Lip Man 1

Perfect Tuesday for me. Sox took a DH (I know it was the Royals but still) and the Cubs got hammered again. Even Yolmer did something baseball worth besides acting like a clown! Only downer, Eloy 0-6. My God he's down to around .206. And Yonder that "terrific" clean up hitter is now at .176 LOL.

Here you go dude. "Release this stuff AND failed first round draft pick." Hope you are happy. Have a good evening.

Gag me.

By the way the Yankees were one of three teams that did have to pay Luxury Tax money along with Boston and the Cubs. I assume that is based on the recent past seasons.

Time will tell won't it?

Another blow to those who posted that they thought the Sox pen would be fine moving forward with all the "talent/prospects" in the system. Me thinks not. Fortunately good experienced bullpen options are always available every off season so it shouldn't be a killer to the rebuild. As I posted though I have very little faith any of the players those folks were touting will be anything substantial for the Sox in the future.

They didn't want to go into Luxury Tax territory. Now with at LEAST an additional 30 million a year in revenue that should no longer be an impediment.

Game suspended, to be resumed at 4:40 Chicago time Tuesday with the Sox batting. Fourth game either postponed or suspended this year so far for the Sox. Three of those have been at home. They have also had three other games shortened / completed due to bad weather, one of those was at home (vs. Toronto-5 innings W). Others in New York (7 innings W) and Cleveland (6 innings-L).

PTATC: I must respectfully disagree to a certain extent because ownership is still the same. Said owner has publicly stated many time how he doesn't like to pay for "potential" as in draft picks which is why he fought so hard to change the drafting system. Also this same owner continues to "suggest" who the Sox should be drafting to those in charge of it. (And I've been told that from two different sources.) What's the old saying (paraphrasing) "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it..."

If only he was as good of a player as he is as a clown.

I agree that it is to soon to call anything on the recent first round picks save for Fulmer. I think his mechanics are so screwed up, he's all over the place and I don't think they can be fixed...at least not by this organization. However I do think fans have a right to be concerned about the first round picks overall by this ownership / organization. Historically if you go back to 1981 when JR took over the track record has been very poor. Arguably the only Sox first round picks to have had anything close to a decent Major League career (and that of course is a judgment call) have been Daryl Boston (1981), Ron Karkovice (1982), Jack McDowell (1987), Robin Ventura (1988), Frank Thomas (1989), Alex Fernandez (1990), Mark Johnson (1994), Jeff Leifer (1995), Gordon Beckham (2008), Chris Sale (2010), Tim Anderson (2013), Carlos Rodon (2014). And again that's giving the benefit of the doubt to some of them regarding a "decent" big league career. The only sure fire ones were Karkovice, McDowell, Ventura, Thomas, Fernandez, Sale and Anderson. That's seven in 42 years. The misses? Joel Davis and Russ Morman (1983), Tony Menedez and Tom Hartley (1984), Kurt Brown (1985), Grady Hall (1986), Scott Rufforn (1991), Eddie Pierson (1992), Scott Christman (1993), Bobby Seay (1996-never signed with Sox), Jason Dellaero (1997), Kip Wells (1998), Jason Stumm and Matt Ginter (1999), Joe Borchard (2000), Kris Honel (2001), Royce Ring (2002), Brian Anderson (2003), Josh Fields (2004), Lance Broadway (2005), Kyle McCulloch (2006), Aaron Poreda (2007), Jared Mitchell (2009), Keenyn Walker (2011), Courtney Hawkins (2012), Carson Fulmer (2015) Zach Collins and Zach Burdi (2016), Jake Burger (2017) and Nick Madrigal (2018) are still in the minor leagues. Hartley, Brown,Hall, Pearson, Christman, Stumm, Honel, McCulloch, Mitchell, Walker and Hawkins never spent a day in the big leagues. And some of the Sox first round picks who eventually made the big leagues were with other clubs after they were traded. If the rebuild is going to work the draft AND developing of the kids picked has to be paramount and again, Sox fans have reasons to be concerned in these areas in my opinion.

Ricky today said he'll be playing probably twice a week catching Covey for sure.

Hopefully this game gets called. Sox offense is non-existent against a pitcher with an ERA of almost six who got blasted in his two previous starts.

So the last two to do it have been with the White Sox, counting yesterday.

At least shown up and compete?

Good point which is why I qualified my original comment. No guarantees with this ownership / front office that it all works out in the end.

According to a story I saw today on Twitter, the new Cubs TV Network is expected to net them 90 million a season in revenue. That will be up from the 60 million they are getting now per year. They are going to be able to buy any player they want moving forward as well as suck a lot of advertising revenue out of the market. Not good news for the Sox who try to fight for some relevance in that same market.

Richards was the guy who started the "Golden Age" of the franchise, the run of 17 straight winning seasons (how good would that look today?) as they went from "Rags to Richards" in 1951. back in his day he was terrific. Billy Pierce told me he was the best manager he ever played for. Regarding 1976, Richards also said he did it simply as a favor to Bill Veeck and actually reached out to Chuck Tanner (according to what Chuck told me when I interviewed him) asking him to stay as third base coach and retake the managerial job in 1977.

I don't know how good Minnesota's farm system is but they seem to have some good young players and a front office that knows what they are doing. Assuming the Sox rebuild works, it looks like those who thought they were going to dominate the division will be in for a surprise. Like days gone by the Twins won't be going anywhere and will be in a position to fight the Sox for the Central.

God help us! This was a lost weekend, totally and completely. At least they won two games in Houston. Maybe they can recover over the next 14 games against Kansas City, Cleveland and Washington. None of them juggernauts.

Have to agree.

This is where a franchise's Major League player evaluation people come in. You can get productive "second tier" free agents if you have a department staffed by people who know what they are doing and can make good recommendations to the G.M. The track record speaks for itself regarding the "success" of the Sox acquisitions overall. Hahn doesn't work in a vacuum, the issue in this area doesn't fall completely on him.

Keep in mind Hahn public comments recently about Jose' that he felt he was going to be with the organization for a long time. Take it with a grain of salt of course, but don't dismiss it completely.

September 14, 1997 - Carlton Fisk had his uniform #72 retired in a ceremony before the Sox took on Cleveland. The game was also remembered for manager Terry Bevington going to the mound to change pitchers...expect for the fact that no one was warming up in the Sox bullpen when he called for the change! Bevington was just a nut job. Paul Sullivan used to be the Sox beat writer for the Tribune (when they actually gave a damn about the Sox) and he grew up a Sox fan. He told me he specifically requested a change in assignments because he simply couldn't take dealing with Bevington anymore.

Agree. Just look at 2005 for example. The Sox had excellent starting pitching, a lights-out bullpen and were in the top quarter of the league in home runs, sacrifice fly's, infield hits, stolen bases and sacrifice bunts. That's great balance. They could beat you with a blast into the seats, a bloop hit into short right field or a bunt down the third base line.