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Pro tip: when arguing online, larger font always wins. Bolded is just the cherry W on top

I mean I believe literally every organization can be the one to bid high enough to make the White Sox uncomfortable.

This may be the first time I’ve ever thought “wow, I agree” to one of your posts.

Why give up assets when you can buy those pieces for nothing but money when going young was supposed to open up your financial flexibility?

Based on what exactly? What have the Twins ever done to lead you to believe that they would be the organization to bid high enough to make the Sox uncomfortable?

Like the move? Like it was a possibility at all he would be non-tendered? lol

I wish people understood - it was not a bad contract at all. It was bad for the team that signed it, but it was not a bad contract. He has been worth 21 fWAR over the first 6 years of his deal - people would pay $200 million to get that performance on the free agent market. If you're a team right on the cusp of contending and you signed that deal, Robinson Cano could easily have put you into the playoffs in several of those seasons. That's exactly the kind of production you'd hope for, and you're signing a 10 year deal rather than a 6 year deal because the back few years allow you to spread out the cost, so that you're not paying him $50 million a year in the first 3 years of the deal when he's the most productive. The problem was not the contract. The steroids thing isn't nice, but aside from that. The problem was that the Mariners, the team signing him, did not have enough in the tank to get anywhere close to the playoffs when they added him. They weren't an 87 win team, they were a 71 win team that made a 16 win jump and it wasn't enough to make the playoffs. It was a bad contract for the Mariners, but a legitimate team signing him could have easily been content with their trophy even if they had to figure out what to do with the last few years of the deal.

You keep posting it as fact, which you just got called out on. And what the fuck is that last paragraph

Caufield gonna be Caufield.

JR people will come to see him. They went to Wrigley to see him. And get this. He is in line with our cost projections. I say we sign him and get some lightning in the bottle. We can then go all in on Cole and show him that our incentive based plan with deferred payments and team options is more sensible than up front cash. Think of all the taxes we can save him when we pay him less.

It's become a joke.

Colome would net you Pederson without a doubt IMO.

Who cares about Frare and Burr? Are they really contributors on a good team? Roster at 36 hints at several additions, as there still are more than a couple on the roster they can dump and no one will remember them a year from now.

If the White Sox are at 4/80 and he's asked for 5/100 and they haven't gotten this done somehow then someone in this org isn't doing this correctly.

So It seems the trading INTL $ (that they couldn't use) for relief pitcher approach didn't work out so well.

If the sox can't sign the third best pitcher on the FA market after shedding nearly all salary on a 3 year rebuild, then I'm not optimistic. At this point I'm less interested in payroll efficiency than stacking wins. If you want efficiency, don't play FA and you better have a damn good intl operation and PD staff. Sox have neither, so I don't want them saying "oh we would have signed wheeler at 5/100 but 6/120 is too much."

If they miss on Wheeler and end up with Dallas Keuchel I'm going to be consumed with rage.

@Sleepy Harold da god, folks

I don’t think there are any players I would trade Luis Robert for right now considering our roster and farm.

I don't know how Tim is going to bounce back, but it's going to be hard to consider them a "terrible defensive team" next year. They'll have a very good defensive 3rd baseman (top 5 last year), an elite defensive 2nd baseman (Madrigal), a very good defensive catcher, a very good defensive CF'er, and the talent at SS to be above average to good at the position. If Tim shows some consistency next year, you're talking about having ++ defenders at every important defensive positions (SS, CF, Catcher, 2nd and 3rd). LF and RF could be really bad, and 1st base won't be good until Abreu is DH'ing full time but with McCann and Grandal playing some over there it should be better.

For the Sox to be competitive, they don't need to trade any of their top prospects, or even think outside the box. Sign Wheeler. Sign Betances. Sign Calhoun or some other short term RF. If Hahn wants to float a Stiever/Walker/Collins type package to try to bring in a young impact RF, I'm fine with that. But trading Madrigal, Robert, Cease, Kopech, Lopez, etc. shouldn't even be crossing his mind right now.

And I hope that plan B is to go all in on Cole or Strasburg and then go cheap for RF.

Chris Archer sucks Dallas Keuchel sucks

Agreed and would have loved to see Madrigal dealt for a controllable, quality starting pitcher.

I actually view it differently than you. I dont think they're in stealth mode at all. I think the longer this goes, the worse our chances are with Wheeler. I think some other team either outbid us, or this team dithers about while another team swoops in to land Wheeler. I think Jerry, et. Al still have the fear of longer-term pitching contracts. I really hope I'm wrong, and Wheeler is in our rotation in 2020. Prove me wrong, Jerry.

