Leaderboard

Cubs are now the front runner for Familia.

I love the people who come in this thread with the "I'm smarter than all of you who have actually been paying attention to what the Sox have been doing" approach and then end up saying something that just makes them sound ridiculous

I dare to dream. Nothing about the last couple of years has been status quo. The White Sox have deliberately shed payroll in order to be ready for this offseason in particular. Term and dollars should not be an obstacle. Indeed, the timing of the first opt-out and the players willingness to play here will be the primary obstacles. I have no doubt that the Sox have created the best strategy they can to sell their team to Bryce or Manny. Whether it works or not remains to be seen. Hopefully we can secure an opt-out after year 5. A significantly front loaded contract could be more appealing with a 5 year opt out instead of a team that offers a 3 or 4 year opt out. Rick Hahn is a great negotiator, I have faith that if he's getting close to the finish line, he will find a way to seal the deal. More importantly, I don't think the White Sox would have went this far just to come up a little short in the bidding war and then cry poor. While KW is indeed still a figure in this organization, I think he's fully onboard with this new strategy. Additionally, the 'crying poor' usually happened when the Sox already had a somewhat robust payroll, relatively speaking. Not the minuscule payroll the Sox are currently enjoying.

My point is it is OK in my mind the White Sox or any other team tell him they we will give you $300 million but we really want you to give us that extra 4 or 5 minutes a month. The team will have young players, and less talented players who can't afford to jake it. You have to hold every healthy player to the same standard.

It really is a wonder they are able to play more than once or twice a week. The theory that running out routine groundballs will wear someone out is perhaps the most ridiculous argument in this board's history.

Let me say this unequivocally. There is nothing the White Sox can do this off season to be a playoff team in 2019.

How are people angry about this? Eloy Jimenez is a millionaire, based entirely on the fact that people think he will one day be good at his job. If he does his job well he’ll become a hundred times richer. His employer, a company that spends between $70-150M on employee salaries each year, is choosing deploy Eloy in such a way as that they maximize his productivity under their employment, in accordance with the labor rules collectively bargained by the employer and the players’ union. If you are angry at teams trying to keep production cost low, you should also be angry at players when they hold out for the most money. Both parties are acting selfishly! I wanted to see Magglio Ordonez play for the White Sox longer, how dare he abandon me to make more money in Detroit? But really you should be angry at neither of them because you’d do exactly the same thing if you were in either set of shoes.

There are still professional players out there that don't want to join super teams and want to be the alpha. Lets hope Harper and Machado are two of them and see something special brewing here.

Yeah if this is really the main selling point of their "big presentation" then there's no way Manny's coming here.

His age seems to indicate he isn't long for the major leagues. And his production, while still great, did go down a bit last season. And he's a DH. Would you be surprised if at age 38 he gets injured or his production drops significantly? Do you really think the White Sox have much of a chance to contend in 2019? Do you really think 38 year old DHs bring back significant prospects at the trade deadline? It isn't worth paying him. If he were a few years younger, then sure. Not now.

Over/under Machado getting benched for not hustling in 5.5 times in 2019

Does this really matter all that much? Sox can fire him if they decide to go in a different direction, and I doubt Renteria is expensive. In fairness he deserves a better roster to prove himself with

Bunting is for chumps

Yeah, sure. And Jon Lester didn't know who Kris Bryant was when he signed with the Cubs. Are you serious?

Whatever. Just don't ever complain at any players half assed effort. They have to slide a d hit and throw and fly. It's a damn near impossible existence. Although I am sure if he is a White Sox, RR will tell him his rule. Joe Maddon has 2 rules. Run hard to 1B and be on time . if fact AJP said if the Sox were to sign Manny he will be told what is expected of him and running balls out will be on the list.

I wonder if Machado and Harper even know who Eloy is. I doubt they would be issuing that kind of ultimatum.

Doubtful a player would send an ultimatum about a prospect like that.

I agree but will Harper and or Machado agree? That's the key. They might only take the Sox seriously if they show them the window isn't 2+ years away.

Do you have proof? It is actually one thing I like about his style. The only reason not to run balls out is if they are playing hurt. I have crabbed about Sox players not running for years. This is good though. You obviously are now on the side of this you don't want to be because you want to be against me. So to wiggle out you make something up.

I really really hope that the front office uses enough restraint to not go balls out this offseason to try and speed up contention. As agonizing as losing is, 2019 should be another rebuilding season as we try to usher more of our prospects to the mlb level by end of the season. The goal should be to build sustained success, and I realize that some additions must happen this offseason to help supplement our home grown talent. Sensible additions this offseason, combined with further player development at both the major and minor league level should provide us with a solid idea of shopping needs next offseason.

I was comparing going about 13 miles an hour on an elliptical for 70 minutes to sprinting to first base a few times a day when he would normally be going half assed.I am sure if you tried it once you would realize there is no question which requires more physical effort. I don't think it's wrong if they ask Manny to run balls out, unless he is nursing some leg injury. Obviously you think that is asking way too much of a major league player. Joe Dimaggio was once asked why he always ran hard, and he responded some kid is always seeing him for the first time he owed him his best. It is called being professional.

Eliminate the Yankees as a destination for Harper. Buster Olney says it's not going to happen.

