southsider2k5

And can we get rid of the idea that kids somehow can't recover from bad seasons? Houston lost 106/107/111/92 games over a 4 year stretch. It sure hasn't seemed to stop them from winning once the talent got to Houston.

The majority of the talent won't be though. The first guy to hit it is Rodon in 2022. Giolito/Moncada/Lopez is 2024. Those guys will be hitting their first arb year in 2021. Tim Anderson can't leave until after the 2024 season. They won't get "expensive" as a unit until 2023 and really 2024 the way that the arbitration system is set up. This team is setting up primed for a revival in 2020, and to get the attention of MLB in 2021, which is the typical curve for a full rebuild. That gives a solid window of a few years, plus keeps the pipeline cranking for what they do in 17-21 in terms of minor league talent acquisition. That is also why having as much talent as possible coming through the system is important. Again, keep in mind the KC revival broke down when their pipeline broke down. Houston has been able to continue because of the internal talent they have been able to both call up, and to trade. That way if a Carlos Rodon is set to leave in 2022, the next guy up is ready to step in, instead of it all collapsing like we saw in KC.

This team doesn't need to be better in the short term. It needs to be positioned for the long run. This is 100% of what a rebuild is supposed to be about.

I have zero interest in the 2nd and 3rd tier guys. It is either Harper/Machado, or another year like last year's off-season.

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/sox-drawer-qa-could-white-sox-go-after-edwin-diaz

This. Outside of a couple of filler pieces necessary for next year, the question should be will this player be a part of our next playoff team. If the answer is no, move on.

They should shoot for a whale first, and if that doesn't work, keep to the original plan. Find a starter or two to fill the rotation. Find a reliever or two to round out the pen. Load up on MiLB deals, and see what happens with the talent you have next year.

If we land a whale, or a whale wants us to sign someone to get them, that is a different story. Realistically, we aren't going to be playing meaningful games in September until at least 2020, if not 2021. Sure, a miracle could happen and literally every single player could play up to their potential all at once, at the exact same time we add only the free agents who have career years next year, but what are the odds of this actually happening? Do you build your off-season around the most likely scenarios, or do you build it around a one in a thousand chance?

Elite talents signed long term matches our timeline. 1 year deals for 2nd tier players does not. Incremental improvements is exactly what we are working on here, and will see next year.

NO idea where to put this, but this clip is mesmerizing and awesome all at the same time.

There is no reason for the White Sox to make a deal where they send out real talent to the M's. if they make a deal that makes the M's pick up a significant amount of his contract, that will lessen the returns the Sox can get and/or it will increase the cost of what the Sox send over. Pass.

Hopefully they spend a lot of money on him.

I would be all in favor of getting Cano, or a guy like Cano, if it meant we could acquire some top six year controlled talent in the process.

Yeah that definitely wasn't HoiBall.

That is exactly what people are saying when they start talking about adding talent to a team that is no where near winning to get them to win a few more games in an otherwise meaningless year. It is what they are talking about when they say they are sick of losing and would rather see a .500 season than another top draft pick. They might not be thinking it, but that is the effect result. Let's face it, the reason the Astros rebuild is still producing results is because they accumulated talent for a large number of years, instead of just two. They are still utilizing that talent to further things along today. The Cubs are still a playoff team for the same reason. That is why their windows are open. If we don't have talent coming in on the back end, we will end up like the Royals at best, where we have a dramatic rise, followed by a quick and dramatic fall. If this group fails is an even better reason to keep accumulating more talent, not less. The Kenny Williams era can start again when the team is ready to win. This team is not. Except for Machado and Harper, these same types of filler free agents will be there when we want to push an 85 win team to a low 90's win team. There shouldn't be any rush to artificially limit this teams future ceiling. When the team is actually ready to win, that will change.

The Sox aren't making up 30- 40 games to turn this into a playoff team, no matter what they do this winter. That isn't being dramatic, that is being realistic.

If White Sox fans really didn't get this was going to be more than a two year process, they really need to read up on what a rebuild actually looks like. This was never going to be an overnight process, and was never sold as such.

What does winning 5 extra games teach about winning? We aren't talking about a playoff team or even a competitive team. This is going to be a bad to mediocre team at best. What does winning 78 or 80 games teach that 73 does not?

There is nothing the Sox can do to make this team competitive in 2019. We are talking about it going from bad to mediocre. This is Kenny Williams type stuff that people used to throw temper tantrums about of adding people to teams which have no real chance to win in some attempt to convince the fans to stick around. This does nothing positive for the organization.

I really never wanted a rebuild, but here we are. Since we have gone down this road, we should do it the right way. Prematurely limiting the amount of cheap high end talent we bring into the system now will only serve to narrow the window of contention we will be able to sustain down the road. And why? What does winning 5 or 10 more games give them this year. Are you telling me that you are buying season tickets because of Josh Donaldson? That TV ratings will go up because people will be excited about Winning 78 games? It sure hasn't moved the needle over the last 15 years, why now?