Category Archives: The Future

No One Loved Their Past More Than Me… And Now It’s Time To Leave It Behind

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Anyone who knows me, even a little bit, knows I’m completely obsessed with my past. I’m not talking about my relationships or my friendships. I’m talking about my experiences. From school to my toys to shows and movies I watched to stores my family shopped at. I had the happiest childhood of anyone I’ve ever met. I still enjoy the shows I enjoyed as a child, including He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, The Lone Ranger and Looney Tunes.

The happiest period of my life was from whatever point I can originally remember (probably the age of four) through the spring of 2005. At that point, things went downhill and, being honest, they continued in a downward spiral for the next 18 years. The negative points of my life were definitely a result of unhappy relationships but that’s a story for another time.

A couple of times I tried to recreate happy times during my not-happy period and it was an absolute disaster. For example, one of my happy times was a dinner and shopping trip with my parents on December 29, 1995. I attempted to recreate the experience in 2008, with a cretin I was dating at the time. Some of the stores I had been to in 1995 were closed, as was the restaurant I ate at with my mom and dad. Everything about the 2008 trip was bad. So bad, in fact, that it almost ruined the original experience for me, which was the exact opposite of what I had been trying to accomplish. And I’m worried I’m going to do it again.

I have plans this year to do a project I did in 1995-96, as well as 2001. My project is to create myself on NCAA Football 07, NCAA March Madness 07 and MVP NCAA Baseball 07, playing my way all the way through. I’ve went in depth on my project in previous blog entries so I don’t want to belabor the issue, but I’ve been wanting to do this again for over 20 years. And I figured with better equipment (I can play the PS2 games on my backward compatible PS3 instead of the NES I had in 1995). But I’m concerned I’m going to be disappointed because it’s not a carbon copy of my original project. Even though it’s more a matter of mindset than anything else. But I’m hopeful that I can see my way clear and enjoy it.

Which brings me to the whole purpose of this entry.

My obsession with my history is a double-edged sword. While I loved my childhood, my teenage years and my early 20s, that time is gone and nothing I can do will bring it back. And I’m trying as hard as I can to let those days dissolve into the past and not base my whole life on how happy I am NOW in comparison to how happy I was THEN. The fact is, I should be happier now than I’ve been at any point in my life but I just can’t feel it. I can’t find it. I am hoping that finally getting on with my project will bring back the happy I felt in 1995 and 2001. But I can’t let that be the singular deciding factor in what I’m dealing with.

The past 18 years haven’t been so bad that I couldn’t get through them but they have been horrible. Relationships I wouldn’t wish on anyone. One with a fat piece of garbage in the late 2000s that nauseates me even to think about, and she was the one I attempted to recreate my 1995 trip with. The whore of Preston County in the 2010s who nearly ruined my life. A girl in Chicago who was 35 going on 15. These situations made the past 18 years absolutely dreadful. And I’m past all of that now. I’m in a situation that is perfect now. I should be happier than I’ve ever been. But I’m letting those miserable 18 years pull down my happy past as well as my current and my future. Even women I wasn’t romantically attached to, like a girl I knew from 1999 until 2023 just decided to make my life a little more miserable than it needed to be. And I considered her to be my closest confidant in a complete and total friendship situation. After re-assessing the situation, I realize she needed to go as much as the women I had dated in the past. And that needs to be something I never look back on.

I have to let the good and the bad go and stop thinking about how happy I was from 1982 to 2004 and how miserable I was from 2005 to 2023. Those times are both over, and while I’m not as happy as I was in my younger days, I am MUCH happier than I was at any point since 2005. And rather than focusing on either of those things, I am trying so hard to focus forward. And I just don’t know if I can pull it off. If my project doesn’t work out, I don’t know what I’m going to do from there. I’ve put all of my eggs in one basket and I’m afraid I’m going to drop it. And then I’ll know that things are far worse now than I’m willing to accept.

So, for the next 2 months I’m focused on updating baseball rosters on MLB The Show 23 and making an attempt at running franchise mode this season. And if that falls short by any length, it’s time to start on my project and I have everything leaning on that decision. We’ll see what happens but right now I don’t have the highest of hopes and I’m still obsessed with the past. And I have to get past that to move forward regardless of what I’m going to do.

I know this is all kind of a mess, I just felt like it would do me good to get all these feelings out and see how things go in the future. Thank you for taking the time to read. Peace.

Talkin’ Baseball: My Take On The Sox Machine 2023-24 Offseason Plan Project

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Every year the Sox Machine website posts a template for what is known as the “Off-season Plan Project,” where anyone can give their thoughts on what they would like the White Sox to do in the offseason, in terms of whether to tender or non-tender eligible players, sign or not sign pending free agents, propose trades and things like that. Basically, playing general manager.

So, here is my Off-season Plan Project for the 2023-24 offseason. Like last year, I’m going to do list not only what I would do in terms of roster construction, but what I think the team will do as well.

PREAMBLE

This is going to be a transition year, from the “window of contention” White Sox to the “let’s try this again” White Sox. The 2024 season will be the bridge between them. I expect another 100 loss season and the firing of manager Pedro Grifol and his staff following the 2024 season.

ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

Dylan Cease: $8.8M (tender, I think the Sox will tender)
Andrew Vaughn: $3.7M (tender, I think the Sox will tender)
Michael Kopech: $3.6M (tender, I think the Sox will tender)
Touki Toussaint: $1.7M (tender, I think the Sox will tender)
Trayce Thompson: $1.7M (non-tender, I think the Sox will non-tender)
Garrett Crochet: $900,000 (tender, I think the Sox will tender)
Clint Frazier: $900,000 (non-tender, I think the Sox will non-tender)
Matt Foster: $740,000 (tender, I think the Sox will tender)

Most of these are no-brainers. Cease is the ace of the staff, Vaughn is a former third-overall pick in the MLB Draft and Crochet was also a first-round pick. On the flip side of that, Thompson (a 37 OPS+ in 36 games with the Sox in 2023) and Frazier (a 52 OPS+ in 33 games with the Sox) should have played themselves off any MLB roster going forward and should consider going to Japan or South Korea. I think this will be Kopech’s last chance to amount to something. Toussaint showed enough in 2023 to at least be a depth piece or a spot starter. Foster is coming off injury but will only be making the league minimum and this team needs pitching in the worst way.

CLUB OPTIONS

Tim Anderson: $14M ($1M buyout) (pick up, I would trade if possible, I think the Sox will pick up)

Liam Hendriks: $15M ($15M buyout, paid over 10 years at $1.5M) (buyout, I think the Sox will buyout)

I’ll address TA later but I would definitely pick up the option to begin the offseason. Hendriks is a special case, considering his Tommy John surgery but there’s no reason to spend $15 million this year on a pitcher who won’t be pitching for a team that won’t be contending. Don’t feel bad, he’ll still be getting $1.5 million a year and that’s more than most of us are making.

MUTUAL OPTIONS

Mike Clevinger: $12M ($4 million buyout) (I think he’ll take the buyout)

I wasn’t a fan of Clevinger, and I’m not a fan now. Yes, he was the best pitcher on this team in 2023, that says more about the state of the Sox starting staff than it does about Clevinger. His numbers were good (3.77 ERA, 9 wins, 3.3 WAR, 118 ERA+) and maybe he can get a multi-year deal with a contender to be a fifth starter, which is what he was supposed to be when he signed with the Sox.

OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS

Yasmani Grandal (Made $18.25M in 2023) (let him walk, I think the Sox let him walk)
Elvis Andrus ($3M) (let him walk, I think the Sox let him walk)
Bryan Shaw ($720,000) (resign him, I think the Sox let him walk)
Jose Urena ($720,000) (let him walk, I think the Sox let him walk)

Grandal will forever be the face of the failed rebuild, a $72 million contract for an OPS+ of 99 and a cumulative WAR of 2.5 over four years. Nothing says “White Sox” more than that. Andrus and Urena were just “the best of the bad options” that were available when they signed. Shaw is a different matter entirely. He was a horse coming out of the bullpen in 2023 and while his ERA was a tad high (4.14) he finished 17 games (including four saves) and struck out 40 and walked 17 in 45.2 innings. This is the same guy who lead the league pitching in 81 games in 2021 with the Guardians. I’d absolutely bring him back, with a nice raise, say $900,000. He earned it.

FREE AGENTS

No. 1: Gary Sanchez, Catcher (two years, $16 million). This guy can do everything Grandal was supposed to do, but, you know, actually DO IT. He’s only 30 but he’s a veteran of nine years. Last season he hit 19 home runs (compared to eight for Grandal) to go along with a 2.4 WAR. All that while making $1.5 million. This team needs a catcher who has some success doing the job and he’s done it. I don’t care about the .217 batting average, 136 strikeouts. He’s still a major net-positive over what’s on the roster right now. In two years, the Sox can call up Edgar Quero and Sanchez can move on.

No. 2: Lucas Giolito and Jack Flaherty, Pitchers (each at one year, $15 million with an option for 2025). Buying on the cheap, two guys who need to rebuild their value after having lackluster 2023 seasons, reuniting with Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz (as most people know, he was their pitching coach at Harvard-Westlake High School) and that not only fills out two-fifths of the rotation for 2024 but also gives two good trade chips at the 2024 trade deadline. There’s nothing to not like about this option, considering the Sox needs in the rotation and the young pitchers they acquired at the 2023 deadline are nowhere close to ready to compete for a rotation spot.

No. 3: Whit Merrifield, 2B/RF(two years, $15 million). Clearly on the downside of his career but Merrifield hit .272 last season and stole 26 bases for the Blue Jays. He’s already being mentioned as a free agent target by the Sox and would fill a need at either second base or right field. Reuniting with Chris Getz and Pedro Grifol should also make for a nice landing for Merrifield. While he’s certainly not great (0.8 WAR in 2023) he’s better than any of the options currently on the roster at either position he plays. I see him more as a second baseman while the Sox wait to see if Oscar Colas can figure out how to play baseball because he’s not going anywhere soon. Merrifield can also bring some badly-needed leadership to this team of fools. It’s an upgrade from nothing.

Even though Chris Getz is in charge and not Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, I have a feeling it’s going to be business as usual for the front office. Under the radar signings and hopes for bounce backs, I can see them signing players like Royals pitchers Brad Keller and Zack Greinke, a second baseman like Michael Chavis or Tony Kemp (of the Nationals and A’s, respectively; Kemp can also play the outfield), and a right fielder like Wil Myers (who hit .189 in 37 games for the Reds last season) and hoping they’ll bounce back to what they did five or six years ago. That rarely ever works. But it’s cheap!

TRADES

This is the hardest thing to try to forecast, because no one knows who is available or who could be traded for whom.

No. 1: Trade Eloy Jimenez to the Milwaukee Brewers for 3B/1B Luke Adams. Yes, Adams is not the Brewers’ top prospect (he ranks in the 20’s) but Sox fans always seem to massively overvalue the players and prospects in this organization. Jimenez is nothing special. He had one good fluke season in 2019 and it’s been all downhill since then. This will also free up about $13 million in payroll. Adams isn’t a great hitter (.245 in 371 MiLB at-bats) but he stole 30 bases in 2023 at Class A and had an OPS of .801. He can play first base or third base as well. Eloy would be the first guy out the door if I was trying to fix this mess (I guess I lied, Moncada would be the first guy out the door but there is no way anyone is going to take on that $24 million salary he’ll earn next season). Jimenez is an overrated bum who just doesn’t fit here anymore.

No. 2: Trade Tim Anderson to the Atlanta Braves for P Seth Keller and OF Isaiah Drake. The White Sox make this move after exercising TA’s $14M option for 2024. Some Sox fans may think TA has to be worth at least Ronald Acuna or Spencer Strider (I can literally see Southside Showdown suggesting a trade like that) but the fact is TA was one of the worst hitters and defensive players in the Major Leagues in 2023. That batting title was a long time ago, and so was the 20/20 season. TA had a -2.0 WAR and an OPS+ of 60 in 2023. So I’m looking at a couple of middling prospects with the Braves. Keller is intriguing as he’s known more for his off-speed pitches than his fastball and Drake is a known speedster with a good glove whose bat may take some time to develop. But I think that potential is worth one season of TA and the Braves could get the best of TA (a .300 average, 20+ home runs and stolen bases) when he’s on a team where he’s not expected to lead or be the face of the franchise. And if he can turn the clock back to 2019, he’d be an upgrade over current Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia..

As for what I think the Sox will do in the trade market, I think it will look a lot like previous years where they don’t have the guts to make any moves. They still talk about all the talent on this team, yet I don’t see it. I see a team with a cumulative 83 OPS+. I see a team that had only three offensive players with a WAR over 1.0 (and one of them, Jake Burger, is gone). I see a team that can’t run or hit, or steal bases and is rebuilding the pitching staff. But for whatever reason, people inside the organization think this team is just loaded with talent. The problem is that talent is all on paper.

SUMMARY

This would be my every day lineup: Sanchez (catcher), Vaughn/Gavin Sheets (1B), Merrifield/Lenyn Sosa/Jose Rodriguez (2B), Sosa/Rodriguez (SS), Moncada (3B), Andrew Benintendi (LF), Luis Robert (CF), Colas/Sheets/Merrifield (RF) and Sheets/Vaughn (DH). Zach Remillard would be my top utility player.

The pitching rotation: Cease, Giolito, Flaherty, Toussaint and Kopech.

The bullpen: Gregory Santos (closer), Bryan Shaw, Garrett Crochet, Aaron Bummer, Declan Cronin, Lane Ramsey, Matt Foster and Tanner Banks. I would also keep Kopech as a fifth starter/long reliever and hope he finally learns how to pitch.

I think the White Sox will sign four or five pitchers who no one has ever heard of to minor league deals, they’ll invite all the pitchers they acquired at the trade deadline to Spring Training and just hope they somehow manage to turn into MLB pitchers overnight and talk about all the talent that’s on this team.

So, here is what I see the Sox running out there every day:

Everyday lineup: Korey Lee (catcher), Vaughn (1B), Romy Gonzalez (2B), Anderson (SS), Moncada (3B), Benintendi (LF), Robert (CF), Sheets/Colas (RF) and Jimenez (DH). I do think there’s a chance the Sox will attempt to trade for Salvador Perez, but I think the Royals will overvalue him much like the Sox will overvalue TA in trade talks and nothing will come of it. I also would not be at all surprised if, when he gets absolutely no offers, Yasmani Grandal signs a minor league deal with the Sox and gets an invitation to Spring Training. The fact that they refused to designate him for assignment at any point during the season says they value him more than that big contract he signed in 2019 was worth.

The pitching rotation: Cease, Kopech, Toussaint, Jake Eder, Nick Nastrini.

The bullpen: Gregory Santos (closer), Garrett Crochet, Aaron Bummer, Declan Cronin, Lane Ramsey, Tanner Banks, Deivi Garcia and a dumpster dive free agent or two.

I can see my version of the 2024 White Sox finishing 80-82 if Giolito and Flaherty bounce back and Kopech learns how to pitch. They might even be within eight or 10 games of first place at some point in August. Sanchez and Merrifield could provide some badly needed leadership. I think Cease can bounce back from a lackluster season and maybe Colas will improve.

