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give it a rest, would ya

He’s just one more former top free agent option for next offseason that Hahn won’t be spending the money on that he promised to spend.

Please, just drop it. They misread the market, the entire organization sucks ass, things are terrible and the rebuild is faltering bordering on failing. Reading the same inane shit over and over is just nails on a chalkboard, you're not making a difference or bringing a new take, you're just stuck in a time loop. Congrats, you're angry, the other morons like myself that frequent this board already know the talking points, you're just screaming into the void. You're gaining absolutely nothing from this shit.

Why would we want Happ? Don't wr have enough 200+ strikeout guys?

Isn’t that a 2020 rule?

Ruiz>Machado/Tatis

IMO he should be the opening day centerfielder. He's been here the longest and he has earned it this spring, but it will probably be Jay.

So I was doing some searching after I saw a tweet about Yolbert Sanchez and it led me down a click-hole of cuban baseball and I found this article about the list of players that will be available to be signed under the new Cuba-MLB agreement. I'll leave the rough translation from the article and a link. Note that Yoelkis Cespedes is included in the list. Notably absent is Pedro Leon who I think may have defected because I found a video with what appears to be him training for scouting (doing 60s and getting speeds on outfield throws). I also found a tweet and an article from one of the good reporters about a Cuban player named Patrick Merino who it looks like we might be in on. The article (though obviously biased) said he hit 16 homeruns and ran a 6.3 60 in his tryout with us and that he has at least 70 speed, plus arm, 60 hit, 55 power as an outfielder. The idea of leading to sign him, us being mentioned with Yolbert Sanchez, us not really being connected to any other big spending in international free agency this coming J2, and all of this talent from cuba coming on the market makes me think we are going hard after some of these guys instead of the traditional 16 year olds for this coming cycle. With that in mind, I thought it was a good idea to get all these names out there for people to hopefully have something other to debate than whatever we were arguing about. https://pelotacubanablog.com/2019/03/20/una-fuente-confidencial-dice-que-la-primera-lista-de-cubanos-disponibles-para-mlb-podria-salir-el-21-de-marzo/

Cool, so you're done? Pivoting to hard fatalist isn't an out either. Maybe just think it out for a bit and come back with an original thought. Posting for the sake of posting is largely bad.

You’re right. I’m going to accept the obvious that the Sox won’t be legitimate players in free agency. Hopefully, Hahn can trade Rodon for another Eloy type prospect.

Non baseball junkies I know go there for the weather/atmosphere/party basically. Definitely feels like more than baseball. It was a heck of a time though. Took about a full week for my body to recover from it though...

I think Covey is going to be a pretty good reliever.

Frank had remarkable hands. He could fall off balance - flay as ass away from his hands - and his hands were so good they could get to the ball. He wasn't off balance often though - he was just a front foot hitter and they tend to look funny and require amazing hands.

Hey, I agree 100%. If only ______

Sorry, I just can’t help myself in this case, because a serious Ramirez injury and a limited Lindor significantly weakens the Tribe and it would have been awesome if we had enough pieces in place to take advantage of that.

Agreed. He's too talented to be what he was last year forever. It had a lot of the same signs of Dunn's 2011 where he came out of the gate raking and had trouble getting his timing back after an early season injury. Dunn never hit the same again, but he was much older than Moncada.

I'm not in the least bit worried about Yoan defensively. With his quick feet, good hands and good arm, he will be a plus defender at either position. Where he plays only matters with the make up of the team. I think we saw the absolute floor with Moncada and he was still an average to slightly above average major league player. The kid is going to be a star.

Damn I wish our pitching was better because I really think this offense is going to be good

Steele Walker/Nate Jones for Happ/Chatwood

Yeah, I think I was thinking of LaHair.

