YouGottaBeBleepingMe

Just sad. All of the posters who clamor for guys who have the physical skills but lack the ballplayer instincts make me sick. When you watch the Astros, you see guys like Altuve who just know how to play the game. Guy is 5'6 and weighs 166 lbs according to baseball reference. Yet, all of you people who marginalized Madrigal who was of similar physical stature were so happy to dump him. Makes me sick to my stomach just thinking of his contact rate, batting average, solid glove, and baseball instincts and knowing he was deemed expendable. You need guys like Madrigal more than you need guys like Moncada.

Tough crowd in this room. Why all of the hate for Madrigal? Seriously. I don't get it. Here are the stats for another player. Year Games Errors Average Year 1: 98 14 .283 Year 2: 145 28 .257 Year 3: 151 20 .240 Year 4: 122 26 .335 Year 5: 49 6 .322 In Year 2 and 4, this player led the Majors in errors committed. Not the American League. The entire league! Where was all of the hate for Tim Anderson when he first came up? LOL.

If Nolan Arrenado can be had, Hahn should strike while the iron is hot. Arrenado is signed through 2025. He is 28. He is a top 5 hitter in all of baseball and has been for the last 5 years running now. He is a 7 time Gold Glove winner. At only between $19-25 MM per year, that is a very reasonable contract to absorb for a player of this caliber. Especially given what Harper and Machado got. Won't even mention Cole or Strausburg as they are pitchers. No offense to our nice looking prospects, but none of them are Arrenado. A future first ballot HOF. Any knowledgeable baseball fan would laugh at the notion that any of our prospects are even equal to Arrenado. Why not get the prime years of this guy if we can get him when all scuttlebutt says Colorado is willing to move him for the right offer? Trade package: Tim Anderson, Luis Alexander Basabe, Carlos Rodon, Dane Dunning. Colorado gets 2 major league ready players. Batting champion who can play SS (and is signed through 2022 at a nice contract) and proven innings eating Starter with Ace upside albeit an injury history. Colorado also gets a close to major league ready OF and a Top 100 pitching prospect albeit with a recent Tommy John. Colorado unloads the massive contract and lets them start rebuilding but with ready made pieces to not require a total tear down. White Sox get a legit, top 5 MLB player. An elite cornerstone 3rd baseman especially defensively. A middle of the lineup anchor who just mashes. The kind of guy they can someday build a statue on the concourse for. A guy who can finally play for a true contender for the entirety of his prime years. White Sox can move Yoan back to 2nd and slot Madrigal to his natural, college gold glove winning position. With Eloy and Robert signed for long contracts already, Sox can easily unload Basabe without a thought as there is only 1 OF spot opened for the next 7-8 years barring serious injuries. With the plethora of Pitching prospects and the No. 11 pick in a 2020 draft that is loaded with quality pitching prospects, Dunning would not be missed either ... if they can get Arrenado. With 2, elite, 19 year old pitchers drafted in rounds 2 and 3 of 2019 draft and another elite arm drafted at No. 11 in 2020, why would anyone say "Dunning is a deal breaker"? LOL. To get a player like Arrenado, this package gets it done.

Completely agree. Why can Cubs fans say "You guys are jealous of us, our ballpark, are so obsessed with us, blah, blah, blah"? BECAUSE THEY CAN! Memo to Real White Sox Fans: 1. Focus on our team 2. Stop laughing when the Cubs lose 3. Stop wearing T Shirts with anything "Cubs" or "Anti-Cubs" related 4. Stop having bumper stickers on your vehicle that say "Cubs" or some "Anti-Cubs" variation 5. Stop holding L Flags 6. Stop taking pictures in the Bartman seat It used to be fun calling them "Loveable Losers" and throwing "wait until next year" at them, but 2016 changed that. Please accept this and move on with your lives. When you give the Cubs status in your life, it enables their fans to punk you and others like you. When I was out with friends watching Game 4 of the 2016 World Series, Kipnis hit that bomb, and it looked like an epic collapse was almost done, it took everything inside me to remain calm and quietly click bottles with my only fellow Sox Fan in the group, but that is how Sox Fans need to behave. Let them run their mouths. Let them bring hot girls to Wrigley, drink beer, and stare at the ivy. Let them wear their "Cardinals Fans Take it in Their Pujols" or "Fukudome ... That's What She Said Last Night" T-Shirts. Who cares. Just cheer for your team and treat the Cubs like any other team in sports who you have no rooting interest in. Do that, and their fans just become noise. Obnoxious noise, but just noise. YOU ARE BETTER THAN THAT!

