Leaderboard

"BAN RON"

Danny DeVito with his thumbs up and girls with giant cans around him. No words.

Mookie is great and I would love to have him here, but the price is probably way to high for 1 year of great player in a window that still might not quite be open. If you want him pony up the dough next offseason.

atrophy is such a big word baseball is about fun not big words.

My billboard would be positive: The word "Congratulations" in Sox script (with pix of Timmy and Abreu for leading league) and below that "2020: Pursuit of a trophy, not atrophy!"

I would be a better owner than a GM. I'm dead serious about this.

"Ron883 wants to bring Jose Abreu back at any cost!"

If Machado had a 109 OPS+ / 3.1 WAR year after signing a 300 million contract with the Sox, people would be calling for his head.

And he was still a 3 WAR.

I would rather not trade the few chips we have. Our minors are not stacked with talent. We have plenty of $ to spend. In RF I would take any of Ozuna, Dickerson, Puig. I dont want Castellanos bc of his poor D. We dont need Eloy and him at corners in the OF. SP I' take 2 of Odorizzi, Wheeler, Ryu, Keuchel.... of course, if a FA Stras should be the first target. Cole is not happening w/ the teams that will be going after him. Grandal should be a target. Grab a couple of BP arms. Yolmer should be replaced by Mendick. Use the Yolmer $ towards the above.

I don't want peeps to get banned but I hope in the future they are as lenient on greg as a couple peeps saying rude stuff to me.

I've posted a few times that we cannot address all of our needs by just throwing big money at free agents. Aside from trading from the farm, one potential avenue is to find reclamation projects, bounce back candidates in FA for cheap and they could potentially play a big role for us. For the sake of this exercise, let's keep consider anyone less than $5M AAV as a under the radar signing. (Scooter Gennett seems like a popular choice, but I still see him getting a 2 year contract north of $15M). With that said, who is our James McCann of the 2019 off season?

Give him 8/250 then hire Joe Maddon so he can play RF and 1B.

Aight, this was good.

A picture of Abreu with a cheek full of dip.

As for what I would trade, that is a tough question because I think that whatever I propose would get laughed at by Red Sox fans or front office. Basically, Robert is the only true untouchable but I'm also not really interested in trading Madrigal or Vaughn. I've also said I'm not too interested in trading pitching prospects. I think Steele Walker would have to be the headliner here... and he's not THAT much of a headliner. Quantity over quality then... so Walker and 1 of Adolfo/Rutherford/Basabe/Gonzalez, then a low level guy like Lenyn Sosa and then that 4th nobody prospect that nobody cares about. Then throw the bank at Betts, sign him, and don't give a crap you traded 2 of the systems best OF prospects.

Not true if you don't have the money to spend.

Preach on Brother! +1 to ya

I vote for the Cubbie game where Eloy hit the game winning homer. I was at that one and would like to relive the following...I did not see it but my wife said that whoever caught the ball was a Sox fan in the bleachers who, amid the cheers of "throw it back", stood on his chair holding his prize up high...Then he kissed the ball and sat back down. The Sox fans were very loud at Wrigley that night...it was awesome!!!

Haven't heard Jason Castro's name thrown out there. Not a bad idea. Still not thrilled with JDM since he's a no go basically for any defensive purpose, Gardner shouldn't be too expensive and provides depth in CF while he starts in RF and he's likely to hit as many HR's as Mazara while playing better defense. Mazara's upside HR total is higher but Gardner better D by far and also OBP . Of course if Mazara breaks out with us he's a great choice but odds of that are low but I'd understand the gamble since you always look at upside, then you get nice pieces for him when he hits FA in 2 years.Gardner might even be a good influence on Eloy. Save some money from JDM if you want to explore the Grandal option or Moose for DH, backup at 1st or purely 1st base if Abreu can mostly shift to DH. But ABreu and Moose can split DH or however they can work it out. Moose can also provide a heck of a lot of depth at 3rd and 2nd base too. Starting pitcher still needs as close to a 1 or 2 that we can get. Not sure Ordorizzi or Wacha is that. Lots and lots of ways they can go but always have to keep LH , power, OBP and, positional versatility and defense in mind when discussing it all.

The official anthem of greg775 and volehoopster

"We've been patient."

I never thought that the Sox were serious about shelling out $300+M for either Machado or Harper, and still believe that the Sox's reported contract offer(s) to Machado were either planted by the Sox front office to give fans the impression that they were trying to sign him or by Machado's agent as a bargaining tactic. JR has never spent more than $69M on a single contract, and the idea that he'd suddenly spend $300M seems really unbelievable to me. Given how this organization's young (and not terribly expensive) position players have developed, our current need for starting pitching, and the reality of the organization's payroll limitations, I have to say that I'm really happy that neither of these two are in a Sox uniform. If only the Sox front office didn't beclown itself with the stupid Alonso/Jay signings, I'd say that they did the right thing. I really enjoyed watching this team this season and am looking forward to 2020.

If the Sox could have a do-over Harper would have been the better target.

Couldn't happen to a more wonderful GM.

No I would not trade for him. If the Red Sox can't get an extension inked with him then we can't either, and that's not an indictment of our front office. Whatever dollar amount we're willing to pay...Betts's side will know that if we're willing to pay it, there will likely be other teams willing to match it, and he wants to let the market play out. That is a respectable decision. If the White Sox put an offer on the table next March, and then they faced the prospect of losing him for nothing, they might up their bid under that pressure. From the White Sox's side, we cannot afford to lose a top 5 draft pick in a trade for a guy with 1 year of control who intends to hit the free agent market. It just does not work.

The price would be way too high, in my opinion. Minor league development is the most sure way to have extended success.

