Look at Ray Ray Run

Of course. That's not happening though.

So Scherzer, Ray, Gausman and Semien were never targets? It was always Conforto. Interesting moving of those goal posts. Sorry if I'm not going to throw a party about acquiring inconsistent Conforto (who I actually am a fan of). If that's the prize again, it's just the Sox proving they'll never enter the price range needed to sign really talented FA's.

Gausman gone too pal. They're not in on the top top guys, so you're left with two guys: Conforto and Ray. There are 29 other teams. No reason to think the Sox sign both.

It's unlikely, although not impossible by any means, that Conforto is a more valuable player over the next three years than Semien.

The young players on a roster are supposed to outperform their concepts because they're grossly underpaid. Veterans performing to their contracts is fine. I'm not going to get into a huge payroll debate, but salaries in MLB have not scaled with revenues. Not even close. In the period of time that revenues are up nearly 200%, avg player salary is up 76%. Overpayments imply some sense that owners lose money on those contracts. They don't. Fans have bought some erroneous and absurd billionaire narrative that big contracts that don't perform at the end of them hurt franchises. It's complete BS. Players don't get paid when they're young, so you are going to have to "overpay" whent they're older. If Semien is 4+ fWAR player for 3 out of 7 years, the contract is a big win. If he is a key cog on a title team it's a grandslam. The back end of contracts have no actual impact on a teams ability to spend. Owners have merely taken more and more of the revenue share over the past two decades while fans root for them to make even more. It's absoutely baffling. You're not paying for Semein in 2026-2027. You're paying for his production over the next 2-3 seasons and hoping he puts your team over the top. That generates huge revenues for a team and pays for itself on the back end.

After further thought, I'm actually really excited that the Sox didn't sign a perennial MVP candidate because in 2028 we want to make sure we maintain that elite financial flexibility to miss out on marquee free agents then as well. $/WAR championships are the real champions. I hope baseball owners can continue to grow their share of the pie over the players because there's nothing I like watching more than Jerry Reinsdorf count all his money in the owners box. It's my favorite thing to bid on during the White Sox charities auction every year. Let's go! Bring on Chris Taylor!!

White Sox baseball. We're all-in, baby!

when i grow up I hope I can be just like you.

lol this is truly an amazing post. yes, he was a homegrown talent that they kept. They gave him the DEAL he was asking for in FA - same deal he asked the Red Sox for - so he signed before becoming a FA. If the Sox ever want to do that, I'll be thrilled.

Sox are going to run Jean Segura out there; a guy who is 32 years old; a guy who very easily could fall off a cliff at his age and given his skill set. They'll pay him 14 million too just to shed Kimbrel's salary.

Hmm. The Dodgers acquired and gave Mookie Betts 365 million dollars. I'm glad your happy with the Sox history in FA. All payrolls should get bigger and bigger by year. That's how salaries work in every other sport. The league has seen huge growth since 2008 (2000 really). If you just took the 2008 payroll the Sox had, scale it directly to league growth since 2008, the Sox would have a payroll of 215 million dollars today. But yes, please go off in celebrating the Sox never investing big money in incredibly talented players.

Oh wow, thanks for letting me know. Should I post the correlation between FA spending and payrolls next to help further paint the picture for you?

Uh yes it does. It shows a direct correlation between $'s spent and winning percentage. Would you like me to post the entire study to help you understand it a little better? JFC.

Since 2019, Marcus Semien has the highest fWAR in MLB. Since 2018 he's fourth. I swear, some Sox fans are allergic to good players.

No, really good players are really expensive. It's amazing how many people claim the Yankees as an example and ignore the fact that the Dodgers have outspent every team in baseball by like 60 million the last many years and they have been in 3 of the past 5 World Series' lol.

Yes, spending money does actually correlate directly to success: Thanks for asking.

I would be absolutely floored that the Sox would rather spend 100+ million on Conforto than Semien. Regardless, the can will continue to be kicked down the road with this team. We heard they were in on top SP's and top IF's like Semein but what they'll likely walk away with is a middle of the road FA and some high risk SP. They can never just outbid someone for a top talent. Always some excuse.

Every off-season we have to read these idiotic posts. 7 years is meaningless, this just locking up for the remaining productive years of his career. Why do Sox fans insist on saving Jerry Reinsdorf's MONEY?! This is what it costs to sign marquee game changing talents. This is how you go for a title. These are the types of talents that help push you over the finish line. Who cares about 2028.

Pretty hilarious that people thought the Sox were suddenly going to spend money this off-season. THIS ONE was going to be different.

I like Ray

I've praised multiple moves and have praised Hahn countless times, besides that though great points.

Me and you are opposites, although not to an extreme because you're pretty positive year round, but I'm very positive about the team, players and during the season. You are insanely positive every single off-season. You've been tooting the "this is different, I think we're really gonna get him" horn since the Machado off-season. I'm not asking for Correa or Seager, the Sox have a SS. If the Sox want to sign a couple of 90-130 million dollar free agents then I'll start giving them the benefit of the doubt in future years. But... let's have them convert on just one player in that range in their entire organizational existence before calling people who are skeptical negative nancy's. You give me any combination of Gausman/Semien, Ray/Semien, Ray/Conforto, Gausman/Conforto, I'll be floored and happy to think the Sox will actually have good off-seasons. You give me one, and I'll be pleasantly surprised and start to give some benefit of the doubt.

Hahn is still my guy. I do my best to absolve a lot of blame that is likely his by placing it onto the shoulders of others.

I don't block anyone or complain about anyone or any posts to moderators. This is a forum that I choose to visit. Everyone's opinion provides to the level of entertainment received by stopping in here. Besides, if I miss one of your tweets as Steve Cishek on twitter I know I can come here and see it in your posts!

They won 93 games because of exactly what I laid out above; they acquired good assets during the rebuild. There is no argument from me there. Hahn, in general, hit a home run on all of those trades and acquisitions (Robert). The rest of it though? Just whatever... and I love Hendriks, but the guy is a closer. He's the last piece to the puzzle, and honestly the Sox are throwing huge money at relievers because they whiffed on their 1st round RP draft pick, and whiffed on development of their countless young guys coming up as RP's. I'm as excited as anyone, but my goodness if the water carrying for this ownership group isn't flat out exhausting every single off-season. We've heard this nonsense about the Sox playing with the big boys for three damn years now and the Rays are now lapping them in salary commitments to a single player. The Sox will earn the benefit of the doubt and the belief in these talking-head narratives that "we're gonna be happy and this off-season is different" when they actually prove that to fans ONE time in the entire existence of the organization.