Notes: A’s and Las Vegas timeline, Reinsdorf’s stadium gambit, incompetency

The more things change? No, just the more things stay the same.

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You will be shocked, but the A’s are in the news again for their planned move to Las Vegas. You will be even more surprised by this, but it’s more like “news” where information we’ve already had access to is being presented as if it’s new, in such a way that makes it seem if progress is being made. Ah, well, nevertheless.

Here’s an Oakland Fox affiliate, KTVU, doing that very thing earlier this week:

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White Sox to ‘cut payroll’ in 2025 after ‘substantial losses’

Of course.

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Do you see what I did with the headline there? “Substantial losses”? It could be about the White Sox’ revenue from their horrible 2024 season, or the number of losses they’ve suffered slash inflicted on their fans this summer. Safe to say that I’ve still got it after knee surgery.

The White Sox? Well, they’re winners of two in a row, but that doesn’t mean much in terms of whether they’ve got it. Other than that they could lose 30 in a row to balance things out, if only there were 30 more games in ‘24 for them to drop. As it is, they’re still on pace for 124 losses for the season after picking up consecutive dubs, which is two more than the current modern-day record the expansion Mets set in 1962. Leaving aside their chances of playing better than .500 ball the rest of the way to avoid infamy, let’s focus on the 2025 payroll thing.

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Let’s check in on the White So—oh god there’s blood everywhere

The record-tying losing streak is over, and somehow, the White Sox are still just as bad as they were during that.

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Monday is Labor Day, and given that this is a labor-focused newsletter, it feels wrong to sign myself up to cover any stories then. So, instead, let’s do our monthly check-in on the White Sox and their horrific 2024 season now, the final weekday of August.

Last we looked in, the White Sox were in the midst of a franchise-worst losing streak that would soon end, but not until after they had tied the historical AL worst mark of 21 in a row. They were 27-84, “good” for a win percentage of .243, and had been outscored by -229 on the season. Things have somehow gotten worse than they were then, which seems impossible. But that’s our 2024 White Sox, baby.

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White Sox franchise-worst losing streak has them historically bad once more

It was so over because the White Sox were just regular bad, but now we’re so back because they’re embarrassing again.

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July started out so promising for White Sox fans. The team was merely bad instead of historically, meaningfully bad. in the prior month. Between June 3 and July 7 — the period of time in between check-ins on the club round these parts — the South Side club went 11-21, no small thing for a team that, in the two months prior, had managed all of 15 combined victories. That pace was a 106-loss pace, which knocked them from “in line to finish with the worst-ever record in modern baseball” to “merely the third-worst team in modern baseball.” You take whatever dub you can when they aren’t regularly showing up, you know?

The rest of July was a course correction. July 8 was the last time that I looked in on the White Sox, and, coincidentally, is right before the wheels came off again. The White Sox are in the midst of a 17-game losing streak, the longest such streak in franchise history — a history that dates back to 1901. They won on July 5, then lost their next three, then won the first game of a doubleheader, and have dropped the 17 games since that W. Which is a long way of saying that, since bringing their record to 26-66 and a .282 winning percentage, they’ve fallen to 27-84, for a .243 mark.

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Let’s check in on the White Sox

The White Sox are having the worst season in MLB, but let’s see how close they are to being historically bad.

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Good news, White Sox fans! Your team is no longer on pace to have the worst season of the modern era. When we last checked in on June 3, the White Sox were 15-45, good for a win percentage of .250, and had been outscored by 134 runs on the season. They were on pace for 122 losses if you rounded up, which was two more than the 1962 expansion Mets. In the month-plus since, though, the White Sox have just been regular bad, as far as wins and losses are concerned, instead of historically so.

They’re now 26-66, so, they put up an 11-21 record since we last looked in on them. Over 162 games, that’s a 106-loss pace. How very dull. This mini surge has the White Sox now on pace for 116 losses on the season, which would make them worse than the 2018 Orioles (115 defeats), but better than the 2003 Tigers and those aforementioned Mets.

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The White Sox might be terrible

Woof.

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In all honesty, I had planned to write about the teams that were looking horrific due to their roster mismanagement and lack of spending and effort besides the A’s, just to change things up a bit, you know? I keep staring at the White Sox’ 2024, though, and forgetting why I ever needed to check in on what’s happening with the Marlins and the Rockies, too, because it seems like it barely compares.

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Notes: Rafael Devers speaks up, White Sox stadium, expansion

The Red Sox aren’t spending enough, the White Sox want to spend more public money than anyone ever, and expansion is in the news, again.

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Rafael Devers watched as Mookie Betts was traded to the Dodgers for salary relief. He saw the Red Sox bungle negotiations with Xander Bogaerts, who then left for the Padres. He can be forgiven for deciding to speak his mind on the current direction of the Red Sox, which, with spring training now open, he did at the first opportunity. Per Jen McCaffrey at The Athletic:

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