TheFutureIsNear

Would he represent a clear upgrade for the Sox? Of course, but I wouldn’t give up a whole lot for him. Especially not at this point thinking he’s going to make any kind of impact on this team. I live in phillies country so see a lot of their games and hear all the talk...Odubel is wildly inconsistent and makes a ton of boneheaded mistakes. If you look at his splits he’s been pretty bad for 1/2 the season the past 2 years. I could definitely see the Phillies giving him up if the right deal comes along, but doubt they are looking to move him either. Nick Williams would make a lot more sense if the Phillies do land Harper.

Counting on the White Sox to develop prospects is just madness. Really any team thinking they are going to develop a large % of their prospects successfully is flawed thinking...but the White Sox??? I have no faith in them developing even 1/2 of these guys.

Being out of town I’m not always privy to the inter-workings of the organization....is there any kind of contingency plan in place for when JR does leave (putting it nicely)? Like this won’t be a Jerry Jones/Al David situation where his entitled kid is 2nd in line with no hope in sight will it?

None...don’t piece together a mediocre team with free agents. Winning 80 games instead of 65 does nothing for anybody. And the REALLY said part is I don’t even know where to go if we can’t sign big free agents. We have very few assets left to sell off and the franchise still has a serious lack of talent. The plan seems to be sit and hope..,I guess? Not sure how this mess gets turned around

Just sad...and damn near fraud.

Wait, is this actually true? They used Yonder Alonso to make phone calls to season ticket holders? Holy crap this gets more embarrassing by the second

We we were never in the derby...the front office is sitting on the sidelines with their thumbs up their asses trying to determine if Bryce has any relatives they can sign

Can’t develop talent and can’t land free agents...this team really is doomed. Thanks to whoever posted about mlb.tv auto renew. Will be sure to cancel that too

Outbid by the padres? Seems impossible. Either manny never wanted to come here or the front office is a complete joke. Take your pick

I’m actually surprised to see nothing about defensive shifts on there. I’m on the fence about the subject but I know a lot of casual baseball fans that complain about it. It kinda ties into my next point... Speeding up the game is important, but I also think figuring out how to get more balls hit into play is important. K rates have gone bonkers. More balls in play leads to more potential excitement all around. Obviously easier said than done, no one is striking out on purpose, but I think most casual fans can’t handle pitchers duels

Unfortunately a rich old white guy being racist is extremely unsurprising. The world will be a better place when more and more people like Ricketts die off. Until then the MLB should separate him AND his $ from the league. And if his poor son can’t finance the team without Daddy’s $, then too bad. I’m sure you won’t find racist emails from Mark Cuban, but he’s “not the type of owner the league wants” ?

My issue with both Gio and Fulmer is that I’m not sure top of the rotation stuff is anywhere to be found at this point. It’s not like they are struggling with consistently or control. They just flat out can’t get batters out...including the minors, which is even more troubling. To me it almost feels like they are trying to figure out problems just to get to 4th/5th starter status. Don’t get me wrong, if 1 of these guys can stay in the roatatuon full time it’s a big plus for the Sox, but given their pedigree and cost it’s a hard pill to swallow that I don’t have faith in either to make it.

Don’t know, maybe I’m overrating Joc, but can’t see someone else not giving up more than a reliever for him. With 500+ AB’s he’s a 3+ WAR player with 2 years of cheap control. What am I missing?

Don’t feel like going through 85 pages...is there or have there been any rumors on what a hypothetical deal would look like? Can’t see anybody on the roster the Dodgers would want...maybe Jones? But what value does he really have until he stays healthy? Would we be talking about a Dunning level prospect probably? Possibly one of Basabe or Micker + ?

Hypothetically... C- Beef/McCann 1B- Jose 2B- Moncada SS- Anderson 3B- Manny LF- Joc CF- Jay/Engel RF- Palka DH- Alonso Luery and Yolmer as super subs That’s actually not too bad if the front office can pull it off. We would still need another SP before we are any kind of real contenders, but definitely reason for optimism

Great deal for the Dodgers...and I guess the Phillies were being literal with their “stupid money” spending. That McCutchen contract looks awful

Tommy Phan and Austin Meadows are getting the majority of AB's in the corners for the Rays. Avi will be battling for off day AB's and DH platoon with Choi most likely.

Have to see what the contract looks like, but if/when there is an opt out it will make it a lot harder to continue with the rebuild. Can’t wait another 2 years if you possibly only have Manny for 4.

I see 2 OF’ers you have to worry about potentially needing a spot for in 2019 and 2020. Eloy and Rutherford...maybe 3 if you want to add in Madrigal. Anything more and I would call that counting your chickens before they hatch.

Yeah there’s just no way we can count on Jon Jay, Daniel Palka, and Eloy getting his 1st taste of the bigs as our OF if we want to seriously compete. That is questionable offensively and just looks bad defensively. I think we would still need 1 quality starting OF + at least 1 starter capable of giving 180+ innings of sub 4 era ball. And even then I think we’d need a good bit of improvement from the young guys to be a serious competitor

I swear there could be a story about literally anything and this board would flip it into something about Machado/Harper

What’s his market like this year? I’d have no problem with a 1 year deal, maybe 2 if the price is right. Anything beyond 2 years would anger me

I feel like this would be fairly easy to confirm if true. There’s a whole lot of cameras in that stadium

To each their own... I’m not even a little bit of a believer in his 2017 season. Not saying any are huge upgrades offensively, but I think all 3 will hit better then Avi. And then when factoring in corner OF D and base running and yeah I personally take all 3. Obviously there will be a fairly significant price difference...but not my $. I guess my biggest issue is even if/after Manny I see us as 75-80 win team. I know there still has to be a long term approach, but it’s not like payroll will be stretched after Manny. Might as well try to sign some 1 year deals and see if we can get to the playoffs while bridging the gap to the prospects.

If we sign Machado, we better be looking at better options than Avi to fill in the OF. What’s the point of signing Machado and not trying to make the playoffs year 1? I’d wait out the Markakis, Jones, Cargo market and see which 1 I can get on the cheapest 1 year deal