Dan of Steel

Bad start in the first 11 games, but the last 15 have been pretty darn good, especially from a lot of the core.

Christ. This board is downright unreadable. It's a shame how much it has devolved over the past few months. Nothing but constant and annoying b****ing about Rick Hahn and JR 24/7. Hahn, the same guy that most here were either content or ecstatic about the commitment to the rebuild of the farm system. Yet over 1 offseason he's gone from that to the worst most incompetent GM ever, outside of perhaps KW (Who I thought needed to definitely be fired years before he was "promoted").

You are strawmanning your way out of a legitimate conversation. I never said the Sox would land a guy with Machado or Harper's talents, but FA's would be available to help this team. This was always about building through the farm system.

Machado was also given a ridiculous amount of money, more than he was worth. Harper will likely get more. Missing out sucks, but this team is still quite stacked with young and budding talent and FA's like Arenado is one of many. They don't have to be as good as those two, but they also won't be getting that kind of money. Again, breathe.

You want to leave the Sox for being a disappointment year after year, and you're considering moving to the franchise who wrote the book on disappointment for over a century. Sounds legit...

Wow. Some of you people need to get. a. grip. Machado is an excellent player, but 10 years and 300 million is a ridiculous amount of money and years locked in. There will be other FA's and the Sox have an insane amount of young talent. Breathe.

I never said Giolito wasn't part of the rebuild. I insinuated that he wasn't a major part of the rotation and the fate of the success of this rebuild didn't hinge on whether he succeeded or failed. Obviously, having him figure his stuff out and realizing his potential would benefit this team moving forward, but there are a ridiculous number of pitchers in the farm that very much can take his place and keep the competitive window on schedule.

Since when? Maybe that was the plan going into 2017, but you can't assume a guy will suddenly turn his stuff into gold. This seems to be old White Sox fan logic going to work, because even just a few years back, we were incapable of doing anything but relying on a select few guys to translate their potential into tangible results. That isn't the case anymore. We have quantity as well as quality, so we can accommodate for the inevitable bust here or there that ultimately takes place, regardless of franchise. Fact is that there were very legitimate doubts that Giolito could be a consistent rotation pitcher since he was dealt. He was a high risk, high reward guy. He had a ton of potential but a lot of issues to adjust. So far, those issues are still a factor and we aren't reaping his potential. Granted, he's been better, but not good at all still. You can't expect the plan moving forward to be relying on a guy who was a flight risk going into the trade. As for what Hahn said, I couldn't care less. I need context first, and more often than not, that will just be GM speak, because what purpose does it serve to talk down a guy in your current rotation? Either you hurt his confidence or your hurt his trade value or both.

Neither of those guys are major players in the rebuild. In fact, pretty much nobody on the current MLB roster with the exception of Anderson and Moncada are major parts of the rebuild. You have disappointments and surprises, so we just have to see things play out. The Sox have a lot of talent that's going to emerge within the next season, so just R-E-L-A-X. As long as there are guys who surprise to match some of the disappointments, this rebuild will be fine.

Especially when it's against the team from that sh*thole they call "Boston".

I'm hoping this is some sort of joke. We'd have to go 27-74 to finish that poorly. Only 1 team in the last 50 years has finished with less than 50 wins, that being the '03 Detroit Tigers. That team finished the month of June with just 19 wins. We're already at 20 and there's still 22 days left in the month.

Don't really know what Cooper can do? Sure, the future looks really bright for the pitching down the line, but right now, who outside of Lopez, is worth a crap in their current capacity? Giolito and Fulmer are likely going to be good arms in the pen, but they just can't get it done as starters in the rotation. Cooper is a great pitching coach, not a miracle worker. Turning what talent we currently have into a competent staff is the equivalent of turning sh*t into chocolate pudding.