Balta1701

Why on earth you would do this rather than playing Yolmer I have no idea.

Using hindsight yes - it would have been better for them to upgrade their bullpen, but literally no one saw its collapse last year coming until it happened. In 2017 - they won 102 games. They got beaten by a tough Yankees team, but they were as good as any team in the league. Kluber was as good as any pitcher in the league, on normal rest, and he gave up a couple big HR early in game 5. A better game from Kluber and maybe we're talking about that deal as the price of a title that year.

Honestly, yeah I'd be ok with that.

That's...not bad at all on the free agent market. That's about what I expect to be average value.

Pollack to Engel for the 80 games that AJ plays per season, fine that's an upgrade, not a a very sensible one but hey maybe we can somehow keep him healthy. Pick your set of stats though - fangraphs thinks Moustakas was narrowly more valuable last year, Baseball Reference thinks Yolmer was a substantial upgrade from Moustakas. If you're giving out a 4 year contract it would be nice to at least have both websites agree "This is not a downgrade".

I wish our 1b or Dh disappointments could produce like that.

Encarnacion? They signed him 2 years ago, to a 3 year deal. He hit 70 home runs for them over the first 2 years of the deal, had an .881 OPS in year 1 of it for a team that won 102 games.

As I said, I'll judge the results once they're official.

A move can be the correct move at one time and still be a move you need to correct from a few years later. If 3-4 teams make win now moves when they are realistically in position to win, only 1 of them can actually win.

How do you define irresponsible? Is it the difference between paying $350 million for a player over 10 years or $400 million for that player? Or $425? I don't define that extra $7.25 million per year as irresponsible, I define that as less than the value of one Alex Colome or Ivan Nova or Yonder Alonso. I would define having a limit too low to actually sign one of these guys, and instead being stuck in the middle part of the free agent market forever as being far less responsible. The Free Agent market is inherently irresponsible, but if we're going to be on it - the one area where we haven't tried and failed is the absolute top of the market. We set ourselves up to be players there...to dip our toes in the water and then run away in panic to go back to what we already know does not work...that would be the least responsible thing we can do.

I would call it a classic Rick Hahn special.

I would applaud them for landing either of them as they would have successfully put together a plan to create available funds during the big year for free agents and then successfully came forward, understood the market, and used their resources as best they could. I would consider it a major accomplishment. I would consider failing to land either of them to be yet another on the list of reasons to think we have the worst front office in baseball. To clear space for elite free agents and then declare that you're going after elite free agents and in the end be stuck unable to sign elite free agents...that should be just plain embarrassing.

As long as the last few dregs of humanity who care about the White Sox agree that we need to evaluate RH and company based on those offers, I'm ok with that.

I'd imagine they'd just hold all of them and make it a rotation over the last couple months, filling their DH slot sometimes with each of them.

Just so I make sure which part of that statement you're aiming at - you're saying the White Sox went into this with a spending limit and were willing to miss both of those guys if they were outbid beyond that limit, and those limits are at values that it's entirely plausible another team will beat?

I hate the idea of reshaping your roster just because of a draft pick.

Without a major addition like one of these guys to fill in the talent gap, I find this organization's future to be very hazy given the way the 2018 season went. The fog could clear next year, but it could also turn into a continuing storm.

If that was the case and the White Sox let their franchise get hung out to dry and used up as a bargaining chip with no actual hope of success, that should also reflect on the quality of white sox operations and decision making.

If there's one thing that sums up the last decade of white sox teams, it is overpaying to fill the DH position with a player who falls off a cliff once acquired.

So he's not trying to make the Yankees up their offer? That does not inspire confidence.

If the Cubs reduce their payroll by $100 million and pay $80 million of that, then that $80 million is spread out over the remaining years of the deal. If there was 5 years remaining on that, then their luxury tax total would drop by $4 million per year. Any money that a team sends out in a trade is spread out evenly over the guaranteed years remaining on a contract.

We've seen more than a few cases where there was no one close to within 20%. ARod, Zito, Hosmer immediately come to mind. If it takes an extra $20 million of bidding against ourselves to win one of these guys, f*** it that's what needs to happen.

I think the answer on that one is pretty often?

So the White Sox give up Abreu and a top 30 prospect in baseball to get back Encarnacion and Haniger?

That would have to be a deal where Seattle is adding a talented prospect to make it worth taking the contract on for us, right?