caulfield12

Can we also have the Pale Hose Sinema or Manchin just to even things out?…as those comps to TLR are probably just as accurate. Okay, now we can leave politics behind again.

It feels like the trade deadline wiped away any good will he’d created. Hernandez and Kimbrel couldn’t have worked out worse than just picking names at random from a trade targets jar. He essentially lucked into Rodon and Lance Lynn in his mid 30s isn’t an automatic guarantee anymore either…added on to Grandal and Keuchel jamming up the payroll. Way too many one-dimensional 1B/DH/1B types. Also, unsure what’s going to happen with Kopech and Crochet. Finally, giving up on top 5 picks Madrigal and now possibly Vaughn or Eloy at 75 cents on the dollar (to replace them with fading veterans) seems idiotic, at best.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/2021/ #1-4-5-12 in payrolls in the Final Four. Three of Top 5. Giants were #10. White Sox at #15 (league average) are certainly not the Braves, Rays, Cardinals, Brewers, etc. But we might just get stuck being cute with QO’s to Kimbrel and Rodon and blow the entire offseason budget with no RF, 2B, veteran starter, RH reliever (Tepera) or decent veteran backup catcher.

How much money would we have to pay St. Louis to take him? $7.5-10 million? It would be worth it…and generate more positives for the franchise than the 2022 equivalent of Adam Eaton in RF. Heck, I’d ALMOST rather have Ozuna. Almost. But it’s a close call.

Which is the last year of Giolito as well...and when the Tigers should be right there, and maybe the Royals if their pitching continues to turn a corner. That said, Sal Perez and Merrifield will soon hit their decline stages.

Yeah, you’re probably right. Don’t want to get excited and then end up disappointed when it was more or less a PR ruse for the offseason to sell more season tickets with promises that the front office and players have never been so on the same page before.

That’s kind of an impossible position to put the players in… They vote? Abreu, Anderson and Giolito decide? We know how Leury and Lynn would vote, haha. Do we have to listen to Keuchel’s opinion, still?

Unless they decide to trade Jose Ramirez. Detroit is probably one more year away. The Guardians are still a team with Franmil Reyes as their second best hitter. Wouldn’t be a shocker at all to see his number flip flop with Eloy’s. How likely is Quantrill to repeat his rookie season success his second full season? They might close the gap with a healthy rotation, but the White Sox still have a massive advantage offensively.

https://www.mlb.com/news/carter-hawkins-cubs-gm Guess nobody stuck out across the city, like Haber...that said, no Brewers' front office guys, either, or Cardinals, Giants, Dodgers, etc. "According to The Athletic, the Cubs narrowed their GM search to four candidates, including Hawkins, James Harris (Cleveland's VP of player development), Carlos Rodriguez (Rays VP of player development and international scouting) and Jeremy Zoll (Twins assistant GM)."

Or Peter Gammons is a voodoo/witch doctor/shaman bringing the karma gods down on Houston, but simultaneously sparing manager Cora.

They've definitely passed the Royals and the Cubs on the rebuilding success meter...especially with a second WS title (were they to win THIS year). I honestly don't think that they have enough starting pitching over a longer series with Verlander (and better Greinke), and the back 3-4 of their pen aren't the most intimidating in the world, but they've been effective enough. And the Dodgers have had the same issues with Jansen on and off...especially in the postseason...over the last few seasons. Seems like he'll get into a 7-10 day stretch where he really falls apart and then miraculously manages to right the ship somehow.

Yoan was Tucker...just two seasons ago. Therein lies the problem, at some point, teams like the Twins/Indians (and White Sox, historically) typically decide that it's not worth paying $25 million for a 4ish fWAR player, despite any Balta-esque $$$/fWAR free agent acquisition cost calculators you throw out there. That's why parting ways with both Madrigal and Vaughn would REALLY start to hamstring the team financially down the line...if you start replacing them with more expensive veteran guys, or more likely go cheap for the Eaton and Cesar Hernandez types. Honestly, not even sure we can afford the likes of Starling Marte if we're going to offer a QO to Rodon (and he accepts it) as well as picking up Kimbrel's last year...and then we end up having a difficult time getting sufficient value back to justify a second Kimbrel do-over trade, then somehow end up carrying him on the active roster for another 3-4 months into 2022.

https://sports.yahoo.com/tony-la-russa-astros-character-shortage-white-sox-alds-014336495.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink Got to hand it to TLR for getting his name out there somehow when the season's already over and there's nothing left to fight for...

I guess it's really going to come down to whether he would have been better off working on all his secondary pitches and throwing 4-5-6 innings per start (ramping up) in Charlotte in August and September after the division race was basically over...also, with the minor league season extending an additional month (due to the later start this year), it would have been the perfect opportunity to do so.

If he brought Paddy with him?

Why would they want to eat $4-6 on Kimbrel just to get another suspect prospect back when they could actually for the third time sign a free agent (following Dunn and Grandal) for more than $14 million per year that they really want? Guess Melky Cabrera was the other move that comes somewhere close to that salary range, not exactly a ringing endorsement of bigger Sox FA moves.

How about we actually work with both pitchers AND catchers on stopping or at least neutralizing the running game against us? Just no way you win any 4 game series against an equal or better team giving so many baserunners free bases or opportunities on third with less than two outs…puts so much more pressure on the pitchers, although the pitchers are also at least equally culpable.

That you would give Cease a playoff start based on his fWAR being 18th or 22nd in the majors or whatever it was a month or two ago. That Kopech would have come in for Giolito in Game 2 and dominate…there’s just no reason to believe that based on his last two outings. Fastball dominant pitching doesn’t work well against Houston, probably why Tepera did as well as he did.

Kind of like how you were wrong on Kopech, Cease and Hosmer getting benched?

Lux at 2B makes a lot more sense than Burger at 3B and Moncada at second...but I would agree about Lux. That said, Urias with the Brewers finally had a really decent season.

Except that was all about clearing the payroll, C-Lee, Ordonez (especially) and Valentin were all expensive...Eloy has not reached that point of his contract, YET.

If Vaughn ended the year strongly, but you don't trade middle infielders capable of playing multiple positions for corner guys unless they are "sure" things. I don't know that we can be anywhere close to 100% confident Vaughn will put up .280, 25-30 homers and 80-90 RBI's next year.

I'm still pretty convinced that not having Cordero this year made a significant difference. And Bummer kinda wandered in and out of significance...where he wasn't always the go-to lefty.

You're not going to trade someone at his age only two years removed from an MVP unless they really believe he's not capable of pulling out of it...

Well, besides Konerko and Buehrle, but he's in arguably had more of an influence on bringing other Cubans into the fold, Robert in particular. The young pitcher, Vera, that we signed, Cespedes and Colas, etc. Seems the logical assets to look at offloading would be Sheets and/or Burger.