Chisoxfn

Once Vaughn is up - you have Leury and Eaton, one of which gets more AB's and the other can fill in for others in a pinch. I like Leury, other than fact he gets hurt. Add in Mazara and others and I'm not too worried. Moncada / Abreu's reversion to mean/respected regression should normalize and I suspect arrow only shooting up for Jimenez and Robert. Grandall, Anderson are solid bats to be around where they were (I recognize Timmy has been amazing so maybe some downside...but if he was a little worse than last year - that is still pretty awesome). Just in this mini paragraph that is 6 good to above average bats. Round it out with Vaughn, Eaton, Madrigal, Collins, and Leury and that is nothing to sneeze at. If Madrigal is just solid and Vaughn is anywhere close to as good as people say - that is an absurdly strong lineup. In the past I had to hope like 7 guys would have career years for the Sox to contend - now I'm just asking people to be somewhere in the barometer (up or down) of what they can be and/or have been - as long as they do that - this is going to be a good to great offense.

He was bad - but he never started. As much as I'd like to knock Gar Pax, drafting players over their tenure was pretty low on the list of reasons to dislike them. And missing on the 29th overall draft pick is not such a big deal, especially when you think of the Butler/Taj picks. Obviously the fact that they ignored Thibs who wanted Draymond - that hurts.

I agree with you here - I was shocked they didn't go that route. Seemed like the perfect depth move for the team. I'd much rather have spent money on Q and completely ignored RF.

This.

The lineup has quite a bit of depth and you have Vaughn, Crochet, and Kopech waiting in the wings. I'd say there are teams with a lot less depth than the Sox - but I'd also say odds of the Sox having Dodger depth is just crazy talk given the payroll constraints they would always be under.

I'll correct you slightly - I think there were 2 needs - filling the closer spot (since Colome was a free agent) and rotational depth. RF was never a key need and much more of a nice to have. No team is going to have 9 studs in the lineup - so any resource spent on RF was a premium need in my mind vs. going dumpster diving, which is what they did in Eaton. And to be honest - if Mazara is coming in as well, with a full spring, I wouldn't be shocked at a bounce back campaign from Nomar either. But I'll live with the two of them and if it truly becomes a need - go acquire someone at the deadline. Rotational depth is critical though - and they certainly bolstered the top of the rotation and the depth by acquiring Lynn - they still have a ton of uncertainty in the backend of the rotation. Still - I'd be surprised if they don't add someone on a 1 year deal. I'm just really shocked it wasn't Q, but at this point I'll assume Wainright and to be honest - while I might have prefered one of Q/Richards/Wainright - the reality is which of the three will be better is probably a total crapshoot next year anyway. Although I tend to think Q has the highest floor of the group - when it comes to liklihood of being durable.

My assumption still is they look to extend Gio and Lynn. In which case - I get more on board with the off-season. Reality is the biggest acquisition of the off-season was Lynn. Hendricks was nice and the bigger price - but overall production wise (relative to 2020) he was pretty close to a wash vs. Colome (not saying Colome is better - just that last year there was a neglible difference between the 2 relative to White Sox W/L, etc). But Lance Lynn - the playoffs look a lot different if you got Lynn's production out of one of the spots in the rotation. Personally - I'm happy. My bigger worry is if they went all-in and dealt a ton of the future away. I like the squad currently constructed and appreciate that the team maintained flexibility and maintained projectable high upside assets who can help extend this teams window. But I'm more of a - build a team for an extended window of sustained winning vs. focus on a 2-3 year period where you go entirely all-in kind of guy.

I know where you are going - but he's pretty much been a .275+ hitter the last few years. He hasn't been that .220 guy since he went to the Angels. It is empty but he's been within a stone throw of .300 most of the past few years.

Is Spencer still in the organization?

