Jose Abreu

Yeah I'm not sure why anyone would be swayed in either direction by those comments. He can't really answer that question any differently

Not only would people need to eat crow for that, but there were also a vocal few IIRC who thought we were crazy for believing that the timing of Moncada's agency switch meant anything.

There's a decent amount of risk in that 9/171 proposal for sure. But if Moncada stays healthy, I am fairly confident that he'll put up 6-8 WAR seasons throughout his prime, so it would be a smart move IMO.

#FakeCishekWasRight

I agree there. I’m just not convinced that, if he starts in AAA, he gets called up as early as possible in mid-April. I think they would wait until May so as to not arouse service time suspicion

I disagree with the bolded. I don't think that 7th year really matters for someone like Madrigal who likely won't figure to receive a huge payday in FA like Robert or Jimenez would

@CBJ03 had it weeks ago. @Y2Jimmy0 also tweeted that he'd bet on Bummer as a Spring Training extension candidate around the same time.

Yeah, the arms are doing so well (obviously early) that fewer may get to us than expected. However, if Kjerstad has an amazing year, he'll probably be taken before us anyway in lieu of one of the pitchers. IMO, it all bodes well for Ed Howard (or someone comparable in HS) being there for us

And if it keeps up, it seems like there will be a lot of them going in the top 10. I really want Ed Howard or Kjerstad at this point

You're talking about Puig right? He's probably gonna get somewhere in the $1-3 million range at this point.

Either of Lopez or Cease would be my pick (went with Lopez). If we're a playoff team, I'd be willing to bet one (or both) had an all-star caliber year

Grandal’s most frequent batting order positions last year were 2nd, 4th, and 5th. There is absolutely no reason to think that his on-base skills will diminish if he bats towards the top of our order

The Atlanta Falcons retweet did us in

Gap has been narrowed. It’s anyone’s poll

It basically turned into "most active Twitter fanbase", which the White Sox are actually "good" at. And it doesn't hurt that more popular teams obviously had people voting against them too

It's not the value I'm worried about, it's the amount of plate appearances over the course of a season. Eloy missed out on developmental time last year and it would be nice to get an extra 40-50 PAs (depending on which source you're using) this season by batting him 3rd. He is also likely a better offensive player than Abreu going forward Edit- And if Eloy is 4th, I won't care, but I'm more convinced that will be EE or Grandal

Agreed. My only annoyance will likely be that I want Eloy getting more PAs and Abreu getting (relatively) fewer, so when Abreu is inevitably 3rd and Eloy is 5th/6th, I'll be mildly disturbed. But it won't matter if Abreu's struggles vs RHP become less prominent

They desperately need position player depth if they're serious about making the playoffs this year, and as we've seen, such players are signing for peanuts (such as Brad Miller for $2 million). I think the frustration/disappointment is warranted, even if the offseason was largely a positive

I'm just glad it's not Leury. Hopefully it's Anderson/Moncada in that order as Moncada has made it clear that he doesn't want to bat first

Right, and unlike Moncada's, all the batted ball/expected stat metrics suggest that he's going to get worse, not better

Agree on the bullpen and I think they will find the starting pitching eventually. Just not as high on the lineup

Fortunately, I don't think the Padres are getting to the NLCS anytime soon. Preller is running that organization into the ground

Yeah I agree. My biggest takeaway from Soxfest was actually that Eloy clearly put on muscle