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Anyone who is refusing to be vaccinated is an idiot. Being 100% vaxxed as a team is a competitive advantage.

It's funny, they are all over this, but had nothing on Graveman.

I am disturbed by the continued normalization of trading Vaughn.

Exactly! I don't think anyone has any way to confirm this, but I think the top 3 decision makers for the org all knew exactly when to strike on a high impact mega deal. Maybe that's me being too trusthwory and giving them the benefit of doubt (one last time), but with how good we know this core of Yo, Eloy, Robert, Gio, TA, Kopech, Cease, etc. not just could be, but already is, I think all of them are looking at each other and saying, "yup, it's fucking go time". Anyone who follows this team knows they're SO close to being the very best team in baseball and that there are only a few pieces needed, and nobody knows that more than Rick Hahn, Kenny Williams and Jerry Reinsdorf. Reinsdorf is the only one that matters though. I have bitched and moaned about Reinsdorf for years. But he's a great businessman and great businessmen are insanely competitive. He knows he's old AF and that he has the best core possible to give it a few more runs at his 8th championship. I could be WAY wrong here and Graveman could be their biggest signing and we're all furious come march. If that's the case then I will admit defeat and admit that I shouldn't have given Reinsdorf the benefit of the doubt. Again, it's all up to him. I don't think that will be the case though. I think we'll be looking back at this convo and saying, "wow we had a great offseason and Graveman was just the start of it. We really could win the World Series" Just my $0.02

The White Sox are actively looking to sign pitchers like this as we speak, and have in the past. Kahnle immediately comes to mind. They took a flyer on him then flipped him for more than they gave up. Sure, the deal didn't work out as Rutherford has stunk (for lack of a better word) but at the time it looked like a good deal for a former 1st round pick that still was somewhat highly thought of. Someone like a Keynan Middleton comes to mind. Big fastball, wipe out slider, nasty changeup, big spin rates, but ZERO established success. Free agent and has high leverage "shit" without a high leverage brain yet because he's still raw, even at 27 years old. Someone like him is the sort of pitcher Katz would be trusted to work his magic on and guess what? He'll be CHEAP but if all clicks, could provide big dividends. Not saying they're signing him, saying they're gonna sign a pitcher or two like him. A lot of you are probably thinking, "who?" and then will be like "oh shit this guy has big time stuff" when you see him pitch at Camelback in the spring I know it ain't easy being a sox fan and every one of us are scarred to some extent, but a lot of you gotta trust the process.

Hard to be proven wrong if you don't source anything.

I don't block anyone or complain about anyone or any posts to moderators. This is a forum that I choose to visit. Everyone's opinion provides to the level of entertainment received by stopping in here. Besides, if I miss one of your tweets as Steve Cishek on twitter I know I can come here and see it in your posts!

But you’re so cute, it’d be impossible to do that.

Don't understand why defense would be the reason to sign conforto over schwarber. Conforto's defense is awful. Worse than Schwarber's last year

Yeah, they really blew that evaluation on Lynn too. And pursuing Wheeler & Burnes was also super dumb cause those guys suck. Probably taking too much advice from Steve Stone? Amirite tray? I mean, it’s pretty obvious Kimbrel was going to collapse well before we acquired him. We should have known the second those stupid Dodgers & Rays’ organizations joined the mix that the dude was a ticking time bomb.

Names I’ve heard mentioned in regards to Phillies talks with White Sox: Jean Segura obviously. Rafael Marchan, Moniak, Kingery and Jose Alverado. I’d be good with Segura, Alverado and Marchan. Moniak is pointless

This year’s team, sure. He should be their 1B for the next decade though. Trading him would be very short-sighted

Let's hope Colson Montgomery can have same ease moving up.

And sign Max...would be lying if I haven’t thought about the scenario

Fuck it. Let’s get crazy. Sign Conforto for RF, Schwarber for DH, trade Vaughn in a deal for Marte for 2B and a reliever, deal Kimbrel for a lesser reliever and whatever prospects we can get, try to unload all of Kuechel’s salary for whatever.

Where did I get mad? I find it hilarious. Nothing about my post was funny. I want sustained success. You want to win a WS in 22 at all costs. Differences of opinions. But guess what? Winning a WS is hard, and largely a crap shoot once you get in. The more chances you get, the likely you are to win one. I don't want to sacrifice our extended window with dumbass moves. We already had a major fuckup with Madrigal/Heuer. Enough of them.

