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Dude go fuck yourself. Seriously. Keep my name out of your mouth.

I’m very careful and cautious with the information that I share. I have a vetting process that doesn’t need to be explained to strangers on here though. If I shared everything I hear, I’d look like a complete moron. I’ll stand by my track record with what I share. The assumption that my information came from the White Sox and then I ran to share it to appease the fan base is absurd and wrong. I’m a nobody. The White Sox aren’t sharing info with me. I don’t think Conforto is asking for too much money. The league apparently does however. I’m not trying to make anyone feel better either. If this is the off-season, it’s a failure to allocate available resources properly. I’ve said that. I need to see what else happens though.

I think it’s time for an “Offseason part 4” thread. Because part 3 sucks just as bad as part 2.

Meh….don’t let some grumpy individual ruin what you do. I think I speak for 99 percent of people here when I say we appreciate your insight. Keep doing you bro!

I really don’t like PNoles, but this is a good assessment of things so far:

This is you not attacking people, right?

You literally just Uncle Tom'd someone earlier today. You want to question everyone else, but catch feelings when the sentiment is returned, though.

I think its safe to say the majority of us greatly appreciate the info you do share, and the fact that you are very careful and vet / verify the info.

Correct. If you are used to push a narrative, it means you haven't vetted it and are just stating it. Mouthpiece implies just stating what the organization wants whether it's the truth or not. Criticizing the information is one thing. Criticizing the integrity of the person is another.

If the White Sox bullpen doesn’t perform like KCs in the mid 2010s, considering how much they have spent on it, RH and KW should resign, admitting the game has passed them by.

The Sox have won 2 out of 7 playoff games the past 2 seasons ,and have for the most part looked lousy in most of them. How can anyone wrap that as anything but bad?

I hate to say it but it's not your decision. You can yell and scream at the top of your lungs but at the end if the day nothing will happen. They will have a top 5 payroll and will have made the playoffs 3 years in a row.

No offense to James, but at this point he's likely being used as a mouth piece by the organization to claim they made a competitive offer and Conforto is asking for too much money. It's called the cycle of the White Sox offseasons on Soxtalk and the internet in general. It always goes this way. Off-season starts and Sox appear to be aware of their needs Sox fans tie them to marquee free agents at said positions of need Speculation grows without any hard evidence James or some other insider claims the Sox made a competitive offer, they then applaud the offer, and blame the player for asking for too much money Player signs elsehwere for said "too much money." Insiders and etc spread message that no one could expect the Sox to spend at that level, it's "too much money" Off-season over

Come on man....James is a great dude and I promise you he doesn’t mention rumors for attention. If he did, he would have mentioned weeks ago about the Conforto offer he heard about. There have been plenty of things he’s been made aware about that he hasn’t posted on the site.

When Ray tells us we are allowed to since apparently Soxtalk has to vet their information through him first.

Maybe we should stop. It's turning out like most movies, each sequel sucks even more.

You actually are saying that the Sox are passing along fake information to appease 6,881 members of Sox Talk?

Imagine sitting there after getting our ass kicked by the Astros and be like yea we’re just a couple of utility players and RPs away from competing. And by the way we’re going to let our second best pitcher go.

So almost everyone improved in the AL except for the White Sox, who somehow spent money and have gotten worse. Love how the off-season has played out.

Ok so then who is going to catch on those days...? If they want to prioritize Yaz at DH, maybe they should also prioritize getting an actual backup catcher?

Nobody other than you understood that.

When have I ever told anyone what to post, or attacked them for it? I get it, the old boys club gets offended at sox talk when any "insider" is questioned. I can say something is BS if I chose to. The concept of insider in professional sports has always made me laugh honestly. Break one story in 10 years and then speculate on 1000 that never come true and somehow that authority should never be questioned, and certainly shouldn't be disagreed with at soxtalk. Otherwise everyone gets very defensive. I have my opinions same as you. Difference between me and you is I won't run to gang up on people because they disagree with me. I couldn't care less who posts what. I have my thoughts and opinions and I'm not here to beg someone to sprinkle some very pointless speculation for me to consume. I look at what's happened, not the fake what could have happened stories. Unlike you I don't delete posts that disagree with me or deem rude, and I don't threaten posters to post how I want or else.

