Len Kasper taking White Sox radio job

[NOLA]

national TV guys watched our young dongsmiths in absolute awe and disbelief

As did I, and here we are with Schwarbs and Jorge with the Royals (although that trade was fine).

[CubinNY]

I’ve decided Len left because he did not want to work for Sinclair and the Ricketts. The rest is him being who he is, a nice guy and true professional. Nothing else remotely makes sense. I will not waver from this hypothesis.

 

horsefeathers Marquee and most of all, horsefeathers the Ricketts.

 

I’m also drinking stouts tonight.

[David]

national TV guys watched our young dongsmiths in absolute awe and disbelief

As did I, and here we are with Schwarbs and Jorge with the Royals (although that trade was fine).

 

and three straight NLCS appearances when i had previously seen one and a horsefeathering world series ring on all their fingers

 

 

so basically you're trying to argue that we should give the white sox extra credit for not having failed yet? i only raise it this way because you're the one who wants to use hindsight.

[NOLA]

I’ve decided Len left because he did not want to work for Sinclair and the Ricketts. The rest is him being who he is, a nice guy and true professional. Nothing else remotely makes sense. I will not waver from this hypothesis.

 

horsefeathers Marquee and most of all, horsefeathers the Ricketts.

 

I’m also drinking stouts tonight.

Titos and ginger beer and herb, but I apologize for nothing. That said, there’s no way a baseball nerd like Len leaves the Cubs play by play TV gig for a radio job unless there’s something else there.

[ConstableRabbit]

 

Right. The White Sox have a bright future, but they’re not quite on the “budding dynasty” level that some seem to place them at. The Cubs had a better core in 2015 and, five years later, people are acting like the organization is in shambles. Baseball is becoming more and more of a young player’s game, and the windows are getting smaller unless you’re actively replenishing a top 5 farm system.

SUPERTHREAD WARNING:

 

So you think the Cubs had a better core in 2015 than the White Sox do now?

 

I didn’t think that would be too controversial (particularly on a Cubs board). You had two top 5 prospects in the game (Bryant and Russell), Rizzo, the #4 pick in the draft who had destroyed the minors (Schwarber), another top 25/top 50 prospect (Javy), Soler, Contreras in the pipeline, Arrieta and Lester at the top of the rotation, plus Hendricks.

Plus Strop and Rondon.

[NOLA]

national TV guys watched our young dongsmiths in absolute awe and disbelief

As did I, and here we are with Schwarbs and Jorge with the Royals (although that trade was fine).

 

and three straight NLCS appearances when i had previously seen one and a horsefeathering world series ring on all their fingers

 

 

so basically you're trying to argue that we should give the white sox extra credit for not having failed yet? i only raise it this way because you're the one who wants to use hindsight.

[David]

I’ve decided Len left because he did not want to work for Sinclair and the Ricketts. The rest is him being who he is, a nice guy and true professional. Nothing else remotely makes sense. I will not waver from this hypothesis.

 

horsefeathers Marquee and most of all, horsefeathers the Ricketts.

 

I’m also drinking stouts tonight.

 

for what it's worth, anybody who follows local chicago sports media would have heard len frequently talk about his love for radio and his desire to do radio (usually would come up when he'd be doing cubs playoff games with pat and ron) someday. it's definitely not some conveniently made up backstory unless he was playing the realllllllly long game.

 

does that mean i think marquee's management or the ricketts had nothing to do with it? no. but i think the people viewing this story most cynically aren't locals who follow a lot of this stuff (i.e. to have heard len on his frequent radio hits, or to hear the other local guys talk about him, many who had close friendships with him like matt spiegel who played at hot stove cool music with him and stuff like that)

[NOLA]

national TV guys watched our young dongsmiths in absolute awe and disbelief

As did I, and here we are with Schwarbs and Jorge with the Royals (although that trade was fine).

 

and three straight NLCS appearances when i had previously seen one and a horsefeathering world series ring on all their fingers

 

 

so basically you're trying to argue that we should give the white sox extra credit for not having failed yet? i only raise it this way because you're the one who wants to use hindsight.

Arguing nothing, legit asking. Judging the Sox core on projection, which is just educated guessing until it happens. We overvalued our prospects. Sure, they won a title, but that doesn’t mean we were right. Schwarber is horsefeathering Rob Deer.

[David]

Sure, they won a title, but that doesn’t mean we were right.

 

if we still did sigs i'd totally sig this

[jersey cubs fan]

I'd assume this was a joke but already got in trouble once.

 

Still going to assume this was a joke though.

 

I did think you were only talking about the 90s, so my bad for missing that you also mentioned their Series victory and some of the good players from that time like Konerko. I also screwed up in not mentioning Mark Grace and some others like Rod Beck in his first go-around.

