poppysox

One of those rare occasions when you are both correct.?

I selected Holt for his versatility but Pence would probably be the choice for spelling Mazara. The FO seems sold on the idea that Mazara is the man... so I'll trust in that for now.

Because when you get to February...you can see baseball starting if you squint.

Brock Holt would probably have my vote for the best versatility for the money. Might at best be useful.

I was just reading some Sox Fest notes that Jose Abreu has the same goal as you. Hope you both get to perform the Anthem this year. Good Luck!

Opening day can't get here soon enough.

Pictures on White Sox Official site of equipment truck being loaded for SP. Not long now people.

We all agree...bless you.

Hypothetically we may want to retain Anderson, Eloy, Robert, Gio, Cease, Lopez, Madrigal, Moncada, Kopech and/or Rodon so that they remain with us for their entire careers. Several of us have tried to say...make every effort to extend whichever of these guys we want as part of the core as early in the 6 year control window as possible. So far RH has done that with the first 3 players...that's great. I hope most of the other 7 players also extend. But the reality of baseball economics is that the player that can't be extended should not walk out the door with minimal or no compensation. Everyone on this board knows I have the hots for Madrigal. I want Rick to try to extend him now if possible. Madrigal is not going to get the same size extension as Eloy or that Moncada would get but he should be extended if possible. Since we still have 6 years of control there is no rush but it will be cheaper than if he is in the middle of his arbitration years and doing great. However, if after 4 years of trying to extend him an RH determines Nick will not be reasonable...then trade him while his value is sky high. Absolutely everyone here wants to retain Moncada and I presume most of the other players I named if they are performing. I'll bet most of them including Moncada agree to extensions if offered. Lopez and Cease still need to prove their worth and Rodon has Boras so anything is possible. RH will have to determine who is worth the gamble for the money wanted. If I were the Cub GM...I would offer my absolute top offer to Bryant now. If he says no...I trade him now with 2 years remaining of control in order to maximize return. At some point in time his value to the organization is being reduced.

You are being obtuse.

The discussion was originally about extensions and where they fit in to the current 6 years of control system currently in place. Moncada was used as an example and there you go. No one is actually talking about trading Moncada.

True...you do need to find the team with assets that line up with your needs. If it was easy we would all be qualified to do Rick Hahn's job.

Ask yourself what you would give from our major league club for 1 year of Betts. How much for two years?

We better extend Moncada before that situation occurs. This is the situation RH was trying to explain when he was warning us that overpaying for Harper and Machado would limit his ability to keep our Moncada types. His extending Robert proves to me he is handling this stuff correctly IMO. The GM job isn't easy. This whole subject is why I'm not nuts about the Dombrowski type GM. They splurge on free agents and max out payrolls. Maybe they win a championship or maybe they don't. Almost always what they leave is in a shambles. Constant contention should be the FO goal IMO. My preference is to use free agency to plug holes while developing and trading for your core players.

Teams that handle this situation well are perpetually in a contention window. Amazing how some teams lose a stud and they have a great player waiting to fill that gap. The Mookie Betts situation is something I want to avoid.

Players can be traded from areas of strength in order to acquire for area of need. The Dodgers have more outfielders than they need for example...would they trade a major league outfielder for a major league pitcher? Probably if the right deal presents itself.

I don't remember any poster saying sell Moncada now. By the time we hit two more years...if he is not extended by then...better start thinking along those lines however. I fully believe that Moncada and for that matter Kopech, Cease, Madrigal and Gio will be extended well short of the two year from free agency if they continue to perform. RH has shown his every inclination is to extend these guys.

Ergo...Grandal / McCann are the ideal battery mates for a young & developing staff.

Encouraged to hear Grandal has been looking at loads of film of the pitchers. Seems like he considers himself mentor.

I am hopeful that Grandal will contribute greatly to the development of our young pitchers including the guys you mention. Having the strong catching that Grandal and McCann provide is a huge plus. They both do a good job of controlling the game. Pitchers don't need to overthink it. The catcher puts down the fingers and you throw the pitch he is asking for.

I can't think of 1 poster who favors perpetual rebuild. You do need an awareness of the financial ramifications of being unwilling to make tough decisions. If a player is part of our championship runs...I have every confidence that RH will make every effort to extend them. Believe me when I say that I want Moncada, Madrigal, Gio, Kopech, Cease and others to join Robert, Anderson and Eloy for this fun ride.

Perhaps I am not clear. In most cases a player will join his team for 3 pre-arb years where he is only owed league minimum and 3 years of arbitration eligibility. A total of 6 years where his team has control of his services. He can then become a FA after serving those 6 years of team control. An agreement can be reached between team and player at any time to extend the years of team control for whatever the two parties agree to. What I have been trying to say...if we have been unable to reach that agreement by the time we complete 4 of the 6 years years of control... it's time to trade him while still getting back top value. If you wait until you have two months of control as was the case with Machado...you have greatly diminished his trade value. Closer to home...I believe Moncada has used up 2 of the 6 years where we have control. I hope and expect every effort is being made to extend the 4 years of control we have remaining by offering very fair compensation to buy out lets say 3 or 4 additional years. The arbitration process will reward Yoan very nice money if he just goes that route lets say 18-20 and 22 million (just wild numbers). He would be set to make over 60 million and then be a FA. You need to offer something North of 170 in all probability. The value Yoan puts on security (a bird in the hand) if he were to get injured vs how much discount the FO gets for giving him that security. Every year Yoan performs well the price of those additional years goes up but if he gets hurt between now and signing an extension...he loses millions. I stand by my opinion that by the time we use up 2 more years...if we haven't extended Moncada...it would be time to trade him while he would net the largest haul. By the way...there is no law that you trade for prospects instead of Major Leaguers. Lastly, you are hung up on Baltimore and the WS are in very different situations. The same principles apply. Baltimore was not going to ever make a deal to extend with Machado. They should have traded him with two years remaining. Their haul would have been far more substantial. Boston and Betts are having the same issues at play now. Boston wants a big haul because he's an excellent player but with only one year of control.

We don't believe we have any stud players we would lose in 2021 or 2022 do to failure to extend. I think 2024 would be the first year of that possible situation. Not really a factor for a few years. Most people would agree with the assessment that the Orioles got hosed in the lopsidedness of that trade IMO. Yeah...I agree they got about as good as you are going to get for a two month player. That's exactly my point...don't wait until you have only two months.

By waiting until the 11th hour they received 5 no name minor league players from the Dodgers. I sure hope we don't mishandle any of our studs if they refuse to reach extensions. Not very worried about it since RH is the best at this phase of his job.

If your 3 years left was accurate next offseason would have been my target date. On the one hand teams get hamstrung by signing players for many years at zillions of dollars when they wait to long to get it done...on the other hand you can't let them walk for basically nothing. Hahn has been excellent at saying the magic words that get good quality players to sign team friendly extensions early in their contract days.