Tony

Well said

Correct. It sucks being “this negative” but even seeing updates on Montgomery, Schultz….who cares? There is ZERO evidence that 1. The Sox FO knows how to develop and create consistent contributors to the ML Team 2. Even if they accomplish No. 1, there is no evidence to tell us the Sox can do it enough to field a competitive team for any length of time. It’s all pointless. We’re stuck in a perpetual cycle of suck. You want to have faith in this organization? Fine, totally your choice. But it’s totally devoid of any evidence, history or facts based on what has taken place on the field the last decade+

We only know so much, but seemingly, we can piece together a few things. - Coming off the World Series in 2005, the Sox had the 4th highest payroll in 2006, behind the Yanks, Red Sox and Angels - In 2022, the Sox came in with the 7th highest payroll, at 203,205,326..according to Spotrac. The point is, Jerry will spend in the upper echelon when the team is in a good spot and there is buzz around the team. Now, we also know what he won't do. He seemingly won't go over 5 years with a pitcher, and signing a 300+ million dollar player seems unlikely. We also don't know what he is comfortable with/willing to spend on internals like scouting and analytics, but I tend to believe he would mostly leave that to the President/GM of Baseball, assigning them an overall budget and determining where that money needs to go. Those are absolutely hurdles that any GM would need to leap, but there are plenty of "successful" GM's that have those same limitations placed on them every year, often times much worse. The Twins, Indians, Rays, Brewers, etc all have way harsher payroll restrictions, yet have been wildly more successful than the Sox over the last decade+ My point is building a successful, consistent and good baseball team is possible under the "limitations" Jerry sets. Certainly harder than someone like the Dodgers, Mets, Red Sox, Yankees...but I believe it absolutely could be done. Rick is very bad at his job, and Jerry continues to let blind loyalty destroy his legacy. Where we sit today, I no doubt hold Jerry/Kenny/Rick all responsible, where the blame goes doesn't really matter at this point because we suffer no matter what. I'm just saying I believe from a pure baseball standpoint, Rick has hurt this team more than anyone else.

I believe there are individuals that could succeed as the GM under Jerry, but as we all know, those individuals won’t be hired.

37-52

This sounds fairly accurate, and awful.

I like him, and actually thought he was a decent option for the Sox in RF to open the season. I was responding to the comment I quoted. However, the point remains the RF has been a gigantic hole for the Sox basically since Jermaine Dye left the Sox.

Few days old but didn’t see it

So not only did Colas not work out for the Sox in the first half of the season, the only reason he broke camp with the club was because the Sox made zero effort to upgrade RF in the offseason and put all their eggs in the preverbal "Oscar Colas basket" when he clearly wasn't ready. They're really fantastic at compounding their own self-inflicted wounds.

How will 2023 be any different, with this season being far worse than 2022?

I call major bullshit here. There is FAR too long of a track record from Jerry-Kenny-Rick to tell us the same type of moves would have been made with AJ Hinch in the dugout, or Ozzie Guillen, or Tony La Russa for that matter. How much influencer on the roster do you believe Pedro has? The same “core” of Anderson-Moncada-Eloy-Grandal-Robert-Gio-Cease-Lynn-Kopech-Hendricks would all still be here, and unless Hinch convinces Jerry to start signing 300 million dollar players…the results wouldn’t be much difference. Who is sitting on the bench is far from the biggest problem in this organization.

I don’t blame Pedro playing them, I agree generally you would have to think someone like Tim figures it out at some point. But that doesn’t mean you bat him 2nd because that’s where he had success 3 years ago. Really? The manager is there to put his team in the best position for success. But because Tim has “tenure” with the Sox, results go out the window, he’s earned that 2 spot. f*** that.

I don’t know how this doesn’t infuriate everyone. The Sox are one of the worst teams in the league yet find themselves in one of the worst divisions of all-time and somehow are still in a playoff hunt. The manager is keeping one of 2023’s worst hitters in the 2 hole because of what he has “done in this game” previously, totally ignoring what has transpired right in front of him on the bench. He is actively hurting the Sox chances to win out of “respect” for Tim Anderson. This guy should not be managing an ML team.

I think it's really important for him to have some establish vets in the room from good organizations. Hall, Foligno, and now Bailey help that for sure.

Good couple of paragraphs from Laz. Looking forward to at least having interest in turning on the Hawks next season

He signed a one year deal today

I’d be surprised if there IS a Soxfest next season. If they didn’t want to face the music after going .500…why would they be open to it after this dumpster fire?

Could you even imagine that happening here?

He is a slightly above average player and the Sox signed him to the biggest contract in franchise history. If that’s Rick’s best signing…woof.

Sports, but baseball especially, is a pendulum. Adjustments are made between hitters and pitchers, and advanced scouting and technology have come a very long way the last 15 years. Most of the league has caught up. The Sox…have not.

We’ll never know how accurate it was, but there were multiple people that heard Joe Espada turned the White Sox down last offseason after coming into interview. He was alarmed how dated the baseball infrastructure was in the organization. And based on what we’ve seen…you’d have a hard time convincing anyone that report is that far fetched.

……

I think Harper or Machado would have come here in they beat everyone else in offers. Money wins out 9/10. I think Ohtani is a little different, I think he really wants to go to a winner.

This. I really do believe he wants to go to a franchise that is ready to win, and is dedicated to winning. It's part of the reason it seems like LAA isn't going to keep him. I really believe if the Sox were the highest bidder, and not something like 100 million+ over the highest bidder, Ohtani would pick Option 2 over the Sox. If you signed Ohtani, kept Giolito as well...I STILL don't think this team is very good. That's how far off they are.

Giolito will be gone. They’ll buy out Lynn for $1 mil. That leaves you with Cease, Kopech and Clevinger Then what? What free agent pitcher are they spending 100+ million on, and what historical data tells you they will? They’ll have a large hole at catcher and the FA market isn’t a good one. This team was built to compete for 4 seasons, 2020-2023. Per usual, they have one of the worst farm systems in baseball. The reinforcements aren’t coming from the farm. I know you are on some crusade to tell Soxtalk it’s boring to just be negative, but objectively speaking, there is no evidence to tell us 2024 will be any better than 2023 for the Sox. More likely will be worse.