Record Date: 12/28/2022
Rundown:
- PSA #1: #108Day on January 7, 2022, at Reggie’s
- PSA #2: For the 2023 Roadtrip to Cincinnati, consider booking your hotel room and purchasing game tickets.
- The Chicago White Sox released a new ticket pricing map. Josh and Jim pick it apart while wondering if the Ushers at games will enforce rules.
- Jean Segura signed with Miami while Tommy La Stella gets DFA’d. Should the White Sox pursue La Stella?
- An early report on the White Sox hitting coaches.
- Our favorite parts of 2022.
White Sox 2023 Seat Map
White Sox re-inventing the color wheel!
2023 salaries:
Jean Segura: $6.5 million
Jake Diekman: $3.5 million
Leury Garcia: $5.5 million
Joe Kelly: $9 million
Rick Hahn is clearly a master at allocating resources effectively.
The fact that Segura is getting only $1M more than Leury shows just how bad the Leury contract is/was. And this is also why I don’t want the Sox to sell off any pieces and start another “rebuild” unless Hahn is fired. It doesn’t matter if the Sox will have $100M at their disposal, Jerry’s constraints and Hahn’s ineptitude will just lead to another overpriced bullpen and a bunch of $5-10M guys off the scrap heap.
To be fair, Segura received a guaranteed $17 mil. over 2 years. I’m pretty sure that the Sox could have gotten him on a 1 year at, maybe, $9 mil. plus an option to play for a likely playoff contender as opposed to the Marlins who have no chance.
The type of deal he got, with more money coming in year two, actually would have made a ton of sense for the Sox, who have very little payroll committed for 2024 with Grandal, Lynn, Clevenger, etc., set to hit free agency.
The Sox have enough money that they don’t need to micromanage payroll the way they’ve brainwashed fans into thinking they have to. They could spend a lot more, every year, and simply choose not to. Segura? Hell, they could have afforded Semien.
Totally agreed, but even with their “frugal” tendencies, the Segura deal would have been totally manageable, especially without flushing money down the toilet in the form of the players listed above.
I like both Colas and Sosa, and they may turn out to be very good, but to go into the season hoping to contend with no backup plan for two rookies is just inexcusable.
If they had signed a legit 2B, you could make a case for feeling fine about infield depth with Sosa and Gonzalez as fill-in options. I’m extremely skeptical that Gonzalez can handle major league pitching and agree with you that Sosa is a dart throw at best.
The outfield depth, however, is nonexistent. They’re one hamstring tweak away from Billy Hamilton and/or Gavin Sheets seeing many more major league at bats than they should, especially for a team that is theoretically trying to win.
Yes, having either Romy or Sosa as infield depth is fine, along with Leury (who I hope they DFA). But you’re right, the outfield depth right now is Victor Reyes or Billy Hamilton. Hopefully Sheets never sees the outfield again.
The thing is, Segura isn’t even THAT good. He’s at the higher end of the mediocre tier, great value for that price though. Inexcusable that they did not sign him, as you said. The guys they needed will always be Springer and Semien, if the goal was a championship. I think they needed both of them if that was their true goal. They need a superstar or two to supplement this team, not the Benintendi’s and Segura’s of the world. And they are too cheap to even get Segura, at a salary that was a total gift!
I’m surprised he signed for that little. I just despise this ownership, sheesh.
How useful are signings like that if they leave holes in the roster, have no depth, and end up trotting out replacement level players for tons of games year after year?
I hear you about premium signings, but I’m pretty sure I’m always going to be the type that wants the easy stuff done above all else. Hit the free throws, the lay ups. Which should be so easy.
If they lose 2-3 WAR this year at 2B and in the OF b/c they couldn’t be bothered to get decent depth/security pieces there, it’s as if they replaced an all-star with an average starter.
They leave holes on the roster, have no depth, and are trotting out replacement level players every year even without having signed anybody like Semien or Springer. They won’t even sign a solid 2b that costs less than 10M/season. Maybe Colas will work out in RF but they’ll be lucky to get a WAR above 1 at 2b, I’m guessing. Not unlikely to be the case at catcher as well.
You can’t win with a team that is only good at hitting free throws or layups, if that’s all the team can do. This team is bad at a couple important things… hitting RHP’s, and defense. They are great at nothing, honestly.
Yeah, I agree.
My pet peeve is the little stuff though. They get a core together in a rebuild that gets national press as a WS-capable group, then not only do they not sign additional stars, they don’t even make sure to have MLB-average (or close) guys on the field at almost all times. Watching teams with full lineups and guys that are useful at 7-9 is so painful to me, since that’s never the Sox.