 

But those things said, I was absolutely suggesting that teams with lesser records and no real contention drives can be even more interesting and fun than really good teams. One of my favorite teams ever was the ‘01 Cubs after most of their planned starters & stars went down to injury and a bunch of vets mainly seen as bench players ran with the division for quite a while. As far as I’m concerned, those few months were as cool as even 2007 or 2008.

 

IMO, interestingness is a broader concept than contention or elite skills.

 

The White Sox were very good and had very interesting players. The Cubs sucked, had boring aging stars, and were dull as hell until '98.

[NOLA]

Sure, they won a title, but that doesn’t mean we were right.

 

if we still did sigs i'd totally sig this

In the end, of course. But individually, were we right about Russell or Schwarber? Just wondering how our 2015 core in retrospect compares to to this White Sox core.

[SouthSideRyan]

I hear Thom Brenneman is available

 

If not for him being exposed, you know these stupid fucks would've thrown money at him.

[SaorsaDaonnan]

Seems like the Cubs community divides into three camps in interpreting this:

 

1) It’s genuine passion + disgust

 

2) It’s the above plus specific personal or professional injury

 

3) It’s just about specific personal or professional injury, because everyone’s basically about money and ego, and you don’t take the money and ego hit unless you’re really pissed

 

Of course, 3) is more of personal confession on the part of anyone maintaining it, either that they’re like that (all about money and ego) or that they’ve gotten so cynical as to preemptively give up on every other person on the planet.

 

So it’s down to 1) vs 2). 1) is sufficient to explain the situation, and it fits the information we have, so it’s the best explanation unless we have actual evidence of something more.

 

All I’ve heard is some gibberish about suits or a third wheel, which I don’t buy. So unless someone has video of Todd burning his car and screaming that there’s more like that coming for every Dem-o-crap like him, why postulate it?

 

I mean, what else is there to do, just start a rumor that Ditka or Bobby Knight gave him a wedgie and nobody did anything?

[CubinNY]

I’ve decided Len left because he did not want to work for Sinclair and the Ricketts. The rest is him being who he is, a nice guy and true professional. Nothing else remotely makes sense. I will not waver from this hypothesis.

 

horsefeathers Marquee and most of all, horsefeathers the Ricketts.

 

I’m also drinking stouts tonight.

 

for what it's worth, anybody who follows local chicago sports media would have heard len frequently talk about his love for radio and his desire to do radio (usually would come up when he'd be doing cubs playoff games with pat and ron) someday. it's definitely not some conveniently made up backstory unless he was playing the realllllllly long game.

 

does that mean i think marquee's management or the ricketts had nothing to do with it? no. but i think the people viewing this story most cynically aren't locals who follow a lot of this stuff (i.e. to have heard len on his frequent radio hits, or to hear the other local guys talk about him, many who had close friendships with him like matt spiegel who played at hot stove cool music with him and stuff like that)

I was mostly blowing off steam. I agree with you. Hell, he would do spring training internet radio games with the AA affiliate guy. He’s probably excited as hell. The Sox have a good young team and he’s doing what he wants. That said, the Marquee [expletive] probably made it a lot easier.

[SaorsaDaonnan]

We overvalued our prospects. Sure, they won a title, but that doesn’t mean we were right. Schwarber is horsefeathering Rob Deer.

 

I don’t agree.

 

I respect the fact that people want their claims to be verifiable and therefore treat outcomes as referendums on earlier calculations of probabilities, but I think you’re carrying the idea of outcomes as revelations too far.

 

The underachievement we saw by some individual players IMO represents more of a talent development/maintenance/clubhouse psychology failure than a revelation of a lesser degree of talent than we thought. And as for the teams generally, 2018 was lost because of Addison’s off-field implosion and the org’s decision to just let it fester unaddressed. And even so, with just a little bit of our terrible pitching Iuck removed, we’d still have avoided the embarrassing exit we ended up taking.

 

After that, by 2019 we had a bad feeling hanging over the team, a do-nothing manager and toxic player who needed to go, and instead of turning the page, we managed to make the situation worse by doing nothing...and even so, without a spate of injuries mostly shortly after the deadline, the team likely would have clinched. Any of those decision points in 2018 or 2019 could have avoided the disaster. So could better development of Schwarber (several years) and maintenance of Contreras (2018) and Baez (2020). And of course last year was a legit chance too, albeit with highly stressed players unlikely to be at their best.

 

I’m not saying we didn’t overestimate anybody. Heyward and Almora are two super obvious cases of that. Kimbrel may be another, and maybe Quintana. Certainly Russell’s hitting was coming along slowly before we found out about his crimes. But Bryant declined or was hurt,Baez and Contreras just had off years at different points. Rizzo played in too many games and could have been in a little better shape. The basic story of the last few years is waste due to bad sustainment, bad vibes, offseason indolence, and failure to dump toxic people rapidly, not the revelation of any lack of ability relative to expectations.

[stitchface]

I’ve decided Len left because he did not want to work for Sinclair and the Ricketts. The rest is him being who he is, a nice guy and true professional. Nothing else remotely makes sense. I will not waver from this hypothesis.

 

horsefeathers Marquee and most of all, horsefeathers the Ricketts.

 

I’m also drinking stouts tonight.

 

 

stouts. have a good day tomorrow!

[stitchface]

As did I, and here we are with Schwarbs and Jorge with the Royals (although that trade was fine).

 

and three straight NLCS appearances when i had previously seen one and a horsefeathering world series ring on all their fingers

 

 

so basically you're trying to argue that we should give the white sox extra credit for not having failed yet? i only raise it this way because you're the one who wants to use hindsight.

Arguing nothing, legit asking. Judging the Sox core on projection, which is just educated guessing until it happens. We overvalued our prospects. Sure, they won a title, but that doesn’t mean we were right. Schwarber is horsefeathering Rob Deer.

 

 

The games won in the regular season is the argument, not the title.

 

And, I've been gone a long time, but Chicago was definitely the opposite of cosmopolitan in my experience.

[stitchface]

I’ve decided Len left because he did not want to work for Sinclair and the Ricketts. The rest is him being who he is, a nice guy and true professional. Nothing else remotely makes sense. I will not waver from this hypothesis.

 

horsefeathers Marquee and most of all, horsefeathers the Ricketts.

 

I’m also drinking stouts tonight.

 

for what it's worth, anybody who follows local chicago sports media would have heard len frequently talk about his love for radio and his desire to do radio (usually would come up when he'd be doing cubs playoff games with pat and ron) someday. it's definitely not some conveniently made up backstory unless he was playing the realllllllly long game.

 

does that mean i think marquee's management or the ricketts had nothing to do with it? no. but i think the people viewing this story most cynically aren't locals who follow a lot of this stuff (i.e. to have heard len on his frequent radio hits, or to hear the other local guys talk about him, many who had close friendships with him like matt spiegel who played at hot stove cool music with him and stuff like that)

I was mostly blowing off steam. I agree with you. Hell, he would do spring training internet radio games with the AA affiliate guy. He’s probably excited as hell. The Sox have a good young team and he’s doing what he wants. That said, the Marquee [expletive] probably made it a lot easier.

 

 

It's almost as if people's decisions can't be boiled into one simple thing. Though I will say I would immediately quit any job that required me to wear a suit every day.

[Mark Priors Calves]

I haven't come to NSBB much the last few years nor do I follow the Cubs closely anymore. There is something that just seems off by this move by Len. Most of those reasons have been laid out in this thread and I've read what Len, himself, has said today. His love of radio is clear, but I just don't know why he couldn't work out a job-in-waiting status regarding the Cubs' radio PBP spot. He has a fantastic relationship with 670 and it would be such a natural move. I just don't get it.

 

If they bring on Chris Myers to replace him, my god. He's the horsefeathers who ruined the marriage proposal after the Boise St. Bowl win back in the day. Just the worst.

[soccer10k]

but I just don't know why he couldn't work out a job-in-waiting status regarding the Cubs' radio PBP spot.

 

Well for one we don't know how long Pat is planning on working for.

[soccer10k]

As did I, and here we are with Schwarbs and Jorge with the Royals (although that trade was fine).

 

and three straight NLCS appearances when i had previously seen one and a horsefeathering world series ring on all their fingers

 

 

so basically you're trying to argue that we should give the white sox extra credit for not having failed yet? i only raise it this way because you're the one who wants to use hindsight.

Arguing nothing, legit asking. Judging the Sox core on projection, which is just educated guessing until it happens. We overvalued our prospects. Sure, they won a title, but that doesn’t mean we were right. Schwarber is horsefeathering Rob Deer.

 

But how do you know the White Sox didn't also overvalue their prospects?

 

You're trying to compare two things that can't be compared the way you're trying to do it. You have to wait 5 years to see how things turned out. Obviously we know now that Russell was a horrible human being who peaked in 2016. We know KB hasn't turned into the perennial MVP candidate we thought he would become. We know Schwarber didn't become the high OBP with power hitter we thought he'd become.

 

Could the WS core turn out to be better than the Cubs was? Sure. But they could also turn out to be worse. All we can do at this point is essentially compare the WS right now to where the Cubs were post 2015.

