"See what Avasil Garcia can do?" But...But...I thought we were looking to compete and put ourselves in the best position possible to compete for a Championship? In all honesty...if they don't and couldn't add that final piece this year, it is and was time to just tear it down. The White Sox give me blue balls.

I think with a younger owner, the Sox would have torn it down last winter but as long as JR is running the show it won't happen. He's going to be 80 soon and wants to see another "winner".

So for our fan base to ever hope to acquire top tier talent via free agent, we have to hope the price of said talent has to fall below market value so as to "fall" to a price that the current ownership is willing to pay? The same ownership who has never given a contract for a higher value than the small market Royals have done not once but twice this winter? I mean, wow. What is going on here.

Very good post.

I think Melky in RF would be so bad defensively (maybe even worse than Garcia) that we'd end up moving him to DH, putting Shuck/somebody else in RF, and benching LaRoche.

That'll work

Nobody knows what the sox budget is. Every time people thought they were at it last year they kept adding more pieces.

Very good post.

 

Absolutely, best post in regards to the White Sox FO and this whole situation. Hands down, sums it up perfectly.

 

Nobody knows what the sox budget is. Every time people thought they were at it last year they kept adding more pieces.

Thank you.

I think with a younger owner, the Sox would have torn it down last winter but as long as JR is running the show it won't happen. He's going to be 80 soon and wants to see another "winner".

Then tell JR he ought to consider bringing in Mr. Cespedes to help fulfill this desire of his to win again.

Nobody knows what the sox budget is. Every time people thought they were at it last year they kept adding more pieces.

 

True, but it's hard to imagine them raising it a lot after last season. One would have to assume season ticket sales are down from last year. As we heard so often, they went after Melky due to an increase in ticket sales.

Then tell JR he ought to consider bringing in Mr. Cespedes to help fulfill this desire of his to win again.

 

BOOM! Exactly!

Then tell JR he ought to consider bringing in Mr. Cespedes to help fulfill this desire of his to win again.

If I had his cell number I would have already called.

True, but it's hard to imagine them raising it a lot after last season. One would have to assume season ticket sales are down from last year. As we heard so often, they went after Melky due to an increase in ticket sales.

 

I think the ticket sales would increase quite a bit if they made another somewhat significant addition.

I think the ticket sales would increase quite a bit if they made another somewhat significant addition.

 

Agreed...don't get me wrong, I hope they add as much payroll as possible.

Quick poll:

 

If you had the chance, would you rather have traded Q for Shelby millers same package and done nothing else, or have our current offseason with zero big 3 OF additions

Quick poll:

 

If you had the chance, would you rather have traded Q for Shelby millers same package and done nothing else, or have our current offseason with zero big 3 OF additions

Traded Q for Shelby's package

If I had his cell number I would have already called.

At the pace things are going, a snail mail letter may just get to him in time!!

Why are people freaking out about the Tiger tweets? We already knew they were in on Cespedes, it's not new information. And to claim we're at budget seems strange, because why would we have spent weeks in negotiations with these guys if that were the case? I have no doubt we'll get someone to replace Avi.

Dan Hayes is SO full of s***. So full of it.

Personally I have taken a step back from the whole Cespedes thing. I was following it everyday and got tired of the rumors and constant fluff leaks from agents, FO, etc. That gave me some time to kind of take the whole thing in. Plain and simple my take is this:

 

Roc Nation is a new agency and are driving to get their guy top dollar, to not succeed in that chases current and future players away from a new agency. All these leaks mean zero in reality. It's just a nonsense pissing match between camps trying to get their point across through media members.

 

What is consistent and has been consistent since we acquired Frazier is we are in on Cespedes and Gordon (irreverent now). We have consistently heard we are in on Cespedes from that point on. A few weeks ago we heard three year is our max, mets were in on 1-3 years, THE O's offered a 5-6 year offer on Friday (which he didn't take) because?? the mets then may or may of not offered a 1 year deal and he was deciding between The two. Then Davis signs and it's back to the Mets (broke) and sox sticking to a 3 year deal after days of nothing.

 

Now today we have ten teams interested but reporters saying Cespedes is getting paid BIG and long term. Then the Astros pop up, now the Tigers (broke). So who is going to pay Cespedes big long term. No one all offseason? now ten times are chomping at the bit to get in on him.

 

This is a leak war and whether we win or not, I would love to. But until Cespedes signs somewhere else we are in a position to win and sign him. I see the tiger stuff as a play to really get us to pay more because I believe we Hahn has played this market to a "T". Hahn knows how to negotiate contracts and I don't doubt the contract we may or may not have offered him formally is inticing but Roc Nation is leveraging it to all and any team. The O's used him like Gordon used us to get a little more money from KC.

 

Let's wait this out. I'm a vocal advocate for Cespedes and the fact the other additions alone are not enough but if Cespeds does get a six year or even five year contract in the $115-125 point I rather be out. And to say that sucks but it's the smart move. There are other avenues to Persue if he decides his to rich for our blood.

 

I think either way by Wednesday you'll have a conclusion to this saga.

Edited January 18, 201610 yr by Frank_Thomas35

KW can never lose face. He believes Avi is going to be a 300/30/100 and 30sb kind of player.

Cespedes before this year:

 

Never hit 30 HR

Was an overall negative defensive WAR player

Was coming off seasons w/ OPS of 736 & 751

Had staggering OBP's of .294 & .301 (people say Frazier's OBP sucks??)

 

And now people are freaking out that some other team is going to pay him 100+ million dollars to age and decline.

 

If we are gonna get an outfielder, go for broke at Upton, or sign Jackson for defense in RF and sign Desmond on a 1-2yr deal to upgrade the offense at SS.

Edited January 18, 201610 yr by Knackattack

Rationalize all you want. The sox accelerated their rebuild, traded away 5 minor leaguers, and still *maybe* will be .500. They had two ways to go this offseason, they chose neither. The lack of strategy in this front office is depressingly average.

Rationalize all you want. The sox accelerated their rebuild, traded away 5 minor leaguers, and still *maybe* will be .500. They had two ways to go this offseason, they chose neither. The lack of strategy in this front office is depressingly average.

 

 

If they end up signing Cespedes would your stance change?

Rationalize all you want. The sox accelerated their rebuild, traded away 5 minor leaguers, and still *maybe* will be .500. They had two ways to go this offseason, they chose neither. The lack of strategy in this front office is depressingly average.

They traded away 1 minor leaguer worth anything.. they are much better now than they were last year and it's not like Frazier and Lawrie are locks to leave once they can hit the FA market. We have gotten guys like Eaton, Sale & Q on deals so the 5 very forgettable minor leaguers they have traded off aren't going to haunt us IMO.

 

Plus, there are a lot of free agents on the board and quite a bit of time before the season starts and guess what: if we tank and Frazier has 25 bombs by the all star break and Lawrie is hitting well and fielding 2b decently, we are going to be getting a helluva lot more back for those guys than we spent.

Edited January 18, 201610 yr by Knackattack

Ifit was so important to win now with this core you finish the the win now.

They traded away 1 minor leaguer worth anything.. they are much better now than they were last year and it's not like Frazier and Lawrie are locks to leave once they can hit the FA market. We have gotten guys like Eaton, Sale & Q on deals so the 5 very forgettable minor leaguers they have traded off aren't going to haunt us IMO.

 

Plus, there are a lot of free agents on the board and quite a bit of time before the season starts and guess what: if we tank and Frazier has 25 bombs by the all star break and Lawrie is hitting well and fielding 2b decently, we are going to be getting a helluva lot more back for those guys than we spent.

Just like with Samardjiza!