Lip Man 1

Addition by subtraction in my book. What was it? Four million of JR's dollars wasted on another clown-has been. ?

Shirley wraps up the Sox draft: https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-finish-final-day-of-2024-mlb-draft

At least since 2007, before that especially in the early days of ownership, JR and EE did actually spend on good players.

And they are under .500 now starting in 1981 when EE and JR took over.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2024/07/16/white-sox-select-11-pitchers-in-draft

Many of those 19 year old guys rarely see the floor. One reason the fundamentals are so bad with this organization at least, is because guys are being brought up who have no idea how to play the game, do the little things. I'm not saying go back to the days of Gary Peters and Joe Horlen who basically spent five years in the minors learning their craft but there's absolutely no need to rush guys up, destroy their confidence and see them fall flat on their faces.

I was told by a person in the front office that there were a number of other better qualified broadcasters who applied for the position and they don't see what Brooks saw in him. I watch a lot of ESPN and rarely heard or saw him doing anything of substance, the KBO League and The Other Pregame Show doesn't move the needle for me at all and a sideline reporter (I've been both sideline and / PBP) are two totally different animals. But like I posted a few months ago, we'll see if he has improved next year, if he has learned more of Sox history and if he realizes baseball is totally different over the course of a 162 game season. And I understand having been through it myself, the absolute hardest thing for a broadcaster to do is keep a fan base involved when the team is miserable. That is not easy and I cut him some slack in that regard but it was and is clear he is trying to learn on the job and a Major League franchise shouldn't have to have guys "learning" about the sport or especially about the team they are supposed to be covering. I trust what the front office person told me that there were other more experienced, better qualified candidates. For someone who supposedly covered baseball it was bizarre how he doesn't seem to know all the rules and has made major guffaws in that regard on the air. Maybe they have different rules in the KBO League! ?

He is used by ESPN but... Majority of the time it is for things like "slamball" (WTF?) and the G-League basketball Not exactly the NBA, NFL, MLB or NHL is it? ?

Nice thorough draft report concentrating on Day 2 and an overview of who has been taken so far: https://soxmachine.com/2024/07/white-sox-2024-mlb-draft-day-2-recap/

This was in the Athletic today. I guess JR won't be paying much to the state in terms of rent again this season: "You might not be surprised to find out the team could also be heading to its worst attendance numbers since moving into “New Comiskey.” In 1999, the Sox drew just 1,338,851 at home. (They had only 80 home games that year.) That’s an average of 16,736. This year, they’re at 837,000 through 51 home games, which gives them a 16,412 average. The average is a bit misleading as they’ve played three doubleheaders, which only count as one gate, but also we’re counting paid admission, not actual butts in seats, so it’s kind of a wash."

Can't disagree with the voting: https://awfulannouncing.com/orig/2024-mlb-broadcaster-announcer-rankings-mets-giants-padres.html

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2024/07/15/how-did-the-white-sox-get-this-bad-all-this-losing-starts-at-the-top

I bet they are listing TLR's salary not Grifol's.

They are supposed to get two or three of those pitchers back soon, don't know how that may impact their decisions.

No way is this possible. ?

You don't need to worry about him losing 20 games. The right-handed hurler replaced opener Jared Shuster with two outs in the third and recorded the final out during what was scheduled as a bullpen day on Sunday in the team's first-half finale against the Pirates. He threw one pitch out of the zone to Jack Suwinski to start the third and signaled for the training staff. Soroka left with right shoulder soreness and will undergo further evaluations, per the White Sox.

Glad that they drafted a pair of outfield prospects high up.

The only issue with Hagen seems to be at times his giving up walks.

Sun Times story on draft pick: https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2024/07/14/white-sox-select-left-handed-pitcher-hagen-smith-with-the-no-5-pick-in-2024-mlb-draft

Fundamentals has been an unknown word in this organization for years, literally years. Seems every spring the manager talks about how they are working on things, yet nothing seems to change. These are simply "baseball stupid" players and an organization that is unable or unwilling to get through to them from a teaching standpoint. And my guess is it probably starts down in the minor leagues.

To the Sun-Times: “Obviously disappointing, this is not something we planned for. Something we didn’t really expect.” “You can’t pinpoint it in one area because there have been times where we’ve made mistakes mentally and physically on the field defensively. There have been times where we have not executed a game plan. There have been times where, on the pitching end, we leave a ball out over the plate.” ?

With this Sox bullpen they really don't have any "good" relief pitchers. All flotsam and jetsam, dumpster dives save for maybe Leasure who still may have a future.

I'm positive he wouldn't have. One good thing though, it may have been the factor that drove him out of the game.

But remember the franchise simply couldn't "waste" a season bringing in an outsider to be the G.M. ?

And with that the White Sox close the worst first half in the 124 year history of the franchise. Clowns and buffoons. ?? Hope JR enjoys watching the product on the field.