3 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

This isn't life and death, it's entertainment. You don't need to be a blind sheep and pretend it's actually innate positivity and optimism. 

I mean the same could be said for you. The Sox do something that people are excited about and you usually come in with “actually this is why it’s bad.”  

28 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Maybe they need some other help then.

On the way.

5 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Not investing in players and your product is actually harming the game, it's sustainability and it's popularity. Those teams area actually even bad for his career and it's sustainability. 

Saying that teams should be able to go for broke, collect profit sharing of other teams trying to win and make money is a horrible business model. 

Guess you should be Commisioner then and Run the players union too and all will be well. I dont think theres enough gazillionaires out there to have 30 teams all throwing money around like it's confetti. There is only a few franchises that are appealing because they do that. The rest have to find a balance between profit and winning. Every owner has the right to run their franchise the way they see fit in accordance with the CBA.

This is definitely better than praying someone can get 3 outs in the 9th. If he doesn't work out at closer, you can always go back to Taylor. I think Dominguez works best as a setup guy, but I'm just glad the Sox actually spent some money on fixing the bullpen with this and the Newcomb signings.

19 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

That was then this is now. Nothing says itll end the same way . 

We have a choice to be fatalistic about it or hopeful. I choose hopeful. It's better for our souls and better for those around us to envision hope and light in the midst of darkness. 

I want the White Sox to win. And I don't really care how they do it as long as it happens. 

But it starts at the top, and the man that sits the highest is still in control of this franchise, and until that truly changes...we're on a hamster wheel. 

14 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

The White Sox are still projected to be the 3rd worst team in baseball after the signing.

Objectively, he thinks it's good news for a franchise to be projected to lose 100 games for the fourth year in a row? Objectively, he thinks it's good to invest less money into the franchise than they did 20 years ago?

I think you and ptatc are talking about 2 different people. Getz is doing his job under the restrctions of the owner but he still has to do the job of a GM which will be on a much smaller scale due to those.  restrictions. 

You ate questioning the owner which I have no problem with. Makes no sense to pretend this is JR trying to compete. 

Even in his best days the money he put into the team was all about the 25 man roster and how much he spent was based on attendence. and TV money and not on spending his or investors money. 

He never was a spend money to make money guy. He decided long ago that players were too expensive and building a good strong supportive infrastructure that invested in youth and development were places to not spend anything but the bare minimum on. 

He's not even the best version of himself anymore which wasnt very good to begin with . He's preparing for his sons to make as much money as possible by selling the team after he dies. That's it . It suck it really does but I don't have to be embarassed about looking forward to the day the Ishbia's become the new owners. 

In the meantime I will hope the team can make progress until that day comes and I will praise that progress since it comes with management and coaches staying positive under the duress of JR's diminished ownership. 

13 minutes ago, Tony said:

I want the White Sox to win. And I don't really care how they do it as long as it happens. 

But it starts at the top, and the man that sits the highest is still in control of this franchise, and until that truly changes...we're on a hamster wheel. 

And until it changes up top, fans have every right to understand that Jerry has his fingers into every piece of the White Sox pie, and his whims change what everyone else below him is allowed to do.  Even this GM with all of this new runway wasn't allowed to sign a $40 million free agent without begging for it, and then having to do interviews about how grateful he was that he was allowed to add something so small to this team.

21 minutes ago, Tony said:

I want the White Sox to win. And I don't really care how they do it as long as it happens. 

But it starts at the top, and the man that sits the highest is still in control of this franchise, and until that truly changes...we're on a hamster wheel. 

Fandom is a hamster wheel. Only one team wins it all every year . The rest try to find a path in our minds to momentary joy while knowing the despair will come again. Hopefully our hamster wheel becomes well oiled and surrounded by a much nicer cage. 

1 hour ago, kwill said:

I am just going to s%*# on this because of the process. 

1. Again, the idea we had to get rid of Roberts' salary to clear the way to sign a reliever for ten million dollars a year is absurd. 

2. Why are we embracing flip candidates? I will get excited when we actually start building a sustainable roster with good players, rather than just signing them to reasonable deals only to trade them away to contending teams. 

3.  I stil believe that Robert is undervalued here. The truth is find centerfielders who are gold glovers, steal 40 bases and hit 20 home runs a year is very rare. I understand that he will only play 120 games. However, that's his floor. That's not a bad floor for a team that has very few good players on it. 

4. I really liked watching Luis. He was exciting to watch. I will miss him and hope he reaches his potential with the Mets. 

