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Powerful stuff, indeed.

That first picture is from before Obama was president (he denounced Farrakhan during the campaign and Farrakhan isn't exactly a fan of Obama - plus their houses in Hyde Park are literally walking distance from each other) and I don't know how you figure Aretha Franklin's funeral was some kind of Democratic-sponsored event. She was a Black American cultural icon, so that's the crowd who was at her funeral. Black Americans have a complicated relationship with Farrakhan but that's a whole other topic. His anti-Semitism is well known and he's been rightly been condemned for it over and over again.

Jose Abreu’s 2019 salary is not preventing us from adding Machado or Harper.

KW was shocked. He thought the White Sox mystic and his pitch could convince him into signing for $300k. They did the same thing with Tanaka. If the plan is to wow him with a presentation and a middling financial offer, nothing has changed. I will believe they are serious when he signs.

I have to tell you, watching the world series made me feel pretty nervous again about this org's trajectory. The gap between progressive orgs and the white sox seems to be gigantic. Can someone imagine Ricky Renteria managing in the world series? It was easy to imagine the sox being the Royals in 14/15. The last two years, seeing the dominance of the best orgs in baseball battle it out, it's scary.

Sale closes out the 9th to clinch the Series for the Sawx...he deserved to showcase his stuff on the biggest stage, and luckily he did, just not for the team it should've been. Things ended poorly here for him, but still I can't help but feel good for him winning the WS. Bring on the off-season!

If we trade for a first baseman a year away from free agency I will fucking riot.

Why would the Sox be making a play for a player that has one year of team control left?

I know it's too much to ask, but could this get Hoiberg fired?

C'mon I get this site is pure entertainment and time wasting, but I don't understand discussing Harper/Machado. There are a 300-400 Million reasons why they aren't coming here. I just wish we could talk about realistic moves the Sox can make, not rainbows and unicorns.

I love that people post things like this completely not getting the irony that they are here further the discussion with posts like this.

We learned our less with the Ohtani presentation. This Machado one has a interactive VR segment and therefore is a sure thing.

Hopefully it involves placing a check on the table and telling Machado to write whatever dollar amount he wants on it.

I may be in the minority, but I don’t think you could throw enough money at Machado or Harper to play for the White Sox next year. It’ll never happen.

I truthfully would not give a shit if Adam Engel never played for the Sox again.

$4.65 for Jones is nothing, picking up that option is a no-brainer

Would not pay Jones. Would take $2M to retire and take my chances. If they think Jones will stay healthy then I question their judgment. He might give you two decent months. Any thoughts on the future career of Chris Sale who seems to be at a crossroads.

I'd be shocked if it's not Phillies. They are actually in the competitive window, they have an owner that spends, they are east coast. They are a team that can handle big money mistakes. Sox will plant their name as a serious contender to placate some fans but no chance they land him.

Good lord, that lineup would be amazing. And if Moncada were to move to CF (which I'm not opposed to at all), you could even sign a 2nd baseman like Daniel Murphy or Brian Dozier on a short term deal until Madrigal is ready. The possibilities are endless. Now we just have to sit back and pray that some of these ideas come to fruition.

Are there two Sean McVays?

I posted a while back that Dombrowski has a totally different philosophy than Hahn. He says the best coaches are on the ML club and he is willing to let some young players develop in the bigs. Benintendi came up w Moncada from AA and stayed. Devers is 2 years younger than Moncada and he came up the same time as the White Sox brought up Yoan. As Smoltz said last night, Devers is still learning at the MLB level but put up pretty similar numbers to Moncada this season. I have been saying Moncada has a higher ceiling but w the 2 year age difference, I may be looking through White Sox tinted glasses. I don't know which philosophy is better and it probably depends on the prospect. But in Boston's case, these young players are getting playoff expereince really early on in their careers. Also, DD could care less about service time.

