Thad Bosley

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jul 17, 2016 -> 02:50 PM) Thad: I'd very much like to interview any of them. I'd be perfectly willing to do so at their convenience as long as no areas were 'off limits.' JR has been known to set boundaries before willing to do interviews in the past from what I've been told by others. Mark I hope you get the opportunity to interview them someday. I enjoy your interviews, so I'm sure we'd learn quite a bit from the brain trust running things over there at 35th and Shields. Certainly plenty of questions to ask, for which the answers would be very interesting to hear, to say the least.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 17, 2016 -> 02:45 PM) Angels playing flawless defense this series Admittedly that was a smooth and impressive play.

Hawk not sugar coating the Sox offensive problems in the open.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 17, 2016 -> 02:24 PM) Owner trying to win sucks Lose, lose, lose then Thad can keep b****ing.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 17, 2016 -> 01:50 PM) So it looks like Cooper has fixed Shields....at least for now. 4 good starts in a row; went 8 last night. Assuming Hahn has seen reality re this team's chances.... is now the time to flip him? Good question. Let's take a look at the facts on the ground as they exist today to see what the answer ought to be. Seller's market. Check. Sox are at .500, but in the 80% of the games they've played that did not feature Chris Sale on the bump, they've played to a .431 winning percentage. Check. Offense, once again, just like last year, near last in the league. Check. Six teams, including Boston and Toronto, ahead of the team for that second wild card spot. Check. You add all of that up and you easily get to the answer you are suggesting, GreenSox, the obvious and logical answer. Meanwhile, prepare yourself for a Jay Bruce announcement or the like between now and August 1st.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 17, 2016 -> 01:38 PM) Torborg was .439 coming in and was given a prey good roster. His White Sox winning percentage is only .006 better than Terry Bevington's. And the experience card is beyond overplayed. Maybe in year 1, but they won 85 games. What Brooks Boyer should do is arrange an interview for Lip with JR, KW, RH and RV. He will never slam them again. Why, because individually and collectively they've all been so good at running the White Sox organization?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 13, 2016 -> 09:11 AM) I'm not saying the Sox have been successful, I'm saying that the suggestion that the reaction to their failure should be to tear down and rebuild is ill-advised. I'm also pointing out that the Sox have made progress toward the goal of perennial threat in each of the last three seasons, even if that progress has been slower and more methodical than we would all like. Sometimes a good plan can yield undesirable results. In professional sports (ESPECIALLY baseball), that happens more often than not. Only one team in 30 actually succeeds at winning the World Series. That doesn't mean that only 1 team in 30 did a good job; that 29 front offices should be fired. It's simply the nature of competition. When you go head to head, only one winner can emerge. This front office has not tasted success, but analysis suggests that it's still moving in the direction of success. It makes sense to stay on that course until the direction changes. “We’re blessed right now with some special talent that’s entering prime of its career, whether it’s Chris Sale or Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton, Jose Quintana, Carlos Rodon — he’s probably a little before his peak but certainly on the rise. Our goal and intent all along has been to maximize the window to win a championship while these players are on our roster. I get the skepticism at this point. But we do feel that what we’re doing now is maximizing our chances to win while we have some elite talent on our roster.” - Rick Hahn, the day after he made the trade for Todd Frazier. Thoughtful analysis, Eminor. Follow up question for you: how do you reconcile the "slower and more methodical" pace of progress which you cite with Hahn's references to maximize the window of opportunity while the core is still around. All of this, whatever the Sox have been doing the past few years, is it all just going to result in one or two years, max, of championship baseball around 2018, 2019, when the contracts of most of the core will be up, given this slow pace of progression? My point is when Hahn talks in terms of a window, that sounds like a somewhat limited amount of time, and not something that lines up well with progress that is coming along at a snail's pace.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 12, 2016 -> 01:08 PM) Because he got them a #2 starter. Great point. I would rather give up the Marcus Semiens and Trayce Thompsons of the world that bring back the types of players like Shark (already forgot how to spell his damn last name!) and Frazier, guys of a certain caliber who could presumably contribute to a contending team, than give up nobody but sign bottom of the barrel types like a 37 year-old Rollins or Mat Latos, who won't help get the team anywhere. It goes back to the old adage: you have to give up something to get something.

Great article, very informative. The one guy whom I'm interested to see how things turn out with is Alec Hansen, who wasn't mentioned in this particular interview. I thought he was a terrific pick with obvious tremendous upside. If he returns to form and lives up to the hype that had him going as a potential 1-1 at one point, look out! He could be a difference maker somewhere down the road.

He won't be as exhausted entering the round as Stanton was.

This is pretty awesome.

Let's go Todd!!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 11, 2016 -> 05:10 PM) When considering a rebuild, one factor is the competition. Right now Cleveland looks good, but not exactly a juggernaut. The Sox are right with KC and Detroit with Minnesota taking up the rear. There is no team that you would say is anywhere near unbeatable. That is I'm reason why I wouldn't trade Chris Sale for a package of guys I hope is,as,good as Chris Sale some day. I really think so,e want the Sox to rebuild for the built in minimum 3 years of constant complaining. Yes, yes, of course you do. Blah blah blah.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 11, 2016 -> 02:15 PM) Serious question. Say the Sox went into full rebuild and traded everyone away. How many years of losing until you started moaning about years not in the playoffs and the rest? Could you go 3 years and not say a peep about the team on the field being awful? I doubt most can. The second half of 2013 and 2014 the Sox were clearly rebuilding, yet they hold the w-l record against the manager. There was tons of complaining about roster construction in 2014 with Konerko being brought back to be the 25th guy. And your solution is, what? Besides always moaning about moaners. No rebuild, just stay the course? Keep on going at this thing as they've done in recent years?