Glad you find that funny @maloney.adam! Trading Vaughn for short term rotation help is idiotic.

Some of us want to be good for the next 5-7 years, not push all the chips in right now and suck balls again in 24.

Vaughn for Bassitt or Gray/Castillo would be very disappointing. I don't think we have enough to get either without him, but talk about going all in on the next 2 years and shortening this window. If that's the plan, there is a surefire way to do it!

If we trade Vaughn one-up, I'd like Whit Merrifield, please.

Unpopular take, but I think Eloy has a higher defensive ceiling than Vaughn, but a much lower floor and is a risk to himself if he doesn’t radically change how he handles plays around the outfield walls and sidelines.

Bullpen as it stands, if we assume Kimbrel gone: Hendriks Graveman Bummer Crochet Ruiz Lopez Foster Bilous Burr Severino Lambert Bold I think are locks. The rest are competition. Severino, Bilous may be closer and more productive than we expected in November. Ideas for relief: With a return to a 93 mph fastball, he may still find starting. But, I think approaching Folty on a switch to bullpen and a move to Sinker/Slider vs. his absolutely obliterated 4 seamer could be the potentials of a new bullpen stud. Or he'll suck. Probably will know his options late. Aaron Sanchez - at this point he just continues to get crushed under the workload, and his Curve/FB/Sinker all have tremendous break - an area I think Katz did well in addressing. Also - opener potential. Incredible name alert: JD Hammer - 94 mph fastball, above avg dropping slider. Cool glasses. Other than that probably better options. Oldies - squeeze that pulp : Bryan Shaw - Cleveland is much smarter than me, but his stuff feels like his use of the cutter SO exclusively is underrating what he gets from his curve, slider. I unno. Brandon Kintzler - I just don't think the Phillies pitchers are used well. He's old as hell and probably just sucks now, but he was a decent reliever with Cubs, Marlins then sucked as for some reason the Phillies upped his extremely meh 4 seamer. Blake Parker - I like split finger pitchers, always have always will Yusmeiro Petit - excellent control, and maybe a normal offseason after a normal year gets one more year. Nice stuff on his cutter still.

I think he has the latest edition of the Baseball Encyclopedia memorized. He definitely knows a lot of names. If he ever wrote a tell all involving seedy characters, he probably would have to go into witness protection.

If Caulfield ever writes a book, he will definitely name names. It might be all that he does, but he will at least do that.

Good idea but nope on Gore. Far too many questions about his command. I’d be ok with Vaughn for Reynolds or K. Marte (part of package).

every pitcher i'd trade him for is on a team that is competing. Yeah, would love Jose Urias or Buehler. I'd love Woodruff, Burnes, Peralta. Here's an interesting one, that I wouldn't do. Would you trade Vaughn for Mackenzie Gore

I'm tired of hearing about different ideas for trading key assets for another third starter. Generic "rotation depth" is not a top need. I mean, we could use it like all teams could use it, but it's not a priority for this team. We need a TOR starter who can take the mound in key playoff games. We should buy one, but if we can't I'm not interested in gutting our team to get just another dude.

May will be ready when we'd need him (playoffs) Why trade Vaughn for a pitcher who will shorten the window?

2022 is Abreu's last year. Vaughn takes over at 1B then, with Sheets the backup 1B/LF/RF against righties (or the Sox cash in on a high note and trade him now). If you trade Vaughn now you have a big hole at 1B and Sheets frankly doesn't have near the potential Vaughn has. Also, signing a likely worse free agent 1B to a bigger deal than Vaughn's pre-arb numbers doesn't make sense. The Sox would be stupid to trade Vaughn. Use Kimbrel, Burger, Sheets as your main upper-level trade pieces and see what you can do. Supplement the rest of the team with free agents.

lol

We have too many players who are poor defensively and an over abundance of DH/1st types.

Outs Above Average: Eloy Jimenez: +2 (LF) Vaughn : -3 (LF) FRAA: Eloy Jimenes: -0.2 Andrew Vaughn: -3.8

Liam will have to throw 6 innings in 3 days and then come home and jab them in their sleep cause he's a psycho.