I blame Ronald Reagan. He got rid of the regulation on news, which used to be non-partisan, but became partisan after he repealed the Fair and Balanced News Act. I think that Network news, for the most part is centrist outside of MSNBC and Fox News, which are clearly partisan. However, the thing that nobody talks about is CTR, or conservative talk radio. I think it has a far greater impact on political discourse in America than Network TV news. There are states where if you wanted a left-wing radio station it doesn't exist. Most of the existing progressive talking heads have to sell subscriptions to their podcasts in order to keep themselves on the air. Reagan still giving the USA the shaft even from the grave.

Manny Machado isn’t the first player to dog it out of the box thinking he hit a homer. It happens like once every couple weeks. Manny Machado isn’t even CLOSE to the only slugger that doesn’t run out routine grounders. Robinson Cano hasn’t run out a grounder in his life. There’s probably one or two per team, on average, that won’t do it. Manny Machado isnt even remotely close to the only guy who has been known to slide hard into second base, which was something that was ENCOURAGED until about five years ago. Where’s the Chase Utley hate around here? And yes, while kicking Aguilars foot out of his way was a dick move, how does it even compare to intentionally drilling players with baseballs? How is CC Sabathia literally HERALDED for throwing at a guy on purpose two weeks ago and then obviously and openly taunting the other dugout to the extent that some people believe he actually boosted his hall of fame case, but Machado is not even fit to root for at this point? Why don’t we hate Joe Kelly? Remember how he threw at some guys head? Would anyone raise a ruckus if we acquired Joe Kelly? Remember when Zack Greinke beaned Carlos Quentin, taunted him, and then Carlos Quentin charged the mound and BROKE HIS FUCKING COLLARBONE? Do you hate Carlos Quentin now? Would you be upset if Greinke was on this team? This Machado stuff is so overblown, and honestly hypocritical. I can only blame the media and the hype of the postseason.

That is what nationalism means to you. Its not what it means to Jewish people. Due to their persecution over history, they have never really been part of any "nation." Every country they lived in they were never really fully accepted. This is why they developed their own languages (Yiddish) and why they will refer to themselves as "culturally" jewish, even though they dont necessarily believe in the religion. It would be odd to hear someone say they are an agnostic or atheist Catholic. But you will absolutely find people who say they are "atheist" Jews. Its hard to understand oppression until you are one of them.

Happy for Sale and for Dave Dombrowski, who got his start as an unpaid intern under Roland Hemond with the Sox and has basically had success every where he went after Hawk foolish fired him.

Lost that trade

Chris Sale is a World Series champ.

Because I personally don't believe either Harper or Machado has even the slightest interest in the White Sox unless...unless the Sox offer is significantly and highly over the top compared to other club offers. Teams that can actually win now (not potentially in two-three years), have large scale marketing opportunities for said player (the Sox are so far off the board in Chicago they basically don't even register) and present an environment that is stable in the relative long term (say the next three to five years. With the age of JR, should new ownership come into play, who knows what could happen to the franchise) those are the teams I think they will listen to. Yea JR understands but it's not up to him. It takes two to make a deal and I just don't think those guys basically care a tinker's cuss (ya like that phrase? LOL) right now about the White Sox.

No, I can be rational about it. I was just saying I'd like to see where they fall in the 2019 lists since a lot of their players were injured and took a big step backward this year. When Spring Training opened in February, I was as positive as anyone. Now, not so much. They might still be top 10 in 2019, but I'd be surprised if they were top 5. Teams whose farm systems I would take over ours right now without blinking: Padres Rays Braves Teams that I'd have to do more digging about: Yankees Jays A's

I'm not mad that they're bad. That is understood. I'm mad that they're bad at scouting. You can almost count the number of neutral or good moves outside of the ones that built the 2005 team on two hands since the end of the 2000 season Neutral: Sirotka for Wells as a rental Rowand for Thome (this is only neutral because they filled one gaping black hole and created another that still persists to this day) Vizcaino, Young, and El Duque for Vazquez Good: A broken Freddy Garcia for Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez McCarthy for Danks Re-signing Buehrle in 2008, and then letting him walk in 2012 Drafting Chris Sale in 2010 Signing Jose Quintana off the scrap heap Reed for Eaton Borchard for Thornton Tentatively good: Quintana for Eloy/Cease Jury's out, but not looking so good right now: Sale and Eaton selling trades That's it. Outside of the 2005 team building, those are the only moves that did not blow up in their faces since the 2000-2001 offseason. It is utterly amazing that the same people occupy the front office.

