sullythered

Madrigal needs to work on his D at the cut of the grass. He struggles there consistently.

All valid points, but I don't think anybody here thinks us being able to hold onto McCann is anything close to a foregone conclusion. I think it's gonna be really, really hard to keep him, and that's a huge problem. I am happy that we got Yaz, and he does a bunch of things that are extremely valuable, specifically to this team: the pitch framing thing (at least until we finally get robot umps), he sees a ton of pitches and gets on base, he aggravates the hell out of the pitchers he faces, and he occasionally hits a walk-off bomb harder than Captain America could hit a baseball. He is a huge asset, but McCann is a much better catcher, and more importantly, his weird mind-meld thing with Lucas turns our ace into freakin' Gerritt Cole. That alone is worth A LOT of money, and I hope the Sox recognize that. Lucas is an atypical athlete, as far as emotional and intellectual makeup is concerned. I really don't want to take the gamble that taking McCann away from him won't short circuit him.

McCann was WAY overaggressive against the young kid yesterday. If we are gonna have somebody in there swinging the bat every time like they're trying to break the sound barrier, might as well be Edwin, he's the heavyweight champ of that particular thing.

Obviously spending will look a lot different this offseason, but why would that make the Sox any more or less likely to make moves. This thing happened to everybody, so the FA playing field is even (if not in the Sox favor, considering the way the Sox make their money compared to most teams). The only thing that should look drastically different in FA this year is the dollar amounts.

I think the no minor league season thing really monkey-wrenched us on the Jirschele plan. If I had to guess, it was gonna be "give him a year at Birmingham, then time for The Show". It's probably scary for Hahn bringing his boy up directly from single A, no matter how much of a prodigy he is. I hope he does it, though.

I don't think even Vaughn and Kopech would bring deGrom. He is the uncontested best pitcher in baseball, and even though he's 32, the dude works on his game to such a crazy level that he is throwing the ball harder now than ever. I think it would take one of the MLB level young stars to bring deGrom. I wouldn't do it, but I think that's what they would demand.

I just took a look at Foster's wiki and stat pages. The dude has always been a reliever, but has been great at every level. Moving up a level a year, his ERA, K/9, and WHIP have been outstanding consistently. Don't know why he wasn't on the lists or given an opportunity to start at least once, considering how dominant he has pitched.

Come on, it's way more nuanced a move than that. Mazara is a young player with standout tools who has, to this point been only a replace-level player, but a lot of people around the league think there is at least a small chance that a change of scenery could lead to a breakout season for him. At best, this happens and the Sox extend the team option at low cost. At worst, he is the "meh" player he has been to this point, but having your worst hitter, and a guy who will probably hit around 8th in the lineup, be a 96 OPS+ hitter is not gonna sink the ship. When you look at the move in the overall context of all the moves they made this offseason, it makes sense to take a flier on a guy you think could realize his potential here.

Me too. I refuse to get down on Dylan Cease because I was so wrong on Gio, and Dylan has even more obvious natural talent than Gio did.

Our entire fan base needs to go to massive group therapy to deal with our giant self-hate problem.

That's kinda defeatist circular thinking, isn't it? You could say the same thing about any move the Sox make, no matter what. "Well, if this was the right thing to do, some other team would have offered more in trade/money, etc." If it works out, it was smart. It's not possible to know that now. There was a few months a couple years ago when I thought the Sox should have demanded Benintendi instead of Moncada. Turns out, they were smarter than I gave them credit for (and smarter than me).

I was making a joke about how poor they were at the position. I forgot how people talk here. I should have said 200 point improvement in OPS, better?

People are arguing in circles on this. As with all things, there is nuance to this that keeps it from simply being "good" or "bad." The Sox made a trade that sent a 23 year old middling prospect for a 25 year old replacement-level player who some people think has potential for a breakout season. Even if he just stays a replacement-level player, that's like a 9 WAR improvement over RF last season, so in that regard, it was a good move. If he somehow rises to his potential (which I feel is unlikely) it will have been a great move. IF, however, this is the biggest post-Yasmani Grandal move that the Sox make this offseason, it will have been a huge disappointment. Not just because of fan expectation, but what they, themselves, have been proudly boasting for all to hear. If the "money is spent" and they add 2 starting pitchers, or a SP and a good RP, or some other combination of good players at need positions, then this will have been fine. If, for some reason, they now stop pursuing the many options that are currently available in FA and trade, then this move looks bad.

I am in both camps.

It would be for him to DH whenever he isn't in the field, no?

To me, Kole Calhoun just SCREAMS "White Sox free agent bust". I admittedly have no statistics to back me up, I'm only talking about the general sense I get about him, and that sense is Nick Swisher/Adam LaRoche.

Realistically, it's probably somewhere in between, no? Crazy to trade your closer for a rental if you plan to contend, but Joc is more valuable than a guy that everything outside of spin rate says is a bust. I think it will take maybe one second-tier prospect (obviously below Luis, Madrigal, Vaughn, but just below) and one super young "lottery ticket" type prospect. I know the second part will give everybody Tatis-induced PTSD, but the likelihood of that happening again is very slim.

I feel like he was pretty hamstrung by Kenny for the first few years of his "GM" tenure, and the rebuild marks the time when he actually got to start doing what he wanted. In my view, Hahn's defining move is getting players to sign long-term deals early, which drastically raises their value. I'm happy with the young talent that he has acquired since the rebuild began. I was hoping the Sox would get Machado, but the fact of the matter is Moncada (in his breakout year) was pretty significantly better than Manny last year. Last season would have been early in a rebuild to start adding veterans, I think. Now that several of the young players have shown that they are good (potentially great) major league players, and a couple more are right on the cusp, the Sox know what areas need to be addressed via free agency. Jerry's track record is very poor in regards to free agents, but the White Sox have literally never been in this position, financially, so I'm giving him this winter to change his stripes. They could add three absolutely premiere FAs, and still only put themselves near 11th or 12th in payroll (where they were from '05 until the start of the rebuild). This is Hahn's one chance, though, in my eyes. This rebuild is his baby, I think. It's the first thing that doesn't feel like it has Kenny's fingerprints on it. I am very happy with the early returns on the added youth, but if the rebuild does not produce a multi-year playoff contender at some point, then Hahn has failed, and he must go. I think the "beginning of the end" of a GM's first attempt at a rebuild is a pretty slanted spot to judge him, statistically. But, of course, I am an optimist by nature.

Yeah, they logically concluded mo cadavers is the best baseball player of the bunch.

I wouldn't trade Moncada for Contreras.

Or the trainers said "don't risk it until we get to the trainers table". TA7 has barely missed any time. Calling him a "diva" is silly.

Realistically, the first time the Sox would likely be true WS contenders was already 2021, due to the TJ rehabs for Kopech and Dunning and various other rehab/getting into baseball shape for several others. They will continue to improve and be fun though, so nbd.

Looks like ankle. Hopefully just a low sprain.

Oh no, Timmy better be ok.