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Jack, stop telling us you are conditioned for the worst. We all know. For the love of fucking god, stop

Oh I don’t expect the offseason to be a flop, just wanted to see if posting some ridiculously pessimistic shit actually felt good given all the negativity around here. Unfortunately, it just made me feel like a little b**** and I don’t get the allure of being pessimistic all the time. That being said, this idea there is too much competition to expect anyone impactful (cough Jack Parkman cough) is beyond fucking absurd. We are better suited to add impact talent this offseason than any team in baseball. I don’t give a fuck if there is no track record, given our payroll flexibility the expectation has to be multiple impactful pieces are added. At this point there are no more fucking excuses to not get shit done and I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt until they don’t. I refuse to live my life under Murphy’s Law and assume the worst at all times...just a sad way to go about life.

Just read this thread. Well played @Chicago White Sox, well played.

Avoid Alex Wood like the plague but you’re pinning for the corpse of King Felix and Edinson Volquez? I can’t express my LOL enough.

I think Hamels will be their top target and they're gonna sign a cheap veteran and hope to squeeze 100 innigs out of him. Volquez, Felix or Gio fit the profile. I hope they avoid Alex Wood like the plague.

Cole Hamels, Avisail and either Edison Volquez or Alex Wood.

The difference is this year the players and front office are talking big. Hahn believes it will get done for sure. I doubt after last year they speak a big game and fail again. We all are cautiously optimistic but I'd encourage you to have faith until FA is over. If they fail again, there will be plenty of time to crucify them.

They ripped my heart out last winter. And you know what? I lived. I'll gladly over-psyche myself up again and hope the outcome is different again. It's more fun to live and think that way.

Phew...you scared me there. It's funny you mentioned Jack Parkman. I thought it was a very Parkman-esque post. Good job there. And I agree. I bag on Reinsdorf for being cheap as much as anyone, but I'm going to believe until shown otherwise. He broke his mold with Luis Robert, and I think it's time to break some other molds this winter. At least one particular mold that has been idle for the last 23 years.

With occasional average payrolls? Why is everyone lowering their sites so much? The Sox have had good payrolls before the last handful of years. There's no reason to expect any less now.

His WAR was 2.2 and trending downwards. I mean, Cardinal fans don't seem to want him back all that much. Whatever they do, this guy is risky. Because he's going to get paid somewhat based on his potential to return to his Marlins form from from 3 seasons ago. Seems like a risky bad contract some team might be diving in to. And for the love of God, can we please stop using our bad production in RF as justification for bringing in some guys.

But the question is what to do with Abreu going forward if Vaughn rockets through the system or if Eloy doesn't get much better in LF while a minor league OF all of a sudden can replace Eloy in the OF. JDM more than likely has a shot at his last big contract which will require multiple years of commitment. Him at DH requires Abreu to play 1st base more, not less ,as most of us would like and keeps Eloy in LF. It also could block Vaughn if he does as many hope he can do. The only way JDM works is if Abreu signs for like 1 year at a time. Also if you consider the AAV of Martinez it might hurt the chances of spending the money on pitching if we consider pitching to be the top priority and also limits upgrading other needs like BP ,C, OF and bench. Too many DH types means the bench would probably need to have 2 guys who can play IF and OF. He's also RH and that's not usually a problem when it comes to a great hitter but Abreu , Eloy and Vaughn are all also RH.

We would also be in our first year "out of rebuild". All of those teams are very well established. I understand you are doing the 2 fWar thing to compare other teams to the Sox but it's pretty arbitrary. The Braves had 7 2+ fWar players, the Cardinals had 8 and both finished above the Cubs who had 11. The Sox are a couple pieces and improvement from young guys away from competing. Twins are losing one of their best pitchers more than likely and hit on almost all of their aquisitions. Cleveland has one of the better rotations in the league but have big holes in their lineup. They also went like 15-1 against Detroit which won't happen again. My point is if Jerry opens his pocket book and not his change purse we will be a very competitive team next year.

This is pretty much what I expect them to do, he's movable, they might have to put in a tiny bit of money for some teams but that's a movable option. Pick up the option, hold him through the winter meetings, make your run at Cole, and if you are in the position of needing to move payroll trade him then.

if you arent prepared to be disappointed, you arent prepared

So teams are only interested in the guy they draft? Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?

Fans of Luis Alexander Basabe were hoping to see him potentially play on the south side in 2019 after what could have been a major leap in development. However, Basabe dealt with several injuries that split up his season. His overall numbers don't look great, but after a little digging, our Ken Sawilchik found some fascinating discoveries. Read the interview and feature Ken did on Basabe HERE.

It's also yet ANOTHER indication that we should be hiring someone from that organization for double their current salary and sticking them behind Hahn and ahead of Haber as the heir-apparent.

With Vaughn I think it’s about whether or not he can have elite wood bat power. I’m not concerned about his ability to hit the ball hard, but I’m not convinced he won’t be more of a doubles hitter than a huge homer guy.

Crazy thing is Bowman's off season moves have actually played well to start. It's the core guys (and I'll add DeBrincat and Strome to that group too at this point) that have been shit.

Great thread. It reminds me of how many people criticized Hahn about the Sale trade when Moncada was struggling in his first year. "We should have demanded Benintendi...blah blah blah" The hindsight bias that exists on this message board (and every sports message board in the history of message boards) is so ridiculous at times. Bottom line: We had three great cost-controlled assets, and Hahn got a great return for all three. In addition, the extensions we gave them prior to that made them such a valuable trade chip. Hahn deserves a lot of credit for those trades.