Chicago White Sox

Exactly.

There it is, blame the fans for not supporting a shit product. I actually enjoy your overall contributions to the site, but I completely disagree with your assessment on the business side of things. And what wrongs are worse than this? White Flag? Strike? What else is even close?

Good...and they should get worse until this organization creates a culture of accountability and shows a commitment to win. Right now they’ve done neither and there’s still room to attack the bottom of line and force some change.

Look, if you want to view this as just a game and are willing to accept a second-class product that’s on you then. I have zero right to tell you otherwise if your end-game is just watching baseball. But if this is more than just a game to you and you are actually invested in this franchise then you should be outraged right now by this organization’s incompetence and at a very minimum allow those of us upset some time to react accordingly. The White Sox unlike any other sports team in Chicago have special meaning for me and I will not sit idly and let these clowns continue to destroy this franchise. My actions alone will have little to no impact, but I plan to play my part in hopes that a broader fan reaction can help drive some form of change or accountability. Again, you don’t have to be a part of that, but I don’t appreciate the “it’s time to move on” or “it’s just a game” BS from posters who have just accepted this franchise’s mediocrity.

And you’re the reason why things will never change Jack. We’re conditioned to letting this organization do whatever it likes with no accountability. This isn’t just outrage for many here, but rather us reaching a boiling point and deciding enough is enough. The moment we relinquish our anger and move on is the moment Jerry, KW, & Hahn win.

How about instead of spending $5M on MiGo in 2018 & $9M on Nova why not gamble on someone like Mike Mikolas for essentially the same amount? This year there were multiple arms that got the same amount of money as Nova that provide significantly more upside. Again, playing time is valuable and why not use those innings on guys who have some long-term upside and/or might be able to generate a return if traded?

Lol...I meant other than Machado & Harper obviously.

You’re correct the big pieces had been moved and our ability to acquire high-end prospects was limited. That being said, there are creative ways we could have leveraged our financial flexibility and playing time in hopes of creating additional long-term value. Like I don’t get the point of low ceiling veterans like MiGo & Nova. At least gamble on a starter with some upside so that if things go right you might actually get something back in return. I hate the idea of handing Engel & Sanchez starting roles again. Adam is a lost cause and Sanchez will never be more than a quality reserve IF who they’re making him more expensive by treated him as a starter. I’d much rather find some post hype prospect and give him 600 AB’s at one of those spots. When I have some downtime I’ll try to find some specific examples of players on the cheap that would have been a better use of our resources than some of the guys we ended up spending money and gave playing time to.

Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this. Do people think this is the best Hahn could do? Was there any youngish free agents that could solved long term holes? Any buy low guys you wish we would have grabbed? What would you have done differently?

So I believe fathom has brought this up before, but Hahn has added very few pieces over the past two offseasons that could play long-term roles on the club. Looking at the set of moves below, it’s somewhat shocking how little he’s actually accomplished over 24 months for a rebuilding club (I know there were some deadline deals as well). There’s handful of under 30 controllable talents, a couple bridge guys, and multiple low ceiling vets. Rebuilding provides teams with a unique opportunity to offer playing time to talented, high ceiling players & prospects with question marks and IMO Hahn has completely failed to take advantage of that. The 2019 offseason in particular is a complete disaster in that regard. It’s just sad how much playing time & money we’re wasting on guys with little to no upside. Hahn deserves shit for a lot of things (especially the Machado miss), but the lack of talent accumulation and creative thinking over the past two offseasons deserves a much greater spotlight. 2018 Offseason: Claimed OF Palka off waivers from the Twins Traded international slot money to the Mariners for RHP Vieira Signed free agent C Castillo to 2/$15M deal Claimed RHP Jose Ruiz off waives from the Padres Traded 2B Jake Peter to the Dodgers (three way trade) for RHP Soria & LHP Avilan Traded cash to the Padres for IF Rondon Signed free agent RHP Gonzalez to 1/$4.8M deal 2019 Offseason: Traded 3B Yurchak to the Dodgers for LHP Banuelos Traded C Narvaez to the Mariners for RHP Colome Traded RHP Rosario to the Pirates for RHP Nova Traded OF Call to the Indians for 1B Alonso Signed free agent C McCann to 1/$2.5M deal Signed free agent RHP Herrera to 2/$18M deal Signed free agent OF Jay to 1/$4M deal Signed free agent RHP Santana to minor league ($4.3M)

I’m giving him one more year. He was so damn good in 2017 and that potential is still there if healthy.

