Chicago White Sox

I’m actually blown away at just how bad AKME are being NBA front office executives. Like the basic principle for any front office is to buy low and sell high and we continually wait to deal players when there value is at an all time low. And all for the hope of a play-in game appearance.

A good one this time though. The Bulls are both boring & bad and have been stuck in NBA hell for a long ass time. Wave that flag and start tanking.

Hudson officially DFA’d to make room for Hayes.

I think that’s going to be the plan for Taylor.

Well to be clear, I didn’t like the idea of moving Taylor to the bullpen. That being said, Taylor also completed dominated the minors and was ready to produce in the majors. The only real reason to hold him down was to build up his innings without burning team control, which I would have done. Instead, the Sox are targeting to get him 100 innings in the majors this year as a reliever in hopes of him possibly joining the rotation next year with 5 years of control remaining. Meanwhile, Smith and Schultz both have plenty to work on in action to their need for inning build-up. As such, they both need to be down in AAA or AA focusing on their development. A big spring training or a need at the major league level should not change that plan.

Luckily by never agreeing to one of those highly risky nine figure contracts, the Sox have avoided going bankrupt unlike the other 29 organizations!!

JFC are you one pathetic Reinsdorf shill. Never fucking call people’s fandom into question for challenging the dumb business decisions of this org you ignorant f***.

100% agree. Him and Schultz need to continued to be developed as starters.

If the Sox put Hagen Smith in the bullpen to start the season, then I’ve lost all confidence in this org. Is this something you actually want to see happen? As for Sosa, despite 22 HRs he was only a league average hitter last year. He was certainly better in the second half, but was substantially better against LHP (121 wRC+) than RHP (101 wRC+). Those splits could make him an everyday guy at 2B if the defense was sufficient, but don’t really work for a full-time DH role. I also don’t agree with you on his defensive performance at 2B. It looked bad per the eye test and graded out as -10 runs per DRS. Not sure why you think he’s going to suddenly better out there.

I’m sure he presents options of what he could accomplish at varying levels of resource, but it’s not his call and Jerry will always protect the bottom line first & foremost unless the team is at the peak of its competitive window. We have years of history to support this.

I’m not ok with the operations of the team. Literally just said this level of spending is fucking ridiculous. I just don’t blame the lead baseball decision maker for the poor business decisions Jerry & Boyer are making. And I certainly won’t make up conspiracy theories that suggest Getz is somehow complicit in a scheme to make Jerry more money at the expense of his ability to build a winning baseball team.

That’s a good point and probably kills the idea. Honestly, I’m guessing all three PBTNL’s are simply org guys and will be officially named once each side know where there are gaps on their minor league rosters. I’d be surprised if we got even one meaningful prospect from either PTBNL coming our way.

Guy - this an absolutely insane take. Getz traded $110M for $5M? This can’t be a serious post. The team is rebuilding and only two years removed from the worst record in baseball history. Of course the payroll was going to come down. Doesn’t help that Sox also fled Comcast and started their own RSN without having a deal with carriers in place at this same exact time. That’s a Brooks Boyer & Finance issue, not a Getz one. While our spending is absolutely pathetic regardless, there is zero reason to believe it will remain at this level long-term. We have always gone cheap when rebuilding and ramped the payroll back up as the team starts winning. I think that’s a stupid approach to running a sports org, but it’s the Jerry way and has been forever. Suggesting that Getz reallocating resources to fix the broken ass foundation is somehow him running a PE strategy to drive profits for the boss is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen typed on this board in my 25 years partaking on this site. Just fucking wild someone could type this s%*#.

Very close to what I’m expecting at the moment.

I can’t imagine we only go with two catchers on our 40 man roster. The fact we DFA’ed Romo makes me feel like they are going to go with three catchers. Maybe they add someone during camp, but right now I lean Lee makes the OD roster. I think there is zero chance Baldwin isn’t on the 26 man roster. He’s easily one of our 10 best players and I don’t think the presence of Benintendi or desire to keep Mead will change that. Regarding Andrew, I think he splits time between DH & LF and primarily against RHP (I know he had reverse splits last year). I think the goal there is to keep him healthier by playing him less in the field and hoping it drives better overall production even if in a more restricted role. I do think Getz would like to keep Mead and I think he’d like to cash in on Sosa if possible. Lenyn is simply not the type of player Getz likes give his free swings ways and poor defense. I still think there is a good chance he is traded before Opening Day and Mead becomes the primary reserve infielder.

Regarding Antonacci, I think he’ll eventually be a better fit for the roster as a LH fill-in for Chase at 2B and Vargas at 3B than Sosa is. Maybe they don’t need to solve it now, but I don’t see any path to rostering both Sosa & Mead and that will force them to think a bit longer than they probably normally would. For SP, I could certainly see them adding someone on a minor league deal, but I don’t expect a big addition at this point. I think they want to leave a spot open for the TJS & AAA guys eventually (yes I know you can never have too much pitching). Agree on the LH side of the bullpen front. Don’t know how the Alberto being a PTBNL would work mechanically. Seems very unlikely to me it’s even possible.

