caulfield12

You’re inevitably going to be disappointed. And a lot of teams are going to want a second or third look at Kimbrel. The question marks keep mounting.

Then you’re only going to buy players at max value by that argument, like Correa, Semien and Seager. Even those star players come with multiple question marks. On one hand, we almost gave Alex Gordon similar money…which would have been a disaster. On the other hand, if we can never quite manage to pull the trigger due to fear of risk or making a mistake, we can never be a truly great team, either. Not without nearly every single thing breaking our way, like 2005.

Another Wes Anderson film?

Uncharted Street-smart Nathan Drake is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor "Sully" Sullivan to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan, and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada.

They must need to sell more.season ticket packages...that's pretty dishonest if they have no intention whatsoever of signing Conforto, or if it's all predicated on dumping Kimbrel first.

Leury/Rios got the ball rolling. The infamous Nate Jones for intl bonus pool money, etc.

Unless you buy into bad blood about player rep duties, arbitration hearing fight over pennies after turning down a team-friendly extension. That he's essentially being punished or however you want to put it. Which all sounds incredibly petty, but there's massive difference between that rumored extension and what Berrios actually ended up with the Blue Jays making him feel wanted after being pushed aside for Buxton's own team-friendly deal in Minny.

They're currently closing down their Russian operations.

https://www.southsidesox.com/2018/9/4/17805656/under-the-radar-bennett-sousa-southpaw-white-sox I would guess he's picked up 2-3 mph along with most relievers these last few years. He's definitely not the flamethrower type, quietly effective.

They're still NOT going to do it, with that club option there...what about adding a signing bonus like Berrios at the beginning ($5-7.5 million) to sweeten the deal? Giolito's basically 27 1/2, and has 11.2 fWAR the last three years combined (obviously 2020 brings the average down). So he would be 32 1/2 hitting Free Agency again. Berrios is almost exactly the same age, 27 1/2, and would hit his free agency at 34 1/2. 9.6 fWAR vs Giolito's 11.2 in comparison, so that's not insignificant. You could go back ONE more year in Berrios' history, then it's 8.6 fWAR vs. Giolito's 11.2. Just can't imagine that Lucas is going to be able to ignore that club option/control issue, the fact that he's seemingly back in form throwing harder than in 2021 and also quite peeved about the arbitration situation and then having the offer he supposedly turned down leaked online. None of that's going to sit well with him and his family. Balta, are you seeing anything differently which would make you believe an extension is still realistic/possible/feasible...or has the bridge already been crossed and burned behind him? I guess if they won a World Series, and then rewarded Gio in a similar way to the Strasburg deal, but that still doesn't sound like JR...especially for a pitcher and looking what happened with that specific example.

Didn't Parkman already write this? It's kind of the same position the Indians are in with Ramirez, Bieber, Clase and Karinchak to a lesser extent. Except I think Jack picked the players that were closer to FA or veterans like Gio, TA7, Hendriks, Lynn and Grandal... A bit like the Oakland A's trying to drive their team into the ground ala the Cleveland Indians in Major League 1...so as to further justify their relocation to Las Vegas.

Should be the ghost of Bill Veeck then...even if he was a penny-pincher out of financial necessity, fans at least had fun and relished their underdog/blue collar status.

Is that actually, by definition, BOLD?

If Gonzaga, Duke (in Coach K's final go-around) and Arizona (down 7 in the first half to Houston) all go down tonight... Might be one of the lowest rated Elite 8's in recent memory with the lack of star power. Villanova becomes one of the favorites now despite having almost an anonymous/underrated conference season. Jay Wright has quietly become one of the Top 5 if not 3 coaches in basketball. And impressive if Texas Tech can lose Beard and hardly miss a beat with a new coach but essentially the same oppressive defense.

It's called the Tiger Team even...anticipating the events of Ukraine. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/us/politics/biden-russia-nuclear-weapons.html

Daniel Palka would be even better. Well, Andrew Miller just retired after a 16 year career (and blocking the White Sox from trading for Miguel Cabrera)...thankfully, we can't sign him. Otoh, signing Miller would have allowed Crochet to start every week in Charlotte in order to see what we actually have in him. Also, just noticed we lost Jace Fry to the Washington Nationals.

Stop whining, Rodon!!! A certain GM just got too cute, and assumed NOBODY else amongst the other "pretty smart/market efficient" 29 MLB front offices would see things any differently than the Sox. Well, who knows what he will produce this year, but the Giants worked miracles with Gausman/Desclafini/Wood last year and I'll tend to trust their pitching evaluations at this point, coming off a historic 107 win campaign. Not only that, but Rodon was already at 96-98 today in his first spring outing. Granted, it was 81 degrees in AZ, but his slowest FB was 95 and Lopez, who throws hard himself, was at 93-95. No guarantee Rodon pitches 140+ innings again, but it wouldn't shock me either. As you said, even at 2.4-2.5 fWAR vs. 4.9/5.0 fWAR, it's a much better return on value in FA than 75-80% of White Sox free agents signings under the Hahn regime. And that's EXPECTING him not to pitch more than 70 to 80ish innings, something like 12-14 starts out of 30 something.

Let's just start with ONE post-season series.

I'm assuming we're talking December, 1941...although I'm not sure going to war constitutes a positive or negative/whining outlook.

https://www.milb.com/news/gcs-160280956 "Like most people who love baseball, Jeremy Barfield had a great time watching last year's World Series on TV. For Barfield, though, the final out of Game 5 carried with it a significance few fans understand. That final out meant that in five days, he would be in a position he'd grown increasingly accustomed to recently. He would be out of a job. "My thing is, obviously I enjoyed the World Series as a fan, but it's a ticking clock," said the 27-year-old outfielder, who has been on the open market four times in 12 months. "It's like, 'Here we go again.'" Players become Minor League free agents when they've been released from their original contract or after their first six full seasons in the Minors. They often find themselves waiting for the phone to ring with considerably more angst than that of big-league free agents. When superstars such as David Price, Zack Greinke and Jason Heyward become free agents, they inevitably fuel a hot stove rumor mill and end up with big paychecks, but there are no guarantees for players in Barfield's situation."

Yes somehow we're marginally worse while being simultaneously being more expensive.

Some will probably believe this is actually real and Hahn was just being super sarcastic...or it would be considered tampering with the FA market.

Your what hurts?

It's like Machado in a different way...always about an additional guaranteed year, or a club option. That's why the only Boras players we will succeed with will be internal draft picks or be finding a home for guys like Rodon who need to rebuild value before going back on the open market. But we usually don't take those guys either, unless there's a possibility of team control in the second year.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/toronto-blue-jays/jose-berrios-18945/ Compare year by year with Berrios at 7/$131 including signing bonus of $5 million, as well as differences in options and incentives. How would Giolito's reported deal be even close? Very suspicious timing to release this the day after a contentious hearing with ill feelings from the player and his family. Not surprising at all to see things end this way. The White Sox only believe in club options, and that approach is going the way of the dinosaur if you want to attract the best talent today, good luck with that.