I see the real 2024 White Sox finishing 62-100, spending the season wondering why all this talent hasn’t evolved yet. Moncada will hit .220 and be hurt most of the year, Vaughn will be the same pedestrian hitter he’s been his entire career (if he hasn’t figured it out after almost 1,500 at bats I don’t know when he will). The pitching will struggle because they felt the need to rush youngsters who weren’t ready to fill out the rotation if they don’t sign the Royals castoffs, if they do the record may be worse.

Things may eventually start to look up once Moncada and the other massive drains on payroll are gone and the Sox could potentially do a legitimate reload in 2025 with all that available cash. I don’t want to pass judgment on the new front office yet, but the one thing that remains the same is Jerry Reinsdorf is the owner and I’m expecting a cut back on the payroll this year, which went from $196M in 2022 to $180M in 2023 and I’m imagining a $150M payroll in 2024. I’m not saying it’s impossible to win with a payroll like that; payroll doesn’t mean anything. The Sox lost over 100 games in 2023 with a massive payroll. There needs to be talent and this team doesn’t have much of that. So, we’ll see where things go from here..

Thank you for taking the time to read. Peace.

How I Plan To Spend The 2023-24 Chicago White Sox Offseason

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Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been a long and difficult journey to get to this point, and I’ve taken many side trips along the way. Back in May, I started thinking about what I would do after the baseball season ended, knowing the White Sox had no chance of making the playoffs. I took a number of options into consideration, even starting a few and then bailing out.

So, now I have decided the route I want to take.

I considered following college sports again, specifically UCLA or WVU. I was willing to completely walk away from the White Sox for a couple years while they got their ducks in a row. I figured the break would do me good and I could start attending WVU games again if I started following the Mountaineers. But I did a double take after reading about the hazing situation at Northwestern University, that has also been taking place at a number of high schools throughout the United States. I’m not sure what sodomizing teammates has to do with football, and I have a hard time believing there are that many faggots playing football just for the opportunity to fuck their teammates in the ass, but whatever the reason, I completely lost any interest in anything to do with the sport of football.

Yes, I’m throwing the baby out with the bathwater by lumping all of the football programs together, but I found I couldn’t watch a football game without feeling sick to my stomach. This is not an anti-gay statement, this is me being disgusted at football players, who present themselves as “manly,” literally sexually assaulting their teammates. When did football players go from assaulting their wives/girlfriends (which isn’t any better and I’m not saying that’s what they should be doing) to sticking their dicks, broomsticks and other items up each other’s asses? What kind of moron thought that was a good idea?

Regardless of how it started, the fact is it happened and it’s beyond pathetic.

Next, I really considered going all in with the Chicago Blackhawks and I started a full-on transition. I have nearly as much Blackhawks memorabilia as I do White Sox, and I was ready to start replacing my Sox decor with Blackhawks. But then I took a look at the big picture and I decided I wanted to take one final run at my White Sox franchise on MLB The Show. And that brought me to what I’m going to do this offseason.

Today I downloaded the most recent rosters on MLB The Show 23. I’m going to update them over the course of the winter to be ready for the first Spring Training game. I’m going to listen to the White Sox podcasts every week and watch a couple or three episodes of Chicago Fire/PD/Med and watching my science shows and lectures on YouTube. I still plan to catch a Blackhawks game when its on a channel I can get (I don’t get NHL Network since I traded Dish Network for YouTube TV).

Last year, I was halfway through my roster updates when they magically disappeared, even though I had them saved on my PS5 and in the cloud. Both, gone. This year, I’m saving the rosters on the PS5, the cloud and a USB Drive in hopes of that not happening again.

Some have asked why I don’t just wait for MLB The Show 24 to come out and just go from there, but (1) the game won’t release until Spring Training is almost over and (2) if The Show doesn’t feature year-to-year saves, I’m not going to buy the new edition. I’ve done that for years and haven’t gotten my rosters updated correctly since 2021. I see no reason to continue buying a game that I’m not going to play. So, if this works, I’ll either play MLB The Show 23 next season or, if next year’s edition features year-to-year saves, I will update and move my rosters and Spring Training files to MLB The Show 24.

Either way, this is the final year I’ll be updating the rosters. If it all works out, I won’t need to do a full update next season. If it doesn’t, next offseason will be completely focused on the Blackhawks. I can’t really see a situation at this point where I would ever be able to go back and watch college or NFL football, at this point I’m too disgusted with the whole thing, but I’m not going to make any definitive statements, because every time I do make a definitive statement about something, I end up having to walk it back.

So, I’ll be spending the next four months as White Sox GM on MLB The Show 23 and updating all 30 team rosters and adding free agents as they are signed and making trades as they are made in real time. I’ll post the rosters to the vault when they are finished, in mid-February.

And if anything happens this year to ruin my work, I’ll consider that a clear sign that I need to stop, and I will just walk away from it. But one way or the other, this is the last time I’ll be undertaking this project. I’ve enjoyed it over the past several years but it has to come to an end at some point. This year is the point at which it ends.

Thank you for taking the time to read. Peace.

I Tried, And I Failed: Walking Away From The Chicago White Sox

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Several days ago, my frustration with the Chicago White Sox lead me to a decision I had been contemplating for several years, walking away from the Sox and rekindling my love of college football and basketball.

In 2004, I stopped watching everything other than baseball. I gave up on college football, basketball and baseball and the NFL, NBA, NHL, PGA and NASCAR. MLB and MiLB because my entire life and I didn’t care about anything else. A few times I considered getting back into college sports, but I just couldn’t do it.

So I was ready to finally take the plunge now. I was ready to close my social media accounts and give myself a crash course in football, both college and the NFL. I started watching my old college football DVDs (Rites of Autumn, ESPN Honor Roll) as well as a number of NFL Films on YouTube. I also watched ESPN College GameDay today, the first time since probably 2012, the last time I tried to force myself back into college sports.

The fact of the matter is, I can’t do this. I sold my soul to the White Sox in 2004. As annoyed as I am with the organization, at least I can watch it without wanting to jump out a window. I remember back in the day when ESPN College GameDay was a studio show, and it was nothing like it is now. The last time I saw anything as obnoxious as that was political arguing on Fox News, with everyone talking over each other. How is that entertaining?

In 2005 I wrote a blog on Yahoo about losing interest in the “thug sports,” and quoted a list of arrests in college football and basketball, the NFL and the NBA that had been announced over the previous week. I have done the same on Facebook a couple of times over the past 15 years. MLB or MiLB arrests? Few and far between.

Thug sports are just not for me. It’s taken me a long time to finally accept the fact that there’s no going back to my youth and the sports that I watched back then. But today, I’ve finally come to that conclusion. The White Sox are my life. Nothing is going to change that. They could have hired Kenny Williams Jr. as the new general manager and it wouldn’t have soured me on the White Sox as much as existing has soured me on other sports.

I’m certainly not ripping on anyone who still enjoys the NFL, the NBA and NCAA sports. I love the fact that there are so many options for people to find enjoyment watching. But my life is baseball. Period.

Therefore, I will be sticking to the status quo. I’ll remain on Facebook, X, Instagram and Threads posting White Sox news and scores. And I’ll never be stupid enough again to think anything is going to change. I’m 46 years old, my college sports and NFL fandom ended when I was 27 years old. That’s a long time ago.

And to those reading this from a social media link, if you don’t agree with or like this decision, I ask that you please remove yourself from my friends list or followers. There’s nothing for you here.

I have tried to convince myself that I could follow West Virginia University sports and go back to my roots, listening to my local radio pregame and enjoy myself, as well as attending games again. While that may be possible, I’m not sure I even want to try to find out. I’m in my zone with the White Sox and given how attempting to follow college sports on a national platform has gone, I don’t think following the Mountaineers again would work out any better.