Machado's hustle reminds me of "Garret Anderson" a former Angel player who would go at 90% vs. 110% and ultimately he had a very long career which was largely injury free. Dodger fans are big over-reactors and I think this got a lot of extensive press time, but the reality is Machado is a truly great player who has been on the field the vast majority of his career. The flip-side is Harper, who is an ultra talented player with lots of pizazz who will play his tail out, but has had extended stretches where he misses time (and I think there are times he lets his emotions get the best of him in the sense that he lets those emotions impact his swing/play. The only thing the two players really have in common is they are both extremely good baseball players, but how they go about it, etc is very much different.

Yea I said 500 times a year and it might be more if you take plate appearances and minus the K's and HR's in Manny case thats around 500 to 600 plus times a year. if you want him to sprint out every GO and FO. Now if your going for double and triples than its 60 or 90 yards. Then there's all the times you get a hit or walk or HBP and you have to sprint more to the other bases or to score on those hits or sac flays. Then you throw in all the slides . Did you slide on your elliptical ? Then throw in all the wear and tear from fielding your position and all the air travel , changing time zones. These are all things you left out conveniently The silliest argument you can make if that you riding your elliptical is comparable to playing ML baseball in all weather conditions

This is probably what I would aim for. If Harper instead of Machado, then Donaldson instead of Cruz. In both scenarios, you'd have to think Avi is gone as Palka receives his most playing time in RF or DH depending on the scenario.

I am older than these guys and work out every freaking day. I used to do 15 miles in 70 minutes on an elliptical, which is almost a sprint, until it messed up my SI joint. I did it for years. To tell me a professional athlete can't do 2 or 3 30 yard sprints 162 times a year because it will wear him down is beyond hilarious. And if you would have actually read what I wrote, you would have realized I never said he wasn't worth signing. Just that the whole concept of dogging it is ridiculous. There isn't much physical effort in baseball. 162 games, an extra 3 times sprinting to 1B a game, which is probably more than he would have to do as he gets hits and walks and strikes out, at 4 seconds per sprint, is an extra 32.4 minutes of running a season. 5 minutes a month. Maybe you are right, he'd be gassed.

For where he was drafting, absolutely. It is really hard to get a 1st line player outside of the top 15 of the draft. Schmaltz put up 52 points last year, so I think it is pretty established he's an up and coming player. Hartman was drafted with the last pick in the 1st round. It is more than reasonable to expect nothing more than a 3rd liner out of a bottom 10 pick. It is unreasonable to expect a top 6 F or top 2 D out of every 1st round pick. I'm staying out of this thread until the dust settles a bit from this. The amount of hate for Stan is ludicrous. I stand by my belief that this is Q's roster, and don't be shocked if Kunitz and Manning are waived/released by the end of January, and Martinsen is in the Rock where he belongs ASAP. If those three players remain on the roster for the entirety of the season, I'll eat crow.

No real surprise there, but honestly if you are this close to the starting line for free agency, there is literally no reason for you to NOT run the race. At worst you have to figure that the 10/300 is the starting point, not the ending point.

People keep mentioning this but they're only talking about a couple key pieces that are almost gone anyway (Kluber) and they would likely be getting back a guy or two that could help them next year or after (think a guy like Clint Frazier who doesn't have a spot currently but who would easily be in the linup on other teams).

Corbin is IMO too risky for what he's likely to get paid. I think for the money you'd spend on Corbin, or close to it, you could likely get Yusei Kikuchi, Gio Gonzalez, Michael Brantley, and Nelson Cruz. I think the latter four put the team in better position to contend alongside Machado than the former.

They could non-tender Avi and I would be completely fine with it. He's not worth 8 million to me.

It's not that, it's the message it sends to big name free agents who have already admitted that they don't want to play hard every play. If signing them is already an uphill battle, why make the job even harder when you don't have to?

I don't understand why people still fail to grasp this.

Same. Just give it up All this tells me is that Mark Copelovitch is probably not a smart human.

The White Sox lost 100 games with one of the weakest schedules in baseball. To think Machado, Happ, Cruz, and Eloy makes them instant contenders is very wishful thinking. The Sox used to add guys like Cruz and Happ to teams that had guys like Sale and Q and Eaton and in his prime Jose Abreu, and it didn't work.

This is just stupid if that was the plan why not just call him up last year? They better call him up after april 15

When I see Pelosi out there, I feel less excited about the Dems gains.

Ricky will be replaced when he benches Machado for not hustling. Next day, he gawn!

I don't think this is a big deal. Extending him doesn't mean he's here through the entirety of the rebuild. They can still fire him whenever they see fit in the future.

Fuck, that's blueprint.

1 year @ 27 >>> 3 weeks @ 21 (or whatever the actual numbers are)

Fuck this organization.

wouldn't mind it assuming he's not the biggest fish you sign. It does seem like his teammates absolutely love him.

The division, in the event that Cleveland sells and we land a big fish

In before Kenny gets his guy post.

Yeah, it seems strange that the more toolsy the player is, the longer it takes for him to achieve his full potential. It's not like with a slugger, who needs to work on cutting down k's and hitting more HRs, the 5-tool players need to work on everything and develop more parts of their game. It's like Moncada's talent has him stuck in a rut...trying to become the best contact hitter, power hitter, base stealer AND line drive hitter on the team EACH NIGHT. My advice to him would be to not try to showcase and be the 5-tool player he is each and every night, but to learn how to recognize and use each of his 5 tools in the most relevant situations to beat the opponent. Some nights he might beat you with his speed, others he might drive in 6, others a clutch hit...just not try to be everything at once--that result is usually an 0-4 with 2 k's. I think if he can do that, you can see him start to round into form.

I'd be interested in Yasmani Grandal as a catcher. Was bummed when the Dodgers made him a qualifying offer.

Bad Santa.