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jul 11, 2016 -> 02:09 PM) Jake: Just my opinion but 2005 was a fluke. Also just my opinion, if the Sox went into a full rebuild mode and lost revenue I don't honestly think that would make much of an impact. I assume you are talking about attendance. With the revenue streams MLB now has, paid attendance isn't that big of a deal. It certainly has a place and it's very nice to have but I don't think it's 'make or break' anymore...not like back say in the 1940's before TV hit it big. Mark You are 100% correct, and there is historical precedence to support this. The Sox went into full rebuild mode back during '87, '88', and '89 under the capable leadership then of Larry Himes. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. That guy came in and whipped the farm system into shape, and shrewdly traded away vets to bring in other young players that put the Sox in 1990 in position to go on a nice five year run at the time. Problem is Jerry Reinsdorf replaced Himes with Ron Schueler, who simply didn't get the job done of getting the team from "point B to point C", but that's another story. What's relevant here is that this beleaguered fan base has, in fact, lived through a full rebuild once before, and it can certainly do so again. At least with a rebuild it might be clearer to the fans that there's actually a real plan in place to develop something capable of sustainable success. The crap plans employed in recent years have been anything but.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jul 10, 2016 -> 03:27 PM) The Sox aren't trading Quintana in the middle of a playoff race The Sox aren't in the middle of anything. They are on the outer bounds periphery of the race for the second wild card playoff spot. 4 1/2 games behind four teams currently constructed better than the Sox, and tied with the defending World Series champions competing for that same spot. Better Hahn & Co. be thinking about converting Quintana into the likes of a Yoan Mancada or Jurickson Profar while they can.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 10, 2016 -> 02:03 PM) Tim Anderson! He is just a joy to watch.

The high profile exposure of being an All Star certainly couldn't hurt his trade value at the end of the month.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 10, 2016 -> 11:22 AM) And 2 of those teams have done the only thing that matters which is win a world series. Neither of them is the Indians. And one of them was put together by our current management team that is in place. There's no argument the Sox were far more successful in one of their three playoff appearances since the inception of the current division structure than the Indians and Twins were in their 14 combined appearances during that same time frame. But that wasn't the point I was making. The more overarching observation was that the small market teams in the division have won the division five times as often as the large market Chicago White Sox have. That's kind of embarrassing. And the "current management team that is in place" that you reference has only built teams that have won the division in just two of their 15 years now being at this thing. Not exactly an eye popping record of achievement.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jul 9, 2016 -> 06:23 AM) That ain't gonna happen until JR is gone. Time to face reality. The reality is that in this the 22nd year of the existence of the AL Central, with small market Cleveland well on its way to wining this division for the eighth time, you combine that with how many times the other two small market teams have won the division, and you'll see that the large market White Sox, with its resources advantage, has been aced a whopping 15 times by a small market team over that 22 year period. 15 division titles between Cleveland, Minnesota, and KC, and just three for the Sox. This despite the Sox being the only team in the bunch with a sweetheart lease deal in place that allows them to keep far more of its revenues than those other teams can. It's clear what those other teams lack in $$$ resources they make up for in superior front office capital running those organizations. So yes, the reality is more of the same until that time when a change at the top finally occurs.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 8, 2016 -> 10:59 AM) You should just have a canned reponse to all post "JR sucks and will not allow this team to be good." ptatc, there isn't anyone who would disagree with your assertion here that "JR sucks". At least as an owner of a MLB franchise goes from a fan's perspective. You are absolutely right - he's been a complete disaster in that regard.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 8, 2016 -> 09:17 AM) How does a 1 year, $3 million signing qualify as one of the worst? I mean I get the guy sucked at all, but it had so little impact on the franchise he was released long before the end of the season. How can this have "so little impact" on an organization you always *claim* operates under very limited resources?

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 7, 2016 -> 09:03 AM) Development of a prospect is a large part psychological in all sports. Many failed athletes have the physical talent but being able to handle the mental aspect may make or break them. This is especially true in baseball where failure is more part of the game than any other sport. The mental adjustment is key to success. For some it comes easily for other, not so much. In Beckham s case the league adjusted to what he was doing early on and he could never make the subsequent adjustment. I always thought Beckham's progress was somewhat thwarted by all of the muscle he put on after he had been called up. In 2009 when he first came up and had the success he had that season, he was far less muscular than he started to be in subsequent seasons. Whatever workout regimens he was on during the offseasons after 2009 led him to put a lot of bulk on his frame, and I always wondered if that somehow negatively impacted his swing, as in, maybe slowing it down. I don't know. Just seemed like all of the muscle didn't serve him well.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 08:52 PM) Exactly what I expected. Of course you did.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 08:31 PM) The scary thing is that I think you actually believe somehow obsessing over and over again about how bad the franchise is isn't negative. What's scary is you constantly pointing out what you consider to be other's negativity yet not acknowledging the volume of your own around here.