I’m much likelier to forgive bringing the core together, also doing the little stuff so replacement-level players aren’t playing 3/4 of a season, and then having the core just fail to live up to WS expectations.
Their core was never supposed to have to win a WS by themselves, without the promised reinforcements that never came. They’ve had injuries on top of that, and their core isn’t even impressive anymore. Great years with full health from Robert and Eloy, a resurgent Moncada, and a better/healthy year from Tim would be needed to change that. None of those things out of the question, but it remains to be seen how many of them come to pass. Incredible that only Moncada played more than 100 games out of that group, and barely.
But hey, both Sosa and Colas hit and hit with power in the minors last year, and did well vs RHP, so maybe it will work out with those 2 and some things will wind up looking up for a change.
I’m not even talking about this year in particular anymore. Basically since 2020 when they really should have started doing the things necessary to win. 2021 WS:
Position Players: Robert, Jimenez, TA, Abreu, Moncada, Grandal
Starters: Giolito, Lynn, Cease, Rodon
Surround that core with players that are at least MLB-average (2 WAR) at other spots, with some decent depth behind them, have a good bullpen, competent manager/training staff, and that team is absolutely supposed to compete for a WS. My pet peeve is they tried to MacGuyver junk solutions at other positions instead.
With TLR and injuries and everything else, it didn’t happen in 2021 and didn’t come close to happening in 2022, but that doesn’t mean that the core was never supposed to compete for a WS — nationally, just about everyone thought they were.
This year I still think they should at absolute minimum not try to get by with bubble gum and staples keeping the plane together. Just get decent, competent 2-WAR players to fill holes and for depth, and I wouldn’t criticize too much.
My guess is their 26-man roster will look something like this:
Catchers: Grandal, Zavala
Infield: Vaughn, TA, Moncada, Sosa/Romy, Leury, Sheets
Outfield: Benintendi, Robert, Colas, Hamilton/Reyes
DH: Eloy
Starters: Cease, Lynn, Giolito, Kopech, Clevinger
Bullpen: Hendriks, Graveman, Lopez, Bummer, Diekman, Lambert, Kelly, 1 of Foster/Ruiz/Santos
Is that good enough to win the division? If everything goes right, probably, but their margin for error is very small. If Colas and/or Romy/Sosa struggle, then their backup options for significant playing time are Hamilton, Reyes or Leury. None of those guys should get anywhere near 300 ABs. Then if the injuries strike again, they have to dig deeper. And the farm is pretty barren past Jake Burger. If their core 7 veterans (TA, Yoan, Vaughn, Eloy, Robert, Benintendi, Grandal) all remain healthy AND productive, they could be a 90-95 win team. But there is just so little depth behind those guys that if 2 or 3 are out for any length of time and the young guys struggle, it will be another dumpster fire. Adding a Jean Segura and Michael Conforto would have given them some decent depth. But I guess Hahn and Jerry didn’t think they were necessary.
Agree. I’d peg them right now for about co-favorites with Cleveland (I know I expect more bounce-backs than most of the folks here), with little margin for error — as you say.
I’m on my “at least get Tony Kemp (LH2B) and Ramon Laureano (RHOF)” crusade now. Baseballtradevallues.com — for whatever it’s worth — pegs them combined for something like $7.4M in value. I’d happily trade 10-12M in farm value (2-3 guys below Ramos) for those two right now, because this is the remainder of the window. If this involved trading Hendriks to pick up more pieces to fill the trade (maybe w/one coming back to the Sox minors), I’d be fine with that, too, given the otherwise strong BP.
Better 2B or 4th OF trades and signings are welcome of course, though I’d really prefer LH2B and RHOF for L/R flexibility, which we’ve been terrible at.
But if they do that, now Reyes/Hamilton/Leury hopefully see no time at all (Sheets even as emergency #5 OF would be better). OF has 4 guys now for flexibility/injury: two RH and two LH who all should be reasonable bets to produce decently this season. In the INF: Moncada, TA, Kemp, Sosa is not bad, with Rodriguez/Gonzalez if needed in emgergency. Again, at least one decent bet in case of injury, and some L/R flexibility.
I’d honestly guess Kemp and Laureano to be worth about 3 wins if brought on (average case), and if it turns out they barely need them b/c Sosa + Colas are so good, and everyone is always healthy, then the redundancy won’t bother me at all.
Then, yes, I think they are decent favorites to win the division, though it still could be close and they still could get stomped the 1st round.
