caulfield12

I can't get the copy and paste formatting from Closer Monkey.com (a real site name) to work. Cardinals relying on Jordan Hicks' return and then Gallegos as their back-up. Cubs would take him back for what, exactly? Padres, it would be Kimbrel for Kim or Profar, but then are either of those two going to outproduce Leury??? Over the next 2-3 seasons, that wouldn't save any money from the overall payroll, either. Dodgers could easily go with Treinen, Graterol combination and add at mid-season, or bring back Jansen as well at lower salary. Blue Jays, MAYBE??? *Jordan Romano Adam Cimber Tim Mayza (Yates signed with Yankees, 2 years/$8.25 million)

Closer 1st in line 2nd in line 2022 Closer Updated TEX Joe Barlow Spencer Patton Josh Sborz Jose Leclerc 9/25/21 (IL) Jose Leclerc Jonathan Hernandez

We can no longer afford Conforto, and Schwarber's going to require moving Sheets/Vaughn/Burger, unless they're willing to go with Jimenez AND Vaughn as the everyday corner outfielders. No potential for disaster there.

With the Phillies and Angels off the board, seemingly Arizona....who is desperate for a closer now? Toronto? Padres? Rays....although NOT really, they have Castillo and Kittredge and a shoestring budget. Dodgers? K. Jansen still looming out there, he will fill one of those...in all likelihood.

That would be the ultimate 180 degree reversal if those three former White Sox somehow outproduced Cease and Jimenez this year. They might as well bring back Tepera and flip him again for good measure, although a playoff contender is much more likely.

So now the Cubs have outspent us so far this off-season. Guess that will make for more Twitter entertainment with him and TLR in the same town. And, as usual, that Phillies speculation being out there for weeks and weeks about DD being desperate for Kimbrel and all the ideal packages the White Sox would get back in return...sigh.

Sure, but you don't sell a former MVP for 50-65 cents on the dollar when not forced to. Unless you're simply overwhelmed with an offer from another team. You do what we might be forced to with Kimbrel, wait for a rebound. The problem with that theory for the Sox is it takes save opportunities away from Hendriks, in all likelihood.

Where are we, the orphanage from The Queen's Gambit?

No way on God's green earth that works....Kimbrel, Vaughn and Crochet, they would at least consider. Briefly. Unless they already have figured out what's wrong with Keuchel. Physical declines, those are clearly much harder to fix. And Bellinger can play CF. Vaughn, not so much. You can't shift Taylor to the OF if you need him for 2B (assuming a Lux trade, as you propose.) Lux is undoubtedly more valuable (to LAD) due to his positional flexibility than Vaughn, since they have Muncy and Taylor returning as well. So, once again, CF is a priority. Just doesn't work from LA perspective. Unless it was for Hendriks and NOT Kimbrel. Then the White Sox have likely created yet another problem in their bullpen, although they do now at least have Graveman for insurance. You would have to overwhelm them with an offer for limited control and becoming more expensive Bellinger, essentially. Can't be both Dodgers.

Four months ago, Cesar Hernandez was going to be the White Sox starting 2B on Opening Day, April of 2022. For $6 million. Now we likely have Leury Garcia for basically the same amount. Hard to consider that a win. And, for the moment, Mendick and Romy are the primary back-up candidates, although that will obviously change (one would hope).

That said, our self-delusions about Wheeler and Harper or Wheeler and Machado were just that. Never realistic. Or simply both those guys, Harper and Machado. So it was never unprecedented. Or we would be the Texas Rangers. Maybe the Tigers. In the end result, we can simply argue that the combination of Grandal, Lynn and Kimbrel is a better allocation of resources than ONE superstar, but we'll probably never know...not as long as JR and family are the principal owners.

Maybe. If you believe it after the wild spending so far this offseason. Even dumping Keuchel on someone leaves our rotation as Lopez at #5 and dreadfully exposed to injuries as many teams experienced last season. Kopech will still be limited, somewhat. So being able to afford Rodon would take a ton of maneuvering, and risk blowing up in Hahn's face. Or it could be the best move of the offseason again, although unlikely. I totally forgot Lance Lynn...he's the other big factor in the payroll expansion since missing on our three big FA targets. So Lynn/Kimbrel vs. Harper or Machado, essentially.

