Being bad doesn't = Rebuilding

[77 Hitmen]

On 9/26/2025 at 7:29 PM, caulfield12 said:

It's pretty preposterous to surrender the Chicago market without any viable alternatives.

Plus Ishbia's pretty well ensconced on terclast of his mansion/career in Chicagoland as well.

Baseball makes a lot more money off expanding to 32 teams 

The only one in?favor of Sox leaving is Ricketts and 95% of Cubs' fans.

I would think the owners of the Cubs' division rivals would object to the Sox being contracted or moving.  The Ricketts have already turned the Cubs into a financial juggernaut in a division full of smaller market teams.  And this is with a quarter or a third of Chicagoland  being Sox fans and hating the Cubs.  Imagine how much more powerful the Cubs would be if they had the allegiance of essentially ALL of Chicagoland?

Sure, Sox fans would never root for the Cubs if the Sox went away, but that'll change as we die off and a new generation grows up with only the Cubs.  It didn't take long for the Bears to own all of Chicago after the Cardinals left except for a few old timer diehards.  

Edited September 28 by 77 Hitmen

[77 Hitmen]

1 hour ago, champagne030 said:

And Getz had a massive hand in that smoking wreckage that he “inherited”.

Failing upward - that's how Jerry runs this organization.  

[Timmy U]

4 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

I would argue that KW had a hand in acquiring/developing every one of those players except Thomas.

And I would argue KW was in charge from 2000-2023 so he had a huge hand in not just the smoking wreckage but also a putrid record of drafting and developing talent. In 23 years, what are the successes? Abreu, Sale, Crochet. Then a few guys acquired in trade like Eaton which lead to Giolito. Otherwise, high draft picks were mostly bad and occasionally horrible. Getz might suck, but please don’t pretend that KW was even average let alone plus when it came to talent acquisition.

[Kyyle23]

1 minute ago, Timmy U said:

And I would argue KW was in charge from 2000-2023 so he had a huge hand in not just the smoking wreckage but also a putrid record of drafting and developing talent. In 23 years, what are the successes? Abreu, Sale, Crochet. Then a few guys acquired in trade like Eaton which lead to Giolito. Otherwise, high draft picks were mostly bad and occasionally horrible. Getz might suck, but please don’t pretend that KW was even average let alone plus when it came to talent acquisition.

I’m not gonna argue that the end was not a smoldering wreckage, but KW ran a successful minor league system and transitioned to the major leagues using that same minor league system to create the 2005 WS winning team.  You provided the names of those players, I only pointed out that he helped the team acquire and develop those players.  Getz had the same position as KW and there is very little we can point to in his time frame running the minors that resembles the success that KW enjoyed.  He didn’t graduate to GM with a Carlos Lee or Magglio or even an Aaron Rowand.  We saw none of that.

 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

2 hours ago, 77 Hitmen said:

I would think the owners of the Cubs' division rivals would object to the Sox being contracted or moving.  The Ricketts have already turned the Cubs into a financial juggernaut in a division full of smaller market teams.  And this is with a quarter or a third of Chicagoland  being Sox fans and hating the Cubs.  Imagine how much more powerful the Cubs would be if they had allegiance to ALL of Chicagoland?

Sure, Sox fans would never root for the Cubs if the Sox went away, but that'll change as we die off and a new generation grows up with only the Cubs.  It didn't take long for the Bears to own all of Chicago after the Cardinals left except for a few old timer diehards.  

My dad was a Cardinals fan. Not many left who remember them. Youd have to be in your 90s.

[WestEddy]

7 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

My dad was a Cardinals fan. Not many left who remember them. Youd have to be in your 90s.

I had an uncle who was a Packers' fan, because after the Cardinals left, there was no way he was going to root for the Bears. 

[joejoesox]

.

Edited September 28 by joejoesox

[77 Hitmen]

2 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

My dad was a Cardinals fan. Not many left who remember them. Youd have to be in your 90s.

I remember attending a Chicago Cardinals tribute day late in the 1990 season at Old Comiskey Park.  It was kind of sad to me how few of the fans in attendance seemed to know or care who these guys were.

[caulfield12]

9 hours ago, Timmy U said:

And I would argue KW was in charge from 2000-2023 so he had a huge hand in not just the smoking wreckage but also a putrid record of drafting and developing talent. In 23 years, what are the successes? Abreu, Sale, Crochet. Then a few guys acquired in trade like Eaton which lead to Giolito. Otherwise, high draft picks were mostly bad and occasionally horrible. Getz might suck, but please don’t pretend that KW was even average let alone plus when it came to talent acquisition.

"Accordingly, he acquired players which excelled in those areas, through free agent signings (Orlando Hernández, Dustin Hermanson, Jermaine Dye, A. J. Pierzynski, Tadahito Iguchi), trades (ScottPodsednik, José Contreras for Loiaza, Freddy García) and the farm system (Joe Crede, Aaron Rowand)."

Developed the #1 farm system in the game (1999-2000).

 

Matt Thornton for Joe Borchard

Carlos Quentin for C.Carter...was on track for 2008 MVP

Damaso Marte for pretty much nothing from Pitt

Alexei Ramirez signing

Jose Valentin signing

Buehrle extension in 2003 ($18 million/3 years)

F.Garcia for Gavin Floyd/Gio Gonzalez

Bobby Jenks and Sergio Santos off waivers, along with A.de Aza

"So they traded a huge-salaries homegrown power bat in Carlos Lee to add speed at the top of the order in Podsednik and a bullpen arm in Vizcaino. The money saved in the deal also allowed the White Sox flexibility to add second baseman Tadahito Iguchi via free agency to further complete the championship puzzle.

 

 

Edited September 29 by caulfield12