Y2Jimmy0

Caulfield, I'm calling Sox fans fickle because they are. The excuses are endless and I'd rather not get into it. I know because I live here and hear the s*** every day. The team is bad. It's cold. It's hard to get to the stadium. There's nothing to do after. It's dangerous. Reinsdorf is cheap. It's too expensive. I'll wait until July to see where they are in the standings. The atmosphere isn't great. Those are just some reasons and they are nonsense. This team doesn't draw when they are good either. It's just the way it is. I'm out there 10-15 times a year and I enjoy my Tuesday nights when the beer and brat lines are short. I'm not complaining that they don't act like a big market team though and making up excuses to not go to the ballpark.

QUOTE (shakes @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 08:35 AM) Heyward got a $20 mil signing bonus and will make $78 mil in the first three years with a full no trade clause and an opt out. That was the best deal out there for him. From the sound of it, nobody else was offering those things. This is maybe the most player friendly deal ever given out. For sure. Other teams offered him $200 million guaranteed though so he technically did turn down more money.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 08:43 AM) The word "rebuild" has always been a touchy one on the South Side for leadership and fans alike. Not only does Jerry Reinsdorf whole-heartedly believe in building a winner annually, the front office is also subject to the fickle nature of the White Sox fan base. While executives Jeff Luhnow and Theo Epstein have popularized an embrace of being utterly terrible to build a winner through draft pool allotments, the White Sox lack the fan base that would wait around for such a grueling process that results in a non-guaranteed chance at winning. First, this whole fan shaming thing is getting old. Houston had lower tv ratings than the White Sox, a zero share in some games, but they stuck to their plan and saw it through and even succeeded despite seeming mistakes like Mark Appel instead of Kris Bryant and the whole Brady Aiken fiasco, which might have ended up working out in their favor. Second, comparing David Robertson to Kimbrel or Chapman is a bit of a stretch...just like Quintana is overshadowed on the national level because he's not a radar gun destroying flamethrower, Robertson similarly relies on a pitch that is deadly effective when it's on but one that also tends to degrade his other pitches and the overall effectivenesss of his repertoire over the course of a season. Assuming a Miller or Kimbrel return of prospects is a fantasy and more importantly a concrete admission of failure by Hahn. Third, pretty much any plan is still mitigated by the fact that Ventura remains huge question mark in terms of his overall effectiveness as a manager and motivator. At best, the jury's still out. Meanwhile, Maddon and the young Cubs can seemingly recruit anyone they want to the other side of town. Not a pretty comp right now. Fourth, almost every value priced free agent in the last two to three years has led to no payoffs like we always try to sell ourselves on in the offseason as the backup or fallback plan. Zach Putnam or Soto weren't even cashed in on...Petricka, etc. Hahn has signed maybe 12-13 guys and none of them have been effectively leveraged. One of his most controversial moves remains the decision to hold onto Shark last July. Finally, JR is JR. Until they prove they're willing to take advantage of the fact 45% of MLB teams are limited this international cycle in spending and "go for it," they will always be playing catch-up with the more risk taking, bigger budget teams. The only real evidence is going over for Rodon and Micker Adolfo, so it's hard to see much substantive progress at the moment or on the horizon and we're seemingly stuck in the middle...outside a Top Ten protected draft pick and still closer to the basement of the AL Central than competing for a wild card spot. The fans are fickle, excuse-makers though. That's not an opinion though. It's a fact.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 08:19 AM) They have better top end prospects than those teams though. Just because they have money doesn't mean they should spend it poorly. The Dodgers still have money to spend. They already have an elite closer and they are the favorites to sign Kenta Maeda. Their other starting pitchers are (Kershaw, Anderson, Iwakuma, McCarthy, Ryu, and Wood). They have 4 of the top 25 prospects in baseball (Seager, Urias, De Leon, and Peraza). They have an OF logjam with Puig, Crawford, Ethier, Pederson, and Van Slyke). I think the Dodgers are the team that should trade for Todd Frazier if Seager can stay at SS. The Dodgers aren't done yet and I wouldn't exactly count them out of this thing.

QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 08:14 AM) in all this you are right, but a great pitcher and closer, esp in the playoff where the starting 3 sp can negate a solid hitter. in addition, their window of opportunity is again closing to some players getting older, and the money already invested in the salary of the current team. they really have no choice, like the gaints and the cards but to go that extra distance and acquire key players. They have better top end prospects than those teams though. Just because they have money doesn't mean they should spend it poorly.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 07:50 AM) Which is incredibly annoying. And the sad part is the entire media, the Cubs front office, and even Heyward himself are trying to sell this idea. At the end of the day, he got a 3/$78M deal plus a fat-ass insurance policy in the event his production goes south. Kudos to Theo for coming up with a creative deal and landing his guy, but for the love of God stop selling it as something it's not. He did take less $$ overall but yeah it sets up as a better deal for him. He's going to cash in again when he's 29 years old. Bryce Harper is going to get $500 million.

QUOTE (2Dbill @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 05:30 PM) My bad- I meant David Robertson. I still think there is some possibilities with trading Robertson Just today one of the sports headlines in the LA Times read: "The Dodgers need Help ,fast" Meh. The Dodgers have the best pitcher in baseball. They have a great shot at landing Kenta Maeda and have DeLeon and Urias coming up soon. They have bigger problems on offense than they do in the pitching department.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 07:48 AM) Except that he is getting a $20 million signing bonus up front, plus two opt outs, which means he took the offer with the most money up front ($26 AAV over the first three years with bonus included) AND he has the ability to leave early and get another big deal at age 29. He might have not "taken the biggest offer", but he took the best offer. The signing bonus isn't coming until 2019 when the new tv deal should be there.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 06:48 AM) He should have been up opening day 2014. The cub sucked and if Russell was ready this year Bryant was ready day 1 2014. The money saved with this move was given to Heyward in a serious overpay No he shouldn't have. The Cubs handled the situation the only logical way to handle it within the Collectively bargained rules. The Cubs now have Bryant for 6 more seasons including the upcoming one. It's a no brainer. You definitely want him locked up for a prime season 6 years from now rather than 9 games to start this year.

One name that I haven't seen mentioned on the site is Prince Fielder. He is supposedly available. If they'd take LaRoche back, that could be an intriguing option.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 04:31 PM) Anyone think the cub clubhouse may get a little tense.....heyward is getting $26m a year and Bryant had to lose two years of service time in the name of the process.....at some point in some regard I think him missing two years of service time comes back to roost. No.

QUOTE (peavy44 @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 01:23 PM) he opts out after 2017 season not 2018 season Why would the Sox forfeit a top 30 draft pick to sign Upton for what is essentially a 2 year deal? Doesn't make sense

QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 01:50 PM) Same guy leading his college team to a .500 record? No, I'm actually happy to see that building a culture of losing to this prolonged degree is proving to not work. I'd hate to ever see another org tank to this ridiculous level. You're kidding, right? Simmons is an absolute stud. A franchise changing star that is absolutely worth tanking for. If they get him, people will forget how much they tanked to do it.

http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2015/12/15/sc...marcus-cousins/ Bulls interested in trading for Demarcus Cousins. Yes, Please.

