Podcast: Sell the White Sox

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Record Date: 8/28/2022

After getting swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago White Sox postseason hopes in 2022 are closing quickly. Josh and Jim review the current state of this White Sox organization.

  • How the players are not responding to Tony La Russa
  • Jose Abreu’s comments about the team not being as young as they think they are
  • Rick Hahn’s job status
  • Why it’s time for Jerry Reinsdorf to sell the White Sox
  • Why AJ Pierzynski would be a terrible manager
  • A special song from Greg Nix

Author

  • Josh Nelson

    Josh Nelson is the host and producer of the Sox Machine Podcast. For show suggestions, guest appearances, and sponsorship opportunities, you can reach him via email at josh@soxmachine.com.

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ForsterFTOG

“Two of them(board members) are in their 90’s”

Wow.

asinwreck

Lee Stern’s Chicago Sting won the NASL championship in 1981. (Also, Lee Stern owned a team in the long-defunct NASL.)

Everything about this ownership group is midcentury, not modern.

BenwithVen

It certainly explains why this org is run they way it is.

2021soxodyssey

That song just about says it all. Thanks for being the voice of thousands of frustrated fans.

sinkerball

Perhaps at least we have put them on the defensive.

  1. There is a recent Forbes article by Phil Rodgers which includes such ‘winners’ as:

“Thereโ€™s some irony in the fansโ€™ current unhappiness with White Sox ownership. Reinsdorf has often been criticized for an unwillingness to spend like teams at the top of the American League but has heavily invested in recent seasons, clearly motivated to add another championship..”

Sounds like it came from the front office.

“This hardly seems like the time to tear down the roster that produced back-to-back playoff seasons in 2020 and โ€™21, in part because of commitments to fading veterans Yasmani Grandal and Lance Lynn.”

The logic here escapes me. Does JR feel unloved?

“But the White Sox must also wonder about the lagging direction of the young players who form the teamโ€™s core.” Tim gets a pass but ..”The Sox front office has not been as fortunate with the trio of Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez, who also signed early in their careers.”

So the kids are not alright? Interesting spin, no? Please note that Leury is not a kid.

  1. https://www.southsidesox.com/2022/8/29/23325369/jerry-reinsdorf-selling-chicago-white-sox-not-on-his-life

Wherein we learn that JR is a brilliant businessman and if we should blame anybody for him being NOT willing to sell it would be the IRS. Sounds like what a brilliant businessman would want to have said. I think I am going to be sick

PauliePaulie

Would you rather- Everyone from ownership to development staff gets replaced, but it means another 5 year rebuild.
Or- Everyone comes back and they attempt to retool, for another run in ’23, with a $190mil payroll.

GrinnellSteve

A full housecleaning doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t retool with a large payroll. A Jerry DiPoto type would be going for it.

Jim Margalus

The latter. The former would immediately call their judgment into question.

Augusto Barojas

I’m not sure it would be enough, but the main 3 things they need are a new manager, a star RF, and a well above average 2b. Those things would fix a lot of problems, and lots of things would work better. Replacing the Russa would make the team play with more heart and life, as if by magic.

I don’t think a whole rebuild is necessary, but they do need upgrades to star level players in a couple places. And for Moncada to be nowhere near as godawful as he has been this season. The problems as I mentioned recently is the amount of payroll they have committed to potentially very unproductive players. Kelly, Diekman, Garcia, Pollock are 27M next year. Add 18M each to Grandal, Lynn, and Moncada, that’s 81M to 7 guys, 5 of whom have negative WARs (Moncada and Pollock the others, barely above 0). That’s just brutal. Maybe a couple of them can be halfway decent, but that’s 40 percent of a 200M payroll to basically nobody who one would pick to build a championship roster with.

At the end of next year, they will at least be done with Kelly, Diekman, Pollock, Lynn, and Grandal, which will be close to 60M of that. Realistically 2024 is probably the earliest they will have the payroll flexibility for a major improvement.

hitlesswonder

I think rebuilding next season would be ridiculous. Lynn has looked pretty decent recently which means you would have 4 decent front line starters. Anderson, Vaughn, Jimenez, and Robert give you half of a good lineup. The only 2 contracts that are really worrisome are Grandal and Moncada.