Unprecedented “massive amount of financial flexibility”. AND the Sox are a major market team, with a shiny, new TV deal in place. To NOT be in on either Cole or Strasburg dismisses outright Hahn’s claim that the “money will be spent” on premium talent when the time is right. If they don’t compete for the Coles and Strasburgs of the world now, they never will, which would call into question their true commitment to winning. Wheeler is a nice piece, but he’s not on the level of the other two.

We have a massive amount of financial flexibility. It has to be Cole, Strasburg or Wheeler. I don't want to see option C or D unless its to augment what we know to be getting a primary ToR pitcher.

This.

Hamels and Keuchel will get way too much money (on a per year basis) to be a White Sox consideration (as a pairing)...and both are closer to "all-in" moves for 2020 than pitchers you'd want to have on your roster for the heart of the contention window from 2021-2023.

They played in three straight NLCS'. I wouldn't call that underwhelming.

I agree sort of with some of it. And I argued in the past for signing more free agents even in the non competitive window. This is so White Sox check it: While the Sox were in the rebuilding mode prices on free agents were down down down. I was begging for the Sox to sign Moustakas and JD Martinez to take advantage of the market Of course it didn't happen and probably for the best since our draft picks were better. However, now what is the board here talking about ? Free agent market being manipulated to hold down prices previously but now this year getting close to the new CBA they will be skyrocketing in what year ? Well it's the year the Sox decided they were going to be big players in the Free Agency Market. The same year as everyone else doing it so no one could accuse owners of collusion . I guarantee if you think the Grandal and Moustakas and Gibson prices were a bit higher you aint' seen nothing yet. And the Sox are right smack dab in the middle of this feeding frenzy. Not an enviable position coming out of a rebuild. So White Sox luck or is it mismanagement . Could this have been foreseen ?

Can't think of any catching crew I would rather have.

If they signed Wheeler and Hamels, then added a guy like Castellanos. Add a bullpen arm or two, and I might just call the Sox the team to beat in the central.

There is a fan-made documentary on youtube regarding Teresa Earnhardt and her impact on all things DEI and #3 etc ... IIRC it touches on Kanny and the team name. As a diehard Earnhardt fan that grew up in the southeast during the 80s, I'm sad for the name change. But I get it. Teresa Earnhardt is a monster. EDIT: here ya go:

First of all, who is "everyone?" Second of all, the only reason more teams are interested is because he's "more affordable" not because he's better. You don't attempt to sign the more affordable arm for an unaffordable number just to avoid paying the big guns. The higher you go, the more reasonable it gets to just offer the money to Cole. He's got a market because he's not at the top of the market; once he enters that realm, his suitors decrease significantly.

if you keep waiting for the perfect players and contracts for the next 10 years you'll end up with a window for this core of 2 years or less. And for the next three years, Ryu + Castellanos is much more like 32mm plus. Wheeler would be 22 mill even at the high number thrown around. And I would bet that Wheeler is much more productive than Ryu due to starts alone. If wheeler is their guy sox need to land him, and if he starts to touch stras's floor, then you'd hope they step up to stras, not down to a huge risk in Ryu.

Wheeler has a more robust market. I think he stays on the East Coast, with either the Yankees or Phillies. I don't think the Sox are going to go to the level to get the job done. If Wheeler's market is really in the 4/$80 or 5$100 range, I think he would have signed already. I'm starting to think that it's going to take at least 6/130 to get the job done.

Fair point lol

Man, he must have had a hell of a second half because he wasn't very good in the first half. That's a nice season despite the k rate increase. If he duplicates that, you are correct - he doesn't need to get any better. Had no idea he had that big of a second half.

My twitter eyes are on high alert this time of year.

Agree to disagree. Trout could be worth 50% of what he was worth in his first 9 years and he'd be worth his contract. I don't think people realize how historically good Trout is and people like him have aged really gracefully. Trout isn't going to fall off the face of the earth, for example.

So we’re trading Wheeler after we sign him for Trout and that’s why we’re talking about Mr. Ugly Shirt?

Yeah, and Hahn has been absolutely awful in FA and has been ripped and ridiculed endlessly for his participation and lack of success in that market... You've certainly been HIGHLY critical of him, and rightfully so, yet here you are defending the Cano deal which falls in line with the value the Sox have been getting out of FA. You can't have it both ways.

Who is this controllable arm on the market? Cuz I’m not seeing one worth giving up actual assets for

It would take a ton a to get that deal done, and quite frankly I don't think Archer is anything special. Pass. Trading assets vs spending FA money is the old antiquated mentality we need to finally get away from.

Google translate + that guy's twitter feed are pure entertainment I'm short but my brother was low when we had white socks and it could get bigger

That tweet was from Shingo Takatsu’s uncle. Very possible he has legitimate source.

Need confirmation from Moistyarsehole23 before I get excited

Works for me.

So, Dale Earnhardt's colors, then.