcases-its-resolve-star-power-and-depth-beyond-shohei-ohtani-and-mookie-betts-to-reach-world-series-060154431.html

You were just badmouthing the Yankees after attending the ALDS, at any rate, Dodgers open as the betting favorites. Edman plated 11 runs in the NLCS, tying Corey Seager for most RBIs in a postseason series for the Dodgers since that statistic became official in 1920. In a series full of big hits, Edman delivered two huge ones in his first two trips to the plate in Sunday’s Game 6. His two-run double in the first inning put the Dodgers ahead, 2-1, and provided the first lead change of what had been a lopsided series. In the third, Edman mashed his first career postseason home run, a two-run shot that gave him 11 RBIs in the NLCS to tie Corey Seager’s franchise record for any round of the postseason. Seager’s 11 RBIs against the Braves in the 2020 NLCS won him series MVP honors. mlb.com

Major League Baseball’s postseason has been knocking it out of the park. The National League Championship Series’ first game between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday averaged 8.26 million viewers across Fox Sports’ TV networks and streaming, making it the most-watched LCS game on any network since 2009, according to Fox Sports. The first game of the American League Championship Series on Monday night between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians saw an uptick of 4% from 2023, grossing 3.9 million viewers, according to a TNT Sports spokesperson. Both series were competing for national attention during “Sunday Night Football” and “Monday Night Football,” where all three of New York’s National Football League teams were playing in the primetime slots. The championship series gains come right after four successful league division series for MLB and its broadcast partners. The American League Division Series averaged three million viewers, a more than 20% increase from 2023, according to TNT Sports. Viewership for the National League Division Series rose, too, with game four in each series climbing from 2022. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/16/mlb-playoff-viewership-rises-in-yankees-guardians-mets-dodgers-series.html

Great is going to be a relative term...compared to the last time the Yankees were in the World Series in 2009. Or the last Dodgers/Yankees World Series 43 years ago, in 1981 (strike year), but the 12th match-up overall across MLB history (most in the 1950's/60's). In September 2000, Fox Sports reportedly paid $2.45 billion to become the exclusive over-the-air broadcaster of Major League Baseball’s World Series. This year, the network will realize a dream matchup of the Los Angeles Dodgers facing the New York Yankees in the best-of-seven series. Los Angeles and New York are the two largest television markets, and each have fans everywhere. For reference, the 2023 World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks drew an average television rating of 4.7, which was the lowest rated World Series since rating records began. But that World Series didn’t feature two of the most iconic franchises in Major League Baseball history. https://www.forbes.com/sites/berniepleskoff/2024/10/20/fox-sports-gets-dream-match-with-yankees-v-dodgers-in-world-series/

Will probably give away meaningful talent that eventually evolves into big league regulars and/or send a significant cash subsidy getting rid of Robert and/or Benintendi...or the already-infamous Crochet/Benintendi predicted move.

Let's not forget baseball's anti-trust execution and Congressional umbrella...making baseball teams about as close to monopolies as one gets. Yet despite all those built in advantages and subsidies from the state...the White Sox still can't even compete with KC Detroit Minnesota and KC. How is that even possible? It's not ALL because of competitive balance rules and picking 10th rather than first in 2025. That's hogwash.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10140115-juan-soto-worth-600m-yankees-contract-after-alcs-heroics-amid-mlb-free-agency-rumor $600 million is crazy... Dodgers with 7 members of their playoff lineup at 713 ops or higher, including 6 over 800. Guess it's on brand that Maton and Manaea are both former Padres.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10140115-juan-soto-worth-600m-yankees-contract-after-alcs-heroics-amid-mlb-free-agency-rumor $600 million is crazy...

Or a patsy...placeholder. Or both.

Thome or Konerko have relatively easy lives, they have seen what happened to Ventura and Renteria and Grifol, and likely don't need the money unless something went radically wrong with their investments

EdmanSS 3 1 2 4 0 0 .357 .849 12 Oct RBI's, guess Getz is going to receive a gift basket...Kopech as well

There was always the sense that no matter what happened with ownership squabbles in LA...the Dodgers as a brand would always land on their feet and be fine. The same is no longer the case for the Chicago White Sox as a viable enterprise under JR and his family.

Sure, but the cable industry has suffered from competition from direct streaming, Fubo, Netflix, Disney, all of the major networks, Paramount, YouTube, DirecTV, DISH Network, it's not like there aren't OTHER options now...not unlike the cable and phone companies having HAD the advantage on providing internet access after the original America Online "monopoly" was wiped out. Not unlike the monopoly of ATT/MaBell over landline phone services twenty years or so ago. Monopolies that are non-responsive to customer needs eventually will get innovated away, out of existence, essentially. The current start-up costs in that (barriers to entry) in the cable industry would be prohibitively expensive as well. Let's look at the opposite approach here in China...the government has subsidized the e-vehicle industry to the point where there are legitimately 200+ competing entities all innovating but running into brick walls trying to sell their cars "at a fair price" in US, Europe, Canada, through Mexico, etc. What's the "fair advantage" a government can provide any industry where it isn't disadvantageous to the rest of the world...and despite the larger point that putting more e-vehicles on the road is a positive externality that will greatly benefit the rest of the world in not having to rely on Russia/Middle Eastern petroleum AND dealing with the negative impacts of catastrophic climate change. In the end, you always end up with an oligopoly-like type situation in the end: it could be the provision of cellular phone services, it could be food delivery apps (China is down to 2 major ones), it could be insurance providers or large scale competitors with Amazon/Wal-Mart or Uber vs. Didi (Chinese app) here. Is the provisioning of cable services exactly the same as gas/water/lights-electricity...that are all basically government subsidized monopolies? Well, not exactly...we're now into the area of societal needs vs. wants. But it seems like the cable industry monopoly has basically come crashing to a halt in almost every major market due to consumer choices...

Because you still can't get to the postseason every year with the Rays' opener/bullpen heavy usage approach. You need at least 3-4 quality starters to handle the bulk of the workload. Look at how many starts Lugo Singer Wacha Ragans made for KC last year. And if you destroy your bullpen in August and September you're toast in October anyway.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/41909178/los-angeles-dodgers-use-michael-kopech-game-6-opener

The Royals look a lot smarter now than previously simply for being in the right position to draft Witt Jr and out spending pretty much the entire AL Central in the off season....certainly their three main competitors. That said...at least they picked some of the right additions, especially on the pitching side. And getting Ragans, one of the 5-10 best starters in the AL now for Ragans was a coup as well.

So basically the situations are nothing alike. Got it. Great refutation. So basically cable companies are even worse than the likes of JR, Boyer and Schiffren. That's pretty a pretty tough act to pull off...basically the worst cable company of all-time is the bar. So we should blame MLB instead of the McCourts? "MLB calculates that 34 percent of a team’s local revenue, after subtracting costs, is available for redistribution throughout the league. When the Dodgers were mired in bankruptcy last year, the league agreed to value the potential TV rights of any future deal at $84 million the first year, rising 4 percent every year thereafter. Over 25 years, that estimated TV rights revenue of $3.5 billion." https://apnews.com/dodgers-secure-7b-tv-rights-deal-with-tw-cable-b4f6228e7358451eb4ca4dde50df9a4a Except the Dodgers got something like $7 billion from Time Warner Cable...