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The two biggest holes on this roster are a decent #4 starter and a left-handed bat that plays the IF. Jerry not being willing to pony up like $3M for a Brad Miller type is beyond fucking pathetic.

Based on projections from the two most commonly known online baseball projection websites, most positions have a clear advantage of one player over another. PS - Don't shoot the messenger about First Base. Projections: fWAR = Fan Graphs presented first vs. warp = Baseball Prospectus presented second Consensus Picks in Bold: (Both sites project one player over another) Catcher Yasmani Grandal (4.1 / 4.7) over Wilson Contreras (1.9 / 2.9) First Base Anthony Rizzo (3.0 / 4.7) over Jose Abreu (1.8 / 2.9) Second Base Nick Madrigal (2.3 / 2.7) over Nico Hoerner (1.0 / 1.3) Shortstop Tim Anderson (2.6 / 2.0) over Javier Baez (2.6 / 1.9) => (fWAR tied, BP with slight edge to Anderson - basically a coin flip) Third Base Kirk Bryant (2.9 / 2.8) over Yoan Moncada (3.1 / 2.3) => (slight advantage to Bryant based on larger BP difference of 0.5 vs. Moncada's 0.2 fWAR advantage) Right Field Jason Heyward (1.7 / 1.8) over Adam Eaton (1.3 / 1.9) => (slight advantage to Heyward based on larger fWAR difference of 0.4 vs. Eaton's 0.1 BP advantage) Center Field Luis Robert (3.4 / 3.2) over Ian Happ (2.4 / 1.5) Left Field Eloy Jimenez (3.2 / 2.6) over Joc Pederson 2.0 / 2.2) Starting Pitcher 1 Lucas Giolito (4.2 / 2.9) over Kyle Hendricks (2.7 / 2.6) Starting Pitcher 2 Lance Lynn (3.0 / 2.0) over Zach Davies (1.4 / 1.1) Starting Pitcher 3 Dallas Keuchel (2.5 / 1.4) over Alec Mills (0.8 / 1.4) => (BP tied, fWAR with large edge to Keuchel) Starting Pitcher 4 Dylan Cease (1.5 / 0.4) over Adbert Alzolay (0.8 / 0.8) => (slight advantage to Cease based on larger fWAR difference of 0.7 vs. Alzolay's 0.4 BP advantage) Starting Pitcher 5 Michael Kopech (1.0 / 0.9) over Trevor Williams (0.7 / 0.1) Closer Liam Hendriks (1.9 / 1.3) over Craig Kimbrel (0.8 / 0.7)

Except the White Sox have had about a 25-30% success rate in free agency with these Tier B/C free agents like EE, Alonso, LaRoche, Cabrera, etc. The only way this philosophy works is if you’re at closer to 50-60% in free agency, or have great coaching as well as talent evaluation on a consistent basis. Teams like the Rays, Braves, Cardinals, Brewers, Indians and A’s just a few that come to mind. What doesn’t work well is being stuck in the middle. Which is where the Mariners have been since their near great Ichiro-led teams of the early 2000’s.

Gonna be up to local jurisdictions

The players continue to get f**ked. There needs to be a lot of changes. Unfortunately, the owners are some of the most greedy pieces of shit possible. Love the conversation in this thread. A salary floor is an absolute must. We need to push it up, someone said 85 mil, I might even go 100mill, but I don't have any stats in front of me.

I am going to get ridiculed for this, but i don't care. Money isn't always the primary factor playing into a free agent's decision. Many times, yes, it probably is. But not always. See: Zack Wheeler 2019-2020 offseason

I'm with you. They need to fix the pre-arb system. I'm not a big shot actuary or attorney I'm not going to throw out proposals but it doesn't take a genius to see the current system is broken.

Can't help but think....that's not good for baseball. Teams need to have an absolute salary floor and ceiling.

I agree. If this were Pittsburgh, I think it would be fine. But being in a major market, it honestly is an embarrassment.