COUNTERPOINT: 

1. We got rid of Robert because he's always injured and brought back a couple of interesting players with 5+ years of control. His choice of agent also hints at leaving in free agency. If the Sox wanted to get rid of his salary, the easiest way to do that would have been to have not picked up his option in the first place. 
2. We are building a sustainable roster. Montgomery, Teel, Quero, Meidroth, Vargas and Baldwin were lineup regulars coming back from last season. Shane Smith and Davis Martin are certain to be in the rotation, and Grant Taylor, Vasil, Leasure and Wikelman Gonzalez return to this year's bullpen. And once the team is creating multiple bullpen arms a year, they should become cromulent, used to restock the farm system. A closer is probably one of the worst ways to tie up big money. 
3. In 6 seasons, Robert has won one GG, stolen 40 bases once, and eclipsed 20 HRs once. I believe he is what he's been for the last 2 full seasons - a 2 bWAR/162 games CF who plays great defense, but slumps 3 months, and misses another 2. 
4. I agree. 

41 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Guess you should be Commisioner then and Run the players union too and all will be well. I dont think theres enough gazillionaires out there to have 30 teams all throwing money around like it's confetti. There is only a few franchises that are appealing because they do that. The rest have to find a balance between profit and winning. Every owner has the right to run their franchise the way they see fit in accordance with the CBA.

Have you ever watched another professional sport in  your entire life?

4 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

COUNTERPOINT: 

1. We got rid of Robert because he's always injured and brought back a couple of interesting players with 5+ years of control. His choice of agent also hints at leaving in free agency. If the Sox wanted to get rid of his salary, the easiest way to do that would have been to have not picked up his option in the first place. 
2. We are building a sustainable roster. Montgomery, Teel, Quero, Meidroth, Vargas and Baldwin were lineup regulars coming back from last season. Shane Smith and Davis Martin are certain to be in the rotation, and Grant Taylor, Vasil, Leasure and Wikelman Gonzalez return to this year's bullpen. And once the team is creating multiple bullpen arms a year, they should become cromulent, used to restock the farm system. A closer is probably one of the worst ways to tie up big money. 
3. In 6 seasons, Robert has won one GG, stolen 40 bases once, and eclipsed 20 HRs once. I believe he is what he's been for the last 2 full seasons - a 2 bWAR/162 games CF who plays great defense, but slumps 3 months, and misses another 2. 
4. I agree. 

Yea that floor was raised a few floors in that guy's argument. I'm glad you saved me the trouble of looking those things up and pointing it out to him. 

1 hour ago, Tony said:

H

He also said this in 2020. Ain't a single player with the organization left, never won a playoff series, and during that stretch set the record for worst record in baseball. 

Like Passan, but the trailer ended up being the best part of the movie...

In fairness, everyone in baseball said the same thing.  

8 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Have you ever watched another professional sport in  your entire life?

What's that have to do with baseball or you thinking you have all the answers and telling people how to feel. 

You are a very dangerous man to freedom if you had any power.

5 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

What's that have to do with baseball or you thinking you have all the answers and telling people how to feel. 

You are a very dangerous man to freedom if you had any power.

Sir, this is a Soxtalk.

Really like this move for the Sox. They need veteran leadership in the backend of the pen. They lost far too many games last year because of it. Dominguez is a nice addition, and could be worth a lot come the deadline if they decide to move him.

Also, for anyone keeping track... projected fWAR for 2026:

Robert - 1.8
Acuna - 1.3
Dominguez - 0.6

And the Sox still have ~$10M left if they want to add another SP or OF.

10 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

In fairness, everyone in baseball said the same thing.  

...And? 

It was seemingly the first time they tore things down with intent behind it and wanted to build something with sustained success. We applauded them for that, and a lot of us (myself included) thought the core looked incredibly promising. 

What happened? Nearly everyone on that list didn't reach their expected potential, to varying degrees.  Passan listed out 12 names in his tweet, and anytime you're talking about 12 young players, you know the hit rate isn't going to be above 75%, at best. That's just how the game works. The problem was those 12 names listed were basically the entire roster. There was no fallback, no reinforcements being developed in the farm to supplement the roster, no pipeline.

Why did those things happen? Lack of resources in player development and Front Office employees being given jobs they had no business being in. I have yet to given a reason to believe either of those things have significantly changed under this new regime. And until I do...I'll remain a skeptic. 

3 minutes ago, Tony said:

...And? 

It was seemingly the first time they tore things down with intent behind it and wanted to build something with sustained success. We applauded them for that, and a lot of us (myself included) thought the core looked incredibly promising. 

