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Oh snap: https://sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/al-power-rankings-where-yankees-145938143.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLmdvb2dsZS5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHsI0cEG7VP5-jTPl-lfWAKt0n1SVILbCCJOWZa1o_46OwQtdHkFfmmAw2yo-0i4zcT5LOPQWsH0nrnb2GCZaGTmiDFDVvRkFRBdrZ6Gvfm1TTaaJUj36Ygr21MmFyIku_GwMTO0soVf0OU1JRnfQVBR2MRFpTjZBaeKmVjcw3jS

Little did they know a yahoo sports power rankings from a writer we’ve never heard of would cancel their opinions

I seem to be one of the few posters on Soxtalk who is gung ho and positive about the team. I just posted over at the Athletic something that came to me. Why am I so positive when so many Sox fans are so negative? I think it's because while the Sox have been wandering in the wilderness during the rebuild, I just tuned the team and MLB out. I have been a Sox fan since 1970 when I lived in the Chicago area, but I haven't lived in Illinois since 1976, so it's pretty easy for me to do that. Meanwhile, I'm guessing most of the fans who remain highly critical of the team have continued living through those painful years, and feel that team ownership and management owes them something for them having to endure those years. Is there something to that? For me, returning to the team as I did last year, all I see are good things and growth. Here are a few things that I really like (whether or not other Sox fans do). 1. The Sox have 9 players - tied with the Dodgers - on MLB's top 100 Players Right Now list. Only 4 of them are in their 30s, with Abreu 34. Lynn 33, and Grandal and Hendriks 32. 2. Of these 9 players, the young core is going to be here for 3 or more years. See my 3-5 year window article. Lance Lynn is only signed for one year, but could easily be extended. 3. Most of these 9 players are still improving -- Robert, Moncada, Giolito, Jimenez, Anderson. The other 4 should hang in there for another few years. 4. In addition to this top-100 core, the Sox are going to bring up three more young players with great upside - Andrew Vaughn, Michael Kopech, and Zack Collins. Some may think Collins doesn't belong on this list, but I think he just needs enough ML ABs to settle in and prove he'll be a very good offensive backup catcher and part-time lefty DH. Meanwhile, Vaughn and Kopech might join other Sox' players on that top 100 list soon. 5. The Sox also have a HOF manager, who has won far more games during the decades of integrated baseball than any other manager in history. He's won pennants and World Series with teams in both leagues. And he's bilingual. If he takes the Sox to the World Series and wins, he'll be the consensus best manager of all time. 6. I love the Sox new pitching coach Ethan Katz, and what I think he'll be able to do with the young Sox pitchers, especially Dylan Cease. 7. The Sox have one of the best, and perhaps the best, bullpens in baseball. This will help them win a lot of games, and will become of even more importance when the Sox make the playoffs. And that's without counting Garrett Crochet, the 100-mph man, who could be the ultimate bullpen weapon this year before he converts to being starter. 8. The Sox probably have the best offense in the AL. They can bash the ball with anyone. But they can do more than just bash. They have some great speed guys in Robert and Anderson, and some excellent bat control guys like Madrigal and Eaton. 9. The Sox have the reigning AL-MVP in Jose Abreu, who has won the RBI title the last two years. They have perhaps the best closer in baseball in Liam Hendriks. They have the 2019 batting title winner in Tim Anderson. 10. In Tim Anderson, the Sox have one of the best leadoff players in baseball. All he did in the short postseason was get 3 hits in each of his 3 games -- 9 hits overall. He is still getting better. He was the highest ranked Sox player in the Top 100, and he's probably underrated. 11. In Eloy Jimenez, the Sox have a budding superstar with the bat, who will probably take over Abreu's role in the middle of the lineup as Jose eventually ages out. He's also got a winning personality, keeping everyone uplifted and loose. He's smiling all the time. 12. In Lucas Giolito, the Sox have a big-game pitcher who rises to the occasion. He may not win the Cy Young (though he may), but I wouldn't be afraid to start him heads up with any Cy Young or other pitcher in baseball. I would consider us no worse than even in any matchup. 13. In Luis Robert, the Sox have a budding superstar. Who knows how good he'll become over the next few years. But it's going to be fun to watch. 14. The Sox went 14-0 against lefty starters last year. That should terrify opposing managers who will have to try to juggle their pitching staffs to avoid using lefty starters and relievers. The Sox are a young, hungry team who got a taste last year and now are ready to dominate. They have skillful and savvy vets to help lead them, several guys who have been on World Series teams, and a HOF manager who has seen it all and knows how to manage when the pressure is on. I'm really glad the Sox didn't go out and repeat the Encarnacion and Gonzalez mistakes, but instead decided to roll with young players who need to play to get them where they need to be by the postseason. I don't want to watch some dubious veteran with no future on the Sox take ABs away from a younger player who is expected to be part of the team's core for the next 5-6 years. I happen to really like the choices the Sox made in the offseason. I don't know if the Sox are going to win the AL Pennant or World Series, but I believe we're going to win the AL Central by a relatively comfortable margin. There may be ups and downs during the season, but I'm not going to freak out about it. I'm just going to enjoy the Sox this year.

