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And the award for most dramatic response goes to....

He isn't basing his decision on spring training. Where do people come up with this stuff?

Bad opinion.

The fact that we're even talking about a Plan B is bullshit when Plan A should have always been and should now still be to SIGN COLE OR STRAS. We are all a bunch of dumbasses for falling for this shit. Every single one of us is smart enough to know that if you can pay $250 million plus for Machado, you can pay the same amount for a franchise altering pitcher, and so is Jerry. I'll take my chances every single time with Cole/ Stras + Moustakas (estimated $50M/ year) over Wheeler+ Machado (roughly $54M/ year). That said, I choose to believe we sign Cole or Stras until they actually sign elsewhere.

Neither is never winning because you refuse to pay market price just on a matter of principal.

5/125 is perfectly reasonable for a 29 year old coming off of two consecutive 4+ win seasons. This franchise is a fucking joke.

Hey, we resemble that remark.

Good for him but I'd be single if my fiancee asked me to turn down 7 million dollars to be closer to HER family.

0 for 2 with 2 big whiffs. He should change his name to Palka.

But Soxtalk tells me it's only about money.

The failures of this Front Office are really piling up.

I think a lot of stuff is public at this point. Seems to be between the Sox, Reds and Phillies and wrapping up soon. I fear the Reds more than the Phillies. Sox are talking a big game to Wheeler but are cautiously optimistic. They want to stay guarded after last year which is understandable but they are not operating like they are known to in the past. They put together a great presentation and a market-competitive offer. They see it as they basically put the ball in Wheeler's court because Sox don't want to play agent-chicken with him. We'll see how crazy the Reds want to get. While I think the Sox obviously handled the Machado situation very poorly last year, I agreed with them not dipping into the next tier of free agents after missing out on Harper/Machado. They should have been on short term, flippable guys and 26-year-old-studs. I was fine with that strategy but they just whiffed. This year is different because whether they convert on Wheeler or not, they are working on multiple fronts (multiple trades, multiple other FAs). I think it's going to be an exciting offseason either way but Sox definitely want to convert on Wheeler here. He's kind of in a tier of his own so I'll be interested to see how they pivot in the starting pitching market. Tier A: Cole, Stras Tier B: Wheeler Tier C; MadBum, Ryu

As long as they have a seat at the table.

Sox would improve their chances if the second best bid won.

Well, he's not wrong

LOL everyone laughs at the Sox left and right when they put effort into their presentations and signing friends and family... everyone says, JUST OFFER THE MOST MONEY! Now they do that, and people are mad at the Sox for not selling themselves well enough and not being creative enough. Enough. They offered the most. They lost out. It's not the teams fault and blaming them is just being angry to be angry. Good on the Sox for FINALLY offering the most money when they said they would. That should be the takeaway here. The Sox shouldn't pay 10 million extra just because of some guys wife; jfc.

Wheeler was the guy. He was the only realistic shot at TOR performance that didn’t require a $160M+ contract. The other “fish in the sea” are either substantially worse or substantially more expensive. I don’t think the abject despair some are feeling is overblown if you look at the context of the market. The only way to get the pitching they need now is via trade, which would pull from a talented bun already thin system, thus hurting the teams chances, and all, again, for the sake of saving money. The team is simply not operating at the same level as the rest of the MLB. If this is how they are going to act, only blind luck will ever bring a championship

Sox seemed to ceiling themselves at 5 years 110 million. Stone looks like such a dope as always too; says it's not about the AAV it's about the years. Well Stoney, he signed for 5 years and it was about the AAV. Nice call though big guy.

Cole = Lebron Strasburg = Wade Wheeler = Bosh We will end up with Boozer again (Bumgarner).

Hard to gauge the pulse on Soxtalk with the Wheeler wishing. How many people here are moving to Nashville if they fail to convert?

Man, that corbin contract must have completely destroyed whatever franchise signed him.

Gotta pull out all the bells and whistles for Kole Calhoun.

I'm very disappointed in our fan base. Yesterday we were all good with 5 and 110 if it came to it. Today, we can't fathom 6 and 120. I am not a fan of overpaying players but sometimes shit happens and you have to put your big boy pants on.

I honestly don't care anymore. They just have to actually execute shit for me to defend them in any way. I don't care they offered more. I don't care if they are desireable or undesireable. I care that they targeted wheeler and failed. I don't believe in spreading the wealth in mlb. You get depth internally, you should use the surplus before re-signings on players you really love, not fallbacks.

I will apologize if the "more money" in the tweet was actual real money and not fake not guarenteed money, again.

Feel free to delete the last 10 pages of overreaction now.

He's not a TOR pitcher though. He's good, but he's no ace. I think you guys are way too emotional.

If you are willing to spend 25 mill/yr on a 4 win pitcher...why not spend an additional 10 mil per year and get a 9 win one.

Shut the fuck up Bruce you old coot

Just to put this in perspective this makes him the 9th highest paid SP in the MLB. Soon to be #11 after Cole and Strasburg sign. Do you think he's the 11th best pitcher in the MLB or has the potential to be a Top 25 pitcher? It simply wasn't worth that money. In parenthesis yes or no I would want that contract going forward) The tops are: Scherzer $36mm (Yes), Greinke $35mm (Yes - it's two years only), Verlander $33mm (Yes), Price $32mm (Hell no), Kershaw $31mm (Nope), Sale $30mm (on fence), DeGromw (Yes), Zimmerman $25mm (No) There are only a few pitchers in my opinion that are worth that type of coin - arguably Wheeler wasn't even a Top 3 pitcher on the Mets. I'll take a pass on $120mm contract.

Bullshit. They didn't offer him more money.

Cooper can barely wipe his own ass... Please leave the forum

There's the Jack we know and love.

(the white sox if they fail on wheeler should pivot to rendon)

No offense to Rabbit, but who cares? He's not involved in these negotiations and the Sox are not the one leaking like a sieve right now. One thing I actually believed Rick on this off-season was that the organization was going to STFU. All we know is the Sox, reportedly, had the top offer but were willing to go higher if necessary - that was reported yesterday. The Phillies have clearly pushed the price up and the ball is now in the Sox court; we'll see what happens.

Adam Dunn. Literally even before Thanksgiving.

Yep. I will personally blame Greg if we lose to someone who offered 5 years. Greg is vicariously responsible for the Abreu deal.

GUYS MAYBE ZACH WHEELER HATES HUMIDITY AND WOULD RATHER DO SPRING TRAINING IN ARIZONA. 5/100 GETS THIS THING DONE FOR THAT REASON

Trade Anderson and 3 minor leaguers for him.

At least Greg isn't a bigot though.

To date, the Sox have signed the most premium FA that has been signed this offseason. So maybe its time to put this narrative away for the season, even if someone decides to give Zack Wheeler a stupid amount of money and he signs elsewhere.

Yes, I don’t get this either. Let’s wait for panic until it’s confirmed he’s not coming. I think the white Sox are very much in this unless the price gets insane.

Did I miss something? People are already acting like we lost on Wheeler when all that’s been reported is the Phillies are currently in the lead. These things are dynamic and can change in a minute.

Sign him for six, play him for three, offload him for a portion of that salary back. Hes not physically sewn onto the field for six years.

They should have been watching Tatis, Jr., instead.

I feel like Olney’s tweet is a plant from Wheeler’s camp to get the Sox to raise their offer.