Lip Man 1

Well Fulmer and Smith aren't going to be part of the future anyway so if the Yankees want them for Gray, fine with me.

It's Bruce Levine. Take anything he says with a TON of salt. Let's get more reliable confirmation of this first.

12 in a row for Milwaukee, hottest team hitting the post season since the 2005 White Sox closed it out on a 16-1 run.

There are certainly possibilities but you never know with kids...some make it, some flame out spectacularly. My hope is that the Sox sign three reliable guys who have some experience if for no other reason to teach the kids. You can't go into a season with a bunch of kids and maybe's in the bullpen if you want to show any improvement not only to the team itself but to the fan base. Remember the motley mop up crew blew 16 games last year where they had a lead in the 7th inning or later and lost. That's pretty bad. Next year if the team is still poor (probably) you may be able to ship out some guys who are doing well for prospects but again, my hope is, that if you assume the turnaround starts in 2020 and you have some veteran guys doing well in the pen, you hang on to them. Again assuming you've signed them to a two or three year deal. Let them stay and be the linchpins when the team gets good. It's not like the Sox don't have salary room in spades to take some gambles.

Unless the pitching staff, ESPECIALLY a brutally bad bullpen improves in 2019 you're going to be looking at 93+ losses again anyway regardless of what happens offensively.

For whatever its worth I saw a story yesterday where Arenado said he hopes to resign with Colorado especially since they made the playoffs.

A. Garcia certainly not worth that amount of money.

Agreed, because basically they went into the tank in 2007 and outside of three years haven't even been able to win more games than they lost at the end of the season since then. That does tend to drive fans away in bunches.

Given that the White Sox choked in the last two weeks of 2003 when they had a playoff spot squarely in their sights and the fact that they fell apart in the second half of 2004 (due to injuries to Ordonez and Thomas) I can easily see where the fan base in most of September 2005 would say, "here we go again..." But when they did clinch and when they did play playoff home games, the place was sold out. That's why I've always said and Garfien did again today in his "Sox Drawer" column when attendance was brought up that the Sox have to consistently be competitive...not have a surprising good season coming out of nowhere and then fall back for the next two years. They need to put together three, four, five good years in a row to solidify the fan base, establish consistency and get the season tickets / advertising coming in on a regular basis. When a team comes out of nowhere you usually don't see sustained attendance boosts until the following years and that generally is if said team continues to do well.

According to my print edition of Sports Illustrated this week, pages 46-47 (Sorry I can't post a link from a print story...) the Department of Justice is now directly involved probing the ways talent is migrating to MLB from Latin America and Cuba. It centers around violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Multiple victims have already given testimony before a federal grand jury or to law enforcement agents. They have already compiled a lot of documentation including videotapes, photos, legal briefs, receipts, visas and passports and internal team e-mails. The Dodgers seem to be directly at the center of this investigation! * A 2015 document shows Dodger executives developing a database for "egregious behavior" displayed by 15 of their Latin American employees. Five were listed as "criminal." * Internal communications by the Dodgers show concern over a "mafia" entrenched in their operations. * There are references as to how the Dodgers screwed over a legit prominent agent by signing an international player before he could become a free agent. (Puig???) * The dossier on the Dodgers appears to describe efforts to circumvent federal laws and MLB rules requiring Cuban players to establish residency in another country before talking to or signing with a team. Andrew Friedman and Gabe Kapler (he was the Dodgers Director of Player Development between 2014-2017) are under the gun. Witnesses have also been subpoenaed from the Atlanta Braves. Keep an eye on this. This could make the Dave Wilder White Sox scandal look like nothing.

In 1983 the White Sox became the first baseball franchise in Chicago to cross the two million barrier for the season. And you are correct, the measuring stick for how well a MLB team draws changed over the decades. At times one million was the gold standard. And let's not forget, between 1951 and 1967 the Sox outdrew the Cubs in 16 of those 17 seasons, sometimes by a very wide margin. The Sox had the winning teams, the Sox were usually in the pennant race, the Sox had the nationally known players, the Sox also got the lion's share of media coverage. The Cubs? They had Ernie Banks, the ill fated "College of Coaches" and generally were baggy pantsed buffoons on the diamond.

Heard from a friend in the media last night who covered the Sox regularly for a very long time. They wonder the same thing...how Steverson can be retained with so many strike outs and so ineptness offensively.

According to the Awful Announcing web site and their story on final regional baseball network ratings for the 2018 season: Things are not great for the White Sox, A’s and Marlins: The White Sox were the only team to average a rating below 1.00 (a 0.68). They did that last year too with a .88, joined by the A’s at .68. The A’s actually showed some improvement this year, but their 1.07 was still second-worst, with the Marlins’ 1.08 (a drop from 1.32) third-worst. Keep in mind the Sox TV deal with NBCSports Chicago expires after the 2019 season. Can the Sox convince any network that the ratings are awful because of the rebuild and that they'll get measurably better when the team starts to win? We'll see. I'd assume that will be the argument they are going to make. Will a network or networks accept it? Again we'll have to see.

Got out of the hospital yesterday. Have lost 25 pounds but am starting to feel better at least. Should be able to resume my broadcasting duties soon.

Saw where the Reds have a list of eight guys they are going to interview including Girardi.

Being in the hospital I just found out the Cubs lost a few minutes ago. That makes my day. I'm sure there are more than a few "unbiased" media members walking around town today with black arm-bands! Thank you Colorado Rockies.

SS: All I can go by is what I see. I don't think he's that good. Just my opinion. Maybe he gets better but so far not that impressive. Won't matter next year, may not matter in two years but I don't think you'll see this guy around for very long.

How many inherited runners did Bummer allow to score?

I said this was a thought experiment, nothing more. The guys above with the possible exception of L. Garcia are all flat out bad, just awful. They need to be flushed out of the system along with all the other deadwood in a perfect situation, this is not a perfect situation of course but those guys have all had chances and either failed miserably or can't stay healthy which is just as bad.

That is my bad I meant Castillo

Thank you but it is pretty bad. Have been here eight days and have had this GI issue for a month. It hasn't been easy. Like the Sox rebuild unfortunately it is a slow process.

Really getting bored and frustrated here in the hospital so I thought this may be a nice way to pass some time. I do this every year as a thought experiment just to get opinions. Naturally this has little connection with reality since roster construction is so interdependent on things like health, free agent signings and so forth. But looking at the current 40 man roster with each player taken in a vacuum unrelated to other players who would you like to see just flat out gone from this rag tag bunch? Here would be my selections (and the sheer number of them says all you need to know about the current overall talent) Bummer Covey Farquhar Fulmer Gomez Gonzales Jones Minaya Ruiz Santiago Scahill Shields Vieira Castillo Cordell A. Garcia L. Garcia LaMarre Tilson Obviously the Sox aren't probably going to cut half of these retreads, stiffs and deadbeats but in a perfect world, every single one of them would be out the door for me for various reasons...no talent, can't stay healthy, shows little hope of getting better, age etc.

100 is such a nice round number, thank god this disaster is done.

Maybe with a full year of recovery and off season work, Rodon will be OK next year. But frankly he's just not that impressive. I know he had that brilliant stretch but remember Covey had a brilliant stretch this season as well. Could have been a fluke (in Covey's case we know it was...) We'll see.

With the Sox over the past 12 years it's even extremely difficult to win more games than they lose in a year.