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Man Harrison deal just sucks on many levels. Not only is it settling and an underwhelming deal, but it limits the team's flexibility rounding out the roster. I would honestly rather go into the season with Leury and Romy as the 2B options than have 5.5m committed to Harrison.

We did set the market. We set it on utility players and relievers.

Sheets plus Rodriguez seems way too steep for one year of Manaea IMO.

This is my one overly negative comment for the night....it’s shocking how poorly this roster has been handled since the day before last year’s trade deadline. You would have to try hard to mess up as much as they have.

Yes

I like how you bleeped the one in his name and then went with the full cursing out of the Tigers.

Exactly. I'm totally fine with Harrison at 2B. I'm not fine with Vaughn/Sheets/Engel in RF and Kopech/Keuchel as back end of rotation.

I will keep updated as more information comes out. If anyone sees any away game info that I missed feel free to let me know and I can update. Date: Time: Radio: Television: March 17th SS vs. Cubs 3:05PM Radio: ESPN TV: NBCSCH March 17th SS @ Cubs 3:05PM TV: Marquee & MLB Network March 19th vs. Guardians 3:05PM Radio: ESPN March 20th @ Rockies TBD Radio: KOA 850 March 21st vs. Dodgers 3:05PM Radio: ESPN TV: NBCSCH March 22nd @ Brewers 3:10PM Radio: WTMJ TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin March 23rd @ Rangers 3:05PM Radio: Webcast texasrangers.com March 24th vs. Giants 3:05PM Radio: ESPN March 25th @ Mariners 8:40PM Radio: KIRO 710 March 26th vs. Angels 3:05PM Radio: ESPN TV: NBCSCH March 27th @ Dodgers 3:05PM Radio: LA 570 TV: SportsNet LA March 28th vs. Padres 3:05PM Radio: ESPN March 30th vs. Rangers 3:05PM Radio: ESPN TV: NBCSCH March 31st @ Reds 8:05PM Radio: WLW 700 April 1st vs. Athletics 3:05PM Radio: ESPN TV: NBCSCH April 2nd @ Diamondbacks 8:10PM Radio: 98.7 FM AZ TV: Bally Sports AZ April 3rd vs. Rockies 3:05PM Radio: ESPN TV: NBCSCH April 4th @ Cubs 3:05PM Radio: 670 The Score TV: Marquee April 5th @ Padres 2:10PM TV: BSSD

Good grief is this the first spring training for everyone?

Makes sense to me. This is a really bad offseason if they don't do anything else.

This makes me more nervous than anything else so far this off season. When the Sox hand-picked media starts pointing out how high payroll is, that probably isn't a good sign.

My sentiment on this off-season precisely. I've defended this FO in years past for missing on Manny/Harper/Wheeler/Springer etc, because either the team wasn't ready for those expenditure or we will get our guy eventually. 4 years after rebuilding our window is wide open and our needs are clear, yet we're still waiting to get the guy who will put us over the top. We were told the money will be spent, but it ended up being spent on decent complementary players (Grandal, Hendriks) or a bunch of mediocre, aging players (Keuchel, Eaton, Kelly, Harrison, etc.) because either JR won't commit to 9 figure deals or Hahn is just bad at what he does. Either way, the "finishing touches" being put on this team is nearing disastrous.

Right!? Tweets are usually what I am scrolling for, not over. The rest is just primarily the same 4-5 negative nancies telling us all why we should be extremely pessimistic about all things White Sox related.

That package seems like significantly more than the one the Twins gave up for two years of Sonny Gray.

Hahn should be fired on the spot if he made that trade. I mean the Twins just got Sonny Gray for a late 1st rd HS pitcher. Unless it's for someone like Ketel Marte, trading Vaughn should be off the table.

Anyone else see the top 10 right now on MLB Network for 1B? One of the guys on there didn't have Abreu, but did put Darin Ruf ?‍♂️. (also had Belt on his list)

Just a dumb comparison, as it’s not the AAV that was high for Semien, but the years.

How did he fare 2018-2020? I think Harrison will be a good guy in the clubhouse and a wily vet. He always seems to place us tough. But he hits right-handed, he doesn't get on bas, his career is in a downtrend, etc. Even coming off of a "good" year last year he was basically replacement level. I expected meh if they didn't surprise with a trade but Harrison is beyond meh. At least Brad Miller or Matt Carpenter or someone would help balance the lineup and add some sort of upside.

When the corpse of Nomar Mazara is your baseline, you might want to set your sights slightly higher than a nebulous claim that they are “better.”