Something just doesn’t sit well reading the board’s tenor this morning about being close to lowered luxury/competitive balance tax numbers. How was Hahn ACTUALLY planning to fit Machado or Harper into the future Sox payroll three years ago? Exchanging Wheeler for Keuchel, more or less, is pretty obvious. But what did we actually do with that money…where was/is “it will be spent”? Hendriks and now Kimbrel, those two are obvious, we could have gone much cheaper there, and have historically at the closer’s spot. Keeping McCann instead of bringing in Grandal. So that leaves an alternative reality of let’s say McCann and Wheeler instead of Keuchel and Grandal as the offset. You can argue which is better. So it really comes down to spending that on closers versus one superstar in Machado or Harper, take your pick. Because with all the extensions for our young core pieces becoming increasingly expensive as we move closer to 2023-24, we’re to the point where they’re capped out (at $175-180 million) for all intents and purposes. And Fathom will be annoyed, but where does the money for Giolito and Anderson extensions come from? Trade Moncada down the line, maybe? If the plan is simply waiting to eventually shed Abreu, Keuchel, Kimbrel, Grandal and Hendriks from the payroll, what are the future solutions at all those positions beyond our 1B/DH depth? Of course, that still leaves only Vaughn, Sheets, Burger and Crochet as trade bait to fill RF and additional SP depth, assuming Leury gets another 120+ games again now moving forward. Obviously, shedding Kimbrel will help mitigate this sudden financial pressure, at least somewhat, but certainly not if it commits us to spending $20 million at 2B in Segura/Gregorious/Leury. Plus we still have to replace the Heuer/Tepera spot. It’s hard not to argue that Kimbrel is the main culprit, but it still really comes down to buying Hendriks at peak instead of spending another $10 million per season on a Harper or Machado…what am I missing here?

“Which screenshot deserves 6.90m views?” It was a thread at Quora. Just reading this crazy back and forth about lying over errors versus bad plays…I actually felt like I was high. Backwards, it says “y’all went to high school, but I went to school high.” https://www.quora.com/Which-screenshot-deserves-6-90m-views Actually, reading through all the responses, it seems that someone was attempting to send a coded message, because Treasure White spelled backwards is White Treasure, so not even sure what to make of it. Time to take a self-imposed break from the board until the lockout is over…posting too much these days and no point in getting upset until we see the final 25 man roster.

13.7 fWAR / 9 years. He's not even Zach Eflin. His salary is so low I just assumed he was a reliever, but he's the quintessential back-end of the rotation guy. Which means he automatically will end up being in the 2.5-3.5 fWAR range for the Giants next year. Bleak, bleak, bleak. He's not even the type of starter you pick up on a hunch for your fantasy/roto league team.

Ron, you're not going to generate any likes for this particular running gag that's quickly losing steam... Might want to switch to a new attention-generating strategy. For your sake, you were temporarily saved by no Conforto "last minute" White Sox signing that would have quickly reversed your organizational preferences again.

Tepera's going to get more than $6.5-7.5 at this rate, and looking at the Neris deal.

Let's throw Honest Abe in this too, just to get some more representation for the State of Illinois. Kentucky, too.

Predicted for months, 3-4 years was the only question remaining to be answered. Leaving Jansen, Kimbrel and Melancon as the biggest names remaining out there...

12 Angry Men: The SoxTalk Docudrama continues after the break, with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage never revealed publicly until now.

More former White Sox...

Kimbrel an early entrant in the race to be HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED II. For some reason, Semien never managed to be so controversial....mostly the time lapse from trade to 2/3 Top Five MVP finishes.

So he won't be THAT much worse off, financially, with a rebound. Seemed more comfortable for whatever reason in the Eastern Time Zone, or at least NL East...

Anything over $100 million for Castellanos is absolutely insane at this point in his career. With his defensive shortcomings and some relatively inconsistent years with DET, never in a million years would be in favor of that one, unless he's largely limited to facing NL Central teams.