Balta1701

Methinks you may have missed some sarc....(falls asleep drunk at a stoplight).

I mean, if LaRussa is hired as the next manager of this team, then there won't be any doubt who hired him. I've wanted Rick Hahn tarred and feathered since 2016, and even I'd have to say that one is clearly the ownership micro and macromanaging.

Let's....see what the pandemic is doing then. Because if there's no bubble...a game where you bump up against someone for 30 minutes while breathing heavily indoors still has some problems.

I mean, if some team was actually willing to offer him $60 million on a 1 year deal expecting there's a good chance he's a 6 WAR pitcher this year, then taking 3 straight 1 year deals then signing a 3-4 year deal makes pretty good sense. You do that to re-shape the game when the economics are strong and it's an interesting proposal that could leave him with a lot more money in his pocket - if the White Sox just missed the playoffs with 92 wins this year, need pitching, and had really big crowds over 81 games, maybe they go nuts and do that for 1 year. Are we ready to do that right now?

I'll be completely honest, I think the idea that Bauer is going to sign a 1 year, $60 million deal is complete bullsh*t, and the idea that he's going to look at a 7 year, $220 million deal and turn it down for 1 year and $35 million is equally bullsh*t. He's not dumb.

I mean that would be plausible. "Fine, you get the guy who passed out drunk at a stoplight but at least I get ____ as the pitching coach as I know I can work with them".

So what happens when your 2022 payroll after signing Bauer is already far above that 2021 limit and, because of the expanded playoffs, you get unlucky and go home in round 2 so your extra revenue is minimal (and look, we could be the best team in baseball and run into a Blake Snell Buzzsaw like the pitch I just watched and that could readily happen because this is baseball and we all know that could happen)? Who do you sell to get down to that limit? Giolito? Anderson? Moncada? Robert?

He's made 7 figures for 8 years now. Go "Spend time with your family" if the relationship is that toxic that you tell ownership "This is the wrong decision" and they do that. He might well give them like 4 options, one of which is LaRussa, but then he will want some input on the setup somehow, whether that is players or coaching staff or length of contract or whatever it takes. If ownership is going to insist on LaRussa, under some imaginary circumstance against the will of Rick Hahn, then Hahn will at least give a setup that he's willing to accept. The reality, of course, is that Rick Hahn was probably intrigued by the idea, happy to talk to the guy, and if ownership is big into it, then he'll evaluate his interview and see how it goes. Frankly, I'd be intrigued by the chance to do the interview and see how it went if I was in his role, but in the back of my mind I'd know it was the wrong fit.

Well, he's apparently been managing/3b coaching in the Pirates organization since 2017. Maybe he has some great ideas and comes off great in the interview? But at the same time, are the Pirates the team you currently want to poach coaching talent from?

If Rick Hahn is in that position and ownership flat out is ignoring him, he shouldn't resign because he's being ignored, he should be replaced and/or resign because their working relationship is that toxic. The idea that ownership is constantly overruling Rick Hahn and telling him to do things he adamantly refuses to do is nonsense. Hahn may not like it, but at the very least he's on board with it.

Frankly, you don't sign Bauer and leave that much of a gaping hole there. If you're spending that kind of money, spend $8 million and take on Calhoun's contract from the D-Backs like you should have done last year. You don't invest that kind of money in your pitching staff and then go cheap on RF - even Rick Hahn figured that out in 2015 and 2016 (he couldn't figure out that Melky Cabrera and Alex Gordon were going to be bad contracts, but he knew he couldn't leave those holes open on his "competitive" teams). If you can't afford that last sliver of money, you can't afford Bauer. Team already has $105 million in guaranteed contracts for 2022 and that's before Giolito, Marshall, Fry, Engel, Ruiz, Cordero, and Lopez hit arbitration - add in $30m for Bauer to that and do the math yourself with any nontenders you want. You can't tell me that "I have a payroll limit of $140 million in 2021 and I just spent all I had on pitching", and then just have guaranteed $150 million in contracts for 2022 (or set yourself to have to trade Giolito because of it).

If the 1 or 5 or whatever percent chance of him breaking out comes true, I don’t care. I worry about the 95% chance of him not breaking out and us losing the first round of the playoffs again while needing offense. At least bring in someone decent.

A guy with an outside chance of breaking out is a great candidate to be signed by the 2018 White Sox. A team with no plans to compete.

That was quick.

Why do you wish they had paid extra attention to that year? Would you have felt happier with him being terrible in RF for us this year instead of Mazara being terrible out there? Actually there is one thing I do wish Hahn would have learned from Garcia. Hahn in 2018: “no one will give us anyone of use for a talented but underperforming RF who is 2 years from free agency”. Hahn in 2020: “You have a talented but underperforming RF 2 years from free agency? Here take my second round pick! Yay I’m so lucky no one outbid me.”

Yes, the strike started because the previous agreement had lapsed. It is illegal to strike while a labor contract is active in almost all cases in this country.

I don’t think that’s legal when they have a contract?

His .271 career mark, the .236 he put up in his final season with the white Sox, or the .238 he put up this year?

Another year = potential lockout. 2 years = free agency at age 32. Big risks.

Also extremely relevant to the question of "What will they do during a 7 year contract" is that Bauer is 1.5 years younger than Strasburg was at this point last year. The older the guy is at the end of the contract, the higher the risk per dollar.

Even higher.

I struggle to see it being easy to move any expensive players this year, but you could probably do it if you packaged Grandal with something valuable like Thompson, for example.

I mean, the problem with Grandal is the problem it's always been - good overall performance, but occasionally makes high leverage, boneheaded play that he really shouldn't make. Pitchers will notice that stuff too, and they're liable to get frustrated by them.

The fact that there's no sensible way to have all these guys on the roster does not in some way translate to "there's no way the pitchers are that adamant about wanting to pitch to McCann and not Grandal". It sounds like @Harold's Leg Lift is suggesting he knows some internal goings-on, and that the pitchers have come down strongly in that direction, to the point where the org is trying to find a way to make it happen. Whether or not we believe it...

We traded for him not signed him, the 46th overall draft pick in 2018 was traded away for him. Signings that don't work out...don't cost us guys from our system too.