Flash Tizzle

Do we have another source aside from Nightengale about the White Sox offer? I’ve read a lot of comments mentioning we beat out Philadelphia with a higher bid, but I’m wondering if that’s Sox Math where its more like $100 mil guaranteed and the $120 is reached through team friendly options and unobtainable performance incentives.

Exactly, and that’s why I’d rather extend Wheeler a sixth season and suffer through it in 2026 (likely at the end of our competitive window) than sit here and wait for......who exactky? There are no good options

He doesn’t sound very confident. Honestly, I dont either. The White Sox don’t win bidding wars. They have a set price Jerry feels comfortable with, and will not go beyond it. We all know how this goes. White Sox lose out, news is released that their offer had some goofy deferred payment or performance related stipulation that didn’t guarantee as much money. Honestly, don’t even fool the fanbase with Cole and Strasburg if you miss out on Wheeler.

Jimenez not so much. I cant wait for the day a highly touted white sox prospect succeeds immediately. Ive heard it does happen all across baseball every year

This rebuild has to have those type of prospects, rare around the southside, who immediately succeed. And then (this is even rarer....) maintain that success! I know such an idea is unheard of among Sox fans but it does happen across the league every year. We can’t just expect every prospect to follow a Moncada/Giolitto timeline or else they’ll never be competing for anything

Yeah this offseason completely deflated the fanbase. How different it would have been with Machado....

I understand he’s going to spin everything, but my god; the only thing good about this offseason is that he didn’t throw any long term committments (2+ years) to scrub players to burn through the payroll

What is the smarter path then? If you’re answer is to heavily rely upon international signings and the draft, well, let’s start seeing the results. Also lets start raising our expectations. Our next pick in the draft? I’ll just assume he’ll be a perennial 6 WAR player. They are selecting third, and I don’t care about the crapshoot of the draft; it’s what has to be done. What other path leads to a championship? We are not signing top tier FAs so forget about that. We are probably not making any more trades for prospects, so no more pipeline from outside the organization. If we’re expecting to strike gold with a few reclamation projects or rule 5 signings, good luck. We both desperately need our current crop of players to succeed, and have a steady supply of talent to supplement and sustain our (hopeful) playoff run. It was even more necessary after losing out on Machado. He could have made up for our lack of depth at the position.

And they lack ambition because everyone from the top to bottom is comfortable. God knows how many people within the organization are enjoying their positions due to JR’s loyalty

I just can’t get over Alonso and Jay. I thought there’s just no way a conpetent GM would ever bring them aboard unless it would just about guarantee any tiebreaker goes to the Sox. I was naive to believe they’d ever tie any offer above their cheap baseline They literally did everything wrong: raised expectations extending back years, signed/traded for a friend and relative, then provided an incentive laden contract instead of meeting Machados reasonable demands. Hahn/KW/JR all obtained shitlord status after this. The trolling done was beautiful

What’s a realistic expectation though? We cannot have this rebuild move forward unless players like Moncada and Giolitto take huge strides forward. And quickly. Everyone cant be on a “well, let’s wait 3-4 years for them to adjust” timeline or else this rebuild won’t work. Eventually, someone like Jimenez or Cease needs to be an instant star. Every team who has successfully rebuilt their team has had the instant breakout prospects. That’s how we’ll sustain success, by having a core group of prospects contributing alongside the veterans.

I can’t speak for Greensox, but my problem is not the potential 14 game improvement but the roster itself. Are we excited because this is the start of a potential White Sox dynasty and these players will be working together for many years? Or (as I see it) we’d be assembling together various veteran players and calling it progress under a false premise of improvement. Especially if Moustakas is just here to waste time for two years. Wasn’t this how Hahn went about assembling teams every year prior to the rebuild? That doesn’t excite me. I believe Balta has termed this the “Hahn Special”

If it works awesome, but honestly —is this is what we have to do to convince premier FAs to sign with us? Anyone else feel it’s just....kind of sad?

There’s no, “even if it doesn’t work.” It better work.