chitownsportsfan

QUOTE (Deadpool @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 11:39 PM) The Cubs certainly think so. they won the WS, they can laugh it up.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 10:25 PM) He is also tweeting the White Sox are eating salary. He is full of s***. right you know more than a local reporter that has almost 4K followers on Twitter. Honestly you are one of the worst posters I have ever come across in 10+ years of heavy sports message board reading.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 10:20 PM) He also says they cant come to agreement on who will pay salary, which makes no sense. Q is cheap. So are the Astros.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 10:16 PM) No clue who this person is but: https://twitter.com/ShutdownInning/status/806676420177051651 "Hearing Quintana to the Astros is "all but done." Working out a couple of kinks in the last hour. No word on pkg to CWS. #Astros #WhiteSox" local source, always a good sign for reliability, probably has some contacts in the Astros. This is crazy.

QUOTE (QuickJones81 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 09:36 PM) So far they've only traded away the clubhouse troublemakers. There's still some chance this isn't a full rebuild but rather a start of a culture makeover. It's full rebuild. Hahn hasn't sold it any other way in his interviews and other GMs / reporters are basically saying nothing is nailed down on the South Side.

Frazier, Jones and Robertson absolutely have to be moved now. Maybe if Sox are getting low balled you wait until the deadline when teams are more compelled to acquire 1-2 WAR types but there is no point keeping any of those guys around given their age and roles on the club. Q, if his value is through the roof because he's the only good pitcher left on the market, yea move him, but he could also be a big part of the next playoff team if things go well. Jose should probably be kept to see if he can rebuild some value.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 08:19 PM) Sox haven't pulled trigger but seemed to be in big ticket items like that. Recently Tanaka, but prior to that Alex Rodriguez in the texas deal. Harper is coming off by far his worst season. We'll see what his true talent is. If it's 5 WAR and not 8 then forget it.

It appears the Nats asked Giolito to make mechanical changes and he did not respond well. We'll see what Cooper thinks. You know the Sox don't acquire any pitcher without quite a bit of his input. He knows a lot about Giolito already. I have some problems with Cooper's influence IN GAME but as far as teaching guys how to pitch he's as good as it comes and giving him all this clay is exciting.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 07:43 PM) Cmon. Southsider could have taken a 23-10 team and kept it rolling. Robin, who I loved as a player and love his class and demeanor BTW, was a buffoon. We lose 1 heartbreaker ridiculous game and we all knew the team was finished. No offense to Robin, but we are talking a different class of bad manager here. I truly believe the Sox had enough pitching and 'good' players to do much better than they did the last couple years. The past is dead, it's not coming back. Embrace the future.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 07:41 PM) Sounds good on Giolito. Thanx for info. Why did Lopez only cost the Nats $17,000 to acquire? Sounds like he may not be a sure bet. Let's hope that MLB execs don't apply your wondrous logic on player value to Q. He was only a MiLB FA after all, not a sure bet.

Moncada has to be on the 40 man he was called up last year for Boston. Same with Giolito and Lopez. I believe the Sox had one extra spot, subtracted Eaton and Sale, and added Lopez and Giolito and Yoan.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 07:33 PM) Nice. Thank u for the info. That gives me added hope. Another winner. Defense and pitching wins pennants. Speed doesn't hurt. Uh, the Cubs just bludgeoned their way to a title. Good baseball wins titles, regardless of how they are built.

QUOTE (mmmmmbeeer @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 08:21 PM) That's his problem...command. The stuff is there, let's hope Coop can fix him. Read a postseason interview with Giolito and he said the same thing about himself...he was loosing command of his offspeed stuff thanks to mechanical issues. He became way too reliant on his fastball (like 70% of pitches in ML) and, due to lack of movement on that fb, he was getting hammered. Again, Sox are the right organization for these guys to figure these things out. I have no problems with the struggles of both centerpieces in their cup of coffee last year. Both are still very young for MLB and it will take more than a bad month to derail their elite status as prospects. Now, if they both suck all the way through '17 we have a problem.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 07:18 PM) Unless I live in Charlotte or Birmingham, nothing has changed. MILB.tv is a thing.