While I think people overestimate how much talent is on the roster, there’s enough that deciding not to compete for another 4 years would be insane.

Augusto Barojas

I’m sure another year of sideways movement is most likely. What you cite is enough of a core to build around, it isn’t close to enough to actually compete for a championship. Without the payroll flexibility to add any major pieces (presumably), I see next year as another throw away type year unless they shock us all and sign Judge, basically. It might not be a rebuild, but it will probably be another year mired in mediocrity, and a who-cares season. Bottom line is that this rebuild was set up to be a failure by their choices since 2020 and is playing out that way. This team needs some seriously positive changes to be worth anybody’s time, money, or attention.

soxygen

I operate under the assumption that we will never have enough 2023 budget room to address every single need. As such, I would prioritize starting pitching over second base. The org has several short and long term options at 2B, but no major league ready 5th or 6th starters for 2023.

Last edited 2 years ago by soxygen
Wayne

Star RF is Aaron Judge. That is is. After that, you have Brandon Nimo, Benintendi, Conforto, Mitch Haniger, Joc Pederson, Tyler Naquin, types.

2B has some more options depending on how club options go (Adam Frazier, Jean Segura, Kolten Wong).

roke1960

The big question they need to answer is what to do at first base/DH. They absolutely need to clear up that logjam and then have only competent players in the corner outfield spots. So it really comes down to let Jose walk or trade Vaughn. I am torn between what they should do there. Since their payroll will probably not increase and Pollock will probably pick up his option, I would go with Eloy/Robert/Pollock/Colas as the 4 outfielders. I really believe Colas is going to be the answer in their quest to find a power hitting left-handed right fielder. If he starts the season there, then Pollock can slide to left and Eloy to DH. Sheets can be the back-up 1B/DH. I like the idea of getting a short term 2nd baseman like Kolten Wong until Sosa or another of their young guys are ready. Then Yoan and Pollock need to have positive regression from this year’s disaster. If they make a major signing, I would prefer it to be a starting pitcher, since they have to be open to trading Giolito because there is no way Jerry is signing him to a long term deal. This is a critical offseason (again). Rick Hahn should NOT be the one navigating the Sox ship through this.

yinkadoubledare

If they have any thoughts of Colas being up next year to be the right fielder, he should be up for all of September playing every day to get an idea if that’s actually a reasonable possibility.

What they’ll actually do: not that, not sign anyone once again, and hope it all works out, just like they did before this year. Barf.

soxygen

Pollock is past the point in his career when positive regression can be expected. Itโ€™s more likely age related decline than that he simply has had a bad year.

upnorthsox

Robert at CF, Vaughn at 1B, Kopech and Cease as SP. Everyone else/position is up for review/reassessment/update.
TA – Is he willing to move to 2B. If so, it could really help as it allows you to pursue the top FAs this winter (Turner, Correa, Bogaert, Swanson) and address a position of need 2B. If not, with no internal option it doesn’t make any sense to trade him (and replacing him with an expensive FA is just stupid).
Moncada – Another no internal option available and severely depressed value makes a trade unlikely.
Eloy – DH. If he’s not willing to move to DH then trade him.
Grandal – Trade him to anyone who will take his contract. I consider this very doubtful and expect he’ll be back.
LF – It’s inevitable that Pollock will pick up his option. He’s still good enough that you aren’t just going to eat his contract and its doubtful you would be able to move it. He could be a 4th OFer or move there if a Colas is brought up mid season.
RF – Possible Eloy trade for young LHH RF who’s defensively strong with some power. At one point I liked Kelenic but he’s fallen off quite a bit. I’ll need to look the trade options over some more and that’s if we trade Eloy. FA options, Nimmo, Conforto, and Haniger in that order.
2B – Big competition in ST between Mendick, Sosa, Gonzalez, Sanchez, and J-Rod, along with an acquisition from another team. Guys to pursue, Ezequiel Duran, Michael Busch, and Terrin Vavra.
SP – Easiest position to address in FA especially for a 3, 4, or 5 starter. I’m looking for 2.
Lynn or Giolito – One stays, one goes. I consider them roughly equal trade wise. My favorite trade idea so far is Giolito, Burger, and A-baller for Ezequiel Duran, Bubba Thompson, and better A-baller. Similar is Giolito/Lynn/Eloy, Burger, pitching something for Michael Busch, James Outman.
RP – I’m not looking to trade anyone in particular but I’m willing to trade everyone if that makes sense. What I mostly want to see is competition for every spot.
Bench – Same as the RP.

