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Maybe you just should have stopped after" I stand corrected". Caulfield didn't say anything else to warrant such disdainful sarcasm. You stated something that was clearly wrong and it was politely pointed out to you. It's ok to accept you were wrong graciously.

Oh be quiet. Three weeks ago, you were calling Bowman a great talent evaluator. Honest to god you change your opinion on every hot topic almost immediately and you’ve quite honestly done it again on this. No one ever said Quenneville deserved to stay rather that they both needed to go. Your argument was that Bowman was the one who gave Quenneville these players (the same ones that you praised Bowman for acquiring or drafting) and since Bowman is so good at his job, it must have been Q who wanted the players. GMAFB. Take your hiatus already.

I don’t like it either, but it’s far more realistic than outbidding the big money teams

I wish somebody on Soxtalk would write an essay on payroll and why fans care about it. It's not their money and all fans do is shell out their own money to support the team. Why does anybody care if the Sox have a 200 million dollar payroll someday? If teams released the monetary figures it'd be said all teams can afford 200 million dollar payrolls. Look at the projected sale prices for all these teams and the TV contract figures. My motto is: Spend, Jerry, spend. IMO from a fan perspective there is absolutely no upside to having a low payroll.

Marco Gonzales could make more sense instead of Smith (who I’m pretty sure had some of the dumbest plays ever vs the Sox last year)

butthurt packer fan say what?

And blew the play dead when Cohen wasn’t touched

Shoulda gone for two

Late on everything. One thing that makes backups backups is they are less consistent. please just win this game however you can.

I disagree. The $20m cash knocks Canos cost down to $100m or $20m/yr. He has to be worth about 2-2.5 war per year to meet that cost or about 11 over 5. He was worth 2.9 war in half a season last year, so I still think he's a 4-5 war player next year. Swarzak and Bruce will cost the same in 2019 but might be worth 1-2 war. Diaz was a 3.5 war player last year. So say Swarzak and Bruce are worth 2 war combined in 2019 and Cano+Diaz is 7 war. They cost the same, so the Mets added 5 war for $0. Kelenic and Dunn are a coin toss. Sure they could pan out,but why wait when you have 2 of the best pitchers in baseball. There are two player in free agency that can give you 5 more WAR next year and they will cost you $350m.

He had a wrist injury. Hopefully Sox don’t just rely on minor league stats without any additional scouting or context.

Assuming we get neither Harper or Machado. Sign Happ 3/$42m, White Sox get: Haniger, Seager no $ Mariners get: Rutherford, Dunning, Rivera White Sox get: Greinke, Peralta, no $ Diamondbacks get: Basabe and Stephens Do both of those and your payroll goes up about $55m but you add anywhere from 12 to 18 WAR. Then you also have a corner OF/DH logjam with Hanniger, Peralta, Jimenez, Palka RF Haniger LF Peralta 1B Abreu DH Jimenez 3B Seager CA Castillo 2B Moncada SS Anderson CF Engel SP Greinke SP Rodon SP Lopez SP Happ SP Giolito CL Colome RP Jones RP Fry RP Burr RP Hamilton RP Bummer RP Ruiz

Imagine worshipping Avisail Garcia

Now that Avi is gone, the outfield is the place where the biggest hole should be filled. None of the youngsters are ready except Eloy. So, Eloy in one of the corners and, depending upon the defense of the anticipated acquisition, maybe Engel, or Leury in CF. For me, Harper checks the most boxes. He would fill the other corner OF slot, and provide the much needed LH bat. Without a big bat taking Avi's place, the outfield would be pretty weak, offensively, with only Eloy as a potentially big producer. To have cleared Avi from the roster, only to replace him with Delmonico or Palka, makes little sense. Palka deserves more opportunities, but not in the outfield. He should be destined for either DH or first base. I still think that Moncada should be given 2019 to adjust to his anticipated future position of third base, to open second for Madrigal, which seems to be the only really good spot for him, hopefully in 2020. Yolmer would be an acceptable "place holder" at the keystone spot, until Madrigal is ready. Add to those factors, the better star power and "character" of Harper, and for me, it's not even close. I still don't want Machado to be the "face of the franchise," for reasons I've expressed before and which many of you share.

Because of one mock draft by some random guy named Nick Shnider?