ChiSox59

This is a good post.

The White Sox aren't spending $6M on Cesar Hernandez. They may well resign him later in the offseason, but no one is paying him $6M.

For Jake Burger? Is that the proposed trade here?

Will be an interesting decision for Carlos. I think he could maybe get 2 year and $25-30M on the FA market. Is the potential for the extra $7-$12M guaranteed worth the risk?

I think you nailed it. On same boat on Conforto. Conforto should be priority #1. With him, Escobar is a fine addition at 2B. Those two make this lineup much, much more balanced without the goofball scenarios of selling low on Eloy and/or Vaughn.

Welcome back, Jack.

Holy SSS. Vaughn and Eloy have much much much more offensive talent than Gavin Sheets. Sheets has a role of this team but my lord, people wanting to push those 2 aside for Sheets are nuts.

I answering the question about what you do with with righty bats. Of course we need a 2B, a pen arm or two and ideally a good backup catcher.

Vaughn LF. Eloy DH. Abreu 1B. Sheets bench/occasional starter/injury fill in. Sign a real RF. Completely unconcerned about Burger - he has two option years still - stash him in AAA until needed. easy peasy.

So basically TLR punted game 1 and that supposed to be a notch in the positive column for him? Giolito should have started game #1. 75% of this board felt the same way. Giolito also could have started game 4 if he started game 1. McCullers is really good and certainly a tough match up for the Sox, but lets not act like he's suddenly prime Pedro Martinez. Gio wasn't great by any means in game 2 and he deserves critiism for that. But he should have been yanked after the lead-off walk in the 5th and things potentially look a lot different. If Kopech (or Bummer) comes in in that spot, the whole complexion of the series could have looked different.

Have you seen Lance Lynn's #s in Houston? Gio couldn't make it thru 5 because he was toast and TLR left him in 2 batters too long.

Right! What are they supposed to say? "Tony was a nice guy and we respect his past, but he's past his prime and cost us in multiple situations. Fire his ass." C'mon!

Not start Lynn in game 1 in a god awful matchup. Pretty much every bullpen decision he made the whole series. Pinch hitting Cesar for Engel to start na inning in game 2, and putting Leury in RF where he went on to cost multiple runs with missing a play Engel makes in his sleep. At that point, the series was over. Just plain got our asses kicked in game 4, but bringing Kopech in in that spot in game 4 was another curious one. Not arguing for his guys when there was an awful strike zone, but arguing over a completely meaningless HBP. Tony was fucking awful for the vast majority of the season. Sox xW-L was 97-76. Enough for HFA. At a minimum, Tony cost them that. However, when watching the season unfold with missed reviews, bad pen management, terrible lineups, over resting, etc., he cost them far more.

Three year contract.

Because I have eyes. He looked terrible in RF. There is a reason he was hardly used there. Unfortunately, he also looked terrible at 1B. When you have a LF that should be Vaughn but most likely will be Eloy, but in either event, you can't put Sheets in RF is the majority of the time. This isn't MLB the Show.

Well then maybe the manager shouldn't continually put his team in a terrible position to win games.

Hard pass on that from me. Sox need to sign a legitimate OF that hits from the left side and is at least a decent defender. Sheets is nothing more than an emergency OF.

Vaughn LF. Eloy DH. Abreu 1B. I am signing a lefty RF that ideally is at least an average defender (Conforto is the guy, ideally). Sheets is on bench or in AAA. He'll get plenty of ABs throughout the year. He also has 2 options years remaining. I am not subtracting from the core for Gavin Sheets.

Right!? Abreu is more than suitable to play 1B. IDGAF about Jake Burger. I am not penciling him into anything. He's purely injury insurance with 2 more option years. I am not trading anyone to make room for Jake Burger, or expecting Burger to fill the roles of any other guys mentioned. I was pretty much on the same board with Sheets when they sent him down, but he sure looked the part the 2nd half and we need LHH...bad. But I sure as shit am not trading Eloy or Vaughn and expecting Sheets to fill those shows over the next half decade. Abreu is a FA after 22. Sure, the org worships the guy and he probably comes back if he doesn't completely fall off a cliff in 22, but he's only under contract 1 more season and that solves alot of log jam issues down the road. Vaughn proved to be plenty capable of playing LF everyday and RF occasionally. In 22: LF/DH/1B: Eloy, Vaughn and Abreu RF: FA Sheets fills in at all those positions as bench piece, and fills in for IL stints. Again, situation clears slightly after 22 with Abreu (potentially) leaving for FA.

I am not ready to write Madrigal off as some oft-injured can never stay healthy guy. But I get why some people hang onto that. He's hasn't proven he can stay heathy. However - not sure how you can say the bolded about a pre-arb dude. IF he can play 80 game and produce 2 WAR, that has value. Quite a bit of it actually. Certainly not as much as he would have if he could be relied for a full season, but to say a guy making $650k and producing 4 WAR per 162 GP "isn't useful" is kind of silly.

Eloy isn't getting traded.

Then why exactly did you cite him as a bad contract? He likely created somewhere between $10-15M in surplus value this season if you're really looking at $ per WAR created. Grandal is not a bad contract.

Grandal was worth every single penny he was paid this year.

Yeah, I guess I just don't agree. Maybe we can turn Vaughn into a controllable left handed hitting stud at 2B or RF. Otherwise I don't see the point. Jose is going nowhere. Don't see Hahn selling low on Eloy.

Sure - but its also FARRRRR to early to make Vaughn a weak-side platoon player. Something has to give there.