caulfield12

You have coined a new name for SoxFest...if they similarly strike out again in the free agency market, it will instead be Torches&PitchforksFest for Rick “Gaston” Hahn. They must have been convinced by the San Diego Union Tribune team finance articles that the Padres didn’t have the money...and were bluffing.

Stole and Cordell last two days...sigh. Poor Mendick.

https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds Currently projected to be in a battle with the Mariners for the 6th pick, 69-93. First time this season their predicted win total has fallen under 70. Luckily the NL is all bunched up together except for the Marlins...Mets and Reds attempted to compete, etc.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/milwaukee-brewers/chase-anderson-12082/ Some were speculating Chase Anderson was a FA option this offseason...he’s likely still under Brewers’ control for two more years.

Those last eight words of your second sentence are what many of us are afraid of...allocated, but not altogether wisely.

1985-88esque when Calderon was one of the better hitters

4-16, outscored 104-55 if this score holds up. Sox “second wave” bullpen will probably add on 2-4 runs. Nice in-person audition for Wheeler. Someone should really interview Cooper for his thoughts on Zach after the game.

Don’t cancel the postgame show, Wheeler’s earning another $25 million by padding his stats against this AAAA lineup...

Same problem with López despite throwing as hard as he does...

The White Sox/Hahn apparently don’t believe in any of those three or Mendick would be up now and Castillo/Reed DFA’ed.

You’re forgetting another Top 4-6 pick in 2020...seems we say that every year now.

They’re almost back in the WC hunt...look at the standings. Unfortunately, after next series, their schedule turns really difficult. White Sox outscored 100-55 during this 4-15 stretch since ASB. Abreu 0 for his last 31.

Greg could have volunteered in the front office and opined...”please compare his stuff from 2014-15 to present day and past overuse in KC.” Not hard to foresee that he was on the downside. If you’re betting on rebounds, go after someone like Carl Edwards, Jr., that won’t cost much more than a Tilson, Engel or Cordell. Find four guys like that and one will have a Kahnle-like season and three will stumble. Still better risk that $15-20 million on “established” veteran setup guys.

That’s still far from $200+ million for a pitcher and $300+ million for a position player (Rendon won’t get nearly that much due to age and injury history)...and reported offers and deals signed are two quite distinct things. Anything over $75 million for one player would be shocking because this time around none of the free agents are 26 years old and in their primes.

Too much talent surrendered from our depleted farm system to acquire...and they’re stuck with Cano, for those still trying to get rid of Madrigal...just not a fit. They have Alonso, no need for Vaughn. Dunning isn’t healthy.

More than anything, Dye wanted an opportunity to play everyday...remember, those A's teams he was on were REALLY good back then, but he was getting more expensive for a cash-strapped team. At any rate, that's hardly an indictment, that a player kept his word. The White Sox treated AJ Pierzynski fairly, kept him around for something like 8 years, and still bring him back to be around the broadcast booth even though 1/2 the people in baseball hate his guts. Lee is the definition of a LF with big numbers in the traditional categories who would be around a 2-2.5 fWAR player today...he wasn't worth huge, superstar money, as teams like the Astros discovered later. There's no point to list all 8 or 9 players they exchanged, basically, for those 3. Jay's piddling $4 million contract is a lot less than Herrera's two year deal for a lot more money (albeit it has been terrible) Every team goes through a backlash with a popular veteran when they leave....arguably, the White Sox held onto guys from 2005 like Konerko, Contrera and Paulie well beyond their shelf life...at any rate, if the Cardinals kept Pujols or the Yankees kept Robinson Cano, just to placate their fans...they woudn't have been competitive as they were without those players. Of course, this requires investing or spending those "saved" contractual dollars wisely, which hasn't exactly transpired with the exception of the Luis Robert signing, and McCann for 3 months.

Why did they let Belle walk? Why did they put a diminished skills clause in Thomas' contract? Why did they let Ventura leave as a player? Why did Dye/Pierzynski take less money in 05 to come to the Sox? Well, because Dye was coming off a broken leg and AJ was run out of SF because he completely alienated himself in less than one season from nearly every pitcher and member of the coaching staff. Why did they trade Lee before the 05 season? They traded Lee and let Valentin and Ordonez go in order to fit in all of hte 2004-2005 additions that would lead to a World Series winner in 2005, specifically to change the top of the line-up with Pods/Iguchi and fit Freddy Garcia/Jose Contreras onto the expense report. Why did they go to Paulie and AJ when trying to get Dunn and have them delay their salary to sign him? Why do they seem to trade for guys with 2-3yrs left on their contract rather than singing a guy for 5-6yrs in FA? Why did you just dump money with the Nate Jones trade? What happened in this past offseason? Jon Jay was your biggest FA acquisition Well, no, Herrera was... Let that sink in. We met with Bryce at the beginning of FA, had the United Center photo leaked and never another word. The amount of Jersey sales/ticket sales would of paid at least half his salary this is not true because that amount is shared/split with the rest of teams and wouldn't come close to $15 million...ticket sales included, we're talking $5-7.5 million if it's anything like what Philly experienced and that is not counting the endorsement money from being on the cover of gamesthat in and of itself has no impact on the Phillies. And the Machado thing... He literally said he wanted $300M and the Sox literally had no competition all offseason until it was leaked their offer was under $200M. And what did he do? Signed for $300M like her he said. They saw early on backlash from the fans, and then they had better play from Moncada/Giolitto and the rest of the team. And people got excited and went to games. And they are trying to sell us the same garbage as last offseason. And people are not gonna buy it. And we are gonna go into next season with the same results, but this time Robert and Madrigal are going to be on the team doing what Eloy/Moncada/Giolito did this year. And it is just a big circle jerk. This teams problem is pitching, and they REFUSE to pay more than 3yrs to a pitcher John Danks and Mark Buehrle had 5 and 4 year contracts, but yeah....6+ years would be shocking, and they generally haven't take huge risks with free agent pitchers coming from outside the organization So you are not being "objective" by thinking this is gonna change. People DO NOT CHANGEif you look at the Sox payrolls from 2006-2013, you'll discover that they were in the Top Ten, even Top 5 a couple of times, but probably averaged 8-10th in baseball (not saying that all that money was spent WISELY), they just don't. Jerry cares about money. There is a reason FAs do not sign with the Bulls, and it is not because they have to live up to MJ. It is because he is cheap and puts dumb clauses in contracts. Why? Because Jerry is cheap! Mostly, they've been terrible at talent identification and development...and equally poor with major league scouting (at least ever since they acquired Eaton, Floyd, Danks and Quentin before 2008) Luis Robert, Moncada, Giolito, Anderson, Jimenez, Vaughn and Madrigal are who they're going "all in" with...if they're wrong, they won't have jobs 2-3 years from now.

