Thad Bosley

Unfortunately, where we stand today, the reasons for pessimism far outweigh the reasons for optimism. Reinsdorf and his FO have no one to blame but themselves for the fan base to have this mindset at this point based on their track record. It’s up to them to do something meaningful to change that mindset. Sadly, second tier names like Ozuna, Castellanos, and Keuchel don’t do much to move the needle on that front. I mean, are these truly the guys we’ve been waiting for to augment this core set of players? These are the guys we want to go up against the likes of the Yankees and Astros with in the postseason during our competitive window? If so, we really better hope the core hits their ceilings.

I'm still very thrilled about the Grandal addition, as I'm sure all Sox fans are. But it's probably best to be hush-hush on this "it was the biggest deal in the team's history", because that statement is an embarrassment, since it's been beat in prior years by 25 other teams. And speaking of "good talk", that's all your references to "offers" that didn't eventually land the player is - "good talk".

You mean the $73M deal for Grandal, which only 25 other teams in baseball have signed bigger deals than that? Perfect time for serving up the "Reinsdorf-isn't-cheap" meme.

Um, yes, I would have had zero problem with the White Sox, FOR ONCE, pay what it takes to bring in a much-needed premium arm into this organization to significantly advance the team's ability to compete for a championship. Premium free agent pitchers ALWAYS sign for this type of money. Always! There are no bargains to be had for the types of Cole and Strasburg. So to always avoid these types of talents because of the sticker shock value of the contract, then the team will always be at a competitive disadvantage. And btw, how has the strategy of never paying for these types of talents worked out for the Sox in recent decades? Can you point me to the multiple championships the team has had employing this strategy? While these contractual numbers seem very large to the average mortal, they aren't in the grand scheme of things when considering how awash in cash MLB is, and that includes the Sox. Reinsdorf could ink one of these contracts in a heartbeat, and the fiscal health of the organization wouldn't take a major hit.

You have the combination of Reinsdorf whining about his age and wanting to advance to the "winning stage" of things, along with Hahn stating over and over again that they want to remove the narrative that the team won't compete for "premium talent" on the open market, and then crickets on the Cole/Strasburg front.

"Always"? Why is that? What revenue stream will always be lacking no matter what which will restrict them to always being a "team on a budget"? They just inked a new TV deal, and unless it was for less than the previous one, they now have a top ten TV deal in place (they were 11th with the previous deal). Sustainable winning will take care of the attendance problems. So if you put the TV deal together with improved attendance, what prevents this team from taking it's rightful place as a major market team operating under a major market budget?

Why oh why oh why can't this team, with all of its money and financial flexibility (which Hahn boasts about, btw) be in on Strasburg. Cole I sort of get because of the strong signals that he wants to play in SoCal, but why not Strasburg? That's the guy you want in this rotation for this upcoming competitive window far more than MadBum or any of these other second tier guys. This is the moment to make a statement and show the seriousness of moving out of the rebuild into full-on competitive mode. I would love to see the Sox make that kind of statement with a Strasburg signing, similar to how the statement would have looked had we signed Machado. But to not even seemingly be in that discussion to pursue him, I don't know, it's just a little disappointing.

The Sox’ need for Nick’s services severely decreases with a Joc acquisition, which means the team wouldn’t win any $$$$ bidding war, because they wouldn’t need to.

If you get Joc first, what incentive does Castellanos have to sign here?

The rest of the poster’s message clearly suggested the “I love Jerry Reinsdorf” statement was very much meant tongue in-cheek.

Unprecedented “massive amount of financial flexibility”. AND the Sox are a major market team, with a shiny, new TV deal in place. To NOT be in on either Cole or Strasburg dismisses outright Hahn’s claim that the “money will be spent” on premium talent when the time is right. If they don’t compete for the Coles and Strasburgs of the world now, they never will, which would call into question their true commitment to winning. Wheeler is a nice piece, but he’s not on the level of the other two.

Loyalty to the fans has been missing, though, these past 40 years. Bigly!

Well, you’re right about that - Abreu is “just such a good guy”. Nice to see the improvement in your way of thinking on him! But you’ll be also happy to know that money being spent on Abreu is a drop in the pond in the grand scheme of things, what with the new TV contract in place and what not. Still plenty left over to spend on elite talent to help take our Sox to the next level - with Jose, leading the way!

My glee in watching Cubs fans witness Jimenez and Cease contribute mightily to our next championship will far outweigh any disappointment with what Tatis does with San Diego.