I generally agree with you on a lot of things about the offseason. I sure wouldn't complain about Suzuki being added. But I don't think the need for a LH masher is overblown. That 108wRC plus came against some terrible RHP in the division. A team like the Indians with some pretty good RH SP they went 9-9 against the Sox. Good LHH on the Astro's were Brantley, Alvarez and Tucker. The Braves had Freeman and Albies with 30 or more HR and Rosario got super hot in the early rounds of the playoffs. The 2020 Dodgers had Bellinger, Corey Seager, Muncy and Pederson who contributed massively in the World Series. The 2020 Rays had Kiermaier, Lowe and Wendle all with 3.4, 4.7 and 3.8 bWAR respectively. The Sox RHH combined for 2 doubles in the series with the Astros one by Leury and the other by Vaughn PH for SHeets . The only HR's came from Sheets, Leury and Grandal all hitting LH,which isn't exactly Bellinger, Freeman, Seager, Brantley, Alvarez, Tucker, Muncy, Kiermaier Wendle or Lowe,with established pop or high seasonal WAR. It would be nice if Robert and Eloy could establish some consistent power from the right side instead of consistently being injured. It would also be real nice if Moncada could establish himself as a guy who could at least stay around a .450 SLg percentage instead of the paltry.412 (.431 against RHP) he put up with a late season run the finally got him above .400. His WAR is just fine but it's been driven by fielding and OBP not a slugging bat. Grandal is getting older and also prone to injury . He had 440 PA but only 279AB because that walk rate was crazy high. SO if our 2 best LHH who are actually switch hitters are our 2 best OBP guys someone else needs to knock them in which is where another established LH power hitter comes into play.

Tim Anderson was drafted, not a FA

Not to mention we’re already throwing Eloy out there in left. If we had a gg lf to go along with Robert then maybe we can try some goofy defensive experiment in right field, maybe. As far as the op, ya no shit Gavin Sheets and Andrew Vaughn are better offensive players than Adam Eaton and Nomar Mazara. It’s always good when trying to win the WS to compare your right fielders to 2 of the worst out there. Perfect sense.

If you hit up fangraphs defensive ratings and sort is for LF with at least 700 innings, Andrew Vaughn ranks 4th out of 15 qualified players. Expand that out to 300 innings and he is still 15th out of 45. Statistically, Andrew Vaughn was a significantly above average defensive LF. It's probably a little harder to get a good reading on Sheets because of SSS, but he had -32 and -35 UZRs in LF and RF respectively, compared to 0.5 and -20.2 for Vaughn. So far, Sheets looks Fisk in LF bad in the OF, and Vaughn looks above average vs his peers.

My two concerns with "trying to go all in" as some of you guys want: a) we make another stupid short sighted trade. I don't want to give up an Andrew Vaughn for a one year pitcher rental. b) we finally break the bank on a mega deal for say Conforto (who so many of you guys love for some odd reason) and he becomes our Jason Heyward. Here's what I do want the Sox to do the minute they decide to stay away from the remaining Free Agent Market...... Announce long term deals for Giolito and TA.

So Kimbrel for Judge? Sounds good to me.

It's the White Sox MO. They try and nickle and dime star players, to the point that they usually lose them to other teams in FA. Meanwhile, they overpay for scrubs and don't care about the nickles and dimes for them. It's just backwards logic. Guys like Leury and Josh Harrison are a dime a dozen, in a lot of cases they can be had with minor league invites! The Sox feel the lock those guys in by overpaying whatever market they even have, and then they go cheap for actual impact players.

So you pick the 3 years where he was hurt for 2 of them, yeah....I'd imagine his output isn't very good, when he isn't playing.

He's 35 years old and in 2018, 2019 and 2020 he put up a total of zero fWAR combined. A team with championship aspirations shouldn't have Josh f'ing Harrison as their starting 2nd baseman. He was RELEASED by the fucking Tigers two years ago.

Was this the same chat as earlier or has he done like 6 interviews already today?

A lot of signing Harrison is clouded by what the Sox haven't done yet.

Just once I'd like to see the Sox SET the market instead of reacting to it. Who fucking cares if you overpay a guy by 10 million over the course of a few years? Just get it done, get the guys in camp and let's roll.

1. Flip Keuchel for Moustakas and prospects. 2. Flip Moustakas for Hosmer and prospects. 3. Flip Hosmer, cash and prospects for Oakland pitcher 4. ??? 5. Profit

This was always the fear with Hahn that he doesn't have the balls to make the big move to put the team over the top. It's easy to make a bad team average or an average team good but it's extremely difficult to make a good team great. Hahn seems happy to improve in the margins rather than dropping his dick on the table to make this team great. There's still a chance he does something but the longer this drags on the less optimistic I get.

Pisses me off seeing what the mariners were able to get from Cinci as the Sox twiddle their thumbs.