Kemp and Laureano should be the least that they do before the season starts. I guess Andrus would be the best FA upgrade for 2nd base, and actually Pollock would probably be the best FA outfielder, though I can’t imagine he’d be interested in coming back. I’m still hoping for a trade of Liam to get Busch or Carlson, or I even proposed a 3-way trade that would get Brandon Lowe from the Rays. And I still think they are going to make some kind of trade before spring training, though I’m not keeping my hopes high for a good return. But yes, doing nothing probably still puts them as co-favorites with Cleveland, because of the potential of the current roster. They have plenty of potential all-stars. The problem is keeping them healthy.
Agree to all.
Geoff Head, we’re counting on you, son!
What this ownership has done the past 3 years makes about as much sense as a fat chick hoping to win a beauty contest without getting in shape.
I disagree completely. Just looking at the seating chart it clearly shows they are good at coloring.
This ownership is not trying to win, theoretically or otherwise.
Perhaps they could paint the seats these colors, insist that you wear the color of your section (sorry brown town), then the ushers would have a better time keeping people in the seats they paid for
I can understand people being upset when ticket prices go up significantly but I don’t understand the upset solely about there being more colors on the map. The upper deck sections were already split in two with a higher price for the closer rows than the rows behind and it has never been a big deal.
The only reason to make more sections is to increase prices
I would not be upset if ticket prices went up significantly. To the contrary. I hope they raise ticket prices until attendance reaches zero. This ownership deserves zero fan support.
This is a map of seats I have no intention of occupying until this team either dramatically improves, or changes ownership. No reason to give a dime to support this phony and cheap regime.
Larry Kramer warned about corporate coopting of Pride.
Jerry and the amazing technicolor seating chart!
Are there that many different sections in that map as compared to other stadiums? It doesn’t seem too egregious as compared to say the Cubs
) or Brewers (https://www.mlb.com/brewers/ballpark/seat-map).
Just because they have the ability to differentiate the price with that level of granularity doesn’t mean they will every game. Right now season tickets don’t have that level of granularity in pricing.
Also there is zero chance that the 17 year old making minimum wage is going to give a shit if you’re in row 15 instead on 16.
My default position is that the Sox are too stupid to do anything too philosophically or logistically difficult. I’m guessing this was the ticketing department trying to justify its existence in an era where TV and sponsorship money dominates. They looked around, saw other teams had more pricing sections, and decided to ‘optimize’ in order to add a hundred thousand dollars to their department’s revenue for the season.
As Jim and I mentioned on the podcast, this pricing structure is to make more $ off StubHub/SeatGeek bots purchasing when single-game tickets are available. This leads to my question if the White Sox are seeing more tickets bought off third-party sites than on the team website.
It’s just odd to see some sections cut into three pieces, and they aren’t even behind home plate.
Padres listening to offers on Ha-Seong Kim…has played Short, Second, and Third there
Projected to be worth 2.9 fwar this year …Could help us at multiple positions including second.
He’s a plus defender at all three positions. He’d be a great get for the Sox. I’m not holding my breath.
ZiPS likes him even better: 3.4 fWAR this year.
If the Padres didn’t already have Hader, it would seem more likely. But they have only 2 years of control left over Kim, so maybe possible.
He is sort of Moncada insurance as well. Could give Moncada a break if he gets in a slump.
Or is injured. Or even just when he’s resting. Same thing for TA. Great flexibility.
The MLBTR article said they’re listening to offers, but also made it clear that he’s got a starting gig and they’re more likely to move Trent Grisham.
Incidentally, Grisham is worth kicking the tires on, too. He’s coming off a rough year offensively, but there’s some upside there. He’d be a nice buffer for Colas, plus Robert insurance.
To get both probably starts with Vaughn … And a reliever. But maybe Ramos and Hendriks? Depending on Padres desire to keep Hendriks away from LA. But it would be a move that may be above the braintrusts appetite.
All of you who post trade suggestions are hoping this team improves. Jerry and Hahn do not share that goal. I don’t think we can even safely assume that Hahn is actually working this winter, and/or talking to other GM’s.
I highly doubt any trades are in the works guys, honestly. At least not that any of us would care for. They seem intent on starting minor league players at two positions. Because in the end, they just don’t care.
Sheesh, we get it. JR and Hahn stink, they don’t care, blah, blah, blah. We all agree. But does every single post and comment have to devolve into this same, tired complaint? It’s not like any of us think the brass are scanning the messages or OPPs here looking for trade ideas. We do it for fun.
Would be ideal to exchange for Hendriks somehow