Y2Jimmy0

QUOTE (LDF @ May 15, 2015 -> 12:46 PM) and lets take it further, personal decision with in the scope of his duties to make the day to day decision regarding the team on the field. It's not the movie Moneyball though. Hahn isn't calling down to Ventura to tell him what guys to play. It is Rick's decision to send Micah Johnson to the minor leagues though. Robin can manage how he wants with the 25 given to him that particular day. It's like that in most cases around baseball.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 15, 2015 -> 12:33 PM) I can't believe Hinrich has a player option for $3 million next year. Biggest waste of cap space ever. They could dump it easily but would probably need to include a 2nd round pick.

QUOTE (LDF @ May 15, 2015 -> 07:57 AM) yes, there are good to great candidates. but who will be able to step in next yr, using next yr as a example to judge. If they re-sign Samardzija they don't need anyone to step in next year. A front four of Sale-Q-Rodon-Samardzija is nasty.

The Bulls don't really have a choice but to go for it again the next 2 seasons. They have Rose's contract on the books, 1 more season of Gasol, and an impending max deal for Butler. Many in this thread have touched on the team's needs. I think they need to explore dumping Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson. Hopefully, they can use the savings to get more athletic at other spots. The salaries are a problem though. I can find someone to do Noah's job for less than the $12.5 million owed to him and Taj Gibson is just not an $8 million per year player. That leaves the team weaker defensively but they'd need to find cheaper replacements somehow. I feel like LaMarcus Aldridge is a pipe dream but if that is at all possible, they need to explore it. He shares an agent with Rose and rumors were that Chicago was a place he'd like to play. Regardless, should be an interesting offseason on the horizon yet again......

QUOTE (LDF @ May 14, 2015 -> 04:55 PM) very much true. but it is great when the team is avg and there is a smart marketing. help promote the product, that is if the team is good to market. True but Great Team/Awful Marketing is always better than Awful Team/Great Marketing

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 15, 2015 -> 10:44 AM) So you just admitted Robin is a puppet. Not really. Rick Hahn's job is to do what is necessary to win a world series. That's it. If he thinks that Micah Johnson going back to Charlotte to work on his defense gets the White Sox closer to a championship, then he should send him down regardless of what the manager thinks. I'm pretty sure Ventura will be fine with the better defense at 2B though. They made some additions on offense but this team will win because of its starting pitching and late relief. I wouldn't be surprised if it's Sanchez at 2B and Beckham at 3B quite often because they just can't sacrifice the defense everywhere with the way they are built.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ May 15, 2015 -> 09:15 AM) 2 great hires. Pace doing an excellent job so far. I don't know anything about the Ravens guy, but I have no problem with hiring anyone from that front office.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ May 15, 2015 -> 03:16 AM) On Thibs, I could see the Pelicans definitely giving up a 1st rounder for him, but I'm not sure if Orlando would. But it depends for Gar/Pax whether they think there's a better coach (well one who would work with them any better) out there. Fred Hoiberg has obviously been mooted, but it's a risk with College Coach although they are becoming more and more "trendy hires" with Donovan and Stevens as 2 examples. Gasol's injury really became a killer blow for the Bulls in the end, I think if he had stayed healthy, the likelihood of there being a 7 game series would have been much greater. Pelicans don't have a 1st rounder to give up until 2017 though......

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ May 15, 2015 -> 08:27 AM) College pitcher. Jay, Funkhouser, Fulmer. I agree here.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 14, 2015 -> 08:02 PM) Lots of good arms, but now with Rodon called up, who do you project to be a starter at the big league level? To me, Montas is absolutely a reliever. Danish is 50/50, as he's going to have to find a way to get lefties out. Adams is likely a starter, but he's a long ways away. Everyone is far away but: Danish, Adams, Luis Martinez, Jordan Guerrero, and Jace Fry for sure. I'm also expecting someone else at pick #8 overall.

Winston-Salem Dash ‏@WSDashBaseball 6m6 minutes ago Jace Fry has been strong yet again (6IP, 1R, 3H, career high-tying 6K), but he and the Dash trail Salem 1-0 through 6. Listen @600WSJS Sox system is loaded with pitching.

Should they bat Sanchez in the 2 hole and move Melky to 5/6?

