bmags

Yeah, I guess what I'm annoyed by is the idea that making sure we are competitive in years 6-10 of this decade is so much more important than ensuring we are competitive in years 1-5. We still have quite a bit of ground to make up. And players like Robert with swing and miss may well not be amazing their first year. I would also just like us to get some elite pieces, and then play around the value margins after this. Is wheeler elite? No, but I do think he'll be playoff starting pitcher and we desperately need one, and they are hard to find. That the third best pitcher in this offseason feels like one is a benefit. Ryu obviously can be that guy but he's a russian roulette FA in that he either plays and is good or just...doesn't exist.

The thing that I don't like about Castellanos is he is a player we'd be committed to but all also one that you'd ideally like an upgrade from. He's an upgrade to our current situation but not a fixture. I do think I'm more pessimistic on him than most, I liked him a lot last offseason but always wanted to move him to 1b. Vaughn and abreu situations changed it.

this is a false choice, honestly. How many WS teams aside from the white sox had playoff islands surrounding that year?

This is good, the check boxes bit needs to be explored more. It's used in a way to shut down conversations instead of open up why they operated the way they did and plan to do.

Yeah, the $$ should be split into guaranteed and non-guaranteed.

this is true, but the reasons for that fade had very little to do with bad contracts and more to do with their (still) achilles heel - bad pd and drafting. Considering that, you may as well push for the highest peak you can get. There are few re-enforcements coming, and I maintain its easier to shed salary when all you need to do is shed salary then people believe. If you need to shed salary and gain cheap assets, then you are in trouble. But I sure wish Rizzo was the one handing out our FA contracts. This board did not think the scherzer one would go well either. Nor the Greinke one. Sox fans have accepted the CW that big contracts are bad.

Man, that corbin contract must have completely destroyed whatever franchise signed him.

Handy guide

Signing stras at 5/175 would put sox payroll around 113. That should still leave room for other things for a team trying to be competitive. There is no reason this team needs to cap themselves at $120 mill

Ah yes, this board is very good at guessing FA prices. And wheeler will go for 4/$72

Yes, and move on to the next as if there are perfect gradiants or performance, and the Sox can move from the name brand to the generic.

Amen.

For the chicken littles, a four year deal for a 32 year old is not as risky as a six year deal for a 29 year old.

Sign him for six, play him for three, offload him for a portion of that salary back. Hes not physically sewn onto the field for six years.

Or if he’s a very good pitcher then you’d just have three very good pitchers instead of two and salary we can only poach older vets or average players with:

Porcello as the big addition!

Yep, we’ll be so concerned with extending them we waste the time they are already here.

And of course, teams have found impactful pitching in that short term bucket...just not the white Sox and they’ve made no changes for us to believe this time will be different.

Yes I mean I agree. But JR/Steve stone logic says that as long as you aren’t setting the new market for a pitcher you are fine. Only when you give labor a win are you in bad territory.

True but quite literally what he posted the day machado signed. Id rather be rumored in the lead.

Well let’s see what Sox are made of. Hahns economic might line read as if it meant with all of the players on pre arb we could spend what it takes for the players they target, not just spend on players full stop. If the Sox want wheeler for next four years they should get him, then deal with it later.

So say you sign Ryu at 18 million/yr instead of wheeler at 22/yr. You have 4 million to go after a lot more pieces.

The idea of “fallback option” is too old fashioned for me and I don’t think teams think that way.

I would also keep in mind the Mets had some pretty trash defense