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Japan is 15 hours ahead of us, so very possible it leaked there first!?!

we just saw two of the most expensive rotations in baseball squaring off in the World Series but yes spending on pitching is a terrible idea.

Google translate + that guy's twitter feed are pure entertainment I'm short but my brother was low when we had white socks and it could get bigger

Caufield gonna be Caufield.

Highly suspect baseball rumors are better than nothing, as long as they don’t come from peavy44.

Pitching staff and bullpen is still pretty questionable. Wheeler (figure $21 million) and Betts ($28 million) would pretty much prevent us from being able to add much in the way of bullpen/bench/another starter help. we would have to give up significant assets as well, and the roster is not championship ready considering Robert and Madrigal have yet to play a MLB game yet. 2020 should be a big step, but true contention is likely 2021.

Yes, that is where we are at. Been a slow TG break around here with news! At least the randoms are picking up their game again!

Need confirmation from Moistyarsehole23 before I get excited

Anywhere else but here given the Sox history with leaks on guys. Hopefully they prove me wrong though.

Best in the business is obviously subjective. I tend to be pro White Sox.

Yes. I don't see any other way that it makes sense to him to give up any of his prime-earning years unless you're buying out his whole career.

Hahn is the best in the business at this sort of thing.

Why would we not be realistic contenders with Betts & Wheeler?

Sprotrac is a pretty great resource IMO and they show our committed salary for 10 guys to be ~$71M. If you allocate all of Abreu’s signing bonus to 2020 we’d be sitting at $74M plus we owe $1M for Alonso’s theoretic buy-our. All in, that puts us right at $75M. Assuming we add two starters, one reliever, a RF, and a bench piece, that means we need to include 10 pre-arb guys as well. At $650k per, that puts us at right about $82M with five roster spots to fill. My guess is we have a payroll ceiling ~$135M next year. Adding Wheeler at $20M per would put at $102M, leaving a good $30M to work with. Give me either Wood or Gonzalez for the rotation (1/$8M or 1/$6M respectively), a guy like McHugh for the bullpen (1/$5M), & Gennett for the bench (1/$5M) and we still have $15M to $17M left for RF. That would likely be enough for any free agent OF (including Castellanos) and way more than what would be required for any realistic trade target (i.e. not Mookie). To me, it’s absolutely critical we land Wheeler, as otherwise we’ll struggle to take advantage our remaining financial flexibility effectively.

I think Wheeler is definitely a risky gamble. His Tommy John kept him out quite a bit longer than most Tommy John's seem to keep guys out. But he's had 2 great seasons since then. Honestly though, I think Cole at 250 mil is probably a lesser risk than Wheeler at 110. I just don't think Cole is gettable, since the Angels would likely match an offer around 250, and he'd likely choose going home.

Adam Engel as a 4th OFer platooned vs lefties and at a few mill is >>> Kevin pillar at 7.5 mill a year

I think if we wait too long, Yoan will be difficult to keep in the fold. I hope Abreu is whispering in his ear about being the key building block!

That was the funniest thing I have seen all day

This is the BEST. From now on I demand we only post fake tweets in foreign languages! Makes the whole thing infinitely more entertaining.

Old news.

Are we that desperate. Now we are just posting random tweets.

Eventually, someone will be right!

It's entirely incentive based, like a MLM scheme. I was told it was a better offer than actual guarenteed money.

I actually am Zack Wheeler and can confirm I just signed.

Do you want something to speculate about ? I have a reach. This guys is followed by the white Sox, scot Gregor and more:

If Jose’s head photoshopped on a BBW model’s body and erectile dysfunction jokes don’t solidify one’s credibility as an insider, I don’t know what does.

You know when Von Emor drops them balls, shit is about to pop off!!

I completely agree on Machado. I’ve been saying that since he signed with San Diego. It was more that we got blindsided as opposed to truly believing our offer was better. As for the incentives, I’m guessing they want more incentives for Wheeler than they did for Grandal...just because he’s a pitcher with an injury history and we’re reluctant to go big on pitchers in the first place. I’m guessing we want some innings incentives, but I could be totally wrong.

Honestly, here. I think his market is being driven up a lot more than anybody thought though.

I would pay 10/200 for Yoan right now but I feel he would be wiser to take 5/100. He could prolly collect 5/150 on the back 5 years.

Yeah, I just don't see it as the best way to allocate allegedly limited resources. You have 6 SP that will be on the roster in 2021, 7 if they get Wheeler. You only need an extra arm this year because of Kopech. It just doesn't make any sense to give a guy like Keuchel a multi year deal if we are getting Wheeler. You can asses the pitching more after this season if Lopez is still struggling. It would make more sense to get an actual RF.

IMO - the only way to get this to reasonably happen is to get in the $200 million range.

But to say he’s the best in the business...when it’s standard operating procedure the last fifteen years? The Indians were even doing this in the mid 90’s. And the only reason we have a rebuild is due to the fact we couldn’t successfully build a core, either through FA or the draft or player development, yes? The difference is those other teams extended contention windows rather than being forced to auction off their best pieces. In the end, signing extensions with Robert, Giolito and Moncada will all be considerably more difficult...despite the “friends and family” approach of keeping Abreu around much longer than anticipated.

That being said, I don't see Moncada signing one but I have no doubt the Sox have interest. Moncada isn't a terrible guy to keep motivated though.

Ummm...the Indians probably had double the number of early extensions over the last two decades (when Hahn was already in charge of this for the Sox). The Rays are way more proficient, for example.

2021 has a lot if we sign Wheeler Wheeler Giolito Kopech Rodon Cease Lopez Dunning i think there are enough options there to omit a pursuit of more and go all in on Betts instead.

Betts, Wheeler, & Grandal combined for 16.5 fWAR last year. If they come even remotely close to those numbers next year, it would be absolute insanity for a team coming off 72 wins and with a talented young core in place (including the addition of three top 25 prospects) to not compete in the shittiest division in all of baseball. I’m sorry, but teams do NOT need to be perfect to be legit playoff contenders.

Takes 2 to tango.

Castellanos and its not even close. His defense is improving. Mancini might be a trainwreck out there. Plus we'd have to give up Dunning or something valuable to get Mancini.

I can second this. I happen to know someone who has had some dealings with one of his ventures, and they were not high on him or his abilities from a professional business level. Frank was a great ball player, but that doesn’t make you good with money or a good business man.

Also forget his beer which is / was fucking disgusting.

I was there in 2012, with the entire family, on the way home from a wedding in Iowa and it was a must stop to see. Just happened that there were 4 other Sox fans on the field at the time who pitched to the grandkids while I played a little left field. Had my picture taken about a half foot into the corn stalks in right field, but didn't see anyone in there. Of course had to buy my "Field of Dreams T-shirt and mug. A great memory!! Forgive my reminiscing. I'll be watching.

Technically, there should be a comma and a question mark in your post. I’m just messing with you, man. I’ll stop the grammar talk. I apologize. Cheers. ?

Oh my God who gives a shit

Imagine switching to a team that lost more games than the Sox ?

Abreu's extension was awful. So no, not better spent.

I think this is very cool. Can't wait to see this.

This is amazing. We aren't sacrificing anything as our team will play in one of the coolest scenarios this century. This game will be talked about big time and we are already getting big time attention today. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be the first team to do this.

Far too many curmudgeons on this board (I know it's a shock). Its a game have fun. I know my idea if fun is much different than most on this board (bat flipping) but playing games in small stadiums in different places would be fun.