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posts about rumors>posts about the veracity of rumors>posts about the source of rumors>posts speculating about the identity of the source of rumors>posts about the veracity of speculation about the identity of the source of rumors>posts about the morality of attacks on the veracity of speculations about the identity of the source of rumors.....

Thank you...glad to be here. I learned about Sox Talk last weekend listening to an interview with Liam Hendricks. He admitted to following Sox Talk before his signing. Thought that was classic!

Do you ever notice how according to the food guys the White Sox were in on every trade and free agent that signs?

This game of Food guys "Among Us" is one of the weirdest things to ever happen on this board.

If you ask EE and Cruz next to stand next to each other, then you bake a cake, then you write "better player" on the cake in frosting, then choose the better player, then give that person the cake, Nelson Cruz would receive aforementioned cake

After the Encarnacion debacle last year, where there were some clear warning signs of decline in the playoffs the year before and spring training with him, I'm a bit hesitant to think that Cruz will put up his usual .900+ OPS statline. He kind of struggled down the stretch (at least for his standards) and only had a .355 wOBA in the 2nd half of the season last year after he started out hot. I don't think he'll be anywhere near as bad as EE was last year, but there could be a very real decline from the .400 wOBAs he's put up the past 2 years.

5 of 15 is perfect for baseball if they play a long season. Last year was understandable, but please stop wanting 7 or 8 in each league. It’s terrible.

Arizona politicians receive a mysterious influx of donations from a group of MLB owners. Story at 10:00.

Those really smart people didn’t have clarity from the short-sighted billionaires who employ them.

This is my first post as a new member of Sox Talk, and I'm going to use it to say (loudly & clearly), I would love nothing more than to see Nelson Cruz in a White Sox uniform this season. It's a perfect match. These opportunities are rare. Get it done, RH!

Sox went 18-2 combined vs. DET and KC. That won't happen again regardless, and those teams also will be better as their young pitching gets better. Sox will be better than 2-8 vs CLE but also went 5-5 vs MIN The Sox aren't going to be *that* much better than the Twins, and CLE will still give this team fits with their young pitching. Sure they lost Lindor and Carrasco but they will get a full year of MacKenzie, plus whoever else they'll call up. They'll still play us tough, This is not the makeup of a 100-win team IMO, nothing close to it. This is like a 88-93 win team in a quality division and maybe a 95-98 win team in this division. Maybe they can hit 100 wins but I doubt it. Not without serious growth from Cease and another SP addition. And that's still assuming the guys who have been good, stay good and do not implode, and also it assumes the team is mostly healthy all year. I won't laugh when the Keuchel/Lynn duo looks like 3/4 SPs instead of the top-end starters they are touted to be. If the Sox want to be a juggernaut then they need to add a true ace to this rotation, *and* they need to see their young pitching develop.

Yeah no offense but that’s stupid. From the beginning of my time here I have been critical of everyone who claims to have inside info. Once someone gets something right I believe them and trust their info. If you want to accuse me of being those guys than I won’t feel bad about about telling the truth, the next time you get something right will be the first time I’ve personally ever seen it. Around the Harper and Machado stuff you would pop in with random cryptic bs that never became true. Sorry that other users and Twitter accounts have jumped you in credibility. You just pop in to say Steve Stone knows nothing or these food guys are full of crap and I’m sorry it bothers you for me to ask you to clarify. I guess being an anonymous guy on a message board that has a friend in the White Sox front office makes you feel cool?

Here comes the hedge...there will be one on Wainwright soon as well.

Why not just sign joc pederson then they can Dh Jimenez at times. Makes them better defensively. Just a thought.

I am thinking the White Sox overplayed their hand in the pitching market thinking they had a deal done with the Brewers.. No way they just missed on Quintana at that price, and decide to go after Wainwright for 2 million less.. no way. They had to have messed up

But the Sox traded Thome to the Dodgers. Anyway...how about a real move instead of wannabe reporters trying to get their jollies?

If what Beef says is true, then we need to sign Cruz ASAP before he gets a market. He is the last player left in our thrift shopping range that can have a huge impact on us winning a title this year. Let's not just let things fall in our lap.

I'm pro-universal DH, but absolutely not at the cost of expanded playoffs.

I dunno, Braun targeted an innocent guy doing his job taking samples and tried to destroy his career.

What is pathetic about admitting to it? I'd rather he just do that. Look at Braun for instance and the others that blame GNC and what not.

yeah, in 2008.

Why do you continue use career stats to evaluate pitchers nowadays? Guys can change for the better on a whim and that’s what has happened with Lynn. If you’ve watched him pitch over the past 2 1/2 years, you’d realize he’s much better than a mid rotation starter.

Now it is complete.

Lynn trade was an upgrade from a current spot... for one year. Lynn is old and will likely regress. Dallas Keuchel is almost guranteed to regress strongly. Cease is a complete question mark. Kopech won't throw more than like 80 innings next year and for all intents and purposes should be counted OUT of our rotation for 2021. Lopez flat out sucks. Giolito is an ace. Rotation is one of the better ones in the AL, but that's not saying anything TBH. It's one Gio injury away from being useless.

