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Guess we have different goals in mind . I'm trying to fill as many holes in the lineup as possible as efficiently as possible leaving the big dollars for the pitching. I'd be thrilled to have 7 guys in the lineup if you count McCann capable of 20 HR's many of whom are capable of 30 and even 2 capable of 40. Yea I'd love guys on base so the power guys can knock them in but when you need a run I'd rather have 1 HR then 2 walks and a single with a DP between them producing no runs. This is the HR era . If you have a couple of guys who can hit .300 like Timmy , Dickerson and Eloy or even Madrigal I'm good with a .325 OBP from a guy who can mash 35 HR's and back up 3 positions. You can't build a perfect team that allows the young guys room to grow get OBP and power and starting and relief pitching all in one off season for cheap so I sacrificed a bit of OBP for payroll and pitching considerations. It's not perfect but what plan really is?. The Sox just don't have the payroll or the ability to sign 6 or 7 free agents with so many being repped by Boras. This is as realistic as i can get I think it's a good enough plan to get the Sox over .500 and even to possibly get them into the playoffs if Robert and Madrigal can play well and the pitching they add can produce along with marked improvement from the young starting pitching but that s asking a lot to go right . You give the team a chance to get back Rodon and Dunning and give Collins AB's to see if he can be that OBP/power guy and give the OF prospects one more year to see if anyone can step up. The Sox will not be a finished product in 2020 nor a likely playoff team so finishing touches can be added later or even at the All Star break if the team is surprisingly good. but realistically 2021 is the target.

So on the one hand you admit your ignorance but on the other hand use it as an argument against him ? My goodness educate yourself. While he certainly isn't Yolmer Sanchez there he did play a lot of games there and had a .929 OPS and 149 OPS+playing 2nd base and made 1 error between 2nd and 3rd before he was elected to the All Star game. I guess all of a sudden the Sox don't need a guy like that. Let's resign Yolmer ! . For a veteran like him to even consider 2nd base just shows the type of team player he is “I feel bad for him, we all do,’’ said Brewers starter Gio Gonzalez, who faced a cold winter himself. “I’m 100% sure he deserves way more than he got. The guy is 30 years old, has 66 homers and almost 200 RBI (180) in the last two years, is phenomenal in the clubhouse, and nobody wanted him the last two winters? I don’t get it. “He has been huge for us,’’ Brewers manager Craig Counsell says, “and he’s the consummate guy on your team. He’s just a teammate, man. He cares about the right things. And that’s winning. It’s really special having him around. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2019/06/18/mike-moustakas-brewers-free-agency-all-star/1485238001/

I think both will test the Free agency waters . I mean Grandal bet on himself explicitly for that very purpose by taking the 1 year deal . Moose has been hosed by Free agency but by showing he's capable of playing 47 games at 2nd base now added to his resume he's increased his value, His value is tied to that so to think he'll be primarily tied to one particular position, he becomes the same guy who couldn't get good deals as a FA in the past. I think any free agent could resign with their former team if the offer is right but you can't really be too concerned with that. You just put your best offer out there and let the chips fall where they may. At this point as much as I like Grandal I could see a very daunting task for the Sox in signing a lot of free agents that expand payroll too quickly and leave Collins out of the mix. Grandal might be a luxury especially since he seems to think of himself as the standard bearer for catchers getting their worth , If he's expecting $20M a year that's money that could go towards pitching either in the bullpen or to increase offers to starting pitching.

Yea every free agent we go after is going to present challenges and their own set of unique circumstances and ability's. I did my best to cover a lot of different holes . There's not many perfect fits out there. I'd go so far as to say there is no such thing. Gerrit Cole is about as close as you get for the White Sox to a perfect fit but he is for every team that can afford him.

I think it's possible because he was injured a lot last year but from June to Sept he was really good. Every month not much difference from the other June , July and August. Very consistent when before he became a more of a contact hitter, he was known to be streaky. Like I said I think he'd be agreeable to one year with a mutual option and incentives .

You think OBP is our #1 priority ? Really? Yea its up there but surely it's pitching and power . You don't think .845 OPS is good enough to play DH ? Again sorry , really ? Maybe you better start remembering how many AB's were given to ALonso and AJ Reed Palka etc who occupied DH last year. Here you have one of the most consistent power hitting guys who can hit both righties and lefties fill in at 3 positions in the field, a huge hedge against injuries and under performance and he's not a fit ?

