caulfield12

Seby to the rescue (offensively). What's next this offseason, Yermin Mercedes entering the RF or 2B mix?

Just wait until Lynn, Abreu or Grandal breaks down again...Keuchel is already there, with Kimbrel close behind. Meanwhile, productive younger and cheaper players like Narvaez, Avi Garcia, Madrigal and now Rodon are elsewhere. Do we now have the oldest roster in the AL Central? Have to, right?

Lynn, Grandal, McCann were very solid. (One can argue Narvaez/McCann/Grandal til the cows come home) Hendriks, jury still out. Kimbrel, it's always going to be a net loss at this point, same with Keuchel. Robert was the one franchise-altering coin toss that went Paddy and KW's way, fortunately. Without him, we're under real duress in the AL Central starting in 2023. So we're splitting hairs about after 2023...can they find the pitching to replace Giolito. Then the really big decision with TA7 at age 32/33 a year later.

The one player they can least afford to lose and still compete for a World Series is Luis Robert. Anderson is 1A. You can't take that risk with his health when he's the only true superstar on your roster, and your franchise cornerstone. We might as well argue the plan is to expect to hit almost perfectly on 3-4 outfield additions like the Braves did last year at midseason.

Or the Mariners. Or the Braves. Or the Brewers. Or the Padres. I would never in a million years expect to be a consistently Top 5 payroll team, and we still might not end up being one on Opening Day if they manage to get Kimbrel off the roster. The arguments for being up against the CBT (with Kimbrel rostered) are giving Hahn some pretty decent cover for not actively going after either Conforto or Suzuki.

He has bought himself a free pass asserting that they simply need to wait for Colas and Cespedes to come into their own. Not that there's anything close to a consensus in the scouting community that either guy is a surefire everyday big leaguer.

Sure, because they struggle to find underappreciated guys like Chris Taylor, Kike Rodriguez, Justin Turner and Max Muncy, etc., that are worth their weight in gold.

Odds of them bringing back a former White Sox prospect they undervalued....not high.

THE IDEA OF NOT TRADING ASSETS FROM THE BIG LEAGUE ROSTER...generally, playoff-bound teams should be trading from their minor league depth. We're seeing the consequence this year with all the money we're miss-spending on Josh Harrison. (And those arguments about injuries will just as easily apply to the big league roster this year as well, the starting pitching was remarkably healthy.) If we're betting on the minor leagues again being a depository to draw from at the TDL, well, that's not exactly a sound plan.

Didn't work last year, had to trade Madrigal and Heuer from the big league roster...and if a young pitcher like Vera or Kelley makes a huge jump, the Sox will need that guy to sustain the window in 2024 and beyond as the veterans start to age out.

How many times has JR given contract long-term extensions to pitchers with TJ in their past? I guess Lynn, but the limit has always been three years since Danks. That's going to work against Gio, Cease and Kopech. Not sure even Lynn happens without LaRussa.

Option/buyout…$9.5 million vs. $1 million. Let’s not forget the Dodgers paid him $4 million to get lost…when they were likely losing Jansen as well.

That’s ONE way to put it…

Why is Hahn still the GM if KW is making all the bad moves and TLR has increasing say? Wouldn’t other organizations recognize his hidden/untapped brilliance and outbid the White Sox for his services?

Exactly like the Twins…look where that same philosophy has gotten them. They can’t even beat the Yankees once, who are not exactly the dominant mid to late 90’s and 00’s versions exactly. Cleveland in 2016 was the last really really good Central team.

Vafan…you just ended up making people MORE upset than they already were with our outfield situation. While optimism is all fine and good, like for Luis Robert, it’s badly misplaced here. (I should be an expert now, having to listen to what the Chinese are saying about the war in Ukraine as well as Covid-19 on an everyday basis…it’s like living in a bizarro alternative reality show, if you ever saw “Goodbye, Lenin!”)

See Jay and Alonso…the infamous Friends & Family Plan. Would be nice to have that money back now.

Mazara, Eaton’s 2021 Corpse Bride and Palka’s second Sox season…yikes.

Getting Verlander back doesn’t count for anything? Seems there’s still a decent chance Correa comes back, too. They added Neris, should have Framber Valdez and Forrest Whitley for the entire season, too.

