TheFutureIsNear

I get why people will overrate Lopez and Collins, but I say trade them while they have value...because I don’t think they’ll have much in 2 years

Trade: Zack Collins, Reynaldo Lopez, Dane Dunning, and Steele Walker for Starling Marte and Kyle Crick Sign: JDM, Wheeler, Gio Gonzalez , Jason Castro, and Chris Martin

I’d love to know what about the White Sox history makes people think that they are going to hand out the largest contract ever to a pitcher...it’s really not even a discussion worth having. I’ll bet there won’t even be so much as a meeting

Just listening to a recent Barry Zito interview on PMT and when asked who the funniest teammate he’s ever played with...of all people he singled out Menechino and then went on to talk about what an amazing teammate and locker room presence he was.

To clarify, I’m not saying don’t sign 2 pitchers in general. I’m saying don’t go out and spend big $ on 2 guys in the 2nd tier of this free agent group. Such as spending $100+M combined for something like Odorozzi and Wheeler would be crazy in my opinion. Signing a cheaper vet for 1/2 years or taking a risk on a bounce back potential makes sense. Basically don’t overspend on 2 non impact players. I don’t think we will have a problem filling out the back of the rotation, the top of the rotation is where the focus needs to be (even tho I don’t think Cole is happening)

I understand that it’s delusional to think all of those guys will be healthy and pitching well...but it’s equally as delusional to think that the Sox signing 2 middle of the rotation starters is going to make a significant impact.

I’m not entirely sure why this board is obsessed with signing to starters honestly...are people really expecting a deep playoff run because we sign Wheeler and Odorozzi?? Rodon Dunning Cease Kopech Lopez For better or worse, we need to figure out what we have in that group next year. Spending $ on 2 guys + Gio makes that almost impossible. Obviously we need 1 starter to stabilize things, but no idea why people are so eager to spend big $ on a 3/4 starter like Odorizzi or Keuchle.

Yeah if Stone is going to be on his high horse questioning why fans are upset and apologizing for this shitty ownership group he can stay away. Being a company man to a failing company doesn’t even make sense.

Why? SP’s with a pulse start at $8M a year. I realize Rodon’s once very high ceiling is a pipe dream at this point, but giving up on him at this point with the state of this team would be incredibly pointless. Hell who knows, TJ surgery could have been the best thing for Rodon. Even if his arb # was 10M I wouldn’t care. Unless there are some complications from the surgery I’m unaware of, Rodon is easily still capable of putting up the same type of #’s as Odorizzi and Wheeler and people want to give them contracts worth $15-20M per year.

Non tendering Rodon is 1 of the worst opinions I’ve read on this board in a while...and that’s saying something

Odoorizzi has a very Rick Porcello feel to me...without the fluke cy young. He’s going to get way overpaid to throw 180 innings of 4 era ball.

The market on players with picks attached has also been dead...I won’t be shocked either way, but I don’t think Ozuna getting paid is a foregone conclusion at all.

I see the opposite for Ozuna. His #’s are only above average and he will likely be tied to a draft pick with the QO. It won’t shock me if he ends up getting something like 3/48...or just take the QO if he really want to stay in St Louis like has alluded to. mlbtraderumors did a write up on him today and seem to have the same feelings: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/10/free-agent-outlook-marcell-ozuna.html

Power hitting LH bat sure does though...and we need a DH. Not that I know much about this guy, as with everything, the $ will determine if he’s worth a gamble

Do I think Jerry values his profit margin over the Sox winning? Yes. Do I think Jerry is intentionally building 2nd place teams? No way. That is a pretty stupid business model and Jerry isn’t a stupid businessman, like him or not.

While I’m as pessimistic as anyone about the Sox spending big $....if Ozuna isn’t in our price range we all might as well give up hope on ever making a serious playoff run. A great team that is purely home grown with only bargain bin signings is a long shot at best. I’m thinking 3 years/54M with a 4th year as a mutual option for Ozuna. If ownership isn’t willing to spend that, we really are doomed...but even through my negativity I don’t think that’s the case. It’s the $150M+ contracts I have a hard time seeing happen. wasn’t aware of Ozuna having a strong desire to stay in St Louis by the way

Personally I think it would be crazy to make roster moves with the idea that we have the likes of Micker, Basabae, Walker, and Rutherford in the minors...not saying they can’t be good players, but I sure wouldn’t be banking on them anytime soon. I don’t see them as anything more than minor league depth that most teams have. And I honestly haven’t looked at next years free agent class much, but I’m also not holding my breath on the Sox making huge splash signings on star level players. I think we will be looking forward to next year on that signing for a long time. Admittedly it could be my impatience, but I think Ozuna fills holes of exactly what we need...but he will fill the holes well, not great. Not to mention you’d have to question why a 36yo guy like Gardner would choose to be a stop gap on a team with no WS aspirations. He will have options...

I won’t be upset if we sign Gardner, but he seems like more of a stop gap option to me and I’m not sure why the Sox would be interested in that. We’d be looking for a new OF’er again by the time we are ready to truly compete for a WS. Plus do you really trust Gardner’s sudden HR power? I know it seems like pretty much anyone with a pulse can hit 25 nowadays, but also wouldn’t be shocked if Gardner went back to a .360-.370 SLUG%? And while I don’t love Ozuna by any means, I just don’t see many players on the free agent list the Sox can plug into their lineup the next 3 years and get at least above average production out of. Ozuna brings that in both the lineup and OF in my option. Will he likely get overpaid? Probably. But will that $2-3M/year overpay have any impact on the Sox payroll? Highly unlikely.

Who?? Why be oddly secretive about it lol?

Still think a realistic and successful off season starts with Wheeler and Ozuna. Anything on top is gravy to me. Make a minor trade for Travis Shaw and sign 2 low risk/high reward pen arms and I’m a happy fan. I think a lot of you are setting yourselves up for disappointment with the expectations I’m reading...again

My prediction is a random mediocre veteran that we are all going to question

Idk, I guess I’m just not shocked that a team that was unarguably 1 of the least talented teams in the league going into the season ended up as a bottom 5 offense. And then we could go into the fact that our head coach is openly against using analytics...but maybe Steverson was as well, I have no idea about that. Either way it’s not a big deal to me that he was fired, but I just find it odd you are confused why the lineup performed so poorly. I could have broken the news to you that we were going to suck at all those stats before the season even started.

Meh I don’t really care either way because I think hitting/pitching coaches are extremely overrated in modern baseball, but I also don’t really understand the criticism either. A really bad roster resulted in a really bad offense...what was expected out of the hitting coach that you guys didn’t see?

If we want a cheap, LH utility guy with power from the Brewers I think Travis Shaw makes a ton of sense provided the trade price is very cheap...which I imagine it will be. He had 2 years of arb left and was at 4.5M this year, can’t see it going up much considering he was in the minors. Also can’t see the Brewers holding onto him. Not sure what happened to him this year, but 2017 and 2018 he had 30+ hrs with an .820+ OPS. Cant speak to the level of his D, but has played 2B, 3B and 1B recently.

He’s been talked about a little bit, but Howie Kendrick wouldn’t be a bad name to look at for a relatively cheap short term deal. Can play 2B until Madrigal is up and then can shift to a utility role playing 2B/1B/LF. Wade Miley could also be a sneaky very solid signing to stabilize the rotation that won’t break the bank. Edit: just now reading the part about under $5M, that’s tough. Miley will for sure get more. Kendrick will probably be close, but might go a little over