I'm not counting on Moncada being hurt but many here consider him soft. I just think between all the positions he can play there's just no doubt he would fit. Injuries happen we know that and when you can play 1st, 2nd and 3rd that's one hell of a backup for 3 positions especially when you consider it was Sanchez playing a lot of 2nd and 3rd last year . 1st base isn't so hard to learn for a career 3rd baseman so lets not pretend it's like playing SS. When Abreu wasn't playing 1st are you forgetting all the AB's Yonder Alonso got or the immortal AJ Reed ? Maybe you forget all the crap we had at DH I sure don't. How is Moose getting AB's there not much better ? Can you really say with 100% certainty that Madrigal will be entrenched at 2nd base all season after he is brought up or when exactly he will be brought up ? Someone can say he's not a good OBP guy but you can point out flaws in any player If he was so great in every area I wouldn't be saying how much of a bargain he was. But just to counter that argument he drew career high in walks last year. I just get amazed when people don't think he's a fit when the Sox lineup was one black hole after another at with terrible hitters backing up 1st and 3rd and starting at 2nd base and DH . There's nothing wrong in stocking the lineup with HR hitters like the Twins did . Last year we would have loved him instead of all the crud we had at 1st ,2nd DH and to play 3rd when Moncada went down . Those 35 HR's .516 Slg, and .845 OPS last year would've helped too. I'm not building a World Champ here. I don't think anyone here can unless they have a crystal ball. Lets not get paralysis by analysis here. I've addressed a lot of different areas with just 2 relatively inexpensive pieces to the lineup leaving a lot of money to be spent on pitching which is still the No. 1 priority. He might take 3 years to sign but if anyone is worried he'd block someone that's really silly to care about. If you are so good to be blocking someone who cares ? There are always areas that need improvement and positions of strength to make trade from. Even without Grandal it's a vast improvement over last year and even better when Eloy becomes our JDM . It's time to really start believing in the guys we have already and the one who is coming who can be the best of them all WAR wise and potentially as a hitter too which is saying a lot when you have Moncada and Eloy.

I was vacillating between Gardner and Corey Dickerson. Both haven't played much RF at all so if that's a problem for just one year I understand. I don't really consider it a big deal. Dickerson won a GG in LF in 2018 , doesn't have a weak arm and is a hell of a hitter when not injured. Just look at his stats in 2019 in his limited AB's High BA, Slugging and OPS. I've been doing a lot of research on him and he's become a really good hitter the last 2 years by choking up and cutting down on the K's and making more contact. As he's progressed with the new style he's worked the power back into his game also and is capable of 20-25 HR's in a full season . I think he's way under rated much like Lemahieu was last year. He also isn't a liability against lefties like Gardner, Calhoun and Pederson. If you add Grandal, Moustakas, Dickerson and Luis Robert that could be an extra 100 HR's the Sox didn't have last year and 3 of those 4 are left handed. Along with the power of Moncada, Abreu and Eloy that's a real lot of power along with some OBP from Grandal and while Dickerson doesn't walk too much that high BA will put him on base and as a contact hitter along with Madrigal eventually you could have an ideal 2 hitter in Dickerson and 9 hitter in Madrigal. I'm not worried about Moustaskas getting AB's since there will be plenty to go around between 3rd when Moncada misses games at 3rd and if Madrigal doesn't come up for a month then plenty at 2nd too. As primarily a 3rd baseman he could also play many games at 1st without much trouble. Also between Grandal , Moose, Abreu and the rest of the power hitters you have DH pretty well covered while keeping players fresh and having more power off the bench for those late inning HR heroics that we didn't have last year . The best part is Moose and Dickerson shoudn't cost the Sox all that much in AAV maybe $25M a year at most . I think Dickerson can be had easily with a 1 yr, base salary around $8-10M but with incentives based of AB's and performance make another $5M if he remains uninjured and productive . Moose is also pretty good against lefties so between him and Dickerson neither one has to be taken out of the lineup. I wish I could figure out a way to work Collins into getting a lot of AB's without removing Grandal but with his catching skills and hitting ability still a question there's vast difference between him and Grandal. However if the Sox are successful at getting starting pitcher adding Moose and Dickerson as the bats might not seem good enough for some people but it would be if Collins can add the OBP and power we lose in not signing Grandal. Guess we'll just have to trust that between Eloy , Moncada, Abreu, Anderson , Robert , Madrigal, Moose and Dickerson that its a good enough lineup to give Collins more of an opportunity . I think that lineup is pretty good, versatile and even better if Collins can step up. It's certainly much better than last years lineup. , more balanced ,more power , no black holes against left handers or right handers. Maybe Collins against lefties isn't the best but I'd be thrilled to see him mash righties. Imagine Eloy, Mocada and Robert all ending up great hitters. That lineup is sweet if that can happen sooner rather than later. I truly believe Moncada and Eloy will be hitting superstars next year .

Nothing wrong with making money but something is amiss with the Sox IFA agency process. That's the much larger story here.

