HOPE

[Tomas]

Hope!  We surpassed last years win total on 8/2/25.  Hope the Rockies take the all time worst moniker off of our backs.  Hope we fire our GM. Hope JR sells out earlier than announced

[zisk]

27 minutes ago, Tomas said:

Hope!  We surpassed last years win total on 8/2/25.  Hope the Rockies take the all time worst moniker off of our backs.  Hope we fire our GM. Hope JR sells out earlier than announced

Nice to see some positive feelings. We still need about 3 more hopes to make the playoffs though.

[soxrwhite]

If we are hoping for a miracle............well we do have the pope.

[WBWSF]

I've said it before and I will say it again, The White Sox Are Coming, Tra La, Tra La!!!!

[wegner]

Be careful. To turn off her brain my wife will read paranormal romance novels. She has told me Hope is a demon....apparently a really hot looking demon, but a demon nonetheless. Just be careful counting on Hope.

[Lip Man 1]

1 hour ago, WBWSF said:

I've said it before and I will say it again, The White Sox Are Coming, Tra La, Tra La!!!!

🤡

[caulfield12]

2 hours ago, wegner said:

Be careful. To turn off her brain my wife will read paranormal romance novels. She has told me Hope is a demon....apparently a really hot looking demon, but a demon nonetheless. Just be careful counting on Hope.

Does she also watch Korean dramas lol?

[wegner]

1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

Does she also watch Korean dramas lol?

When we were newlyweds, she found a Korean historical drama called "Wang Guhn"....at first I was like what is this then I started to watch and was hooked. We would actually religiously watch it every Friday and Saturday night.

[joejoesox]

1 hour ago, wegner said:

When we were newlyweds, she found a Korean historical drama called "Wang Guhn"....at first I was like what is this then I started to watch and was hooked. We would actually religiously watch it every Friday and Saturday night.

what are you doing wegner

[PaleAleSox]

4 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

🤡

I mean, if you can't see what these young guys are doing and HOW they are doing it, then I don't know what to tell you.

[Lip Man 1]

1 hour ago, PaleAleSox said:

I mean, if you can't see what these young guys are doing and HOW they are doing it, then I don't know what to tell you.

I absolutely can. My response was to the poster.

I'll remain cautiously optimistic (which is a refreshing change based on the last few weeks) but I'm not going to go overboard until Ishbia takes over and starts spending money like a major market team should. 

[southsider2k5]

3 hours ago, wegner said:

When we were newlyweds, she found a Korean historical drama called "Wang Guhn"....at first I was like what is this then I started to watch and was hooked. We would actually religiously watch it every Friday and Saturday night.

This is completely unbelievable.  I don't know why you lie.

You aren't married. 

[wegner]

10 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

This is completely unbelievable.  I don't know why you lie.

You aren't married. 

For her sake, I wish I could tell you that I was not.

She's a good egg.

[77 Hitmen]

5 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

I'll remain cautiously optimistic (which is a refreshing change based on the last few weeks) but I'm not going to go overboard until Ishbia takes over and starts spending money like a major market team should. 

Agreed. Since the subject of this thread is hope, the best we can hope for IMO is for the Sox to tread water and make themselves at least somewhat watchable for the next few years with some decent (albeit not enough) talent.   

The needle won't move dramatically until 1) Ishbia takes over, 2) he brings in competent people to run the team, 3) he starts spending on A-level free agents.... and 4) he hopefully moves the team to a new stadium at the 78.  We know that first thing is going to happen, but not until 2029 at the earliest.  From there I'm optimistic about 2 and 3 happening.  That last one on my wish list isn't about baseball operations, but IMO that along with more winning teams would help the Sox compete financially with the rest of the league in the coming years.  

Edited August 4 by 77 Hitmen

[caulfield12]

Has a team consistently in the Bottom 5 in attendance and 100+ loss teams with a 35+ year old stadium ever jumped all the way to Top 5 or even 10 in attendance in the Reinsdorf Era without a new stadium???

