Quin

Unreal.

People keep mentioning a minority owner, but aren't the Ishbias now the sole minority owners?

Herpes.

Not only would it be extremely disrespectful to send a major league player to the AFL, they literally cannot per AFL rules.

Is Vargas the next chronically injured Cuban?

I somehow missed Batista has been out of of the year. Hoping they keep him as a starter.

I didn't expect to read through this thread thinking there'd be philosophical debates and what not but here we go. People can look at glasses half empty, half full or at 50% capacity. However they want to view the Sox is up to them, but to expect everyone in our fanbase to be optimistic is bonkers. I was an eternal optimist until Getz's hiring did me in because it showed that Jerry Reinsdorf had an opportunity to maybe take things seriously but instead broke Selig rule to prove that he is an unserious man and hired the baseball embodiment of the Peter Principle. If Getz is fired tomorrow he might get hired as a baseball operations grunt, but he's not getting any time of executive role because so far, despite being the Ecksteinian Wunderkind, his organizational renovations have resulted in: He is still, statistically, one of (if not the) worst general managers in the history of major league baseball. Improving from "piece of s%*# that's on fire" to "steaming pile of s%*#" doesn't absolve him of that. A middle of the pack farm system led by question marks, top prospects losing their luster, and blockbuster trade acquisitions that will drop the system once they graduate (cue: The Who). He's shown that he struggles negotiating with other GMs. Cease trade was horrid at the time, but the prospects have aged poorly, Wilson is Wilson (sometimes good, most times bad) and De Vries ascension makes it painful. Crochet trade: Braden-Teel-Meidroth is a good return! No complaints. Booser trade was stupid at the time and still makes no sense. Tyler Gilbert, I see the vision, but also dumb. Dude found Rick Hahn's book of "give up young arms for old relievers" sitting around and blitzed through it. The Kopech/Fedde/Pham trade is aging better thanks to Vargas going from horrid to average and Jeral Perez balling. Curtis Mead TBD. Looks better this year as a Sox player than a Ray, but Former Top Prospect™ is a term we are deeply familiar with. Dude held onto Robert too long. The argument that other teams couldn't meet his price...just means that he held onto an asset with the intent of it depreciating in value. I'm both in and out on development. Lord have mercy I dunked on Ryan Fuller but that dude might have saved Colson Montgomery and for that we are thankful. At the same time, I really liked Brian Bannister and suddenly this year every arm in the system has started dealing with soreness, Oprah was hired to hand out Tommy John surgeries, and Schultz/Smith - the prize duo - are looking less and less like Sale/Crochet - or even good version of Rodon - that the team needs. If Grant Taylor is converted to a reliever full-time in the future, that's just a massive, depressing L. If you take 2 steps back and look at this team, there's a lot to like. If you're a glass half-full person, this is probably what you're jazzed about and focusing on the most — and I get it. It's more fun to look at the ups than downs, especially if sports is your form of escape. The Montgomery Brothers. Having two young, exciting catchers. I feel like Korey Lee is worth mentioning but also not really? Meidroth, Sosa and Vargas all look like they can contribute to the infield. Shane Smith and Mike Vasil are massive Rule 5 wins. There are really fun names in the farm system. If the org gets smoke for Hagen Smith, they deserve a lot of flowers for Caleb Bonemer. Smoke-Flower ratio can always change, but right now Bonemer looks like an absolute steal. Billy Carlson is apparently S-Tier at defense. I'm begging for highlights. McDougal is finally alive, Oppor is dealing. Some guys look really really fun, but aren't screaming off the page. Antonacci, Wolkow, Taylor (if kept as a starter), LaCombe, Shane Murphy Luis Reyes, please, be a successful big LatAm signing. If LatAm guys start turning around soon, that's a definitive Getz win since he (at least very, very visibly) was instituting those changes before KW/Hahn were fired. Venable is smarter and more likable than Pedro. If you take 10 steps back: They are still horrible at the Major League level If Colson and Co. form another small but mighty core that has no depth coming from the minors, then we're gonna see this fall apart like the 2016 core and like the TLR's teams. Watching Colson for 5 years and then seeing him get traded and sign a $1 billion deal with the Yankees in 2030 will hurt.Venable Venable still makes a lot of mistakes we've seen from recent Sox managers - but he deserves grace considering he's a rookie. Under normal ownership, Year 3 of a rebuild should at least be the year where you aspire to hit .500. Getz needs the team to be at least a mid-70 win team next year or the Sox fanbase will continue to wither and wither closer to extinction. Here's a TL;dr of my ramblings: We all still argue and discuss this team cause we, for one reason or another, care about them. The longer that they continue to be horrid, the more glass half-full people will begin to feel deluded and eventually stop watching and the more glass half-empty people will finally decide the team generating negative emotions for them isn't worth it. Go back 4 years: There were more posters on this board because the fanbase was vibing. Tons of people were out on Colson months ago and now we all feel like he is must-see TV. If Getz succeeds at making the Sox a sustainable winning team, I'm sure tons of people will eat crow. But if he doesn't, he just becomes the embodiment of everything wrong with the Reinsdorf era as it goes out with a whimper, and after decades of frustration, no one will not want to hear about how Chris Getz optimized workflow when he couldn't get wins.