QUOTE (kevo880 @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 01:04 PM) Rosenthal's latest blurb: http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/price-h...osenthal-121515 "WHY WHITE SOX MIGHT BALK AT FRAZIER Frazier certainly is a fit at third base and in the middle of the lineup for the White Sox; newly acquired Brett Lawrie could move to second, giving the Sox upgrades at two positions. The problem is, the Reds want significant prospects for two years of Frazier, and the White Sox's system remains relatively thin. Better the team should explore the open market -- if it can find the right solution. A free agent such as second baseman Howie Kendrick would cost the Sox a second-round draft pick; their first-round pick, No. 10 overall, is protected. But Kendrick also has turned down $15.8 million from the Dodgers, and at 32 soon could enter his decline phase. Third baseman David Freese might make more sense -- he probably would be more affordable than Kendrick and the Angels did not make him a qualifying offer, removing the additional cost of a pick." The White Sox would not forfeit their 2nd rounder. It'd be the Samardzija pick that they forfeit which is currently #29 and climbing.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 05:12 PM) Lmao, this is so much garbage. Chris Carter has a career slashline of .217/.312/.452, and last year he hit .199 with 151 strikeouts in 460 ABs following 182 and 212(!!!!!) strikeouts. Frazier has never struck out more than 139 times in a season and his slash line is .257/.321/.463 and plays a position competently, unlike Carter who is a DH that is a dinosaur in the modern major leagues(3 outcome) Your dream team would suck so hard Frazier and Carter do have pretty much the same OPS though.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 10:24 PM) The way I see it if you can afford it you have to send your kid to private schools. For instance I went to Brother Rice two years and Benet Academy two years. Aside from Rice being all boys, what a great place to be. Great great teachers; hard as hell classes. I actually had to take Latin there and learned Latin for gosh sake. If you want to be a doctor ... what better place for Biology, Physics, Algebra, all those classes. One place that might be better? Benet. What a tremendous school. Great teachers; very difficult coursework (until senior year which was easy like most senior year). Both schools stressed COLLEGE and college prep work. Parents have to have their eye on best preparing their kids for college. The best places IMO have to be private schools. Pay that $10,000 a year tuition baby. It's worth it. (Just my take). As far as Vegas talk ... if u are gonna live in Sin City (yes it's Sin City) then at least move to the BEST school district. Give your kids a chance to not fall into oblivion (drug wise and academic wise). This is insulting. I went to public school in Lockport and teach in one now. Everything you mentioned there is just as good if not better in most of the good public schools in the state. A lot of really good teachers can't afford to stay in private schools forever either. If you live in Chicago, then yes, private school is the way to go. But by me, if you live in Lockport, New Lenox, Lemont, Orland Park, Naperville, etc, there is absolutely no reason to pay the extra $$ to go to private school. Go to public school and spend the $$ on college. I've always thought that I'd rather pay extra for property taxes in a good district and send my kids to public school rather than possibly living in an area with not great schools (Plainfield, Bolingbrook) and spending that extra $$ on private school.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 10:49 AM) If this means the Sox are standing firm on not dealing Anderson/Fulmer/Rodon/Q then this is excellent news. There are better ways to upgrade the offense then dealing a potential cornerstone. They've never been willing to deal those guys. That's been established.

QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 08:20 AM) while i agree that the AL is open, but wide?? however there are fav's still going to rule the AL. but man, the NL is getting all the press, b/c they are doing to most to improve. i believe if the sox makes some more smart moves, at least AL central may be a tight battle with the sox knocking on the door. good post The NL has 8 teams (Giants, Dodgers, DBacks, Cubs, Pirates, Cardinals, Mets, Nationals) battling for 5 spots. The AL isn't like that right now.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 06:58 AM) While these projections may not mean much, I think they do suggest our division is wide open. I personally think going for it makes sense for us, as long as the two prospects important to 2017 (Anderson & Fulmer) aren't required to get us there. I actually think the entire AL is wide open.

I thought that Carlos Gonzalez and Todd Frazier were both guys that wouldn't cost Anderson/Fulmer.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 11:03 AM) I just hope it's not the guy whose last name rhymes with ONGEY or the guy that Bernstein keeps pushing on the radio. I think Bernstein Rips Hawk so much because he wants the job to go to some former intern who Bernstein likes a lot. Rongey/Stone would be a much better broadcast than Hawk/Stone actually

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 10:58 AM) This thread reminds me of the time people here didn't want to give up Gordon Beckham in a trade for Adrian Gonzalez. It shouldn't because Todd Frazier isn't anywhere near as good as Gonzalez was then.

QUOTE (glangon @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 09:24 AM) He couldn't have been any worse than La Roche was. I just feel we went in the wrong direction last year. Too many veterans and not enough options. I spent 2 months praying for an injury last season so that we could see someone different come up. I don't think we gave Wilkins enough time, how can you judge Wilkins to be a classic 4A player after 45 plate appearances. By your logic Jim Thome was a classic 4A player with his .205 and 34 strikeouts in 131 plate appearances in his second season or Jose Bautista with his .205 average, 40 strikeouts in 96 plate appearances. There are loads of examples of players who struggled when they first came up, to judge a guy as a classic 4A player after 45 plate appearances is harsh. He absolutely could have and would have been worse than LaRoche was. Wilkins sucks and will soon be playing in Japan.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 09:20 AM) Frazier is worth Tim Anderson, and probably more. 1) it's two years of control at nice prices 2) he's an offensive star 3) he's very good defensively at third 4) Anderson has not solidified defense and has a K% problem. In so many other systems he would not be the #1 prospect. Use the #1-of-our-system tag to move TA for more than he's worth He's not worth Anderson or Fulmer. He's a .320 lifetime OBP guy with big power. He only has 2 years of control as well. Trading top prospects for guys like that is what gets teams in trouble. He's exactly the type of hitter that would come here and underperform. I'd be down for something that doesn't include Anderson/Fulmer but they'll probably get a better package from someone else.