Leaderboard

Oh fuck that works for me! Anderson, SS Moncada, 3B# Abreu, 1B Cruz, DH Jimenez, LF Grandal, C# Robert, CF Eaton, RF* Madrigal, 2B

I think he's getting paid in Goose Island products.

Am I the only one that doesn't really want Cruz on this team? Yes, he's been ridiculous and very good (especially against the Sox), but he's 40 years old. At some point he's not going to be able to keep this up, right? It would be so White Sox to bring him him only to see him completely fall off a cliff in production. I wouldn't HATE if they got him for the DH, and on paper this looks great in the lineup, but man, this feels so EE all over again.

It absolutely makes sense. When your owner refuses to spend at the top of the free agent market, you can't trade 6 away 6 years of Kopech/Vaughn.

I felt it was time to celebrate our great owner Jerry Reinsdorf and applaud him for going all out amidst a financially crippling pandemic. Times are tough, even for billionaires, but that’s not stopping Jerry from playing at the top of free agency and doing what needs to be done to deliver us a World Series caliber product. Come October and we’re holding that beloved trophy, don’t forgot moments like when Jerry won that bidding war for Adam Eaton despite the financial duress it likely caused him. We truly are lucky to have an owner who puts winning above all else atop our organization. Thank you Jerry from the bottom of all our hearts!! Looks like great minds think alike as Paul Sullivan wrote a fantastic piece about this very subject. I recommend everyone read this and thank Paul for this excellent, though-provoking article. https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/white-sox/ct-chicago-white-sox-liam-hendriks-jerry-reinsdorf-20210116-rhgupqhn5rhivlpu7xh5jyqnxq-story.html?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

Passan just shitting on Hector lol

?...not a good look for Hector and our hopes of adding Cruz...lol

If it helps anyone, this is what I know of Gomez's history with the Sox: 2018-2019: Continuously said that he believed Machado would sign with White Sox. Stated that Sox offered 8 years, $250 million. Chicago media went out in full force to tell him he was wrong about the offer (they believed it was $175 million). Obviously, he ended up being right about the offer, but wrong about him signing here. March 2019: First reporter to announce that Eloy Jimenez and the Sox were working on an extension, which was official within a week. December 2019: Retweeted a fellow reporter (Frank Castillo) who believed Marcell Ozuna was signing with the White Sox. Gomez was not the reporter who said Ozuna would sign, he just said he believed in his colleague's info.

What a schmuck.

If Bauer signs with us for any amount...we are the WS co-favorites with the Dodgers. I think there is a good chance the FO is currently working on this.

Jose Quintana is absurdly reliable and consistent. As much as people love that Lynn is a workhorse, Jose Quintana is another guy you can pencil for 32 starts every year. Just because he had 1 mediocre season with the Cubs doesn't mean he sucks. He's only going paid and going to be asked to pitch like a #4 guy for us if we sign him. For a rotation that is currently penciling some mixture of Cease, Kopech, and Lopez or AAA guys for the final 2 rotation spots, reliability is exactly what we need. I will not stand for this Q slander!

Quintana is by far a better option than Richards.

This. Who the fuck cares what side you hit from as long as you hit well.

Cruz is a better hitter against RHP than any left-handed bat you’re going to find in free agency.

You're really going to say no to Cruz, but yes to La Stella? Ridiculous

Completely agreed. Kopech, Vaughn and Crochet are potentially way too damn special to trade when your team's owner caps FA spending at grade B talent and limits even those players to one per offseason. You need potential stars like them in order to continue past the current 4 year window that just opened. Also completely agreed. It sucks, but it seems that Kopech made the right career move by opting out last year. That's good for both the Sox and Kopech because Kopech didn't re-injure himself and the Sox between the opt out and this year get the 1.5 years of service from Kopech that they lost with his injury. If he's everything we always hoped he'd be, the Sox would get him through his entire prime.

Yes let’s celebrate Jerry being in the bottom third of payroll during this rebuild averaging between 20-50 million under league average. Now he ties his gm’s hands in signing a SP over a few million bucks. Thanks ya cheap b@!*! ard Go find another business where you can count every straw. I am sooooo frustrated with this right now.