Past criticism is fine. I really hated the "go for it" 2014-2016 period...but I also get it...we got really lucky with how great Sale/Quintana/Abreu/Eaton were...in 2014 we had four guys that put up a combined 21 WAR...that's HALF way to the WAR you need to get to the playoffs with 4 guys...if we could just fill in around them 21 one-WAR guys but the problem was there was SO much garbage there (and yes, budget). But as a fan, trying to go for it in those years made sense, because...how could you not win with those four? But credit to management that they signed those guys to good contracts, recognized the hopelessness of the hand and then went full rebuild. Which I think has been executed beautifully...still as a fan it's been four painful rebuild years after four painful go-for-it years. But frustration with the FO now? Given the bolded part above...don't you kind of feel like we are the 2012 LA Angels where Mike Trout comes up...except...we have this amazing team around him already under construction. When Ken Griffey, JR came up at 20...the Mariners had 27 year old Edgar Martinez, 26 year old Randy Johnson and 23 year old Omar Vizquel...that's four hall of famers...and for five years they were a non-contender. The problem was that was it's just not enough. It's why it's so hard to win in baseball...but I feel like the management has built a group of really good players...of the likely opening day roster...who is your worst guy? Leury Garcia seems a professional backup. Adam Eaton, same. A lot here would say Collins...but lefty hitting backup catcher with power and a batting eye seems very useful. Reylo and Rodon I supposed but again...with upside. If the plan is 8 years of excellence what management did this year...short term Lynn and Hendricks, long term with Vera and Cespedes...and not handing out bad contracts...and being patient. Seems like the way to go. Probably also why Hahn is so frustrated with fans negativity. HE is so excited...which is a good sign.

It's so bad I couldn't even tell

Some of your criticism is fair...we optimists should not be dunking on you pessimists...but it just can be exhausting on Soxtalk where it seems 3/4 of the regular posters are so negative...and yes not 100% negative...it generally starts out as "I'm excited about this team but..." and then we have to hear some tirade about Tony LaRussa being a drunk or JR being cheap. Why is that interesting reading? Giolito had an interview the other day where he said "Bummer has the best pitch in all of baseball". That's so interesting especially compared to the 1000 time we have to read where we are idiots for having traded Tatis. As for the "not spending money" constant concept...I get bored re-writing this but JR HAS had top 5 payrolls in the 2000's, 90's and 80's when the team was good. If the plan is to have a long window part of that is not handing out bad or un-necessary contracts. Dodgers and Yankees can get away with that...but being the second, and somewhat unloved, team in a market is always going to make that hard. If you think spending money is the way to win...the Phillies, Rockies, Angels, Mets, Giants etc would like to say hello. You win by talent evaluation...which I'm pretty pleased at right now (and was very unhappy with for decades before). You sustain winning by sensible budgeting. Right now we are in a great position to be vultures...when the Brewers season crashes...ask them about Yelich. When the Bosox season crashes go after Sale. When the Phillies season crashes go after Harper or Wheeler. Right now the Padres have $100 million committed in 2022 to four guys that are in their 30's. I'm ok watching this play out.