I completely forgot about that in general...but flavum is correct, that doesn’t take affect until 2020

Given the questions surrounding our major league rotation as well as the rash of injuries that have hit some of our pitching prospects, I thought it would be a fun exercise to project out our minor league rotations and discuss the overall strengths & weaknesses of the system. Here are my current projections. I’m sure I’ve got many of these wrong but wanted to put a baseline out there so we can debate what’s right or wrong. Charlotte: Dylan Cease Jordan Stephens Jordan Guerrero* Spencer Adams Donn Roach Birmingham: Kodi Medeiros* Jimmy Lambert Bernardo Flores* Luis Martinez Tanner Banks* Winston-Salem: Alec Hansen Lincoln Henzman Blake Battenfield John Parke* Kade McClure Kannapolis: Konner Pilkington* Jonathan Stiever Codi Heuer Taylor Varnell* Jason Bilous

Sox fans fall in love with their shotty cult heroes. Palka is one of those. He's awful yet people here search for ways to get him at bats.

But Cubs fans told me all offseason that they could easily afford Bryce Harper!

I imagine Jay could be had for a song and a discount right now. They could open with 12 pitchers but then someone, maybe Engel could later be at risk. It would be too embarrassing to just release Jay. Once you have 13 arms and two catchers that leaves ten guys to play the field and DH. Abreu Alonso Yoan Yolmer TA Eloy Jay Palka leaves room for two. Rondon Engel Leury compete for two spots. Jay seems to be in the way of Engel having a spot. Either move Jay or demote Engel.

Would be HUGE to grab a C that could 100% stick behind the dish 2021 Rutschman Collins Madrigal Moncada Anderson Jimenez Robert Adolfo Bench: Zavala, Sanchez, Garcia, Not to mention Basabe, Rutherford, Gonzalez, Walker, Burger, Sheets, Rivera, Bush

I think you are being completely fair and objective. As a Sox fan who loves Eloy now as I'm sure you do you're happy about him starting the season here and the extra year. However we cannot pretend this is a slam dunk deal for the Sox. It could be but it also could not be. You brought up his injury issues and you could take that a step farther if you really wanted to, It's not outlandish to say in the next 5 years he could miss valuable time to injury. Wouldn't even have to be the soft tissue ones he's been having. It could be a serious injury or 2 where he misses significant time. He won't rack up WAR for his fielding like Bregman or Trout and it's also a leap to assume he can even produce the hitting stats of those 2 . Eloy will also need to learn to take his fair share of walks if he proves he is an above average hitter. As with most others I see a bright future for him if he is what he appears to be but due to him being a left fielder it's much harder to get an above 5 WAR. In the last 3 years only 5 primarily left fielders were above a 5 WAR. Not counting Robert If one of our other OF prospects becomes good they surely move Eloy out of the OF. I'm not saying he is bad there just not as good as the other OF prospects should they also become good. All that being said I hope he hits like JD Martinez does and right from the start and never gets injured and becomes the best bargain ever !

Another one bites the dust

I don’t buy any of the BS regarding more interested teams because the rumor was spilled out on Twitter. Joc is still a Dodger and has not been traded. More than likely, Hahn fucked up the trade or dropped out of the trade once he whiffed on Machado.

He would've had the highest BB% on our team last season (and that's including Narvaez) and the second highest overall OBP. I'm not sure if that shows how solid enough he gets on base or how pathetic our overall team is at it. Maybe a bit of both.

Happ strikes out more than Yoan Moncada. Only Chris Davis had a higher K% in 450+ PA. I can't imagine Sox fans NOT hating him.

I'm hoping all this internal smoke around Jimmy Lambert plays out and he can sort of fill in for the "Solid but not TOR" Dane Dunning role. In the 1 time I saw Lambert pitch, and it was this ST, he reminded of Jon Garland. Hopefully he can play that type of role.

I'm not happy, but I'm not upset that it fell through. We heard rumors about Laz Rivera being included we heard another rumor about Rutherford being included. This team isn't going anywhere in 2019, and Joc Pederson won't put us over the top for 2020 either. No big deal after you lose out on Machado/Harper and then Dunning gets TJS. The timeline is going the wrong direction.

The trick with a team like the Cubs is that you have to have something to offer that makes them better right now if they're going to give up an asset like this. They don't want a recovery piece who requires big league playing time, they want a minor big league piece. Fulmer makes no sense because he's the exact same problem. Giolito has the exact same problem. Neither of these give the Cubs anything of use right now. So what current assets do the White Sox have? Rodon? That seems like too much to give up. Aside from that...the bullpen might start looking intriguing. Colome for Happ...I dunno, but maybe. You know what could really work? Let either Herrera or Jones start off the season healthy and strong, and you have a match.