QUOTE (LDF @ May 14, 2015 -> 08:41 AM) and that is great.... can you or anyone imagine what is open now. the window of opportunity it there. it is not totally closed. fixed the radio contract, a full blitz of commercials for the summer of fun with the sox baseball, promote the family nite with the continue cheap ticket prices. sing the praise of the stars on the team. make a couple of spanish commercials featuring the spanish players for spanish tv. have those nites of father and son overniting at the park, i don't know, wasn't it several yrs ago they did that?? for me, do a live telecast for a cost of $1. and a limited amount to watch it in one of the rooms at the park. i don't know what else. but go out and put a full court press to get those fans. help this team fan base. this is just me and my rant. I just don't think any of that matters. The team needs to win consistently and even then it may not matter. Honestly, I kind of like being able to drive up there on a Tuesday night knowing it won't be full. Your ideas are good ones, don't get me wrong, I think Brooks Boyer and their marketing dept are pretty good though anyway. They need to win baseball games.

QUOTE (LDF @ May 13, 2015 -> 06:26 PM) i was talking to my family and was mentioning that the sox, instead of raising the prices, they should have lowered it a little across the board, and fixed the bad PR they got with the ozzie and son thing. no matter what, part of the major problem is the money and the so called not having it..... the biggest problem i thought the sox had was / IS the mismanagement of the FO!!!!! they need someone like Beane, the pres of Balti, someone... even look into the success Atl has done. It's not about money. They have the cheapest tickets in the city. I saw Chris Sale vs Max Scherzer for $7 last season.

From the Keith Law chat today: Jack (Chicago) Tyler Jay the White Sox guy if he's still there when they pick? Does he have #1 type potential or more of a 2 or 3? Thanks Keith! Klaw (1:12 PM) I've heard he's on their short list, whatever that means. I think he could be a 2. Had he pitched in the Illini rotation all year, he might have gone in the top 5 for slot, which would be $1 million-plus over what he's going to get.

QUOTE (LDF @ May 13, 2015 -> 01:39 PM) i have been going and been a loyal sox fan. the problem is, the team, the sox, i do not know if it is by design or what, they are the most charismatic of the 2 teams. how and why, maybe someone who is smarter than I can answer that. but you can not deny they have charisma. second, when Writz died, the hawks went and hired the pr guy from the northside. i saw right there, this guy had his stuff together. then i looked on how the sox really failed in that dept i came to realize, the northsiders hired really top notch pros, not some 2 nd ranked person. i say this for the sox guy, b/c what has he done that was memorable?? so how to over come that..... put a winning product on the field. not a half hearted attempt. so they can sell tickets. the one caveat i read about this in about forbes article on valuation, in that another article, even they stated, they use what they can thru public listing of the money. they are not able to get to the really smart book keeping area that the owners use to hide money. i still say, they have money to invest in players. John McDonough is good at his job but being s***ty enough to draft Kane and Toews and then actually drafting them matters far more than anything McDonough has done.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 13, 2015 -> 01:36 PM) I go to 15-20 games a year, therefore, I am better than everyone except DA. You need to stop going this year though so that the team finally starts winning.......