This is why the Lester move was so important to the Cubs...it proved to fans they were of the mindset to go out and compete with the best for talent. Obviously, Epstein already had an “in” there, but we all have the money, theoretically.

Oh-uh...no energy to counter this in a positive way but there are about 5-6 inaccuracies or embellishments here. Someone else can take you to task.

It’s really quite simple...just like in 2004-05. Non-headlining additions, but still quality players across those board who coalesced into something great for 1 1/2 seasons (parallel with the Brewers and Twins again.) The problem at this point is most aren’t confident in Hahn pulling it off. Everything you described is perfectly, 100%, logical and reasonable and rational. Affordable, doesn’t blow the budget into the stratosphere, risk-mitigation (except those pitchers), heck...we were spending well over $120-125 million over a decade ago when we routinely ran Top Ten payrolls out there after the World Series. Just not sure it’s enough to inspire...once upon a time, it was going to be at least a five year window and I can squint back and recall a couple of weeks where Balta had us dominating/eviscerating the entire AL as a dynastic type of team (which is even quickly slipping away through the fingers of the Cubs with almost twice that level of payroll of what we’re aspiring to run out there.) PS: I had a nightmare your Scooter Gennett turns into Derek Dietrich and we’re still adding 1-1.5 fWAR pieces to supplement the core for the next decade. PTSD.

Bumgarner (mentioned in possibilities) hasn’t been a “great” pitcher since 2016. And you’re exactly right about Grandal, except both these guys will be entering their age 31 seasons where a drop off might reasonably be expected, especially from a catcher. Dunn, for example, was also the same age. It now feels like deja vu, like we’re right back to 2014-2016 except with a younger/deeper and theoretically more promising core of six players...once again adding the likes of “five veterans who will not be named.” The weird thing to me is why nobody was willing to give Grandal a long-term deal if you examine his 4-5 year track record more closely...it couldn’t have simply been the questions around the industry coming out of the playoffs last year? Hard to understand. Finally, does anyone have faith at this point in Don Cooper working with another “project” in Wheeler (let’s compare him to Eeovaldi for argument’s sake) or Wood coming off a major injury? I guess we just have to take those risks and hope it turns out ultimately more like 2004-05 or 2008 than the last decade of free agent moves with the Sox.

Basically, then, we are the AL version of the Brewers (or a copy of this recent Twins’ offseason)...aiming for a $120-125 million payroll while not having to worry about the Cubs and Cardinals outspending us. Of course, we’re obviously missing two key elements in Yelich and Josh Hader to carry the team, so it’s up to Moncada or Robert to be that superstar, right? The group of “reasonable” players you listed as bringing in are a pretty fair approximation of Cain, Moustakas, Shaw, Schoop, etc. Recently, their biggest add in an “all-in” year was Jordan Lyles. 1) Can you sustain sufficient offseason motivation writing this same basic post over and over again? 2) Will reasonable but clearly second and third tier moves be enough to reinvigorate the fanbase? 3) Gennett has played 9 games in LF, one game in RF...in his entire major and minor league career. Does he even have enough arm to play out there, or the desire to do so when he will be in demand by a number of playoff-contending teams at age 29? Also, should the White Sox overpay by 10-15% to get him to do something he might not even be comfortable doing?

Greg, Burger is a ways from even playing after almost two full seasons off...just making a major league roster someday would be cause for celebration and even a Disney movie deal.

As good as the Astros are, it’s kind of crazy how wrong they were on Appel, Aiken (that worked out in the end)...Whitley is really struggling now, then there were all those pitchers we targeted 3-4 years ago that nothing became of them. Otoh, they seemingly worked miracles with Morton, Verlander, Cole...scouting proven talent is their forte, and they’ve assiduously assessed/improved a lot about following a regimented process in terms of what players to give up on after the JD Martinez fiasco.