Leaderboard

Can you add none of the above as a option?

Free Agency: Trevor Story - 112 career wRC+ estimated cost: $18M-22M+ Annually Pluses - Defense (while this has been very muted outside a tremendous 2019, lots of signs he should be a great 2b - he is excellent at DP depth), Power (career .251 iso) Walks (9% walk rae) Minuses - Unknown coors effects Below Avg vs. RHP (98 career wRC+, 83 last year, our division has excellent RHP) Contact (23% K rate) Josh Harrison - 103 2021 wRC+ estimated cost ($4-5M+ annually) Pluses - Contact (13% krate) Not bad vs RHP (98 wRC+) Defense (outs above average loves, loves Josh Harrison) Minuses - Inconsistent offense (career 98 wRC+) BABIP dependent no power Age of decline (34 years old) Jose Iglesias - 91 2021 wRC+ estimated cost ($2-3M+ annually) Pluses - Contact (14% krate) Defense (outs above average likes his 2b more than his SS at this age) Minuses - BABIP dependent offense Bad vs RHP (81 wRC+) Doesn't walk Donovan Solano - 105 2021 wRC+ estimated cost ($2-3M+ annually) Pluses - Slightly above average offensively Average power 96 wRC+ (counts as positive with this group) Minuses - Bad defensively unreliable walk rate, higher k rate 34 years old Andrelton Simmons - 56 2021 wRC+ estimated cost ($6-9M+ annually) Pluses - World class defense at shortstop Can backup TA Plus Contact Minuses - Horrendous offense Zero power BABIP driven offense Career 85 wRC+ vs RHP Trades: Jean Segura - 103 2021 wRC+ COST 14M + 1M 2023 buyout Pluses - Great defense at second Contact (13% K rate) Average vs RHP Minuses - Fathom says he is mopey and has bad vibes Lacks power Expensive money wise Tony Kemp - 127 2021 wRC+ COST $2.5M Pluses - Great OBP in 3 of last 4 years (STEAMER predicts .350 OBP) Career 103 wRC+ vs RHP, 130 wRC+ last year Good, versatile defense by OAA Seems like he should be cheap prospect wise Minuses - Not a strong history of reliable performance to trust any of the above aside from defense Jeff McNeil - 93 2021 wRC+ COST PRE-ARB did not see value Pluses - Career 126 wRC+ 3 years of control Career 132 wRC+ vs RHP Contact 14% kRate Walk Rate 13% Walk Rate Great defense at 2b by OAA very likely the most perfect fit possible Minuses - Bad 2021 Expensive by Prospects/talent likely Ryan McMahon - 95 2021 wRC+ COST PRE-ARB did not see value Pluses - Above average vs RHP (106 wRC+) Good power (.195 iso) Good walk rates Minuses - Bad contact (25-30%K) While excellent last year, in 2019-20 was a ground ball machine a la Leury Garcia Amazing at 3rd, but only average to slightly below average at 2b by OAA Likely requires a very strong package of talent Tommy LaStella - 94 2021 wRC+ COST $6M Pluses - Madrigal-level contact Good BB rate Good GB% career 107 wRC+ vs RHP Minuses - Bad 2021 Back injury in 2021 and struggled after Not good defensively, possibly very bad late bloomer Possible platoon bad w/ Leury Easiest way out of this appears to be Kemp trade. Best way out seems to be McNeil, but I have 5% confidence he's traded.

As we hunker down for a long, lockout-frozen Winter...remember the time we had a wild, electric, delirious, up-for-grabs crowd for a playoff game on the South Side? One that was at peak decibel level for hours and never seemed to let up? Remember cane guy? It's easy to forget given all that followed, but for one night that place was pure baseball joy. It was special. I had friends from across the country texting me about how insane the crowd looked and sounded on TV. Maybe I had gotten ground down by all the "attendance jokes" over the years, but I was honestly shocked at how great it was. Turns out we have the best crowd in MLB. This is good. Here's to hoping for lots more October blackouts.

The Sox are the only major market team in their division. Yet they are operated like a class A affiliate. CWS should be perinneal contenders and major players in the elite FA Market. Sadly, they're not. But to a group of affulent sportsmen who can spend and make money (yes, folks like that really do exist), CWS could be a very attractive team to own.

I am already bored with this shit.

If you just use common sense, you will understand NSC is a fake insider. The White Sox are as secretive as any organization. Why would someone give some random guy, be it their neighbor or brother or friend, all the information to put on twitter? No one would risk their job for that. Some guys get random stuff. One here, one there, or some general information like something is very close...NSC tries to act like he is in the room with RH, KW and JR. It's beyond nonsense.

