Jose Abreu

https://deadspin.com/heres-facebooks-2015-mlb-fandom-map-1695021778 This is from 2015 but is relevant to discussion. Seems like the White Sox control more of the actual city of Chicago (as opposed to the rest of IL) than people may think.

Because OUTRAGE! BURN IT ALL DOWN!

The biggest "bright spot" of the season was completely omitted from the thread, and it's Tim Anderson establishing himself as a starting caliber MLB shortstop. Obviously needs to work on raising OBP and continuing to cut strikeouts, but his defense + speed + power profile, along with his cheap contract, make him a virtual lock as our starting SS for the next 4+ years.

What's "awful" about a .391 OBP, 34 home runs, and a 133 wRC+?

It was in the center and below the zone, yes. If it were an inch below the zone then yeah, swing. It looked much lower than that though.

Not even close

I think the Phillies are probably the top contender. But the Yankees and Dodgers have luxury tax concerns that might cause them to hold back

This is consistent with a tidbit I heard too. Even if we don’t get him, I think many will be surprised at how much we offer (if it leaks).

I like Write Sox, 108, Pnoles, etc. but they’ve been so pessimistic lately. I was glad to see you and Owen give your interpretations.

Either you misread or the Sun Times did a poor job of reporting but that’s pretty much the opposite impression I got from Hahn’s interview

The Rams are as close to a flawless football team as you can get. Even down to the punter, kicker (when healthy), etc. Just an unreal roster and coach.

And how many times, in those 25+ years, have consensus elite position players reached free agency at age 26 or younger at a time where the White Sox coincidentally only have $9 million + arbitration deals and minimal buyouts committed in the future? I don't think past evidence is relevant this offseason because this offseason is just so rare, especially because there are two of the players I just described available. It's a sport-altering offseason.

Well just to make myself clear, it's only a few posts, none of them are yours, and they're all abrasive- stuff like "you'd have to be a complete idiot to think we have a shot at signing _____". Anyway, I guess I'd consider anything north of $125 million in total to be such a contract. I do believe we'll meet or exceed that total at some point in the next few years.

It’s probably even more foolish to believe that we have a team with virtually the lowest possible payroll without the intention of adding impact FAs to it. I have so many posts saved to laugh at once we end up signing one of these guys in the next few years.

Had we traded for Yelich, we'd be without one of Eloy/Robert and one of Cease/Dunning right now. The anti-Hahn backlash would've shut this site down.

I don't think the GOP senators will care

It's not her fault she was raped, BUT she could've/should've.... is literally the most common form of victim shaming. It's not even debatable.

I kind of agree with you, but at the same time, if the name of the game is "innings eating", Marco Estrada has exactly zero 200+ inning seasons. Shields has 10.

Well now I'm excited. This bidding war can't come soon enough. I'm still skeptical but as many have stated in prior weeks, it all comes down to whether or not we offer the most money. I don't really trust us to do that but this rebuild has been full of surprising moves so I guess you never know.

I got that quote from Merkin, here's the full article.

Was gonna create my own thread for this but it works here. Reading between the lines, given the other comments he made about pitching and our many outfield prospects, I 100% believe he's talking about Machado here.

News flash, they are

I don't know how anyone can say this is a 5-7 win team. I know the schedule gets tougher but barring major injuries, I have a really hard time seeing the Bears any worse than 8-8. With development from Trubisky they could even be a 10 win team this year.

Moncada