What happened? Nearly everyone on that list didn't reach their expected potential, to varying degrees.  Passan listed out 12 names in his tweet, and anytime you're talking about 12 young players, you know the hit rate isn't going to be above 75%, at best. That's just how the game works. The problem was those 12 names listed were basically the entire roster. There was no fallback, no reinforcements being developed in the farm to supplement the roster, no pipeline.

Why did those things happen? Lack of resources in player development and Front Office employees being given jobs they had no business being in. I have yet to given a reason to believe either of those things have significantly changed under this new regime. And until I do...I'll remain a skeptic. 

They have made sweeping changes in player development. You can hate Getz because he was hired but you cant honestly say he hasn't made changes and poured resources into player development.

2 hours ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Development of the Sox own players will mean way more to the team than any of these additions.  Everyone is excited over Murakami but the dude could be gone in two years before the Sox ever even make the postseason.

I believe that a lot of people here actually dread another 100-loss season, and aren't just performatively complaining about it to burnish their brands. Filling roles adequately so that we don't weather another 7-23 April goes a great deal towards energizing fans, and even "teaching the young players how to win". 

8 minutes ago, ptatc said:

They have made sweeping changes in player development. You can hate Getz because he was hired but you cant honestly say he hasn't made changes and poured resources into player development.

Change and success are two different things. Getz and Co. haven't had enough runway to see if those changes will pay off yet, and I'm not saying it's going to be an automatic failure or nothing Getz does can be good. But you, and I, don't know how much has been "poured" into player development. There have been a handful of PR stories about the importance of player development to this regime, and that's a good thing. But how much was spent? Are those investments just getting them on par with other teams that have been doing it for the last 10+ years? 

It's good to be hopeful as a fan. Not trying to deny anyone that. But it's been 20 years since 2005 and they've won the AL Central twice since then. And Jerry has been involved every step of the way. And he still is. So color me skeptical. Don't feel like it's a terribly difficult stance to understand. 

 

4 minutes ago, Tony said:

Change and success are two different things. Getz and Co. haven't had enough runway to see if those changes will pay off yet, and I'm not saying it's going to be an automatic failure or nothing Getz does can be good. But you, and I, don't know how much has been "poured" into player development. There have been a handful of PR stories about the importance of player development to this regime, and that's a good thing. But how much was spent? Are those investments just getting them on par with other teams that have been doing it for the last 10+ years? 

It's good to be hopeful as a fan. Not trying to deny anyone that. But it's been 20 years since 2005 and they've won the AL Central twice since then. And Jerry has been involved every step of the way. And he still is. So color me skeptical. Don't feel like it's a terribly difficult stance to understand. 

 

Granted this is an AI summary, but for example....

42 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Sir, this is a Soxtalk.

Might be time to get off the internet for a while. 

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

The White Sox are still projected to be the 3rd worst team in baseball after the signing.

Objectively, he thinks it's good news for a franchise to be projected to lose 100 games for the fourth year in a row? Objectively, he thinks it's good to invest less money into the franchise than they did 20 years ago?

Is there an entity reranking teams as the off-season plays out? And who is projecting the White Sox to lose 100 games in 2026? I know ZIPS did the Sox back in November, but that was pretty much before they made any moves. 

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

This isn't life and death, it's entertainment. You don't need to be a blind sheep and pretend it's actually innate positivity and optimism. 

And you don't need to be a blind sheep and always pretend that outcomes below the lowest projected are going to happen because reasons. 

1 hour ago, PaleAleSox said:

I really don’t think it was Mura. I bet they sign either an OF or a starter. 

The rumor was they planned on signing Ryan O'Hearn. He signed for about $15 per? Murakami's money was probably always in the budget. 

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Sir, this is a Soxtalk.

And that explains everything I guess. 🤣

Im just a fan trying to support the team the best way I can when I know I have to be patient because JR is preparing himself to leave  his body and the Sox to be sold . 

We could get learned men with Doctorates and wealthy ruthless businessmen all screaming at each other in a debate about how to run baseball and it wouldnt solve anything. 

Youre not right, they wouldnt be right and I'm not even in that argument. I'm not qualified. If you want to pretend you are qualified to tell everyone how baseball should be run and be dictator over  owners, players and fans and writers embarassment  because your trolling is entertaining and because Soxtalk allows you to do so then be my guest.

My current way of fanning in our current state is to support the players and staff since they are underdogs in this mess. 

Starring Jerry Reinsdorf as Simon Bar Sinister

Edited January 23Jan 23 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside