SoxBlanco

Brilliant. Wheeler starts to sweat that we might be pivoting toward other pitchers and that our offer, which is currently the highest, might not be available for much longer. Wheeler to the good guys by Thursday. Book it. Time to figure out RF.

Good call. The Wheeler thread has become a Hamels thread, but this should be its own thread.

I actually agree with you here. I think he's the best player on the planet and the best player of all time. I think he is worth the contract. I just think that in 2022, for example, Trout + random 2 WAR player will be less valuable than the combined WAR of Robert and Betts. It does sound ridiculous to say I wouldn't make that trade, but like I said, this is in the hypothetical world where we are ok with a $400M contract. And if we are ok with that, just spend it on Betts. And I'm not trying to say Betts is as good as Trout.

I mean, the argument is probably moot because we aren't handing out a contract that big, so we are living in a hypothetical world. But in that hypothetical world, I think Robert and Betts have a combined value that is higher than Trout and whoever we put in RF (maybe not for next year if Robert struggles out of the gate, but in a couple years when we are competing for a title).

I wouldn't. If we want to spend that much money, just spend it on Betts next year. I'd rather have the combination of Robert and Betts than Trout.

And I hope that plan B is to go all in on Cole or Strasburg and then go cheap for RF.

This. I wouldn't trade any of those five players.

I genuinely can't tell if people actually think there might be something to the Japanese tweet, or if all of these responses are just tongue in cheek.

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.

I think we are offering something like $90M/$95M with our dumb incentives that push it over $100M. I think Wheeler wants at least $100M guaranteed. Hopefully we learned from the Machado debacle and eventually cave and give him 5 years $105M. I’m also hoping no other team is near $100M right now, but I don’t want to wait around much longer. In the end, I think we get it done.

Two questions for you: 1. Why do you feel like Wheeler is a ticking time bomb for another TJ? 2. Do you feel like Kopech and Cease are likely do have another TJ?

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. ?

Haha, perhaps we should.

You don’t have to explain the reasoning. I totally get what you are saying. I’m just saying that over the years, RBI has become its own “word” instead of a collection of letters. Even though we still read it as a collection of letters, it has become a single word. Same with ATM. We don’t say “Hey look, this place has three ATM over there.”

That’s exactly my point. If you are reading it as “R” instead of “runs”, then it is fine to put an “s” at the end of RBI.

DFA and RBI have become their own words, where you read them as letters, but together the letters make a single “word”. If you think RBI should never have an “s” after it, then you are always reading it as “runs batted in” instead of “ARE-BE-EYE”. And if that’s the case, then when it’s singular, you would say “he got a RBI” instead of “he got an RBI”, and that would be ridiculous.

Someone who thinks Wheeler is just taking off as a dominant pitcher and wants to save $10M per year for a guy who has 700 fewer innings on his arm. I’m not saying I’d prefer Wheeler, but I don’t think it’s a crazy question.

Would any team want to pay him over $6 million?

Would you rather sign Wheeler for 5 years at $105M, or Strasburg for 5 years at $155M?

BB, I’m hearing the deal is “close” but “complicated”. You hearing something similar?

I’d be very pleased. The people who would be upset are the same people who would complain if we let the Twins outbid us. “We should have just paid him what he wanted...why are we being cheap?!?!” Can’t make those people happy.

Does your gut say something will be official today, in terms of an addition?

I think we all find it interesting. But you said that you think he was told to write that. Why would anybody tell him to write that?

This is pretty much exactly how I feel.

But why would he be told to do so? The White Sox don't want a repeat of last year, so I can't figure out why they would tell Merkin to add that part about Wheeler. The only explanation I can come up with is that the Sox are purposely leaking Wheeler stuff while they go stealth mode on Cole or Strasberg. But that seems very unlikely.