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Nobody wants to hear what you two do in your private time. Keep it to yourself.

Feel free to take a hiatus until then. The quality of the board would improve drastically.

Um... uh. 1. Didi played 82 games. 2. The year prior he had a WAR of 4.7 and the year before that it was 4.1. Teams amazingly don't only judge you based on one half season coming off injury. If you think a guy who averaged 4.4 WAR over the two year period is going to sign for 9-10 million, you crazy. Are you willingly ignorant?

I thought Damaso.

Puig is a bigger whackjob than Parkman. Not needed here.

Or just learn to deal with disappointments in life instead of being a walking cloud of negativity. If you can’t deal with disappointments in sport you really shouldn’t invest heavily in it.

Of course the players care about money first, but if the money is close other factors come into play. If I was a player I'd much rather play for Tampa than the Sox because I'd be more likely to get another contract after playing with the Rays. Tampa will help me maximize my talent and idk wtf the Sox are doing.

Didi will be fortunate to get half that.

OK, How about this for a “realistic offseason:” 1. Madison Bumgarner 5/$110MM. He’s a LHP with championship experience. The SFG are salary-fucked, what with their Samardzia/Cueto/Longoria/Posey contracts. Their team is getting old, bad, and won’t sniff the top of that division for years. Their local media are assuming he’d be OK with 3/$60MM or 4/$80MM; Spotrac has his market value at 5/$105MM. 2. Yasiel Puig 4/$72MM. Yes, he’s RH. Yes, he’s had his differences with Bumgarner and Abreu. Yes, he’s had his effort questioned at times. He’s also 28, and an actual RFer. Spotrac has his market value at 3/$53MM, but there simply aren't any other RFers available in FA this year. 3. Yoshitomo Tsutsugo 2/$4MM. Here, the Chicago Reinsdorfs get to exercise their “thrifty” side, and bring in a LH DH on the cheap. I would have preferred Yanagita, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be posted. 4. Jose Abreu 2/$30MM. He’s going to be here anyway, whether Ron likes it or not. 5. Shelby Miller or some other veteran bum 1/$2MM + an option. [Shrugs.] Eat them innings until Kopech shows up, I guess. I’m guessing the salaries add up to: $70MM existing + $22MM + $18MM + $2MM + $15MM + $2MM = $129MM-ish on OD. My working hypothesis is that no Boras client will come here. I also think that Wheeler's market will be too rich for the Reinsdorfs. I also think that with a top-heavy/shallow system, any trades to spruce up the roster, and/or close any holes, and/or repair any underperformances by the five so mentioned above will have to come AFTER the injured/underperforming pieces in MiLB get healthy and re-establish their prospect value. [Edit] Carry on...

I wouldn’t be a fan, but to say that wouldn’t help the Sox is neglecting to remember how awful the 2019 team was at those positions

Then maybe stop coming here and speaking in absolutes you fucking Sith.

THE WHITE SOX ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE A $65M PAYROLL. I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS SO COMPLICATED FOR SOME TO UNDERSTAND.

There are only 3 teams in the MLB that reach more TVs. There are only two markets where player x's face on a highway billboard or a subway commercial would be seen by more people. That's not getting into the fact that all but like 4 players get endorsement money in the hundreds of thousands.

Grandal, an ace, and a second tier sp is my wish list sets us up huge for contending this year and being a monster in 2021+

For the Cubs, sure. Not for the Sox.

All hope is lost. Looks like Sox should just fold the organization.

Yep. It's hard to see how they're going to improve much this winter. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they land any top or mid tier FA. Just too many teams out there that actually have a current valuation of players.

This post reflects a lack of understanding of the overall situation. It is a great play for the Sox, and it proves they aren't willing to make an emotional decision and overpay Abreu on a multi-year deal. Clearly there is a divide between what the Sox are offering and what Jose wants, or this would not have happened.

Didi will get $14M if not more. He's a high risk high reward compared to Moustakas.

