Tony

With the massive hole at LT, 2026 may have to be a "transition" year...I don't know how they fill the holes they have. Absolutely brutal, especially as the LT and C spot seemed secure as of about Week 15 of last season.

I think there is a world where he does, but it won't shock me at all to see him moved. Feel like it's probably 50/50 at this point.

I think it makes the salary cap much harder to navigate to add Maxx and still have DJ's salary on the books.

That's the key to all of this. If they won 95 games last year, no one cares. If Getz had any kind of track record of success, no one cares. But they've been the worst organization in baseball since he took over. Yes, I know that was part of the plan, but the organization's "reputation" 100% plays a role in this story.

I can’t imagine what the online discourse would be if Caleb put up the performance Maye just did….people would be begging for Bagent lol.

I don't get the Giannis fit with the Bulls, at all. The Bulls by all accounts don't have the assets to acquire him, and if they some how found a way to gather up the assets, the team would be left with nothing around Giannis. Why would he want out of Milwaukee to come to...the Bulls? How is it a better situation at all? Plus, Giannis is now 31, and has been dealing with a calf injury for a while now. He's never been a pure shooter, instead dominating with slashes and force...something that probably doesn't age very well. I just don't understand the fit.

So what are the Bulls trying to do with these moves, big picture? I'm honestly asking, really don't follow the NBA closely anymore and have completely given up on the Bulls, but I'm having trouble totally understanding what these moves signal by the Bulls in terms of a long term plan?

Except you, me, and the fence post don't know what their budget is, and what their revenue/EBITDA goals are for 2026. In 2024, they had a yearly attendance of 1,380,733 and a payroll cost of $123,336,791. In 2025, they actually had more people in the building, at 1,445,738, and a payroll cost of 63,430,000. And I agree with your last part...revenue will rise with more people going to the park, which history has shown happens when the Sox put a good product on the field. Given their history with prospect development, scouting, drafting....having the 27th ranked payroll isn't a good recipe for success for this organization. Since 2001, the three times the Sox won the division, they were 7th (2005), 5th (2008) and 5th (2021) in the AL in payroll. They will go into 2026 as the 13th highest payroll in the AL, only behind Tampa and Cleveland.

Correct. And this isn’t a Getz thing at all, he clearly has a very specific budget to work with and is getting fairly creative to work within those limits. And everyone has a budget. Needed in all business. It’s just embarrassing low for an MLB Team in Chicago. If the Sox decided to add a 25 million dollar a year player to the team tomorrow, they still wouldn’t crack the Top 20 in baseball this year for payroll costs.

I mean, he put up a - 1.1 WAR in 18.2 IP for them last year, which is almost impressive in how bad he was lol. So that makes some sense. Low risk move by the Getz, sounds like the prospect they got back has some potential, even if he ends up in the pen…type of moves they should be making.

One thing I'm curious about, and I don't believe the article mentions (I also could have missed it)...do the Sox (and other teams) set this up for someone like Quero, or was this something Quero wanted to do on his own? I'm curious of the teams involvement. And I'm not looking for some "gotcha" moment against the Sox, I'm genuinely curious how that works.

That was a very good read and always interesting to get a better understanding of what baseball is looking at and what improvements are trying to be made. I suggest everyone give the article a read, especially for some of our more "veteran" members who are less analytics focused.

I love the Blackhawks but haven't sat down to watch a game in like 3, 4 years. I understand what they are trying to do but it when their season ends, it will be six years in a row of not making the playoffs, and even the last few years they did make the playoffs, the team was garbage. It just wears you down over time.

Was just talking about this with my dad a few days ago. I remember being at a wedding a few years ago, talking to some old friends from high school I hadn't seen in a long time. We were all big sports guys, and I asked him if he still follows the teams like we used to. He said not as much, and I said the same thing, which was true. Then this Bears season came along and reminded me how much I still do care, how much I enjoyed thinking about each game throughout the week, making sure I was in front of the TV at kickoff. And even in the last week, the discussions continuing about what they do in the offseason, etc. My "big three" teams are the Sox-Hawks-Bears. Combined, those franchises have given us very few things to get excited about over. Before the Bears beat Green Bay, the last time I saw a team I root for advance in the playoffs was during the 2014-2015 Blackhawks season. (Bulls are actually in the exact same spot, their last playoff series win was in 2014-2015 as well.) The "optimists" here are convinced those that are critical of the Sox just want to be miserable, which simply isn't true. Just give us something to be hopeful about.

Yeah, I did sort of write that wrong. It was more the idea of deciding not to keep him and go all-in on JJ. I get it, hard to read what Darnold was at that point…but at the end of the day he was a 27 year old that just put up All Pro numbers for you at QB, and you let him walk for JJ. The ripple effect it has had is pretty amazing

I mean, I get the timeline…but it’s still shocking that a 27 year old Sam Darnold led the Vikings to a 14-3 record in 2024 (4300 yards, 35/12 TD/INT) and Minnesota said “Nah, we’re good, let’s use a Top 10 pick on JJ McCarthy”

Feel like Shemar Turner is not discussed at all regarding the 2026 Bears. Bears found a lot of success with their other two second round picks (Ozzy and Burden) and while Turner basically didn't play in 2025 because of the ACL injury, I still think there should be some potential for him there to make an impact next season. Certainly not going to "solve" the DE problem, but hopefully he can contribute.

You left out the part when Rick had to TELL Jerry to fire him after the rebuild didn’t work, and convince Jerry he didn’t deserve another chance. But both Kenny and Rick should have been shown the door somewhere around 2014-2015, it was insane they were able to ride 2005 for that long.

lol, yeah, because if there is one thing Jerry has shown, it’s his lack of patience and removing people who don’t get the job done 🤔

You understand the analogy, you just don’t want to address the issue of giving credit to something that should be expected to have been done 15 years ago, and because Getz is simply keeping up with the rest of the competition, the White Sox deserve heaps of praise. But keep deflecting

To quote Tom Waddle “My kids don’t get extra credit for not doing drugs.” And staying on the Bears theme…a few weeks ago when the Bears were playing the 49ers, Darnell Wright was sick and looked like he may miss the game. On Saturday, he was feeling better and the Bears flew him to San Fransisco on a jet with a member of the training staff. 10 years ago, Darnell Wright is probably flying commercial because that’s not the way the Bears did business. My point is while I’m happy to see them keeping up with the times, I’m not rushing to give the Bears extra credit for something good organizations have been doing for a long time.