Haven’t the White Sox had the worst fWAR in all of MLB cumulatively for RF since the beginning of 2018? I mean, should we be taking all that much pride we might have the 27th-29th RFer and farm system this year? Adam Eaton was very good in 2016, and Avi Garcia 4.2 fWAR in 2017. Avi since he left the White Sox is even 5.5 fWAR in 313 games, an average of 2.85 fWAR per season. We would GLADLY take that out of RF in 2022. (Or Nick Madrigal’s 1.4 in 83 career games, which works out to 2.73 for an entire season.)

Moncada, 14.8 fWAR in 539 career games (4.45 per season of 162 games, extrapolated) Tatis, Jr., 12.7 fWAR in 273 career games (7.5 per season) Buxton, 13.0 fWAR in 493 career games (4.3 per season) Robert, 4.7 fWAR in 124 career games (6.14 per season) Eloy Jimenez, 3.6 fWAR in 232 career games (2.5 per season)

They really can’t afford to trade Jimenez at 65-75 cents on the dollar. Almost feel like they’re further discounting Jimebez trying to leverage Kimbrel in a deal to offload him (when we wouldn’t likely be trading Jimenez in the first place had they not exercised rgw Kimbrel option.) The argument all offseason was that there were abundant bidders out there for his services…and, at worst we might have to send $2-4 million or the talent equivalent along with him, or simply swap equivalent bad contracts like Jean Segura with the Phillies or let’s say Wil Myers with the Padres for argument’s sake. It would honestly make more sense to trade Moncada and install Burger at 3B…because they need to get power from somewhere in the lineup assuming Abreu’s going to hit his rapid decline stage in the next year or two. Jimenez and Robert are likely to be those two guys…and possibly Vaughn depending on his eventual fate.

Based upon that video, Tatis and his father need to rework that contract and avoid any contentious attempts to claw some of it back preemptively...that would be the best solution for the franchise moving forward.

Which is why the Twins waited and might have gotten a bargain with Buxton. We'll see how things work out with Moncada, Jimenez and Robert...still, all things considered, those were much more calculated risks than the Tatis, Jr. deal. In all likelihood, he ends up in CF/RF/2B or even DH, diminishing some of his defensive value. From 2024 through 2036, ages 24-36, he'll earn $327 million. Divided by 13 years, it's an average of about $25 million per season. The first five years of his career will end up being under $14 million (through 2023), so there's a huge amount of surplus value there, despite missing 30% of his games (quite similar to Luis Robert's minor and major league career.) If he averages 3.33 fWAR for those 13 years, he will be earning his money (valuing fWAR at 1.0/$7.5 million as a baseline)...and that's not even taking inflation into consideration well into the future as salaries continue to escalate.

Sure, but then the assumption for now is that Harrison's your starting 2B. Most are at the point where they're starting to accept that the current window might only have 2 and at most 3 years remaining...which means trading Vaughn/Sheets/Burger, getting rid of Kimbrel somehow and using that money on a LEGIT everyday RFer, namely, Conforto or Suzuki. We've never actually tried to do that (doing anything but throwing castoffs and reclamation projects at holes), finding legit, at least "above average" everyday players. Curiously, the one area where we made the biggest club investment was in Grandal, when we already had Narvaez and then McCann. Lynn was fine, as long as he holds up physically (once again, portending a shortened window), but we've already missed the expiration date on Keuchel, another place where that "unprecedented financial flexibility" was invested. Which leaves us with Hendriks and Kimbrel (inefficient allocation of resources to have two guys paid as elite closers at the same time)...and extending Abreu well into his mid 30's and likely being the end of Vaughn's abbreviated tenure with the White Sox. So we've lost or pushed out Rodon and Madrigal...and are on the verge of pushing out Vaughn, Sheets and Burger. That's not to mention the alleged "mishandling" of Kopech and Crochet, certainly losing years of control and their not developing as most of us expected. Let's not even get started on Zack Collins and Carson Fulmer. Invariably, almost inexorably, we keep getting OLDER and OLDER, but not necessarily better. Ultimately, Giolito and Anderson will be the next two to go (unless JR is willing to break the bank for TA7)...and then you're suddenly not looking at a young/er/ish core at all, you'll basically have just Moncada (at $25 million), all the "valued added" aspect of Jimenez long gone and then one superstar who we have to hope and pray (based on who's playing on both sides of him in the outfield) stays healthy in Luis Robert.