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He’s not much more expensive than O’Hearn would have been with an incredible amount more of upside and flip potential. There is no downside to this deal, as let’s be honest, they’ve wasted 17 mil a year on 3 veteran signings most offseasons.

And there it is…never a fucking doubt

@Chicago White Sox

Some weirdo was harassing Harold on here, constantly making comments about Jeep Wranglers. Then some other psycho poster (probably an alt account for the other guy) basically confronted Harold and accused him of being the White Sox’s assistant scouting director who also happens to own a Jeep dealership. Unclear the truth of that, but doesn’t seem crazy given the inside info Harold had shared on this site. Also, based on what the psycho guy was saying in his accusations, he was either Haber himself or had a close relationship with Haber and held some sort of grudge against Harold, although I can’t recall if it was simply because he didn’t like him leaking White Sox business or something deeper & more personal. And shortly after the more direct accusations, Harold was gone forever and now we rely on the Times for India for our scoops.

The adrenaline of pitching in front of sold out crowds at the Rate will offset all of that.

This reads like the kind of careful answer you give when you need to pretend he's not already your guy

I have lots of thoughts on this. I know who Harold was and they don't work for the team. He/She obviously knows people who do. Harold's info was always very, very solid. The stuff that was shared publicly and the stuff that wasn't was even more accurate. He was an asset to this board. Garrett Guest isn't posting on this board but if he's one of the ties, I wouldn't be totally surprised obviously based on some of the info that Harold shared at times. The whole thing was weird. On Jeremy Haber, he was running the draft at the end. The Sox were focused on Blake Mitchell who went #8 overall to Kansas City. Regardless of that, I'd heard all day that they wanted to take a prep hitter in the first round. In hindsight, they would've taken Teel had he fallen. From what I understand, Haber overruled the room to take Jacob Gonzalez at 15 and save $$ money for later. The Sox did turn around and draft Wolkow, Oppor, Lacombe etc but there were obviously better ideas at 15. The other thing that is hilarious about keyboard warriors defending Haber's honor is that his existence is what spawned the White Sox burner food accounts. Not Cishek always had pretty good info because the person running that account got information from someone very close to Haber from what I understand. Then the burner accounts would all share info with each other etc. Basically, I have some wild DM's but I'd need to go digging.

This is nothing but a huge positive for the Sox and their fans. I don't care to hear about anything negative related to this. This signing combined with getting the No1 pick has been more than welcome positive news and no fan base deserves this more than White Sox nation.

How does every thread turn into the same tired Chris Getz fight? We’re on the verge of signing the Japanese Babe Ruth and half the board can’t stop bickering with each other over a bunch of non-sense. Let’s get fucking amped and stop with all the damn in-fighting.

Only posting this because Bruce misspelled both his first and last name.

Jerry’s reputation precedes him

@Chicago White Sox Work your magic! Go!

What does any of this have to do with free agency? Lol.

This is exactly what I feel when people talk about the Ishbia's bad spending in Phoenix. GIve me failed effort over no effort all day, every day.

The fact that Getz feels it's necessary to say that he and Brooks Boyer had to convince Jerry to sign Murakami is embarrassing, yes. It's a 2 year $34 million deal. That type of thing doesn't even cross the owner's desk in most places. Sox are in a good place. I'm excited for the future. I'll never forgive Reinsdorf for how he runs his teams though. He deserves no credit because he's a lazy old man who refuses to understand why he's been bad at this for so long. It's 3 playoff series wins in 40+ years of ownership. The day that he's no longer calling the shots will be one of the greatest in the history of the franchise.

I want this to happen more for @Chicago White Sox than for the Chicago White Sox

Getz should get drunk tonight and sign an outfielder.

This is the best news they could have received from these meetings. I do question Getz referring to it as an honor. Dude, it pretty much means your team really sucks.

Pope Leo, please bless us on this day. Amen!

If you like "Private Equity 102", make sure to also sign up for "Soil Engineering 102".

Gavin Lux, you’re next!

The Sox actively trying to improve is making me feel feelings.

I wish all Sox fans good health so they can live to see Ishbia take over and clean out everything from the previous ownership group.

They don’t have anywhere near enough pitching to compete if they kept Robert. None of this is about 2026.

Also worth noting that while the Sox are putting out 40m total for this signing, I bet a sizable chunk of this comes back to them in the form of Japanese ad sales. Wouldn't be surprised at all see Japanese ads in the park for opening day, plus some specialty media deals.

Now do Tucker.

All credit to @Chicago White Sox who shitposted this into existence

I have forgotten what it’s like to root for a team that actually signs players you can expect to be good.

Getz keeps hiring awesome people somehow.

You know you suck when one of the most valuable things about you is you can be sent down.

28, poor k rate, poor BB rate,poor HR rate, but other than that, he's pretty good.

Not sure I understand why it should be sad or embarrassing that the Sox found value in their Rule 5 guys last year, when finding value that other teams didn't see or couldn't realize is exactly what they should be doing with their timeline and plethora of available innings/ABs? Basically every avenue of player acquisition other than drafting 1.1 involves your organization committing an amount of roster space, development time, draft position, money, etc. to a player that other orgs didn't think was worth it at the time. Is getting a surprise hit in the mid rounds of the draft "sad" because a player other teams passed on ended up outplaying existing options in your system? Or is it possible that being correctly ahead of the "market" on a player is a good thing actually? Maybe even key for a team in this position? Like sure, I guess in a dream world the Sox just have a rotation of 5 WAR aces with no room for Smith. In a world where the Sox aren't losing 100, he's not their "ace" or all star. But it's odd to talk like he's a bottom 5 SP who would never crack a single other MLB rotation. He was an above replacement level player on a team in dire need of them, so I don't get why we should be using the Brewers' particular 40 man machinations as a demerit against his production. Almost every piece of Rule 5 coverage leading into yesterday hat tipped the Sox for finding two objectively solid pieces last year, but on here nabbing a fine starter for $100k and a versatile reliever for free is a shame for the Sox because...they should have already had better players? Because another team was willing to gamble on leaving them available in a Rule 5 draft where few players get taken and even fewer stick? Improve the roster but also never acquire talent that other teams didn't see first is an awfully tough needle to thread.

Roch, Colson, Carlson, & Bonemer is going to be a fun problem to have.

Feels like it’s too early to trade for need. I don’t see the rush in dealing him.

I'm quite a Quero truther, so it would take quite the return to make me not hate this.

Probably because someone isn't manifesting hard enough.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all Soxtalk members. Brighter days are coming.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, maybe Santa will bring us a merry winning season in 2026.

According to whom?

You always say that first line and it’s dumber each time.

This should be fun. Low downside, medium upside is how I look at it. $34M is chump change and not going to affect anything long term even if Murakami goes full 2011 Adam Dunn. Of course, if he's great, he's going to take off before the Sox have a real team. But that's a trade chip for you. His manager in Japan was Shingo Takatsu, by the way. Maybe Mr. Zero put in a good word.

Wow, this is great! Glad to see Ish paying dividends.

The Sox should be all over this IMO.

Worth a shot. I liked him a lot in the 2016 draft class. Reinvented himself in Japan after adding a 2 seamer. Feels similar to the Fedde situation/signing.