Bananarchy

QUOTE (Dunt @ Dec 5, 2016 -> 11:15 AM) That Tim Anderson kid looks pretty decent At this rate, they'll have drafted a decent team in 80 years. I get what you're saying, but the White Sox positional drafting has been terrible for a long time.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Dec 4, 2016 -> 10:29 PM) That seems to be the size of it. They keep their jobs with mediocre seasons, why threaten them with a risky rebuild unless it involves "sure things". Aggravating considering Hahn and co are a lot better at evaluating minor league talent than major league talent. I'm not convinced Hahn is good at evaluating any talent. He's a master contract negotiator, which makes your players super valuable, but there is no evidence to suggest this FO can draft fielding talent.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Nov 30, 2016 -> 05:00 PM) Simple economics. Say a person, let's call him "Soxtalk poster Deadpool", spends $250 on something Cubs related (gear, tickets to a game, concessions at the game, a ride down the urinal trough at Wrigley, whatever). Now "Soxtalk poster Deadpool" does not have that $250 anymore, and cannot spend it on White Sox related things. The Cubs existence took the possibility of the White Sox getting "Soxtalk poster Deadpool"'s $250. They may not have gotten it anyway, but now there's a 0% chance instead of a >0% chance. That Trump University education keeps paying dividends, doesn't it? Go figure out the difference between owning a sports franchise and owning a business. That kindergarten horse manure doesn't hold up.

QUOTE (SonofaRoache @ Nov 30, 2016 -> 01:54 PM) Not true. This is why teams don't trade within divisions often, unless the players traded are insignificant. The Cubs happen to play in the same city and both teams compete over money, attention, players, and fans. Unless the Cubs send the greatest trade back of all time it's not gonna happen. Serious question for you "don't trade with the cubs" people. Has there ever been evidence to suggest the city can't support two winning baseball teams? You spend so much time citing business competition when 1) there have been multiple instances where the city has supported two winning baseball teams 2) the MLB is a franchised based model which allows the Sox to survive in concert with the Cubs. The only thing that the White Sox need to worry about is winning. The fans show up when they win. It is financially and operationally irresponsible to leave out a team in a different league as a trade partner. In a sense, it is NOTHING like dealing with a divisional rival, as their success is tied to our failure. That is not the case with the Cubs.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 11:34 PM) LOL Dan Bernstein being a Sox fan isn't something that can be agreed or disagreed about. He's talked about being a Sox fan for years. I've talked about Sox related stuff with him multiple times at remotes. You're wrong here but hey whatever. I can't believe we are arguing the fandom of a radio personality. Dan Bernstein is a White Sox fan. It's not a debate.

Bad move by the Sox. The Cubs would be great for driving up the price of guys. As usual, people here continue to use their hatred of the Cubs to endorse poor business decisions.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Nov 18, 2016 -> 04:11 PM) Um, no one is. No one expects Groce to pull down Kansas/Kentucky/Duke classes and no one is disappointed when it doesn't happen. That's quite different from being upset with a bad couple of beats in recruiting, like when a guy that verballed months before changes his mind on signing day (leaving the team scrambling for a replacement or a guy that picked up an Illinois hat before putting it back down during his announcement (ha ha f*** you Cliff, karma's a b****, how's the D-League?). Just to clarify, we don't blame the bold on Groce. We can't. Also, lol Cliff. He sucks.

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Nov 18, 2016 -> 02:27 PM) That's quite the strawman argument there. I'm not sure what Illinois fans you talk, but I don't think anyone sees the Illini's ceiling as anything close to Duke, UK, KU, etc. But it's not unreasonable for Illinois basketball to return to where it was from '82-'07. During that time they also had a couple Elite 8 losses ('84 and '01). Littlehurt is right on with expectations for the program. Make the tournament every year, be in the Final Four conversation every 4 years. There's no reason the program can't get back to that level. That's fine if that is your expectation. But then you can't be mad when teams who compete for a National Championship every single year out recruit Groce. The fact is, if you really feel like LittleHurt's expectations are fair, you should expect three and four star recruits every year. That NC Runner up had one five star player on it.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 18, 2016 -> 01:28 PM) From 1982-2007, they made the NCAA tourney 21 out of 25 seasons, and seven sweet 16s or better. Make the tourney nearly every year, and once out of every 4 years have a better team that can do some damage. Given how long they were able to sustain that for, I think those are realistic expectations. Although, as someone else pointed out, the decline of basketball in central Illinois may hurt the program more than you would expect. Two final fours, one National Championship loss in that time. Illinois fans act like that comparatively weak resume is enough to compete with Duke, KU, UK, etc.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Nov 18, 2016 -> 10:07 AM) Schools release kids from their NLI if the coach is fired To not do so would be a disaster for Illinois. We would never land a top recruit again if we fired Groce, leading Tilmon to demand out of his NLI, and then forbid JT from leaving. Frankly, Whitman has given every indication Groce is staying and Illinois cannot afford to pay another coach not to coach. This thread is so stereotypical Illinois fan. The program has won very little, but the fans expect them to land blue blood class recruits. Of course, when they finally do, they're unsatisfied because they don't realize that they're Illinois fans and Illinois is just not a top tier program anymore.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 18, 2016 -> 08:16 AM) This Jacksonville Jaguars bag full of money, where did this come from? Shahid khan? It's unbelievable the wealthiest Pakistani in the world built his empire in Urbana, IL.

