Flash Tizzle

5 posts in the last 4 years ? Who else can we call out of the darkness of lurking?!

Signing either player will be a huge step towards legitimizing our rebuild to the public. I agree with your chicken/egg scenario, especially when it comes to fan perception. I know must on these forums, the die-hard Sox fans, know Machado or Harper alone isn’t going to be that missing piece to a World Series. What it does most importantly is create buzz, increase revenue (whether through ticket sales or merchandise) and get the casual fans excited for the future. There WILL be more fans in seats. Is it unreasonable to expect a minimum, 10-15 game turnaround in the standings? And that will be considered a success! It can be spun as improvement, a step towards building a consistent playoff contender. We no longer can say, “can’t spend a dollar when you have 50 cents” because at this moment, we have the capability of signing either player. I compare this point in time to the rebuild before it began. Some were afraid the fans would further abandon the team, or that management would screw everything up and further delay our return to the playoffs. It was almost this complacency of, well - we haven’t done it before, so that means we probably won’t do it. No, we haven’t broken the piggy bank open in quite awhile; but maybe now we should. Of course the signing could fail and either player could be ineffective/injured; thus financially crippling us. But it’s worth trying to improve the team through means previously untouched, much like the rebuild. We have the resources to get it done, and in this division, an unexpected year from a few players may be enough to atleast have September baseball mean something again

Lol yeah I definitely have the same issue. Rarely post anymore but I’m always browsing on the forum. I’m glad many here are still active and contributing to the site’s success. Every day I’m browsing back 5-10 pages to catch up on all the wild twitter speculation concerning Machado and Harper. I know we’re all hoping for a quick answer (hopefully to pur benefit), but I’m betting a decision will be reached by both players after Christmas

Ah yes, the old chat room crew. It had all the raw anger and emotion of every game, pitch by pitch, that we couldnt say in a game day thread.

Pfft, rookie. ?

Can someone post the link?

Then we’re in trouble as an organization if we’re unable to land either player. No one can deny they’ve placed themselves in their current position with low payroll obligations to have one. Hahn and KWs comments have only solidified that fact. It’s a failure, no matter the excuse

OH MY GODDDDDDDD Great info within this thread, especially the last few pages. Even if none of the info is proven correct it’s fun to be in the discussion for Machado/Harper. Every day im checking Soxtalk to look for some new (possibly inside) information, which fortunately Peavy has provides us with ?

Exactly. Go for the 4th down. If you can’t push one yard across in two plays (which seals the game), then Rodgers would have to run the field anyway. Either they kick to tie, or a TD wins away.

Can anyone that works in this organization, in any capacity, over any period of time, identify a competent QB?

Kid is the right word. Looks scared

I don’t believe Hahn can justify it much longer. Eloy has been on a ridiculous (albeit unsustainable) tear that coincided with the now infamous “check the boxes” remark. The media is beginning their Eloy promotional assault and there aren’t many more excuses you can give for a prospect hitting nearly .400. If we were entering September i’d be confident Hahn would hold him down through the end of the season. With two months to go? I’m not so sure. We’ll see if Hahn has the balls to do it.

Hey, if you’re going to reference the greatest philosophical question of White Sox history you better credit its creator! ? Btw, I was satisfied that we did eventually find our Liriano — Chris Sale

They probably never even mentioned his name. I guarantee he would have been theirs for the taking, you never heard anyone claiming he was untouchable. Their focus was probably pitching and pitching alone

Mistakes of that magnitude cannot be made. Especially since we're trying so hard to trade for and/or develop quality prospects, and if we had done nothing at all we'd be in a better position. I know people have argued that trade and subsequent failures may have propelled the rebuild. Although we had absolutely no purpose for Shields at the point of the trade to begin with. It was a horrible job all around.

Wouldn't you think the Padres were having the same exact thought process? "He has no value and isn't bringing back a Top 100 prospect." If it happened to Hahn, why can't it happen to another GM? The Padres obviously knew who they were receiving and we embarrassingly no clue of who were giving up. Let's start expecting more from Hahn. It's vitally important for our future to have one of those types of trades. If we don't get a Rizzo or Arrieta, crap for gold type of deals, we're relying on FA, equal value, or our minor league system. Call it dumb luck, or whatever; but we need some our way

We always have such low expectations. Why are we always assuming returns will be minimal? If Tatis Jr can be received from Shields or Arrieta from Cashner, we can't just have this defeatist mentality. It's the responsibility of our organization to take advantage of another team's weakness in evaluating their players. If it happen to us, why can't we expect the same from Hahn?

If they fail to develop the young talent at their disposal, especially after last years trades, it proves one of two scenarios -- either the players weren't worthy of their hype, or the Sox organization failed at developing and/or maintaining their health. Someone said earlier it doesn't matter which players succeed, as long as some of them do. Absolutely not true. You mean to tell me if Hansen, Collins, Stephens, and Burger are the future high-end talent from within the organization, it wouldn't matter that none of the players we acquired in recent trades succeeded? That would be a terrible indictment of our organization. Every major trade (Eaton/Quintana/Sale) NEEDS two, at the absolute minimum one successful and contributing part to push forward this rebuild. Hahn also needs two other factors to go his way for this team to reach its potential -- a crap for gold type of trade, and a low value, high return FA signing. Every WS team has a combination of internal development, FA signings, and those one-sided trades. I know it seems obvious, but atleast two/three need to happen. Hahn has been miserable in both categories, and our minor league development (while on the right track) has experienced the built in excuse of injuries, as of now. It's not enough to trade highly valued players for a highly valued return; no, you need a Cashner for Arrieta trade. One where an absolute stud is received for garbage. Basically what Shields for Tatis Jr did......but benefitting us.

No greater insult can be given. I've been ready for a rebuild since 2007 lol. I believe it's reasonable to worry about Moncada if, after the conclusion of the season, he hasn't improved. I'd place a .245/.320/.700+OPS slash as an expected goal. That doesn't mean abandon him for 2019 or line up replacements. We've seen with Avi Garcia how long it can take for everything to click. I understand it's a process, but perhaps I just expected more out of Moncada then many here did.

That's not really an update though. How is it nothing more has come out in the last few hours?

If Moncada doesn't reach that reasonable benchmark, it's time to openly criticize the organization. Either they overestimated Moncada (their fault) or don't have the coaches capable of working with him (again their fault). A rebuild is obviously an opportunity for development, but he isn't learning in a vacuum -- his value is tied to an unprecedented trade deal involving a perrenial Cy Young contender/possible HOF pitcher. We didn't trade Sale to accept a 2 year learning curve for a highly regarded prospect. I feel like we constantly lose sight of the value we traded. There's no room for excuses or errors. They need to fix it, or else, may as well complete the rebuild and fix the front office. That's just Moncada, mind you. We haven't even been treated with Kopech and Jimenez yet; but I'll set the stage now. "You can't expect every prospect to immediately succeed and sustain success!" Well, how about 1?

I'd imagine it was the coaching staff being overly cautious. He probably felt a tweak.

I'd expect immediate value to favor Boston, and of course the long-game here (as with any prospect deal) is meant to favor us. This should all but be guaranteed when dealing someone of Sale's stature when considering age, performance and contract value.

At a minimum the value needs to be equal. Although we should expect value from Moncada, Kopech, Basabe to exceed Sale -- otherwise why bother unless we expected to come ahead

He certaintly hasn't regressed in value, that much is obvious. There's probably not one person in Boston who is regretting that trade now.