Chicago White Sox

First stateside HR?

What an absolutely terrible post. You should be banned from this site for this bullshit. Ozzie actively chose himself over his players when the team was battling for a playoff spot. We were heading to Detroit and needed to take care business and he decided that was the time to start whining about his contract. He’s a selfish motherfucker who will always place self over others. I would be enraged if the White Sox ever gave this ego maniac and the clown show of a family that comes with him a second chance.

Avi has had one good year in his entire career and can’t stay healthy. Why in the world would want to keep him around long-term?

If we trade for a first baseman a year away from free agency I will fucking riot.

You have every right to be skeptical, just don’t come in here and say “Why are you guys wasting your time talking about this? It’s never going to happen.” That’s just going to rile up people who want to be optimistic and feel like the organization is serious this time about making a big move.

Maybe you need to do some self reflecting or at the very minimum reread your first post, because your attitude is clearly not “I’ll believe it when I see it” no matter how you try to spin it.

Yeah, the 100 loss team doesn’t a 6 WAR player because Nick fucking Madrigal will fix it all!

Jose Abreu’s 2019 salary is not preventing us from adding Machado or Harper.

WSD’s offseason preview: https://www.barstoolsports.com/preview/1132963?preview=true

You are slowly becoming the new Greg and trust me you do NOT want become the new Greg. Here, say it with me Jack, “the Sox will sign Machado, the Sox will sign Machado, the Sox will sign Machado”. Doesn’t optimsm feel good for a change?

We learned our less with the Ohtani presentation. This Machado one has a interactive VR segment and therefore is a sure thing.

The other options are more appealing at face value, so the Sox will have to bring their A game when it comes to selling these guys on Chicago. I do think we are very capable of a building a compelling narrative, but part of that will come down to Reinsdorf’s commitment to bring in additional pieces in the future. No one is jumping onboard a 100 loss train (short of a massive overpay) unless we convince these guys better days are coming and coming soon. Jerry has to man up and sign up for some future spending in order for our sales pitch to really sparkle.

I personally think Rondon is our most interesting fringe prospect. Would love to get him an opportunity next year, but that will be challenging we sign a free agent 3B. I agree you don’t move Yoan to CF just for Rondon, but it is a nice little consolation price IMO.

Below are Bovada’s odds for where Machado lands. I honestly think the only team with the means and more incentive to land him than us are the Phillies. The Yankees could just say “fuck it” after the Red Sox won the series and decide they must have him, but I think they’ll proceed cautiously because he’d be a luxury for them. I’m not sure I buy any other team being serious players. Maybe the Cubs if they decide to move on from Russell, but I still don’t see how that could work financially in the long-run. Where will Manny Machado play game 1 of the 2019 MLB Season? Philadelphia Phillies 3/2 Los Angeles Dodgers 9/4 New York Yankees 3/1 Miami Marlins 8/1 Los Angeles Angels 9/1

No one is putting Clarkin on their 40 man, so he should be an easy guy to outright. We’ll definitely have to get rid one of our outfielders at some point and Tilson is probably the most obvious candidate to your point.

I really hope not. He may be a great clubhouse guy, but let’s at least throw someone out there with some potential.

If we were to sign Machado, I’d 100% for signing McCutchen to a two year deal. A potential lineup like the one below could be awesome if everything clicks: Moncada, CF McCutchen, RF Machado, 3B Abreu, 1B Jimenez, LF Palka, DH Anderson, SS Narvaez, C Rondon, 2B Obviously we’d have to address the pitching staff (and probably on the cheap), but at least we’d have an offense worth watching all while not blocking any prospects of real significance long-term.

If the Sox add Machado, they will most definitely splurge on a few more short-term pieces and give this team a chance to be a contender in the highly unlikely “everything goes right” scenario. The real challenge is the OF. Jimenez will be up at the end of April, but the other two spots are huge question marks. Engel & Avi would be the starters right now in CF & RF respectively and it would be very difficult to count on either of them. With Basabe the closest prospect to the majors and still adjusting to AA, I feel like you pretty much have to add one proven OF to a short-term deal if we land Manny. And preferably that would be a CF but the market it pretty much dry after Pollack and he’d require too long of a commitment IMO.

See, this is a great counterpoint. I agree there is a real element of risk by adding additional change into the mix. I’d still probably be willing to take that gamble, but I can today understand why others would rather keep him focused on hitting.

I appreciate your response. The goal of this thread was to spark conservation around how these two guys may fit in the long-term. I get the easy answer is to say “too soon to worry about it” but all organizations (sports & other fields) think though these types of things. I really think it’s an interesting exercise to talk through where these guys might fit if both end up making it. And while thinking through this myself, the question came up whether Moncada is potentially better suited for CF than 2B. To me, that’s the most interesting angle to explore here. Ignore Madrigal for a second and all our minor league OF depth. Based on tools alone, what position should Moncada be playing? To me the answer is clearly CF. I feel like the main reason we’re sticking with him at 2B is because of organizational depth and it being the position he’s most comfortable at. And that’s fine if we were competing, but given we’re in the middle of a rebuild, why not put him a spot that could optimize his value? By all means, people can argue that he’s better suited for 2B, but that’s not really happening in this thread. People are ignoring the proposition because they think it’s strictly tied to Madrigal. Glad you at least acknowledged that part of my post, because I think the idea is fascinating on its own merits.

One of the underlying assumptions in my OP was that 2B is not Moncada’s best position. I truly believe he would be more valuable in the OF where his tools play up. I’m guessing I’m in the minority on that viewpoint, but it’s not as simple as “make way for Madrigal”. Also, I truly think people here are being way too conservative with Madrigal’s projected timeline. High-end / polished college draft picks typically move fast. Schwarber, Conforto, Swanson, Bregman, & Benintendi all recent examples of college picks who made the majors in their full professional season. Madrigal was a similar ranked prospect to those guys & has tools that translate better to professional baseball. If he doesn’t move fast, it should be a major red flag as he should not require a ton of development.

Good...hopefully a lot of organizations get a bit nervous throwing $350M+ his way.

Great article! I really hope the organization is prepared to go all-in for Manny. He would be such a game-changer both on & off the field.

To those in favor of Harper over Machado simply because of the latter’s “antics”, definitely read the article below on Harper’s defense: https://www.google.com/amp/s/sportsinfosolutionsblog.com/2018/09/20/why-does-bryce-harper-have-25-defensive-runs-saved/amp/

I’m starting to get concerned about your reading comprehension skills. You said people were arguing to rush Madrigal to replace Moncada, which I called you out on for being bullshit. Now you’re going in a new direction, although at least this time it’s the right one.