The Natural Immunity Warriors

We would have...EASILY....the worst defense in the league. Schwarber makes ZERO sense on this roster. None what so ever. We already have a glut of bad corner OF / 1B / DH types, and we're adding another? It makes no sense. Yes the bat is nice, but as Hawk says, "where he gonna play?". So you sign Schwarber, you now basically have to trade one of Eloy/Vaughn. Its likely Vaughn (who is the best OF defender of the 3, probably) and now you're stuck playing 2 of Eloy/Schwarber/Sheets in the OF nearly everyday. ITs terrible. And you're paying him $20M AAV to boot? Hate hate hate hate hate it. But it what a "White Soxy" move, so I wouldn't put it past them.

RIP nearest toilet 30 minutes later.

Glad we are on the exact, exact same schedule.

Jesse Rogers on the White Sox Talk Podcast said he thinks the Sox are “closer to pushing all in” than they have been in the past decade. Pointed out adding a big left-handed bat is a huge priority with Schwarber & Conforto guys he’s heard they are exploring. Also said they will certainly address 2B (exploring many options), SP (hasn’t heard them connected to the top free agents), and RP (threw out bringing back Tepera as a possibility). Didn’t rule out Semien at 2B, but feels it’s unlikely given him being RH (acknowledged he does hit RHP) and what should be a substantial price point. He pointed to Escobar being the more logical solution via free agency if adding a big LH bat elsewhere. Chuck then threw out the Kimbrel for Segura hypothetical and Rogers didn’t completely rule it out, but didn’t feel like it was something the Sox would aggressively pursue.

The only second basemen better than Segura in FA is Semien (far better). And there really isn't anyone particularly close.

If the Sox didn't have an option on Kimbrel, a Segura-Kimbrel swap would be fine. But considering the Sox pickuped up Kimbrel's option, trading him for a 2B making roughly the same when there are a ton of FA 2B that are as good or good fits than Segura, makes it a far less interesting trade.

this guy is unvaxxed...? Good, Good, the puns will continue to flow.

Or a Greek island…

Well they do have criteria for exemptions (food and processing workers, marine crew members, those entering on compassionate grounds, etc.) just as there are permits and waivers to allow Tony La Russa and others with DUI arrests into the country. Kendall Graveman missed 19 days last season due to COVID protocols, and there was a significant COVID outbreak at that time which impacted their bullpen. Seattle missed the playoffs by a single game. Fans now have to hope a similar outbreak doesn't occur with the White Sox with Graveman in the mix. Perhaps MLB and the Players Union will negotiate a vaccine requirement into the new CBA. The NBA (under 5%) and NHL (4 total players) have nearly vaccinated all player and travel personnel, whereas MLB's threshold target has been 85% to date entering into the CBA negotiations, with no player mandate.

Cralos actually sounds like a brand of Dollar Store Crayons.

Sounds like a new Crayola color…

I don't know - I can't remember that Cralos Rodon guy ever getting hurt PS: Yes - I really went there and corrected you on spelling hahahaha

Above teams sorted from highest bullpen payroll to lowest. Number is the league ranking of bullpen fWAR Dodgers ($45m) 5th in bullpen fWAR Yankees ($35m) 3rd White Sox ($29m) 2nd Red Sox ($29m) 9th Astros ($18m) 14th Blue Jays ($13m) 25th Cardinals ($12m) 11th Brewers ($3.75m) 15th Giants ($3m) 6th Rays ($3m) 1st

Wouldn't we be better off with Escobar AND Leury/back-up veteran catcher VERSUS $14.5 alone (basically a wash) with Kimbrel's salary? Not sure what argument there is there, other than about Hahn's ego needing to be massaged...he just better hope that Rodon doesn't repeat 2021 next year. If so, he needs to come up with the equivalent starter, because Kopech's results seem like they are about as predictable as Dylan Cease's, except far fewer innings, K's, etc. Can count on those two to destroy most of the AL Central, but against top teams, no idea what will happen.

Payroll dedicated to bullpen arms with contracts above $1m AAV by 2021's Top 10 Teams by winning percentage: Giants: $3m on 2 players Dodgers: $45.12m on 7 players Rays: $2.95m on 2 players Astros: $18.6m on 5 players Brewers: $3.76m on 3 players White Sox: $29.69m on 5 players Yankees: $35.3m on 6 players Red Sox: $29.45m on 6 players Blue Jays: $13.44m on 5 players Cardinals: $12m on 1 player All data according to Spotrac 2021 data. Only included pitchers earning >$1m for simplicity. Includes pitchers listed as RP by the website whether active, IL, or retained salary. All data also done by hand. Decent chance I messed something up.

Yep. He is a knuckle baller.