So, that’s how it is. I look forward to continuing to follow the White Sox through the end of the season, the off-season and spring training, as well as the 2024 season and all future seasons as long as I’m alive to see them.

Thank you for taking the time to read. Peace.

The End Of The Road: 33 Years As A Chicago White Sox Fan

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This is a time that I never imagined coming, while at the same time not being at all surprised that it’s here.

Today is the day I’m walking away from the Chicago White Sox as a fan, and walking away from social media.

To say the White Sox have been my entire life for the past 19 years would not be even a small exaggeration. In and around 2004 I stopped watching the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, NHL and all college sports and focused exclusively on baseball and specifically, the White Sox. I gave up watching UCLA, West Virginia University, the Cleveland Browns, the Chicago Bulls and the Pittsburgh Penguins. I even stopped watching PGA Tour events at that time. I was strictly a White Sox guy.

I was rewarded for that the following year when the White Sox won the World Series for the first time since 1917.

Since then, not so much. Constant losing with the organization consistently being the laughingstock of professional sports. But things have gotten so much worse since the 2016 offseason. And I think I knew it was coming.

In late 2016 the White Sox began a rebuilding process that was going to make the team contenders from 2020 through at least 2025 with a consistency of contending yearly being the goal, according to general manager Rick Hahn at the time.

So, three losing seasons in a row (completely non-competitive, as compared to the slightly-more competitive years that proceeded the rebuild which generally lead to third or fourth-place finishes) lead to what was going to be the “contention window.” That “window” lasted two years, as the White Sox earned a Wild Card birth (2020) and a division title (2021).

The wheels started falling off LONG before that, however.

The first piece to fall off was the failed attempt at signing free agent shortstop Manny Machado in late 2018 and early 2019. It was deemed “too early” by the inept front office and they went on to sign aging catcher Yasmani Grandal the following offseason, who promptly fell flat on his ass, to a $73 million contract, a record at the time. Also signing was pitcher Dallas Keuchel, who was solid during the COVID shortened 2020 season and so bad after that he was designated for assignment.

Prior to the 2021 season the White Sox made a managerial move. After firing Rick Renteria, we all waited for the announcement that the White Sox were going to hire A.J. Hinch, the World Series winning manager who was available after being fired by the Houston Astros due to their sign-stealing scandal. But, alas, the White Sox managed to screw that up and instead hired retirement-home refugee Tony La Russa, who hadn’t managed in a decade and was completely out of touch.

So, everyone laughed at the White Sox. They managed to win 93 games and the AL Central title in 2021, La Russa’s first season back, they proceeded to go .500 (81-81) in his second season and he was relived of his duties for health reasons before the season ended. The front office told us that was just a blip on the radar and we’d be contending again in 2023.

Major changes were expected, and most of the staff was replaced by lifelong loser Pedro Grifol from the Kansas City Royals organization, a franchise with the worst winning percentage in baseball overall since the year 2000. The bottom then fell out of everything and the team (28 games under .500 as this is written) has not chance to contend now or in the next couple of years, despite playing in the worst division in baseball. And the front office that built this turd sandwich has been fired. With the rumor being that another “yes man,” minor league director Chris Getz, will be taking over as GM.

Nothing ever changes and being a White Sox fan has taken on a feeling of embarrassment and humiliation among the fan base, of which I strongly consider myself a member. But that is fading quickly and if Getz is, in fact, announced as the GM in the near future, I’ve made a decision that will drastically alter my life going forward and how I plan to spend my time.

The day that Getz is announced as GM, I will begin by closing my social media accounts, which are used for nothing but posting White Sox news and memes. I’ll be boxing up all of my White Sox memorabilia and may consider selling it. I’ll then move on to something else, most probably following college sports again, either with WVU or UCLA. That decision will come later, it’s not pressing at the moment. Thinking about it makes me happier than what I face as a White Sox fan.

I have enjoyed the past 33 years at times. I used to pitch outside in a White Sox jersey I made out of a plain black and white Nike jersey and a Sharpie and my Sox hat when I was in my early teens. Playing Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball on the PlayStation. The 2005 World Series and 2008 Blackout game. I took in two games at Sox Park in 2001, which will always be a lifetime highlight. But at this point, I just can’t justify continuing to follow an organization that keeps me awake at night. My dad and my girlfriend have both said I take it too seriously, and I’m definitely not going to argue that point.

Once I’ve closed my social media accounts and removed all the White Sox memorabilia and things from my sight, I’ll replace them, probably not all with sports but with other things I enjoy because I don’t ever want to get so deep into a sports team again that I’m losing sleep and not being able to eat with anxiety. It would be nice to watch college sports again, football once a week and basketball a couple of times a week and, if I start following WVU, actually attending games again.

One of my biggest issues with the White Sox over the past couple of years is just how unlikable this team is. Not just the front office goons who are finally gone, but the players. After Jose Abreu left, I realized there isn’t a single player on this team that I like, and that’s never happened before. The closest I can come to with this group is Andrew Benentendi. I’m not a big fan of his but the rest of these guys are just insufferable, lazy slobs. There’s nothing here to like. No reason to follow.

So, now I’m playing the waiting game. I’m continuing to watch this dumpster fire until a decision is made. I try to just forget it, because in the grand scheme of things it really doesn’t matter at all, but this has been my life for so long it’s hard to just walk away, it’s literally a thousand times worse than any break up I’ve ever been through. But I know there’s something better on the other side, whether it be a competent general manager, or, if it’s Chris Getz, a whole new world of college sports opening up to me. So I’ll be fine either way. I just hope a decision is made at some point in the near future.

Thank you for reading. Peace.

THE 2023 CHICAGO WHITE SOX: AT THE TRADE DEADLINE

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I think at this point, it’s safe to say the Chicago White Sox 2017-19 rebuild has not exactly gone to plan. Rick Hahn has gone from the guy other teams wanted to hire in 2012, when he was the assistant general manager to Kenny Williams, to a guy who will likely never work in baseball again once his employment ends with the White Sox, which is a point in time that is unknown to anyone except Rick, I assume.

I was a fan of the concept of the rebuild, trade the mental midget Chris Sale, average left-handed starter Jose Quintana and borderline retard Adam Eaton in exchange for a haul of minor league talent, supplement that with some established superstars and draft well. I guess the organization accomplished one out of three.

Or maybe not.

The return for Sale, Quintana and Eaton has been OK at times (Eloy Jimenez hitting 31 home runs in 2019, Dylan Cease winning 14 games in 2022, Yoan Moncada hitting .315 in 2019) and not OK at other times (Jimenez and Moncada never playing 150 games in a season due to an endless string of injuries, Michael Kopech and Reynaldo Lopez never finding any consistency). Taken on a player-by-player, season-by-season perspective, each player (including this year’s breakout star, Luis Robert, Jr.) no one from this group of late 2010s prospects has had more than one outstanding season.

So the trades didn’t work out as expected. How about the established superstar free agent signings?

Manny Machado made the White Sox the laughingstock of Major League Baseball, helped along by Kenny Williams announcing that Machado could have made $350 million with the Sox but that they could not afford to pay him $300 million. The team didn’t even bother to try to sign Bryce Harper, which would have instantly fixed two nagging problems the team has had for years: Someone to play right field and left-handed power. The “Machado Money” was then blown on contract extensions for Moncada, Jimenez and Robert, along with blowing a wad on lackluster free agents Yasmani Grandal and Dallas Keuchel. No true superstar was ever signed, despite it being a pretty well-known fact that Harper wanted to play for the Sox.

OK, the free agent signings didn’t work out as expected. How about the draft picks?