Ugh. Dude doesn’t look like a major leaguer to me...but I’m jerksticks and what do I know bout it

Rick Hahn is a shitty GM and is terrible at his job. He really needs to shut up and stop making excuses for everything that he has a hand in messing up. It's that simple at this point. "Losers always whine about their best, winners go home and fuck the prom queen." Go away Hahn.

Palka is definitely a weirdo. Wouldn't put it past him.

Pretty much nailed it.

43m is a lot but if he becomes a top30 hitter he will easily make 35+ in arbitration. Of course he could bust but I don't think this is a bad deal especially since they get two options.

That’s not an accurate comparison. The Cubs will have paid Bryant (an MVP winner) a total of $26M for his first five seasons. He will have to increase his 2019 salary of $13M by ~30% next year just to match Eloy’s guaranteed money over his first six years. That will likely happen if he has a rebound in performance, but the difference between what he’ll get paid and what we just guaranteed Eloy should be minimal for those same seasons. Yes, there is some upside in year 7 as well, but this is 100% about buying a single free agent year. That’s where almost all the value in this extension resides. And I’ll keep saying it, but I don’t dislike the move. I just don’t think it’s that team friendly compared to many other extensions including the Sale, Quintana, Eaton, & Anderson deals. I think Hahn/KW overpaid here a bit relative to other benchmarks, but if that’s the price of locking down Eloy for an 8th year so be it. I’m just not going to sugar coat this deal and make it look this is some steal when IMO it isn’t.

Ten of the top names available in the 2019-20 international signing market are profiled by Baseball America’s Ben Badler, all of whom have teams already unofficially attached to their services even though the market doesn’t properly open until July 2. Dominican outfielder Jasson Dominguez and Dominican shortstop Robert Puason are projected for the highest bonuses, each expected to land something around $5MM, with Dominguez linked to the Yankees and Puason connected to the Athletics. http://riveraveblues.com/2019/02/badler-yankees-expected-sign-top-dominican-outfield-prospect-jasson-dominguez-183932/ https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/01/cuban-shortstop-yolbert-sanchez-cleared-to-sign-with-mlb-teams.html Cuban Yolbert SANCHEZ cleared... Sanchez’s stats in his limited professional experience won’t wow anyone — he’s a .297/.338/.345 hitter in 435 plate appearances — but McDaniel and Longenhagen nonetheless paint him as a likely seven-figure bonus recipient due to his raw speed, glovework at shortstop and arm strength — each of which are considered by scouts to be anywhere from above average to plus. Their report notes that scouts view him as the type of prospect who’ll typically command a bonus between $2-4MM. Certainly, that bodes well for the Orioles, who still have upwards of $6MM in their international bonus pool after whiffing on prospects Victor Victor Mesa, Victor Mesa Jr. and Sandy Gaston when the trio signed early in the 2018-19 offseason (the Mesa brothers with the Marlins; Gaston with the Rays). http://baseballdecuba.com/Con-Yoenis-Yera-fuera-Yariel-Rodriguez-es-el-pitcher-favorito-para-el-titulo-de-strikeouts There are other prospects like pitchers Osiel Rodriguez and infielder Malcom Nunez, both of whom will likely sign when the next international signing period begins on July 2; they were potential building blocks for Serie Nacional but left. Outfielder Julio Pablo Martinez, one of Cuba's rising stars, is expected to sign with a big league team when he is granted free agency. He departed the island when he was left off the roster for last year's World Baseball Classic. Supporters of Cuban baseball point to the island's success in international tournaments in the 23-and-under category and younger. There's also the belief that outfielders Yoelqui Cespedes, younger brother of Yoenis, and Victor Victor Mesa could be the face of Cuban baseball in the future. Additionally, there are signs that young pitchers Yariel Rodriguez, Yosimar Cousin, Yosver Zulueta, Javier Mirabel and Pablo Guillen will eventually become leaders on the mound. Infielders Norel Gonzalez, Yolbert Sanchez and Ariel Martinez could also develop into national-team stars. https://www.mlb.com/news/cuba-boasts-rich-tradition-of-talented-players-c265869660