But it's LAD that is standing in Hahn's way of achieving multiple championships. Until the Sox are owned by affluent sportsmen that càn compete with LAD, the Sox may contend but not win. Do you really think LAD fans àre tossing and turning in their sleep worrying about the 100 plus million the team owners may end up paying Bauer? They have expectations. The Reinsdorf Experience in any other major market wouldn't have lasted 3 years let alone 40. And in those 40 years they've made the post seasons 6 friggin times and it took a group of journeymen ballplayers having collective career years for them to get pass the first round in the only time they did.

He's a paper billionaire. He'd have to sell off the Sox and the Bulls to come anyway near realizing that kind of money. I want the next owners to be Cohen / Balmer wealthy. The Sox could take over this town with the right ownership and a new venue smartly located in the downtown area to grab that tourist dollar that seems to find its way to Clark and Addison. Reinsdorf is many things - a visionary he is not. It's mind-boggling he didn't take Mayor Washington up on his offer to anchor the up and coming South Loop. .

Puig is not getting interest from any MLB team, think about that, there is a reason for that.

Harold....why did we suddenly get tapped out now when I thought after Hendriks there was at least 8m left to spend just on another SP and allegedly another 7m for a bat? How did that 15m suddenly become 3m overnight? Was it just an inaccurate number to begin with?

Downers are my favorite... umm pitch.

Nice to name it after Hector Gomez.

Hopefully this isn't the the Ricky Vaughn Eliminator

Using their ridiculously low payrolls at peak rebuild to suggest they spent most of the Machado money is poor logic. The reality is that money has not been spent at this point in time. However, if they can extend Giolito & Lynn and possibly add a few years onto Anderson’s deal I’d probably change my tune.

There is nothing that bad about the move. If it works - you have a QB at a very fair deal. If it doesn't - a new regime comes in next year and your draft a QB or whatever they want to do. Not that bad of a set back. Now when it turns out Bears are giving up a 1st plus another 1st or something - whole nother story. If it is Wentz & a 2nd for Foles, 1st, and Anthony Miller - I'd say that is a pretty damn good deal. But I'm a Wentz fan (other than this past year). He's been a top 10 QB in the league pretty much every year but this past year. That is a HUGE fricking upgrade from anything the Bears have had in a long time. And just look at the Eagles offenses these past few years. Weak wideouts, injuries, horrible oline play...the list goes on and on. Last year it finally ruined Wentz - the key is that Bears have to hope it was more of a one year ruin where he can turn things around pretty quickly. I'm betting yes and if I'm wrong - who cares - it doens't set the franchise back at all.

Last year he did. In 2019 Aaron Rodgers led the league in bad throw %. The question is whether Wentz is as bad as last year, only as good as 2019, or 2017 good still in there somewhere.

I like the Sox at every position but the Cubs still have an intact core of Bryant Rizzo Contreras, Baez, Heyward and now Joc Pedersen. Maybe they will be better than we think. Schwarber was a good non-tender and Joc could hit 30+ HR, especially in Wrigley. They needed a TOR starter or two which is why the Ricketts probably should have been in on Bauer. Not sure what the plan is over there.

I’d take the Sox at every position but RF and even there an Adam/Adam platoon has the potential to be better than Heyward.

I ... kinda like Wentz. Bears aren’t in a good position regardless, it doesn’t really hurt long term. And the situation was legit awful. If he ends up being a 12-14 QB and you want to move on, you could have a great contract with no guaranteed money to send out. I just really don’t trust NFL fan orthodoxy anymore. And I’ve just not really seen a qb as good as Wentz was lose it to that point. I also think the complete dismissal of Mac Jones as just a product of the talent around him has a good chance of being the new big draft groupthink that ends up wrong.

I generally agree with the sentiment that stars should get paid, but I don’t actually think many people tune in to see Bauer. I’ve never seen a Bauer jersey. He’s more loud than popular.

Sorry for the late reply I suppose I was alluding to colome and they also picked up Ian Hamilton. I realize the later needs to prove things but he does have chance to be effective. My main point is they did things pretty quietly and they are still the team to beat.