Jose must be retained at all costs. For Machado and Bryce Hyper money if necessary. Next year is balls out for wild card blackout one n done.

One mans opinion. He was as good an announcer as he was a GM.

Hawk Harrelson is, once again, a finalist for the “Ford C. Frick” award for excellence in baseball broadcasting. If he wins the award, he will take what many of us believe to be a rightful place in Cooperstown for his broadcasting achievements. Here’s to hoping we get the pleasure of listening to him give his acceptance speech next August at the Hall of Fame inductions! https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/hawk-hall-legendary-white-sox-broadcaster-harrelson-finalist-frick-award

Agreed. It is 2019, leaks happen. Don't use leaks as an excuse for not getting the job done.

Jim Boylen decides to rest his starters majority of the 3rd and half the 4th quarter and the Lakers come back. Please fire this clown.

Lmao. We don't do anything but that's hilarious Ron. I don't know why CWS can't stand me. We ran into each other at the Kopech game and he anyone who knows me knows I want than for the Sox to win, sign decent FA and finish this thing off. I just think Hahn and Kenny are buffoons. How come it's ok to rip GarPax to shreds but it's not ok to rip Hahn/KW? They're just 4 tits from the same cow.

Not saying they won't be in on Ryu but I will say that everyone should probably stop taking this kid's word as gospel at this point

If I could either take that right now or let the offseason play out and hope for the best, I think I’m taking that. But I’m still hopeful for a bit better than that.

I can buy that. The hard thing I keep going back to, is the structure of the offense, how we are running it, just strategically don't lend itself to the type of team and the type of QB we had (or thought we had). None of it made sense to me. I also go back to last year when we started out of the gate with this complex offense and than simplified it and saw Mitch take off (not saying he was great, but in terms of 2nd year QB's, he was pretty solid). For him to spiral so quickly out of control is crazy and I wish there was an ability to hit a reset button. If I reset this thing, I would have ran a much more conservative offense that protected the QB and put him in a position to more slowly grow and develop vs. straight up throwing him to the wolves. That is my big thing. What is done is done and maybe in the long run it was the best case scenario because it more quickly showed that Mitch can't do this...at the same time, it could be one of those things that broke a young QB and put them past the point of no return (I truly believe there is a lot of fragility and mental aspects to what allows young QB's to develop into good to great QB's vs. not so great QB's...even more so in this world of instant analysis and twittersphere OC's and QB Doctors). I also don't think Mitch's ability to throw accurately (throughout college and shown early in his NFL career...albeit issues certainly cropped up in his 1st year with Nagy) and to make plays with his feet (again in college and shown at the NFL level). How a confident QB broke down has a lot of blame to go a lot of ways. Just like I wonder what happens if Pineiro makes that kick and Mitch is talking about a good game and mentally its just a win that gets things headed in the right direction. I mean...look at Cousins...not saying he was a great QB, but 4 weeks into the season he was viewed as the worst QB in the league and than all of a sudden bam...he's back to looking like a borderline top 10 QB. Things can change really fast in the NFL. Unfortunately for Mitch, he's psychologically broken and no reset button will happen for him this year and at that point, he'll have shown too many major issues for any team to rely on him (in full) next year. Mitch will still be on the roster and who knows...maybe he'll show some absurd resiliency and come back an entirely new QB in a year (crazier things have happened) but he's going to have to win a gig over a legitimate veteran.

MLBTR predicted the Twins sign him at 4/$72M. I would definitely do that if I’m the CWS.

no, serious haha. I almost always agree with you

Dick, what would you define as a "household name"? Is that a premium free agent a la Cole/Rendon/Stras? Or a second tier free agent like a Wheeler/Grandal/Donaldson/Bumgarner/Ozuna? Guys like Odorizzi/Castellanos/Keuchel/Moustakas/Gibson/Smith/Puig/Hamels constitute the third tier? They trot out an offseason of Odorizzi, Encarnacion and a middling pen arm I will be furious.