Which is the worst part. They actually thought $250M would be enough and were so confident of that they hyped up these pursuits all offseason. Either they’re completely incompetent and didn’t understand what their market values would be or they’re so arrogant that they thought they could get these guys to play for the White Sox a big discount. I don’t even know which one is worse, but it’s beyond embarrassing.

You have some sad expectations there my friend. Regardless, it’s a turning point for many because the front office claimed they were serious about these pursuits and had planned them for two years only to come up well short on Machado and not even making an offer for Harper despite it being a team-friendly suppressed market. In one fair swoop the front office displayed an incredible level of incompetence and our ownership group proved once again they’re cheap and unwilling to pay market price for legit stars. This miss is a dagger to any hope we have of supplementing the rebuild with young, impact talent through free agency and that fucking sucks.

POTY

Glad they spent two years planning for this pursuit! Like what the fuck did they think they could get him for?

Nothing grim about it...Jerry must die for the Sox to move forward. It’s really that simple and while I won’t actively root for his death, I won’t shed a tear once he is gone (unless his son Michael somehow assumes power ?). He is literally holding this franchise hostage with his archaic ways.

But nine years from now we’ll need that money to extend all these young studs to below market contracts because that’s the price to play for the mighty White Sox!

The sad part is I guarantee he would have chosen the Sox over the Phillies if the money was even.

You keep talking about spending top 5 money, but when was this? How many years ago? Things change over time and right now Reinsdorf refuses to invest in his product until he has revenue streams to support it. No other business operates in this manner and it’s the reason we’ll forever be in mired in mediocrity unless we get very lucky with all these young prospects. Otherwise, the organization will continue to blame the customer for not buying their shitty product and rock out below average payrolls as a result.

Yeah, no way bro. Hahn is just as guilty as the rest of these clowns. Maybe you missed the entire offseason, but Hahn hyped up things to a dangerous level by saying we had “unprecedented financial flexibility” and “I can certainly assure you the resources will be available” to add big time free agents. Even at SoxFest the dude was making strong indications that we were a legit threat by saying things like “if for whatever reason we wind up not converting, I will certainly be disappointed”. These are not the type of comments you make to your fanbase when the best you can do is at least $50M below market for Machado and have to bow out of the Harper sweepstakes when he got way less than many had anticipated. You can blame Jerry and say Hahn had to operate within his parameters, but if that’s the case don’t even attempt a run at these guys or at the very least do not hype up your lame efforts through the media. Hahn (& KW) brought this on himself by promising the world and delivering nothing. And the absolute worst part is the clowns claim to have spent two years planning out these pursuits. Like are they fucking serious? They had two years to evaluate if a pursuit was worthwhile and ultimately decided to go for it despite having hard limits well below perceived market value. They basically showed up to a high rollers table in Vegas and were surprised that their $10 bill doesn’t get them a “seat the table”. Hahn does not get a pass for this shit.

Why don’t we start a billboard to advertise the t-shirts? A well placed billboard will get headlines, t-shirts will be a tough sell without some momentum.

So about that billboard, here’s a link to gofundme if someone is willing to set one up. I guarantee we could get $10k easy before the end of the weekend. https://www.gofundme.com/how-it-works Someone should definitely do this! As I mentioned before, I am happy to contribute money towards this, just don’t have have the bandwidth to manage it right now.

POTY

It has to be one of the worst offseasons in baseball history that didn’t actually involve selling off pieces.

Everything I’ve read is he will go for the big payday after taking a team friendly extension with the Diamondbacks.