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The injury history definitely seems like it should be a bigger drag but who knows. Hey let's hope Colson Montgomery hits because now we can see how freakin valuable a big, left-hand shortstop can be (and, you know, one that had an MVP type year). Yanks obviously had some similar tendencies as us, so they are gonna get the best the market has to offer.

It seems like we may have some real baseball movement to chew on before the lockout

Was thinking about the funny combo addition of Semien and Marte, who would make the white Sox more right handed, but dramatically improve their hitting vs RHP.

I'm saying the cost of Varsho's control will be more expensive than the impact of his talent. It makes trades like that too expensive for what you get back because you are "paying" for 5 years of cheap control. I'd rather have a mega package for 2 or so years of a very talented player than 5 years of a good player, especially when the sox have not yet hit spending limits.

I understand the interest, but those types of trades are my least favorite. I don't like where the cost for control starts to exceed the cost of talent.

I don't get it. Why do they get credit for setting the market there, I thought that phrase means they gave highest contract to the position.

who?

ah well maybe we can sneak by on some soft opponents. Who is playing next?

they aren't similar pitchers. Stroman has very good stuff.

I'll just say that I'm someone that easily gets excited at the talk of the sox targeting a high profile guy, but I just don't buy this at all. He would be a great piece though. We've talked a lot about balancing out our weaknesses. He is right-handed, but torched RHP last year and is still a career above average hitter vs. RHP. He hits fly balls, he only has a 30% ground ball rate. His contact isn't incredible but at just 20% it's a more competitive at bat. And his defense at 2b is fantastic, shoring up our defense. So it's not a shock sox would be interested, but I just don't see them going the extra mile for him. Like can't even do the dreaming thing.

Sheesh, you think he has time to catch up on the last 10 years of baseball?

I don't really think there is an easy answer, I don't think you can completely withdraw from parity measures. I don't think a full lottery should happen, but I think it could be fun to lottery comp picks. Meaning - still give some priority order to losing teams, but make some random adjustments to draft budget. So maybe 10 or so picks are randomly assigned at the end of round 2, giving ten random teams an additional million. It wouldn't eliminate tanking, because some team is going to still try and maximize their budget. But it may allow some of the borderline teams to be less worried about losing a draft pick (if that still happens) or going for a prayer run like the cards had at the expense of draft. They may make it back in the lotto

when the AL West starts reloading like this it makes a completely different market.

I just don't see him getting away from Toronto.

Man the East is SO much better this year

I sincerely love that every year a bunch of baseball writers convince their bosses to pay for them to go to a resort to cover the GM meetings where the GMs say nothing of substance so they al end up needing to writeup Scott Boras giving long winded analogies comparing the baseball market to the spice trade

Very fun game. That Lonzo bullet pass was rad

If posters are already horrified of the rumored deals I think you are all in for a fun offseason. I can't remember the last time this many teams were looking to add seriously. The list below should just be read as "not sellers" Texas Seattle Detroit NYY NYM KC CWS ATL HOU LAD LAA SD SFG BOS MIL STL MIA TOR PHI Wildcards - CHC Chaotic Neutral - TB, CLE, MN Selling PIT CIN OAK COL BAL AZ I count 29 but can't figure out who i missed.

Well, that was the prediction right? Mid Jan would be an unconvincing deadline, but perhaps that would be realistic for a "if past this date, ST is compromised" for staffing stuff.

I don't think Leury would be something I'd complain too much about. Prior to 2021, his splits as a LHH vs RH were worse, which was why it was annoying he was getting all of the action vs. RHP even if he was a switch hitter. But, that's the thing about switch hitters, they sometimes just need more at bats. He ended the season league average vs. RHP. You can make same case, I believe, for his defense. He has in interviews talked about how he'll try to focus on outfield or infield, and so when sox expect him infield more often he'll practice more there, but it's hard to stay equally fresh in all of them. If he had time to commit to 2b I think he'd be pretty good there, he has a nice strong arm for double plays and plays to his right. But this is all because there just aren't a lot of options for good 2b vs. RHP available. So, if we vastly improve RF and get a pitcher, as mentioned, then yeah, if leury is our 2b I wouldn't be that disappointed. I'd rather have corey seager, obviously.

well...this was more what I expected:

I don't think anyone is saying that. He's a credible shooter, and the bench needs that. Considering how BD has used DeRozan and Lavine on second units, they are the primary ballhandlers anyway. So Ayo and Coby just need to provide what they do best.

I'd actually like to know from those that were a bit older on that 94 front. After 2020's very antagonistic negotiations, I figured this would be a very tough CBA that would likely lead to a delay in the season and we all joked about it wiping out a white sox world series team. I have been surprised how muted the CBA negotiations have been so far. Should we expect more lines in the sand to develop in december that let us know how serious this will be, or has the relatively ho-hum response so far a good sign? What was it like in the lead-up to 94? Did it seem like it would resolve then just devolved quickly? It felt like in 2012 nba and some recent nfl lockouts, we all just knew it was coming pretty early on. It feels like things have cooled down a bit on the mlb front. Am I being too optimistic?

I'm not mocking anyone except your point. The white sox have done the hard part of building a floor of a very competitive team. In 2003-2005 the white sox hit on a quite a few flyer free agents. They then struggled to recreate that success consistently, because it is hard and involves quite a bit of luck. There is a reason these guys are available - age, injury history, poor/mediocre prior performance. Obviously, there are teams that have done well but even then it's not a slam dunk. Every acquisition is a gamble, where you pay more it's for greater certainty. There was plenty of room for flyer free agents from 2017-20. If you miss on a guy in hopes of squeezing value out of them, you are also wasting the chance to put together the best team possible for this core. Teams pay wildly for that extra 2% and they aren't wrong.

Yeah that hahn interview was more direct than usual from Hahn re: Kimbrel.