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I was going to wait for Harper to officially sign (as I was holding out hope that the White Sox would swope in), but it seems incredibly unlikely that the White Sox will move on Harper. So this ends my White sox fandom. It's been a fun ride SoxTalk! One of the best places to talk baseball on the internet. I'm moving over to be a Padre fan from here on out. I'll spare you from any reasoning as, I'm sure you all are well aware of the reasons. Take care friends, I won't be back to check any replies. Kind regards.

Rick Hahn is a fraud

Honestly, I want the negativity to infect this organization, to the core. I want it to be a virus this entire season. I want the players to hear it, I want the coaches to hear it. I want visiting players to hear it. Assuming they don't sign Harper, I want Rick Renteria commenting in June about how he's never heard fans react to their players like this in all his years in baseball. I want the players to be commenting in July about how bad they feel coming in to work every day. The only way that they will be forced to fix the problem is if it becomes so toxic that everyone realizes what they did. Otherwise they will just keep cruising along. Rick Hahn will keep pocketing his 7 figures, Reinsdorf will see $50 million in profits this year, and they'll just roll with it.

Since you're not coming back to check, allow me to speak for everyone and call you a whiney twat. 👍

I can confirm it pisses me off seeing Jay on this team.

I would do anything for Manny (but I won't do that)

It's funny you say that, but I am the one person who has been right about this process at every single step of the way. All I heard two years ago were how to loyal Sox fans were, how all they wanted was a direction, and that they wouldn't abandon the team any more than they already had. Even before they came in 2nd on Machado (like I spent months before this off season saying they would) and the outrage machine kicked into high gear in the last few days, the team was down HUGE in the last two years after doing exactly what they supposedly wanted done. This is the same franchise it has always been. A lot of people spent a lot of time convincing themselves that it was now different, despite all of the franchise history to look at. People are mad because they fell for it. I spent years telling you all this wasn't going to be the Cubs rebuild, but no one wanted to hear it. Get out of your feels for a while and pay attention.

I just hope they have a 305 crew bobblehead night where it’s the lockers of Alonso, Jay and empty locker.

Never have I ever been more unenthused for a season as this one. It doesn't even feel like Spring Training is going on.

Harper will pay the extra money himself in revenue. It's a no brainer, and I don't care about any OF prospects not named Eloy and Robert. The rest can go as trade bait if it meant we got Harper.

At this point, Moncada is the most important guy to watch. Glad he's off to a good start.

A lot of the "insiders" constantly said that the White Sox had budgets for both. What we didn't understand is that really meant they thought they could budget $175 million for Machado and $200 million for Harper, and the organization believed those were fair offers.

I think Moncada is going to take a massive leap this year

Didn’t Nightengale have an article a couple years ago after the Q trade with JR discussing the rebuild? JR mentioned the Cubs and Houston and said those situations were different because the guys rebuilding were new, and he admitted the guys rebuilding the Sox were the ones who messed them up in the first place. He complemented the fan base for buying in, and for forgiving the regime, and said they would be re-paid in spades. Coming in second and not even trying on two of the biggest free agents in history with all the usual players on the sidelines is quite the thanks.

There is something satisfying with all the public outrage that’s happening. At least I know I’m not in this alone with all the ST peeps to bare the burden of failure. It’s spread throughout the entire fan base.

The Sox just can't offer a guaranteed rate.

It’s more like wishing. Imagine Harper in a Sox jersey on the cover of MLB The Show 2019, imagine Sox fans everywhere in Harper jerseys, imagine fans actually showing up to GRate to watch Harper and Eloy. Is JR a moron or what?

The Sox could give Harper 400 million and I would be perfectly fine with it. Whatever it takes

https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20181204/report-thome-talks-up-white-sox-with-bryce-harper “The long term remains the priority. We aren't looking to do stopgap fixes, so to speak. In this free-agent market, there are potential opportunities to convert on premium talent that would fit along with what we're trying to develop for the long term.” Nova, Alonso, Jay, McCann, Santana... 🙄

They can and they are.

Especially in their own home park.

Starting the recruiting process for Kyle in six years

Wow. You really get a feel for the dearth of talent on the mlb squad when they split it up. The home game has two guys who are going to be starters in 2020, Jimenez and Anderson, and the road game has maybe two Moncada and Madrigal. This rebuild is going to take a while.

Back-to-back HR by Manny and Tatis Jr., including Robert and Jimenez colliding trying to rob the homer and both out for the season.

And they're basically family, why would i not tell one of my better friends that he should take the money since SD is still a nice place to go to. Also hilarious those guys should recruit for the Sox, neither had played a damn inning in a Sox uniform yet but they should have been the Sox #1 cheerleaders. GMAB

Honestly, I hope the anger doesn't subside. I hope that the last dregs of the fanbase keep this up all year. Look I know it's not fair to the players but they're extremely well paid to put up with this. It's not their fault, but if someone already bought their season ticket package they have already committed money to support the clowns in the front office. I mean, don't throw things from the bleachers, but if booing every single player all year is the response you want, at least you've gotten something from your money.

