Balta1701

This is ridiculous.

Harry Doyle doing the introduction

I didn't realize you thought Hawk Harrelson was so dumb.

I'd be willing to talk more about Nova or someone like him as a 6th starter. Giolito, Kopech, Cease are all going to be there, they then absolutely need to sign a top-flight pitcher while they have the money and a rotation spot (trading for someone like Greinke is also acceptable). Lopez...well, we really should give him another shot, we know he can be better than this, but we need a backup plan, a 6th starter who can start the season in the bullpen and move to the rotation if needed if Lopez struggles. Nova could fill such a role, but there are likely a variety of options who could. If someone like Kopech is on an innings limit during the 2nd half of the season Rodon could be an option for some starts, but he just won't be ready to go early in the year.

Butler and Westbrook? Well that sounds like 2 guys who have a strong reputation of adapting their game to work with the people they're playing with.

If the Rockets exchanged Westbrook for Paul, and OKC wanted to dump Paul's contract on someone, what would you give up to get him? The bulls did have a (terrible sounding) Paul rumor earlier this offseason.

It would be difficult for Andrew Vaughn to both play 1b and DH in the same game.

They've moved things around to cover for Correa being out so he played 3b yesterday, but Yuli Gurriel has homered in 5 straight games and has 7 home runs in his last 7 games, so his stats are only a tiny tick below Abreu. Especially now that Yordan Alvarez is up and will likely be filling their DH spot...Abreu only has value to them if there's another injury.

Will Smith and Greg Holland are both unrestricted FAs after this season and both of them should be comparable to Colome and given that Colome will cost about $9 million in arbitration they may be available for about the same money. Liam Hendricks is having an excellent season in Oakland, he's a FA. Will Harris from Houston, Arodys Vizcaino from Seattle, Kinzler from the Cubs, all really good this year, all free agents. Frankly I'd be surprised if we didn't at least sign 1 of them anyway.

If we only had control of this 26 year old player through the end of 2020 I'd certainly be listening. 2020 this team has a shot at making noise, but guys who are here for only 1 year of our window are guys we are going to have to replace or resign anyway because they hit free agency.

Just a general annoyance...have any of our guys done any damage in any of the recent Futures games?

Harold Reynolds just called him "The Magic Man".

If I count Madrigal and Vaughn as covering positions next year (and yes, I am counting Vaughn, Madrigal, and Robert all as starting in the bigs by June 1 of last year) there are very few positions for this roster left to fill.There is plenty of money to sign the top starting pitcher on the market and the top reliever on the market if that's what we ant to do, and even then we still won't hit a $100 million payroll. Paying Jose Abreu fairly as a 1-2 fWAR player at $13 million a year, especially given that he kinda counts as a player-coach...I'm totally ok with that. The only downside is that he's a righty and this is a very right handed lineup, but frankly, if being too right handed winds up costing us in a playoff series in 2020...you know what? That means we made the playoffs. Fix stuff afterwards!

phooey.

To some extent he won't be wrong either. His splits with RISP are really F***ing good. Career .320 average, .949 OPS, 2019 .337 average, .947 OPS. You put him 5th in this lineup next year where he's following a bunch of good young hitters and he might knock in 120 runs. We shouldn't ignore this, those are solid numbers. He knows how to approach an at bat with runners on base, we should take advantage of this. That 2/$25, I'd be ok with that. He's really good at this, if he's willing to DH, that's a solid contract for him. You could talk me into a few million more than that. But that thing he's really good at doesn't mean I'm going to overlook his other numbers. With no one on base this year, .243 average, .286 OBP, .778 OPS - those are Palka numbers. He's a really good RBI guy. He's got good power even as other things weaken. He's a limited hitter and a limited player in other ways, and it annoys me that I have to point that out because some people want to pretend that all we need to care about for him is the stats where he looks good and the others don't count for whatever reason. That prompts people like me to point out the stats that are good and the stats that aren't so good, and anything but eternal praise is somehow judged as an insult by certain people. I want that to stop. I just spent a whole paragraph praising how good he is with RISP and saying why that is valuable, let's accept that as a good situational hitter. Finally, please, for God's sake, can we never mention him in the same breath as #35 again. Jose Abreu is a good player, particularly with RISP. Frank Thomas put up a career 1.019 OPS with RISP, and that's counting the years when he was declining. Jose Abreu is a solid player and a really good RBI man. Frank Thomas is a f***ing legend.

I don't know if there's anyone here who has as consistently opposed the white sox rushing people over the years as me, so keep that in mind when I say this. I want him up earlier than that. He has a good spring training and a good month in AA next year and he's my first baseman. If something goes wrong and his numbers aren't there, fine...but this is a hitter who should be ready to go. Get him to AA this year. Are they heading to the southern league playoffs? Start him in AA next year, let him prove he's better than those guys (he absolutely should be) and f*** it, throw him into the fire.

Yeah usually you don't go to the AFL after you win your rookie of the year award.

I give it 2 weeks.

Ironically, Leury was gotten for a flip of Alex Rios.

I deserve this. This player is totally showing me up and I'm ok with it.

Last year Eduardo Escobar was a 3 WAR utility guy and he signed for 3/$21 million (somehow he's exploded this year but prior to this year)

Over a 13 year period Paul Konerko put up an .866 OPS. Jose Abreu has put up an .865 OPS over 6 seasons. I kinda understand the vitriol for Abreu. It's people getting tired of statements like yours and constantly having to turn them around. He's a good but not great hitter. I have no problem keeping him around for another year or two. But that doesn't mean you have to oversell him, and it's not an insult to Abreu point out that you just ignored what Paul Konerko did over 13 years.

Yeah, basically it's just "he needs to be better overall", there's no magic bullet like using him as an opener or taking him out after 4 innings.

Checked his stats and he is particularly bad (>1.000 OPS) against hitters the 3rd time through the order this year, but he's also given up a >.900 OPS the first time through the order. The 2nd time through has been ok with a sub .800 OPS.

We've got him for 2 years and if we trade him we're going to have to go find or sign a utility guy to replace him. Only reason to trade him is if someone gives you something surprisingly good for him. Also no reason to extend him early - sometimes another utility guy just happens to develop, and if that doesn't happen and we want to keep him after 2021 we can afford to.