You know what is speculation? Everything you and everyone else here says. The difference is your speculation is always negative. There is a range of potential outcomes for Vaughn this year...EE .627 OPS from last year would be the ridiculously lower bound. Frank Thomas's rookie season...roughly same age, same path, same hitting style (high average, high walks, plus power) OPS of .987 would be the upper bound. I'd be happy to bet you any sum of money that Vaughn's OPS will be better than .627. It is absolute speculation that 30 year old Bauer will be the Cy Young TB of 2020 and not the TB with the 4.5 ERA of 2019. It is absolute speculation that the 31 year old George Springer will be the amazing 2020 GS and not the meh GS of 2018. When you look at young players you SPECULATE on how they will evolve...we saw Robert destroy the minor leagues, we saw him destroy MLB in his first month...and then he was TERRIBLE his last month. If you want to look at that body of work and say...he'll probably continue to be terrible...ok...that's a position to take...no one can refute that. I just think you are the guy that sees pictures of your co-workers new baby and says...she'll probably turn out to be ugly. You might be right, you might be wrong but you are always unlikeable.

I made its own thread because it has been an ongoing question and he is awesome so why not.

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! lETS GOOOO

Cespedes had residency in Florida so he'll play stateside. Vera was in the DR. For tax purposes, he's signed in 2021 so there are issues with him playing stateside during signing year. Had he been able to sign in July, this wouldn't be an issue. It's not that big of a deal. It's pretty annoying though. I explained above.

Is it Rajah, the person I used to get my wrestling rumors from?

Good point on Cespedes...he’s clearly going to be stateside given he’s in camp.

I've figured it out. You're playing the persona of a pro wrestler, one who was a delusional superiority complex and a delusional victim complex. It's a classic bit for a heel.

It's the same hat,1951-63. Writer couldn't be more wrong. The current hat is a timeless classic to never be replaced again.

Despite never posting an era below 5.55 as a reliever, he's pitched in 5 different MLB seasons. Impressive

A guy the fans of the Charlotte Knights will be hoping to avoid attending his appearances in a couple of months.

Ok I'll bite. Who the fuck is Mike Wright?

How did this thread begin with speculation on the 2021 White Sox season to picking on poor Greg? A little civility does go a long way, however.

Neither are bad players, but $36M is too much of this team’s payroll over the next 3 years on a $125M budget. That significant commitment has and will continue to take away flexibility for other needs that haven’t, and continue to go unfilled. Also, unlike Hendriks, where the Sox were clearly in a competitive bidding process with other teams, no other team were handing either $18M AAV for four years. Keuchel is a 3 or 4 on a competitive playoff team at this point, and was out of gas trying to get through 60 games last year. I mentioned Grandal’s games caught, because i don’t believe it’s likely Grandal can or even should catch 120 anymore, and don’t believe he’ll top 100 here (gaining 40 + more games played, if healthy, at 1B/DH). I’m looking at it over 4 years, not just the 60 games. Lynn made the most sense of all the deals because he is a legitimate 2 or 3, and it’s one year deal. A 1 year + option deal at year end might make sense, if they (I’d say shortsightedly) don’t allow Kopech or Crochet to stretch enough to start next year.