@Orlando not sus

I turned it off when the pitch was thrown before Thome swung. My Dad said, “why’d you do that?!?” I told him the game was over and that Thome was hitting it way back. Dad didn’t believe me but then turned it on to see I was right.

Just reading what this has evolved into and from what I can recall. It looks like these guys want a piece of credit if Hector is correct. They've been saying no no to Cruz for months and as soon as theirs some differentiating opinions they start to hedge. Maybe they have good info? Who knows. But they've been throwing enough shit at the wall to make me ultra skeptical.

The food guys spit out so much garbage about the Sox. The majority of what they put out there doesn't come true. Further, there is absolutely no way they would be privy to all the "rumors" they spit out. They would need multiple sources in multiple organizations, and they would have burned all their sources by now. Al's and Cishek have 0 credibility.

I believe @macsandz was the first one to confirm that we’ve been talking to Cruz since December.

To this day, when he got punched in the dick and Hawks reaction to it is one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen watching baseball. Hawk was crying in the booth and they kept replaying the hit over and over. It was amazing.

Agreed. Jerry is skipping over the part of the rebuild where you can spend on other good players while the core is cheap and controllable. Instead, we trade for one year of Lynn, an aging Adam Eaton who we are hoping bounces back, and an almost 40-year old Adam Wainwright. I like the Hendriks signing obviously, but it would be nice to spend on an impact starter or bat every once in a while (granted, they did sign Yaz last year but still).

He just had a hole in his swing. He could never catch up with high heat in and never pulled inside pitches well. Once pitchers found that out half way through his rookie season, he was screwed. Like you said, he tried to adjust and tinker, but it never worked.

I have nightmares about Thome's walk-off against Thornton.

Right. Should be plenty of money to sign a bat and a SP. Embarrassing to not put the finishing touches on this roster.

I'm worried that the answer is "Neither, $30 million was our limit". I spent 3 months expecting there was a 100% chance they would sign Quintana.

I know it's their fault, and I don't believe they'll go into the season with ReyLo as the #5, I still expect them to do something to round out the rotation. For example, let's say if they aren't crazy about spending $8M on a Trevor Cahill, but are comfortable with spending $12M on Cruz, I'd hope they'd bite the bullet and do that.

If they're unwilling to spend the money on the FA pitchers who are left then its their own fault for not having spent it earlier on someone they would have liked more. Vaughn taking over the DH spot on April 15 is a far lower risk than Lopez starting the season as the 5th starter, with Kopech as the only legit depth for the first month if someone gets hurt.

Haha, Hector Gomez retweeted this. Add him to the list of real reporters/ people with real connections that have interacted with the Beef.

It was the best of times It was the worst of times Thanks for the good memories Gordon!

Somewhat surprising to me that the players hate the expanded playoffs enough to not take the DH

100%. Owners are asshats.

That looks better than the guys that say they have no idea how it got in their bodies or didn't know it was in another substance they were taking ha.

Obviously the actual gathering itself has been cancelled, but it is one of those signs along the way to let you know you are almost through the long cold winter. Now if Rick could give us the Soxfest Surprise signing and get a hole or two taken care of, that would suffice for me.

They start the offseason behind everyone else, targeting the 2nd and 3rd and 4th tier options as their 1st tier options. This is how.

His dog is named Josie, not his daughter, hahahah

IDK why acuiring Lynn would make a move for Bauer unacceptable. Teams need 6 starters these days if they want to compete. Dodgers/Padres acquiring large depths of high quality SP's is the way to go for the future and especially for this upcoming year. The AL is going to be a shit show for Rotations, which I guess keeps the White Sox Rotation in the competition. I mean, they have one of the better ones in the AL as it is... it's just that we are one Giolito injury away from being horrible. Keuchel is regressing for sure. Lynn is old and we have to have faith in him, but he's more of a 4.0 ERA dude this year methinks. We desperately need more SP, hell, I'd even get 2 more SPs.

My god man think about the prospect rankings!!! THE PROSPECT RANKINGS!!!!!!!!!

Dr. Murphy on WGN this morning was pretty livid about how much of a shitshow this all is. Zero planning, zero coordination, nobody knows where/how/when to get shots. Nobody in charge at any level taking responsibility. Absolutely pathetic rollout from the US federal government on down. e: segment, if anyone wants to watch https://wgntv.com/morning-news/i-would-go-to-any-possible-place-you-can-go-to-get-the-vaccine-dr-murphy-answers-viewer-covid-19-questions-1-25/

Yeah, for 4 yr $58m deal. C'mon.

Using Reinsdorf as leverage for better deals elsewhere has been a time-honored tradition employed by both MLB and NBA agents. The Torri Hunter / Tracy McGrady heists were legend. Reinsdorf whining about paying MJ fair market value has had an everlasting effect on A-list difference makers in either sport considering playing for the Sox or Bulls. I dare say LBJ and Wade would have been playing for the Bulls rather than the Heat had MJ been in the room during those negotiations. MJ should be at least part owner of the Bulls. How many more championship banners would be hanging from the rafters in the NBA's Sistine Chapel ? Some legacy, Reinsdorf.