Leaderboard

Good god man you will complain about anything.

These posts are just so wonderful . You are all getting likes from me. There's so much more to why Abreu got that contract and it has like $4M in deferred money from 2023-26. I'm sure Reinsdorf thinks he was worth every penny of it ,Abreu loves the White Sox more than just about anything and wasn't afraid to show it . He is Mr.White Sox and if you can't deal with that I feel bad for you. He has done everything in his power to make this team better. The more I defend him the more I learn about him and just how influential he is to the younger guys not only on being a better baseball player but being a better person and representing the White Sox in a positive way.

My buddy sent me this photo of his dad who attended and brought this flag to hold up with Eloy. He wanted Eloy and Cease to sign it but the lines were too long, apparently.

People may not like the contract. But Abreu brings soo much more. The PR he brings is outstanding. That's one thing I can say about jerry that he rewards his people well. I know its not the best way and sometimes its the wrong people but the sox ain't losing nothing with Abreu. I hope they can be good these next 5-6 years. Abreu deserves that. I really wanna see what Abreu can do with protection in the lineup and I hope he realizes its not all him this year and he can just relax and let it flow. Abreu can be a dangerous hitter.

Aside from the idea of signing him to that extension, I love the stories I have seen of his work with Abreu's Amigos. Jose seems to be just a geniunely great guy....our generation's Minnie Minoso. Just having him and others like Tim Anderson who give their time to the community makes it even easier to root hard for this squad.

I want to create this thread and update the original post as we make spring training decisions or if we make any more minor moves. As we stand right now, help me out on what the opening day roster will look like. Don't worry about things like who is the starter and who is the bench option between Garcia and Mendick. I didn't put much thought into that. I just want to try and nail down the 26 guys. Will we go with a 5 man bench or an 8 man bullpen? I realize that most of this is pretty set already, so this might turn into a bullpen discussion, but that's alright. Starters: C - Grandal 1B - Abreu 2B - Garcia 3B - Moncada SS - Anderson LF - Eloy CF - Robert RF - Mazara DH - Encarnacion Bench: McCann Mendick Engel Cuthbert Rotation: Giolito Keuchel Lopez Gonzalez Cease Bullpen: Colome Bummer Cishek Herrera Fry Marshall Cordero Fulmer

Tough to summarize. But it was first time I’ve ever heard him, not even sure I remember an article interview after his new role. Hes very enthusiastic and I appreciated that he got really wonky while explaining things very clearly. He covered a couple times the difficulty scouting prospects across different maturity curves, such as a prospect from Vanderbilt who is already on a mlb nutrition and hitting plan be a guy at Indiana state. He brought up that Gladney was drafted by them largely because he was an EV darling at a workout they held. He said they would not favor college over high school under him (and I believe him). I appreciate how available Hostetler made himself to blogs and media, but he was a bit arrogant and loved to mostly talk about how much they knew about guys. Shirley loved to talk about the process of evaluating guys. He was super interesting. This from Y2Jimmy summed up my thoughts

Do you feel some obligation to just shit on everything that anyone on this website gets excited about? Not needed.

Star power everywhere you look and Madrigal & Kopech coming up soon. Best OD roster ever IMO.

Being 24 and being a major league regular for 4 years means the kid has a ton of talent. He could've been in the minors all those years. He started off as a 21yr old hitting 20 HR's. He's been almost the exact same player every year . Maybe he never gets it. Or maybe he decides OK I did it my way the last 4 years maybe it's time for a change . I think he's capable of 30-40 HR's. I'd call that a good improvement and a good ceiling. Apparently you don't agree. I hope you can still root for the kid without an I told you so in your head every AB he doesn't produce . That's no way to be a Sox fan. If the Sox end up with Castellanos I will cheer for him too just as loudly as i would for Mazara.

It appears everyone has taken the sox stance on nick right now. Nobody signing the guy. As for abreu who cares what the Sox want to pay him. They have proven that if they want to spend money they have it and will spend. They kept konerko too long as well but he gave the Sox great years. Jr is loyal, so what... it’s his money not yours. Let it go. If Mazara does t work out he will be gone and the Sox will move on. Who cares if they gave up some minor leaguer who may or may not make it. They won’t wreck the window. They have a great lineup for the next few years, to me it’s about pitching. Do they have the arms long term? Everyone who is young is un proven Gio needs to prove it again. No stud. Pitching wins.

For a guy that talks about Jose’s chewing an awful lot, you sure do know all the dip lingo.

I'm ready to just enjoy what we have. There is too much for us to be excited about to waste our attention looking at other teams. I will leave that to the front office.

Sox definitely have a good chance. Twins have a monster line up but sox lineup is pretty good too and rotation should be better. There is uncertainty in the sox rotation but even more in the twins rotation

I would say he’s right on par with Grandal.

It's not even about that and you know it.

So glad I have a replacement for BHB

Give him my thanks. I really like many of their beers. I've been there with my cousins beer brewing club and they treat them well.

I've only been to lemont just up the road for me.

I do like pollyanna. I was just there a few weeks ago.

Lol...ok bro. I think the 2006 & 1994 White Sox would beg to differ.

Would be awesome if Burdi can show he's ready.

Nice I asked about this like 2 months ago on here thinking we were so far behind in that.

We all have our "fanboy moment." Of all the professional athletes and others I've worked with, taping Gabriella Reece ankle and shoulder for an entire weekend tournament was outstanding.

Sox fans contributing to the notion that their fans only care when the Cubs lose. Ugh.