Things:
Eloy for Sean Murphy or Shea Langeliers. Not thrilled at this idea straight up but would consider it.
Abreu – If we trade Eloy then I’d certainly offer him the DH spot. If not then, I love ya dude but we need to move on and we’ll see you in Houston.

Payroll – I expect it to be around $160 Mil which is going to be really tough to make. Probably blows any SS dreams.

a-t

Run it back for 2023. The guys you might want to trade mostly didnโ€™t play well enough to be tradeable and the current prospect crop will largely be ready in 2024 not 23. If they rebound and are contending at the deadline, stay the course besides maybe dumping Pollock for Colas. If theyโ€™re bad again at the deadline, trade who you can of the definitely expiring contracts: Giolito, Pollock, Grandal, and Kelly. Other trade candidates at that point could beโ€” depending on how they playโ€” Hendriks, Graveman, Moncada, and Lynn, plus more minor pieces like Harrison, Garcia, Diekman, and Engel. They probably wouldnโ€™t get a ton of talent back, but itโ€™s more about clearing spots + salary. 2024 would then look like:

DH Abreu/Eloy? Not that important
C Zavala/Perez
1B Vaughn/Abreu/Burger?
2B Popeye/Montgomery/Sosa
3B Ramos/Montgomery
SS TA7/Montgomery/Popeye
LF Eloy/?
CF Robert/?
RF Colas/?

SP Cease/Kopech/?/?/?
Bullpen who knows

The position player group needs a flexible starting quality OF for depth, two if possible. The infield is a little up in the air, but thereโ€™s enough talented guys there that it should shake out alright. A star catcher would be nice, but Zavalaโ€™s framing is now good enough that he can be a perfectly acceptable starter in this era even when his bat regresses.

The starting pitching obviously really needs work even if Crochet comes back a starter, but thereโ€™s a TON of SP talent available in free agency in 2024: Urias, Flaherty, Mahle, Ohtani, Giolito, Stroman, Nola, Montas, Snell, Castillo, and Montgomery are the best of the younger group. DeGrom, Gray, Mikolas, Bassitt, Darvish, Scherzer, and Verlander represent the graybeards. Take your pick of two of the above, and the rotation should be excellent.

The bullpen: who knows. Relievers are so volatile that projecting two years ahead for them is wishcasting. Iโ€™d like them to extend Reynaldo at a reasonable rate if possible though this offseason.

HallofFrank

I agree. I threw some ideas together for the OPP and Iโ€™m excited about it.

MikeAndrews2

52 years ago in early September the Sox paused on their way to a 106 loss season to clean house and bring in Chuck Tanner and Roland Hemond. Together they rejuvenated the team and changed the course of Sox history (they were headed to Milwaukee or Seattle). It can be done.

As Cirensica

Excellent podcast. Very good points covered over 1 hour. I would make all the White Sox players to watch/read about Ichiro post season physical conditioning routines including his insane 31,284 steps routine. One of the most disciplined athletes that allowed him to be affective even in his 40s.

Greg… that song was brilliant!! Love it!

BenwithVen

I was a Rick Hahn defender, but it’s clear he and the rest of the FO need to go. Jim brought up an excellent point on how this FO just continues to return to ideas that caused the team to be “mired in mediocrity” to begin with. They’ve learned absolutely nothing.

As Cirensica

Hahn has had some good moves, but the more I think of them, I conclude many of them are just a byproduct of “luck/there was not a better option left” than a keen baseball knowledge. For example, the Cueto signing and the McCaan signing. He then follows those with toilets. Loads of them.

GrinnellSteve

I, too, was a Rick defender. That has changed in the last year.

