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The two biggest holes on this roster are a decent #4 starter and a left-handed bat that plays the IF. Jerry not being willing to pony up like $3M for a Brad Miller type is beyond fucking pathetic.

Based on projections from the two most commonly known online baseball projection websites, most positions have a clear advantage of one player over another. PS - Don't shoot the messenger about First Base. Projections: fWAR = Fan Graphs presented first vs. warp = Baseball Prospectus presented second Consensus Picks in Bold: (Both sites project one player over another) Catcher Yasmani Grandal (4.1 / 4.7) over Wilson Contreras (1.9 / 2.9) First Base Anthony Rizzo (3.0 / 4.7) over Jose Abreu (1.8 / 2.9) Second Base Nick Madrigal (2.3 / 2.7) over Nico Hoerner (1.0 / 1.3) Shortstop Tim Anderson (2.6 / 2.0) over Javier Baez (2.6 / 1.9) => (fWAR tied, BP with slight edge to Anderson - basically a coin flip) Third Base Kirk Bryant (2.9 / 2.8) over Yoan Moncada (3.1 / 2.3) => (slight advantage to Bryant based on larger BP difference of 0.5 vs. Moncada's 0.2 fWAR advantage) Right Field Jason Heyward (1.7 / 1.8) over Adam Eaton (1.3 / 1.9) => (slight advantage to Heyward based on larger fWAR difference of 0.4 vs. Eaton's 0.1 BP advantage) Center Field Luis Robert (3.4 / 3.2) over Ian Happ (2.4 / 1.5) Left Field Eloy Jimenez (3.2 / 2.6) over Joc Pederson 2.0 / 2.2) Starting Pitcher 1 Lucas Giolito (4.2 / 2.9) over Kyle Hendricks (2.7 / 2.6) Starting Pitcher 2 Lance Lynn (3.0 / 2.0) over Zach Davies (1.4 / 1.1) Starting Pitcher 3 Dallas Keuchel (2.5 / 1.4) over Alec Mills (0.8 / 1.4) => (BP tied, fWAR with large edge to Keuchel) Starting Pitcher 4 Dylan Cease (1.5 / 0.4) over Adbert Alzolay (0.8 / 0.8) => (slight advantage to Cease based on larger fWAR difference of 0.7 vs. Alzolay's 0.4 BP advantage) Starting Pitcher 5 Michael Kopech (1.0 / 0.9) over Trevor Williams (0.7 / 0.1) Closer Liam Hendriks (1.9 / 1.3) over Craig Kimbrel (0.8 / 0.7)

Except the White Sox have had about a 25-30% success rate in free agency with these Tier B/C free agents like EE, Alonso, LaRoche, Cabrera, etc. The only way this philosophy works is if you’re at closer to 50-60% in free agency, or have great coaching as well as talent evaluation on a consistent basis. Teams like the Rays, Braves, Cardinals, Brewers, Indians and A’s just a few that come to mind. What doesn’t work well is being stuck in the middle. Which is where the Mariners have been since their near great Ichiro-led teams of the early 2000’s.

Gonna be up to local jurisdictions

The players continue to get f**ked. There needs to be a lot of changes. Unfortunately, the owners are some of the most greedy pieces of shit possible. Love the conversation in this thread. A salary floor is an absolute must. We need to push it up, someone said 85 mil, I might even go 100mill, but I don't have any stats in front of me.

I am going to get ridiculed for this, but i don't care. Money isn't always the primary factor playing into a free agent's decision. Many times, yes, it probably is. But not always. See: Zack Wheeler 2019-2020 offseason

I'm with you. They need to fix the pre-arb system. I'm not a big shot actuary or attorney I'm not going to throw out proposals but it doesn't take a genius to see the current system is broken.

Can't help but think....that's not good for baseball. Teams need to have an absolute salary floor and ceiling.

I agree. If this were Pittsburgh, I think it would be fine. But being in a major market, it honestly is an embarrassment.

But it's LAD that is standing in Hahn's way of achieving multiple championships. Until the Sox are owned by affluent sportsmen that càn compete with LAD, the Sox may contend but not win. Do you really think LAD fans àre tossing and turning in their sleep worrying about the 100 plus million the team owners may end up paying Bauer? They have expectations. The Reinsdorf Experience in any other major market wouldn't have lasted 3 years let alone 40. And in those 40 years they've made the post seasons 6 friggin times and it took a group of journeymen ballplayers having collective career years for them to get pass the first round in the only time they did.

He's a paper billionaire. He'd have to sell off the Sox and the Bulls to come anyway near realizing that kind of money. I want the next owners to be Cohen / Balmer wealthy. The Sox could take over this town with the right ownership and a new venue smartly located in the downtown area to grab that tourist dollar that seems to find its way to Clark and Addison. Reinsdorf is many things - a visionary he is not. It's mind-boggling he didn't take Mayor Washington up on his offer to anchor the up and coming South Loop. .