Other than naming James specifically - I think Look at Ray Run is 100% right. We do see this same pattern every flipping year. Whether leaks come from insiders on this board, Bob Nightengale, Steve Stone, Not Steve Cishek...who really cares. But we do see the same pattern every year. We get teased and raise our expectations for players that will be signed, and it usually doesn't happen. Maybe it's a case of us Sox fans being at fault for believing things that weren't ever going to happen. But one thing Rich Hahn and Jerry Reinsdorf should understand is this. Just about all of us don't give a flying fuck about having a seat at the table. That gets us nowhere. We still have a giant hole in right field and a subpar starting second basemen. We don't care what failed offers went out to Machado, Harper, Wheeler, Conforto, Semien, whoever. You either sign the guy or you failed.

You cannot possibly be serious about this.

The team can't even bring in a decent back up catcher.

I still think there is hope for Conforto, but if Hahn ignores RF and his only lineup addition is Josh Harrison at 2B then he’s completely failed this offseason.

This is a horrible total money value though. No one should be mad at White Sox for staying away at this price. But yeah, pretty creative contract. Kinda outta control with all the variations this blitz

My thoughts too. The only reason we are all assuming Kimbrel needs to go is because we are all assuming the Sox won't sign Conforto with Kimbrel on the books as well. But if we miss out on Conforto....then absolutely no reason to trade Kimbrel *just because*. I kind of wonder if that's what's holding up a Kimbrel deal. That maybe the Sox feel the same way, it's one or the other....but it doesn't have to be neither.

Eduardo Escobar + Romy/Mendick >>> Harrison and Leury Plus you can always add bench players as salary dumps at the deadline. Our entire roster construction process is backwards. You logically address RF/2b/starter first, then bullpen, bench maybe backup catcher if one suits your fancy.

His problem is that he’s a slightly above average reliever. He has an excellent strikeout rate, but also a high home run rate. That means he is going to go through exceptional stretches but they will be broken by a rare but impactful 3 run homer, and it is risky to take trends from 20 or 30 innings of his because of how random events work. Its kinda like Adam Dunn in a way. You pick 20 at bats of his he might go 1/20 with 12 Ks. The next 20 he might go 7/20 with 4 home runs and two doubles. If you say “oh for the first 20 at bats he was hitting cleanup, he just can’t hit there” - you are overconcluding based on a limited sample.

Here’s the problem…there isn’t anything left after Conforto and we’ve already settled on a cheap, low ceiling 2B. So I agree the order doesn’t matter, but if they don’t land Conforto then they basically have zero plans to improve the lineup through the addition of power and/or left-handed balance. And that’s simply unacceptable when in the middle of their championship window. At a bare minimum they should have signed Eduardo Escobar to play 2B as he would have at least addressed the power need. And honestly, I could live with Harrison if he’s paired with Conforto, but until that actually happens, it’s a failure of an offseason. That one big move is going to make or break it for us. And I still think we need another starter, but let’s agree to disagree on that one until the Conforto situation plays out.

Kimbrel possibilities opening up: Seattle: Sadler "going to be down for quite some time" quote from Mariner mgr on MLBTR St. Louis: Reyes out until late May or early June (also article on MLBTR)

Some of us appreciate your info, don't quit telling us what you're hearing just because Ray Ray is disgruntled.

Calling him a mouthpiece for the organization implies he just puts out what the organization tells him to without vetting the information.

I still have trouble wrapping my head around how we’re all clamoring for a guy just because he plays RF and bats lefty but is still coming off a 0.8 WAR season to be the answer. Maybe it was both him and Boras who messed this up but his market has been so quiet that it has me thinking that most teams feel he’s just not going to be as productive as his 2017-2019 stats. I just have a bad feeling that when/if he does sign here for however much $$ we’re going to end up being disappointed in what he brings to the team, I hope I’m wrong of course

I agree with you 100% here, and I think that's actually the scariest part of it all. They geniunely think that the way they spend money is effective, efficient and intelligent.

