Chisoxfn

https://twitter.com/BNightengale/sta...86632425463809 I wouldn't mind Gordon, depending on how many years he'd get. That said, I presume Royals will do what they can to match. I'm guessing Gordon gets less years / dollars than the other big OF free agents. He's coming off a down year, but still a very good year. OF all the names I've heard, given dollars getting thrown around, it would seem Upton / Gordon might be the best value props of the big name outfielders. Cespedes is going to get paid given his performance last year (and he's older with his own issues) and Heyward probably gets absurd money given his age and ultimate WAR production, etc.

How much / what will the difference in cost / years be between Gordon and Upton? Is Upton going to get more money and more years while Gordon provides actual better production (kind of like he has past few years)? I presume Royals are going to ensure they won't be beat.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Dec 7, 2015 -> 02:52 PM) Rickslat is just a troll. See my post from last year's Samardzija rumors ^ Weren't the Sox extremely close to acquiring Upton last off-season? So couldn't he have been right on Shark and wrong on Upton previously? Kenny was supposedly pretty ticked we didn't end up with Upton last off-season. I presume Anderson would have been a part of that deal with the Braves.

Could be more that he's been told he will get moved in next day or two (not yet specific team)? Would seem to be a decent target (if Sox can handle his craziness). Far more talented than anyone we have had at 3B in a long long time. How does he profile defensively? Seems like a lot of errors, but how does he profile from an advanced scouting perspective? Is their defensive upside? Prefer this route to Asdrubal from a talent perspective, that said, the emotional side of Lawrie might make a potential Lawrie move impossible.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Dec 7, 2015 -> 02:00 PM) Hear hear! It's why I'm softening re: a potential (but still probably unlikely) Upton signing. Upton clearly fills a need and should be good for at least a few more years. As long as Sox can deal with the payroll I don't have an issue with it.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Dec 7, 2015 -> 12:54 PM) I stopped watching Homeland after season 2, is it worth picking up again? I didn't tune into season 3 because I heard bad things. I have enjoyed most all of homeland's seasons, first season was unbelievably awesome but this season has been the best overall. Mainly because they got rid of the stuff that drove my nuts (by and large)...which ie., was manic carrie.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 7, 2015 -> 12:59 PM) Those stories have to be BS. I bought two tickets in reserved seating in a perfect spot on Friday. It must be in areas with fewer theaters or something. I could maybe see it in cases where someone wants to see it at some specific huge theatre with the best audio capabilities, etc (say a specific Imax theatre) or just some really well known historical theatre. I'm taking my department to see it for our christmas party (followed by lunch). We are seeing @ 9 AM on opening day than lunch and than I'm letting them go home.

Congrats!!!

So I'm not going to make some big winded post as what I am posting is purely based upon conjecture (along with some of Hahn's quotes) but I've heard Hahn talk a lot about working to fix our offense, but like last off-season, I've heard so little about our defense? It just makes me go hmmm, have we learned nothing from our struggles the past few years. I realize that good defensive, OBP guys don't grow on trees (and to be frank, OBP and good defense are the Sox two biggest achiles heels) but for us to consistently talk about offense just strikes the wrong chord to me. I have watched a team that has been fundamentally bad for the past few years and last off-season we tried to fix the offense while ignoring defense. Sox deserve the benefit of the doubt cause they have yet to make a move this off-season that made the defense worse, but they also haven't upgraded the defense either (which is fine...only position they addressed was catcher and net net I'd say that move was defensively neutral to slightly positive while offensively having the upside to be positive).

I think a lot of this depends on how plan A goes. It would appear, based upon rumors, plan A is to upgrade the offense and it includes being surprisingly aggressive in the FA front (i.e., Upton / Asdrubal or even someone like Kendrick). If you go that route and than stick with Saladino at SS, I just don't get it. If you are going to spend the money and put out the stops, don't you have to make sure you really have relative solid options across the lineup and I don't think Saladino as your starting SS is a great option (backup plan great). That said, I don't really understand yet what we are doing and where we are headed, but to the defense of Hahn, etc, unfair for me to reach those conclusions based purely on rumors. I think if we sign someone like Upton, it means we are going to add another good option somewhere and also means we bring Alexei back (or find a similar type vet player). I think 2B is where we'll see a young player get their shot. Other than 2B (Micah / Sanchez / Saladino) and Trayce, we don't have another young position player who could potentially be ready for a contending team. IF we are going to contend, please make sure we can contend, if not, lets make sure we take the long view and lets focus on adding long-term assets and figuring out if we have any other internal assets.

