Tony

Really nice run these guys are on. First “fun” stretch in far too long.

So the worst outcome possible. It does sound very White Sox, so can't really argue there.

You didn't answer the question I asked to you. If Murakami continues on his current pace, and the Sox as a unit are showing signs of improvement, given his two year contract, do you expect the White Sox to try and resign him to a longer extension? Or are they trading a 27 year old power hitting LH bat to another team because they don't have any interest in giving him over $100 million dollars? What do you believe is the most likely outcome?

Wait, let me see if I got this straight. You asked, word for word "who are all these players we've developed and then traded right away because we didn't want to pay them?" As @Look at Ray Ray Run pointed out, the list is full of talented players that were traded in their prime because the Sox didn't want to pay them. If they traded them because they were in a rebuild...who's choice was that? Was the rebuild forced upon them? It was 100% the choice of the White Sox organization not to extend them. There is no "pass" given because the organization decided to do ANOTHER gut job. But then, you turn around and say "It's beyond stupid to pretend that the Sox are going to build a competitive team, then start trading away the stars because "tee-hee, moar prospects" Why is that beyond stupid? What history do you have that the Sox will keep good players around for a long term competitive window? By your logic, that means you assume the Sox will be keeping Murakami long term, outside of his two year contract? (with the assumption he continues to play at this level and is a 'star' level player under your definition)

I'm not endorsing they sign him to an extension tomorrow. Think the sample size is too small, I'd like to work with some more historical evidence before making a long term investment. I'm not debating about the "when" but instead the overall intent with the player, and overall direction of the team. He's 26. We're going on Year 4 of abysmal seasons. At what point does this team enter the "competitive window" so to speak? Lockout aside, when the Sox embarked on this full tear down in the 2023 offseason, I would have hoped by 2028, they were coming out the other side of it and ready to start trying to win. If Murakami is still doing this in July, signing him to a 4 year extension gets him to age 30/31, covering 2027-2028-2029-2030. Having a big LH power bat in the middle of the lineup is something every contending team would love to have. My hope is the Sox are one of those teams, not looking to trade it to a team actually trying to win. Lets be one of those teams for a change.

At 26, given his hitting profile and position, he should have another 5-6 years of production at his current level. Not saying this HR pace will continue, we need to see more data, but given what we know at this point, I'm not comfortable taking the position of trading being the only logical solution. I get it, I've made the argument plenty of times that guys like Sale and Crochet probably should have been kept long term, but we knew ownership wouldn't sign them to a big deal, so because of that the only option to get any value for the player is to trade them. I guess I'm just tired of rooting for an organization like that. We should hold them to a higher standard. You potentially have a 26 year old star, a guy that picked your franchise, a guy that most scouts seemingly were wrong about, and the Sox deserve credit for making an investment in him. But turning around and trading him for another couple of lottery tickets isn't where this franchise should be right now, especially as we are in Year 4 of the worst stretch of White Sox baseball in history. When they signed him, the best case scenerio should have been "We were right, everyone else was wrong, we just found a middle of the order power hitter in his prime that can anchor our lineup for the next 5-6 years." Not "We were right, everyone else was wrong, we just found a middle of the order power hitter in his prime that we can trade to the highest bidder in a year"

It's a great show. After Sorkin left with the conclusion of Season 4, the show goes down in quality in Season 5 and 6, but the race between Santos and Vinick in Season 7 is a nice change of pace and ends the series well. I've re-watched it all the way through probably 4 or 5 times, all timer for me as well.

Just a god awful Day 2 for them, yikes

A TE?!? In the third? I swear Poles is doing this out of spite. Draft a fucking DE

Shouldn't Schwarber be used as the example for Mune? IMO, they are incredibly similar.

Unqualified man gets leadership position and fails….

Honestly, what real difference would it have made? It’s like putting gourmet cheese on spoiled meat. You’re still going to have a shitty burger.