Sounds like Giolito paid a visit to one of those Innovative Ketamine medical practices that are popping up around Chicago

The lease at 35th & Shields is up at the end of the decade, but unlike the late ‘80s when the South Loop was an option, is there even any location in the “downtown area” these days where a new ballpark could even be built? I have no idea. But it’s certainly exciting to think of the possibilities. I can’t think a new and improved ballpark, one with more seating than just the 40,000 capacity of the current one, won’t be something the new owner, whoever that turns out to be, won’t be thinking about seriously.

I actually support a star like Bauer getting insane money. People tune-in to see him pitch. People buy his jerseys. Superstars make the league money. It is the next tier of player that is way out of wack IMHO. Adam Eaton is not significantly more valuable to the game/product than a pre-arb outfielder. I expect him to earn more than an unproven player, but not 16X more.

A salary cap and/or floor would have to be accompanied by sharing of local TV revenue.

https://twitter.com/HotStoveintel/status/1357825623272673280?s=09

Agree 100%. Either pay a little extra now to fill some spots or retain your prime talent. But to refrain from spending now AND allowing our talent to exit in a few years would be inexcusable.

Okay so sign Robbie Grossman instead of Eaton and you'd be at $1 million more than the Sox current payroll. This is the exact type of deal that I was going to be mad about when Hendriks signed for big money. A great fit on this team for reasonable money and the Sox weren't in on him at all because they blew their wad on a closer.

Would Engel in RF be worse than Collins at DH?

“Billion dollar business doesn’t understand things that Soxtalk figured out last September. Film at 11.”

It won't matter how much jr has. He will just pocket the extra money. Seriously fuck that guy!

Fuck Trevor Bauer and Fuck the Dodgers. Time for MLB to get a grip. Salary caps + revenue sharing = Credibility and competitiveness. Economic Stimulus checks are too big you say? 40 Million / $1,400 = 28,571 people Sorry to wax about political/social ideology, but wealth inequality in this country just gets uglier every time you see something like this.

Isn't the main objective in sports to win championships? [Refraining from Jerry Reinsdorf jokes] ... Other than Watson, there is no QB on the market who makes the Bears a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Not Wentz, not Carr, not Garoppolo, or whoever else is rumored to be available. The rest of the Bears team isn't good enough. OL is average at best, we're about to lose our our best offensive player, and the defense is another year older... Keep Foles, ride out a shitty 6-10 season next year, and start to stockpile assets while getting the salary cap back in order. That's the strategic long-term play here. Except we kept a GM who is desperate and will make short-term moves to gain an extra win or two, leaving us in a long-term bind. On that note, Pace has zero understanding of asset management. He trades away draft picks like they're nothing because he always has to move up to get "his guy." The problem with this is that history/analytics show that trading up is a bad idea. Hell, per the Under Center pod a few weeks ago, Pace tried to trade up for Kmet last year (thankfully he couldn't). After all his bad trades, he still hasn't learned his lesson. What makes anyone think he's trustworthy of fixing this team?

I personally think the name goes great with the logo of our beloved stadium. Hell, he should advertise the pitch and have Guaranteed Rate sponsor it with their logo.

This only puts them in a better position to compete with us.

So folks that can actually afford to own and operate a major market ballclub swooped in an signed Bauer. So much for that. Too bad, what a forminable pitcher that would been for the CWS. CWS has got to spend some money. Filling a need by trading the few assets they have just create holes elsewhere. That's why organizations like LAD are consistently in the hunt. They nuture their budding stars and spend money on vetted difference makers. That has never been nor ever will be the Reinsdorf Doctrine.

Two take aways; 1: Some White Sox fans were worried about signing a starter and blocking Dylan Cease or Michael Kopech while the Dodger just signed a starter to potentially block Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin - because they understand how important depth it, this year more than any other possibly as well. That's how big boy teams operate, and people calling this a bad deal are insane. Very very little risk for the Dodgers given the length of the deal. 2: The White Sox should check in on Tony Gonsolin because he would be an amazing add to this roster and he's undoubtedly the odd man out for the Dodgers and he's cost affordable which we know is imperative for the how this cheap ass organization operates.

The truck is always one of the first signs of Spring.