Well, it’s essentially like an adjustable rate mortgage for utilities such as gas, water and electric. When someone benefits by rates going lower, they are smart. When the rates go up, or they have a balloon payment they can’t make after buying a house, essentially enjoying a service they couldn’t ordinarily afford...who is responsible? If they bought the house with an ARM or interest-only loan but flipped it for profit in the meantime...will they not enjoy profit? We had a president bragging for years about taking advantage of the system, loopholes, paying no taxes for nearly a decade...why should it be surprising everyone now wants special treatment? Like forgiving student loans, for example. HOUSTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Texas's grid operator on Friday shut Griddy Energy LLC's access to the state's power network for unpaid bills and shifted its 10,000 customers to other utilities, as new signs of a financial crisis rose after a state-wide blackout. Griddy was the power marketer that sold consumers electricity at wholesale rates, which rose to $9,000 per megawatt hour as cold weather struck the state last week. Unable to cope with demand, utilities cut power to 4.3 million residents as temperatures fell below freezing. Grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) "effectively shut down Griddy," the electricity marketer said in a statement on its website. Requests for further comment were not returned. ERCOT separately said $2.1 billion of its service bills went unpaid from utility and other grid users on Friday, another sign of the devastation from high electricity rates during the cold snap. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-electric-firm-griddy-loses-005444136.html

There's a lot fo stuff to criticize but Grandal's number of games caught and Keuchel....with last years performance....really don't make sense. Who gives a shit if he can't hit 90? Grandal was exactly who he was supposed to be and I'd say Dallas far outperformed expectations.

These International signings have been hands down my favorite part of this offseason.

That’s what happens when there was no attempt at national or Federal coordination for a full year, contracts were simply given to pharmacies and public health departments were left out of the loop...to the previous administration, just coming up with a vaccine itself was the victory that would theoretically allow for a second term. But there was no to no thought given collectively or collaboratively on how to distribute it effectively. It was more like a political prop or tool.

Mahtook is a high character guy. Was a leader on some great LSU teams.

Is that an attempt at a pun? If so, BOOO to the attempt!

battle between sox and cards for a new Cuban free agent, where have I seen this before.

You can argue just as easily that if Renteria didn’t experiment with the pen (Rodon) and Robert didn’t fall off a cliff...that 2-8 against the Indians, etc., we’d just put away the Twins and were running away then suddenly let up on the gas.

Probably 2 or 3 of those guys will be traded over the next couple years.

Bye ?

This right here is why everyone argues with you and thinks you’re an absolute dick...you always lean on “I see no issue with having a civil discussion that doesn’t result in name calling, it’s beneath me..” but in the majority of your posts you call some ignorant or blind if they don’t share your same viewpoint. The high horse game only works if you actually ride the high horse, something you’ve NEVER DONE.

I let you guys piss all over threads for months and didn't say shit. You banned yourself because you got in so many arguments. Two weeks ago I say something about it and you want to get all uppity like I'm deleting threads and forcing optimism and shit, but you know better. but please, go on.

I'm a big vaughn Stan but we should probably slow down on comparing him to one of the 5 greatest RH hitters in the history of the game. A 1st ballot hof'er who didn't even play the field. Thats... a bit aggressive.

They haven't even gotten in the bullpen long enough to be stuck in the bullpen so let's not worry about that yet

I'm really excited about the season as well. I haven't looked forward to a Sox season in a long time. As such, I won't be spending much time with the energy vampires on Soxtalk.

The countdown to real games gets louder every day for me

Good. Grief. Last week Hahn was a wallflower getting stepped on by his owner. Today he's a whiner that can't handle fan criticism. Guess what you guys proved his point. Fans are fickle and mercurial.

But it is a certainty! Why can't you see it? Are you unable to see, or just insane? Either way, you are avoiding the point. And proving his argument. Which means you can't have an intelligent argument without avoiding the point or proving his argument. Which proves he's right. Why can't you see it? Why why why? Well, congratulations on proving his point. He's done with you, he has other, more serious arguments to attend to. That about does it, right? Saved you (and us) four or five repetitive posts of steadily increasing length and vitriol (all *Edited* -- because damnit, that last one could've been *more* off-putting). Back to baseball, yes?

You are talking about probabilities all the time but you tell everyone that your opinion is a certainty pretty much every time. Why do you feel the need to piss on any optimism on this site? The only thing exhausting here is you. The season starts in a month and all you do is suck the life out of people discussing what they are looking forward to.

