Chicago White Sox

Maybe he’s looking to settle down and given his ties to Illinois/Chicago we might be an ideal landing place. Obviously the money would need to be there too and I wouldn’t be surprised if he prioritized earnings over winning given this is likely his last big contract and he already has a ring.

Interesting we hired him away from Mizzou before he even coached a game for them: http://www.journalreview.com/sports/national/article_4142d6cb-6e37-5f54-b38d-4da471c2f8ad.html

I didn’t know how to title this thread without obvious trolling, but I wanted to start some discussion on J.A. Happ. Does anyone else think he’s our #1 SP target? Very productive, left-handed starter with local ties and whose age should prevent him from getting too long of a deal. I personally think the Sox will be all over him and could see us signing him to something like a 2/$35M deal right before the Winter Meetings. How would people feel about such a move? Is the he veteran we should be targeting to stabilize a young rotation? Please share your thoughts because there aren’t a ton of rumors at the moment and I need something to distract me from the endless Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the background. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/white-sox-free-agent-focus-ja-happ%3famp

Lol...let’s hope we don’t drop to attendance thread levels. But in all seriousness, even some small signings, (Sox or not) would be nice. I still think we make some pitching move before the Winter Meetings.

We definitely need some real rumors. You know these are trying times when KW vs. Beane debates start filling the thread. Although I will admit that Royce Ring section in Moneyball still gives me a chuckle to this day.

Not to be a dick, but I don’t understand why we would ever make that trade. Nick Williams isn’t worth taking on Santana’s contract and giving up three pieces on top of it (even for a small discount) doesn’t make a lick of sense to me. What does this move accomplish for us exactly?

It gives no sort of representation whatsoever unless you’re able to filter it on people in Chicago. Even then, I’d wager a much larger portion of the Cubs core fanbase uses Twitter than ours. What your doing with this “data” is quite frankly lazy & wrong.

And how much of the Cubs attendance in that season was driven by their local fanbase? There is no doubt in my mind the Cubs are more popular locally, but a lot of that is casuals looking for a good time. Their core base is definitely not 3:1 the size of ours. Ultimately, the biggest difference is the Cubs are a huge regional & national draw. That doesn’t make us a small market club or mean we have 25% of the city. Using the number of Twitter followers to estimate the size of each fanbase is just stupid.

How do the Cubs own 75% of Chicago?? Like what in the world are you talking about? And no offense, but a lot of people follow BOTH TEAMS. This idea that the 10M people in Chicago are one or the other is simply idiotic. Our market potential is vast, even if we aren’t realizing it all right now. If you honestly think we’re a small market club / have one of the smallest markets, then there is really no hope for you.

lol...what in the world are you talking about. They are the definition of a small market team and operate as such. Their strategy is far from ideal and Billy Beane would tell you as much.

This is simply not true whatsoever.

God I hate everything about this post. I used to really respect your POV Jack but now you’ve just reached Fathom levels of pessimism.

Why do you guys waste your time on Brett? No one can actually believe this nonsense.

Because we can already afford Harper & some of those signings. It’s not an either or thing.

What ages better, defense or batter’s eye?

Fuck WAR, give me Harper please. I’ll happily take Machado as well ?

Remember when he said the Sox we’re going to take on all those bad contracts for draft picks & whatnot? Bernstein may be a smart guy, but he clearly doesn’t understand how baseball works.

That’s what I just said, they sold equity (took on additional investors) to help manage their debt load.

It would be devastating. And in all reality, we should be prepared to bid significantly higher than them to prevent it from happening.

Well the good news is they probably like Chicago food and boatloads of money.

The Cubs have no chance bro. Their ownership literally had to sell equity to support their debt load. Those trust fund kids don’t have endless pockets.

There is realistically no amount of money that would cause me to flip sides. I want a god damn whale.

Lol...right? I mean I was expecting the Phillies to be aggressive, but to come out and say they plan to be “stupid” is kind of a kick to the balls TBH. That being said, we just got to hope Jerry’s old age causes him to do something dumb as well.

Our #1 goal this offseason should be to land a whale. Therefore, we should not do anything that helps the Phillies or Yankees improve their chances. Now, if we fail to land a whale and the Phillies would give up a young player to absorb Santana’s contract, I’d be totally open for that, but I think they’d much rather just eat $10M and call it a day.

God damn Phillies. Hopefully they land Machado and then use the rest of their money on pitching.