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This team fucking sucks and I'm losing my passion for it for the first time in my life.

It’s the White Sox. He will probably still start with Charlotte, get hit on the hand with a pitch, and miss 6-8 weeks.

Like I said before, it took them from an F to a D-

Unfortunately the vast majority of nice Gio dueces come right after his morning coffee.

Changes very little with this team for the next few years.

I really, really, really can't stand Garfien's optimism. His opinions will always be worthless.

Just to keep it positive I will say that this signing is at least one small step on a mile run for the Sox to win back my full interest and financial investment. As of today they still don’t have it. They may never will but if they can make a collection of moves that work out then it’s possible. If you are going to be cheap then you for damn sure better be smart.

I now grade this offseason a D--

My fellow Sox fans that won't let it go that we didn't sign Machado or Harper make me cringe. If you can't let it go, then go be a fan of another team. Enough already. If this entire season is going to be SoxTalk b****ing about that and thinking the front office and organization suck then I guess see ya later SoxTalk. Ya'll are depressing as can be. Get over it or move on to whatever team you want to follow next.

Rick Hahn is a wizard at using a lot of words to say absolutely nothing at all. He also sounds like a broken record every time he opens his mouth. The dude should go work as a sleazy corporate lawyer. He has been in over his head as a baseball general manager since his first day on the job.

Lol well he wasnt since he was the 30th ranked international signee in his class and was not considered a serious prospect by anyone hence what he signed for. Lol at 1-1

Great job of pitching this game, especially from Giolito. No wonder we don't need Dallas Keuchel.

of course hes starting the season on the big club is this even a question?

Once again, these comps are awful. Floyd and Garland were light years better than Giolito.

It’s not just them though. Even the guys like barstool Dave who was ready to riot at the Rate the day Machado signed with the Pads now sits and has a nice friendly conversation with Hahn and is all back on their side. It’s not just him though it’s everyone. Even Laurence Holmes plays nice. It’s fine, it’s their livelihood and they want to make sure they don’t jeopardize it by making enemies.

This Eloy deal would look so much nicer if he was hitting behind Machado in the lineup, but whatever. Draft Vaughn, sign Castellanos/JD Martinez and suddenly this lineup looks pretty good heading forward.

Sox have to be good at something.. playing baseball and signing top FA's aren't it..

I've been a Sox fan for nearly 50 years. For so many of the years the spring optimism went like..."what if Pat Kelly can hit .300 and steal 50 bases...what if Eric Soderholm develops into Mike Schmidt, what if Chet Lemon....It was stupid optimism over stupid players that were never very highly touted or likely to be stars. But it's what we had and we hoped. But now? Saying Madrigal could be Rod Carew is not crazy...saying Robert could be Ken Griffey, JR, Saying Eloy could be Albert Pujols, that Moncado could be Robinson Cano, Vaughan could be Frank Thomas...Cease, Rodon and Kopeck could be three of the best ten pitchers in baseball. None of that is impossible...and then there are the Lopez, Tim Anderson, Nick Collins, Giolito, Dunning, Hansen, Adolfo, Rutherford, Burger, Burdi, Basabe...all could be very good players. In the past the dream was like the 2005 dream...everything falls in place and you you win once. But today's dream is...everything falls into place and you have a dynasty.

I am fine never watching Delmonico play baseball ever again.

you're an idiot. please leave

It's a fine deal but we're not comparing it to guys on the open market in FA. We are comparing it to what he would have gotten in ARB, which if he's good, might be a substantial savings. If nothing else they got an extra year of control and have really solidified the relationship long term with him.

It's pretty awesome when anyone whose parents were cops and teachers grows up to become a many-millionaire.

Man, we're all gonna be saying what a great deal this was when we deal Eloy for a package headlined by Mike Sirotka Jr in 2025.

I, too, want everyone to discuss only the things I like and not discuss the things I don't like.