Here is the thing. We all root for the Chicago White Sox. In most cases, your fandom is passed down from a parent, family member or friend. OP references his son, following in his footsteps. When you root for a team, you aren’t rooting for the owner. Jerry Reinsdorf isn’t the White Sox. When he dies, the White Sox don’t go with him. Now, that man has caused an incredible amount of frustration for us and deserves every ounce of vitriol thrown his way. He is a stain on Chicago sports and should be embarrassed of his ownership run. But he isn’t why I root for the White Sox, nor will it ever be. I root for them because I had White Sox wallpaper as a 4 year old, and I’ve got about 400 ticket stubs in a box from 1999-2020, and I’d guess a little more than half of those games, I was with my dad. Things suck right now. They are going to continue to suck until Jerry dies. Giving a second thought about a Brooks Baldwin injury or where Andrew Benintendi is batting in the lineup is a waste of time, because none of it matters right now. All we can do is hope that new ownership actually has even the faintest interest in actually winning, and things will be feel a lot better as a Sox fan. Until then…spend your time doing literally anything else.

Don't think anything Michael said was anything different than his father, including Michael saying at one point "If you know my father at all, you know how important winning is to him." Actually feel worse for die hard Bulls fans than Sox fans, as there is at least some hope down the line with new ownership. When the old man finally goes, Michael will still be leading the Bulls.

If Sam Presti called up Michael Reinsdorf and said "I want to run the Bulls" do you really want Reinsdorf's response being "Only if Billy can be your head coach?" If Presti says no to that, you're eliminating Presti from contention?

Don't know why anyone would expect Jerry/Michael to have any sort of grasp on how to properly build a front office.

That whole situation is insane. I have yet to hear a rational reason why the NFL dug in so hard on not giving them the picks. It wasn't punitive to Atlanta, there is truly no "victim" by awarding the picks to the Bears. The NFL simply fucked the Bears, there is really no other way to view it, it's so cut and dry.

He was/is just a terrible fit for the typical Sox fan. He's a rah-rah, over the top announcer that likes to bring a certain "attitude" to the broadcast. The Sox are 102-226 since he started. You flip that record around, the announcer could basically shout racial slurs into the microphone and no one would care. I don't think he's very good at his job, but he was put in a very tough situation knowing his skillset.

In his eyes, he brought six NBA titles and a World Series Championship to the city of Chicago. Flip it. How much more does Jerry need to give this city? Of course I don't agree with what I just wrote, but it's abundantly clear in his actions the last two decades he has very little passion or even interest in running franchises that have a goal of winning. His goal is profit. As a fan, I don't agree with that at all, I think both are obtainable, but it's harder to accomplish. Which leads to Jerry's other "trait" He's incredibly lazy. This whole idea of Jerry being ultra loyal is horseshit. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson, Frank Thomas...all have been basically shunned by their former Chicago employer. He didn't hire Chris Getz because he's loyal, he hired him because he didn't want to go through an actual search committee, learn to work with someone new...they already had a guy in the payroll system, so just give the job to him. He shows a complete lack of interest in evolving with the times, citing David Eckstein as one of his favorite players as late as 2024, along with bringing up Branch Rickey in his press conference in hiring Getz. Branch Rickey has been dead for over 60 years. He is a stain on this city, and when he finally goes, it will be the most significant and impactful thing to happen to this franchise since 2005.

The White Sox are Coming, Tra La, Tra La!!!!

This is a simplistic way of looking at it. They did not break any rule, you are correct. Ethically, we're having a different conversation. And decisions have consequences. Teams will be more hesitant to trade with the Ravens. Players may be more hesitant to agree to terms with the Ravens. It also has created much more of a mess for teams than people realize. We know by reporting that multiple teams were in on Crosby. He was one of the first dominos to fall, trade was agreed to and the multiple teams that were involved in the talks pivoted to signing and agreeing to terms with other players to fill their roster. With the salary Crosby has, there has to be some planning involved in getting his contract to work with the rest of the roster. For a trade of this magnitude, and with the current injury state Crosby is in, medicals should have been reviewed before a deal was formally announced.

Do the Raiders have the cap space to bring Crosby back after the FA’s the signed? What a mess

Have a weird feeling that Colson is going to have just a disaster of a season, eventually being sent down to AAA. On the flip side, think Murakami will provide excitement and have a positive year, but stretches of terrible AB's.