Puig is not getting interest from any MLB team, think about that, there is a reason for that.

Harold....why did we suddenly get tapped out now when I thought after Hendriks there was at least 8m left to spend just on another SP and allegedly another 7m for a bat? How did that 15m suddenly become 3m overnight? Was it just an inaccurate number to begin with?

Downers are my favorite... umm pitch.

Nice to name it after Hector Gomez.

Hopefully this isn't the the Ricky Vaughn Eliminator

Using their ridiculously low payrolls at peak rebuild to suggest they spent most of the Machado money is poor logic. The reality is that money has not been spent at this point in time. However, if they can extend Giolito & Lynn and possibly add a few years onto Anderson’s deal I’d probably change my tune.

By the way - the reason why I personally think you can throw 2020 out the window for Wentz. Terrible oline, terrible weapons, and obviously an awful head coach / QB relationship. That is not to justify / make Wentz devoid from the party - but lets face the facts - it clearly had an impact. And just look at his receiving corps - he basically had Goedert or running backs to throw the ball to. He had nothing...like nothing that could stretch the field. AN up drafted rookie from Houston (who was a converted QB) from 2017 led their team in receptions at just under 50. And there next best wideout was some unknown from Old Dominion who played 3 games last year and had to start (Travis Fulgham). Oh and he too was an underrated free agent. Not to knock on updrafted free agents - but not exactly best look that your teams top 2 wideouts are complete nobodies. I mean this receiving corps makes the Bears receiving corps with Devin Hester / Johnny Knox look good. Note: The Eagles TE room was good though - so there is that. Goedert and Ertz are solid and Sanders is a decent back from the times I watched him (good YPC and decent hands). But no 1000 yard rusher. I mean seriously - go look at the Eagles roster and look at the suck Wentz was throwing to and than look at who was blocking him. No wonder he sucked ass.

There is nothing that bad about the move. If it works - you have a QB at a very fair deal. If it doesn't - a new regime comes in next year and your draft a QB or whatever they want to do. Not that bad of a set back. Now when it turns out Bears are giving up a 1st plus another 1st or something - whole nother story. If it is Wentz & a 2nd for Foles, 1st, and Anthony Miller - I'd say that is a pretty damn good deal. But I'm a Wentz fan (other than this past year). He's been a top 10 QB in the league pretty much every year but this past year. That is a HUGE fricking upgrade from anything the Bears have had in a long time. And just look at the Eagles offenses these past few years. Weak wideouts, injuries, horrible oline play...the list goes on and on. Last year it finally ruined Wentz - the key is that Bears have to hope it was more of a one year ruin where he can turn things around pretty quickly. I'm betting yes and if I'm wrong - who cares - it doens't set the franchise back at all.

Last year he did. In 2019 Aaron Rodgers led the league in bad throw %. The question is whether Wentz is as bad as last year, only as good as 2019, or 2017 good still in there somewhere.

Its not horrible, it just isn't good. And to move up the Bears need good moves. But we shouldn't lie to ourselves, Eagles drated Hurts because they were worried Wentz wasn't good enough.

I like the Sox at every position but the Cubs still have an intact core of Bryant Rizzo Contreras, Baez, Heyward and now Joc Pedersen. Maybe they will be better than we think. Schwarber was a good non-tender and Joc could hit 30+ HR, especially in Wrigley. They needed a TOR starter or two which is why the Ricketts probably should have been in on Bauer. Not sure what the plan is over there.

I did read what you said and that was that teams would be going “belly up” before we know it. Sorry, but I LOL at that comment. You also stated that rather than JR spending $30M on payroll that you would prefer he use those funds to finance (thus keeping his current profit margins) a cheaper ballpark experience. :shrug:

I’d take the Sox at every position but RF and even there an Adam/Adam platoon has the potential to be better than Heyward.

LOL, nobody is going under. And you're advocating that JR should have made a massive payroll reduction this year so that the cost of a game is cheaper? Maybe you should think about going to Kane County if you want a cheaper experience.

Nick Foles won the Super Bowl MVP.

I agree...no way would I play in New York...just wouldn't. I would just wait for the WS to come to the table.?

I ... kinda like Wentz. Bears aren’t in a good position regardless, it doesn’t really hurt long term. And the situation was legit awful. If he ends up being a 12-14 QB and you want to move on, you could have a great contract with no guaranteed money to send out. I just really don’t trust NFL fan orthodoxy anymore. And I’ve just not really seen a qb as good as Wentz was lose it to that point. I also think the complete dismissal of Mac Jones as just a product of the talent around him has a good chance of being the new big draft groupthink that ends up wrong.