I guess I don't want hahn to be interviewed as much as lectured to. It's an easy answer that you have to balance the team value vs player value and it didn't match up this time. It's easy to act like you tried for harper. But he and some media do this thing where sox fans just have starry eyes and think you should throw money at every big free agent that comes along, and they need to be tough and realistic like the front office is. Two years ago when they started this rebuild they head nodded that they would shed salary while they amassed prospects, but that they would also spend money when the time came. It was obvious to fans like us and to hahn that he was talking about 2018-19 offseason where 2 superstars at age 26 would be available. When asked about this directly he did not shy away. He talked about how the money would be there, how they would have economic might due to the restructured team around cost controlled players. And so while in a typical situation where you have a fairly mature, competing roster toward the top of your budget, adding what would likely be another 1/3rd of your budget to one player would be a balancing act unlikely to tilt toward signing it. But that wasn't the sox situation. They had economic might and a target on these players backs because they were young, would be productive throughout the rebuild, and could afford to pay a large dollar amount to one player because the total budget would still be reasonable due to the amount of cheap talent. They keep answering the question as if signing this player maxed out their budget before they were in the rebuild, but that was not true. And we all know the real answer is that they were wrong about the market and what it would take and that they could get what it would take from a historically dogmatic owner on "what players should get". All of that could be predicted but they didn't because they were bad at their jobs and so that's not an interview question its a lecture but I want him to own up to it which he never will so all interviews will be bad. edit: I dont even know why i wrote that out, we all know the truth at this point it was written 1000x in a 6million page thread. But they are trying to change the narrative that it was about responsible choices when its actually that they are bad so i'll just repeat myself to everyone.

Did any of his teammates show up to his 21st birthday party?

Right there with you. I'm 32 years old and never thought I would see this day. I feel rotten for it, but fuck this franchise- I let my ticket rep know as much. It's no use cheering for L's either, since the same incompetent jackasses are going to waste draft picks on pure shit.

Best jerseys / logo in the league.

No one is crying more than you. As usual.

Ok, so your point is you’re content settling for the ineptitude and ineffectiveness of the owner and his front office. Set the expectations low and you won’t be disappointed seems to be your White Sox fan mindset. Fair enough, you are quite clear about that and certainly entitled to that opinion. Meanwhile, other fans are entitled to their own opinions as well, including the ones where they set the bar considerably higher than you do, which obviously with this owner/FO routinely leads to disappointment. C’est la vie! Others have the same right to b**** about that as much as you do to b**** about those who do.

So your answer is to lay back and take it up the ass? I mean who cares about this thread on soxtalk but I'd encourage every single Sox fan to make their opinion heard via their wallet in any way possible. I'm not spending a single dollar on MLB products and Sox shit this year or anytime soon. it's really the least I can do.

Gotta disagree here. Both the minors and free agency were going to have an impact on the rebuild’s success. A huge part of the value proposition of a rebuild is the financial flexibility that comes with it and Rick Hahn said as much when we kicked this thing off at the beginning. And no offense, while it’s great you don’t give a fuck about Machado for some reason, that also means you honestly believed relying solely on prospects was somehow going to work and that’s just horribly flawed logic. I normally agree with most of your opinions, but must respectfully question your view on the Machado / free agency angle here.

How did we win from 2003-05 when that #1 Baseball America 2000 minor league class was absolutely decimated by injuries and non-performance? That injury thing is now an excuse only Hahn’s family can get behind. The end. Plus we had four massive hauls via trade to provide a head start or cushion for that eventuality.

Injuries prevented the Sox from spending money on top free agents to improve their team as opposed to signing trash free agents and pocketing the rest of the unspent payroll? I didn’t realize this.

Everyone was convinced that the Sox front office would spend the money on good players to assist the rebuild when the time came. Well, the time came but now it is obvious that part of the rebuild strategy was simply being cheap and saving profits. Going after Machado and Harper “at their own price point” was one big sham to save face with the fans and I’m glad it has backfired on them. Hahn and Kenny have been proven to be both liars and terrible executives.