One of the things that amazes me is the way what seems to be the entire fan base has turned on this team. I see it here. I see it across social media. I see it on national media. It’s as if an entire population woke up one day and saw the emperor had no clothes and they had been duped into thinking he did and now they are pissed.

Some here recognized this much sooner than others. Speaking for myself, even as I began to have doubts, I kept hoping it would work out, that smarter men than me would demonstrate why they were smarter men than me.

Now, I just want this long local nightmare to finally be over. I want Jerry to sell the team. I want a near-total clean sweep of the front office. I want decision makers who are worthy of the fan base.

PauliePaulie

Although those who had hope certainly enjoyed the 2 playoff years more than those who bashed their pre 2020 moves as jumping the gun and doomed to fail.

Augusto Barojas

The truth is that none of these guys are that smart. Seriously. They are certainly not smarter than some fans on here. The movie “Moneyball”, Billy Beane’s assistant turned out to be just some kid out of college who was not a former athlete, who loved baseball and statistics. Anybody like him would be enormously better than the egomaniacs and halfwits that pervade this organization. Baseball is not hard to understand, and fans love the game much more than this organization does.

If they took a group of us on here and asked our input for decisions, they would have way, way better results. NOBODY on here wanted them to sign Kelly, for one obvious example. NOBODY would have hired Tony. Or signed Eaton. Or Velasquez. Or Garcia. Or Diekman. These people making decisions for the Sox are not experts, nor are they smart. And that has proven itself out, repeatedly.

a-t

I wouldnโ€™t be terribly averse to a cleaning of house in the FO, but I think the change that really drastically to happen is ownership. Owners who insist on meddling in baseball decisions are the worst handicap any FO can be dealt. Colorado and the Angels are prime examples, Kansas City, Detroit (since Ilitch jr. took over), and Baltimore. Oakland and TBโ€™s owners are jackasses, but they just set a strict budget and let the FO do what they want with it.

I lay the majority of the blame of this debacle of a season at the feet of the major league coaching and training staffs, and the coaching staff was obviously in large part forced on the team by Jerryโ€” Tony himself, and Tony bringing in โ€œhis guysโ€. The training staff has had at least two head trainers leave in the past three years; it shouldโ€™ve been rebuilt from the ground up at that point.

Then thereโ€™s Jerryโ€™s weirdness with spending money and not wanting to commit long-term, which makes it impossible to get top-of-the-market free agents, except in cases like Grandal (old catcher) or Hendriks (reliever) where they donโ€™t command true top of the market money. The resistance to shelling out for a true huge contract is why Bryce Harper isnโ€™t patrolling RF. You can spend the same money on three decent players or one superstar, and itโ€™s simply better spent on the superstar.

Itโ€™s also Jerryโ€™s loyalty, and habit of always promoting from within when possible, that frequently results in less than competent people running various important things. I donโ€™t think Hahn is a wunderkind or anything, but I also see several ridiculous handicaps placed upon how he can operate, all of which originate with Jerry.

HallofFrank

I’ve thought some about this owner dynamic. There’s a really tough balance.

On the one hand, you want the owners to be hands off and let the GMs do their job. Owners that do that, however, tend to be less invested in the team and, therefore, less invested (financially) in the teamโ€”so you’ve basically got to be the A’s or Rays to succeed, and that’s a hard way to succeed.

On the other hand, you want the owners to be all-in and invest a lot of cash in the team. But then they tend to meddle and that’s when things can go off the railsโ€”like the Rockies or White Sox. However, there are positive examples, too, like George Steinbrenner.

So I guess the golden mean is an invested fan who shows restraint and lets the baseball people handle it? But, I gotta say I can’t blame them. If I owned a team, it’d be hard not to give input.

a-t

I donโ€™t think the ownership situation you describe as ideal (and I agree l with), where ownership wants to win and is willing to write the necessary checks but will trust the presumably competent baseball people to do it, is super uncommon. Detroitโ€™s Ilitch was like that before his passing, I think of the Nats before recently, SD now, Boston, etc.

