Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Dec 4, 2017 -> 07:18 AM) I'm not going to lie, the Cubs being one of his finalists either makes him A. full of crap on his so called "requirements" or B. Alot of BS came out of those "sourced" preferences about his wants in a team. Kind of annoyed the Sox didn't even make the finals when we checked of most if not all his preferences yet the established,non west coast Cubs did. Honestly it’s really hard for me to say. I too thought the Sox checked off a lot of boxes, but I also thought he’d only consider an AL team if he was serious about hitting full time and four of the seven finalists are NL teams. Just impossible to say what teams promised and included in their sales pitches. Clearly the rumor he was completely against joining an established team was wrong based on the Dodgers & Cubs being there, but maybe he just wants to have some variety / points of context and has them at the bottom of the list. I think we need to wait and see who he ultimately picks before assuming most of what he said was BS because there are still some teams that fit that bill.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 4, 2017 -> 07:53 AM) Agreed. Gotta admit though, I'm getting a little stressed that the Cubs are still involved. No doubt. I’ll fully acknowledge that I’m a Cubs hater and for that reason alone it would be tough for Ohtani to land there, but my bigger fear is giving a big market team like the Cubs that already has a great young nucleus in place an asset that’s going to provide a ridiculous amount of surplus from the get-go for basically nothing. Even worse would be the fact they pulled this off while in the penalty box and got to reap all those fruits as well. While I still think Seattle & San Diego are the favorites, I’ve learned in life to never rule Theo out. Dude is as smart as they come and will find a way against all odds to keep the Cubs in the conversation.

I will admit I enjoy seeing NY all salty about this. The amount of entitlement that city has is beyond unbearable.

Yeah, seems like Seattle might be the favorite, which I’m totally ok with. Payroll wise they’re definitely not a small market team, but it doesn’t seem like their system is overflowing with talent and they aren’t exactly a powerhouse at the moment. San Diego is probably the next biggest favorite and perhaps an even better landing spot from the Sox’s perspective. Honestly, at this point, as long as the Dodgers or Cubs don’t land him I’ll be pretty happy.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Dec 3, 2017 -> 06:33 PM) Bob Nightengale‏Verified account @BNightengale 19s19 seconds ago The Chicago #WhiteSox are also out on Ohtani God damnit

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 3, 2017 -> 06:33 PM) Clearly to play with Bryce Harper in 2019 Can’t tell if serious...

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 3, 2017 -> 06:17 PM) Sure seems Beradino's source was correct About what? Isn’t he the guy who said it was all west coasts teams expect the Cubs? Rosenthal’s tweet lists four teams and half of them aren’t West Coast teams. Not sure what that proves.

I guess I’ll be refreshing this thread for the next few hours until the Sox’s status is finally revealed.

QUOTE (Sleepy Harold @ Dec 3, 2017 -> 05:04 PM) Brendan Kuty @BrendanKutyNJ Ohtani has told #yankees they won’t sign with them, Cashman says The rumors are true, he’s totally signing with the Sox!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 09:04 PM) The biggest problem for me remains - everyone said he couldn't do his first 2 months again on June 1. They said the same thing about his first 3 months on July 1. They said the same thing on August 1. He somehow then kept doing it. I don't know about .390, but there are levels of bat control and skill that can let guys have high BABIP. Derek Jeter's career BABIP was .350 and that is weighed down by his last 5 seasons when he started getting old. I'd be far more convinced if Avi had hit 35 HR this year, but Avi's career number is .340 and he was driving the ball better last year. He has always had strong bat control, he just never drove the ball until this year. Here's the basic trade off. This year, there are only a tiny handful of outfielders on the FA market. You've got JD Martinez at big money, a big trade price for Stanton, or the huge dropoffs to Bruce and Cargo. If you are needing to fill an outfield spot on a competing team and you can't afford the dollar amounts for Stanton or Martinez, Avi is a risk but he looks like as good of an option as Bruce, and maybe better. Read the article I mentioned. His BABIP was driven by an unusually high batting average on ground balls. If it were driven by him actualling hitting more line drives that would be one thing, but a big chunk of those grounders will likely turn into outs next year. His BABIP will almost certainly fall by a good 40+ points next year and that’s going to radically impact his offensive production. If he doesn’t learn to get more loft, he’s suddenly a 2ish WAR OF and that assumes his defensive & baserunning improvements stick.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 08:57 PM) It's sort of funny how a guy who hit .330 with near 20 HR's and 80 RBI improved his defense , his speed, his base running , cut down on his K's , had career highs in doubles , triples, HR, WAR, OBP, wRC+, OPS, OPS+, Total bases and was an All Star is treated with such disdain ,as if all those things just magically appeared without dedication and hard work to actually improve himself. Will he ever have such a high BABIP again ? Probably not but give the guy some credit. Hitting.330 and the rest of it is not just some result of the stars aligning right or making a deal with the devil . He no doubt improved last year in all facets of the game. However, his batting average was definitely fueled by some serious luck and when his BABIP comes back down to earth he’s not going to be a 4 WAR player again unless the power finally materializes. That could happen but I’m not banking on it and I’m not passing on actual value via trade to find out.