After missing a few games this is what I've come back to see: Colson is still smashing the ball but is now sitting with soreness. Luis out for year with a strain. Steve Stone likes Korey Lee's pitching form. Korey Lee hitting mid-80s and even 90 mph on a pitch? Korey Lee for 2-way player.

Colson, my god

The What If scenario was thermonuclear Jacob Gonzalez

Cause it's a What If scenario

Meidroth's is powered by stellar defense. He definitely has a place with the team, probably at 2B. But right now: 1) If Sosa isn't a valuable player, why is a team giving up a good outfielder for him? 2) Right now, no one has 1B or 3B locked down, so might as well keep all three of Sosa, Vargas and Mead. Hell, Benintendi could get show the door as his contract begins to get cheaper and you could try one in LF. 3) Giving up Quero or Teel early means you risk losing a franchise catcher if the other flops. If Jacob Gonzalez suddenly went thermonuclear and Montgomery went into a sophomore slump, would it be time to trade Colson?

When you take sample size into account, you can argue Sosa is the team's best hitter this year and you want to drop him? Here's the above average batters they've had, minimum 50 at-bats. Tauchman Teel Montgomery Quero Thaiss Sosa Dropping two of them, who are also very cheap for the near future, is crazy.

They're also getting local fanbases absolutely fucking amped by letting them see legends / shows. How excited were people to see Buehrle/AJ/Paulie/Ozzie and a Chance the Rapper concert? There's great humor that any Sox fan would complain about the Bananas considering the impact Bill Veeck (who Jesse Cole cites as an idol) had on the franchise and baseball in general.

Yeah, the dancing and singing is to get people interested online. But then you have real crazy athletic s%*#. Even if it is hot dogging, like, look at this:

Cause you're telling us — not opining — that the game will be exciting and have more hits if objectively worse hitters are put in the game, robbing fans of a better experience.

But what's more exciting: Jim Thome launching a home run so far it has a plaque or a home run that is only famous because a fat guy hit it while flailing for his life?

Bro just said he would rather watch Jose Contreras bat .094 than win the World Series

Think about how magical the strategy behind Mark Buehrle's home run was. It'd be worth never having Paulie in a Sox uniform.

I always love when people are like "I'll take one Bartolo Colon home run" vs. "Albert Pujols joining the 700 club during a magical final season with the Cardinals."

And Cy Young and Ed Walsh thought that they were weak bitches. Times change.

Tyler Osik told the org that Sean Burke likes to play too much Settlers of Catan. Actual guess: He's gassed.

Did you see the maybe?

It looks like the Lenyn Sosa of air fryers: Versatile (maybe?) with power