I agree that I would meddle too if I were somehow an owner. At the same time, Iโ€™m confident that you or me or most anyone who frequents this site is more in touch with the modern game than 86-year-old Jerry Reinsdorf is. Steinbrenner is actually a great example: he meddled plenty in the first 17 years of his ownership, 1973-1990, but the Yankees didnโ€™t win a title until after Steinbrenner was banned from day-to-day management of the team in 1990 and was much less hands-on after being reinstated in โ€˜93. Not coincidentally, thatโ€™s when the Yankees dynasty began.

HallofFrank

For sure. This isn’t a defense of JR, to be clear. But I think you can conjure up good/bad examples of both meddlers and the hands-off guys. Steinbrenner is a good example both, I think.

My only point was: we talk a lot about the ills of meddling because we have a meddler, but there are problems on the other side of that ditch, too.

ForsterFTOG

Yankees won in ’77 and ’78.

GrinnellSteve

That was the initial infusion of free-agent talent augmenting a roster and putting it over the top. Then he kept pursuing expensive and aging names. Instead of building an organization, he kept doing what worked in the beginning.

upnorthsox

The org was strong, he just kept trading away the talent for aging vets.

Adam

I personally love the AJ for manager idea. I hear your arguments. But my counter would be what we’re seeing this year is the result of guys being coddled and made comfortable at every pass. Its time to challenge them and make them uncomfortable.

How many times can our hitters make the same mistakes? Swinging at bad pitches early in the count. Weak at bat after weak at bat. Never working a pitcher.

How many times can our pitchers walk the 7-8-9 hitters? Not like they don’t walk everybody cause they lead the league for a reason.

The poor at bats, the walks, the mental mistakes, the “balk or pitching from the stretch with an astro on second”, its just terrible baseball all around. My personal choice would be a Buck Showalter type. Someone needs to make these guys uncomfortable at some point. See what you have. Either they fight and respond or they crumble. And if they crumble then it wasn’t gonna work anyway.

Augusto Barojas

I’m not saying AJ would be great, or one of my top choices. But anybody, literally ANYBODY would be an improvement over the current situation. Just some functioning adult under 60. I hope they select somebody good, but I’d settle for anybody at this point as long as there is a change.

dwjm3

Hawk loves the guy as much as anyone and refers to him as Dennis the Menace.

You can’t hire somebody with that type of personality to manage a bunch of people. One needs real people skills to lead people.

Furthermore, we need to get away from the Reinsdorf nepotism-based hiring practices. It is an outmoded way of doing business.

hitlesswonder

Yeah – for the next manager I’d like someone with no ties to the organization that acts like a professional.

Or Jose Abreu.

Wayne

Don’t give JR the Player-Manager idea (PK) again.

Augusto Barojas

I’m pretty sure whatever people skills AJ might lack, his are more developed than the Russa. He caught in the majors for 15+ years including ’05. He wouldn’t be one of my top choices, but as a former catcher AJ knows the game pretty well, and again, literally anybody would be an improvement.

dwjm3

This is nonsense. As flawed as LaRussa may be he did win multiple championships in the big leagues. He had the ability to lead people at one time, it seems the game has just passed him by. AJ hasn’t demonstrated any of that. He also has the reputation for being a prick.

Plenty of guys have long playing careers in the majors and aren’t able to translate that to coaching sucess. (see Ventura, Robin)

Furthermore, Jerry is fully capable of making another hire that is as bad as LaRussa. Our last coach managed to use 6 pitchers in three innings in a playoff game. Don’t kid yourself that just any warm body would be an upgrade.

Last edited 2 years ago by dwjm3
Augusto Barojas

No manager alive or dead would have hit Leury 3rd for two games. Ever. Whatever La Clown has done in the past has zero relevance to the 2022 version of him. I’ve been a fan for several decades, I have seen absolutely nobody as bad as him in 2022. Not Ventura, not Renteria, not Bevington. Nobody.

But your point well taken that their track record for managers is horrible, like epic bad, because of one common thread: the owner.

Jim Margalus

A Buck Showalter type is valid. The AJ idea should be flushed down the toilet, only to be discussed among sewer people.