The Athletic has a great article on Avi by Eno Sarris and I highly recommend anyone with access read it. It might convince the guys who voted for Abreu in this poll to reconsider.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 05:37 PM) yolmer sanchez? Yolmer sanchez is quite possibly a 24 year old 2-3 WAR 3B that can play a solid SS and an excellent 2B as well. That dude would probably be worth a B prospect in a trade. So, I guess the joke falls flat? Now why they are keeping someone like May around is anybody's guess. Lip suggested that maybe we should non-tender Sanchez. The board got pretty pissed as a result. I take it you missed all this.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 02:05 PM) Do you not remember the fan beating up the first base coach? Hardly forgettable or boring, it still gets mentioned by opposing fans. Don’t forget about the fan beating up the umpire!

QUOTE (Quin @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 12:40 PM) I'm sure he does. Keep the intellect of posters out of this. How is that a crack at his intellect? I have no idea how I could possibly have been disingenuous with my post, maybe if he actually provided some support I wouldn’t have had to ask the question. But whatever, apparently he can rip my character and I’m not allowed to fight back.

QUOTE (KagakuOtoko @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 09:36 AM) Man I can't help to think you're being disingenuous af right now. I have no idea what the f*** you’re getting at here. Maybe you don’t know what the word “disingenuous” actually means.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 08:23 AM) White Sox only have 7 guys on their 40 man roster that are legitimate bullpen options for next year: Aaron Bummer, Jace Fry, Dylan Covey, Danny Farquhar, Nate Jones, Juan Minaya, and Gregory Infante. They will be adding a ton of pitching You forgot Vieira, but the point remains the same. And I didn’t realize Jones could be ready by spring training, thought he was going to be out longer. Glad to see I was wrong on that one.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 01:04 AM) Why do you think he's a "total fraud?" Just looking through his twitter history and the way he’s trolling the national writers on getting this one right. And the fact he has almost no followers yet he’s been dropping rumors across multiple sports for a long period of time. If he had sources, people would have caught on by now and started following him. I’ve seen other “insiders” exhibit the same behavior before and they were quickly proven to be frauds. I’m just speculating though.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 12:44 AM) I'm open to a different transcript if one exists. The video sure looked like he went from one statement defending Moore to one condemning Franken. You have more? Did I miss something? Except for the fact Cruz is defending the people’s right to vote for Moore since the accusations are public knowledge, but he’s also not defending the underlying actions he’s been accused of. Obviously he’s a scumbag and I don’t agree with his thought process whatsoever, but there is definitely more logic to his comments than StrangeSox led on. As for the Franken stuff, his focus was on the hypocrisy on Democrats looking the other way on Franken. Again, there is some underlying truth to what he’s saying even if his motive is 100% partisan bulls***. There is simply no reason to spin his comments, they’re bad enough as is.

QUOTE (ChiliIrishHammock24 @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 12:02 AM) Did anybody see this? Brett Moccia‏ @brettm1319 Following Following @brettm1319 More Sources: Wellington Castillo will sign with the #WhiteSoxs for 2 years 15 million 8:44 PM - 23 Nov 2017 Guy tweeted that over a week ago. No idea if that was an extraordinary guess, or if his source is legit, but he also tweeted out today that his source says Arrieta's camp believes they have a deal in place with Cardinals, but could take 1-2 weeks before it goes official. So I guess we shall see if he's 2 for 2 or just 1 for 2. Dude is a total fraud IMO and got lucky on this one. My guess is he deletes the tweets where he can be proven wrong.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 11:22 PM) Or ... this could mean we will merely trade him this winter for more pieces. I wish I could respond honestly to this comment without getting banned, but instead I’ll just say WTF...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 12:35 AM) Please continue, governor. Are you disagreeing with me that StrangeSox didn’t quite accurately depict what Cruz said?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 07:14 AM) FOX NEWS HOST TO @tedcruz: You cool working with alleged child molester Roy Moore if he's elected? CRUZ: Sure, no problem, that's up to the voters. FOX NEWS HOST: And what about alleged groper Al Franken? CRUZ: Now that's a very serious problem. I'm extremely concerned. Not that I agree with what he said, but could you actually take his comments out of context any further?

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 09:35 PM) How could it not be Abreu? Stanton's contact is a nightmare. Definitely could be, but it will be interesting to see what the Marlins get for him and how much money they’ll have to eat. Will give us some directional indication of Abrue’s value.

Interesting take from Jeff Sullivan from a Fangraphs chat today: