TheFutureIsNear

The idea that a left handed hitter with a career WRC+ of 126 and .836 OPS is “worth nothing” is ridiculous. Soxtalk: Our front office sucks, they don’t do anything! Also Soxtalk on any available player that’s going to make less than $20mil a year: That player sucks, don’t bring him here! SHOULD this organization just spend some $ and solve our problem with Nimmo? Of course. Will they? Of course not. At some point beggars can’t be choosers and we have to be realistic. If it’s possible to buy low on Jesse Winker it’s definitely not a bad realistic option.

If you’re disappointed at just the idea of Winker for fringe prospects, you should really prepare yourself for the actual outcome. What realistic options are you honestly expecting for a LH corner OF’er this off season?

Buying low on Winker from the Mariners after they acquired another OF’er doesn’t seem like the worst plan….

Just don’t tender Engel and it’s essentially a $1.7M addition to the payroll. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not standing on the table saying we need to get Tapia…just saying that he’s a better LH corner OF option than we have. Obviously a better addition should be sought out, but I don’t hate the idea of him as a 4th OF’er.

I don’t think that’s bad for a solid 4th of’er. We need 1 and Engel is due 2.3M. Could there be a better option? Maybe. Would like Tapia to be better in CF, but don’t know if he’d kill us in short spurts. Of course with Robert we may need more than a short spurt so who knows.

I see…I figured he’d be available, but guess there wasn’t as much of a trade market as I expected. I don’t love Tapia or think he’d be a great get. But given what we have to work with, he’s not a bad lefty platoon option with some speed/athleticism, a decent glove and not a total black hole at the plate. Would def take a shot and hope to make a bigger/better move later and Tapia is our 4th OF’er opening day.

Trade Crochet and Sheets for Brandon Lowe Trade Graveman for Raimel Tapia Sign Cueto or Smyly Start Colas day 1 SS- Anderson 3B- Yoan CF- Robert DH- Eloy LF- Colas 1B- Vaughn 2B- Lowe C- Yaz/Seby(upgrade needed) RF- Tapia Bench- Burger, Luery, Romy or Mendick, Engel or Haseley(upgrade needed) Cease Lynn Gio Kopech Cueto/Smyly Martin Diekman Lambert Kelly Bummer Lopez Hendricks

Start Colas and Sosa to start the season and sign a vet SP that can throw 150+ innings of ERA not much above 4 or better. Explore any and all trade options for Grandal/Pollack/Moncada Easier said than done…but figure out 1 last move to put the team over the top- a LH hitter with pop that can fill a corner OF spot with at least above average D. Easy option is sign Nimmo, but we all know how that will likely go. Conforto is probably worth the gamble, but is a risk and no guarantee in we can sign him. Trade options are few and far between, but have to explore all options including trading guys like Crochet, Burger, Ramos and Cespedes. Not saying those guys will net us a star, but some combo should get a quality starter.

No way we are that lucky. With a few months to rest Yaz will be at spring training to collect that paycheck. We have to hope he can catch part time vs righties and the shift ban turns him back into a somewhat useful hitter. Or perhaps there’s a trade out there for an equally bad contract, but kinda doubt that…

Pretty much where I’m at. Not ecstatic or even going to pretend to know a lot about Grifol, but at this point I don’t think it’s a bad hire…which is sadly a win with the state of this franchise

I’m still fully prepared for Ron Washington…don’t buy all the gloom and doom of it being someone like Getz. But they will for sure still make the wrong choice

Has Sandy Alomar Jr even been mentioned as a possible candidate? Or is it assumed he’s staying in Cleveland as the successor to Francona? Id also really to see Matt Quatraro brought in for an interview

I agree with you, but unfortunately I don’t think it’s the way this organization is going to go. Espada and Willie Harris might be the only 2 candidates of the rumored list so far that fit that bill?

Open discussion amongst who tho? Unless I’m missing something aren’t these just fan fueled rumors? I know the White Sox are a mess and a bit of a joke in the front office, but I seriously doubt Hahn would be allowed to start his 2nd rebuild and they’d be looking at old managers of any kind if a tear down was in the works. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Who else besides TA has had behind the scenes issues? I guess you could question Yoan’s commitment with the music career/whatever he does? But do teammates really care about TA’s sex life/marriage? I would guess not, but obviously none of us know what truly happened with the chemistry and locker room of this team. If I was to bet I’d put my $ on having an out of touch dinosaur as a manager as the issue. I keep pointing to a team like the Phillies getting much better once getting rid of a manager that wasn’t helping the team. But I could be wrong and maybe it is the players…

I know it seems impossible, but I would stress patience with this lineup/core for 1 more season. It can’t be a coincidence that the entire lineup took a step back all at the exact same time. I really think the coaching staff killed this team and the right staff can get a lot more out of most of the lineup. I’m not saying a guy like Moncada is suddenly going to be an all-star, but he certainly isn’t as bad as he was this year either. He can be a more than useful player and shouldn’t be dumped for nothing yet. Yaz is old, but the elimination of the shift should help him be at least decent. TA and Robert just need to stay healthy. Vaughn should be a able to take a step forward with a new staff and playing his natural position of 1B. Bring up Colas and finally find a solid LH OF’er and the offense should be middle of the pack at worst. And I think we have the pitching to carry a middle of the pack offense to 90ish wins.

Doesn’t pretty much everyone have great results in St Louis tho? He was fired and nothing changed in terms of their success. The Cardinals are a well run organization known for developing talent in the minors…the Sox are the opposite. Maybe he’s changed/adapted after getting fired, but hiring a guy who refuses to use analytics is far from ideal.

Agreed. Ruiz gets a lot of hate because he’s been used poorly and put into some high leverage situations he clearly doesn’t belong. For a million you can do MUCH worse for a guy that can eat 60+ innings out of the pen….Someone has to do it. If we actually had minor league depth I could see wanting to replace him internally, but I’m not sure there’s single guy in the minors that can pitch in the majors next year.

At the surface level Shildt seems like a pretty good candidate because of his record. But reading into it more I’m not so sure…apparently he was fired for the team being a “toxic environment” and TLR strongly supported him and said it was more like “philosophical differences”. Doesn’t make me feel great at all. Has to be analytic based I’m assuming? https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2022/03/31/mike-shildt-cardinals-fired-heart-broken/7228358001/ “And, just a few days ago, there was an impromptu meeting behind home plate with Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa. La Russa, who spent 16 years as the Cardinals manager with two World Series titles before returning to manage the Chicago White Sox, said he heard a comment from someone in the Cardinals’ organization that Shildt was fired because of a “toxic environment.’’ “That one frosted my ass,’’ La Russa said. “My comment was that if it was toxic, it must be in the front office. … I’m for the Cardinals. Everybody makes their own decision. But when you start talking about that, it might damage his chance to manage again for those that don’t know any better. He did a hell of a job. “Philosophical differences? Ok. But toxic? “He’s a special guy. That’s why it’s so important for his reputation to be intact and not smeared.’’ Mozeliak, when contacted, declined to publicly revisit the reasons for Shildt’s firing. He simply reiterated that there were philosophical differences, saying Shildt’s record and success as manager was inconsequential in the decision“

Conforto was bad in 2021 before getting hurt and hasn’t played baseball in a long time. $12-15M seems like way more than he’ll get. I’d cut your guesstimate in 1/2

Looks like he was ok when playing mostly LF in Colorado. 8 DRS and 4.5 UZR in 984 innings isn’t awful is it? Not a + defender, but doesn’t seem like he’d hurt by any means. Bad in RF for some reason tho and shouldn’t be anything but an emergency CF

Toronto probably doesn’t have a ton of interest in trading him, but I would love to try to and get Raimel Tapia from them. He seemingly still won’t have an open path to everyday AB’s next season and fits our needs perfectly. But again…not sure what a realistic trade would look like

I don’t understand people talking about trading Vaughn or Eloy to bring back a 36 year old Abreu. That’s nuts and horrible team building. Not like this team is realistically going to win a WS in the next 2 years…if Jose even has 2 years left. And while I’m not implying it’s Jose’s fault by any means…but Jose being the “heart” of a team that’s never won a playoff series in his tenure is an overrated talking point imo. Again, not because of Jose, but sometimes a change helps. Not to mention that the team allegedly (pretty clearly) had a bad locker room this season. A new voice(s) may not be the worst thing

Does Walt Weiss deserve a 2nd look as a manager? Obviously didn’t go well in Colorado, but that’s a tough gig for anyone. Seems to be doing very good things with the Braves hitters. And if we are going to pluck a guy from the Astros…Alex Cintron? Has some White Sox ties JR will love, but has been around that successful Houston club for a few years now as a hitting coach. Basically I want a hitting coach to turn this lineup back around that has been with a successful club for a few years to learn what winning is actually like. Because no one around the White Sox org knows. Shouldn’t be that hard

Yes Pollack was coming off a career year and expecting a repeat of that would have been unreasonable. But I posted his career #’s for a reason, the guy has had a long career of being at least an above average hitter. Not a single person had the assumption that Pollack would suddenly be a terrible hitter this year going into the season. And you’re saying it like the Dodgers gave up on him for nothing. They lost their closer in free agency and traded for a guy that was arguably the best closer in the NL for the majority of the 2021 season. It seemed like a win/win for both clubs at the time. Now looking at most (if not all?) of our lineup’s dip in production this season it’s almost like you could point to another common denominator that isn’t the GM… And again, I’m not trying to defend the overall job Hahn has done. I think he should be replaced as GM. I just honestly don’t see how trading for Pollack to fill an OF hole we had could be considered a “bad” move using anything other than hindsight.