PSA: someone else's opinion about how the season will go doesn't have to match yours and as of right now everything is 100 percent speculation. Thanks

Thus far, this thread is the perfect encapsulation of the hyperbole coming from both sides of White Sox fandom. And it’s exactly how we treat politics in this country right now as well. If you’re on the right, you a Qanon loving, racist idiot and if you’re on the left, you must be a socialist loving commie liberal that hates America. Of course 95% of Americans aren’t either, but that’s how the “other side” is defined because of a very small vocal minority. Like most things.....there is nuance to the conversation. Most Sox fans are NOT negative about the upcoming season. But being “positive” about the Sox in 2021 doesn’t mean you should ignore the very real concerns that could haunt this team. I’m very excited for White Sox baseball in 2021. If you aren’t, in my opinion I don’t really understand why you would cheer for a team. They are a young, likable bunch on the come up and should provide us a ton of memorable moments this upcoming season. I was also disappointed with how resources were managed in the off-season. I wish they spent more money, and the money that they did spend should have been used in different areas in my opinion. I don’t like the idea of the season resting on Dylan Cease turning into a solid MLB pitcher. The point is...you can feel both things! So please...stop with the hyperbole on both sides.

Same team as last year? I couldn’t disagree more. Our DH last year hit .153. Vaughn will hit 100 points higher at a minimum. Our right fielder hit one home run and batted less than .220 if I recall. Eaton will do better than that. Robert being a year older and more experience will help. Moncada not having covid, Lynn as 3rd starter huge improvement. Marshal, Kopeck, Crochet, Bummer and Hendricks looks like a lethal bullpen. I’m not embarrassed to say I’m pumped and this Sox team should be as good as anyone in baseball. This boards negitivity comes from the idiot talk of trading Vaughn, Madrigal and Crochet just for the sake of a trade. Talk about beyond exhausting and irritating and just plain moronic. And oh by the way we had Renteria as a manager. Larussa HUGE improvement there as well. Mic drop

Madrigal and Moncada will never have an easy road to the ASG. If we do extend Lynn, it won't be easily done, as a strong season from him has to roll down and impact money earmarked for Lucas, Vaughn, Madrigal, Kopech/Cease/Crochet, etc. Personally, would be pretty surprised to see it happen with Keuchel on books. Another obvious weakness besides 4/5 is going to be Grandal's health as he ages. And Zack Collins isn't being counted on for much at all by the majority of the fan base. That said, we could still get lucky with Micker, Sheets or Burger... not to mention Cespedes or Colas.

It's possible to be super excited about the team (which I am) AND also upset that the 85 year old cheap fuck of an owner isn't capitalizing on this once in a possibly lifetime cheap roster by spending money & hiring his fossil drinking buddy to coach (which I am) The choice shouldn't have been: trust a young guy or sign a shaky veteran that will likely fail. It should have been: offer blank checks out to the top free agents that fill the couple real holes on the roster & use those young guys as depth (which we are extremely lacking on).

VAfan ...Bravo !!! - for speaking up to all the negative posters on this site. You listed things so well. I couldn't have said it better myself. So many reasons to be thrilled with this team. I am so excited and can not wait for the season to start. In the lock down cancel culture times we are living in some( and I hope many) of us have something so positive to look forward to.Thanks for the great post . Lets enjoy what we have . Go Go Sox !!!

We have an all star at every position but RF for the next 5 years. And in some cases, arguably the best player in the league at said position. This is going to be an absolute juggernaut the likes the league has never seen before.

I am going to completely agree with you. I will not get caught up in game threads or hung on pitches , this is the best team I have seen in a long time . Very excited about the young players and pitchers and how they handle things . Very bullish on the season and I will admit as I age I try to enjoy things more than being a bitter whitesox fan calling for the heads of people whether owners or managers or players. I think they did a nice job getting this team aligned and although they have A few gaps I believe if someone significant goes down with a year end they will go for getting someone if they are in it , of course this board will always protect their precious minor leaguers thinking all will come through. I am really going to enjoy and root for success.