Chicago White Sox

Honestly, I think it all came down to Jerry not wanting to give Sox fans a forum to rip his BFF Tony. When I reached out to Brooks Boyer and accused the org of being cowards for not hosting SoxFest, he responded that “The traditional SoxFest did not make sense for us this year.” He didn’t go into the specifics on the why and denied it had anything to with being afraid to answer questions, but the “this year” part of the comment stuck with me. We’ve had tough years before and never skipped a SoxFest. Maybe I’m wrong, but I really think Jerry made the call to protect Tony.

I mean, theoretically Robert should more valuable any of those pieces. Cease has plenty of value. Unfortunately, it dries up very quickly after those two. And Hahn isn’t the guy who will optimize the value of those players when trading them. But a quality GM would get plenty for them IMO. That being said, fully agree this comes down to player development and it’s clear that Getz isn’t the guy to be a build a best-in-class operation and Hahn has zero ability to find someone better. Until we start afresh in that area, sustainable success will never be possible for us.

Through July 1st, the Sox rank 29th in BB rate on both sides of the ball

I think SoxFest will be back. I think they were just cowards and didn’t want to be criticized for a shitty 2022 season.

Nothing would result in a better 4th of July than this!

Lol…the entire organization should be embarrassed:

Would be nice if they would, but if not then someone else should have interest

A “Hahn” retooling on the fly would probably look like this: Giolito traded for a major league ready SP prospect Lynn option exercised and bounce-back expected Free agent #5 SP signed (Alex Wood) Couple free agent relievers signed to replace whoever is traded at deadline C tier free agent catcher signed (Mike Zunino) Aging free agent 2B signed (Whit Merrifield) Colas leveraged as primary RF (still some Eloy or Sheets) May the baseball gods take mercy on our souls.

Has a first year manager ever been fired before year one was over?

“You don’t take it away from for 60 games” - Holy s%*# this dude is an absolute clown. Can’t wait for him and Hahn to be gone this off-season.

Seems like Jerry is destroying both the Bulls & White Sox simultaneously as his goodbye gift for Chicago.

@Y2Jimmy0 - Where do you think the Sox’s farm system ranks right now? Bottom 5? Bottom 3? It was generally considered a bottom 5 system entering the season and I can’t imagine it’s gotten based on the performances this year. Rick Hahn may end being the architect of a bottom 5 MLB team and bottom 5 farm system. That’s KC Royals levels of bad, which is actually quite amusing given we hired an inexperienced guy from their org to be our “win now” manager and gave the largest contract in franchise to their slap hitting, average defending LF.

Based on Baseball America’s current ranking, here are prospects in the 60 to 100 ranges for the four clubs mentioned above: Orioles: #68: Joey Ortiz (SS) #73: DL Hall (LHP) #74: Samuel Basello (CA) #77: Heston Kjerstad (RF) Rangers: #79: Owen White (RHP) #92: Luisangel Acuna (SS) Reds: #66: Cam Collier (OF) #70: Andrew Abbott (LHP) #90: Christian Encarnacion-Strand (3B) #93: Chase Petty (RHP) #97: Edwin Arroyo (SS) The Diamondbacks don’t have any guys in this range (multiple top 30), but Blake Walston (LHP) was a guy both BA & Keith Law considered a top 100 type prior to this season (ugly results in AAA this year). I wish there was a way to snag Alek Thomas by combining Giolito with other stuff, but probably wishful thinking there.

It’s insane how many teams need pitching this trade deadline. Giolito is going to command a top 100 prospect or interesting young player. Teams like the Orioles, Rangers, Diamondbacks, & Reds have the currency to get something done without it being too painful. Rick Hahn may be a complete boob, but even he can get a quality return in this market.

This team literally has no chance of winning the division when our pitching depth consists of Tanner fucking Banks and Jesse shitshow Scholtens. Even a garbage squad like the Oakland A’s is able to beat us up. A serious front office would see that along with a horrible flawed offense and quickly realize our fate is sealed. Do the right thing and blow this s%*# the F up!

We’re basically the big city Royals which is truly beyond pathetic.

I think if you trade Giolito you are waving the white flag. Just don’t see how you can rebound from that unfortunately with our complete lack of pitching depth.

Honestly, I struggle with assuming what that cut-off might be. Normally I’d agree that 5 games is the right number, but I think even Hahn realizes how flawed this offense is. Might need to be a bit closer than that to pass on selling what should be a really attractive trade chip in Giolito. I also hate the idea of completely standing Pat at the deadline. Usually you’re either buying or selling to some extent, but throwing more resources at this team seems foolish and is just stretching out the inevitable retool / rebuild.

In Rosenthal’s latest article, Ken believes we will ultimately be sellers and guys only controllable through next season could get moved. That’s fully aligned with my expectations, which is great news for us trolls & Cubs fans.

This is a “rebuild” thread…but truly appreciate your douchey, mindless contribution to it.

Harold - Is it fair to say we had a high-end pro scouting department under KW? I feel like the results speak for themselves during his tenure, but I recall there were some really well regarded scouts who seemed to have “retired” sometime after Hahn took over. Dave Yoakum is the only name I can recall at this time.

I think context is needed there. The Sox had a great season in 2006 and finished second, but unfortunately the pitching staff wore out and the playoff format at the time screwed us over. Finishing 4th in the worst division in pro sports despite spending $180M is a failure no matter how you slice it, unless…it leads to the firing of Rick Hahn. Then every single loss was worth it.

Got to disagree here. Our draft strategy was very questionable at times (the Broadway / McCulloch picks were terrible) but part of that was the result of Jerry’s refusal to go over slot. I think our player develop function was probably average or slightly below. It was simply a different time with much higher bust rates unfortunately. But our strength under KW was pro scouting. The dude and his staff were able to find diamonds in the rough and he was able to build multiple competitive teams that way. He wasn’t a great GM by any means, but he was leagues better than Hahn.

Jerry wants to win. I literally despise him as our owner, but I don’t believe he’s ok with 2nd to 4th place finishes year after year. The problem is he will only attempt to win in his own unique way, which requires being fiscally responsible and risk adverse. And a complete lack of accountability with his front office has caused our organization to fall behind the times. KW was actually a pretty good GM prior to the analytics revolution taking ahold of the game because he could scout and was willing to take some risks. But with analytics and other modern player development / scouting processes in place now, we simply can’t catch-up because our front lacks any real vision and is way too insular. Regardless, I don’t think Jerry is ok with cashing in checks until he leaves this world. At his age, the desire to win should be higher than ever, which is evident by top 10 payrolls the past two years. Unfortunately Rick just spent the funds in a horribly inefficient fashion.

Jerry is a smart guy, just insanely loyal. At some point, he can’t keep blaming the players and the coaches for our shortfalls. This was Hahn’s year to prove it was all Tony’s fault and as we are seeing the rot goes much deeper. Unless the Sox get hot and luck their way into the playoffs, I think Jerry will make a change. But if he’s unwilling to truly blow things up, it’s more likely Getz gets a chance as GM and is asked to retool on the fly. That I could see. I just think there is too much blood in the water amongst the fan base for Rick to get another year.