He seemed pretty solid this season when I followed him but I can't recall him breaking anything like this Wentz's numbers are a lot better than I thought. If they make this trade they better fucking protect his ass better than they did Cutler

You don't sign Cruz because Vaughn is the guy this year, just like Robert and Madrigal were last year. You don't sign the 1 year pitcher to block Kopech. When you have young studs, you bring them up.

Yeah, I for one want nothing to do with the current NL Cy Young winner. I can't wait to look at August when Carlos Rodon is giving up a long home run to Cruz. Hey we might lose this game, but at least he didn't do something on Twitter. Glad you have your principles. I could give a fuck if he puts on a puppet show on Twitter every Friday if he is the best pitcher available. I want that on my team. These principled people who don't want X person because it hurts their sensibilities are funny. I would rather get the best available player. The same people who hated AJ before he was here loved him here. Dennis Rodman, sure when he was with Detroit you hated him. I want the best player. If he is doing something illegal then no. Dont want him. But because he has X opinion or uses twitter or makes something about himself. Good lord.

I was told it'll be official next week

I realize this is yet another thread that has evolved into "fuck the cheap owner, I hope he dies." I will stick to my stand of not being overly upset at how the White Sox spend their money until it comes down to retaining our own talent. That's where I will be holding pitchforks and stones with the rest of you. I don't want to hear Rick Hahn and Reinsdorf cry poor when it's time to pay up for Lucas Giollito. When it's time to re-extend Tim Anderson or any of the other young players we have that have broken out to stars at some point. If we have another bail out like in the 90s of losing our core in McDowell, Fernandez, Alvarez, Ventura all because we didn't want to pay the market on our own guys, I'm going to have a real big issue with that.

The Sox payroll is about league average. What more do people want? JR is down to his last billion. What more can you ask for?

If they're on the verge of giving Gio a 9 figure extension, then I would understand the penny pinching. Otherwise, it's disappointing. They had a chance to grab this division by the balls and they passed on that opportunity.

I agree the contention window opened in 2020, and the Sox spent on major free agents - Grandal, Keuchel, Encarnacion - that they hadn't before, and committed much more to extend Jose Abreu than most fans thought wise. They also locked up two cornerstones in Robert and Moncada. This year they added Lynn. It's a one-year deal but gives them an inside track on extending him if it makes sense. They added Hendriks for several years. Eaton, meanwhile, is just a bridge player. But they are also bringing up Vaughn and Kopech and giving Collins a chance as backup catcher. The payroll is going to grow considerably as all the young guys move gain experience, and as their contracts call for. Take any of the studs they have on long term deals. Moncada - 2021 $6.8M, 2025 $25M Robert - 2021 $3.5M, 2025 $15M Jimenez - 2021 $4.3M, 2025 $16.5M Anderson - 2021 $7.25M, 2024 $14M Just for these 4 guys, 2021 $21.85M, 2025 $70M (fudging b/c Tim Anderson signed only through 2024). Add in potentially doing something about Giolito, who only receives 4.15M in 2021 and you have the potential to increase payroll with just 5 guys by $70M. If looked at this way, you can see why the Sox weren't in on Springer or Bauer, especially on long term contracts. They have been willing to supplement the core with short term free agents - 3-4 years tops - who they desperately have to replace with younger players in their cost-controlled years. So Lynn and Keuchel are bridges to Cease and Kopech and Crochet becoming TOR starters. Eaton is a bridge to Cespedes and/or Colas (if we sign him). It's hard to believe Collins will ever be a front line catcher, but he has 3 years to learn under Grandal before the Sox have to decide. Vaughn will eventually take over for Abreu. We all think the Sox are a major market team and should act like one. But we all know the Sox play second fiddle to the Cubs financially, even when the Cubs are bad and the Sox are good. Chicago is likely never going to become a Sox town. Though another World Series title would help. So I don't fault the team for it's approach. They have financial limits. I might not like them, but I can understand them. I don't think they are just cheaping out. I just want them to spend the money they have wisely, and to develop the players they have to play their best, and to win games with good management. I'm excited about the prospects for this team and think we have a shot. I think we'll win the division by several games and are set up well for playoff baseball. But that's another post.

Long answer: no they have not Short answer: no