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I'm not in love with Moustakas or anything. Not demanding we acquire him. I do think this offseason assured the Sox of being a pathetic team. After all the moves were made, we had embarrassing bullpen, embarrassing rotation and a lineup with a lot of outs. The team was built to lose. Moustakas for pennies would have actually given us an amazing infield of Moose, Anderson, Moncada and Abreu. If Avi's healthy and Davidson hitting like he is, that's six good hitters to go with an horrific outfield and catching situation. We'd still lose but Moose could have been had for pennies.

Did that Avi home run escape the stadium? I did not see it land??

I think RR should be fired at the all star break and let Coop be interim. Think of how fun it would be just to see Coop's head explode after games, blasting everybody. Then in the offseason hire Omar or Girardi.

I think if you copy and paste from somewhere all our pitchers from the last 5 years you'd see a lot of Coop success stories.

I'm serious when I say we shouldn't take the field against the elite teams. I'd bring up AAA players for a weekend, the ones we don't care about number of callups/calldowns. It certainly hurts all aspects of the Sox and their individual player getting shown up like this. I wish the Sox brass or some veterans would use the "e" word after games like this. Just call over a media member and say you're embarrassed for our city.

Covey was pretty good a while there. He fixed Soria (reliever though). He fixed Humber for a while. He fixed Shields. He failed with Shark. I'm thinking he fixed a lot of pitchers still. He needs to get Lopez, Gio and some other guys to quit walking batters.

I disagree. I think he was red hot and had time to take the country by storm had he gotten the nomination. The reason he didn't get it? Cmon. You all know it was fixed for Hillary. Remember the coronation talk? It was her turn, her time to be awarded a lifetime achievement award. Bernie was a pest, a deterrent and the DNC refused to acknowledge he was anything but a pest. Bernie was starting to draw huge crowds. I think he'd easily beat Trump in 2020. The problem? The clock. Poor Bernie is a bit too old. The Millenials can save him, though, if they continue to love him and support his run.

The Sox have wanted Avi to excel for a long time. He did last year and he's raking this year. It would be fricking asinine to trade him. Just keep him and let him be what he was supposed to be. That said a rival GM should try to "steal" him from the Sox. Deviously package 2-3 guys you've given up on but who are still on a top list of prospects. Avi could be stolen via trade IMO. I wonder which GMs are trying to concoct such deals to offer Hahn. Our front office is in a stretch where they are heroes at Soxfest when they make deals. They are gonna deal some of these guys. Bank on it.

Not a bad take. It's either that or my theory of a broken spirit.

Closeups of him show a sad sad man. Sad as in almost wanting to cry IMO. I hear what you are saying. I wonder who should be the Sox all-star? I do know Palka should be in home run derby. My gosh. Our all star probably should be Moncada just because he might have a helluva at bat or two in that game.

When and why did you reinvent yourself as a poster? You suddenly are MVP of the board after blah status.

But according to the Trib, he's going to get a nine-figure contract from somebody. I just think he looks like a guy whose spirit has been broken.

He's either a.) become Alex Gordon. Just suddenly become a useless hitter. b.) lost all interest for obvious reasons. c.) actually a continuation of b. Wants to get traded and play for a winner and is sulking til he gets shipped.

Please baseball. Do not let us play the great teams. It's embarrassing for the game. We shouldn't be allowed to play the elite teams until we field an MLB squad. I wish somebody would interview Jerry R and he'd apologize.

Boy we stink. Playing the Astros is not good for baseball. Such a mismatch. When the Sox are going bad (most of the time) I truly think they would lose to most AAA teams. All facets of our game is that bad on most nights. Then once in a long while we play a great baseball game.

This is a very very good post. I love the critical Balta more than the other one. I know nobody believes me, but almost all those acquisitions were disgusting to me. Like I said, only Robertson was a good pick up. Melky? Dunn? Frazier? Ugh. Shark? Ugh. LaRoche? My gosh he stunk. Once in a while we pick up a pitcher that's average and Coop fixes him for a good while, then they stink again (Humber, now Covey).

I disagreed with almost all those signings because those players, uh, sucked. Melky I despised before he got to the Sox and during his tenure; Keppinger didn't thrill me; I ripped acquiring Dunn. I was very happy to get Robertson and I was displeased to get Samardzija. The board was so happy about Shark, however, I accepted that move and he was blah as well. Only Robertson was a good acquisition. He was splendid.