Christian Mena and Wilfred Veras from their last signing class are both 16 though. Sanchez was 22 and Elijah Tatis was 17. Can't find the ages of right-handed pitcher Erick Bello and Venezuelan catcher Ricardo Aguilar who were also signed. After those signing the Sox had $1.7M left of which $1.25M went to TX so they still might have $450K depending on the accuracy of everything I read.

Of course you can also pretend to disdain it as a convenient excuse not to spend the money but they do seem to like using it for older guys so who knows.

I don't really care about analysis and I haven't done a ton of research on it but Baseball Ref . for instance just says traded for intl. bonus pool money. Maybe there's a place that has the amount of money the Sox traded but I haven't found it yet but then again I haven't looked that hard . You can usually find out the amount of money traded in articles about the trade but looking up each trade while more thorough takes longer than just having a list from year to year. MLB white sox page just says future considerations instead of intl. bonus pool money so that's no good .

It's possible Reinsdorf disdains the whole process of the exploitation of 13-16 year olds since that seems to be the ages that many of these guys start getting peddled to the big league teams.

Hey if the Sox actually just stuck to Cuban guys it wouldn't be terrible. I mean of course the Dominican Republic produces the most players but even in the last few years the Sox also missed the boat ( pun intended ) on some decent Cubans like the Twins signing of relief pitcher 25 yr old. Yennier Cano in the middle of June after most players were already signed, for $750K and we already know the Sox had $1.25M at least because of the trades with the Rangers involving Jones and Castillo. So why didn't the Sox sign him ? They signed Yolbert Sanchez who is 22 yrs old.($2.5M) 2 weeks later; The Twins signed Cano and at 25 yrs old you would think he would be right up the Sox alley since they seem to disdain the 16 year olds. Now I might not have the full story because the 2 week difference might be the difference between the Sox having the funds or not and being in the penalty from the year before. Like I said it's tricky learning these things. The Tigers signed some mystery Cuban OF named Roberto Campos ($2.65M) the same day the Sox announced signing Sanchez and he wasn't even ranked in the top 30. Of course ranking these guys is nearly impossible and Baseball America stopped ranking them altogether.

I actually love Kendrick. Heard an interview with him right after the World Series and he talked about how one small change in his stride made him a better hitter than ever because it freed up his hands. He doesn't hit enough HR's to be a DH but great in a utility role. Played 1st , 2nd and 3rd and a little DH for the Nats this year and a little OF last year though his OF days might be behind him. Remember the Nats also had Brian Dozier and didn't use him at all in but 1 PA in the playoffs.

What years did the Wilder scandal start and end and how did it affect the following years ? Probably should know that too.

That would be the person you just quoted, As far as finding player transactions I just type 2019 ( or 2018, 2017 etc.) White Sox player transactions into google and then have multiple sources to compare to each other and see who provides more info than the others. Like Baseball reference will have the list starting at November of 2018 but ends at the middle of Oct.2019 so they are a few weeks behind but they will list the trading of intl. money. CBSSports.com won't even list the Jones and Castillo moves so that's not a good place to look.

Nah it's pretty easy to criticize given 4 pages of mostly criticism. And these are posters who pretty much disagree about who the Sox can sign this winter and just how much money the Sox will spend. As a group pretty much all of them are in unison on this one.

Just do your homework on it. Go over the list of White Sox transactions for the last 5/6 years or so and find out how many times they traded it away. It's got to be at least 6 times considering it was 2 in the last couple of months. Have a list in your head of the players they received in those transactions since a few of them were basically 18-23 yr olds and also keep in mind that they have used some of that money to sign the brothers of Eloy and Tatis,jr.and finally their proclivity to signing older intl. FA agents like the one from last year, I believe it was the one known around here as Yogurt Sanchez ? Probably also would help to know that even if they had penalties just when those penalties started and when exactly they ended and that they were still capable of signing guys but no one over $300K. It's a tricky topic and to really put Hahn on the spot you really have to know your stuff. Oh yea one more thing to add on an edit here. I'd also go over every team and try to find as many players as possible who are pretty good players now who were signed when they were 16 or 17 and the amount they signed for. That's usually pretty hard to find and takes a lot of digging. I'd start with division rivals since I know the Twins have a few in Kepler and Rosario and i think another one.

If i was a wiz at photoshp I'd make it easier on you by putting him in a Sox uniform so you could see it.

If true then I would expect a response such as " He still could be , just for less money ." Besides he still doesn't know that there's only 1 L in Welington. How can I take him seriously ?

Not surprising coming back from a wrist injury.

Who was the poster who was so sure Castillo would be on the Sox in 2020 ?

You must not consider right handers .903 OPS against him a bad stat.

It's not ALL in the name of speeding up the game. It' also benefits the hitters and we all know offense is more attractive to fans than great pitching .