Yet you claimed earlier since Moncada was “rushed”, everyone has to be treated the same. You also claimed it may takeKopech and Eloy more than a season to adjust, yet you are pinning a couple of months sample size on Madrigal. At least there. Used be. Some logic to your arguments. Recently, you have no consistency and even make stuff up.

Frankly, yes, what people said about the guy before he was drafted is of minor importance to me right now. 2 months actually facing minor league pitchers and working with my coaches matters to me a lot more. I would go so far as to say our org would be in far better shape if, once the draft was over, they stopped caring about it and focused on what people actually were doing. Ditto prospect rankings once a guy is acquired. Moncada, Rodon, Fulmer - there’s a laundry list of guys we rushed up based on something other than their performance and the results have not been quality. Rick Hahn himself once said that the hitters will show us when they are ready to be called up, but we don’t live up to that standard.

On Moncada, he shouldn't have started 2017 in AAA. He came from Boston with a 31% K rate in AA. He should have started 2017 in Birmingham, & finished in Charlotte, IF (& ONLY if) he kept the K rate down. The other prospect they stupidly rushed was Kopech, only because there weren't enough innings left for him to have been promoted. On balance, these two abject failures mean that Getz should be looking for new work, IMO.

Farrakhan has been disavowed and denounced numerous times a long time ago already. He's not in mainstream politics.

Well first of all, he's not hitting a reasonable number of doubles and triples so far, he's hitting epically few doubles and triples and I include that in power. He spent this season pounding the ball into the ground, his groundball to flyball rate was genuinely bad and that's the biggest reason why he had so few doubles and triples, he had a worse groundball ratio than anyone in the big leagues. I cannot rule out that this was the fault of his wrist injury, but that's a legitimate worry, that number of ground balls would make him a genuinely weak hitter once he got to a level where the fielders are decent and where the pitchers will have the stuff to strike him out more. Secondly, if he's only hitting a "decent number of doubles and triples" while being a really good fielder, then he's not going to be a good enough player for me to want to move Moncada unless I'm giving up on Moncada completely, and that'd be my answer to the question posed in this thread. Maybe he breaks out next year, maybe it was all the wrist, maybe he will light up AA this year, but right now he looks like a guy with a long way to go, he looks like a guy who if he gets called up we'll be wondering what is wrong with our scouting. If this were my franchise, I wouldn't care a lick about what his draft status was or why that requires me to move him fast, his numbers in A ball this year were such that I would be putting him in A ball to start next season and he would have to prove to me that he's ready to move up before he reaches AA.

This is exactly what I expect the White Sox to do, and I do expect the White Sox to race him up to the big leagues by 2020 and then be baffled about why he's hitting a punchless .250 and has to be dropped to the back of their order and then we start talking about how we have to replace him with a free agent in order to compete, because that's what the White Sox have trained me to expect them to do.

I'm always more conservative about where I think guys should start than this organization, and yes, Madrigal had an injury this year, but Madrigal's stats in the minors currently are the stats of a guy who will need several years down there in order to develop a power stroke. I'm not just talking about home runs, I'm talking about driving the ball for doubles or even singles - he wasn't doing that at all with our organization this year, he was putting the ball on the ground. I can absolutely see a setup where Madrigal starts back in A ball next year and is on a path where late 2021 is reasonable for him, and that wouldn't be anything going terribly wrong, that would be him having to work on a specific part of his game that involves physical development. If that was an injury thing then next year he'll look very different to start the year, and then we can start talking about this as an actual problem. If he needs time in the weight room and time to change his swing before we start seeing extra base hits from him, then that could be a multi-year program.

