bmags

At least we don't have to read about whales on here for a while.

Robert is a tough call. If he doesn't work out it was a gigantic missed opportunity because the sox reallyd idn't have a gonzo class. That 2016 class was coming in at budget, so they didn't have any 30 people classes. If robert works out, great. If not, our 2017 was going to be brutal as we hadn't signed anyone so its not like we can say "we could have had wander franco"

so much this. The sox realistic payroll is 120 million. You can argue it should be higher, but lets say this is it. You mean to tell me if you hired a bunch of rays guys to take over they couldn't compete and win the division most years? As much as a 220 mill payroll would be fun, you don't need that to make the playoffs. Its helpful to win multiple world series, but the sox should at least be able to compete in this dreadful division year after year.

but colome has been inconsistent and he is paid well for it, and nova is moving to the AL and can't get lefty hitters out (they torched him). It will be an interesting and fun exercise.

Probably true.

I am going to do a dollar/WAR count up actually because I am intrigued by the answer so I will follow-up with it. At the very least the previous ones you mentioned had legitimate plus players in frazier and robertson.

Same! This outfield is unbelievably bad and also has no interesting players that maybe could be a starter with playing time.

do you really only exist for this reason? Stop following him around and sniping.

this offseasons acquisitions have been the most brutal of his entire tenure, including his first offseason that was basically keppinger.

There are some wonderful players. They are the types of "over the hump" acquisitions. Thats what made this year nice (sigh) these were franchise aligning ones. You need to get the most out of the immediate value of next years guys. I'm telling you the guy I think should be targeted first is Castellanos. The future offense does not look good enough. If they deliver castellanos and a pitcher its good for me. I'll say Ive not completely discounted the chance that our player dev could improve dramatically this year. Getz doesn't seem like an idiot, but the org doesn't prioritize anything really. I literally don't know what they prioritize.

oh another thing to add for the next time: - not getting mad at national media for discounting the white sox chances of pulling off a dramatic free agent acquisition.

That's the same thing!

Basically as a sox fan we have to hope that we get lucky. We won't out execute, we won't out spend, but...maybe we'll get lucky?

Yeah, he wasn't the worst owner. But I'm tired of having an owner more invested in the health of the league than the health of the franchise. Like, dude, the revenues are 10 billion, stop forcing your franchise to be the martyr just so you can bend the cba to you year after year.

I feel very confident that if sox offered him 10 for 340 he would have signed it despite these limitations.

people only care about it because of the luxury tax implications which will matter for a team like the phillies that invests in its ball club. Would have mattered less for white sox who are unlikely to ever operate at that level.

and the phillies get a rare elite asset to provide value to their baseball team during what looks like a competitive run. Seems fair to me.

and, I don't understand why it needs to be repeated, but baseball isn't a traditional business and all the owners are billionaires.

If the sox actually need to operate under similar constraints as the cleveland baseball team than they need to operate with the same efficiency as the cleveland baseball team.

the dodgers have one of the deepest teams in baseball, one of the best and most productive pipelines of international free agency and dominate their division. I think they are doing fine.

I hate garpax with a passion. They are much better than the kwpres/hahngm era because they can still draft well, and hahn has shown no strength in the traditional team building avenues which is why they needed a big splash.

Anything south of 350 i would have felt disappointed sox didn't go for.

oh totally. We learned a lot for the next go around though: - "stealth mode" is not a thing. maybe for trades, it isn't for free agents. - jerry reinsdorfs ability as a businessman could not matter less - how elite free agents value themselves matters, and if you aren't prepared to sign them at their value, plan your organization accordingly.

People are confusing "upset because this deal should not have been out of reach for a team that seriously targeted the top free agents for 2 years and need it for a stifled rebuild" with "upset because they believed they were getting harper and didn't" I will always believe the sox are capable of making the correct and achievable choice, and always upset when they can't execute it.

I didn't say they couldn't get any better, that's the argument you created. Moncada had a 97 wrc+. Giolito legitimately had the worst xfip among eligible starters in baseball. If moncada gets slightly better he's above average. If giolito gets slightly better he still may be one of the worst starters in baseball. I think he will get better, he needs to get extraordinarily better.