Balta1701

Trading Narvaez was the exact opposite of the type of move the White Sox should have been making. When you're rebuilding you want wild cards who have promise in one part of their game but are weak in others; work with them to fix their weakness and you have a good player under control cheaply for 4 or 5 years, if it doesn't work you replace them with the next candidate in a year or two. You trade those guys for veteran relievers with 2 years of team control when your 87 win team needs one last piece to get over the hump, and the next rebuilding team tries them out. Seattle made a solid rebuilding move by acquiring him regardless of whether or not it works, if they do enough of those moves then they will wind up with some decent players eventually, the White Sox made a win now move.

You already know the answer to that.

Because they signed a bunch of guys for greater than the amounts they would have cost a couple weeks later, including guys who are poor fits for our roster (Alonso, putting Smith on waivers), traded away players they shouldn't have traded away in the process, and then had the cojones to cry about payroll flexibility. One I’ve said before: if you went back in time and told the people who were saying “we can compete this year” we spent $44 million in new money and this is the roster we came away with, they would punch you in the face.

And if they do that, it'll be justification for them to spend money on a reliever next offseason.

Well, I'll admit, I'm astonished to learn that there were no other relievers (or, well, catchers since that was on the topic) on the free agent market and our only 2 options were either to acquire those 2 specific guys at high cost or go into the season with only a bullpen full of rookies, but I guess if you are that passionate in your defense of RH that must be the truth.

While he never gave a number, he loudly and angrily made the point that they have thought about payroll flexibility several years from now as a priority and a reason to limit their commitments.

They certainly could afford to do it, but remember the rantings of Kenny Williams - if they spent the money and went over $100 million now, they believe that would leave them with insufficient resources to keep their core together.

If this offseason has taught us anything, it's that they'll blow through that money up to $75 million pretty quick without bringing in anyone of value. Arb for Colome, Sanchez, Rodon, maybe Leury and McCann, pick up the option on Jones, and blow some money keeping Abreu around and it's back over $60 million before they make a single move.

While it is Pittsburgh, he does have 2020 and 2021 team options for $9 and $11 million, with a $1.75 million buyout required to release him. Given that they found a sucker stupid enough to take Ivan Nova and $9 million off their hands this year, if he performs comparably to the last year or two, his option will probably be picked up and they may look to trade him.

Just don't have the White Sox reuse to draft the high schooler if the 2 college guys are gone.

GMAB, if you put $330 million on the table he was serious about you.

The White Sox clearly thought they had a legitimate shot at Harper at a value WAY under his actual market price, that's why they put together such a "great presentation" or whatever Kenny described it as. When they actually started money, Boras simply said come back when you have a respectable offer or something along those lines, the White Sox then never did.

He literally has the exact same guaranteed money.

MLB network just gave a number of 340,000 as the total ticket sales for the Phillies in 1 week after signing Harper.

If a guy is 22-23 in A-ball, that's right at the average age for that level - including all of the retreads, washouts, GM and Manager's kids, and so on. If we're talking about a kid who is a legit prospect and who is that age - he should be more physically developed than many of the younger prospects at that level, and if he's actually going to be good enough to reach the big leagues, his skill set should be better than the washouts, retreads, and Williamses around that level. If he spends his first full year at A-ball and doesn't dominate that level enough to move up to AA, that's at the least concerning. I'd say that about Madrigal this year. I know the White Sox will rush him up, but I'd still start him at A-ball for a month or so, and I want to see him dominate that league and prove he's better than that league before I move him up. If he doesn't dominate that league, that's more than a little disconcerting.

And came out and said that they'll still be continuing to grow their company in New York despite all those other things.

I know. But after this offseason I've got nothing left to do other than vent, there's no sensible paths forward right now, so I may as well, it's a message board. I need to coin a nickname for this offseason, something to sum up how this is the epitome of White Sox FO ineptitude. The Rick Hahn Classic? The Chronicles of Rick? The Chronicles of Losing, The GM, The Kenny, and The Owner? I dunno, those suck. Will keep working.

I'd rather have Kimbrel on a fair contract than those 2 guys.

I'm more concerned over how "They don't know what they are doing and are literally flying by the seat of their pants" seems such an apt description of their behavior. People insist they can't be this bad based on some notion of these guys being professionals, and then we watch how an offseason like this one went down. This move wasted $2.5 million. In the scheme of things it isn't the biggest loss, but in the context of them crying for payroll flexibility in 2027, it leaves one feeling like turning over a table and yelling at them that they need to listen to their own words. That seems like not having a plan, that seems like flying by the seat of their pants. Waste $2.5 million here, $5 million on Nova, a couple million on each of the relievers, and then scream about payroll flexibility when the target you should be going after slips through your fingers.

While that's obviously the bigger miss, I will always wonder if Mitchell might not have become a solid OF had he not annihilated his leg.

I'll admit that I missed Bellinger so now I have to go look up what round he went in.

I think I'd still have him after Jon Gray, but he'd be top 5.

By the time the NL has the DH JD Martinez will be in the season where he turns 35.

We got caught on Bunker Hill on foot by a lightning storm. That was interesting.