Exactly - as long as they have someone to eat innings...if in June the team is rolling but we recognize we need a more elite arm for the final push...no reason at that point Rick can't go out and make a trade at that point in time to push the club over the top. No reason the team has to push all their chips in over the off-season vs. letting certain things play out over course of the season. Add a solid vet starter who can eat some innings, provide depth and buy time to evaluate internal options (Kopech, Crochet, etc) or determine we have a bigger need and have to leverage some prospects to get another front line arm.

I personally wouldn't really care if they brought in Mazara. Doesn't matter that much to me. I'm not that worried about the lineup. I want a depth starting pitcher - more than anything (or at least a depth piece). Better if it was an ace or a really good pitcher - but at the bare minimum - a solid depth guy would be huge. If Sox miss playoffs - I'd put a high end on the reason they missed being tied to not enough starting pitching. This team is going to score runs - I have no doubt about that (barring a mass injury / regression - and I just see that offense as having way too much talent for that steep of a regression).

Has to be Yadier (if there is any truth to the comment) and presume the blowback is more because of TLR / Yadier vs. anything else.

I like this move a lot for the Twins. They have the thump in the lineup - and Simmons is a whiz defensively. I also tend to think his bat is underrated - but I'm still a bit old school in that I have a higher appreciation for no power solid average hitters.

I feel bad for all the people who are going to get cut catching the falling knives. The principles behind what the reddit people did were sound (in terms of their theory to drive the market up and catch the PE firm shorting it) - but I'm also guessing those reddit ringleaders are going to be regretting this when they face fines and worse for manipulating the market.

Somehow I blocked out the MCW and Jerian Grant era. Although MCW had like 1 week right at the start of his tenure with the Bulls where for a nanosecond I said - maybe he has rekindled that ROY form. It quickly dissipated. On topic of Bulls - despite a rough past 2 games - they are still 7-10 despite I think the 3rd toughest SOS through the first 17 games of the season. This includes a number of last minute losses. When you consider youngest avg. starting lineup in the league, new coach, and greatly shortened preseason - all of those are good things (from a glass half full perspective). The downside is - this team has won a lot of games because of guys like Temple and the bench vs. because of stellar play from White or Lauri, but it is still early and in general I've enjoyed most of the games (sans the 1st two games of the season and these past 2 games and even yesterday's game - take away that blitz to start the 3rd quarter and overall despite being down, the Bulls were hanging in there...if they could have gotten anything out of Gafford, White, Sato - it would have been a bit interesting. Gafford is quickly showing he is a high energy bench guy and not a starter (at least not yet). Defensively he's gotten exposed trying to defend the perimeter on more dynamic bigs who can space the court too.

What was his injury? I know he missed the last 2 games. If he misses another extended streak, there goes any trade value he still had. And I was really counting on packaging him with other high picks to another team for a better player. Edit: Severe quad construsion. Man that has to be a heck of a bruise to miss 4 weeks. Hope he gets better quicker and mentally can hang in there. I got to think all these various injuries are taking a toll on him mentally.

The inverse is - with the Bulls pace - it would seem Ball would be a pretty good fit. Specifically his ability to pass and play D would both be valuable and I think they could cover his lack of a high volume shot given Lauri, Lavine, OPJ, Williams and others can provide spacing.

I assume it would be built around Sato or Thad. Van Gundy has slowed that offense down, which doesn't really play to Ball's style anyway and my guess is they are looking for more veterans anyway. I wouldn't trade some young asset for Ball.

Re: Ball - While I think it is okay to wait on him. I think part of this is more seeing what the whole roster can be with a real point guard. Does that make the team look even better - to where you are starting to think, hey if we can get another good player via trade closer to the deadline (or in the off-season) we are talking about moving up in the world, etc, great. I don't know that I can deal with a whole season with this sort of shit PG play. I mean the PG play I have seen from the Bulls is about as bad as I've seen. Have the Bulls ever had a worse starting PG? I'm sure they have and I just can't think of it. I can't remember who played PG when Jordan retired...but I'm sure it was someone crappy. Khalil El Amin? I mean he sucked big time, but I don't remember if he started or not.