So as a new kink...we've pinned the two bigger / most relevant actual sox rumors. Let me know if you all think of that as a plus. And I also have to give everyone a lot of credit, I think the overall baseball discussion has been really quite excellent. Credit for all the amazing members on this site!

Frazier is probably the best, most realistic fit their and if we are seriously looking at Upton, than I kind of hope we are seriously looking at Frazier. It would mean we were a little right handed heavy, but at least we would be addressing / filling two major voids in the lineup. Plus Frazier is more than solid defensively, which helps from that perspective as well. I just presume the Reds asking price will be too steep.

Any word yet on who the Dodgers gave up?

Insane. That said, Tigers have at least focused some attention on an area they have sorely lacked the past few years (between this and the acquisition of Krod).

What amazes me is how Krod is continously undervalued compared to so many guys. Interesting how wide some of the disparity on signings have been.

Appreciate all the feedback. Seems like discussion is up, although we still have to work on the semantics (might be pinning...hot Sox news on the top) to ensure it stays relevant, although overall discussion helps. The fact that you can scroll a page and see all the big news and then choose what you want to discuss / read in more depth is really nice. As I warned people when making the switch, their would be some kinks and we might need to move back, who knows. So far I like what I'm seeing (and the site posting stats/traffic are also looking very nice compared with recent traffic as well as historical trends around the winter meetings). In fact, this weekend saw more traffic than any non-move weekend in recent site history (possibly longer...although I don't remember all the moves to check back..just went back a couple years).

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Dec 7, 2015 -> 10:19 AM) Because it's a dumb concept that most people here don't agree with. Dumb or not...it is the rules. And dumb is open to debate.

Welp...this has turned into a catch all.

Game started off looking like one of those games where you don't strike early, you leave a team in and you lose. Our inability to hit field goals, but just as importantly, our inability to get TDs in the redzone got us. Defensively we were will prepared to deal with the mobility of Gabbert. Reminded me of a game against the Seahawks a few years ago where Russel torched us late in the game with his legs. All that said, we aren't a great team, we all knew this team was devoid of talent. I was surprised we were so conservative against a good team. Langford and Jeffrey had some critical drops that prevented us from moving the chain and potentially get points. Cutler missed some big plays that were their. Just a poor offensive performance. And obviously Gould with two relatively routine misses.

Damn

I think this is one of the better moves of the offseason to date

QUOTE (Baron @ Dec 4, 2015 -> 12:48 PM) See that's part of the problem. Apparently dissenting opinions are treated with hostility. So sorry I don't believe he's the best when it comes to the Bears. If you dont like that I dont know what to tell you. Maybe take your own advice. Part of the problem? If you treat people who have inside info like a dick, what do you expect? It has nothing to do with this site, rather you consistent willingness to go bash media people on the twittersphere. If that gives you kicks, great, but I find it rather pathetic. I'm not certain what the dissenting opinion is related to? I'm purely talking about a track record you have of bashing the media and individuals with those sort of opinions as well as the track record to blast them on twitter where you can do it in a nameless / faceless fashion. It is pathetic. Their is no other possible conclusion to come to other than that. This is not debating whether X or Y player is a better fit or which scenario is more reasonable. And when it comes to members of this site, I'll protect the right of any poster with some legit inside info who shares that info and will take offense when people want to "bash" said individual. Said bashing just ruins it for everyone else.

I actually think the Sox are more transparent than plenty of organizations. This isn't as lose as the org was back in the Guillen era (when we probably were the least discreet club on the planet) but since I have 3 non-white sox teams in the general vicinity of me, I'd tell you the Sox transparency is no different than that of the Angels / Padres / Dodgers.

QUOTE (Baron @ Dec 4, 2015 -> 12:13 PM) I think his reporting is shady at best and his followers are bullies. Kind of reminds me of incarceratedbob. Lemming has been the best / more accurate person out their when it comes to following the Bears (so not sure what is shady about it). Maybe you should spend less time getting your panties in a bundle when someone on twitter reports / mentions something. These people do the best that they can and the alternative is for none of the info to exist and just wait to hear what actually happens. I also hate how good people with inside info eventually stop sharing such info because people react / respond to them like you. Reality is the info is going to more often than not not come true and people should just understand that. I've been wrong on inside info and I've been right.

You know...its great to hear about the offense, but what about the historically bad defense the Sox have played the past few years? The fact that I keep seeing all this talk about the "offense" makes me worried we are still in delusional fill and aren't focused on addressing the right problem. That said, the offense we brought in thus far is at least solid defensively (i.e., catcher) and lets be honest, most of the so called "offense" on this team that sucks defensively also tends to suck offensively so those hills are probably going to get filled by a better defender anyway (if we actually address them). Thanks for sharing the summary