Time for JR to get creative again. 1/$38M deal, $8M paid in 2021, and $30M paid over the next 30 years.

Q sucks, id be upset mot happy

No thanks

I’m thinking what if Hector knows where Cruz is signing and it won’t be the Twins thus Sox fans will get “good news” with Cruz leaving the division (maybe AL overall).

That's an absolute meat grinder and the best lineup in the American League

We have a month to go till spring training. Lots of trades and acquisitions can happen until OD. Try a little patience...maybe it will be rewarded.

There were 36 new posts in this thread since I last checked it so I figured something was happening... Alas, instead it was just a bunch of @RagahRagah Hall of Fame notices instead.

I wonder what upcoming scoop the team promised to Sullivan in exchange for this article?

I recently found a ten dollar bill in a parking lot and immediately quit my job and retired early. After all, it was double the highest amount I’ve ever found on the ground before, so that proves it’s a lot of money!

That's not going to win you a World Series, let alone last you a full season.

You are debating the shit out of something simple. Trading Dunning for Lynn was, is, and always will be because we did not have a 3rd starter in 2020 to start in the playoffs and it caused us a chance to advance deeper into the postseason, now we do. The total cost to the Sox was a cheap one year contract for Lynn and giving up the guy they didn't trust to start Game 3. Nowhere close to all-in.

He had a partially torn UCL in 2016 and avoided getting TJS. Sounds like that was a poor decision that ultimately blew up on him and resulted in more lost time than necessary. I know there were other injuries mixed in there, but the dude was basically fully healthy last year. No doubt he is a risk, but if you believe the UCL is finally good to go, I’ll happily take him on a 1/$8M deal and hope I can get at least 100 quality innings out of him during the regular season and then for him to play a role on our postseason pitching staff.

I've got the current 26 man at $126M before filling the remaining 3 holes (SP, C, & DH). My preference would be to use the remaining $14M budget to select the best remaining FA SP. You then use Collins as backup C as we still need to find out what he can be. The DH would preferably be a LH and be capable of playing LF. That's your full active roster at ~$140M.

They need Reinsdorf to approve the $$ though. That’s the point

In January, 1989, I attended the inauguration of George H.W. Bush even though I hadn't voted for the man. As a citizen, I wanted to see this ceremony in person. Of course, I wasn't all that close to the platform, but I still could hear things. Before taking the oath, Bush went out of his way to say hello to Democratic Congressman Dan Rostenkowksi. It was a matter of courtesy and a way to keep lines of communication open. In his speech, Bush said we don't measure our self-worth by what is in our pocketbooks. Even with my liberal beliefs, I found the speech inspiring. Afterward, I went over the Arlington National Cemetery to visit President Kennedy's grave. I remembered hat he said in a speech at American University just a few months before he died. He said: "We all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal." For me, the whole day was memorable. An American can't experience something like this on the 20th because of the violent political atmosphere. It is a shame that a bunch of brain-washed lunatics have done this to our country.

Nelson Cruz to the Sox confirmed.

Make the bet, and then lie when it doesn't go your way.

You did this on purpose knowing what the reactions would be. And I applaud you for it. ????

It wouldn't, it's just massive hyperbole. Jose Quintana put up a higher WAR than Trevor Bauer in 2019. Trevor Bauer will also probably cost around 20 million dollars more than Jose Quintana. But all the FA starters suck, Bauer is the only answer, if the Sox don't sign him they are massive idiots and don't want to spend money, ever! (Did I miss any of the other narratives being beat to death?)

will happily take the bet that musgrove outperforms non-bauer free agents over next two seasons.

We’re talking about Tanaka, Quintana, Odorizzi, Richards while the Yankees are talking about Luis Castillo... I understand the Yankees may be a little bit more desperate because after Cole it’s really hard to get a read on the rest of their rotation (you don’t know with Kluber yet). But the Sox can’t sit on their hands here, if the Yankees get Castillo for a haul of prospects then that makes them the favorites in the AL, Sox need to pounce and get a bigger name than the free agent number 4-5 starters. It’ll cost a lot but the Sox aren’t in a position to hoard prospects especially considering Lynn is on a 1 year deal, Abreu and Grandal are a year older - it’s time to go all in. Let’s stop talking about the mediocre number 4s

Aren’t both guys butchers in the field? I honestly can’t believe the Reds would be targeting guys like that for Castillo. Where would they even play?