So much of what I have seen out of Machado tells me, that if I had 300 million to spend, Harper looks like the better option.

One injury filled season in the states and injuries in the DSL means the only thing we can judge him on is he can't healthy for very long. I wouldn't even be too concerned about lack of power next year. My main concern is keeping him healthy and getting some AB's .

Its going to suck to see him go into the HOF with a red sox cap on

Smith was a good soldier. He did his job when called upon and did it well. I wish him the best. Will always remember the HR he hit wearing the special jersey's with Daniel Webbs name on it. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/kevan-smith-honors-daniel-webb-style-players-weekend-home-run

Jews dont play well to his base and will hurt Republican optics for the election. Its better that we pretend Jews and Israeli's arent the same thing, or better yet, we just help Israel, while still secretly disliking Jews, because anything ruling Jerasulem better than the alternative, Jews and Nationalism dont fit together, When a Jew hears "Im a Nationalist", it reminds them of one thing. When they hear "Good people on both sides", it means something. Its easy to say MAGA and all that jazz when you were on the side of the oppressor. Its not so great, when you were the oppressed in the past. Its the life we chose to lead, almost 6,000 years of this. The mourners kaddish is one of the most beautiful and sad things at the same time. Just like life.

Not sure tbh. If they do, I'd imagine it is now in the back end, in the around 9 or 10. I don't see Collins as a prospect. I think Basabe, Adolfo and Gonzalez are prospects, but more in the borderline range. I don't know what to make of Rutherford and Robert, as their lack of power is massively disappointing. I see both as similar to Avi Garcia when he was acquired. Both are supposed to have power, but they don't show it in games. Dunning and Hansen are complete wildcards based on health and lack of progression respectively. If Dunning blows out his elbow next season, he becomes a nonfactor. Same with Hansen if he doesn't stay healthy and find the strike zone. Both are entering their age 24 season and haven't been past AA. I just feel the Sox system is super top heavy with not much after that. Their top guys have to hit, otherwise they're screwed. You have Cease, Kopech and Eloy, with Moncada at the MLB level. Otherwise, I'm a huge skeptic on the rest of the system. I don't think much of Giolito and Lopez anymore. I guess keep running them out there. There is minimal hope on both. Madrigal seems to be a relic of baseball times gone by. Think Juan Pierre.

Wait until the 2019 farm rankings come out. I'd be surprised if they were top 5, and I think they're going to end in the 8-10 range on national lists. Too many players took a significant step backward or lost development time to injuries. I'd probably rank them about middle of the pack, in the 12-15 range.

They didn't, but I think they are likely to end up there again from sheer prospect attrition. Not every player is going to work out, and if they end up with enough bad players from this group. I'm not sure they have a top 10 farm anymore. Outside of Eloy, Cease and Kopech, who is out for 2019, I'm not sure they have another starter in the mix. I have to see more from Madrigal. Robert seems like a looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane guy. I think they're likely to end up maxing out in the 73-78 win range again by 2022 just out of sheer prospect attrition. If they wanted to trade anyone outside of Moncada, Kopech, Cease and Eloy this offseason, I couldn't complain. Moncada is one of those guys that if he's going to disappoint, he has to do it here. They should ride out his entire pre-arb years like Texas did with Profar. The upside if it all clicks is just way too high.

Finally some evidence. Yes it could help chicago's chances if they are BFFs.

Not the most likely of scenarios, but there was discussion that Castillo is one of Machado's best friends, and could potentially help with recruitment of Manny. Maybe they will keep him around for this purpose.

Wish kevan the best. A little surprised they didn’t want to ship castillo off and keep kevan but no big loss.

Smith never had a future anyway with the Sox. Light hitting catcher who was ok defensively. No big loss, do wish him the best of luck though.

I think this is a really important point that will need to be addressed. A combination of generally better fuel efficiency across basically all cars, and the rapid growth of EV's and PHEV's, means the revenue from gas taxes is dropping and that process will only accelerate. It means we need to re-think how we pay for infrastructure, at least the part that had previously been done by relying on gas tax money.