??? Hashtag So Ready For 2020!

No doubt.

Aka wasted pick

Seriously, who’s willing to ship me a 12 pack

A few things. The Abreu extension was and remains bad. It’s not like the Sox can’t work around it, but it was completely unnecessary. That said, clearly Jose provides intangibles to the club that the org loves, and they wanted to keep him around and take care of their guy. So long as he doesn’t fall off a cliff and so long as his $50M over the next 3 years doesn’t stop the Sox from adding other impact players as needed, it’s whatever. That remains to be seen, but in year 1 it doesn’t appear it made much of a difference. Nomar Mazara has been just a guy. But he’s incredibly talented, and has battled hand injuries the past 2 seasons. I didn’t love the move at the time, but based on how the lineup looks, I have no issues whatsoever rolling the dice on him for the 2020 season. He’s going to be an above average bat against RHP, and he’s going to be a slightly below average RF. There is a chance things click for him and we have a monster everyone thought he would be 4 years ago. No matter how much Backdoor tries to will Nick Castellanos into existence, it’s just not going to happen. The Sox clearly have their eye on better fits for the long term roster in RF next offseason and they also want to give Mazara a shot in the meantime. It’s time to let it go, bud. Castellanos isn’t even that good and his OF defense is comically bad. We don’t need 2/3 of our OF for the next several seasons to be DHs. Don’t understand why you’ve been so unwieldy to accept that that isn’t a positive for this org.

I wish those who hate (OK, dislike, didn't want to sign, etc) would actually see him in action at such event. They'd see how special it is to have him in our clubhouse.

Zobrist and a cheap reliever please.

This

The Sox are going to beat the Twins with pitching; it may not be this year, but it should be soon enough.

Well, baseball is a team game, so...

That's why I'm not letting us retain him bother me a ton. He may not be elite, but I don't think he's hurting us with his play, and its clear his role with some of the players.

Agreed. Very close on WAR but Donaldson (34) is 3 years older than Grandal (31).

I’d take grandal over donaldson

Let's face it, it was a great pickup for the Twins but the White Sox added some very good pieces as well. I think the plan is working. This was a decent offseason & next offseason should be more of the same.

This is actually what your argument boils down to asisde from inserting your subjective opinions as factors. Abreu locks you in to a DH position in competing years as he ages in a spot that could be filled easily by players on this team right now. EE is a better 1B than Jose Abreu. He is not a true upgrade production wise over what we could get from EE next year or any number of DHs that are available on the market year to year. Castellanos is a true upgrade over Mazara and is a true upgrade over anything we can reasonably get in FA next year outside of Joc Pederson, who is still a platoon bat. Castellanos has legitimate MLB production and his peripheral stats tell you he has been getting increasingly better every year over the last 3 years. Mazara is the same player every year and there is literally nothing in any of his numbers that tell you he has made improvements when taking account for league averages, and he still is bad at defense. You get slightly worse corner Defense from Nick while his bat is a +. Mazara also has negative defensive value but his bat doesn't come close to making up for it. If the Sox are trying to win they should be actually upgrading the black holes they have and RF is still pretty fucking bad.

I know Kopech has been recovering from TJS for 15 months, but he was a top 20 prospect before his injury and by reports he's still topping out at 102 mph after surgery. There's no reason why he still shouldn't be a top 20 prospect. He has more upside than Mize or Whitley.

The entire Cubs’ Fest was a debacle except for Ross, but nobody will give a damn of they get back to the playoffs again this year. Tony Kemp (traded) was one of their featured autograph guys. It will all blow over and everyone will be complaining about carrier costs for Marquee or not being able to access the games. 24 hour news cycle. Not to mention this whole impeachment thing, lol.

How was he not coached by the org. for these inevitable questions?! What a bad look.

So he DID cheat? Balta was right afterall?

I don’t consider macro to be micro. I’m a beer snob though, lol. Far too many good true micros in Chicagoland area to drink this swill. Noon Whistle Hop Butcher Phase Three Old Irving

You must strip the titles for the integrity of the game. If they leave it be, they better reinstate Pete Rose tomorrow. And apologize for penalizing the Black Sox. This is as bad as any. To know what pitch is coming??? Cmon. Fathom could get hits that way.

Here are the issues, as I see them: 1) Fairness - The victories in the Post Season were not fairly won. 2) Justice - How do you try to rectify the injustice done and achieve some restitution? The only action which really fits the offense is to have the title, which was not won fairly, taken away. Exactly how that can be achieved is something that can be debated. It would understandably be problematic, at the very least. Questions such as; who would be declared the champions, what about the individual statistics compiled during the post season, what happens to the W. S. rings and what about the additional earnings derived from winning the Championship? However those issues would be resolved, in any case, the Astros should not be entitled to claim the World Series Championship in 2017. 3) Deterrent - Measures must be taken to mitigate the possibility of a recurrence of this behaviour. Perhaps strong penalties, as well as means of precluding any such future attempts, can all be part of that process. The use of electronic communication between the catcher and the pitcher would seem to be one viable strategy. In summary; suspending players doesn't seem to be feasible. How can one be certain which players participated, or which ones knew and did, or didn't object. The more appropriate measure would be to simply deprive them of their unfairly awarded title of Champions. It's a team sport and that punishment affects the entire team. Strip them and the team of their fraudulently awarded title and let them live with that disappointment and shame. That is my humble opinion, and I'm sure that many have their own take, which is quite different.