Flash Tizzle

As this has continued to gain momentum and more comes out that (I believe) further indicts Williams as have handled it poorly, I believe this should be his last season. We've always been arguing about how much he meddles in team construction, now he has moved beyond that with this incident and has created a huge distraction. I'm not even saying he was wrong to limit clubhouse access. We're just past the point of establishing who's right or wrong -- because it's the players and their feelings that matter. Between Williams and ANYONE (even Drake Laroche) id pick the player. I guess we'll see how this translates to the field. In some alternate universe it may not have changed anything if the whole nonsense never came up to begin with, but i know I've just about reached my KW limit. Laroche isn't without blame, but he's a problem we'll be without. The next problem KW remains

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/laroche...te-sox-ventura/ Wow here I thought it would be months before these types of articles would be written.

QUOTE (Tony @ Mar 16, 2016 -> 10:14 PM) Doesn't this almost make LaRoche look worse? There was an agreement. Things can change. They had a discussion, apparently a week ago, and LaRoche continued to bring his son into the clubhouse every day. Another conversation is had, and LaRoche picks up his ball and goes home? Circumstances change in business every day. Among the fans/general public it probably does. Not many would sympathesize with his issue and the alleged non-written, gentleman's agreement to have his son around. However, I fear his teammates think differently and I believe Kaplan's tweet about players supporting him (notably Sale). It's an issue they have encountered for the last year and whether it was in his comtract or not probably means more to teammates who may have their own out-of-contract provisions. I don't disagree with Williams creating a new policy. However, I HATE its timing and moreso that is becomes yet another typical White Sox distraction. I can't wait for it to be referenced later if the team is struggling. "Cracks began to show within the team in preseason when VP Kenny Williams broke an agreement with first baseman Adam Laroche......"

QUOTE (ptatc @ Mar 15, 2016 -> 02:41 PM) I know it's kind of silly but this was my thought. This board is really going to go after Avi this year without LaRoche around. Avi deserved all of the criticism for his lack of offensive and defensive baseball skills. However, having one less teammate in the suck only helps Garcia. It makes his struggles, while annoying, less of an impact if most everyone around him in the lineup is doing well

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 13, 2016 -> 05:59 PM) Yes you can. Let's not pretend like we haven't seen this from Danks since his shoulder was operated on. At this point we are all praying that somehow he magically finds "it" and is good again. The likelihood of that is not good This is exactly the problem I see too. All the same people are using the same excuses of just being spring training, but for players such as Danks there should be no "just wait and see" approach. Weren't we supposed to give him time to heal from said injury before we could accurately asses him? This team cannot afford yet another typical early season bed wetting. And if Danks is being himself by May/June and we're competing, it's time to consider reassigning hos role.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Mar 12, 2016 -> 02:24 PM) Johnson looks terrible. He better get that velocity up, and quickly. Arrieta sure had no problem getting his up to 2015 levels after throwing career high innings. Johnson should have done more to prepare himself, unless he's injured there's no excuse pitching like he is. If I was him I would have been working my ass off to force managements hand

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 04:53 PM) Desmond and Jackson train is in the station... All aboard!! Yeah.... It's a broken down train that nobody would have ridden even a month ago, but now that it's leaving the station with no other options we're forced to jump aboard Really, it's pathetic what we've resigned ourselves to as fans.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 08:06 AM) If the Mets are offering 3 years/$65-75 million and opt-outs, what would the Sox realistically have to bid to beat that? They'd probably have to offer several million more per season for the length of the contract. But if its a three year deal, especially with an opt-out, you can afford to do it. Obviously if Mets are offering 3/75 we shouldnt just top that, but if 3/65 is on the table we could definitely raise ours

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 07:40 AM) This guy is all over the place Mibelt Rodriguez ‏@MibeltRodriguez 15m15 minutes ago Update: Yoenis Céspedes likely to sign a 3 years deal with the #Mets, which will have an Opt-out. A decision is expected before Sunday. Three year deals are right up our alley, why wouldn't we be all over this!?

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 03:38 PM) Rosie backtracking a bit here Yeah he is, the unknown of other teams being involved goes without saying. He may as well have said his source really doesn't know anything.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 03:34 PM) Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal 22s23 seconds ago Sources: #Nationals’ offer to Cespedes is for five years. #Mets unwilling to go beyond three. Dollars not known. Cespedes is waiting for the last second bidder to emerge.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 02:17 PM) I would have zero problem going after Fowler. Melky was much better when removed from the 2 hole. Grab Fowler put him and his .330+ OBP in the 2 hole, move Melky down, call it a day. We'll call it a day at the end of the season too.......in fourth place. Still need an additional power bat somewhere

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 02:04 PM) Normally I would agree, but with the extra pick the Sox got for Samardzija, that's the one they would have to give up and they would still have all of their standard allotment of picks and accompanying bonus pool. Having the extra pool money available is very valuable, though. We could use the money from our third pick on top of the second to sign someone who otherwise wouldn't have signed at slot value. I recall a recent article that detailed how the Astros were doing exactly this to acquire talent. It's very valuable

This is the dilemma, if you don't sign Cespedes you can't justify giving up a draft pick for Fowler. Not with the state of our farm system and the reality we're seeing here, which is we're not going to land these big FA with some self imposed limit on contract years. To get a player like Cespedes, we'd either have to draft him or trade for him.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:32 PM) True. It's not like the Sox targeted improving at 3B or Catcher or anything. The only move that matters is an OF improvement. I meant premiere FA acquisitions I should have clarified my sarcastic post

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:26 PM) I just hope we don't sign Fowler. I hope we don't sign him, either...... But only after we've expressed interest, are quoted as being among the finalist, and are outbid by another team. That way it'll be a clean sweep this season of losing out in our targets!

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:23 PM) Heyman is saying Nats are offering 5/100 and might be willing to go higher. So it looks like we're out. No one should seriously be that surprised by this. Not surprised that the White Sox done gone all White Sox on us again. It doesn't make it less disappointing

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 10:06 AM) If they miss out on Cespedes, I think they go in with the team they have. Sometimes the best move is no move. If that's their plan, it's terrible and obviously only a result of missing out on the big name FA. How do you explain that? "We actively tried to upgrade our OF via FA, but only now do we realize the team as constructed can compete." There has to be an OF upgrade, no other choice

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 01:27 PM) Throughout this whole process I've been in wait and see mode. Even Rabbit's tweets are a version of wait and see mode. The eye emoji, the talks of people not answering texts or emails, none of which is definitive. If there was something to say.....he would have

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 01:12 PM) The meltdown if it came out right now the Sox signed Fowler would be epic "We acquired the player we've wanted all along"

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 01:02 PM) We are officially in the most replied to thread in soxtalk history. Didn't think anyone would beat peavy. And we haven't even come to the point yet where he selected a team.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 12:53 PM) How long before we get another "sox holding firm at 3 year max contract" from one of the MLB reporters About the time Merkin releases another article detailing how confident Hahn is with his current lineup

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 12:55 PM) 53 members reading. LOL. Yeah and three times as many free loaders too lazy to sign up!

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 12:46 PM) I wish all of this excitement was over a better player. Cespedes is about the limit of the type of player we can expect to get in FA. Even so we're the benefit of a limited market for him.....ans we'll still probably lose out

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 12:43 PM) I'm still waiting for the Cardinals to get in on the action. That has been my thought all along. They'll go all Detroit on us, outbid everyone and leave a LOT of Sox fans pissed