Chicago White Sox

There is no weird hatred of Mazara, he’s simply a bad player with some offensive upside, nothing more nothing less.

Plenty of high upside HS players were available at 45.

Unfortunately going overslot on college hitters in the 2nd round is our thing.

In all seriousness, they didn’t even make attempts at Cole or Strasburg. It seems very unlikely they’ll make a run at Rendon. Grandal was a tremendous signing and Wheeler would have been a fantastic addition but two guys alone shouldn’t reflect the “money will be spent”. Now with RF filled, they are running out of things to spend their money this offseason. Dallas Keuchel being our big pitching addition will not inspire much confidence amongst the fanbase. Obviously they can save their money for next offseason, but there’s no guarantee that all the guys who are scheduled to be free agents will still be available by then and it’s not a great free agent class to begin with. It really seems like it’s Mookie, Springer, Joc or bust at this point and let’s just hope none of those guys are represented by Boras.

Walker could have been used for all sorts of things and the issue here isn’t the price we paid for Mazara but what it represents. 20 HRs from a corner OF is not good in the juiced ball era and RBIs are pretty much a meaningless stat. The reality is we just settled on a guy who was about 10% better than league average against RHP (despite a BABIP 35 points higher than his career average) to be the strong side of a RF platoon. This same player offers negative value in the field and on the bases. He’s also one of the worst hitters in all of baseball against LHP. As much as people think platoons work our perfectly, he will face some lefties and that will bring down his overall offensive numbers. He needs to take a significant leap forward next year or won’t be a very useful player for us.

You should be ecstatic about this move bmags. This is the front office saying they did not want to commit large sums of money to Ozuna or Castellanos and is buying some time until next offseason for a run at Betts, Springer, Pederson, etc. I am 100% ok with that logic, but wish they acquired a stop-gap with far more certainty than Mazara. After missing out on Wheeler and now going with a highly question but talented player in RF, we quickly seem to be punting on the 2020 season and creating a three year window. Maybe they surprise with far more impactful pitching additions than I’m currently expecting or possibly extend the window with extensions with Yoan & Giolito, but right now the plan seems very much disjointed and is putting a ton of pressure on us to land an impact RF next offseason.

What other offensive moves are you expecting? Maybe they add a DH, but then Collins basically has no role and the plan to rotate Grandal around goes out the window. I could see is possibly adding a depth piece like Gennett or Dietrich, but they would not be a bigger addition than Mazara. Short of signing Encarnacion, I think Nomar will be our second biggest offensive addition this offseason.

Oh good, glad we strengthened an American League competitor by making this move.

No doubt, but he’s got plenty of room for recession and can still be at Mazara’s level.

Where did he say this? If there were plans for a Rendon pursuit, I’d be far more ok with going cheap in RF. Skeptical they would something so bold that would also require moving Moncada and likely trading Madrigal.

So a below average player is acceptable because the players before him were historically bad?

And they better succeed in doing so because we only have four years of control left of Yoan & Giolito and if we get 2016 to 2019 Mazara that could cause our competitive window to shrink a year.

I’m not sure about that. Here’s our roster’s wRC+ against RHP last year: Moncada = 148 Anderson = 132 Jimenez = 120 Grandal = 114 Mazara = 110 Collins = 99 Abreu = 99 I would expect Collins & Abreu to both be better against RHP. Honestly, wouldn’t be surprised if Mazara was the low man on the totem pole next year out of these seven.

They probably have it their demented minds they’ll make a run at Mookie next year. I mean, they refused to even take a token run at Cole & Strasburg, but I’m sure they’ll pump themselves up for a half-assed Betts pursuit. Let’s just hope that a bunch of the 2021 free agents don’t sign extensions beforehand or we will really be in a fucking predicament.

He basically has to or this is a compete failure

100% this. Our second biggest offensive upgrade this offseason will be Mazara. A team that won 72 games last year basically stopped after adding Grandal. And yes, I know Robert & Madrigal will be up soon enough, but they will be rookies next year and will likely go through the normal adjustment process. Rather than add more certainty around those young guys, we’ve instead punted on using our “unprecedented financial flexibility” to address RF and are going with a complete wild card. For context, the Phillies have added Harper, Realmuto, McCutcheon, Segura, & Gregorious on the positional side alone since going for it. We got our one big addition in Grandal and then decided to get cute and/or cheap. I don’t care how you slice this, this is not an optimal move for helping us win in 2020 and it burns an asset that could of helped us beyond that. Honestly, this is the rare move that doesn’t help us in the near term or long run and that’s why it’s so damn frustrating.

It’s clear as day the Sox had no plan B after missing on Wheeler and now are just trying to piece this shit together. Can’t believe we endured multiple seasons of failure to be rewarded a with a sub 2 win player as one of our big offseason additions. Where is all this money and what are they going to spend it on? And if they’re afraid of Boras pitchers. why did they just trade for one of his clients with limited control?

Absolutely embarrassing. We gave up our second round pick from a year ago for a strong side platoon bat with below average defense and only two years of control plus who has Scott Boras as his agent. I can not comprehend the logic of this move.

This Mazara / Walker comp is bizarre and needs to stop. I get they both struggle against LHP, but that’s where the comparisons end.

What could possibly be next? We just traded a top 10 prospect for a guy with <2 career fWAR over four seasons. I can’t even imagine what a good player will actually cost us via trade. I’m literally speechless at how bad this move is. What the fuck is the money going to be spent on at this point?

You were definitely all over Nimmo & Grandal! That team could probably use a little more pitching though ?

I still believe we got a shot at Nimmo. Adding him & Grandal would be the definition of addressing our OBP and balance issues.

Wow, well that should get the rest of the SP market moving.

Done?

Because if he’s cheap enough and you’re not actually trying to win, he’s a decent enough gamble. The problem for us is we’re trying to win and we should use what little prospect capital we have to add controllable pieces or rentals that we know will be useful next year. 2020 is not the time to play a scratch off in RF.