Look at Ray Ray Run

Abreu had nothing to do with rebuild spending.

You implied the Sox didn't identify their needs and acquire them which led to their demise. Hence how I pointed out the demise of the Sox in 2021 playoffs was due to the performance from a unit that was never identied as being of need.

Acuna has maybe the most team friendly deal in baseball outside of his buddy Ozzie Albies who was legitimately defrauded. Freddie Freeman signed an extension for 8 years 135 million (16 million per). While both are larger than deals the Sox have signed, admittedly, it's really not all that different than the Robert extension. Saying the Sox don't have 100 MM superstars just makes no sense. Sox have players every bit as good as the stars on the Braves, they're just earlier in their contracts and don't make as much money. Also, Anaheim has two guys probably worth 700 million between them and they aren't even a playoff team.

In what world was a White Sox "need" in 2021 at the TDL a starting pitcher? Who in their right mind would have argued that? The Sox had 4 starters in the top 20 in baseball in WAR. The Sox were never going to acquire a SP who was going to pitch in the playoffs. It wouldn't have made any sense. FOUR of the TOP 20 starters in baseball. Their strength failed in the playoffs, so they lost. The Braves got production from a bunch of bums, and saw their bullpen (who were middle of the pack 14-16th in all of baseball) dominate. There was no logic or rhyme/reason to the Braves title and it certainly shouldn't be a barometer for which the Sox front office builds around: "be one of the worst teams in the playoffs and get lucky!"

Yes, the Sox have BETTER players than the Braves. My goodness, what are you guys even rambling about. If Luis Robert was a free agent tomorrow he'd sign a contract 2 times as large as Freddie Freemans. Yoan Moncada 2021 fWAR - 4.5 Freddie Freeman 2021 fWAR - 4.5 White Sox offensive fWAR 2021 - 25.2 Braves offensive fWAR 2021 - 22.1 White SOx offensive fWAR 2020 - 13.4 (best in baseball) Braves offensive fWAR 2020 - 11.0 White Sox pitcher fWAR 2021 - 27.1 (best in baseball!) BRaves pitcher fWAR 2021 - 16.0 The narrative that the Braves were anywhere near as good as the White Sox the past two years is a complete joke. The White Sox front office put a team together with BETTER players by a long shot, but on Soxtalk we have people pandering to the Braves front office because they acquired Adam freaking Duval at the trade deadline; a guy with a very similar carrer and value trajectory as the bum Cesar Hernandez the Sox acquired. Cesar Hernandez had actually been better for a longer period of time. People need to learn to seperate outcomes of small-sample post-seasons from the overall quality of a team and their process.

Leury Garcia had the biggest hit of the entire post-season for the White Sox. He had 4 RBI's and 3 runs scored in 4 games. Cesar Hernandez had an 831 OPS in the playoffs. The Sox lost because their SP - which was a strength all year and absolutely was not going to be a place they looked to acquire more talent from at the deadline - fell flat on their face. No one was saying the Sox should have acquired SP's at the deadline, and no one was demanding they don't pitch Giolito, Lynn or Cease in the playoffs. The Sox could have acquried Mike Trout and Ozzie Albies at the trade deadline to fill RF and 2B and they still would have gotten destroyed by the Astros. While I despised the process and decision making that led us to Cesar and Kimbrel, it also had no impact on the playoff results and did not change the fact that the White Sox were better than the Braves before the playoffs and once the playoffs started. You can applaud the Braves moves because you appear to pick and chose when you're results oriented and when your process oriented. The Braves got lucky, end of story.

The Braves had a lot more needs than the White sox. It's called luck, pal. Atlanta bullpen wasn't as good as sox bullpen but dominated in the playoffs. Atlanta acquired guys similar to cesar Hernandez in value and upside, but their cesar Hernandez's had well timed hot streaks in the playoffs. I dogged the cesar and kimbrel moves as much as anyone. Atlanta did not enter the playoffs with a better roster than the White sox. That's the job of a front office. The sox had a better team and they lost. It happens.

Not debatable at all. It wasn't even close. They got lucky. People have a real hard time accepting and understanding that luck plays a large part of postseason baseball. People always want too look for purpose and reason and some grander plan. It was none of that, they got lucky. Guys ran hot and they won. Period, end of story.

Atlanta wasn't a better team than the White Sox at any point during the 2021 season.

But he was smiling!

Why would the sox trade Vaughn for mitch Keller? If the Sox were gonna target a pirates pitcher, a cheap shrewd move would be inquiring about JT Brubaker.

There was absolutely no reason the sox should have given up anything of actual value for cesar Hernandez.

I'm not sure how kopech may be significantly better already.

Did pollock have a fortunate 2020 as well?

The problem with Manaea is that he's a globally pitching that would be leaving Oakland for a ballpark where being a flyball pitcher is risky. While cease and lucas had the lowest ground ball rate amongst qualified pitchers last year, they also strike out a ton of guys - although manaea k rate spiked last year. Manaea had the 13rd lowest rate in baseball, which isn't an inherently bad thing (tons of elite arms are fly ball heavy) but it's something to consider when acquiring an Oakland arm. Edit: this was also a concern of mine regarding gausman. San Fran a fly ball pitchers heaven and he throws a ton of fly balls.

Hes still pitching today, just not starting.

He joked about conditioning multiple times... basically that he doesn't do any of it. Brutal

He's been making jokes about conditioning all spring training... he's getting old, and should take some kind of conditioning more seriously. Probably too late for that. Hope it's not serious.

Pilkington being anywhere near a viable piece and given up for a guy whose cheap option the team didn't even pick up is so white sox.

That's some pitch

Caufield we get that you're still carrying water for hosmer.

Why would the cubs let Rizzo go and then acquire Hosmer lol. Amazing.

Robert 5th favorite in the AL. His odds could be better. I like Buxton at about 30 to 50 to one depending on the book and timing of the bet.

Sox blew the 3rd most games in baseball. The quality of a bullpen is driven by results. Sox had some powerful arms but they weren't great as a unit from a sequencing standpoint.

There's no number because that prop doesn't really exist so its pretty much a blanket statement. While we're at it taking fake lines, I'll take kimbrels postseason era over.