BFirebird

Unfortunately on that list I think Mad Bum and Ryu won't come here. Mad Bum likes NL and I think Ryu stays in LAD. Keuchel is interesting and his stuff will probably age well because he doesn't throw hard. Miley is interesting to me as a 3/4 type. Wood I mentioned. McHugh as a swing guy interests me. Another thing to think of with the trade market....there are rumors that the Rockies are shopping Arenado (which seems weird to me RIGHT after signing him). If so that means maybe Jon Gray or Marquez could be available. I really think that Hahn will be looking trade market for a pitcher because FA market is not what he thought it was going to end up...just not really sure who is available.

I am lukewarm about Mazara, but agree a change of scenery could help him break out. The tools and size are there, maybe he can adjust his approach? Maybe Menichino & seeing Moncada's approach can help him? I have no problems with trying it, especially if we can platoon him vs. RHP. Now, on to the doom and gloom on the board and in White Sox nation here...... I think we need to wait until everything is done before judging this offseason. Yes, we didn't get Wheeler...or any other high-priced guy. Wheeler was the only one I thought they had a chance at anyways. There are some things that are still out there that can be done. EE could be signed as DH. They could get a low cost RH RF to platoon with Mazara (Pillar comes to mind). They could sign 2/3 good MLB starters still (Keuchel, Alex Wood - as a flier, Colin McHugh - could be a 5th SP/RP type, Roark, etc). There are some good options out there in the trade market as well. We know Hahn knows we need pitching....he isn't blind and has mentioned it NUMEROUS times. The season doesn't start December 13th. I say we let it play out and then we can b****. ?

I agree....Abreu's contract dollar amount will be a non-factor in whether they are signing a SP. What they did with the deferred money and signing bonus insures that. Worst case scenario is that we NEED Abreu in 3 years because both Collins & Vaughn suck. Best case scenario is he is an expensive bench piece, that while redundant the Cubs won a WS with a third backup catcher BEFORE we had 26 man rosters.

He does have less catching innings than most C at this point in their career. So that could save his knees a bit. And he should get routine days off behind the plate to DH when they want to play McCann. Also, Grandal's early Zip projections (which are a conservative projection I believe), has Grandal being better than McCann's career year. Which I would not expect McCann to duplicate based on his extremely high BABIP. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/yasmani-grandal-gets-his-multi-year-deal/ Grandal Early Zips Projection: Year BA OBP SLG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB OPS+ DR WAR 2020 .236 .364 .445 445 62 105 19 1 24 66 88 142 3 118 12 4.9 2021 .234 .357 .439 428 58 100 20 1 22 61 81 133 3 115 11 4.4 2022 .232 .351 .420 410 52 95 18 1 19 55 74 123 3 108 10 3.8 2023 .229 .344 .398 389 47 89 16 1 16 48 67 111 2 101 9 3.1

Yes. Definitely loyalty move (ie JR). Also, nothing to get worked up about, it won't effect signing of any pitcher. If they don't get the pitcher they want it won't be because of this deal, the pitcher just picked someone else or the Sox didn't want to go that high for them regardless of Jose. I don't personally like the 3rd year, but it is what it is.

After getting Grandal I know they are going to target him and offer a good contract. Whether they offer the best contract or not I am not so sure on.

Fair point...but most big contracts are not great at the end. Maybe saving his knees with more DH games at ages 31& 32 he can be a good 1B/DH option during his 33/34 years. But I would agree his numbers would drop at the end of his contract..no doubt.

You have to start somewhere. It is pretty rare to jump out of nowhere, win the division, win the WS without some lumps. Cubs, Astros, even the Nationals all had some losing in the playoffs before they won.

White Sox now have 2 Position players in the Top 20 of Fangraphs 2019 WAR (Moncada & Grandal). https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2019&month=0&season1=2019&ind=0 Can we make it 2 SP as well to go with Giolito (Cole, Stras, Ryu, Wheeler all fit the bill)? https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2019&month=0&season1=2019&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=&enddate=

Interesting..... @Tony - how about SP on the radar? Wheeler has to be 1a no?

Not sure where you are getting the .320 OBP & 15 HRs from...he hasn't hit less than 22 HR since 2015 and his career OBP is .348. He will get more ABs with the DH available so the HR numbers should increase, not decrease.

Agreed. The top 2 are out...are never going to sign here, but will Wheeler/Ryu/Madbum wait for the top guys to set the market?

This is awesome. Outside of a SP, this had to be their #1 target. Get Wheeler & Dickerson (or someone like him) & this could be the best offseason they have ever had outside of 2005 offseason.

That would be awesome...I am going to one of the Houston games. To me, if they do this they mean business in 2020. Who knows if they can actually get a TOR starter or impact bat, but they are definitely going for above .500 baseball in 2020 if you bring up Robert this year to get acclimated.

I would also roll the dice on a talent like Mazara depending on the cost. It is definitely a buy-low.

Don't forget Moncada/Baez too...they have pretty extreme miss but can just barrel it when they do make contact. And all the players we both mentioned are top 20 in baseball in WAR....and Springer would be higher if it weren't for injury. Despite all of this, I get where Kiley is coming from, which gives me pause when I look at Luis' BB%. Springer in MILB was always above 10%, usually around 15%. Luis Robert has never been above 8%, usually hovering around 5%. Brinson had similar issues. If pitch recognition is the issue, which is what Kiley eludes to, then that could cause LuBob to struggle because I anticipate he will get the Eloy slider treatment once he gets up here. Why throw him a FB when LuBob will chase sliders all day. Luis hasn't had to make that adjustment in AAA yet because he appears to be an extraordinary mistake hitter (meaning he doesn't miss them often). Big league pitchers make less mistakes, but he will feast on lesser pitchers (which all great hitters do). It will be how he adjusts to good/great pitchers that don't make as many mistakes. LuBob obviously has the physical skills (which could be among best in MLB), Kiley is just debating if he can adjust to good pitching which is impossible to predict. I for one am excited to see him get the chance to see what he can do and hope he can adjust.

The immediate IL and sent to Chicago concerns me, unless it is just because they want team doctors to check him out. I trust @ptatc on anything medical and hope that it is just the hyperextension that he mentions and not the UCL.

Interested to see how many homers Robert can actually hit in Charlotte with the juiced ball.

We are going to need some of these once we are good. Maybe Rutherford can do the same.

It will be a short stint in Kanny. His swing looks great.

How big is the crowd? Could people get there for the day game?

Good to know.

Same here. Seems like a lot more games on WGN this year. Or maybe I am just trying to watch more games this year.

He was pretty good. Not the best tip I ever got, but not the worst. At that stage of his career I will put him at slightly above average.

I caddied for Pierce once in a golf outing. Couldn't have been a nicer guy. That was one thing about being a Sox fan over a Cubs fan, I usually got to pick a Sox player in our annual Baseball Charities Golf Outing to caddie for because of how many Cub fans there were...even on the south side. Over the years I caddied for Pierce, Farmer, Bill Melton, & Konerko. Konerko was especially exciting because it was the 2000 season before he was really known, he decided he wanted to walk instead of ride in a cart so I got to carry his bag (he actually used Greg Norton's clubs), and he got a hole in one to win a trip to Ireland. Easily one of my most enjoyable rounds ever. It was funny too because the guys in the cart didn't really know who Konerko was because it was so early in his career that Paulie pretty much just talked to me the whole time.