Yeah - I try to remind myself - Coby, round peg / square hole. The thing really irking me is how bad he has been defensively. It takes a rare player who can overcome being a complete black hole defensively and have value purely as a scorer. I mean - we like to bag on Lavine's D - but Lavine is not a bad on the ball defender, his issue is he has lapses and is a bad help defender (or at least was - he's moved into a more serviceable role). But Lavine is so different than White in the sense that Lavine has more size and pure athleticism to rely on as well and as a scorer, Lavine is elite. White is streaky - but hasn't finished around the hoop, has too many turnovers, is a black hole, and his current shot is just too inconsistent. It makes the margin for White to actually project into the "best case" scenario just very low. If his D was solid - that floor projection goes up a ton and defensively he was not bad for a good chunk of last year. This could just be the old..."too much thinking" not enough playing as he has been thrust into such a different role than he has ever played. I really hope that is the case and I will admit, there have been some rare flashes - it just seems like the norm is so bad (in terms of his ability to go full ball hog mode). There is a reason there are so few Ben Gordon, Lou Williams, Jamaal Crawford types. When you have that few guys - to assume that sort of floor for White I think is tough.

I would be highly intrigued with Ball. He isn't going to be great - but the Bulls are in dire need of a PG and he is a PG. White is beyond awful - like beyond as a point guard. I hope we see a switch flip - but I am not optimistic. He is a black hole on offense and defensively he has become a dumpster fire too. Mentally he is all out of sorts. As a 2 guard - I just don't like him enough. He's way more 6 man than starter on a good team. Not sure what it would take to get Ball - but boy I would love the Bulls grabbing Ball and Towns for a combination of Lauri/Wendell, Porter, and Coby and whatever else might make it work (barring some unprotected 1st round pick). Ideally you keep one of Wendell / Lauri - but at this point - I don't really care - if I can package some of those guys for 1 or 2 better players - I do it in a heartbeat. I assume Lonzo won't be like crazy (in terms of what it takes to get him) - although I could be wrong. But as I said - I'm building around Lavine and Williams and looking to get the rest of the crew better. I don't think Lavine is a true #1 - but I think with the progression he's made every year, including this years progress, the right thing to do is put some more chips into winning with Lavine and that starts with getting better players around him. I also think at that point - you still have plenty of flexibility to build from there and still hope to find a true #1. Re: Williams - he has a lot to prove - and I know he's had a rough couple games - but I'm more than willing to be patient with him. Re: Coby White - I have never been less patient with a young player than I can remember. I really hope I'm wrong - but my god, when I watch him, more often than not I don't know if I'm watching a 1st round pick or freaking Blakeny. Guy is a total dumpster fire in terms of his bball decision making. His passing his horrific and he goes into prime AI mode way too much (and he isn't anywhere near on AI's level). Just insanely frustrating. I try to remind myself year 2 and they are putting him in a really tough position - but good god - he looks HORRID. You replaced him with a slightly above league average PG in the starting lineup - with all of the other parts the same - I think we'd see an INSTANT upgrade to the entire unit.

This - they also are probably the place that makes the most sense for Bauer. If they are going to try with Trout - they are going to need to hit on a few big name free agents + obviously really see strong development from home grown players.

And when they go back to back to back in 20, 21, and 22...this will be the place of legends!!!

I've been on the go get Towns (dangle Lauri / WCJ / whomever) but get yourself an elite big. Maintain your investment in Lavine, Williams. To be honest - I'd dangle White too. Lauri / WCJ / White are all on my list of guys to trade if I can get an elite player. I would like to hold on to our current 1st round pick and Lavine/Williams.

What is driving the 8PM CT start time? As a west coaster - love them - but seems really odd the last two games have started at 8PM Central.