Thank goodness you are here otherwise delicate eyes might see that headline get sucked into the dark seedy world of owner-supported content until they are just a bunch of tiny manfreds walking around with stop watches timing everyone's movements

The Sheets clip where he says "this place is wild" gives me goosebumps. WWF/WWE wrestlers have long cited Chicago as the greatest place to perform due to the crowd energy. Imagine if we didn't have the worst owner in professional sports history, JR has robbed this city of so much joy, there's a special place in hell for that mother fucker.

I have the utmost confidence that Manfred will handle this situation well.

Festivus is 3 weeks away so...tis the season?

PNoles is a bit of a blowhard asshat, and his takes are frequently off base IMO, but he’s not making up rumors and passing things off as his own sourced info. Neither should be taken as gospel.

I'm not a fan of either, so I say break a pool cue in half and let them go at it.

NSC is soxtalk legend so we ride or die for him

What do people like about Villar? He may have been one of the worst defensive players in baseball in 2020 for that amount of games, and while it's nice he produces evenly from both sides, it's just a slightly above average wRC+ vs. RHP. Add to that - he Ks a LOT. The right side of the infield with Abreu/Villar is potentially the worst right side of the infield I can imagine.

Then create your own website and do whatever you like. Until you actually are willing put in your own work on your own site, instead of welfare stating it off of the backs of the people who volunteer here, it couldn't matter less what you think of the thread titles. In fact, feel free to find yourself a page that fits your obviously delicate state.

I don't see how that makes any sense for us.

I think this is already etched is stone. The trade was, in fact, really, really stupid.

I also don't think there is a snowballs chance of McNeil being traded. I didn't include my personal pet theory of Robinson Cano, shame on me. The roided version of him was still pretty darn good with the Mets. And you basically swap out the keuchel liabilities and ask for cash for 2022 on him.

Neither. NSC is a Troll. PNoles is insufferable. Blocked him on social media years ago because I hated seeing his garbage on my feed daily.

Poor Orland Park finally got to host the winter meetings and this happens.

We're all losers in this one

If this is going to be the example of topics on Soxtalk during a lockout....perhaps we should lockout Soxtalk until MLB is back up and running.

Well I would say his versatility let’s us carry more of our big corner bats on the ML roster since he flexed across infield/outfield so well.

I had the White Sox not picking up Cesar Hernandez's option back before the season ended. Do I have to be on twitter for insider status?

As if this has any effect on the White Sox “plans”

There is no winning answer here.

I saw this on MLB tv so hopefully this isn’t stale or fake news.

One signing affecting future signings seems like a pretty straight forward concept and not something in need of 14 paragraphs, but maybe that's just me.

I'm just going to throw out an idea for discussion that's been percolating in my head for a while. 1. I think the Sox are still going to be in the running for Carlos Rodon on something like a 3 year deal. Maybe with an opt-out after 2 years? The Sox need Rodon, who was their best pitcher in the first half of last year. Not only was he their best pitcher -- even better than a great year from Lynn -- but he's a lefty, which the Sox don't have in the rotation. The Sox know Rodon better than anyone else. They won't do this is they know his shoulder is fried. But I think it was just innings fatigue. I expect he'll bounce back this year and be able to sustain his velocity for longer. Rodon knows and must like Ethan Katz, because he turned his career around in just one offseason. Does Rodon want to ditch that and go elsewhere? To a club that may or may not be a contender? I think Rodon still has unfinished business with the White Sox. I think he wants to win a Championship, and if he had his choice, the Sox would be the team he would want to win with. The reason the Sox haven't already signed Rodon is because his market isn't set yet. The Sox are not going to set the market for Rodon, but they might meet whatever the market turns out to be. 2. If Rodon returns, and Kopech is added to the rotation, the Sox will have 6 starters. Why not use all 6? I haven't done a deep dive into the effectiveness or lack thereof of 6-man rotations. I think most teams don't use them because they don't have enough pitching depth and want to use their top guys more often. Didn't Milwaukee use a 6-man rotation last year? What happened last year was that by the time the playoffs rolled around, our starting staff was cooked. Lynn, Giolito, Cease, and Rodon all got torched. Lynn had the knee issue. Rodon lost his velocity. Cease had the strength, but was his usual head case. And Houston was the worst matchup because of how well they handle fastballs, and how hard they are to strike out. I think this year will be better, but I still think pitchers won't be ready for 200 innings. (Can you believe the 2005 Sox had 4 starters who went over 200 innings?) So my thought is why not go to a 6-man rotation to ease the burden over the season and make the starters fresher for the playoffs. If you go to a 6-man, you can also keep Keuchel to see if he has a bounce-back year. His 4th year doesn't vest unless he pitches 320 innings across 2021-2022, or 160 innings in 2022. He pitched 162 innings in 2021, so you have to keep him under 158 in 2022. With a 6-man rotation, you can easily do that. The other reason to go to a 6-man is because Michael Kopech isn't ready for a full season as a starter. The Sox need to keep his innings down. How do you do that without shutting him down, and then starting him back up close to the playoffs? A 6-man rotation is one way to do it and still provide him steady work. The way I would order them would be: Lynn, Rodon, Giolito, Cease, Keuchel, Kopech. Kopech isn't the 6th best pitcher, but he's the one who can pitch the fewest innings, so that's why I would put him at the back. Plus, he's a huge contrast with Keuchel. Lastly, a 6-man can obviously become a 5-man for a stretch if anyone gets dinged up and has to go on the IL. You don't have to use spot starters like Lopez nearly as much. ************* I think the chances of this happening are low. Rodon has to sign, and the Sox have to think outside the box to go with a 6-man rotation. But I still think it's a good idea. The Sox do not need to burn out their starters to win the AL Central again, no matter what the Tigers have done. They should be thinking postseason from day 1. Anyway, that's my thought.