I said I still love him. Maybe it's the eye test. When I watch, he makes outs. Last year I saw all those bombs and clutch hits. No biggie. I still want him on the team and he probably ties as my second favorite player (with Abreu) with Palka No. 1 right now.

He's not healthy. According to the Trib his leg was wrapped up after last night's game and his knee was wrapped on the other leg. He admitted his hammies are sore as well.

Is he worth that? Not living in the world of the new-wave stat people who I read closely on this board. First of all he's way too old (remember the new wave stat people are starting to 'brainwash' Greg). Secondly he's terra-bad defensively I've learned. Thirdly, if he keeps hitting like this, many will say he's pretty much on an apparent, rapid, Alex Gordon-like decline. You can't have it both ways. The new-wave stat people tell me Abreu won't even bring much in a trade now. What team would pay him $100,000,000 for five years for certain to decline productivity? In answer to your question, hell no, I don't think he's worth that (because of what the new stat people have put in my head). Of course not. I see him as signing a deal in the 12 to 14 million a year range for 4 years. Folks, he has nothing going for him in terms of what an ideal ballplayer is now. A bad defensive first baseman I've been told, who is of the age a decline is pretty much certain. Put it this way, if he is certain to get nine figures like Sullivan says, then the Sox would be able to get a great haul for him in trade before the deadline. My take is no way and if the stat people on here tell me he's going to get nine figure deal after everything you've taught me about bad defensive first basemen and declining players in terms of age, I give up. The stat people can't have it both ways. You are teaching me what to look for now in a ballplayer and according to what I've been taught here, he's worth what I suggest in free agency, not what Sullivan suggests. My stance hasn't changed BTW: Keep Abreu, let his contract run out, and uh, try to sign him? Enter the sweepstakes with the other teams when it's time and keep him for 13-15 mill a year for 4 years.

IMO Madrigal is not going to EVER beat out Moncada in terms of production/ability. Thus Moncada should be the Sox second baseman a long long time. However, let's say the Sox do decide both players will be part of the program 10 years or so. That necessitates a move for one of the two. Is it possible they will wait til after this offseason to see if they sign Machado (LOL, no way they'll pay what it takes to get him and I'm not even suggesting they should) or Moustakas (who they could sign to a reasonable contract if the fans think he's not too old; he actually is way too old in most fans' eyes, turning 30 in September). If they don't sign a third baseman, do they simply switch Moncada to 3B or Madrigal to 3B when it's time for Madrigal to come up to the bigs? That would mean a third baseman with no power in Madrigal or a third baseman who probably would be furious to be moved in Moncada? Interesting stuff. I could see a time the trade people call for a trade of Moncada or Madrigal or even Timmy (with Madrigal at SS) if both Moncada and Madrigal are deemed second basemen of the future in the bigs and there's no room for both of them.

This is a good article but i just can't believe Abreu is going to command a 9 figure deal when he's a free agent. That means $100,000,000 for five years? 20 mill a year or something? Jose's age in this current climate and projected production in the new era of stats in no way suggests a team will give him that kind of money. What is the writer thinking? If the Sox are projecting Jose to get that type of contract, then I'm sure he'll be traded. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/ct-spt-white-sox-trade-rumors-20180705-story.html

I said I love Davidson, what more do you want? Maybe it's the old eye test thing for me. I see he's hitting .228, 14, 37. The 14, 37 is not bad at all, but I guess the traditional stat guy in me doesn't like that .228. It's one slump from really bad; one hot streak from .250. No problem though. I love Davidson and want him around a long time. I like the fact all the walks make the traditional stat lovers think he's the best hitter on our team so we can both love one player even if he's hitting under .230. Last time I listened guys like Stoney and the graphics people who flash stats on the screen still use BA as a useful metric.

Your post should scare everybody. Although even though it might take decades, the rebuild still could be popular. Never underestimate the power of unknown players. "Wait til next year" has been popular with fans forever as long as there are players being touted as future saviors.

I thought we were going to contend every year after winning it all in 05. But the White Sox pulled a Bears and it didn't take long to realize sadly we could not indeed dominate a division with small market teams because of bad ownership and bad player evaluation and bad performance of players as well as problems caused by Ozzie and KW, yes both of them, not just Ozzeroo.