Fair assessment. I do not post frequently, but I think that the one thing that people like you miss is that sports are about production. You can have all of the upside in the world. None of it matters once you step on the field. You need to produce. Simple as that. What good if 80 grade speed if you cannot hit the ball or catch the ball? What good is being able to swing lefty if you do not have a great eye and can't hit a curveball? What good is being a switch hitter if you lack plate discipline and swing at 50% of all balls thrown out of the strike zone? When I read analysts and mock draftors, I always LOL at how they slot guys and why. If you could go back in time, would you draft Frank Thomas 1-1 in 1989? Of course you would. He is a first ballot HOFer and among probably the top 20 hitters who ever played the game. Granted, not everyone is at his level, but the point remains. You draft players who produce. Having upside (see Courtney Hawkins or Keon Barnum) means nothing if you cannot harness it and produce. Why do you want to pass on Andrew Vaughn and his production just because he bats right and plays 1B? This is a guy you want hitting in the heart of your lineup. He has proven production in one of the Top 2 conference in America. If you would rather have some "toolsy" kid who hit over .400 in HS playing SS, to me that is much riskier. Plenty of great HS players never lived up to their hype in college (let alone MLB). Same with NBA players. Give me a guy with a proven track record of production. Position be damned.

So, you LOL at Harper and Machado as first ballot HOFers? Just checking. LOL.

We shall see. If he puts up another season like the last 2, he will be highly sought after next winter. Who will come forward? A team that wants to win ... like the Padres.

Vaughn, Rutschman, or Witt. I would be happy with any of those 3, and the White Sox are guaranteed a shot at 1 of those 3.

Last 5 years: Home Runs / RBI / Average 23 / 76 / .315 38 / 102 / .282 22 / 68 / .307 45 / 104 / .303 43 / 130 / .330 Name 1 team in all of baseball that does not need that level of production?

In 2008, the Detroit Lions went 4-0 in the pre-season before going 0-16 in the regular season.

Agree. Huge season for him. People seem to forget that he is in the same draft class as Kris Bryant and Aaron Judge. He is not a "prospect" anymore. Trust me. I pull for all guys who put on a White Sox uniform. I have nothing personal against Anderson. If he is as good as the goods people are selling me, I would have expected more by now. I was not expecting Bryant or Judge production as those guys are just indisputably better players. For a former first round pick, I would expect something to hang my hat on about his long term prospects more than meh.

Look at his stats. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/martijd02.shtml This guy took a short term deal last winter with an opt-out because there was not an optimal market when he was out there. The Red Sox got him on the cheap as a result. This was the same logic behind the Yankees and Dodgers checking-in on Harper like they did. Both sides won. Red Sox won a World Series, and Martinez put up monster numbers for that team to elevate his stock. If Martinez puts up another year like his last 5 when he was an every day player, he will be worth between $26 and $30 per year for the next 5-7 years (which would take him to age 37-39). Since he lost the "big contract" that he was looking for last winter, he will want to be paid this time as it is his last contract. If a team steps up (like the Padres did with Machado), no way he stays in Boston unless Boston is the team that steps up and pays him. With what they will be paying Betts and Sale among others already on the payroll, I do not see the Red Sox paying Martinez that kind of money. In light of this, I just do not see 5/$110. It would be as "good" as $8/$250 for Machado. Between 5/$130-150 or 7/$182 -210 will be the market for JD Martinez.

Oh, I know Martinez >>> Dunn. Still, for a guy who will be 31 in 2019 (and who would be 32 if he signed with the White Sox after he opts out this winter), if the White Sox were worried about giving Machado or Harper an inflated salary for perhaps 1 or 2 years on the back side of a 10 year deal, I do not see how they would be willing to to pay perhaps 1 or 2 years of inflated salary for a guy like Martinez.

Me neither. I loved how they played smartly with the international pool to snag Abreu and Robert. The only really had to outbid the Cardinals on Robert since the other large market teams were out of the bidding per MLB rules. I really thought that they played their cards so well. They unloaded all of those bad contracts or let them expire. They had the perfect free agency class. Two premium talents about to enter their primes. All of the large market teams capped out, saving salary for their young core, or a financial mess (Mets). They only had to outbid the Phillies and Padres when the White Sox payroll was so south of $100 MM that it hurt. The stars were perfectly aligned, and the White Sox f***** it up. This one hurt, and, unless they can sign a Trout, Bryant, Betts, or Bregman, I will not be getting over this any time soon. Unless, of course, all of the White Sox prospects come up and produce like the Cubs and Astros prospects did.

Depends on what kind of money Boston offers him to stay. Knowing they will need to reward Betts and Sale, there may not be enough money to offer him more than 20-25 per year. He might take it if he likes it there so much. If he wants the money, Boston will not go more than say 25 per year, and another team will give him 27-28 per year, I say he leaves. It is all about the money.