I'd rather have Castellanos in all honesty, despite the defense.

No one can cite that example because we don't have contract offers for everyone. Just like you can't prove the Sox haven't offered players more money and got turned down. Rick Hahn mentioned this year how some teams had better situations to offer than we did, and how players pick teams for several reasons.

Jack, you said no one wants to play here and the Sox have to overpay because if they offer the same they dont get the player. We have said they simply have to offer the most money as does every other team who wants a free agent. I asked you to name a single example to support your claim. You called me a optimistic unicorn for calling bullshit on your claim. Its laughable that you cant justify it with facts and evidence but had the audacity to call me out for being blind and bias.

I think their internal budget is around ~130M and I don't expect them to exceed that over the next 5 seasons. It's kind of why I don't think they're going to add much, because in a year or two they're going to reach that easily just with Moncada/Gio arbitration. They're going to try to piece things together like they did in 2015-16 with short term deals. (1-2 years)

I think the Sox have their top dollar where they feel comfortable with a deal, and absolutely refuse to take any sort of risk. If the dollar amount on a player exits their comfort zone, they're out on that player. I also believe that their player valuations are outdated, and as such their top dollar is way below market value.

Brewers, Braves

At this point it is not assuming the worst. Rick Hahn's FA signings tell a terrifying tale. He has another chance to change this narrative this year, so we shall see.

The Sox have some of worst fan activation relative to market size in all of NA sports. You're not suddenly going to have top 10 local ratings, top 10 attendence and so forth signing a couple big name FAs. Only sustained winning will bring those casual eye balls back. Advertisers know that. I mean, what evidence do you have that the Sox will bump payroll into top 12ish range? Other than induction from the last time it was, a decade ago.

What matters more is TV ratings and the Sox are among the bottom 5 in MLB TV ratings year after year. The eyeballs might as well not exist if nobody's watching the games. I don't even think advertisers blink an eye in Chicago for an endorsement deal for a Sox player.

What evidence do you have for this?

No one is blindly pessimistic. As you said, the Sox have earned it. I don't see any reason to expect the Sox to act like a big boy franchise. It was nothing but optimism last year. Then not only did they miss, but they ran around spewing the nonsense that they thought they had the best offer, which smacked of incompetence. That does not inspire confidence. All I know to expect this offseason is the Sox trading more bonus pool money away to teams that want to build a better organization.

I am pretty pessimistic but I think a lot of Sox fans are at this point and the front office is feeling the pressure to do something this off-season after what happened last year. So I wouldn't doubt if the bigger names are off the table and Hahn and company over pay for a couple guys.

Or maybe the Sox are being fair with their franchise icon and letting him test his own market to aid negotiations.

Why would he get anything guaranteed above $9-10 million coming off the season he just had? To play 3B, SS or 2B everyday? If the Yankees are out, and that’s a very good possibility...who’s going to pay him that much? He was worth 0.9 for fWAR, Yolmer was worth 1.0. Why even bother with advanced metrics...if Yolmer’s numbers are just worth 28.6% of Gregorious’?

I don't think we need him at this point. All he'd do is block Vaughn's ETA.

If he’s ready for spring training (Salazar) he’d definitely be a candidate I’d support for that 1/2 year starter the team probably needs. If he surpasses expectations then good. He may very well flameout as Cleveland would know his medical profile well. But I’ve always been jealous of Salazar when he’s on.

Also, him accepting this QO would be perfect. $17.8M may be a tad more than he deserves, but it gets us out of having to pay him for 2-3 years, gives a perfect segway to Andrew Vaughn, and the cost is prohibitive to nothing for 2020.

Abreu 2020 Vaughn 2021

He performed at the small venue where I teach. He stayed around afterward and just talked to people. He was very personable but he did discuss regretting the way he treated people when he was younger and under the influence.