There are few organizations worse at drafting all time than the White Sox. Other than the freak late 1980s and the early 1990s (when four straight first round picks became stars; Jack McDowell, Robin Ventura, Frank Thomas and Alex Fernandez) this team has drafted what amounts to horse manure basically every other season since the draft was first instituted in 1965, getting an occasional gem (Harold Baines in 1977, Tim Anderson in 2013) but usually settling for less-than-good. That was especially true heading into the rebuild.

Starting in 2015, the White Sox first round draft picks have included Carson Fulmer (2015, no longer with the club), Zack Collins and Zack Burdi (2016, no longer with the club), Jake Burger (2017, holding down third base until Moncada’s contract is back from an injury rehab stint at AAA), Nick Madrigal (2018, no longer with the club), Andrew Vaughn (2019, the next “breakout star” of 2023 who’s hitting around .240 and currently injured but not on the IL for some reason I’ve not figured out) and Garrett Crochet (2020, injured after having Tommy John Surgery in 2022). Seven top draft picks and one is contributing at this moment.

(Some fan boy is going to read this and have an aneurysm because Vaughn is on pace for 85 RBI, but he’s also carrying a 102 OPS+ (which means he’s literally replacement level) and a 0.4 WAR).

Well, the draft hasn’t worked out, either. Which means this entire rebuild has been a complete exercise in futility. And to be honest, this is EVERYONE’S fault who is involved from the ownership to the front office to the players to the trainers. And if I could blame Jason Benetti, believe me, I would.

How Ownership Is At Fault

While I applaud Jerry Reinsdorf for spending nearly $200 million on the payroll in 2022 and over $180 million in payroll in 2023, his decision not to sign a top of the line superstar like Machado or Harper means the Sox rebuild was never completely finished, as Rick Hahn told the press that signing a player like that (not Dallas Keuchel or Yasmani Grandal or Andrew Benintendi) was part of the rebuild as a whole. There’s no superstar on this team. Some fan boy will take exception and say “wHaT aBoUt LuIs RoBeRt Jr?” to which I’ll say “let me see him play 150 games this year and 150 games next year and then we’ll talk. I’ve already been fooled by one-year flashes in the pan by Moncada and Jimenez and Cease. I’m not getting fooled again. Now, the rumor making the rounds is once Lucas Giolito and Yaz and the rest of the expiring contracts are off the books, payroll will be making a similar drop, so reinforcements are definitely NOT on the way.

Also, Jerry is directly at fault for the hiring of Tony La Russa as manager in 2020, which was a ridiculous move that everyone except Jerry knew was going to be a disaster of epic proportions.

How The Front Office Is At Fault

Rick Hahn has been the general manager of the White Sox since October 2012, and has exactly two winning seasons to show for his “work.” While I give Reinsdorf credit for opening his wallet, I have to give Hahn his due as well, he doesn’t know how to spend money. Just in the rebuild era, Hahn has blown $70+ million on an old catcher, a left fielder who has no power to speak of and an extension for a third baseman who, in almost 700 career games, has an OPS+ of 105. Over $40 million spent on Eloy Jimenez (who can hit but can’t stay on the field, the only time he played 100+ games in a season was his rookie year of 2019). Over $50 million spent on Dallas Keuchel (who compiled a 17-16 record with a 4.79 ERA and a 91 ERA+ in 3 years with the Sox before being designated for assignment in 2022).

And while Rick Hahn certainly didn’t want Tony La Russa as the manager, Hahn’s selection has turned out to be even worse.

Pedro Grifol had spent years on the Kansas City Royals staff, but when the Royals wanted to hire a new manager, they went outside the organization. That would have told most people that there was a problem, but not Rick Hahn. Grifol has been completely over-matched and under-prepared, and looks like a complete buffoon when talking to the media, as after a recent sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Twins, Grifol doubled down on multiple questionable decisions and basically announced that he knows what he’s doing and the press is basically being insubordinate if they question his decisions.

You’re 41-60, Pedro. You clearly don’t have the answers about anything.

How The Players Are At Fault

I’ve been watching baseball for well over 30 years and this is the most unlikable team I’ve ever seen. I know a lot of people disliked the Yankees of the late 1990s and early 2000s, but they weren’t an unlikable team, that was mostly professional jealousy over a team that was dominating. The 2022-23 White Sox have been a team that is just full of players I generally dislike. Lazy, unprepared, constantly injured, performing poorly, all while making a LOT of money. The money part is the fault of the front office for handing out contracts to guys who would now be making half or a third (or in Moncada’s case, probably 1/5) of their current salaries.

There’s nothing “fun” about this team. It’s torturous to watch. It’s worse than the mid-1990s Pittsburgh Pirates teams that I used to watch. With them, at least there was something fun to see. Maybe that’s because they were expected to lose and played loose. Something this team should do next year since they’re not going anywhere and have nothing to lose. I certainly hope they will.

Rumors are flying that the Sox are “open for business” at the trade deadline. I see people on different comment sections as well as Facebook and Twitter who can’t wait to see the White Sox pull off six or seven trades. I’m absolutely convinced that’s not going to happen. That would mean a full rebuild. Again. Just based on the players who will be leaving as free agents after the season, Giolito is a definite goner, Lance Lynn and Mike Clevinger have team options that will absolutely be declined, several relievers are free agents, Yaz and Elvis Andrus are free agents as well. Tim Anderson has one team option remaining on his deal.

If the Sox were to trade everyone I’ve heard mentioned as a trade candidate, they would be unable to field a Major League team. And with Reinsdorf expected to cut the payroll, they can’t fill those holes with free agents this offseason. So from what I’ve seen, I would expect Giolito to be traded, maybe Lance Lynn and then this offseason the White Sox can find a pitcher like Brad Keller of the Royals who is down on his luck and may be willing to take a deal looking for a bounce back (not that Keller has ever been that good that he has anything to bounce back to, I’m just saying). In other words, I think the White Sox are going to run this same group back out again in 2024 minus a couple of starters and relievers and Yaz and try to “compete” with this core they bought and are stuck with. Because, honestly, I don’t know what else they CAN do.

I’ve never seen a team that was as hamstrung as this organization is right now.

There’s very little Major League talent to move that would bring a good return. So a rebuild like began in 2016 is out of the question. They’re stuck with guys like Moncada until after next season and Jimenez until 2026. I think Luis Robert will have the same regression every other prospect has had in 2024. You can’t draft your way out of this situation. If the Royals weren’t in the opening stages of a rebuild themselves the Sox would be in last place right now; in fact, they’re as close to the Royals as they are the Twins at this point (13 games ahead of the last-place Royals and 12 games behind the first place Twins).

It’s a sad state of affairs and I’m looking forward to seeing how Hahn and the rest of this clown show handles the situation at the trade deadline. We have eight days to wait…

Thank you for reading. Peace.

The Ultimate NCAA Sports Video Game Project

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It’s difficult to even know where to begin with this blog entry. Even though it’s many years in the making, it’s still difficult to put everything into words and try to lay the groundwork for an explanation. So this may seem long-winded and rambling but it’s the most important blog post I’ve ever written.

In late June I’m going to be walking away from social media and the Chicago White Sox. Yes, I know, I’ve said it before and did not follow through. This was a timing issue more than an issue of desire. I’ve been planning this out carefully, down to the last detail. And while I’ve been considering this move since at least 2011, the actual want to do this stretches back much further than that… 2001… 1997… As far as 1993.

I’ll begin with exactly what my plan is and why I want to do it. The plan part is easy, I want to play an entire college “dynasty,” or career, in the video game world. I want to play four seasons of college football, basketball and baseball. You may wonder what that has to do with the White Sox or social media, and I’ll get to that as I go on. The why, I can’t answer for sure. It may be a midlife crisis, it may be a longing for happier days, of which I’ve had many, back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It may be a lot of things combined.