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2015 -> 01:33 PM) So basically this ownership group needs to go into debt on the hope that they can maybe convince fans to show up after years of winning playoff series. Yeah, good luck with that. If you are waiting for a once in a franchise history kind of run to show up, you might as well find another team to complain about... err, root for. The Tigers have been brought up a bunch in this thread. Go back and look at their history. From 1988 to 2010, they made the playoffs exactly once in a 23 season period. In 2010, the Tigers drew just over 30k a night to Comerica. 2010 was the year before their 4 straight playoff appearances, to see a team that won 81 games. That allowed the Tigers to invest in the minor league system and their major league system in a way that the White Sox, couldn't. For comparisons sake the White Sox were coming off of 3 playoff appearances in 10 years, including the 2005 WS, and drew about 27k a night. Going back to the bottom of Tigers history in 2002 and 2003 when they lost a combined 225 games in two years, they still saw almost 24k a night show up to see a 72 win team in 2004, or about 4k a night more than we had last year. So yes, it is done in other places without winning multiple years in a row. It is another excuse. SS but you left out the other reasons: the ballpark sucks, the upper deck is too high, it's too expensive, the team isn't good, people don't want to drive in from the suburbs, the neighborhood is dangerous, there's no place to go after games, parking is expensive, beer is expensive, food is expensive, it's better on tv, it's not fun, the stadium is empty, the fireworks are too loud, the music isn't good. I've heard all of those and there are definitely more.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ May 13, 2015 -> 01:16 PM) I guess I don't see it this way. I don't think this about commitment. I think it's about the ownership having a product to sell, and if we, the fans, i.e., the consumers, aren't buying it, whose fault is it? And what we are not buying is a team that hardly ever wins anything. I don't have to commit to Jerry Reinsdorf that I'll go sit in his stadium X number of times of year in the hopes that he'll somehow figure out a way to put a consistent winner on the field - which I remind you, he has miserably failed to do for the last 35 years. No, the onus is on him and his management team to put together a product that is worthy of greater support than the mediocre one that has typically been put forward. I guess this is true. I'll probably go out 10 more times this season because I like what they did this offseason. I also like that I have an 80% chance of seeing Sale/Shark/Rodon/Q start the game that I attend. They also play well at home, I like the ballpark experience, and the stadium is easy to get to. With that being said, I am in the minority.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 13, 2015 -> 01:27 PM) Yup. I'm sure he'll be happy to coach LBJ next year in Cleveland. I can't see Lebron wanting Thibs in Cleveland. No way Lebron is going to work that hard and do the unnecessary stuff that Thibs does. Thibs will get an upstart like Orlando or New Orleans.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2015 -> 01:03 PM) And so we'll slog from one just-under .500 season into another, amazed at how attendance keeps going down from year to year. Yes. They don't have a choice. What are they supposed to do? They can't do what the Cubs did. This is in the other thread but "our" fan base wouldn't be on board with a rebuild. They aren't on board unless the team wins consistently. They have to ride it out. They have to hope that their offseason moves work out and supplement those moves with guys from the farm system and other deals. I don't see them dialing it back. They would have done that instead of what they did this offseason.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2015 -> 12:25 PM) That's a great comparison for what Timmy will probably be like if he's at SS in the big leagues in 2016. The difference? The A's sold off expensive pieces and clearly committed to a rebuilding season and are hoping that Semien can develop into a more solid defender at SS with time. Are you prepared to commit to 2016 as a rebuilding season? They aren't going to rebuild with Sale, Q, and Rodon at the front of the rotation, Duke and Robertson at back end of the bullpen, and Abreu in his prime. Not wasting Sale and Abreu's prime is one of a myriad of reasons why they spent heavily this offseason. I just think it's a nonissue. They aren't going to tear it down properly, they never have. I also think they'll be around .500 though and it'll be a moot point.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2015 -> 11:59 AM) Because if this team falls flat like it's in the process of doing and the tiny "they spent money on the team" attendance bump evaporates, the financials for next season look terrible without adding a single soul. If they're below .500 in June and especially July, with 2-3 teams ahead of them, I think it would be extremely surprising if they didn't try to move some of that salary they just took on. If they pick up Alexei's option and offer arbitration to most of the guys who are arb-eligible, there's already a payroll increase to $125-130 million on the books for next year, up from $117m this year, and that's with allowing Samardzija to walk. Just to avoid losing money, which this franchise does not like to do, they will either have to turn this season around or they will have to get rid of some fraction of that money. I think that Danks, Ramirez, and Shark could possibly go if it gets out of hand. Robertson, Melky, and LaRoche aren't going anywhere though and I'd probably rather have the 1st round pick for Shark than the package. I just think it's way too early to consider even talking about pulling the plug.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 13, 2015 -> 10:37 AM) On an unrelated sidenote, I have finally grown to accept the fact that if we lose tomorrow, Thibs is gone and should be gone. I think Thibs is a great coach but I also think this whole situation wears on the players and everyone so if JR is going to pick the front office, then let them get the coach that they want. I just hope they don't mess up a good thing, cause this team is loaded and should actually get better (part of that is because I am buying into Drose and I obviously think highly of Butler / Nikolai. I also hope Noah can be better (with an off-season to rest). Key is going to be finding another big though to develop since our bigs are older. I would try to move Noah this summer. His contract is up after next season and they can't pay him again. They need to get much more athletic and they will be giving Jimmy a max deal.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 12, 2015 -> 01:46 PM) Another ex-Illinois player now speaks out. I wonder if this will end with Beckman's job (it shouldnt). It will probably end with the AD's job though.