Not being micro managed by your pass is not the same as not being given the resources needed to be successful.

To be clear, I’m not justifying the decision to promote Getz to GM. The process was terrible and involved no other candidates or interviews. And I was 100% in favor of the new GM being an outside hire at the time. I think that’s a fair stance to take when the org is completely broken. I’m just arguing that Getz shouldn’t have automatically been fired as the head of Player Development because of the function’s lack of success. No organization fires everyone when the top decision maker is replaced…that’s just not based in any form or reality. That doesn’t mean he should have been retained in that capacity either. The new GM should have done his own assessment of the org and determined who was competent and who wasn’t. That being said, we know with certainty that Getz was partially constrained on resources because he immediately invested in technology (Trajekt, Hawk-eye, etc) that would helped his previous role the second he became GM.

Oh no doubt about it. The process that led to Getz’s hire is the definition of insanity. I’m just arguing against the idea he should have automatically been fired from his past role because the function he led wasn’t productive. He may have had all the ideas in the world on how to fix it and was told no (and we know for a fact this is true to some extent) because KW & Hahn wanted to spend the money on another reliever or UT guy.

So you think we should have fired Shirley as well?

No idea what you’re referring to here, but Getz has nothing to do with setting the overall budget (that’s 100% on Brooks, Finance, & Jerry).

Couple of questions / thoughts as I look at the roster above: DFA’ing Romo makes me feel we’re carrying three catchers to start the season, which leaves only three bench spots to cover everything else. With Lee on the bench, Teel & Quero should get plenty of time at DH. It also feels like Benintendi will get some time at DH as well. The primary OF should be Acuna in CF and some combo of Hayes & Baldwin in the corners. Pereira replaces Baldwin against LHP and Benintendi fills in against RHP with Baldwin shifted over to CF when Acuna needs a day off. Based on the above, two of the three bench spots are going toward OFs, which means the last one should go to an IF. Given other SS coverage options, it feels like Sosa is a shoe-in for the role of they keep him. How does Antonacci their impact decision-making? If Getz feels he could be ready by July, do they proactively trade Sosa and give Mead the reserve IF spot? I still believe that’s a very real possibility if a market is there for Sosa. The top three of the rotation appears to be set, leaving two roles open for competition. I think Burke is the heavy favorite for the #4 spot as he got better as last year progressed and could easily be our best SP if he can get his slider back in form (which was an offseason priority for him). The final rotation spot is wide open and reflects a fairly big hole at the moment. Will they add one more SP in free agency or go with what they have? My gut tells me this is what they are going with and the #5 spot will likely come down to Newcomb vs. Cannon (and maybe Vasil). That being said, I think this spot will quickly go to Thorpe, Sandlin, or McDougal. The right side of the bullpen is mostly locked in and will occupy at least five spots and likely six. Dominguez, Hicks, Leasure, Taylor, & Vasil will all make the Opening Day roster. My guess is one of the Rule 5 guys will be that sixth guy, but Gonzalez will certainly challenge them for that last spot. The left side of the pen is a big question mark and I think anything is possible there assuming Newcomb starts the year in the rotation. Gilbert is out of options and was ok last year which should give him an edge. Hudson is also out of options, but was bad last year. However, he has survived multiple rounds of roster shuffle and I think they want to give him a legit shot to make the OD roster. I could see those being your two lefties early on with Eisert & Murphy in AAA to start the season. Borucki is also probably in the mix. Unless Paez is one of the PTBNL in the Hicks trade, there is zero chance we are able to keep both him and Alberto. Paez remains the favorite for that last spot as they obviously liked him better at the time of the Rule 5 draft and he can provide some bulk garbage innings. IMO, Alberto will have to be an absolute monster this spring to make the team given recent additions.

Exactly this. Everyone’s performance is impacted by the budget and resource they are given. The player development function was certainly bad under Getz, but is that because he had no idea what to do or is it because KW & Hahn wouldn’t let him modernize the infrastructure? Just fascinating that as soon as he took over the org, he invested in data and technology. Also interesting that despite bad outcomes in his previous area, he was able to convince Jerry he had a plan for figuring out the org. Sure feels like a dude who was held back by his leadership team. Not justifying that means Getz should have been promoted to GM, but I think it’s unfair to assume he should have been fired based on outcomes alone when we know this org was rotten to its core under KW & Hahn.

Benintendi is arguably the worst defensive outfielder since signing with the Sox. He doesn’t have the offensive ability to overcome his current defensive shortcomings. Hopefully him playing less is the field allows his legs to stay healthy and improves his overall game, because if not, he’s a DFA candidate by mid season.

Better GM than KW in the modern era where analytics and biometrics reign king. KW was a fantastic scout and great GM when scouting was the name of the game. As soon as the sport modernized, KW was completely exposed as an executive. I’m not sure how this is even debatable. The White Sox org he left behind was perhaps the most inept sports club in Big Four history.