Chicago White Sox

Can’t wait to visit the Hangout and see what Sportsguy has to say. Last I saw he felt that giving up Mountcastle for Luis Castillo was too much, so my guess is they aren’t going to be happy now that all the free agents are off the market.

I don’t see any sort of financial rationalization for moving them to a smaller market when the league is already thinking about expansion. The potential of Chicago is far greater than other market without a team currently.

He played a lot of CF in 2022. He’s been a positive defender in the corners based on DRS, UZR/150, & OAA.

🤣🤣🤣…imagine someone who literally makes 20 posts a day crying about the White Sox trying to be a keyboard warrior and calling someone out for making one post about not liking the lack of a salary cap in the MLB

What are willing to give up? Let me guess, Bradfield and filler?

100% agree…it’s absolutely absurd. And that’s why the Sox will be attractive to future buyers. The potential is there to be a strong franchise given the lack of a salary cap and the size of our market vs. the rest of the AL Central, but need an owner who will take some losses early on, will actually sign stars in free agency, and doesn’t live in fear of a bad long-term deal.

They are but LA is still way bigger than Chicago and the reality is the days of mega TV deals are over with. The Dodgers have a major locked in advantage for the remainder of their TV deal. Again, I’m not suggesting Jerry deserves a free pass either, but imagine being a Reds fan right now and watching the Dodgers sign a ton of mega free agents and still add $22M AAV role players. Every other league has moved to a salary cap / floor structure for a reason and they are all the better for it.

They have plenty of prospects to improve their rotation with Mayo & Basallo being the big ones. They may not cash them in, but they certainly have the ability to add some impactful pitching. I agree they are mostly out of options in free agency though.

I agree #2 isn’t an option. But if Warren wants to take the reins and thinks he can land Johnson, I could live with #1. But no doubt, a clean start at GM would make the most sense. I just feel that coming out of this coming offseason with Johnson as HC is the single most important thing for this franchise. If Warren hasn’t been preparing on the sidelines for a GM replacement, I’m worried the timing isn’t going to work well in terms of landing Johnson. Perhaps that’s an unwarranted fear, but Johnson needs to be the priority above all else.

lol…the offseason isn’t over yet. I don’t disagree their rotation isn’t good right now, but they could still improve it substantially if they want to. If they go with what they have, then Elias should be on the hot seat though.

This simply isn’t true though. Metro market size matters. Regional market size matters. The Yankees & Dodgers are 100% provided an advantage over almost every other team. There is literally nothing the Sox could do to get an $8 billion TV deal like the Dodgers have. The Cardinals, one of the best examples of a well run small market franchise, have a TV deal that’s estimated to be about 1/5 of the Dodgers on annual basis. These clubs will never be printing money like the Dodgers…that’s just not how the economics of the sport work. Having said that, there is no doubt the Sox would be a stronger franchise if they invested in their product up-front and actually drove fan interest. A lot of our challenges are self inflicted under Jerry’s ownership. Hopefully that will all change with a new owner and we can begin to bridge the gap between us and the large market clubs. There is literally no hope for the true small market franchises under this current rule set. Yes, a handful will make the playoffs each year and every once in a while one will win the World Series. But making the playoffs will continue to be skewed towards large market clubs unfortunately until a salary cap (and ideally a salary floor) is put in place.

I moved to Nashville for a promotion, higher paying job, no state income taxes, and significantly cheaper property taxes…I simply didn’t want those things at the expense of Chicago prior to the Machado fiasco. And guess what, after getting all those things, I realized that Chicago (not just the White Sox) was more important to me and I moved back. And I couldn’t be happier right now despite the suckiness of this franchise and the other Chicago sports teams. And I’m not looking to partake in a “business acumen” dick off here. I have no fucking clue what you do for a living and likewise you with me. That being said, you were whining about revenue sharing income a few weeks ago and had no idea how it actually worked but had drawn significant conclusions. And in this moment, you can’t separate the unfairness of high revenue teams more or less being uncapped with the fact certain (but not all) owners are cheap. So call it whatever you like, but you clearly aren’t getting how the financial side of this game works. Baseball on a parity level completely fucking sucks. And no, the Rangers winning a World Series doesn’t change that fact. But keep cheering on the team with the $8 billion TV deal outspending all the competition.

Sure, but not the point I’m making.

🤣🤣🤣…the dude who does nothing but post 50 times a day whining about the White Sox is calling me out for ripping the Dodgers one time for being able to outspend the competition. This s%*# is fucking incredible. I’m glad you think the volatility of the playoffs means it’s ok for teams like the Dodgers, Mets, & Yankees to spend whatever they like. Let’s see here, seven of the top 10 payroll teams made the playoffs (70%) last year, while only seven of the other 20 made the playoffs (35%). No correlation there whatsoever. Not sure what the Nashville dig is intended to mean, but please keep em coming!

You have turned a dig against a sports league being uncapped and allowing the couple uber rich teams to spend whatever they see fit into a hissy fit about Jerry being cheap. The former has nothing to do with the latter. So yeah, you are arguing against things I have never said. I would love to see a salary floor in addition to a salary cap. The NFL is a best in class product because all 30 teams have a shot. The same can’t be said about baseball…full stop.

Who is making this argument? Literally no one

Sure…but they can’t afford 10 of these contracts like the Dodgers can.

Yeah, Jerry fucking sucks. Have never said otherwise. But he doesn’t have an $8 billion TV deal that will allow him to spend with no limits.

Keep moving the goal posts. The Dodgers being uncapped has nothing to do with Jerry’s cheapness, risk aversion, or general suckiness as owner.

Where in the fucking world did I make a single comment rationalizing Jerry’s conduct as owner? I’m just sick of people with zero business acumen cheering on one of the richest two organizations signing a f*** load of free agents and saying “why don’t they all do that”. This shouldn’t be that hard to comprehend. And your constant “Jerry loves rebuilds” comments are just plain dumb. The dude literally went years avoiding a rebuild even though it was the right thing to do. And the only reason he’s rebuilding right now is because KW & Hahn completely destroyed the org and there is no other option. It’s wild that there are countless things to rip Jerry for and yet you still somehow need to create your own ones.

They can’t though.

Oh no doubt, but Jerry won’t spend the money up-front to build a best in class product.

Reds desperately need a CF…whether they will ante up remains to be seen. My guess is he our OD CF.

He was literally the worst defensive OF in baseball and by wide margin. I put this table together at some point during the of 2022, but he was leagues worse the next worst guy (who happened to be Gavin Sheets). I know your comment was in just, but I do think it’s important just negative his OF glove and how insane it was that Hahn kept putting him out there.

I hate Reinsdorf as much, if not more, as you. I think he is a terrible owner. That doesn’t change the fact that the Dodgers’ revenue blows ours out of the water and we could never spend what they could on payroll. Not having a real salary cap sucks and this is just another example of that. If you have a problem with cheap owners, then argue for a salary floor…they aren’t mutually exclusive issues.