As a lot of you know, EA Sports stopped making college sports games in the 2010s (and at least one college franchise in the 2000s) due to the athletes not receiving any kind of royalties due to their likenesses being used in the games. The last college football game hit the shelves in 2014, the last college basketball game in 2010 (both on the PlayStation 3) and the last college baseball game (of which there were only two) in 2007 (on the PlayStation 2). So it is here that I made my decision to play the entire Dynasty on the 2007 games for the PlayStation 2. NCAA Football 07, NCAA March Madness 07 and MVP NCAA Baseball 07.

Yes, they’re severely outdated (like 16 years outdated), but that means less than one might imagine since updated rosters are available not only for download but on memory cards that can be purchased from eBay or other online stores. So while the graphics will be extremely dated, the experience won’t be.

Now, I want to take a step back in time and explain how I got to this point.

I have a long experience as a sports video gamer. One of the absolute highlights of this came back in 1993, when my friend Calvin and I spent a weekend playing Baseball Stars on the NES.

Baseball Stars was the first video game to include a fully programmable option, you could create your own teams and your own leagues, even with the ability to make players male or female. This was unheard of at the time, and that game was, and still is, one of my all time favorites. Calvin and I had what might be considered a fantasy draft, selecting players for our teams, as well as one minor league team each. We then created ourselves and our entire teams and proceeded to play an entire season.

The idea of “creating” yourself in a game stuck with me. My next favorite sports game (chronologically) was Tecmo Super Bowl. This was the first sports game to feature not only real teams but real players, but the “creation” option hadn’t reached it’s point in time yet. At this point, my senior year in high school, my friend Joe Nunez and I played a complete season, just “pretending” we were the players in the game, as Joe played as the Cleveland Browns and I played as the New Orleans Saints. But I wanted to “be” me.

In the summer of 1995, I bought a copy of an old NES game called John Elway’s Quarterback. This game had neither real players or real teams, just a bunch of bland players and city names instead of teams. It’s at this point I began the “dynasty” concept; I would play four “seasons” of football on John Elway’s Quarterback and then I would start playing Tecmo Super Bowl as an NFL draftee.

John Elway’s Quarterback doesn’t have any kind of stat saving ability, so while I played I kept a spiral notebook in my hand, and every time I completed a pass or ran for positive yardage, I would write that number down in parenthesis in my notebook, and if I threw an incomplete pass, I’d mark that with an “x.” Then I could figure out my completion percentage and total yards, as well as my touchdowns and interceptions. I used the “Los Angeles” team on the game as the UCLA Bruins, and when I finished, I was “drafted” by the Cleveland Browns. I proceeded to play seven seasons with the Browns on Tecmo Super Bowl, winning three Super Bowls before I quit. For whatever reason, I didn’t keep all of my stats like I wanted to.

The next time I decided to do a Dynasty was 1997, and it was much more advanced and involved than the 1995 version. This time, I was using the Super Nintendo and was playing both football and basketball at UCLA, using College Football USA 97 and NCAA Final Four Basketball and when I finished, I created myself on Madden 97. This was leaps and bounds ahead of what I had done before, with College Football USA 97 keeping all of the important stats I needed and, while NCAA Final Four Basketball didn’t really have a season option, I made the best of it and played what amounted to four full seasons. When this was finished, I was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Madden 97 but I never got around to actually playing for them.

This was not my least successful run, but it was definitely not my best. While College Football USA 97 was a million miles ahead of keeping my own stats with a “fake” team, there was still no option to create myself (however, on the Sega Genesis version of College Football USA 97, player creation IS an option) and the game play was so unbelievably slow, there was no real enjoyment to be had playing the game. But the fact that I was able to play football AND basketball was a revelation and really did change everything.

Fast forward to 2001. I had upgraded to a Sony PlayStation and the first thing I did was purchase NCAA GameBreaker 2000 and NCAA Final Four 2000, as well as NFL GameDay 2000. These games were all produced by Sony’s 989 Studios, and what a major improvement compared to my previous dynasty. I could play a full career at UCLA in both football and basketball with real stats, schedules, etc.

I enjoyed this immensely, and allowed myself to be drafted on NFL GameDay 2000 and ended up with the Carolina Panthers as a second round pick. I decided to run with it. A couple of games into my second season with the Panthers, it said my character had suffered a knee injury and I ended up being out the rest of the season. This was doubly bad when, at the end of the year, I was on the Panthers’ list of retired players. This bothered me more than it should have, and it would be nine years before I decided to try again.

I went on to pick up MLB 2000, and by 2004 I was completely off on college (and pro) football and basketball, and subsequently bought MLB 2004 and MLB 2005. Once the MLB The Show series started, I bought every game every year, including 2023. As I mentioned, during this time, EA Sports stopped producing college sports games, and at some point in the early 2010s I did buy NCAA Football 10 and NCAA Basketball 10 and eventually bought NCAA Football 13 and NCAA Football 14. They were never used and, in fact, NCAA Football 14 has never been out of the case. I just didn’t feel anything anymore for college sports, I was all in on baseball.

The problem with that is I have burned myself out beyond the ability to even function anymore. My life has been all baseball, all day, 365 days a year since 2004. I got on social media in 2005 (MySpace) and it’s been posting stories and lineups and transactions every day for 18 years. And I am ready for a change.

And I’m ready to take a step back in time to happier days and even though I know the experience won’t be the same, I still want to take the time and do this one more time, a little better than the last time I did it, because now it’s time to play college football, basketball and baseball. The complete experience.


I have procured brand new, unopened copies of NCAA Football 07, NCAA March Madness 07 and MVP NCAA Baseball 07 as well as updated rosters for each. I’m going to create myself and play all the way through, all three sports, until I “graduate.” After that, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I may “get drafted” on Madden 07 or I may buy the newest Madden (whenever that may be) for the PS5 or I may break down and play Road To The Show for the first time on MLB The Show. I’m not worried about it right now. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Right now, my focus is on unfocusing on the White Sox.

I’ve not yet decided if I’m going to do this dynasty with the WVU Mountaineers or the UCLA Bruins but at the moment it’s definitely 90% UCLA. That decision will come within the next month. The other decision I’m battling with is what to do with social media. I know the vast majority of people who are friends or followers on social media are there for my White Sox posts, so my plan at the moment is to just create new social media accounts strictly for college sports. I’ll keep my other accounts in case this idea falls flat or something happens to hasten my return to the way things are now. I’m hopeful that doesn’t happen and I hope my friends who enjoy college sports will follow me to my new platforms. That decision will also be made in the next month.

So, in closing, as I stand right now, I’m fully planning on making this project a reality. And while I’ll be using PS2 games, I have a backward compatible PS3 that does upgrade the graphics slightly. Once I’ve made the decision, I’ll be boxing up all of my White Sox memorabilia and putting it in storage. I figure this project should take roundabout two years to finish completely, at which a White Sox return is certainly possible.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

CAN 2023 BE THE YEAR I WAS HOPING 2020 WAS GOING TO BE?

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This is going to be one of my shorter blog entries, because I don’t want to spend a lot of time dwelling on 2022 (or 2021 or 2020 or any of the past 18 years) or over-hyping what may be another year in a long line of really bad years.

If you roll back in my blog to December 2019 you’ll see how much I looked forward to the 2020s beginning and the miserable 2010s finally coming to an end. Not much in my life has gone well or been pleasant since around 2004, and I know most of this is due to the fact that I got home internet service in 2005, and life has gone downhill ever since.

While the first six weeks of 2020 were amazing, the second week of February brought about a lot of things I don’t like to even think about (COVID, people I had discarded returning to my life) and 2021 and 2022 would prove to be even worse.

I’m not saying they were 2010s worse, because I really don’t know how life could have been any worse than it was during the 2010s. I wouldn’t wish that decade on my worst enemy, and I’m hopeful things will never be that bad again.

