Chicago White Sox

So @ChiSox59 recently put together an excellent offseason plan that really got me excited and made it clear to me just how important landing Gerrit Cole is. He without question would fill our biggest hole, which is a durable, proven ace that can anchor our young pitching and lead a postseason charge. Yes, we could find other arms to help anchor the staff, but they are unlikely to be as dominant as Cole should be over the course of our window. Imagine a staff built around Cole, Giolito, Kopech, & Cease. While we have the financial flexibility available that’s what we should be shooting for. Now for the hard part. I have been and remain somewhat skeptical they can get this done. IMO, Cole should garner close to the largest contract in baseball history for a pitcher. That would be put him somewhere around 7/$210M if I had to guess. To me, the dollars are not the problem as we literally just offered Machado $250M and can easily afford to pay this guy $30M/year. No, the real concern is the number of years and Reinsdorf’s general risk aversion to pitching. The longest non pre-arb deal we’ve ever given out to a pitcher is the five year commitment we made to John Danks and that ended badly for us. So here’s my question, can Hahn & KW convince Jerry that this is the ultimate finishing move to the rebuild and one that would put us in a tremendous spot to win a World Series? Hahn has claimed multiple times these past few years that many of the pre-conceived notions of the organization are slowly being wiped away (would never rebuild, would never trade with the Cubs, would never go into the LatAm penalty box). The biggest one remaining is signing a stud free agent and the Sox epically blew the Machado swepstakes after swinging their dicks around all offseason. Signing Cole is their chance to make up for that and it’s Jerry’s opportunity to prove once and for all that’s he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win one last World Series. What are your thoughts here? Do you think we make a serious pursuit? How far do you think we’re willing to go? Who the are biggest threats here? How much do you think he ultimately gets? Please share your thoughts and don’t just be a hater and simply say “no”. Make a case why or why not this may be possible.

I’m sure it was already posted here, but Hahn pretty much confirmed we won’t be seeing Robert until 2020.

Vaughn is the future at 1B, so that won’t be an option for Eloy. And Hahn has made it perfectly clear they have no interest in moving him from LF anytime soon. Down the road that may change and by then Abreu will be long gone.

Alright, with the trade deadline just over two weeks away, I figured it’s time for an official “predictions” thread. While it’s always cool to guess something right, both realistic and crazy predictions are welcome here. Here are my official predictions: LHP Aaron Bummer to the Rays for RF Jesus Sanchez & PTBNL RHP Alex Colome & cash to the Braves for LHP Luis Gohara OF Blake Rutherford to the Diamondbacks for RHP Zack Greinke & cash

Statcast would disagree with you. The quality of contact has been great this year, with Jose posting the highest barrel %, exit velocity, & hard hit rate over his past five seasons. They actually think he’s been unlucky this year, with his wOBA 22 points below expectations. The problem with Jose is he’s drawing less walks and making less contact than usual. He may be selling out other parts of his game to gain more power, which with the juiced ball may make sense. IMO, he’s still a ~ wRC+ 120 hitter and that still has plenty of value. He should be moved to DH if retained though, that I agree with. And I wouldn’t give him more than a two year extension.

You’re vastly underselling his power potential IMO, especially when you factor in the juiced ball. I think he settles around 10 HR’s a year ultimately with plenty of doubles & triples.

The Sox are going to be hard pressed to get a TOR starter via trade even with Madrigal or Vaughn as the centerpiece. The secondary pieces are just not that valuable at the moment.

Are you including Abreu in that $50M?

There is zero reason we can’t go out and sign Bumgarner or Wheeler. They will get five years max (probably less with Wheeler) and that’s something we can easily do. We didn’t miss out on Machado because of the AAV, we missed out on him over the years.

Pretty simple, Hahn didn’t want to commit any long-term money or use any of his prospect currency just yet. Next offseason is a totally different story and to suggest an Ivan Nova caliber starter is the best they’ll do is hating just to hate. And by no means am I suggesting will acquire the right guy ultimately, but he sure as shit will commit significantly more resources than the $9M and lottery ticket Ivan Nova cost.

No offense, but this is straight garbage. By all means question whether they’ll add a legit star in free agency, but there are multiple tiers of free agents better than Ivan fucking Nova. If that’s what you truly believe, then you might as well turn in your fan card in right now as the rebuild would be completely doomed.

What does the 2017 draft have to do with anything?

Hal Steinbrenner operates much differently than his father. While by default they should probably be the favorite, they are far from a sure thing. Their financial situation isn’t as rosy as it might seem if they continue to operate like they have in recent years.

They aren’t moving Eloy to 1B (or DH) anytime soon, they seem committed to Collins at catcher, and Reed is nothing more than a flier. Vaughn is the future at 1B, but after that I’d say Sheets is the most likely to contribute at 1B/DH and we have some time with him. Giving Abreu a 2/$25M extension makes a ton of sense IMO.

Not at all. I think he’s around because we still need a placeholder at 1B/DH until Vaughn is ready (even if we bring back Abreu).

Him being risk adverse or even cheap is completely different than wanting to suppress long-term salaries across the sport as Harold suggested.

You really seem to have an irrational hate of the dude. Like I’m no fan, but you to take it to another level.

Let me ask you this, has there been a more desirable starting pitcher in recent memory? I just don’t see why he doesn’t get as much (or more) as pretty much any other starter before him.

He’s now 83 years old, not sure suppressing player salaries is high on his to-do list at the moment.

Can they though? The Yankees haven’t really shown a huge willingness blow the luxury tax out of the water and I think they’ll be creeping up to it very quickly with no major additions. I show their luxury tax patroll at ~$142M for just nine players (I’m excluding the 17M owed to Chapman, as I’m assuming he opts out). Add $17.5M for benefits & minor league numbers and suddenly they’re at ~$160M vs a tax threshold out of $208M. So here’s where things get complicated. Chapman will likely opt out. Gregorius, Betances, Sabathia, Gardner, & Encarnacion are all free agents. Paxton will be getting a raise from his 2019 $8.6M figure. And most importantly, Judge & Sanchez will finally be hitting arbitration (amongst a few others). Those two plus Paxton will eat up a good chunk of the $48M they have below the tax threshold. IMO, unless the Yankees are prepared to be a serious tax payer (which they haven’t demonstrated under Hank but obviously possible), they’ll be hard pressed to resign guys and/or fill their holes plus add a guy like Cole.

Sweep these fucks.

Lol...you literally just called Bummer a “dime a dozen” guy the other day.

You told us last year when he was a gas can that he had TOR stuff. Then when he finally shows that type of ability, you jump ship at the first rough patch. You need to sit back, take a deep breath, and not overact every time things go off the rails slightly. Your instincts about Giolito were right, he is very much a TOR type starter and you should be enjoying that, not waiting for something bad to happen.

Wow, just read this thread. The amount of hot takes every time someone hits a rough patch is outstanding.

Kid will easily hit 10 bombs with the juiced ball.