Eminor3rd

That is not what I was arguing at all, I must not have been clear. I was/am operating on the assumption that we all already know it was NOT thorough -- by "could" I meant that they hypothetically could have done a thorough search and ended with TLR. I was trying to make the point that it is not guaranteed that he is a terrible choice; he DOES have virtues, he just also has more baggage and risks than nearly anyone else to go along with it.

What I meant by that was that he might be exactly what the Sox need (whether or not they have enough talent), but it will have been achieved by essentially a guess (or JR's emotions or whatever), instead of by a process designed to define and find what the Sox need. So we're relying on luck for it to work out.

I've seen a lot of Sugano. Some thoughts: - "The Giants don't post players" is true, except when it isn't -- Shun Yamaguchi was posted just last year, and it turned out it was because it was a provision in his FA contract, but it also turned out that a lot of people in the Giants org DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT the provision. It's entirely possible Sugano also has such a provision, whether it came before or after we all learned about Yamaguchi, as he has been clamoring to be posted for years. Also, there is a near consensus perception among people that cover NPB that the Sugano situation could be viewed as an outlier for the Giants because the guy has been such a hero for them; he's been perceived to have "paid his dues" to the organization. Not only has he been massively successful for them, but he actually got drafted initially by a different team and refused to sign because he wanted to play for the Giants. He sat out a year and got drafted by the Giants the next season, which has become a sort of legendary tidbit in his story to show how much he respected the team. The Giants understand that two-way success stories like Hideki Matsui help their brand. Also, the Giants have clinched their pennant and a trip to the Japan Series, and especially if they win it all, it could be seen as an appropriate "final contribution." All in all, I give it even odds that he's posted. - "He should just wait until he's a free agent next year" makes sense in the context of MLB ball, but less so in NPB. Filing for free agency is actually seen as a bad look in NPB, or at least as casting shade upon your team. Unlike here where it's a default and seen as "just business," there's an expectation to have loyalty to your club, and as a result, almost literally everyone who files for domestic or international free agency ends up leaving their team, because if they were gonna stay, they would have negotiated an extension already. Given the mutually respectable dynamic between Sugano and the Giants, being posted could be a much more desirable outcome for his legacy than resorting to filing for free agency. - Sugano is legit. I would describe his pitching style as a poor man's Roy Halladay, in that he relies heavily on a slider and a split/change that tunnel extremely well but slash diagonally in different directions. He sits low 90's but can go to the mid-90's when he needs to. He is definitely a command control guy, but commands like five pitches, so he strikes guys out. The raw stuff is a tick below Tanaka when he came over, but the control and polish is equal or better. The velo is a tick below Kikuchi, but the arsenal is wider and the control is two ticks better. He's substantially better than Yamaguchi ever was. The ONE thing that really gives me pause is that, like a lot of NPB pitchers, he throws a lot of high breaking balls. It's possible that with the current uppercut meta, that isn't as dangerous as it used to be, but I can't help but be worried about that. - He has been pitching with a partially torn UCL for many years. Take that for what it's worth. He has started to become injury prone in non-arm ways over the past few seasons. - Dude is an absolute gamer. Tons of swagger and a major competitor. I would love to see this guy on the White Sox, though I have to admit that part of it is that I'm an NPB fanboi. I agree with the #3 projection, and I think with the wide arsenal and expert control, it's safe if he's healthy. That said, there's injury risk, he's on the wrong side of 30, and with any NPB transfer, you have to remember that the ball is different and that can affect different guys in different ways. Also, the best pitching prospect in the NPB is Yoshinobu Yamamoto. I don't know why no one is talking about him.

Late to the show but here's my take: I think it's entirely possible that the White Sox could have executed a thorough, objective search and interview process and still ended up choosing Tony La Russa. I don't think there's any way it wouldn't still be understood as a risky, potentially polarizing move -- but he clearly checks some of their boxes more strongly than any other candidate available. I don't think I would have LIKED the move even then, but I would at least admit that I could see that there was logic behind it, assuming I knew they really did all their homework and considered all options. However, the fact that I KNOW that such a process did NOT occur -- that the decision was entirely emotional, made by the one guy that was NOT hired to be a baseball expert, and from all accounts left no room at all for any other possibility -- makes all of the risks and cons seem much more likely and substantial, because now I can't even believe that someone did the due diligence necessary to find out. I mean, for example: what if Rick Hahn or KW took the time to get input from the leaders in the clubhouse, like Abreu and TA? I'd have to think that even just the gesture itself of seeking input would cause the players to be more willing to accept such a jarring change, and it would, at the very least, have given the administration an opportunity to sell the move. But the fact that it's being reported that the clubhouse is in disarray suggests that such a thing either could not have occurred, or if it did, was so obviously a ruse that it didn't convince anyone. I can see why Jerry Reinsdorf would feel the impulse to take the reins in this case -- I'm sure he really does understand that this is his last real shot at another title, and the instinct to be the author of your own fate when everything is on the line is common and not necessarily a bad thing. But you'd think, of all people, Reinsdorf would have learned the value of "hiring people smarter than you" to make the decisions you aren't qualified to make. Except, of course he hasn't -- this is the guy who just rides the SAME group of executives through decades of failure, as if no amount of evidence could convince him that the problem is stemming from the process. This move certainly might work out, there's even a decent chance -- but if it does, it will be because it was blind luck, not because it was a smart move. And THAT should bother all of us.