The main difference between standing in 2019 and looking toward 2020 and standing in 2022 and looking into 2023 is at least I had a plan for 2020. It may have crashed spectacularly in a mere month and a half, but I still had a plan in place.

I have no plan for 2023. I have some contingencies in place, in case whatever I do decide to do doesn’t work out. For example, my baseball burnout is so extreme I’ve been trying to decide what to do when it finally engulfs me. I am 99% sure at that point I’ll begin following either UCLA or West Virginia University sports.

As everyone knows, I love my White Sox and I’m trying as hard as I can to focus myself on it but things that have happened this offseason have hampered that, not the least of which was my loss of my MLB The Show 22 roster files I had been working on for seven weeks. I have since restarted my work using my previous year’s files from MLB The Show 21, which I preferred far more than the 2022 version anyway.

I want to do all the things I wanted to do in 2020. And 2021 and 2022. And while I did a few of them (specifically my two trips to Chicago in 2021 to see the White Sox in person) I have yet to “turn the corner” with my life. All I’ve done is waste it. And feeling the way I do (lack of sleep, lack of eating right, lack of exercise, etc) has done nothing but cause me more issues than I had before. Things have got to change.

And while I know there’s nothing special about another trip around the sun I do still want to improve my situation. I’m 45 years old and have a number of contemporaries who have passed away due to heart attacks and other issues I could be just as susceptible to at my age. If that happens, so be it. But I want to be better than that.

It’s time to leave all the trash in the past. Not just the trash of 2022, but all the trash since 2005. And there has been a landfill full of it. I just want to be happy. For the first time in almost 20 years, I just want to have an extended period of happy

Peace.

2022 A personal Retrospective

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Normally, I would hold my yearly retrospective until closer to the end of the year, like I did in 2020 (which was published on December 18, 2020).

However, it wouldn’t matter if I won the lottery every week for the rest of the year and if Paige Spiranac showed up at my door and asked me to marry her, I don’t think this trainwreck of a year could be saved. It’s been that bad.

It’s amazing to think that three short years ago I sat here and penned a blog about how good I thought the 2020’s would be. I suffered through a miserable decade in the 2010’s, I wouldn’t wish a decade like that on my worst enemy.

The 2020’s have been worse, so far.

The year 2020 brought us COVID and the subsequent illegal lockdown. As bad as that year seemed at the time, it would pale in comparison to what was ahead for me. In 2021, I nearly lost one of my closest friends over personal nonsense, and she and I barely spoke the entire year. I got into a relationship I had no business getting into (the “personal nonsense”) and in September I lost my mother after a battle with dementia.

Which brings us to 2022. And the downhill slide continued.

The nonsensical relationship I was in dominated the first nine months of the year. Even though it was of the long-distance variety, I felt like a prisoner. How to explain what it was like? I cringed when my phone went off, whether it was a text or a call. I cried myself to sleep many nights, which in itself is completely pathetic. I could have walked away at any time, but I didn’t. It’s the same story I’ve lived 15 times before, I’m in a situation that makes me want to die but I don’t have the good sense to walk away.

Mercifully, she walked away in late September, and a weight was lifted off me. But a new one quickly emerged. While I was happy that miserable experience was over, it reinforced something that had been bothering me for some time; I have a 100% failure rate when it comes to relationships. I’ve mentioned this in a previous blog, and it’s something I just have a hard time coming to grips with it. A success rate of 0% over 35 years. I don’t know how anything could be more pathetic. And it will never improve.

Having that black cloud of misery hanging over my head for almost 10 months, I also got to experience what may well be the worst baseball season for the Chicago White Sox I have ever seen, and possibly the worst ever for the organization.

While an 81-81 record doesn’t sound as bad as, say, the Pittsburgh Pirates season (62-100), the Pirates went into their season knowing they were likely going to finish in last place. The White Sox were expected to make a run at the World Series. Instead, they finished 11 games out of first place and failed to make the playoffs.

I preached the entire season that this team wasn’t good enough to contend, but I was met at every turn by fan boys who insisted they’d be just fine and just to wait. I waited, and it went just about like I had predicted it would.

Speaking of fan boys, I have begun to wonder lately if every sports team has fan boys, who refuse to criticize the team no matter what happens. I just don’t understand how anyone could support every move a team makes even when they know it’s the wrong one. A real fan wants to see his team succeed, not just kiss their collective asses every time something happens, good or bad. Do all teams have fans like that?

The stress of that stupid relationship and this stupid ball club got me back into stress eating, something I hadn’t done in over a decade. Now I’m even more overweight and even more miserable, and I’m sitting here again placing all my hopes and dreams on the turning over of the calendar to make everything right again.

I’ve started laying out plans for 2023. I’m once again updating the MLB The Show rosters for next season because I hope to start a franchise next spring with the White Sox. If that fails (again, for what would probably be the 23rd straight year), I have made the decision that it may be time to cut ties with the White Sox, and Chicago in general and bring my world closer to home. I may start following the WVU Mountaineers.

So much time has been spent thinking on this situation. I would be walking away from a lot, friends, important connections, an excellent network of fans and a social media presence. I’d be giving all that up to start again at the bottom, going from Major League Baseball back to the college ranks and a university I’ve barely followed at all since the mid 1990s. But if baseball fails me again, I am truly ready to make the move.

I have also made the decision that, if this happens, I will be ready to completely start over with new social media accounts, email accounts and maybe even a new phone number. This is a move I should have made before 2020 began, but I decided to just push forward with where I am now. I won’t make the same mistake twice.

It’s also time to get back into physical fitness. I bought a new weight bench which I plan to put together over the next several weeks, and starting in January I plan on putting my broken, swollen and disgusting body back together again.

The thing that has made this year so much worse than the previous few is that I have completely lost my desire to do anything. I’ve had to force myself to work on the baseball rosters even though I have wanted to do a franchise on MLB The Show for as long as that has been an option. I want to get back into watching The “Chicago” shows (Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med). Can’t seem to do that either.

But I’m finally at what feels like rock bottom and I’m ready to start making the climb back up. And I hope that finally, when that calendar turns from 2022 to 2023, things start looking better than they have lately because I can’t deal with much more of this. I’d rather have another 2020 than another 2022. This year can absolutely fuck off. If I could, I’d wipe it from my mind. While admittedly it wasn’t as bad as 2017, it was still bad enough that I’d rank it in the bottom three years of my life (2017, 2022 and 1996).

So, we’ll see where things go from here. One thing is for certain, there’s nowhere to go but up. But I’ve also said that in the past and was wrong. I just want to be happy.

Peace.

Talkin’ Baseball: My Take On The Sox Machine 2022-23 Offseason Plan Project

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Every year the Sox Machine blog posts a template for what is known as the “offseason plan project,” where anyone can give their thoughts on what they would like the White Sox to do in the offseason, in terms of whether to tender or non-tender eligible players, sign or not sign pending free agents, propose trades and things like that.

This year I’m going to do this a little differently, I’m going to list not only what I would do in terms of roster construction, but what I think the team will do as well, because there will definitely be a lack of consensus between myself and the Sox front office.

PREAMBLE

This is going to be a difficult season for the White Sox, possibly worse than 2022. The lack of talent, health, depth and camaraderie are going to sink the team for the remainder of the “contention window.” This team was poorly built and too many players were paid before they had actually accomplished anything, thus we have a roster full of overpaid bums who can’t stay healthy and have no reason to try.

ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

Lucas Giolito: $10.8M (tender, I think the Sox will tender)

Dylan Cease: $5.3M (the Sox will tender, I would tender and try to work on an extension)

Reynaldo Lopez: $3.3M (tender, I think the Sox will tender)

Adam Engel: $2.3M (non-tender, I think the Sox will non-tender)

Michael Kopech: $2.2M (tender, I think the Sox will tender)

Kyle Crick: $1.5M (non-tender, I think the Sox will non-tender)

Jose Ruiz: $1M (non-tender, the Sox are in love with him and will tender)

Danny Mendick: $1M (tender, I think the Sox will tender)

CLUB OPTIONS

Tim Anderson: $12.5M ($1M buyout) (pick up, I would trade if possible, I think the Sox will pick up)

Josh Harrison: $5.625M ($1.5M buyout) (buyout, I think the Sox will tender due to lack of options)

PLAYER OPTIONS

AJ Pollock: $13M ($5 million buyout) (No way he leaves $13 million on the table, exercise option)

OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS

Jose Abreu (Made $18M in 2021) (resign, 2 years for $20 million, I think the Sox let him walk)

Johnny Cueto ($4.2M) (let him walk, I think the Sox let him walk)

Vince Velasquez ($3M) (let him walk, I think the Sox let him walk)

Elvis Andrus ($14.25M) (let him walk, I think the Sox let him walk)

MANAGER

My pick: Ozzie Guillen. You want a manager with a successful body of work and championship pedigree? Here he is. You want a guy who knows it’s his final chance and wants to right his previous wrongs? Here he is. I don’t want to hear about what happened in 2011, that’s ancient history. This is 2022.

The Sox pick: Mike Shildt. I know this guy has cooled down considerably as a candidate but here is my rationale: Kenny Williams wants Ron Washington. Rick Hahn wants Joe Espada. I think Tony La Russa will have Jerry Reisndorf’s ear and like the last time the White Sox hired a manager, Jerry gets the final say.

FREE AGENTS

No. 1: Jose Abreu (two years, $20 million). You just don’t let the face of the franchise walk away because you have some kid who was a high draft pick waiting to take his spot. Mark my words, Andrew Vaughn will be more Greg Walker than Jose Abreu or Paul Konerko when all is said and done.

No. 2: Willson Contreras (two years, $32 million). I’m not a huge fan of this signing, but something has to be done. Can’t go into another season with Yasmani Grandal at the top of the depth chart. Let Contreras do the bulk of the catching through the remainder of the contention window, and he can still sign another free agent deal after the 2024 season as a 33-year old.

No. 3: Adam Frazier (one year, $7 million). Frazier is coming off his worst season and should be had for a small amount. He set full-season career lows in just about every category (.238/.301/.311 line with an OPS+ of 80 and a 0.7 WAR) but he plays every day (156 games in 2022 with the Mariners) and his defense is certainly passable (6 errors in 435 chances at second base in 2022). It’s an upgrade from nothing.

As for what I think the White Sox will do in free agency, I see a couple of low-end fifth starter candidates on minor league deals (someone like Jordan Lyles or Michael Pineda), a fourth or fifth outfielder to replace Adam Engel (Ben Gamel? Jackie Bradley? Chad Pinder?). Other than that, and maybe a flier on a bullpen arm or two for “depth,” I don’t see the Sox making any free agent signings. The roster is full.

TRADES

This is the hardest thing to try to forecast, because no one knows who is available or who could be traded for whom.

No. 1: Trade Yoan Moncada and Colson Montgomery to the Seattle Mariners for Eugenio Suarez and Jarred Kelenic. Yes, it’s giving up the Sox #1 prospect and not getting a ton in return but it’s not a straight salary dump and Suarez fills in third base for the remainder of the contention window and Kelenic isn’t the superstar prospect he was two years ago. This opens up some salary room for the White Sox and eliminates one of the team’s biggest issues, and if Kelenic can outplay Gavin Sheets in RF, you could have a solid OF lineup for years (Kelenic, Luis Robert and Oscar Colas) after the contention window closes.

No. 2: Trade Leury Garcia and Bryan Ramos to the Oakland A’s for Tony Kemp. The A’s take on a little extra salary (Kemp is expected to make around $3.2 million in arbitration this season while Garcia will make a little over $5 million in the second year of his three-year deal) in order to pick up a decent prospect in Ramos and the Sox get their replacement for Garcia. Seems like a win/win trade to me.

No. 3: Trade Yasmani Grandal to any team that will take him for any price they’ll pay, and agree to pay half of his salary. Straight salary dump, find some team that could use an occasional switch hitter at the DH position and could be a once-a-week or even emergency catcher, for $9 million. Trade him for some team’s 50th ranked prospect. Anything to get him off the payroll and out of the organization.

As for what I think the Sox will do in the trade market, I think they’ll strongly consider trading Gavin Sheets (likely to the Orioles in a nice homecoming) because he is still a man without a position (he’s a 1B/DH and those spots are filled) and I think they could get a minor league pitching prospect in return, maybe a future piece for the back end of the rotation. I don’t think the front office has the balls to really move a Moncada or an Eloy Jimenez or a Lucas Giolito for anything.

SUMMARY

This would be my every day lineup: Contreras (catcher), Abreu (1B), Frazier (2B), Anderson (SS), Suarez (3B), Pollock (LF), Robert (CF), Kelenic (RF) and Jimenez (DH). Kemp would be my top utility player. For those wondering, I’d either trade Andrew Vaughn or just let him play 1B or DH when Abreu or Eloy need a day off. Remember, he’s making the MLB minimum. At best he’s a .280/20/80 hitter, he’s not the second coming of Frank Thomas.

The pitching rotation: Cease, Lance Lynn, Kopech, Giolito and Davis Martin.

The bullpen: Liam Hendriks (closer), Reynaldo Lopez, Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly, Tanner Banks, Aaron Bummer and Jake Diekman.

I think the White Sox will try to find someone/anyone to be their fifth starter because they have absolutely no faith in their own homegrown pitchers (Cease came from the Cubs, Lynn from the Rangers, Kopech from the Red Sox and Giolito from the Nationals; Banks and Bummer are the only homegrown relievers), and they’ll sign a guy who is looking to rebound (like Johnny Cueto in 2022 or Ervin Santana in 2019, just showing the extremes of how those kinds of deals can work out).

So, here is what I see the Sox running out there every day:

Everyday lineup: Grandal (catcher), Vaughn (1B), Harrison/Leury (2B), Anderson (SS), Moncada (3B), Pollock (LF), Robert (CF), Sheets/Colas (RF) and Jimenez (DH). Leury will be the top utility player but Danny Mendick is going to get a good look after a solid (but short) 2022 season (.289/.343/.443, OPS+ of 121 and 0.5 WAR in only 97 at-bats).

I can see my version of the 2023 White Sox finishing 85-77, thanks to the power provided by Contreras, Suarez and Kelenic to push a few more runs across the plate. The pitching was middle-of-the-pack and I expect Cease and Kopech to get better, so I think “my” 2023 White Sox could finish second to the Guardians (again) but maybe a little closer (five or six games out).

I see the real 2023 White Sox finishing 79-83, spending the season wondering if Vaughn or Moncada or Robert is going to break out, if they can get anything close to a positive WAR out of second base and hoping Colas finally fills the hole in RF that’s basically been there since Jermaine Dye left. This is not a good team, and removing the best player (Abreu lead the team in WAR, games played, hits and batting average, period) isn’t going to make the offense better, and if you believe that, you’re a moron.

Things may eventually start to look up once Grandal and Moncada and Giolito and Hendriks and the other massive drains on payroll are gone and the Sox could potentially do a legitimate reload in 2025 with all that available cash. However, I have absolutely no faith in this front office. Luckily, as Rick Hahn said, they know when they’re not doing the job anymore so once the guy who has had 2 winning seasons out of 10 as a general manager figures out he can’t do the job, it will get better.

Thank you for taking the time to read. Peace.