As Cirensica

Some potential managers with experience that I can think of:

  1. Bruce Bochy (I have read rumors, he might want to come back)
  2. Joe Girardi
  3. Walt Weiss
  4. Brad Ausmus
  5. John Gibbons
  6. Charlie Montoyo
  7. Fredi Gonzalez
  8. John Farrell
  9. Demarlo Hale
  10. Joe Spada

I only like 1, 5, and 7. I am not sure about 9 and 10. Gibbons is a blast. He does not sugarcoats anything. He is like Ozzie, but light. Montoyo had some clubhouse issues with the Jays, so he does not seem a good candidate. I read that Farrell is now in the lobster business. So no.

Augusto Barojas

Ned Yost is a bit old, but can add him to the list.

ChiSoxND12

If you hate Tonyโ€™s lineups, Iโ€™m pretty confident youโ€™d hate Yostโ€™s lineups as well

BenwithVen

whoever they get, they need to do a thorough, multi-step interview process. No more white sox former players, no redemption arcs, no buddies of JR/KW/Hahn etc. This org desperately needs new blood and some creativity.

Last edited 2 years ago by BenwithVen
Adam

I think the assumption being made, perhaps unfairly, is AJ the player = AJ the manager. Hes been out of the game 7 years. Has he reflected on successes and failures, has he grown as a person? I don’t know. But its possible. if he has, and you can take that knowledge and passion for the game and mix it with a better mindset, you could have a winner. As you mentioned he would often selfishly want to succeed, that same mentality now could lead him to examining the traits necessary to succeed as a manager. Just as the player might say “I have a hole in my swing”, the manager may say “I have a hole in my head”.

I’m not saying any of this has occurred, i’d hope it would be vetted as part of the hiring process. My overall idea is throughout the entirety of this core rebuild there have been 3 super player friendly managers. if its not AJ, then its not AJ and it can be someone else. I just don’t want another drum circle manager talking about how wonderful everyone is. This team sorely lacks mental strength.

dwjm3

He could demonstrate a skill set by going to coach somewhere as an assistant. Ozzie at least had a coaching resume. Let AJ go build a resume as an assistant coach and demonstrate his ability.

Calling for AJ to manage is just fans being nostalgic for past glories.

Last edited 2 years ago by dwjm3
PauliePaulie

There’s challenging the players, and there’s being an Ahole. Track record says AJ would be the latter. Doomed to fail spectacularly.

jorgefabregas

How many years ago was it that larry wrote his Fire Hahn post on SouthSideSox? I can’t find it, btw.

jorgefabregas

Thank you!

As Cirensica

Still relevant

roke1960

If Rick is “allowed” to hire the next manager, we will get another subpar candidate, and probably someone with ties to the Sox. Let’s face it, a rock could probably do a better job than Tony, but that bar is so low that anyone would be an improvement. We actually need a good, competent well-respected manager. As much as I like AJ, we have no idea how he would fare as a manager. This is not the time to take another managerial gamble.

I’ve been saying this for awhile- if the Sox are going to turn the corner, Rick and Kenny cannot remain in charge. Rick is just very bad at his job. We need to hire someone as GM from a proven, successful organization. And then Jerry must allow that person to bring in who he thinks can do the job as manager. And for those of you that are saying no one would work for Jerry, I’m not so sure about that. There are only 30 GM jobs in baseball- that’s a pretty exclusive company. For someone in the Tampa or Dodger or any of the other successful organizations that is stuck in the front office, they would jump at the chance to lead a major league team. The question is, will Jerry have the brains or whatever it takes to bring someone like that in? I think he has no choice. Rick will just rearrange the deck chairs of the Titanic.

mrridgman

You’d have a job to do in convincing a high-end Rays/Dodgers/Guardians exec to move to the Sox, given JR’s history in micro-management at the worst times.

roke1960

But if the old man wants a championship in his remaining years, he’s going to have to allow someone to have complete control. I’m not sure if he’s capable of allowing that, but that is our only hope. Rick is proving here that he can’t put together a complete roster. Last offseason was an unmitigated disaster. We can’t afford another one of those.

