GreenSox

If he wants to manage, he would try to get a coaching job. I'll take Ricky over Ozzie right now.

I basically agree unless a superstar falls into the Sox lap. Irrespective of Hahn, adding all of these 2nd-4th tier FAs would just stop the rebuild prematurely. They could have done that in 2016 without rebuilding.

Gray is one of these guys who never seems to achieve his potential. I can't lay everything at the feet of Coors. If the Sox meticulously scout him and watch copious amounts of tape and see something that they are confident that they can fix, then he's intriguing. But it's just hard to have that confidence in this staff that they do and the fix 'em prescription anymore.

I suppose Narvaez' framing is bad, but he's one of the few players on the 25, if not the org., that can take a walk. If his power ever comes (and it likely won't) he'd be a heck of a hitter. As it is, he's still one of the Sox best hitters. His D was positively rated by fangraphs; his framing may suck, but he can throw out runners. I don't see the reason to trade a guy like that for some marginal veteran. Even a guy like Leury - yes, he's a utility player. But he can play OF and IF - Sox don't have another one of those. And the list of crappy utility players Hahn and Williams have chased and paid serious money to over the last decade is long and ugly.

The starting pitching would still be terrible. The bullpen thin. That's why signing these FAs doesn't excite me - these aren't contending teams that people are coming up with.

.500ish if the pitching holds up.

This is a nice thorough plan, but not overwhelming, so I'll comment above.

Rodon wasn't very good last season; but presuming he improves to mid-rotation or better, they can just hold him until July of his final year anyway. They'll get a decent enough return in July. Now that is 2021 and it certainly would be nice if the team is competitive then as well.

No thank you; for many reasons, including some of those guys won't be so special in 2020.

They do need to be respectable pretty soon.....but not by signing mediocre players (such as Moustakas) and before they have the young players all appraised. It's both premature and a questionable way to build a baseball team....even more questionable for this org.: surrounding 3 or 4 great players with average veterans is what Rick Hahn thought was best last time, and the results were horrendous. And just looking at Moustakas alone - .307 career OBP. the Sox have plenty of that.

Moustakas for any years makes no sense. Donaldson for 1 year is better.

Amen!

That may be, but you still need high quality prospects to trade or a front office that can scout and has trade negotiation skills. The Brewers may not have a great system, but they leveraged a spent Lucroy plus some so-so prospects into Christian Yelich. They got Hader and Domingo Santana for a broken down Carlos Gomez and the replaceable Fiers. The Soria trade was likely more of the Sox scouting (or lack thereof). Sox are lacking in scouting/development (both in effort/energy and in skill) and in trade negotiation. And the premium may be on trading the prospects; but you still have to hoard the elite prospects. And that involves knowing which are really elite and which just have the rep but aren't elite.

That makes sense for Renteria, but it seems to me that you need more from your instructional coaches than babysitter.

As per above, I think it would be different if there was a sense of urgency in the org. But when they let the same people who screwed up from 2013-2016 conduct the rebuild, don't make any management/coaching changes for 2 years in a row, they aren't exactly sending the message that fixing this on a timely basis is the top priority. They have to earn the trust.

I can't disagree with the analysis of the hitting above, but what about the pitching coach? How have Giolito, Lopez and Rodon progressed? Only Lopez really made progress (in contrast, only Moncada is really a top prospect on the hitting side). The bullpen isn't much better, with Fry having a nice year and that's about it. Overall, guys like Leury, Davidson, Palka, Yolmer could make the back end of a contender's 25 person roster. Who on the pitching side can say that beyond Lopez, Rodon (who is a 4/5 instead of the 1/2) and Fry? Yes, the win/loss total isn't really important in a vacuum, but the lack of development is; and the lack of development contributed to the win/loss total. Renteria needs to be replaced once the team is ready to win, but he's not really at the top of the list. And firing him would give the impression that the FO was displeased with the season, and that is a message that they do not want to send. Because it implies accountability and a timetable, and they seem to act above all that. Similarly, replacing the hitting coach and/or pitching coach will send the message that the FO isn't pleased. In the long run, that hurts the franchise...serial losing is bad enough on attendance and interest, but the people in charge acting like they aren't bothered by it and have an indefinite timeframe with no accountability is corrosive and exacerbates the problems.

Yes, if the price is some Rule 5 guy, then yes, by all means.....but the Sox rarely seem to pay that price even when it's the market. And no Shields under any circumstances.

Is this a recent diagnosis? Anyway, it's very treatable, unless the treatment is banned. Thought his D at 2b was pretty good. Liked the way he turned 2. I guess this means they'll go after Harper.

What the White Sox need is a high OBP, high power, low strikeout hitter. Doink hitters rarely have high OBP year over year. The Sox need him to be Altuve.

Sonny Gray was never that great to begin with. He was very good his first 2 years . He never improved, but he had the rep as if he had and was an ace. He never was. And while Yankee Stadium may be a bandbox, Oakland Almeda assuredly isn't. Plus he's a rent.

Exactly - it never happens. It's like the "we acquired him in early July to flip him in late July" scenarios. That 2nd flip does not happen.

Of course, but when do teams just give productive players in their prime away like that?

That would be silly, but far less silly than Cutch and a bevy of others.

Yep I said that a month ago - it would be just a classic William/Hahn move. Their kind of player. Their kind of move. All of this, of course, would be ridiculous. What would it do - steam the team to 68 wins? Maybe 71? This team isn't going anywhere until they develop a core of young players who produce. When that happens, then sign a few FAs to supplement.

Good point. Although I wish there were just a little more raw talent in that group. Re Rondon, if that's CF, I'm interested.