The biggest increases are Colorado moving into Coors Field and the Blue Jays after opening Skydome…

Edited August 4 by caulfield12

[greg775]

17 hours ago, Tomas said:

 Hope we fire our GM. Hope JR sells out earlier than announced

That's a joke about Getz right? He could be up for GM of the year if we continue to win the second half. The lesser knowns he acquired for this season turned out much better than the Lopez, Pham, DeBong's of last year. Also his no name pitching staff isn't the worst in all of baseball.

[southsider2k5]

Again the best part of this revival has been that is started as soon as the kids were allowed to play more, and some of the horrible, horrible players signed in the off season were yeeted into the abyss.  The biggest problem for moving forward is that there isn't anything left currently performing at a decent level in the tank for the near future to move up. The only position player who could be considered ready for the majors is 3rd catcher Korey Lee.  The next big guy is the other Montgomery who JUST got to AA and is probably a late 26, early 27 arrival if there are no speed bumps.  Past that, the quality position players are 2/3/4 years away.

Hagen Smith and Dutch Schultz have been moved up, but have been somewhere between mediocre and awful.  Schultz hasn't pitched in a month now, and has still not hit as many as 90 innings in a single season.  Hagen Smith hasn't been over 60 pitches in an outing since before he was hurt in May.  He's still giving up 3 walks for every 4 IP too.  

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

23 hours ago, wegner said:

When we were newlyweds, she found a Korean historical drama called "Wang Guhn"....at first I was like what is this then I started to watch and was hooked. We would actually religiously watch it every Friday and Saturday night.

🎼Everybody have fun tonight...

Everybody Wang Guhn tonight ! 

[kitekrazy]

1 hour ago, southsider2k5 said:

Again the best part of this revival has been that is started as soon as the kids were allowed to play more, and some of the horrible, horrible players signed in the off season were yeeted into the abyss.  The biggest problem for moving forward is that there isn't anything left currently performing at a decent level in the tank for the near future to move up. The only position player who could be considered ready for the majors is 3rd catcher Korey Lee.  The next big guy is the other Montgomery who JUST got to AA and is probably a late 26, early 27 arrival if there are no speed bumps.  Past that, the quality position players are 2/3/4 years away.

Hagen Smith and Dutch Schultz have been moved up, but have been somewhere between mediocre and awful.  Schultz hasn't pitched in a month now, and has still not hit as many as 90 innings in a single season.  Hagen Smith hasn't been over 60 pitches in an outing since before he was hurt in May.  He's still giving up 3 walks for every 4 IP too.  

Makes me question that maybe the coaching is not good at Charlotte

[77 Hitmen]

16 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Has a team consistently in the Bottom 5 in attendance and 100+ loss teams with a 35+ year old stadium ever jumped all the way to Top 5 or even 10 in attendance in the Reinsdorf Era without a new stadium???

The biggest increases are Colorado moving into Coors Field and the Blue Jays after opening Skydome…

I don't know if any other teams have done this, but based on 35 years of attendance history since New Comiskey opened in 1991, I have no reason to believe the Sox can do this at the current stadium and it's current surroundings.  

Baseball Reference shows attendance ranking only among AL teams, not all of MLB.  The Sox only finished better than 7th in the AL in 1991-94 (new stadium bounce/good teams) and 2006-2009 (post World Series bounce).  They did rank 5th in the AL in 2021, but that's an odd year to make comparisons since there were Covid attendance restrictions in place around the league and that #5 was based on only 1.5M fans.  The Sox hardly got any bounce in 2022 (8th out of 15) after winning 93 games and the division title the year before.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHW/attend.shtml

Maybe they'd shoot up to top 10 or even top 5 in all of MLB if they won multiple pennants or another WS title.  Easier said than done.  How many of those have the big market Yankees, Mets, and Cubs won in the last 15 years?  Only 1 pennant each and only one WS titles between them.   Or maybe they can draw better at the current stadium if they merely fielded competitive teams (without a WS title) AND developed the area around the current stadium to give fans things to do before/after the game.