Wayne

Not sure that is what we get if Rick is the one doing the hiring. But if it is overseen by KW and JR, that is what we get. Hence we get myself wanting Willie Harris for 3B Coach.

metasox

The first question I would ponder is how much of a housecleaning the front office thinks is needed. If they don’t feel the need to get all new voices in the clubhouse but simply want to move on from La Russa, they may consider going with Cairo. And that wouldn’t preclude making some changes to coaches and such. But I haven’t heard anything about how they feel about him. If going outside, the best managers will likely want more of their own staff so the organization needs to be willing to accommodate them.

Last edited 2 years ago by metasox
mrridgman

The Sox really, REALLY need their next manager to have zero previous connection to the team, and to JR. The severe lack of new ideas has put this team a decade or two behind most of MLB (Birmingham Project aside). Also move Hahn to contract negotiator (NFL teams have these), he does seem to have some skill at that – I think he’s intelligent but not so much at building a winning sports team.

El Arvo

Perhaps Iโ€™m misremembering something but was the โ€œBirmingham Projectโ€ Frank Thomasโ€™ idea awhile back? He said something to the effect of putting the top prospects on the same team, win together, move up the system together.

GrinnellSteve

Big Hurt for team president!

Augusto Barojas

Some of Hahn’s moves have been total head scratchers. I gave him credit for some great trades, the Quintana trade and Eaton to the Nats. But other than that, he hasn’t really done anything noteworthy enough to establish himself as sharp. Eaton, Kelly, Diekman, Garcia, Velasquez… those were all on his watch.

Honestly, if they interviewed for GM a group of people who did great at fantasy baseball with a track record of several years, with actual prize money, and among them found someone with the right personality and negotiation skills, I have zero doubt it would be an improvement. I don’t get the sense that Hahn lives and breathes baseball, or even knows who the best players are who might be available on other teams like these fantasy obsessed guys do. Just because someone has a GM job in major league baseball doesn’t mean he is smart, or qualified. The Sox need to hire some SMART people, for a change.

metasox

If you remember the old Wheel of Fortune when the contestant would spend their winning dollars on prizes, some of these moves look like that. ‘I have 20 mil to spend, let’s see, I will spend 6 on the reliever, 5 on the 2B, etc.’ And at the end, the contestant has a bunch of mismatched prizes that aren’t necessarily what they need, but all the money was spent.

Last edited 2 years ago by metasox
NancyFaustsOrgan

Hahn doesn’t deserve any credit for the Sale, Eaton and Quintana trades because, so far, the best returns have not come from the “prized prospect” in the deal, but from the second piece: Kopech (not Moncada), Cease (not Jimenez), and I do believe Dunning eventually will surpass Giolito and Lopez’s value.

Hahn’s poor spending on the Kelvin Herrera’s and Adam Eatons of the world (circa 2021) forced him to do his back-to-school shopping at Dollar General which zeroes out any credit he should get for your Johnny Cuetos and Evan Marshall pickups.

Joliet Orange Sox

There is a plenty to criticize Hahn for and I think the Sox could do much better at GM (my big concern is that Jerry, Kenny, and TLR make the job unappealing to some good candidates if any of them are still around).

However, I think this specific criticism of the Sale/Eaton/Quintana trades doesn’t hold water. All the players mentioned were part of the headline return and expected to be contributors for the Sox at the major league level at the time of the trades and no has suggested Hahn makes those trades without all the players mentioned coming back in return. It’s not as if Victor Diaz surprised everyone by being the best return from the Sale trade.

MrTopaz

The topically-themed parody of a classic song is like, defcon 2 of fan discontentment. Thank you, Greg. I don’t know defcon 1 would be, and I don’t know if I want to know.

Greg Nix

Thatโ€™s when I get irritated/bored enough to make a music video.

Southside Hitman

Terrific podcast & Great Song!

MrStealYoBase

Cathartic listen. Thanks for making me smile Greg.

NancyFaustsOrgan

The White Sox organization reminds me of my years working in radio: a bunch of stuck-in-the-past executives who found mild success in 1992 and somehow turn it into a career of playing it safe while rearranging the deck chairs every few months and slapping the word “new” on it.