Look at Ray Ray Run

You linked it after you read it, did you not? As did many on twitter. That's how news spreads. Implying that Merkin had some insider information and withheld it just goes against the way the FO has attempted to work this off-season and how they have worked so far this off-season.

Why? Because you told me I was a dope when I said nothing is imminent, and that Merkin didn't know anything nor was he implying anything - he was simply discussing a topic his "followers" would be interested in to generate clicks. Still waiting on the announcement of Wheeler... I love optimism, but I hate all the smoke around Wheeler; it feels like there is no fire when smoke surrounds the White Sox and a signing.

It's almost like 2 guys in the media (Merkin and Chuck) are trying to capitalize off the wheeler stories by using them to generate views. Amazing. Neither this nor merkins article meant anything. Wheeler isnt signing today. The sox being able to keep a signing quite overnight was an anomaly, not the norm.

Think everyone is losing their mind over nothing direct at all.

I think they have a list of all players they will tender and the order in which they do doesnt matter. As Dick said, this could be doing Yolmer a solid.

Why?

Minnesota has double the income tax as Illinois. Again though, I think these guys just want the most guaranteed dollars regardless of tax brackets.

Yeah because a guy near leading baseball in hard hit % and avg exit velocity really benefited from the balls being juiced.

I agree with your top paragraph - even if we didnt see entirely eye to eye on team physicians main objectives in the past. You need to protect yourself against all the quacks and loonies out there - like Tom Bradys trainer - but at the same time Ellsbury should have the right to seek help from anywhere he can; especially given his individual case. Also I believe the doctor they're accusing him of seeing is in nutritional therapy.

The Yankees are trying to deny Ellsbury pay for this year for seeking outside medical treatment without requesting approval. This is an issue that I have a pretty strong opinion on. The team doesnt own my body and have a very specific desire for my outcomes - which revolves around me playing. The Yankees are arguing that Ellsbury seeked medical treatment from outside the organization without their approval. They are arguing that warrants them not paying him. This is a poor decision by the Yankees imo but we'll see how it plays out.

I'm not sure why you think the bottom. I always say, for a pitcher bWAR is a better reflection of whet you did and fWAR is a better predictor of what you'll do going forward. For position players the difference is tied mostly to the defensive metrics they use. When you see a big difference, due to fielding metrics volatility, your better off taking the average of the two imo. When it comes to catchers though, I'd agree I'd lean toward FG but I'd also argue that framing is overvalued by BP and FG. I just think they deserve the edge for valuing it at all vs BR.

Zimmerman actually a decent comp and example. Abreu probably been more consistent up to this age too.

My takes that it's a slight overpay. Stop citing that its possible he regresses and is replacement level. That's possible of every single age 32 FA. My goodness. It was possible of JD Martinez as well. All you can do is analyze the deal based on projections we do have. Every FA has a floor variance that would suck. The point I have made 1000 times is if the worst sunken cost/lost dollars this team experiences in FA is the 14 million dollars to Jose Abreu then that's a hell of a free agency track record and we should be happy as hell. I've never called it a good signing. Ive merely stated that it does not have some inordinate amount of risk attached to it differently than other free agent contracts and the floor on it ie certainly palatable and not terribly damaging. Therefore, it's not a big problem and doesnt warrant to countless overreactions on this forum.

Great and they'd be paying a replacement player about 10 million more than they should. Who cares? His 2021 contract should have zero impact on any future signings then. You're giving them a hard cap. It's not like if there was a player available in 2020 fa that they'd pass because it would surpass the 140 million budget for one year because of abreu.

In 2023, 1 million dollars will be significantly less than the league minimum salary. That means in terms of salary compensation, with the time value of money as well, it's very very little to the team. The impact on the actual budget for these terms (the duration of the contract) is zero. When I say terms I mean 3 years.

You're my favorite poster sometimes. Contreras went on to play 2 more years in the big leagues. Dunn had an 800 and 762 ops his last two years. His historically bad season was his first season. Dunn was a bad signing, because Dunn sucked, but he accumulated 2.5 WAR his last two years with the Sox and so cutting bait after the -2.9 season would have actually probably been a bad idea. Rios lol. His final season with the Sox he had 4 WAR. He played two additional seasons after. Melky had an 800 ops 2.2 WAR final season with the Sox and played two more years in the MLB. Konerko was literally sent to the bench for his final season. Danks is a tough one. They kept thinking that arm would bounce back. This one could be argued. The guys who continued to play after the Sox really dont fit the argument being made about being so bad that no one would play you.

Agree and never any hard feelings. I enjoy hearing other views - as long as they're not "Anthony Benetendi would be the best hitter on the White Sox."

Who have the White Sox not cutbait on? What star player did they continue to role out for the reason you're claiming above during the middle of contending. What support do you have for that claim?

I'm not defending the deal. Again, I'm saying it's a slight overpay but it doesn't matter. That is my position and theres really no real risk/downside. People acting like the sky is falling are the people I disagree with.

A contending White Sox team will not roll out a DH opsing 620 given they have a better option. What I find hilarious about this is everyone says he'll regress with age - you said look at Steamer. Steamer works in an aging curve. He could continue downward, sure. But how does losing a bit year to year get you to a 620 ops in year 3? You cite these made up slash lines from air to support this claim that it was a horrible signing. You never wanted Abreu back in the first place. That's a fair opinion, and one you can state and support that but don't say look at steamer and then discard the fact that the system you wanted to use project this to be a net 1 WAR loss by using some fictitious slash line.

Ding ding ding. I've posted this 100 times. A 2 year, 28 million dollar extension is whatever. People getting up in arms about it makes no sense. Who cares? Fucking 2 years and 28 million. In 2022 that will buy you a utility player. The risk on that deal is so minimal.

It's not 18 million for the 10000000000000th time. No matter how many times people post it to be critical, the White Sox are paying Jose Abreu 14 million dollars in 2022. If 14 million dollars at DH is going to impact their ability to contend then they never stood a chance. If a 14 million dollar sunken cost is the WORST thing that happens to this team in FA over the next 5 years, then holy cow they did an incredible job.

Widget industry? I work in as about cutthroat of an industry as exists. What does anything you said matter? It doesn't. No GM in MLB gets to make every final decision for a ball club. Period, end of story. To call him a cuck because he didn't fight his owner about a signing is comical. No matter what the industry, the owner (CEO or whoever) has authoritative power over the executives underneath them. I can make as thorough of a case as possible for why I don't agree with a direction, but at the end of the day I'm not signing the checks so I don't make the final decision on everything. You made an immature distasteful post, that wasn't very logical, and now you continue to defend that post.

To act like their pay is similar is odd though. Abreu signed for 3 years, 46 million. Martinez is making 3 years, 62 million. Those two aren't all that close. There is a tier of pay between the two.

Go to bat? You think a guy is a cuck because his boss can make decisions he may not agree with? Hell, I don't have a ton of people above me for what I do and I run into resistance plenty. I present well thought out analysis, with endless amounts of support, for financial decisions and changes and maybe 40% does my plan become an executable reality. I have people above me who make decisions that I would disagree with, but that's the nature of the real world. Unless Rick owned the team, he would never have final say on every decision. Criticizing him for that is laughable. When an owner sets a budget that the GM didn't agree with, should he in turn leave because he didn't get to set the budget?