It's literally how pretty much every off-season has gone since I joined Soxtalk. You can pretend it doesn't happen, but I could go back and bump all the corresponding points to support each point. Sox won't sign Conforto. If there offer was good, the team themselves will leak it to someone to show that they tried (most embarrassing thing about the SOx by far is that they're the only team that constantly leaks their offers post-acceptance to claim they offered more or similar). If their offer wasn't competitive, which it won't be if there is one at all, there will be some leak from Sox "connected" people claiming Conforto was way overpaid and the Sox were smart for not upping their competitive offer.

Reality is it's not really based on that series. That series was a microcosm of the season. Rodon was finished, Lynn hadn't pitched well against the Astro's, not many trusted Cease, no one trusted Keuchel. Eloy was slumping , the Sox were bad on the road.

No.

Another AL team getting better, im really looking forward to that vaughn/sheets/engel platoon and Harrison's 700 OPS this season!

Alright, let’s go through Conforto’s market team by team with any connection to him. IMO, there are four primary factors to consider: 1) Payroll / CBT implications | 2) positional need | 3) readiness to win | 4) local vaccine mandates. Yankees: 1) ~$4M away from 2nd CBT threshold | 2) already have Judge, Gallo, & Stanton to cover RF, LF, & DH | 3) championship roster already in place | 4) local vaccine mandate poses significant risk | Conclusion: NOT HAPPENING Red Sox: 1) ~$19M away from 1st CBT threshold | 2) upgrade possible but already have four guys to cover three OF spots | 3) ~2 wins away from 6th playoff spot per FG | 4) Canada vaccine mandate poses some risk | Conclusion: POSSIBLE THREAT Blue Jays: 1) ~$49M away from 1st CBT threshold | 2) already have Springer, Gurriel, Hernandez, & Grichuk to cover OF / DH | 3) championship roster already in place | 4) local vaccine mandate could be a deal killer | Conclusion: NOT HAPPENING Guardians: 1) No CBT concerns / payroll down ~$15M vs. 2021 | 2) could use OF help / LH power | 3) ~6 wins away from 6th playoff spot per FG | 4) vaccine concerns are minimal | Conclusion: POSSIBLE THREAT Diamondbacks: 1) No CBT concerns / payroll down ~$20M vs. 2021 | 2) upgrade possible, but already have multiple guys to cover OF / DH | 3) 2nd lowest projected win total per FG | 4) vaccine concerns are minimal | Conclusion: NOT HAPPENING Padres: 1) ~$9M away from 1st CBT threshold | 2) could desperately use a corner OF upgrade over Myers or Profar | 3) championship roster already in place | 4) vaccine concerns are minimal | 5) POSSIBLE THREAT Rangers: 1) No CBT concerns / payroll down ~$20M vs recent trends | 2) have options but could use a corner OF upgrade | 3) ~10 wins away from 6th playoff spot per FG | 4) vaccine concerns are minimal | Conclusion: POSSIBLE THREAT That’s four possible threats for Conforto, but I think Cleveland is a massive long shot given their ownership group’s past spending habits. Boston could use an upgrade, but I’m not convinced they will want to blow their remaining CBT space on Conforto when they have other decent options. As for the Rangers, the big question to me is do they want to lock in another $20M per year in long-term commitments when competing in 2022 is very unlikely. Ultimately it’s the Padres that scare me the most. They could really use an OF upgrade, the Tatis injury puts more pressure on their offense, and they’ve shown they’re willing to spend big & go into the tax to maximize their chances of winning.

The point was that we weren't gauging how good the Sox are now based on the series against Houston. They weren't exactly a juggernaut in the 2nd half, on the road or against teams over .500 and their best pitcher laboring.

Lots of guys eating egg so far. Times winding down for the Sox and about 20 of you all ?

There was nothing flukish about what went on during the season against winning teams and how much they got their asses kicked against Houston in the playoffs.

was it really a fluke though? We were one of the worst teams when it came to launch angle which resulted in all the singles and double plays throughout the series. Our starters blew up. The bullpen decisions were questionable. It was a bad matchup and the Astros played well

They would have pocketed those savings. This is why I almost hope they can't move him now. I rather take my chances in him being good again instead of Reinsdorf being $16 million wealthier.

That ship sailed.

Shrug. Little different circumstances but yeah. I certainly like 4/$75M better than 5/$100m too. I wouldn’t lose him over it personally, but easy for me to say. Definitely has the Machado vibes, so I get that angle for sure.