Reader Email: Will The White Sox Ever Act Like A Big Market Team?

This is a FANTASTIC question right off the bat for a multitude of reasons.  Quite frankly, the White Sox haven’t acted like a big market team.  Sure their market is split in half with the team on the North Side, but even 1/2 of Chicago’s market is bigger than the majority of other markets in MLB.  That’s one reason they’ll never leave Chicago unless all hell breaks loose.

The White Sox, and Jerry Reinsdorf in particular have been dog shit at using this to their advantage over the years.  They have improved in some areas, mostly the amateur draft, where it used to be uncapped and they’d draft dog shit flyers they didn’t have to invest a ton of money into.  Now they spend every cent and more allotted to them.

But there are other areas where they are still behind, for lack of a better term.  One area is the international market.  MLB classifies the White Sox as a large market team, so they have they are in the smallest grouping of international pool money with teams like the Cubs, Yankees, Dodgers, etc.

LOL they draw 10K fans per game and are basically the Marlins and should move to Vegas amirite?  FUCK YOU.

Anyways, I got some help with this answer from Sox fan James Fox on Twitter who’s a legit EXPERT in this realm.  He knows MLB bylaws better than Abner Doubleday himself.

Basically, the Sox prefer a quantity over quality approach in international spending, but they’re risk averse when it comes to signing high risk/high reward 16 year olds for big bucks.  Yes, they signed Robert, Adolfo and Tatis, Jr. but they had TWO YEARS sitting in the penalty box after the Robert signing to prepare for the previous J2 signing period and did… not a whole lot besides giving 22 year old Cuban SS Yolbert Sanchez $2.5MM.  If this is their method they might strike gold with a Tatis, Jr. every few years but will also more than likely be out on the Wander Franco’s of the world.  Personally, I’d prefer more balance.  Go big or go home here and there.

That and they traded $1MM in international money to save $2.5MM in MLB payroll when they sent Nate Jones to Texas.  That is MIND BOGGLING to me.  Like…. they should be spending every cent possible trying to infuse their system with young LatAm talent and they just traded it away to shed big league payroll when their big league payroll is hilariously low anyways.  Unless we’re missing something, that trade is indefensible in every facet, especially when Hahn has talked ad nauseam about adding depth on depth on depth to the system.  So far aside from Robert, they haven’t added too much quality depth on the international market to supplement their amateur draft additions.  That’s a problem to me.

Outside of amateur talent, the White Sox have shredded payroll to NOTHING moving forward.  That’s not a bad thing because it offers them a ton of financial flexibility to add premier talent starting THIS WINTER.  They haven’t operated near the top of the league in payroll since 2013 when they had the 8th largest payroll in baseball.  Now I’m not saying they have to go out and spend $200MM this winter but to even get to league average they’d have to drop about $100MM after arb raises with new player additions.  It’s bananas how little money they have tied up to payroll moving forward.  In 2-3 years when players are due arbitration raises, if they’re not comfortably over $150MM we have a BIG problem.  It’ll mean they haven’t supplemented their young talent with premier free agents.  In that case, they fed us a bunch of bullshit for the last 5-6 years and we should all revolt.  Time will tell though.

No, the Huskies can suck my nuts.  Go Tigers

I have it under the best authority possible that he’s a dog shit teammate.  Like… a former teammate of his and one that’s a fan of Barstool said “stop defending him” when he was on the Dodgers and I was like “yeah I’d love this guy on the south side.”  So… I don’t know.  Maybe being with Abreu, Moncada, Robert would help him but if he’s that bad then fuck’m.  Not like he’s some superstar anyways.  Good player yes, but he comes with baggage.  I wouldn’t hate it but I wouldn’t love it either.

1.  I do too.  I think Madrigal will transition pretty seamlessly, but Robert will have his struggles.  I’m sure Sox twitter will lose their minds about him and I’ll just sit back and say “I told ya so”.  Madrigal will be solid and Robert will be a super star though.

2. I think Renteria’s comments are just a hard nosed, old school guy lashing back at the criticisms he’s been taking heat for.  And ya know what?  I like that he defended himself.  That said, this team has to do a better job of using analytics to their advantage.  I don’t know the depths they use them at, but I do know they have an entire team of extremely smart people crunching numbers on the reg.  I can’t comment on how or what they use them for though.  But… Jon Jay hitting 4th?  Come onnnn mannn.  I know you have a shit roster to work with, Ricky, but that is so goddamn dumb.  Between the bunting, the weird lineups, the constant catching of Castillo, etc… he has to adapt better.  He doesn’t have to be some NASA scientist math whizz when constructing his lineups and should absolutely use *some* feel when doing so, but don’t be stubborn either.  There are a billion new aged statistics that can help aid you and do your job for you.  Use them, or get the fuck out of here.

But… I think he’s here for the long haul.  Whether or not you like that is up to you.  Personally?  I don’t give a shit.

3. No I’d rather sit on my couch and not do intramurals

Marcell Ozuna would be a perfect addition to this team next year.  He’s hasn’t *really* played RF too much aside from when he was ascending with the Marlins, but nevertheless… it’s not too hard a position to play.  He’s still not a great OF and with him and Eloy in LF and RF Robert will have his work cut out for him, but he’d make a perfect addition to the lineup.  He’ll be 29, and is good for 25/85/.260/.330 every year.  That’d be a welcome addition to the stink they’ve had out there the last 5 years.

I promise you this: Jay, Cordell, etc. will not be in RF next year, regardless of who the Sox sign or trade for to play the position.  There will be an upgrade.  Just not sure who it will be yet.  Puig?  Ozuna?  Trade?  We’ll find out this winter.

I think it means 0.0 on how they’ll develop.  And do they call it a pennant race in the minors?  If they do, that’s news to me.  These guys are all going to win and win a lot in Chicago because they’re good baseball players.  What they do in Charlotte this year has no bearing on that.  I can promise you they all want to be in Chicago as we speak instead of chasing a AAA championship though.

That said it’s not out of the realm of craziness to call the Charlotte lineup better than the White Sox lineup as we speak though.  It’s that good at the moment.

4. The road blacks:

3. The powder blues.  This will get hated on but I thought they were sick.  Unpopular opinion

2. The vests: LOVE these uniforms and they HAVE to bring them back eventually.  They were the go-to’s in 2005 and people are clamoring for them to come back 15 years later.  Bring them back assholes!

1. The 83’s.  One of the best uniforms in sports.  A ton of colleges, travel ball teams, etc. are using the same design for their regular uniforms today.  Northwestern, Michigan, etc. are all using the design and they’re the best.