I have no idea how much $$ Reinsdorf is allowing them to spend so I’m really not sure

Man will I be pissed if they resort to that level of starter. I’d literally rather have them go with Lopez as our interim #4 and use that $3M to $5M towards Nelson Cruz as DH. This feels like Gio Gonzalez all over again and that’s simply not acceptable at this stage of our competitive window.

I totally expect next week we start seeing names like Mike Fiers, Julio Teheran, Brett Anderson, J.A. Happ and Jake Arrieta tossed into the Foodies Twitter salads for Sox fans consumption.

I think the Sox are going "all in" in their own way. It's just that "all in" to the Sox is not what it is to the fan base, who is happy to spend unlimited amounts of money because it isn't ours. Hendricks is an all in move. Lynn is an all-in move, even if we extend him for a couple years. Eaton is even an all-in move if you don't have the money for Springer because the other OF on the market can't really play RF, and because he's not so expensive you couldn't also get Hendricks. Kluber would be been the ultimate all-in move if they could have kept him from going to the Yankees, because if he's returned to 2014-2018 form he could top our rotation, and because it would deprive the Yankees of the starting pitching they would need to beat us. Tony LaRussa was definitely an all-in move, because you don't accept the risk he poses if you don't think his experience can get you to the WS. I happen to think the Sox are a couple of moves short of being "all-in" for this year, to give themselves the best shot at the playoffs and WS. But I'm not privy to their financials or what they can do. How much more can the Sox spend to truly be "all-in"? That's the question. My personal remaining wish list was Kluber, who could be a bigger steal for $11M than Lance Lynn is for $8M. And Michael Brantley, who should be available for less than his $16M salary from the last 2 years. I would give him the $13M we had allocated for Encarnacion's option. What the Sox shouldn't do is spend money on mediocre pitching just to have another starter. Whomever they look to add needs to be an upgrade over the alternative. For example, if the Sox are going to sign a DH/LF or DH who plays some other position, they need to be a solid upgrade over Vaughn's rookie year. Similarly, if the Sox are going to spend real money to sign another starting pitcher, they need to be a solid upgrade over Cease/Kopech/Lopez when you factor in the potential improvements those pitchers might make under our new pitching coach. They really should be someone you would consider starting in a playoff game. At this point, with Kluber gone and Bauer being the only FA pitcher left who would give us a World Series boost, I would probably focus on adding a bat like Brantley's, because that would give us the biggest upgrade.

Yes 1000000%

Right but it squeezes out the higher paid utility guys, and back up catchers and middle relievers. In the end, the owners sell it as another high priced roster spot, but the reality is they make it up somewhere else

Oh fuck off Fathom...shit, you’re right.

The cost is a wash. What is spent on a DH is money not used in other areas. The AL hasn't had a $10 million per team higher payroll average than NL teams. Their budgets don't change. Their allocation does. And if they do change, its only because they can afford it. Teams now have 26 man rosters. That additional player when things normalize, probably averages out to less than what the Sox pay Liam Hendriks per year for 10 years if they don't want him in 2024.

Manfred says prepare for 162 and spring training starting on time, but no clarity on the DH five weeks away from spring training...that's MLB in a nutshell. They both want the DH, but the owners want to hold out for leverage to get something else. 7-inning doubleheaders...never liked them, but understood why they did it last year. if they do it again, I hope it's for the same reason and when the pandemic is over they go back to 9-inning games, because that's what major league players play. Runner on 2nd in extras...ridiculously stupid, but again, understand why they did things to shorten the amount of time at the park. My compromise...play real baseball in the 10th and 11th inning, and start the man on 2nd in the 12th inning, Better yet, only play real baseball, but have ties after 12 innings in the regular season. Half point in each of the win and loss columns. Expanded postseason-- understand why they did it last year, but 162 is the test, and the postseason should be for the teams that excelled over six months. I think 5 out of 15 in Baseball is perfect. I could live with 6 in each league, but wouldn't like it. Anything more than 6 is really bad.

The DH should have been sorted out months ago.