Chicago White Sox

I think they want a guy that can start at 2B for 4 to 6 weeks until Madrigal is ready.

Go back to San Diego bro...

I don’t know, with 1B & DH pretty locked up by Abreu & Vaughn in 2021 & 2022, there may not be room for Collins unless he can be the primary backup catcher.

Completely confused by your catching proposal as you have two of them playing against righties and McCann not really in the mix. Seems to me we need to get rid of one of McCann or Collins if we sign a full-time DH like Encarnacion.

We had none of these guys four years ago because we traded away our entire controllable core, were able to land Robert before the LatAm rule changes, and completely tanked for a couple seasons that allowed us draft two top five picks. Unless you want to blow shit up again there will not be a big second wave of prospects anytime soon. There will be a handful of guys that might help, but most of the talent will be in place by June. The window to be great is 2020 to 2023 and we need to take advantage of that because our margin for error is slim as fuck given our lack of depth I’m not suggesting giving Bumgarner $100M+, but we can’t punt two years while the young guys develop as you suggest. And for the record, I am not a negative person at all, just someone incredibly frustrated by what appears to be a lack of vision, creative thinking, & boldness from our front office & ownership group.

You do realize we will have a bottom five farm system by mid season once Robert, Madrigal, Kopech lose their eligibility. We have completely failed to supplement the core rebuild guys we acquired via trade outside of top five overall draft picks and Robert. You cited a second wave of prospects coming to save the day that does not exist. This idea of sustained success is a huge long shot at the moment and therefore we should be doing everything in our power to maximize the four years left we have of Moncada & Giolito.

We need both. There is zero reason that Hahn can’t pursue both at the same time. Also, who fits this #2 starter type that you think we’ll pursue?

Holy shit you are talking about a two year window?! And who is this second wave of prospects you refer to? I pray to the baseball gods that Hahn has a much aggressive in place than you do or god help us all...

Do you realize how bad our #5 starters were last year?

I’m glad your plan is a two or three year plan!

Then we’ll go with Dylan Covey and god knows who then...

And mostly affordable guys where it should only take an extra million or two to land them. You’d think we’d have our pick of the litter given our financial flexibility.

What? I said the market is quickly running out of starters, not that Anderson has caused it to run out right now. No idea what you are arguing

Oh I know, but that still doesn’t change the fact that the supply side is quickly shrinking and if there is a guy we really like on a one year deal (like say Wood) that maybe we should be a bit more aggressive. My concern (which is a bit Parkman-ish admittedly) is we view all these pitchers as interchangeable and are simply waiting for the best bargain possible. That seems unlikely, but at the same time we haven’t signed anyone yet which is still very much surprising to me.

I mean, the market is quickly running out of pitchers. Kind of bizarre that we’re waiting to see who will be the last man standing and simply signing them rather than be proactive and going after a guy we think may be undervalued.

I will say this, we pretty much have to go out and sign Encarnacion. Add him to the middle of the lineup and that makes this Mazara move easier to digest: Robert, CF Moncada, 3B# Abreu, 1B Jimenez, LF Grandal, C# Encarnacion, DH Anderson, SS Mazara, RF* Madrigal, 2B Might as well move McCann or Collins because there won’t be enough playing time for both of them though.

Mazara is a bad baseball player. It’s cool he has 79 HRs by the age of 24, but he legit sucks at everything else. And honestly, 20 HRs isn’t good for a corner OF in the juiced ball era.

White Sox but without Benintendi. Just seems like something we’d do.

I still think one of the two starters will be more ambitious or at least have a name a causal fan might know like Price. I’d love Wood as the second starter though.

At this point I’m worried Nova will be one of the two starters and that would piss me off to no end despite his fans around here.

Because they haven’t signed a single starter, they are messaging they don’t want to sign the tier two starters, and they don’t really have the expendable assets to trade for a quality starter. Sure, they may go out and trade for Price, but I seriously doubt that was their original plan B.

100% agree. The lack of vision / creative thinking is what upsets me the most about this offseason. I LOVE they went after Grandal & Wheeler, but they clearly had no contingency plan and that may prevent us from contending this year.

He clearly doesn’t like them and/or does not want to commit the years to them. That’s totally fine, but then maybe his offseason plan should have gone in a different direction or they should have been more aggressive last year. Basing your entire offseason around one target and not having a backup plan should be a firable offense.

If he was smart, he just wouldn’t talk to the media until his offseason is complete. He constantly says something and then quickly has to backtrack. He hyped up wanting to add two starters including one of the TOR variety and now it seems like we’ll be pursuing lesser options. I don’t know if he’s part meatball or something, but for a guy who constantly does lawyer speak he sure says some does shit at times.

My biggest fear is they don’t get serious about competing until 2021 and then are unable to extend Moncada / Giolito, resulting in a three year window.