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Related to this: Some 15% of restaurants in America already have these fees built, on the road to having 100% of them include them. And these fees are not supposed to supplement staff wages—they are meant to directly offset the business's costs, as though we are on the hook for those as opposed to them being the cost of doing business. Why not just hike the prices on the menu to cover these costs? From the story: Owners are opting to add fees because they’re worried they’ll drive away customers if they hike up menu prices, said Pat Doerr, managing director of the Hospitality Business Association of Chicago. Research shows people overwhelmingly choose where to go out to eat based on which place is least expensive, Doerr said. “When people see a $20 burger, they’re like, ‘That’s outrageous,’ or they don’t even see it at all because they’re searching for the two dollar sign places,” Doerr said. Owners “are trying to avoid positioning their place at the high end of the market, and a surcharge is one way to do that.” So, essentially, they are flat-out admitting they are deceiving the customer into believing the cost is less than they actually pay, which customers already accept in the case of taxes and tips, and are now supposed to accept in the case of the mere cost of doing business. Outstanding. I guess the only real solution here is, learn how to cook.

With his plus D and an established stick at third base going into age 30, I think Jeimer might get something like 3/45 with a team option for a fourth year.

Nancy Faust, the brilliant retired white Sox organist, has an opinion about it. .

Lange succeeds at nailing high leverage situations. He'll be the guy next time, too.

This Meadows kid seems like he’s pretty good at baseball.

How about this? What was the line from that old move? Oh yeah ...

If Harris got the return for Tork that Avila got for JD, I might well abandon him at that point.

Speaking of White Sox, this is pure comic gold, Jerry. "Great timing all around. Why not announce a contract extension for manager Pedro Grifol and a boxing clinic by Tim Anderson while they’re at it?"

A late season run so we don't lose 90+ games yet again can't hurt.

All he had to do was say it would happen. That was enough. We are multiple news cycles past that moment now.

Even in a not-great class, I don't think we're competitive at the top end of that market even going into this year. Impact players want to go to teams ready to win now, not teams who look a lot less hopeless than it did before, and the marginal utility of a couple more dollars won't make a difference, because top-end free agents are already going to get more dollars than they'll be able to spend in several lifetimes no matter who signs them. I think we are still fishing in the Lorenzen pool this winter, and that's OK for one more year as we get this organization back on its feet.

Agree, Greene is the guy who would rate that right now, and his signing on with us into his early free agent years would be a big message to the marketplace.

We've all seen Tork make great scoops here and there, although I wonder how he rates versus other first basemen? Is that even out there? If it is I haven't seen it.

I guess that would leave our current crop a year older, plus whatever we can get on the market and waiver wire, to win with next year. Fine by me. If we can see some real, even surprising, steps forward by young guys we have plus a Lorenzen-type pickup or two, it can happen.

It would have to be pipeline-numbered prospects close to the majors plus either a starting major leaguer at a position of need or a top half of the rotation pitcher. That would be tough to swing and super unlikely but if Harris were to do so I wouldn’t bail on him. That’s why I said it was out there.

I don’t want to trade Tork, but I wouldn’t bail on Harris if he did, which I’m pretty sure he won’t.

They won’t rebuild forever, but they are also not done rebuilding now. They might win a weak Central, but I would really be surprised if we started trading from the top of our system this winter to go for it.

Regardless of who plays shortstop, Tork is a substandard first baseman who will cost us runs there if he doesn’t improve, so he’ll have to keep raking in order to make it a non-issue.

I think that’s going to depend on whether they can get some impact players and pitchers in the offseason, unless you believe what we have now plus a year will be enough.

Kelly is working off a team option for 3.5MM next year, and the prevailing assumption is that the Tigers will pick up the option if Kelly improves on some things and fulfills his prospect promise during the final six weeks of play and over the winter into spring training. But I wonder if this move might actually be more about whether Dingler improves enough over the winter and during spring to warrant coming up to Detroit, if not in April, then early enough to make Kelly expendable. Dingler will be 25 in November so we’re getting to the SOGOTP stage, so maybe they’re thinking if he looks really close in late March, they spin off Kelly and go with something like Rogers-Sands for a few weeks waiting for him; and if Dingler still doesn’t look close, they just pick up the option on Kelly, let Dingler keep developing, and start beating the bushes seeking another catcher-of-the-future.

I suppose it’s possible Tork could become marginally better as a first baseman. He’ll have to keep raking in order to make it a relative non-issue. Here’s a really out there thought: I don’t suppose Tork could become a trade candidate over the winter? Maybe someone like the Yankees, who have a primary 1B about to enter the AM radio demographic next year, might be willing to empty out the top of their system to get someone who appears on the brink. Not saying that’s what I would want, there’s a single-digit chance at best it would even happen, and it’s a completely wild idea, but I would trust Scott Harris to make a deal like that.

Good lord. NBC Sports Chicago has a version of their White Sox broadcast called “Betcast”, that features not only on going odds on basically everything, but cutaways of guys sitting around talking about the betting implications of everything.

Meadows tried to become a legend but just a few dozen feet short. Pretty good game overall.