Looking forward to lots of opportunities to list players' names in short, one- to two-line segments. Sometimes with first names, sometimes: what the hell Yelich, Cain, Braun, Bob Uecker Jon Rauch Rocky Biddle, Buehrle, Mike Caruso, Parque, (James Baldwin, the Milkman); even Ricky Henderson/Bobby Bonilla if all goes right Also looking forward to pivoting to lists of unrelated, vaguely esoteric-sounding topics. Monetary theory. World War I. Malcolm Gladwell: Tipping Point? Also links https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/17/as-recession-looms-could-mmt-be-the-unorthodox-solution-modern-monetary-theory Long embedded quotes of questionable relevance and provenance "The most recent indiscretion of sign-stealing, or at least alleged sign-stealing, took place on Monday in a game between the Yankees and Orioles, After the final out of the game was made, Andino yelled at Yankees catcher Russell Martin as the victorious Yankees made their way down the handshake line at midfield, as seen in the video here. He was evidently egged on by Martin, who had something to say to Andino after he believed he was tipping the location of Mariano Rivera's pitches in the final inning. Allegations like this from Martin are nothing new, but more on that later." Starting threads

Rebuilding wasn't necessarily wrong. What was wrong was who was in charge of doing it. Clowns who couldn't recognize major league talent and could not develop players were now going all prospects. Crazy. I do agree, JR needs to sell his teams. Let someone else give it a go. His way isn't working and hasn't for a long wbile.

You’re going to spend equal amounts of time chastising Balta, Dick Allen, Fathom, Chitownsportsfan and Chicago White Sox for assuming the exact same position? At least I was consistent in never believing Hahn could steer this ship away from an iceberg...

Is that markedly better than “I told/warned you guys from the beginning that rebuilding wasn’t as easy as it appeared” and “White Sox fans aren’t going to support any team that’s not a guaranteed World Series contender, look at 2010 and 2012.” ??? Doesn’t that get old to keep reiterating as well? You’re not going to change the tenor of conversation by placing the blame on the backs of Sox fans...not after what they all just went through this offseason. That will be about as popular a position as taking hamburgers, guns and airplanes away from 33% of the populace.

I hate to say it but most of us know it's true. The only way out of this current White Sox irrelevance is new ownership. Until that happens, I expect more Tommy Johns, more bad draft picks, more free agent low-ball offers, consistent lack of development (especially at the position player side of things) and more excuses from the big guys upstairs. Oh but we will be continuously reminded that pre-existing narratives have changed and that the White Sox and Cubs made a deal, and that they will spend premium money on international talent. Okay, Rick, i'll give it to you, that was a Hell of a trade and the Robert signing was awesome. But you have made more questionable deals than good ones, so lets focus on that. The Sale deal doesn't look so good as of now, the Shields deal was tragic and I don't care how cute it was when you called yourself a jackass about it. The Eaton deal appears to be a wash at this point.. We are sitting here today with an above average farm system, a horrible MLB roster and a TON of $$ to spend that will NOT be spent on superstar talent (unless that notable superstar will take a coupon instead of guaranteed $$) .And with all of these premium superstars signing early, the free agent market looks very bleak the next few seasons. Seriously, what are White Sox fans supposed to do? We are supposed to give hope to a management that dug us this tremendous hole to begin with? Ugh. This is beyond rock bottom. This is baseball Hell! Someone please talk me off the ledge.... (not literally).

Yes, Semien had one decent year. He was a nothing prospect - once again - that the Sox helped develop into an MLB player. Losing him has no impact on the team today, and is not something any other fan base would dwell on.

It is there, it just never was going to be nearly as quick as a lot of people had convinced themselves. Two years ago there were people talking about this team being our next playoff team. I don't know why, but a lot of people convinced themselves of a lot of unrealistic things.

I hope that fans do not get on him if he struggles a bit at first. Congrats to Eloy...now just have some fun crushing the hell out of baseballs on the South Side for years to come.

The service time manipulation doesnt matter once he signs. 8 years is 8 years.

Theres absolutely nothing complimentary about someone telling you that you won something - especially a title - because of luck. Have you ever competed at anything in your life? I imagine you have. To claim calling a win historically lucky is a compliment is so laughable idk what to say. There's nothing complimentary about being called a lucky winner.

Meanwhile parents that will walk a thousand miles, sneak across the border, to give their kids a better life are invaders looking for a handout.