How The White Sox Were Ruined By The Braves ‘Strategy’

they have the worst record in the AL they're bottom five in attendance with a statistically bottom five pitching staff and it is only may but only 3 years ago they were nearly favorites to win the World Series and the reason for their failure is obvious the white socks could not replicate the Atlanta Brave strategy the Atlanta Braves have signed aun CH Riley Michael Harris to understand how the white socks attempted to replicate the Braves one needs to know what the brave strategy actually is the Braves Fall Away simply strategy of developing and extending players but what makes their situation so unique is that they often extend players who were in year one or even year two in their career whereas other teams nickel and Di their players using their arbitration season so that they could have money saved however this often results in a player leaving early on in free agency which is why the brave strategy has worked in retaining your homegrown hent but the problem is that there is a lot of risk that comes with it what if a player so early on doesn't pan out what if your development fails and it ends up being a massive overpay luckily for Atlanta they have yet to have that yet but for the white socks it's a completely different story The Man conducting this operation was white sock general manager Rick Han and after several years of losing he would famously say we're mired in mediocrity that's not the goal that's not acceptable the goal was to put ourselves in a situation to win a championship and being stuck around 500 doesn't do that he had a goal of building building from within but first he had to tear down the roster which he started doing by trading away pitcher Chris Sail all the way over to Boston and in return they would get a top third base Prospect in yoan Mona and a pitcher in Michael copc but the biggest trade that they would make was acquiring pitcher Dylan CE and outfielder ELO am menz this would lay out the foundation for the white socks for a long time but how did the foundation eventually fall the year is 2017 the Braves have the best farm system and the white socks have the second best looking into Atlanta's they had notable Superstars like Ronald auna Jr and Austin Riley but when looking into Chicago's it was very well-rounded with names like Jimenez copek Robert CE gelo and burger however regardless of the talent they still needed to be developed but in the meantime they were already extending young Talent Short Stop Tim Anderson would be the very first of the bunch he showed potential in the 2016 season and in 2017 but he certainly did need to develop the next few seasons for Chicago would be prospects coming up over and over again with the team losing over and over again as well and heading into the 2020 season the white socks hadn't made the playoffs and 11 years fans were fed up and the quote were Meed in mediocrity became a staple of the white socks organization whereas Atlanta was on the complete other side of their rebuild the Braves were consistently in the playoffs every year with super Superstar production from most of their core and were able to extend most of them to long-term contracts which is where the white socks and Braves were similar as the white socks extended their talent when they were still very young but maybe some of them were even a little bit too young like extending Prospect Eloy am menz before he even took anob swing he signed the deal in 2019 and it was a 6-year $43 million deal it had a massive risk of failing but it could also really succeed he was ranked as the third best pro ECT in baseball and according to white sock GM Rick Han ELO am menz was seen as an important member of the white sock Corps and that core would only grow stronger as the New Year approached in 2020 the White Sox would extend three more players such as number one white sock Prospect Luis Robert who was even the offensive player of the year as a minor league Prospect but yet again Luis Robert had never stepped into an mov batters box so the common theme that made the white socks and the Braves differ in strategy is how early the white socks were extending talent and it would continue as 2020 progressed leading the third baseman yoan monata getting an extension one year after his breakout which he was one of baseball's biggest Sensations for several years even before he was signed an MLB by the Red Sox in 2015 they had scouted him as a high school kid all the way back in 2010 so it's clear how talented this core was for the white socks but it was also a very risky core so would they actually pan out on a team basis Chicago played very good baseball in 2020 specifically the offense as they were at top the MLB in most statistics they led the AL in home runs slugging percentage and in runs scored which led to the team fighting to win the AL Central all the way up until the final days of the 2020 season and while they wouldn't win the division they would still finish with a record of 35 and 25 it was good enough for a playoff birth officially ending their long-term playoff drought and on a player basis this team was loaded they had a Silver Slugger and ELO Jimenez they had the AL MVP and Veteran Jose abrau a Sai Young finalist and Dallas kyel and the runner-up for Rookie of the Year and Luis Robert so not only did they have good young players but they also had star veterans like abrau and kyel as well but when the postseason came around this team's momentum would completely change they went from celebrating a postseason birth to celebrating a postseason Victory to ultimately losing losing that playoff series which would result in the white socks making a stupid move which would be firing their manager and replacing him with a 76-year-old and his name is Tony larusa and the craziest part about the situation is that the general manager Rick Han did not want to hire larusa as the manager Han wanted someone different but the owner of the team Jerry forced Tony larusa to be the higher over anyone else regardless of this though the GM Ron was going to build a contender he won executive of the