Edited August 4 by 77 Hitmen

[greg775]

2 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

Again the best part of this revival has been that is started as soon as the kids were allowed to play more, and some of the horrible, horrible players signed in the off season were yeeted into the abyss.  The biggest problem for moving forward is that there isn't anything left currently performing at a decent level in the tank for the near future to move up. The only position player who could be considered ready for the majors is 3rd catcher Korey Lee.  The next big guy is the other Montgomery who JUST got to AA and is probably a late 26, early 27 arrival if there are no speed bumps.  Past that, the quality position players are 2/3/4 years away.

Hagen Smith and Dutch Schultz have been moved up, but have been somewhere between mediocre and awful.  Schultz hasn't pitched in a month now, and has still not hit as many as 90 innings in a single season.  Hagen Smith hasn't been over 60 pitches in an outing since before he was hurt in May.  He's still giving up 3 walks for every 4 IP too.  

This is alarming cause I thought we had pitching in the minors. As high as I am on the young additions to the everyday lineup, I still think the Sox need pitching. Jerry may have to spend.

[Lip Man 1]

42 minutes ago, greg775 said:

This is alarming cause I thought we had pitching in the minors. As high as I am on the young additions to the everyday lineup, I still think the Sox need pitching. Jerry may have to spend.

Unfortunately JR made it clear at the Getz press conference that "we won't be offering long term deals to pitchers."

So you'll continue to get bottom of the barrel types that the Sox hope will rebound.

Some times it happens like with Loaiza and Houser it really works out, but far more often it doesn't.

[greg775]

35 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Unfortunately JR made it clear at the Getz press conference that "we won't be offering long term deals to pitchers."

So you'll continue to get bottom of the barrel types that the Sox hope will rebound.

Some times it happens like with Loaiza and Houser it really works out, but far more often it doesn't.

The good news is all pitchers in modern day MLB are about the same. Flamethrowers who get Tommy John surgery then return. Not sure why any team lets a starter go five. The analytics zealots certainly would tell you you'd be better off throwing max of 1.5 to 2 innings then move onto the next pitcher.

Edited August 4 by greg775

[Lip Man 1]

1 hour ago, greg775 said:

The good news is all pitchers in modern day MLB are about the same. Flamethrowers who get Tommy John surgery then return. Not sure why any team lets a starter go five. The analytics zealots certainly would tell you you'd be better off throwing max of 1.5 to 2 innings then move onto the next pitcher.

TLR told me one time he had a theory that he wanted to try out where three pitchers would throw in a game, regardless of the situation. 

He'd start the year with 12 pitchers. The first three would go opening day, then the next three the following day and so forth.

Pitchers wouldn't be ranked from best to worst 1-12, but based on which hand they throw with, what they throw etc.

He never did try this but he told me he was thinking about it. 

if a game went extra innings the fourth pitcher would be used. Basically pitchers would go three innings barring injury. 

[Falstaff]

5 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

Again the best part of this revival has been that is started as soon as the kids were allowed to play more, and some of the horrible, horrible players signed in the off season were yeeted into the abyss.  The biggest problem for moving forward is that there isn't anything left currently performing at a decent level in the tank for the near future to move up. The only position player who could be considered ready for the majors is 3rd catcher Korey Lee.  The next big guy is the other Montgomery who JUST got to AA and is probably a late 26, early 27 arrival if there are no speed bumps.  Past that, the quality position players are 2/3/4 years away.

Hagen Smith and Dutch Schultz have been moved up, but have been somewhere between mediocre and awful.  Schultz hasn't pitched in a month now, and has still not hit as many as 90 innings in a single season.  Hagen Smith hasn't been over 60 pitches in an outing since before he was hurt in May.  He's still giving up 3 walks for every 4 IP too.  

Haha, Dutch Schultz, good one!

If Sam Antonacci makes the team, Sam Golf Bag Antonacci.