Too many good players is a problem I want to have

Give me Wheeler, JD Martinez, a competent right fielder, a back end of the rotation starting pitcher, and a reliever and I'll be happy.

I think the first play of the second half when Mack just took Cousins heart(And the ball) was my favorite

Absolutely. Reinsdorf could draw 3 million a season but remember his rent goes up with attendance. He got his cost-contained WS championship in 2005. I was really hoping he'd sell high then. We need a cultural change. We should be like the St. Louis Cardinals - perennial contenders. Unfortunately the White Sox have not been blessed historically with stellar ownership. The Yankees legacy could have easily been the White Sox but Charles Comiskey was too damn cheap. Legend has it, he actually had first dibs on Babe Freakin Ruth but wouldn't pay him the 15k he wanted. The Sox won the WS in 1917. Should have won it in 1919. They were poised to go an historic run but money got in the way. The more things change......

I mean trades like taking on high salary to get solid prospects. Teams will be dumping high priced good players to get under the luxury tax.

You explain it by Semien was better overall. Tim's defense hurt his WAR as did his inability to walk. Semien was better in just about everything except batting average. Try looking at stats instead of making general assumptions. Despite Tim's batting average being higher by 50 points Semien OBP was better . Also Semien was on the field much more than Tim so he accumulated more WAR. For this year Semien was the more valuable player and was key in Oakland getting to the playoffs again despite the lowest payroll in baseball. Tim is 3 years younger so perhaps looking ahead more people may prefer Anderson but not this year. The clear obvious better player this year was Semien. Marcus Semien might even get a few MVP votes.

Enhancing the roster ? Half the roster is crap. Of course players and coaches talk about playoffs . Do you expect anything else ?

I love King Timmy Anderson and am not bagging on him. Just making an attempt to bag on the advanced stat folks who probably don't care Jose Abreu led the AL in RBIs. Way to go Jose. But in trying to say I don't care about advanced stats much, Marcus Semien had 8.2 WAR this year; Timmy had 3.9 WAR. Would an Oakland fan be right in saying, "you keep your Tim Anderson; we want Marcus Semien whose WAR is so much greater than your Anderson." I would say probably 10 out of 10 baseball fans would take Anderson over Semien. So how do you explain this WAR thing, folks?

Too many players and coaches are openly talking about making the playoffs next year. There will be signings and improvement. The losing part is over as we will not be in the running for top 7 picks. The rebuild is OVAH. Now we will be enhancing the roster.

In all my years here, I don’t recall a single poster who could single handedly bring down the quality of the board this much. Like even Greg’s insanity results in a good chuckle once in a while. You’d think the non-stop whining would get tiring, but alas he keeps on chugging.

I feel bad for whoever sits next to you in the office. The Bears are up 16 against a good Vikings team and all you can do is repeat ad nauseam how bad Mitch is. Like my god, do you ever shut up?

2020 win total prediction: 94

We ain't gonna tank forever guys. 12 games better than last. Lets be 18 19 better than this next year

Not mad that young guys are stepping up big time. We can still get a really good player at 11.

With my plan there are no contracts beyond three years. It maintains all our flexibility while we see how the later prospects develop. Grandal is the only higher dollar guy. He turned down 4-60 so I don't think 15 a year will do it especially when other teams will be in the mix. It is why I front load the deal(24/20/16) to make it more appealing to him, put teams with tighter payrolls at a disadvantage, and make him cheaper as he ages and performance might decline. Having a solid defensive catcher is important for our young starters. Last 4 yrs OPS .816,.767, .815, .843. Total WAR 4 yrs 11.5 (Castellanos 4 yr WAR 6.3)(Gardner 4 yr WAR 15.2!) Gloves mater, a run prevented is as good as a run scored. Yolmer is not a star and his WAR has gone from 3.5>2.6>2.2 while he got more expensive, 4.6 million this year. Yet, only six guys had more WAR on this team. He would become a backup for us and thus I drop his pay while guaranteeing him some longevity. Look at the injuries contending teams have overcome. You could play him awhile and suffer less than many. Most sites value one WAR at 7-8 million. At a 3.3 million avg it is not overpaying. He is more expensive than Mendick(still unproven and zero walks) who would be plan B if Yolmer wants more money or a starting role but for now we can afford it. He came up through our Latin American program and it was mentioned how he is looked at as a model for that program amongst the young guys involved now. Obviously popular amongst teammates, I am giving him a chance to remain at a fair price while giving him some financial security.

Like Machado, Grandal is another guy I don’t trust once he gets paid.

It's funny they rag on the Twins for having guys who were busted for juicing but want the Sox to get a guy who was busted for juicing.

This board’s obsession with Grandal is nearly matching last winter’s obsession with Machado. Pass. Pitching should be priority #1, #2, and #3 followed by RF and DH. They’re fine at catcher for next season just like they were fine at infield this season. No reason to spend big bucks on that position with McCann back and Collins waiting in the wings.

1 Cole Calhoun AND Nick Castellanos Get 'em both. 2. A top or middle of rotation (1,2 or 3 slot) starter. 3. Bullpen arm or two. 4. Don't trade away any players in our core.

Half of the 40 man could be let go and nobody would be shocked

Another Jack Parkman hot take... shocker.

He had a career .348 OBP, it was .363 over a 10 year prime period, and he had 3 full seasons of a .400+ OBP. Along with good defense I will take that any day of the week and in a double header on Sunday.

I'd expect Madrigal at best to do something like 280/320/380. Frankly I'd expect his season to look a lot like Yolmer's this year. Maybe with better more consistent defense and a few more points on the triple slash. In his prime Madrigal should be an excellent starter but as a rookie I think he's going to be about 1.5 WAR. Sox should be looking to bring in stud hitters at DH/RF. We've talked endlessly about the options. Just get it done.