Year award in 2020 and heading into 2021 there were two main factors in the white sock team building and those factors were development and aggressiveness as in the off season they would acquire many stars such as trading for pitcher Lance Lynn and signing a closer in Liam hris but at the same time they would maintain development with two of their top prospects one of them was pitcher Garrett crochet a pitcher who threw harder than most that one 100 mph striking out an average of 10 batters through nine innings and pitched a 282 RA in 2021 the second Prospect would be outfielder Andrew vaugh but we'll get back to him later but with everything happening in the white sock organization they would be viewed as a true World Series Contender at least until everything fell apart around them there were specifically three factors that led to the team breaking down with the first Factor being injuries and I mean from the very beginning with ELO am menz getting injured in spring training to Luis Robert getting hurt in May both of them missing big chunks of this season would lead to the offense stalling at many times and the second factor to the team breaking was the inconsistency in this offense because after losing both of their star outfielders they needed players to step up however it just wouldn't happen star Outfield Prospect Andrew vaugh would really disappoint in his rookie year putting up por numbers when the team really needed him and the third factor to the team breaking was Tony larusa it was his first time managing a team in 10 whole years and it definitely showed up with his controversial decisions whether it was mismanaging the bullpen or the lineup he provided no value to the 2021 white socks and his failures weren't just on the baseball field they were also in the clubhouse and when I say his Clubhouse was bad I mean a star player retired during during the season because of Tony larusa and the player who retired was Yurman Mercedes but how did larusa cause him to retire it all began with Mercedes hitting a home run in a 3oh count you may ask yourself what's so bad about that but in baseball there's an Unwritten rule that a player should not swing in a 3oh count and the reason is that many believe that it is poor sportsmanship which is exactly why Tony larusa got upset with yman Mercedes and after the game he would tell the media Mercedes made a big mistake and there will be a consequence he has to endure with our family one fan would respond who are you Tony Soprano another fin would say Society has progressed past the need for Tony larusa and it appears that yman Mercedes believed the same exact thing as he would later announce his retirement from baseball during the season to only announce it one day later that he was coming back from baseball many even blame laruso for this en entire situation in the first place but regardless of all of this this team would still manage to win 93 games but in a predictable fashion the team would lose in round one of the playoffs officially ending their season whereas their team building rival the Braves won the World Series in 2021 so if there was one word to describe the 2021 white socks it would clearly be underwhelming but 93 wins was at least something strong to build off of they had a star shortstop and Tim and Anderson who hit for a 309 batting average in 2021 and had Star level production out of pitcher Lucas shelito who had a 353 erra with a strong core the white socks just needed to keep building on it however the front office did the exact opposite of that adding little to no talent in the off season rolling it back with the same team with the same set of problems whether it was injuries Tony larusa or inconsistency the 2022 white socks would finish as a major letdown with an 81 and 81 record and during the season the clubhouse morale got so bad that it spread like a wild fire across MLB and according to MLB reporter Bob Nightingale guys were complaining about Tony larusa and the front office it's clear that change was absolutely needed and luckily for the white socks larusa would finally step down after 2022 and announc his retirement but by now things had already gone very bad for the organization so was there even a chance that things could be turned around well heading into 2023 it would quickly feel like every other season injuries with Robert n menz lack of roster Improvement and another questionable managerial hire and not even one month into the season they were 7 and 17 and a white socks front officeman would say that I'm not in a good place right now however 2023 would be the last of this regime and the core as a whole was completely sh ING with star pitcher Lucas shielo being sold at the trades headline and not only that but former star shortstop Tim Anderson was awful in 2023 and after losing 100 games it was clear that another rebuild was going to begin under a new front office and franchise altering decisions were about to happen a lot like the life altering decision that I made which was downloading the Rival fantasy app aka the sponsor of today's video I play Fantasy Baseball years but I'm also a busy person who doesn't have time to check on their team daily which is why I began playing rival fantasy's best ball every single day rival fantasy manages my lineup for me all I have to do is draft my team on a weekly basis and if I draft well enough I will win free money playing beste ball and if you use the link in the description and sign up now you will get a free $25 in bonus money to use on Rival so sign up now and let's play ball and in 2020 24 it's clear that the white socks do not want to play ball I mean they failed at developing copc burger rodon madreal monata and the list goes on they've already traded key pieces of the team like Lucas shielo Jake burer Dylan CE and they are still looking to go and move more pieces so what's next for the white socks most likely a completely different direction under new leadership in the front office with the team currently ranked last in the AL Central and regarded as one of baseball's worst teams the brave strategy has ruined the Chicago White Socks