 

Cubs had:

 

-KB was the second pick in the draft, destroyed the minors and had an .858 OPS and 5.3 WAR as a 23 year old in a full season

-Schwarber was the 4th pick, destroyed the minors and put up a .842 OPS and 1.3 WAR in only 69 (nice) games.

-Russell was a highly regarded defensive shortstop who had a .858 OPS in AA at 20 and while his OPS was just under .700 at 21 in 2015, he still managed a 2.8 WAR.

-Rizzo was 25 and coming off back to back .900 OPS seasons where he was worth a combined 12 WAR

-Contreras was 23 and had just put up a .891 OPS at AA.

 

And that's not even mentioning Javy (horrid in 2014 but still had a .911 OPS at 22 in AAA) and Ian Happ (#9 pick, .822 OPS in low A and A at 20 in 2015).

 

It's easy to forget how incredibly loaded the Cubs were/appeared to be. They seemed set up to dominate the Central/NL for the better part of a decade. I'm not saying the White Sox aren't talented and I'm not saying what they do over the next few years won't surpass what the Cubs did from 2015-2020. I just think what's happened the last couple years with the Cubs has clouded your view of what the Cubs appeared to be headed into the 2016 season.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Some idiots tried to warn everybody that there's no such thing as being set for a decade, that aging curves were way more blunted than people were realizing and it's perfectly ordinary these days for a guy to put up his best seasons at 24-25 and never get back to that level.

[David]

Some idiots tried to warn everybody that there's no such thing as being set for a decade, that aging curves were way more blunted than people were realizing and it's perfectly ordinary these days for a guy to put up his best seasons at 24-25 and never get back to that level.

 

from 2016 forward, some guys didn't develop into what we thought (mainly schwarber), some had some injuries, heyward turned out as badly as it could, quintana wasn't what we expected and darvish had a wasted year and a half. lester got old. zobrist got old and retired. few other things went wrong too, but i'd say blunted/early aging curves for the young guys is far from the top of the list. maybe heyward qualifies, if you want to call it that?

 

other than 2020, KB has been mostly great while missing time from time to time, Rizzo has pretty much been Rizzo, Javy took a massive leap forward (again, aside from 2020), and contreras has only gotten better. russell did go from a thing to nothing - there were obviously some unusual shitty circumstances (him being a complete piece of garbage) that probably were involved with him falling off the map, but that was sort of offset by javy going full superstar. we'll see if 2020 was a blip or not for him.

 

mostly i think it was fowler going, zobrist getting older and going and the pitchers getting old/mediocre.

[Banedon]

I haven't come to NSBB much the last few years nor do I follow the Cubs closely anymore. There is something that just seems off by this move by Len. Most of those reasons have been laid out in this thread and I've read what Len, himself, has said today. His love of radio is clear, but I just don't know why he couldn't work out a job-in-waiting status regarding the Cubs' radio PBP spot. He has a fantastic relationship with 670 and it would be such a natural move. I just don't get it.

 

If they bring on Chris Myers to replace him, my god. He's the horsefeathers who ruined the marriage proposal after the Boise St. Bowl win back in the day. Just the worst.

 

I'm not happy about Len leaving either, but he can't just wait around for the Cubs PBP job if radio is really what he wants to do. He doesn't know how long Pat is gonna stay. And horsefeathers happens....I mean, he just called the weirdest season of baseball probably ever. You never know what's gonna happen in life, and if an opportunity is available for something you truly want, you gotta go for it.

[SouthSideRyan]

Some idiots tried to warn everybody that there's no such thing as being set for a decade, that aging curves were way more blunted than people were realizing and it's perfectly ordinary these days for a guy to put up his best seasons at 24-25 and never get back to that level.

 

from 2016 forward, some guys didn't develop into what we thought (mainly schwarber), some had some injuries, heyward turned out as badly as it could, quintana wasn't what we expected and darvish had a wasted year and a half. lester got old. zobrist got old and retired. few other things went wrong too, but i'd say blunted/early aging curves for the young guys is far from the top of the list. maybe heyward qualifies, if you want to call it that?

 

other than 2020, KB has been mostly great while missing time from time to time, Rizzo has pretty much been Rizzo, Javy took a massive leap forward (again, aside from 2020), and contreras has only gotten better. russell did go from a thing to nothing - there were obviously some unusual horsefeathers circumstances (him being a complete piece of garbage) that probably were involved with him falling off the map, but that was sort of offset by javy going full superstar. we'll see if 2020 was a blip or not for him.

 

mostly i think it was fowler going, zobrist getting older and going and the pitchers getting old/mediocre.

 

There were also no waves of new prospects replacing those that got old or bad. The jury is still out obviously but the best homegrown pitcher in the 9 years has been Duane Underwood?