You're 100% right about this, and the landscape is terrifying right now for whoever is left. I will say, from what I understand the White Sox are one of the few teams to have made either no cuts or VERY limited cuts so far, and that is a credit to JR.

Yeah that's a narrative that is popular, but I'm not sure where it came from. Maybe it used to be that way decades ago before the media explosion in the 90's, not sure. First of all, tickets themselves are a MASSIVE revenue stream, despite what a lot of people think. For many teams it's actually still the largest single stream. It isn't just people like us on the board buying individual game or season tickets -- the group sales department is a substantial portion of the ticket revenue, as are the premium sales. Just think about how many luxury suites are in the stadium. Companies pay mid six figures to lease them for the season. and the sales department fills the rest of the inventory with group sales. When no one is allowed in the stadium, pick a number between $300 - 800k for each suite and multiply it by however many suites are there, and that's a ballpark of how much revenue is completely gone JUST from that source. And even if you think that there will be fans in the park in some number next year, smart money is the fact that enclosed spaces are going to be accessible LAST, so that money may not be back in 2021 at all. The other thing people don't understand is how much of the value of corporate sponsorship is tied to fans being in the park. Essentially every team has had to renegotiate EVERY corporate sponsorship contract based on how much value can be actually delivered. All of the value that is tied to tickets, in-park experiences (think batting practice viewing, dinners at bars/restaurants, which are commonly sweepstakes prizes passed along to consumer brands), all kiosks and concourse facing signage, retail co-branding, etc. is impossible to collect on. This year, the ONLY signage worth anything is TV visible signage, and even that is inarguably LESS valuable because it loses all of its impressions from in-park attendance. Also, you can't forget about concessions/merchandise. People forget about it because that stuff is typically low margin in most industries -- but remember how much a beer costs at a stadium. The margins are NOT small in event settings. When Ricketts was railed for publicly estimating their losses and everyone thought he was exaggerating -- I can tell you that the numbers he was throwing out passed the smell test. Basically, the extent to which these revenue streams return in 2021 is going to depend on what happens politically with regards to the virus over the next six months. And without that knowledge, it's a fool's errand to create a meaningful expense budget. Say what you want about the share of the revenue that you think players should get, but it's as high as it is nominally BECAUSE teams have expected to rely on these revenue streams for a long time. No one is going to know how much money they can actually expect to collect until the offseason is over, so I think it's going to be a lean one for free agency.

The lack of fans in attendance (which erases not only ticket and concession revenue, but the majority of merchandise revenue and nearly a majority of corporate revenue) absolutely brutalizes the bottom line, whether or not you include parking. Every team is hurting badly, every team is afraid of not being at full strength next year, nearly every team is afraid that "normal" will never again be realized (potential for a very different and permanent set of policies on entry procedures and capacity limits for public events) and I believe that will lead to a very risk-averse offseason in terms of spending.

My criticism applies equally to your proposal.

I don't think the team is in a position to trade starting pitching for a position player anywhere on the diamond, even if that position has to otherwise be filled by "Larry" Garcia.

I don't think it's cut-and-dried these days. As more and more pitchers run into UCL issues, it seems to me that we've seen both (1) an increasing number of pitchers able to get back to 100% using platelet-rich injections and related therapies as an alternative, and (2) an increasing numbers of pitchers fail to get back to effectiveness post-Tommy John, either at all or within a short-enough time frame to avoid significantly lowering their ceilings. The cost of losing six months to waiting and finding out you need TJS anyway seems like a significant cost to us in the short-term, but when you compare it to the risks of the procedure and the built-in costs of loss of physical-prime development time that comes with the rehab, and try to put yourself in the shoes of the person who is taking those risks -- all of a sudden six months can seem like a reasonable or even barely significant price to pay for more information/certainty.

I love Abreu and understand his aversion to the DH, but the right thing for the team in the short and long term is to agree to a 50% job share. Everyone has got to make adjustments in their game as they age (including learning to be comfortable with different routines), and the sooner he learns to do it, the longer his career can be.

I do

After seeing how Sandy Alomar managed their elimination game the other night, I am way off the Alomar train.

No

Tomoyuki Sugano finally bullies the Yomiuri Giants into posting him, on the backs of an undefeated Sawamura Award season and a Japan Series championship. His gaudy numbers make people compare him to Masahiro Tanaka. Scouts of teams that do well in Japan know that he is, in fact, NOT Masahiro Tanaka, and they let other teams bid him up instead. The White Sox, who are are always eager to pay medium money for what the fans perceive to big a superstar, and who never think twice when no one around them seems to be seeing the same thing as they do, end up getting him. And he ends up being a solid #3 command and control guy, which is fine at what they paid. If he learns that he won't get away with high breaking balls in the States.

Utter dogshit performance all around the diamond.

f baseball

Been playing every day for like 6 weeks

Yolmer is gonna get the 7th at this rate.

lol @ literally every ball in play going to Laureano. Hope they don't mic our guys up, haha

Had the same thought when the ball landed. Canha got it in quick

He would have been toast. Relay began the moment he pivoted.

yes

Wait wat

This team can score 5+ runs easily, and they are too young to get precious about the moment, which is good. But Keuchel needs to gtfo right now.