Some reaction from the Winter Meetings:

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 07:05 PM) No...we need to draft well and develop talent. I think everyone totally overrates top picks in baseball, especially in this era where you will no longer really be able to leverage the "extra" cash for more draft picks (since they are retinkering with the funds). Teams that pick in the top 5 don't just automatically get good. EVeryone here is totally overselling that piece. We need to draft well and higher you pick helps, but baseball draft is a huge huge f***ing crapshoot. Christopher Sale / Mike Trout are just some examples where the best player wasn't anywhere near the top 2 or 3 picks. Criticality is on our talent development. Also, look at last few years...a ton of high picks have totally busted (and that isn't anything unusual either). This isn't the NBA where the value of a top pick is clearly huge. sorry, you're wrong historically:

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 07:01 PM) I don't think we have to suck cause draft picks in baseball are still a major crap shoot, but I do agree we had to make the moves we are doing to infuse the talent and give us a huge head start in pushing the restart button. Plus, while the Cubs had more money to spend, we have Q/Sale/Eaton/Jones/Robertson/Frazier/Melky to leverage to off-set some of the impacts of the Cubs spending more in FA / internationally. The #1 and #2 picks are almost always solid regulars at worst and on average are stars. Sox don't just need to be mediocre, they need to SUCK. Getting one of the top two picks the next two years is critical. Sign Albers and Latos asap.

Not sure why Harper isn't happy he'll be gone from Washington when he's a FA it seems, this helps their team now.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:55 PM) I guess this means we get to see more Avi Garcia. who cares, it's a rebuilding year and you need 25 men on the roster. Worst case he sucks and he gets DFA in July. Best case he actually turns into a 2-3 WAR starter and he's part of the rebuild. He never should have been trotted out their last year when they were trying to contend, now it doesn't matter and in fact because he's still got a non zero chance of not being a pumpkin they should trot him out there. If he helps them lose, who cares. If he helps them win, great. Either way it's fine.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:51 PM) No, it isn't. We still haven't fixed the main problem in this franchise. You just compared this offseason to the previous half decade of half measures. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. This isn't anything like what they have been doing. This isn't bringing back Paulie for one more rodeo or trading for the corpse of Griffey or Youkilus.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:48 PM) We needed position players. We needed to target those types of players. Some pitching is fine. Almost all pitching is terrible. That is our problem now. How is that fixing anything? I mean apparently the plan is to keep doing the exact same thing we have been doing, but it is great because it will be new players doing it? Blah. I hate this so much. Uh, this is a 180 from that.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:48 PM) I watched around 10 entire games last year because I couldn't stand to watch a franchise with no balls and no direction. I promise to attend 15 games this year to support a franchise that's not scared to take some risks to compete for the long haul. For sure, I'll be going to the games in Seattle this year after skipping out for the first time last year. The games are usually in July and August, would love to see Kopech and Yoan when they come!

QUOTE (South Sider @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:45 PM) Oh, you know what.. you're right. You just convinced me. Actually, you should keep responding to every Sox fan who loves this deal. You'll change all of our minds eventually. At best they got two superstars, 6+ WAR players, in Basabe and Moncada. Basabe will probably never pan out but his upside in a best case scenario is massive.

It's funny when armchair GM commentators on Fangraphs talk about players just using last season's fWAR. So many use fWAR to project, which you should never do. Eaton is not a 6 WAR true talent player. If he was, he'd be a superstar. As is he's a good player but most of his value is in RF and he's now moving back to CF. I"ll be surprised if he puts up much more than 3 fWAR this season, not without a big jump in his slash line anyways.

QUOTE (kwolf68 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:36 PM) I believe he's still alive. Dude, you don't need to argue with me about things. I love the direction. Moncada is a beast. I am 100% fine with both trades, even though I am not over the moon about players 3 and 4 we got for Sale. But 1 and 2 could be ridiculously good. someone else mentioned the sox haven't gotten any position players. I just found it odd that two posts so close together forget to mention Yoan!