All I know is right in the middle of the rebuild, Hahn said the money will be spent, and that they were building to be competitive for an extended period of time. Multiple championships is the goal. Right now is time to put the words into action. Well, ya know, after the lockout. All that to say...the Sox do have the 2nd highest payroll in the AL right now next to the Yankees...5th in MLB.

Cubs got the best of Hahn on that one. A major win in an otherwise lousy year on Clark & Addison.

We should just do Story.. Fuck, Baez would have been a good option too at what he got. Story isn't our ideal fit, but he is a legit talent especially compared to everything else.

Every ten years or so Sox have a big one.

The guy has been worth 0 war (zero) excluding last year. I have no interest giving anything for Tony Kemp.

I'm not sure I'd be okay with Josh Harrison. I kinda think he is a DFA candidate in June.

I floated a similar thought on Rodon as the OP in a few previous thread. It actually does make sense for the sox Not to give a QO to Rodon If the sox think his arm is sound just fatigued. The sox may have feared that Rodon would accept the QO and we would have him for 1 year at 18.4mil. Then if he had another cy young worthy year he would be a free agent and get really paid...probably out of our price range. But by not giving him QO the sox may think they can sign him for something like 3-48mil which would be a steal if he is that TOT starter. Meanwhile, the rest of baseball would likely misinterpret the lack of a QO as by the sox as meaning Carlos arm is trashed (as most interpreted here). Which is a reasonable thing to think. Its a theory anyway. What the sox do is likely to validate debunk that theory.

I'd like to bring Carlos back (obviously assuming the medicals are ok), but I have a sneaking suspicion the org is not that high on Carlos. I've heard the rumors about his work ethic, and TLR's public statements about his recovery at the end of the season were so strikingly negative that it almost seemed like the team was fighting his effort to build up value. Admittedly this is all pretty speculative, but I just got the strong impression in September and October that the team had already cut ties.

Somehow I have a feeling the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Dodgers, Astros, Angels, Mets, Padres, Blue Jays, Nats (maybe), Mariners, Cardinals, Rangers, etc., will have something to say about those rankings before Opening Day. Also, Braves being so low is pretty impressive for a WS winner, Brewers, Rays, etc. It also goes to show how far from automatic the addition of Conforto is at this point.

Time to change the Soxtalk banner to Montgomery, Cespedes, Kath and Kelly?

If by the inside information you mean Soxtalk, yes

NSC is a turd so...this makes it easy

Team Assured Mutual Destruction (not necessarily nuclear in variety)

Conforto is a realistic get. Semien is pushing it.

http://m.yankees.mlb.com/news/article/2123...white-sox-talk/ Official site of the Yankees reporting that the earlier reports of Robertson being included in trade talks was false.

Byron Kerr ‏@masnKerr #Nats and #WhiteSox dialogue continues regarding Robertson

Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal 2m2 minutes ago Sources: #Dodgers continue to weigh IF options. Talking to #WhiteSox about Frazier, #Twins about Dozier - and still talking to Turner, too.

Wow they have no faith in the 2015 champs, they have the Royals at 79-83. I can dig that.

You have to be one lame jerk to post false info on Twitter. I hope all these guys claiming to have sources are telling the truth.