This is probably one good reason the “friends and family” approach has never been attempted in this way. The repercussions of it backfiring. So fans are rightfully wondering how they were willing to guarantee $250 million but not the extra $50 million they already wasted in veterans for this year’s roster, especially the $13 million for Alonso and Jay. Missing on both whales is one thing. Its this wasting of time and resources on players that have NOTHING whatsoever to do with the next White Sox playoff roster that has everyone seeing RED. It’s simply a combination of stopgaps and castoffs...we’re like The Island Of Misfit Toys. And yet we gave up on Narvaez with four years of control, are going with Nova/Santana over young pitchers who could still make it (at least as relievers)...forcing Palka into RF where he doesn’t belong, etc. None of it makes any logical sense now. Or subjecting fans to another year of Engel and now Jay when not even the woebegone Royals wanted him anymore. How could you expect any but the most lenient fans to give them a free pass with all the information that’s coming out?

Southsider2k5 might want to hold off on his blasting the fanbase canned speech...because if this ownership group can’t even out-execute the Padres, there’s no reason to believe the pieces to realistically compete with the Astros, Red Sox, Yankees and even Indians will ever be there. It will be the same chicken and egg argument...they expect fans to show loyalty first before they’re willing to spend. It’s just completely backwards, compared to how everyone but the smallest market teams operate. And those organizations like the Pirates (shifting/pitch framing), A’s and Rays (starting relievers, backwards approach to get early leads) are at least trying to innovate their way through revenue generation challenges.

For those who want to be optimistic and fully support the FO. Remember, this team has been garbage for 118 years. As once again evident below. It sucks to be us.

Now that we fell on our face and have no hope for 2019, it's time to trade Abreu. There's literally no logically reason to keep him. It's time to move on and let him leave

Well with those attendance issues at the United Center...the bulls can't spend $1 when all they have is $1.50

Any other billionaire owner with the smallest sense of dignity / ego would probably respond by making a fat offer to Harper right now. Not old man Reinsdorf, he’s probably smoking a cigar while reliving the glory days through his 2005 World Series box set.

The Sox will never have to sign an outside free agent for $30M+ in today's dollars to win. The problem is they showed that they actually are willing to do that, just not 9 and 10 years from now.

Caulfield you realize this isn’t the World Series today right?

Abreu is a very good player, who is a leader on this team. I would certainly support keeping him on the Sox

I'm sorry, but I can't encourage anyone to boo the players. I still like the idea of making signs, to hold up at the games. It would be interesting and might be effective to have fans get into making creative signs, with appropriate messages. But, please cheer for the players, and let them know that we understand that it's not their fault.

They don't introduce the general manager before every game. They introduce the players. If you're cheering for the players, if you buy tickets and pay the chairman for the parking lots, you are telling the White Sox that everything is ok and you're ok with how this went. If you already bought tickets...boo. Make them feel it. Management won't hear it otherwise.

So you are the rainbow eating smoke blower of positivity telling us the rebuild will fail?

I get being mad at the FO, but taking it out on guys like Yolmer and TA is ridiculous and unwarranted. These guys have done nothing but play hard since they came to the Sox.

Yup. Like I said, I have zero confidence in their coaching right now. I'm convinced they could have taken an 18 year old Mike Trout and turned him into a non-prospect, and a 21 year old Mike Trout and turned him into the biggest bust in MLB history.

Yep. I was also in the " don't get your hopes up" camp. I think you and I both expected a boring off season and unfortunately it turned out to be true. A 100 loss team is just not an attractive place for a big free agent to sign and having an owner that will only go so far financially doesn't help either. It was easy to see how people were picking and choosing what and who they believed in accordance to what they wanted to hear. It's why I made a few comments along the way about how the Machado thread would be a great psychological case study. I for one am happy as hell White Sox baseball is back and look forward to this season.

Right. They weren't brought in to recruit. They were brought in as a "look, we're going to likely suck this year. But you can spend the year with Alonso and Jay, your friends" type of move.

They got thrown in a really bad spot. I don't think anybody should be upset at them.

I understand he’s going to spin everything, but my god; the only thing good about this offseason is that he didn’t throw any long term committments (2+ years) to scrub players to burn through the payroll

The entire AL central has pathetic attendance numbers. All pretty much in bottom third except for Minnesota which is one spot behind Cleveland. I’m sure the freezing temps of April don’t help any of Central but that’s not the only factor.

After this off season expect this to decline even further for the Sox.

I wish everyone would unfollow them on twitter. That is one thing surely to get their attention.

Occam's Razor would suggest that the Sox FO is simply incompetent.

Yep. Could not agree more. Especially Jay. Fucker even said in a prior interview before Manny signed he would not get involved because it's Manny's business. Clearly that's not the case. These guys deserve whatever negative fan reaction they receive as long as they are on the team.