Two things. 1. Zack Wheeler signed for 5/118 with the Phillies. But let’s say that offer never came in from the Phillies. So the Sox offered 125, and the next best offer is from the Yankees at 100 million. Where do you think he ends up? 2. Again, Wheeler signed for 5/118. We don’t know how much the Sox offered, but let’s say it was 125. What if the offer was 140? 150? Does he still tell the Sox no, or does the extra 20-30 million get him to Chicago? What we are saying basically comes down to semantics....but my point is I think in both cases, money DOES become the deciding factor and is the No. 1 decision...but when the difference between the two final offers were so small, the secondary stuff starts to weigh-in more. I don’t believe playing on the East Coast becomes that big of a talking point if the difference in offers was 20+ Million, and the Sox could have made that happen if they wanted.

I generally agree with the sentiment that stars should get paid, but I don’t actually think many people tune in to see Bauer. I’ve never seen a Bauer jersey. He’s more loud than popular.

Sorry for the late reply I suppose I was alluding to colome and they also picked up Ian Hamilton. I realize the later needs to prove things but he does have chance to be effective. My main point is they did things pretty quietly and they are still the team to beat.

Sounds like Giolito paid a visit to one of those Innovative Ketamine medical practices that are popping up around Chicago

Why would the player's union give a damn about a small market team's ability to build a farm system? 500k a year is not enough for players who have accomplished the impossible. Prorated pre-arb contracts are an absolute insult to what these player's have accomplished. Their window to earn a living is so small, their union better look out for them. Veteran run player's unions tend to always look after their own, which happen to be veteran players.

Justice would be his kids selling the team to Mark Cuban while his body is still warm.

Carranza is a guy who could quickly jump to the middle of this list come mid-season update.

It won't matter how much jr has. He will just pocket the extra money. Seriously fuck that guy!

Fuck Trevor Bauer and Fuck the Dodgers. Time for MLB to get a grip. Salary caps + revenue sharing = Credibility and competitiveness. Economic Stimulus checks are too big you say? 40 Million / $1,400 = 28,571 people Sorry to wax about political/social ideology, but wealth inequality in this country just gets uglier every time you see something like this.

Isn't the main objective in sports to win championships? [Refraining from Jerry Reinsdorf jokes] ... Other than Watson, there is no QB on the market who makes the Bears a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Not Wentz, not Carr, not Garoppolo, or whoever else is rumored to be available. The rest of the Bears team isn't good enough. OL is average at best, we're about to lose our our best offensive player, and the defense is another year older... Keep Foles, ride out a shitty 6-10 season next year, and start to stockpile assets while getting the salary cap back in order. That's the strategic long-term play here. Except we kept a GM who is desperate and will make short-term moves to gain an extra win or two, leaving us in a long-term bind. On that note, Pace has zero understanding of asset management. He trades away draft picks like they're nothing because he always has to move up to get "his guy." The problem with this is that history/analytics show that trading up is a bad idea. Hell, per the Under Center pod a few weeks ago, Pace tried to trade up for Kmet last year (thankfully he couldn't). After all his bad trades, he still hasn't learned his lesson. What makes anyone think he's trustworthy of fixing this team?

If Jerry could not spend a dime on Q he was not spending a silver dollar on Bauer.

I personally think the name goes great with the logo of our beloved stadium. Hell, he should advertise the pitch and have Guaranteed Rate sponsor it with their logo.

This only puts them in a better position to compete with us.

So folks that can actually afford to own and operate a major market ballclub swooped in an signed Bauer. So much for that. Too bad, what a forminable pitcher that would been for the CWS. CWS has got to spend some money. Filling a need by trading the few assets they have just create holes elsewhere. That's why organizations like LAD are consistently in the hunt. They nuture their budding stars and spend money on vetted difference makers. That has never been nor ever will be the Reinsdorf Doctrine.

Two take aways; 1: Some White Sox fans were worried about signing a starter and blocking Dylan Cease or Michael Kopech while the Dodger just signed a starter to potentially block Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin - because they understand how important depth it, this year more than any other possibly as well. That's how big boy teams operate, and people calling this a bad deal are insane. Very very little risk for the Dodgers given the length of the deal. 2: The White Sox should check in on Tony Gonsolin because he would be an amazing add to this roster and he's undoubtedly the odd man out for the Dodgers and he's cost affordable which we know is imperative for the how this cheap ass organization operates.

He seemed pretty solid this season when I followed him but I can't recall him breaking anything like this Wentz's numbers are a lot better than I thought. If they make this trade they better fucking protect his ass better than they did Cutler

Is he trying to say he's throwing his curveball again without hurting Coop's feelings?

The support for the rebuild was overwhelming IMHO and I feel like we were promised (I supposed "We expected" might be more accurate) a significant increase in payroll during the competitive window. I understand the hesitance to make long term commitments but I feel like we had room for 1 or 2 more large short term deals this offseason. I imagine the unknowns of the pandemic might be a legitimate concern for ownership but my patience will run out after next offseason.

I was told it'll be official next week

?

If they're on the verge of giving Gio a 9 figure extension, then I would understand the penny pinching. Otherwise, it's disappointing. They had a chance to grab this division by the balls and they passed on that opportunity.