Lip Man 1

This comes under the heading of "to be expected." Story in the Athletic today saying that with labor unrest on the horizon. the winter meetings may be cancelled next off season.

Suarez to the Braves, three years, 45 million. Milner to the Cubs, one year, 3.75 million Leiter Jr. to the A's, one year, three million

They absolutely need competent bullpen help, you can't expect to make any real progress when you've lost as many leads as they have in the 7th inning or later the past two seasons. It was ridiculous.

https://www.southsidesox.com/chicago-white-sox-news/118639/white-sox-select-rhps-jedixson-paez-and-alexander-alberto-in-mlb-rule-5-draft

I don't know about his quickness or ability to get to balls if he was in center, maybe a corner spot with his power.

As Kenny would say (and did): "It is what it is..." The system isn't changing so I guess you either (not you directly but a franchise) adapt or dies. Sox are getting new ownership sooner rather than later. That's all that matters to me. No sense arguing about a system that isn't changing. I applaud the teams that are willing to take chances, go out on a financial limb and do anything they can, regardless of market size to try to win. There is one way I'd come over to your side of the discussion though. The owners open their books to an independent auditor or accountant someone well versed in these areas and let's see who is making money, how much, who really isn't, who is making a choice not to compete but is making money and so forth. If it is anything like was shown during the labor impasse of 1994-95, when for the only time they did so, a number of teams are making a deliberate choice not to try to compete blaming their issues on outside factors.

All I know is what the results have shown over the last 20-30 years. More teams have made it to the World Series from different cities than teams made it to the NBA Finals or the Super Bowl. I think the issue in baseball is awful owners, you disagree...so be it. The bottom line is a salary cap is NEVER going to be instituted in MLB. I suggest everyone get used to that idea. Again history shows this to be the case.

Or perhaps get owners in place who care more about winning than profit margins. Especially those getting millions in revenue sharing money and national broadcast deals (which when you add them all up equals roughly 200 million for each team every year) That's not counting local media rights, national radio rights, merchandising, concessions and tickets sold. Just a thought. Everyone thought the Dodgers would easily beat the Blue Jays to win the series. It was anything but that wasn't it? As has been shown by folks here at the web site. MLB has had more teams compete in and or/win the World Series than the NBA has had or the NFL either for their respective championships.

I am able to read both stories easily. And if a story is behind a paywall (and the Sun-Times stopped doing that two years ago) this website doesn't look kindly on copying and pasting something that has to be paid for. One of the mods can correct me if I'm wrong about this.

Finally some good news: https://soxmachine.com/2025/12/white-sox-win-mlb-draft-lottery https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2025/12/09/white-sox-win-2026-mlb-draft-lottery The Sun-Times story takes a look at the potential top picks

It all depends on the return but I'm not in favor of this.

July 9, 2006 - Tadahito Iguchi’s single in the last of the 19th inning gave the White Sox a dramatic 6-5 win over Boston at U.S. Cellular Field in the final game before the All-Star break. Jermaine Dye’s two out, ninth inning home run tied the game at three. Both teams scored two runs in the 11th and the score stayed that way until the 19th. The game took 6:19 to play. It also appeared to take something out of the World Champions; they lost 10 of the next 12 after the break and skidded to a 90-win season.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2025/12/08/white-sox-taking-a-leap-hinges-on-development-of-young-players-not-outside-reinforcements

😆And you believed him?

Yes they fell apart after the break, still finished with 90 wins though.