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I've already turned against my opinions from 10 minutes ago, I'm now on the side that Burger could be a part time 2b and I buy it. In ten minutes I may come to the conclusion that given Harrison's career marks at 2b and Leury's weirdly bad 2b he may in fact be the best 2b on our team. He may be an MVP candidate in an hour.

Well at least Hahn and Conforto have one thing in common

The way this guy hit after missing so much time makes me wonder how good he may have been if he could have stayed healthy.

ACTUALLY I think our experiences with players like Daniel Palka make us rightfully weary of putting too much in an encouraging debut - especially when paired with players not very interesting to prospect writers. But there was some BA article referencing Burger and then I was just absolutely berating @Quin ruthlessly about how being a burger boy is better than an adolfo amigo and looked up the statcast numbers and this stuff is interesting 1. Burger hit the absolute crap out of the ball consistently in his (short) time up last year - His 60% hard hit rate (in this small sample) would be the best hard hit rate in baseball. Judge was at 57%. Hard hit rate is EVs over 95 mph and he did it in 14 of 23 batted balls. - His 115 mph max EV put him in the 90th percentile - Hitting the ball hard is good, imo 2. He's faster than I expected - His 65% percentile speed is better than I expected, as was his athleticism 3. He walked 10% of his ABs, and his prior history makes me believe his 33% k rate should come down with more reps (as would hard hit rate but ...) Basically I think it makes more sense to prioritize getting Burger at bats than Micker, and we should just bite the bullet on micker and hope he still ends up in Charlotte. Ratings Burger ? Adolfo ?

For those of you that were cool enough to be a part of the Silver and Black Pack, you know Soxdom has been cheated out of a GOAT tier mascot in Waldo. Alliteration Wolves = Intimidating creatures, but also approachable in mascot form Can be portrayed in the White Sox colors (ignore all portrayals that show otherwise, it can be reworked) Athletic creatures Wears pants, unlike Clark the Cub Unlike Southpaw, has actual paws. Meanwhile, Southpaw is an abomination that looks like a Batman villain that emerged from a toxic Soxtalk meltdown after Kimbrel blows a game. It is unacceptable that the superior mascot was never given physical form. WHEN WILL RICK HAHN KENNY WILLIAMS TONY LA RUSSA JERRY REINSDORF ANSWER FOR THESE CRIMES?

Alright, I’m all-in on Conforto once again after that Merkin tweet. Here is the plan Rick: Trade Kimbrel & $5M to the Phillies for Marchan & Y. Garcia Sign Conforto to a 4/$76M deal with opt-outs after years 2 & 3 Trade Burger, Dalquist, Adolfo, & Y. Garcia to the A’s for Manaea Stop fucking around and make this happen Rick! Time to win a god damn World Series!

@fathom - Even you got to admit Merkin retweeting that at 3am is real suspicious like. And don’t the Sox love dropping bombs on Fridays? Plus it just so happens Michigan lost in the tourney last night so Hahn can finally make a move.

I think you're missing the signs with this guy. He is a good defender at third and I've been saying for a long time he runs pretty well. Out of Vaughn, Sheets and Burger- he'll be the best defender of the bunch by a lot. Jake is also a natural hitter. If we trade him to fill a hole, we will regret it quickly.

I would rather watch Romy than old man Harrison. Waste of money.

I think we should just prioritize making RF the worse defensive position in baseball instead of 2b AND RF.

I don't think this really qualifies as bold or a hot take, but if he was the 2nd best hitter on the team this season after Robert it wouldn't shock me

That was one of the worst threads in SoxTalk history.

From my White Sox Top 20 Prospect List: 4. Jake Burger: there is no one who deserves to be here more. Either by sheer perseverance or skill, Burger missed 3+ seasons because of a couple torn achilles and the pandemic but he still managed to prove there is a legit mlb caliber player ready to star. Burger hit .274 with 18 HR at AAA and looked comfortable hitting .263 with 1 HR over 15 games in the bigs. He is only going to get better with further health and time to actually hone his skills. I fully believe if the Sox ever trade him or man up and give him a playing time, he is a .275 hitter with 25+ HR potential. He definitely is primed to break ST with the team with expanded rosters. The Sox better give him a shot at 2B if he can be serviceable in the field bc the bat will play big time imo.

We refused to improve backup C, RF and 2B.

Burger is taking at bats away from Leury Garcia.

I do think Max Muncy has been surprisingly good when limited at 2b. So maybe Burger could do it. Burger is faster than Muncy and imo 6'2 230 is less weird than Muncy's 6'0 215. If he can make turns, then maybe. But he's interesting, and is very likely a better hitter than we expect.

He’s gonna be a monster. Maybe we should just have a softball-style team. We’re kinda already there. Burger at 2nd would make that official.

I week from now when Conforto signs elsewhere, same folks will be screaming in here saying "they were lied to once again." All because Merkin had the shits at 3AM and jumped on Twitter.

At this point I think the likeliest scenario is that he’s a Kimbrel/Keuchel style holdout, where he sits out until the QO expires unless a contender has an injury and comes calling. That timeline puts him right before the trade deadline as an option costing no prospects. We are what, 11 or 12 days from opening day? How many teams are willing to dramatically change up their lineup right now, if they even have money left to spend?