I think we overpaid for Joe Kelly

Which again points to a big problem the team has...they don’t view Engel and Leury as bench players.

This team is horrible at allocating resources.

Just spitballing here, but clearly Cincy is just looking to slash payroll. Think we could get Mahle by taking on Moustakas? Something like: Sox give: Burger, Adolfo, and Keuchel ($19.5M). Reds give: Mahle (2 arb years left; should get around $6M) & Moustakas (2 years $38M). Reds dump ~$24M in guaranteed net savings onto the Sox (more like $34M counting Mahle's 23 arb total), plus get an MLB ready replacement for Suarez at 3B, and an MLB ready OF to give some ABs too. Sox might have to add another interesting prospect onto this, but I wouldn't hate it. Not a huge Moos fan, and this obviously means Sox just roll with Vaughn/Sheets in RF as we spent our money on Mahle and Moose, but it certainly makes the 2022 roster a lot better.

Manaea has a better track record, but Montas has the control and higher upside IMO. If we are looking for innings, I think Manaea is the better fit. And he should be cheaper to get too.

With a 3-0 count

How much are the White Sox paying you to create these threads? No one is arguing that a Vaughn / Sheets combo won’t be better offensively then the absolute shit hitting we got out of RF the last two seasons. People are concerned whether it’s enough to offset the value destroying defense they will provide and put too much strain on Robert. Also, what good does this “saving money” concept do if Hahn is just going to use it on more relievers and utility men? I mean, you are actually trying to argue that Leury Garcia getting a lot of playing time in RF and Josh Harrison getting any playing time in RF is somehow a good thing. Get me a legit two way RF instead of forcing a combination of 1B, middle infielders, and a guy made of glass in there. We’re in our championship window, please stop dicking around and address the position once and for all.

His total 21 numbers might project to MVP. He'll definitely have to rake in order to beat out Guerrero, whom everyone has decided is the future of the American League. Robert has a big defensive advantage since he is good for 2 wins with his glove, while Guerrero is negative. If Mookie Betts can put up 10 WAR one time, I'm pretty sure Robert can put up 7 mulitple times. He already runs 7.1 WAR/162 and he hasn't really dialed it in yet. If the post-injury guy is the real guy, this is far and away the best CF this team has ever had.

Garcia is a terrible defender in the OF.

Best player on the Sox, hands down.

Enough about RF, bullpen, starting pitching depth, backup catcher, etc.... Let's talk about Luis Robert. Here's how the Sox' center fielder's second half numbers stacked up against the field if he had been able to do that for a season. Batting average - .350. 1st OBP - .389 6th SLG - .622 1st OPS - 1.011 2nd OPS+ - 170 3rd If he posts this for a season, he's going to be the 2022 AL MVP.

You forgot to add the guy we all want, Conforto!!!

1. Nah, I won't go "small data sets," I'll go SSS. Its ALWAYS sound policy to determine your offseason plans, based on a single series, amirite? 2. I never assume that they'll do anything right, and I always want everyone fired from the FO as part of my idealized vision of an offseason. But I also hold out hope that one day those numbskulls will figure shit out at the TDL. Call me blindly optimistic, I guess... 3. Conforto's drop in performance, his age, and his injury history are reasons why I dont prefer him as the RF target. True hes got a LH bat, but we've seen guys fail to adjust from the NL to the AL. All of these factors taken together give me reason to pause WRT Conforto. I wouldn mind him being here, but I'd also prefer that this FO do something different for a change. 4. I haven't "suddenly" determined that handedness is of little concern. I look at the numbers, and the numbers tell us that in an injury-riddled season, the SOX finished 6th in WRC+ V RHP. So, IOW, its a "need," but not a "CRITICAL need" to have more LH hitters. There's a dire need for an MLB-caliber RFer, since there isn't one in the roster now. 5. Oh, I've accepted that it won't be Conforto, nor Schwarber, nor Suzuki. It'll probably be either Joc Pederson or Jorge Soler, based on this FO's behavior. But a rational actor in the FO (I know, I know) would be able to look at the roster, and look at the numbers, and choose better.

I am with you on the order. But the fact that there is no Sox rumor in 2 and 3 from that list is concerning.

Despite the results so far on the RF situation and me being one of the biggest skeptics I'd like to re-emphasize the importance of more LHP power added to the lineup. Guess who led the Sox in total bases in the playoffs despite being 8th in plate appearances ? None other than Gavin Sheets. This a dude who had none of the hype of Moncada, Robert, Jimenez, Abreu ,Vaughn and really wasn't counted on to provide much of anything during a competitive window since his path to the lineup and remaining in the lineup or even on the team is questionable. This is exactly why the Sox need to get more LH, in all aspects of the lineup and power.