Dick Allen

JR went out of his way to mess with Black Jack during the arb process.. Messed with him after winning a Cy Young. And have they ever nickeled and dimed anyone worse than they did Gio in arb this past season? It's not a coincidence they were the union reps IMO. I don't think he has a problem with all the union reps, just the ones who were working when there were big time lablor issues with lockouts and strikes. They traded Ken Patterson the union rep during the 89-90 trouble in the George Bell deal. Now, it's Ken Pattererson, he would have gone sometime, but even the article I read said Scheuler was scoring points with JR dumping the union rep.

You would think his value is down. Keep him around, get the draft pick. JR can nickel and dime him during arbitration like last year. Did the same with McDowell. But trading him makes no sense. No one is going to give you a package like he was the 2021 Gio. The only way the Sox win is if he is the 2021 Gio or even better. But an extension isn't going to happen.

I think if Pujols would have got himself in the shape Jose did, he would have more homers than Bonds right now. Jose was having problems with his feet when he came to the Sox and took off a lot of weight. Made him age a lot better.

I was hoping NL. This isn't good for the White Sox chances. The Astros and Cubs windows opened at the same time. Will the Astros window ever close?

KW signed jeff Nelson specifically because the Big Hurt had a lot of problems hitting him. He gave up the 2nd homer. IIRC, the first was his first AB.

If anythjing, it tells me the White Sox have to drastically overpay to get a huge question mark to sign.

He gave more money to an injured Joe Kelly per year and twice the term.

I would think so. I'm sure they pretty much know what the staff is going to be. Next week is the Winter Meetings.

Hahn is due for one of these $8-10 million acquisitions to actually work out and not suck so bad. We will see. What I do disagree with with Harold here is the zero percent chance. He has a non zero percent chance to be as good as Cueto was in 2022, but it's clearly doubtful or he wouldn't be available at the price the Sox paid. I don't think Cueto can replicated his 2022 numbers, so if they are picking between the 2, this is fine. But the rotation on paper still isn't better than it was at the end of the 2022 season.

So far, i like the manager, and this seems like a decent move. Coaching staff should be any day now. Now fix the roster.

I'm not against this move, but Hahn needs to fix the offense. Their best hitter is gone. Hopefully there will be internal improvement, but he's also got to make a splash from the outside, or this is just more White Sox half assing.

What i don't get is every White Sox who sucked last year, will never reach his potential and needs to go, but Clevinger is a great pick up. He, of course , will return to form. Face facts, the Sox signed him because he potentially can be really good. Another year removed from TJ surgery can help, but most importantly, he was cheap.

It's really bizarre.

Hope it works out. JR still shopping at the flea market.

There are going to be some who benefit a lot from the lack of a shift. I don't really know if he will be one of them, but a 3 outcome guy like Gallo, teams have a workaround especially if you have an athletic OF. Play the RF where teams were playing the 2B. And have the other 2 basically in the gaps or shift one depending on the spray chart.

.Unless they are getting a package where they can't say no, trading Gio would be a mistake. He's pitching for a big payday. He was great before he got Covid. I just had Covid a little over a month ago. Very mild, but ev3en now I get run down pretty easily. This guys upside is too high to sell low.

But they didn't get much for him. And his the lack of his edge might have hurt the 1995 White Sox. It, at the very least, cost Lamont is job, and put Bevington in the driver's seat. He actually might have been worse than 2022 LaRussa. But the point is, Sox union reps dissappear soon after labor strife.

Jack McDowell was the union reps in 1994. They got rid of him as quickly as possible.

JR has always had disdain for union reps. When Gio took a bigger role before and during the lockout, the chances the Sox would extend him ended. As much as JR can be loyal, he can go the other way too .

Gios White Sox days were numbered as soon as he was named player rep and took the role seriously.

All 3 of those were pretty great trades. You have to give Hahn his due for them. But other than those 3 has he even had one you would call a good trade? Maybe Colome depending how you look at it. It’s another thing that scares me about their supposedly using trades to finish off the team. He’s pretty much been horrible at it most of the time. Edit, Lynn was a good trade.

There are a couple of guys in the bullpen that would be addition by subtraction.

Hope his struggles were either fixable or because of his surgery. The Sox love ex Indians.

On the bright side, the Astros lost more than the Sox will last offseason in Correa, McCullers being out most of the season. Of course they gained Verlander but a year ago there is no way anyone would have thought a 39 year old coming off Tommy John would give them what he gave them. Obviously signing Clevinger is a turn back the clock hope to 2019. There still is no monster team in the ALC. Cleveland has better pitching, and defense. But the Sox are still right there. They were right there in the beginning of September this year. Then they lost the first game of the Cleveland series and waived the white flag. Players playing with some accountability is going to help. Losing Abreu will be interesting, but it had to happen. I think it will ultimately depend on how many games their best players can play. Cleveland had 5 guys play 146 games. The Sox had 1.

The schedule is going to be a little tougher. I still think they should win the division, but that starts with what they do this winter. The manager is an upgrade. I think it's a great start. Pedro is detail oriented. Tony let players cut corners and we all paid fot it. Hahn can't be worse than last off season, but he needs to shine. That may be a tall task. Only diehards were very upset with how the Rodon thing went last year with no QO. If the Sox fail and Abreu has a big season elsewhere, the rest of the fanbase is going to blow up. Rodon may be more valuable st this point, but Jose way more popular. I hope they realize they are playing with fire and actually upgrade the team, not just hope 5 or 6 guys can turn back the clock, and a few others do what they have never done.