Sure it seems odd Merkin retweeted that. James did also. With that said, I’m not getting my hopes up. I will say this....if it was any other team, I would be sure they were waiting to trade Kimbrel to sign Conforto. It’s like when the Cubs had to trade Castro to sign Zobrist.

Yoan will be a top ~20 player in the AL again, yet 50% of game threads will have at least 1 page dedicated to debating whether he's good or if the Sox need to salary dump his contract

It's a little ridiculous that someone gets shouted down for trying to be positive about the team we actually DO have instead of lamenting the possibilities of what could have been. I'm no means an optimist at all times, but it's gotten to the point that threads are devolving to people trying to out-complain everyone else and make *THE BEST POINT* about how Hahn should be fired or the missteps we've made, etc. We get it. Some things have sucked. But I personally think it's better for my mental health to spend time getting excited about the team we have (that is still damn good!) rather than figuring out a new way to piss in someone's cereal.

Ian Clarkin was a Hartford Yard Goat in 2021, not sure what he's up to now though.

60 day IL, there's the roster spot needed to sign Conforto!

im sure Hahn was expecting Yermin to play 2b or rf this season, terrible blow

I don't have any reason to rule it out but people I trust have said Sox will address RF internally all offseason. I had heard the Sox made an offer that was well below the value Conforto/Boras have assigned to Conforto. I know the Sox have been active with multiple teams since the lockdown ended. While it is ST, his clunker the other day certainly can't help the chances of moving him. I think the Sox probably should have ate some money for a better return before it got to a point of having to actually pitch him but that's not something Reinsdorf likes to do obviously. Haven't heard that. Where is that coming from?

Some of us wouldn't mind giving that a try. That lineup would be fun to watch.

I have a view of corner outfield defense vs offense that I am sure is in the minority here. It seems to me that HRs are of increasing importance to winning. One 3 run HR in the middle innings and that could decide many games. HR are also important to momentum within a game for the team and for Home field fans. I think fans are probably more inclined to go to games to see a team that mashes the baseball than one where an outfielder makes a diving catch. So..I am fine with Eloy in LF and Vaughn (or Burger) in RF with Sheets at DH, if the Sox get 25 + HR from each corner OF position and 15+ from the DH spot. Outfield errors will cost some games but at the same time 75+ HR are going to going to win a lot of games and create a lot of excitement for fans.

It's time we move Moncada to 2B and put Burgdawg Millionaire at 3B. It makes the most sense.

I like Burger a lot. Burgers too. Dude can hit and I think he finds a way to get more at bats than people think. Dude is also much better athlete than I ever thought.

Gonna go all Caulfield here and say if Yermin got a burger named after him so can Burger. The Everything is Jake Burger burger.

I like him better as the platoon partner with Sheets at DH and occasional backup to Yoan

No this goes against the MVP narrative.

I'd let Ray Ray rub muh belly

Make sure he also gets the chin, behind the ears and the lower back near the tail, haha.

Someone had a brilliant idea on MLBtraderumors - Cohen is just the type of madman to do this and Conforto could wave the no trade rights because he gets paid more than the the QO he said no to. It's shady as hell and requires some balls, but man that would be BEST case scenario for all parties.

If he doesn’t have a team in the next few days, forget him. There’s already enough about him I don’t like. Get a team, dude. Your agent works for you.

Could also be general lack of interest by teams to sign him at anywhere near his/Boras' asking price causing the holdup. We can speculate on the reasons but sometimes Occams razor is the best explanation.

Probably. And I feel like people are looking waaaaay into nothing about a Tweet lol

I think if he is not vaxxed that could be causing the hold up. Story wasn't vaxxed either. He just got it.

1 yr deal makes sense for both parties. Conforto isn't getting a 5/100 deal with a bunch of opt outs. Give him a year to rebuild his value in a HR friendly park for LHH and with alot of lineup protection. Gives us a bridge to give Colas a year in the minors that addresses our needs. Give him a million more than QO so they can save face and recoup some savings with Kimbrel trade.

Don’t understand this take…they traded for Lynn with Keuchel coming off a 1.99 ERA season.

Imagine him instead of Dallas in this rotation. God damn.

Easy to take that perspective after a dude goes under the knife. I would image timing the relative peak value of a prospect is more difficult than timing a peak exit in the stock market. The volatility on prospect value is likely so high I imagine it only takes a few months to gain or lose a significant share of their potential return.

We should blame Bummer, Marshal, Foster and Heuer for the Madrigal trade. If they were doing their fu$%$#ing jobs we wouldn’t have had the need to trade for Kimbrel.

Wolves are proud, regal animals. Stuffing them in a jersey and baseball glove is humiliating and disrespectful. To wolves.

He could be right in his prime now especially if he's 100% healthy. If he had more bat to ball skills Adolfo would be something special. He has Eloy type power.

The whining can't stop. This whole place would fall apart without it. It's load-bearing.

Yet another negative post. That is exactly what VA is talking about. We have one of the best teams in baseball and yet only the complainers can talk.