QUOTE (fathom @ Nov 17, 2016 -> 05:46 PM) He should be fired if they don't make the tournament. No recruit is more important than the coach in place You're used to being wrong. A top 10 class is enough excitement to sustain a program for one year. The effects of firing Groce after this season would be catastrophic. QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Nov 17, 2016 -> 05:54 PM) Agreed. Don't encourage him.

It would be unpleasant, but it's for all the right reasons.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Nov 17, 2016 -> 05:35 PM) It must be awesome to have a competent front office yup. They were bad bad bad. They had a game that got a zero rating. They haven't won anything, but there's a lot to be excited about in Houston.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Nov 16, 2016 -> 06:26 PM) I find it hard to believe that you can call Cespedes garbage. I would love to see a middle of an order that has Abreu, Cespedes and Frazier. Spoiler alert: Last place. Again. The garbage is watching more of this crap baseball.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 17, 2016 -> 03:42 PM) Did we make a NCAA tourney yet? The Tilmon signing removes Groce from the hot seat at this point. If he blows this, he's done in 2019.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Nov 16, 2016 -> 10:04 AM) My off season plan for 2017 is very simple. Keep Sale+Quintana and sign Cespedes and Castro as free agents. So, apparently you enjoy this perennial losing garbage?

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Nov 15, 2016 -> 08:19 AM) Interest isn't the issue. It's getting that one team to give you what you want for Sale. Odds are they should get that. There are a bunch of teams that Sale would put over the top to win now. We're not that.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Nov 15, 2016 -> 08:17 AM) Eaton, like Sale and Q, would need a blown away package. He's 28 and will not be be a happy camper if we trade most of the veterans. We don't have to move him but he could be a possibility. Might as well move him, too. We're in agreement, though.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Nov 15, 2016 -> 08:17 AM) So we have at least 4 teams that have expressed at least some interest in Sale (Boston, LA, Atlanta, and Washington). This couldn't be playing out any better for the Sox IMO. Keep pinning all these teams against each other and take the best offer. Agreed. If Sale is on the roster opening day for us, Rick and Kenny have (yet again) failed miserably.

QUOTE (Donaldo @ Nov 14, 2016 -> 08:48 PM) Boston needs a DH. For the right prospect, I'd trade him in a heartbeat. At 30, his best years are probably NOT ahead of him. That's a sobering thought, but you're probably not wrong.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Nov 15, 2016 -> 08:10 AM) This. Eaton is part of the core, no reason to move him right now. You definitely won't get anything approaching a fair market value for him, so don't even pretend he's going anywhere. You still need veterans on this team anyways. Starting with Eaton, Rodon, and Anderson isn't a bad core to build around. Starting with a 28 year old is a mistake. You're essentially wasting his prime.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 12, 2016 -> 07:24 AM) Went to the dealership to buy an X5, walked out with another Jeep. congrats on the new car!

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Nov 10, 2016 -> 05:46 PM) I don't follow much beyond the B1G schools in basketball recruiting, but is there a Power 5 school in the country with worse luck with de-commits than Illinois? I know de-commits happen all the time in football, but they seem to be way less prevalent in basketball. In the last decade, we've had Gordon, Snider, and now probably Tilmon all flip right around signing day. What the hell is wrong with this program? The problem is this Illinois program needs to be a lot better with all the four star guys they have.

A Jetta is expensive to fix for what you get. I know this sounds boring, but get an Accord or a Civic before you get a Jetta. At least those things will run without problems. The new Civic is super slick.