Chicago White Sox

The Sox are very unlikely to get league average hitting out of a Leury / Harrison platoon at 2B given their career track records against RHP. And if our plan to improve against good RHP simply involves playing more of a second year guy who was never a top prospect and is almost certain to regress to some extent, then I must question how impactful that plan will be if everything goes right. Even Rick Hahn said this was a need that needed to be addressed, so there is no need to underscore the issue with “if Adam Engel is healthy and suddenly good against RHP”. BTW, I’m glad you’re an optimist and there is plenty to be excited about, but it’s never fun having to hope your players can overcome incompetent decision making at the front office level.

He should be the first to go when we sign Conforto.

I’m trying to find it now

Brian - Do you think there is any chance the Sox sign Conforto at this point?

Which makes it even more interesting

Call me crazy but just feels like something is going to pop today.

Fathom being awfully quiet this morning…?

Yeah, I do think you need two years of control unless he’s willing to take a smaller salary on a one year deal. As for the why, I simply can’t stop believing. It may not end up happening, but the logic makes too much sense and this offseason without additional moves is a total failure. I’ve been very critical of Hahn in the past, but I just can’t accept he’s this dumb.

I’ve been thinking about this as well. But what kind of salary do you give him if he costs a draft pick? The Cubs valued the loss of the 7th pick in the 2nd round and corresponding bonus pool losses (both domestic & international) around $20M. Just don’t know what you could pay him on a one year deal that makes sense for both sides. Our 2nd round pick is way lower and the Cubs are probably being a bit ridiculous there, but I think you’d have to shave at least $5M off a normalized salary. Would you be ok with a 1/$15M deal? I can’t see him getting much more than that on a one year deal.

I am actually much more upset about missing out on Wheeler than I am Machado. I can’t even imagine having him instead off Dallas right now. And that’s part of the reason I still must believe in Conforto. Hahn simply can’t be this dumb if he made the largest offer to Wheeler and was heavily pursuing Burnes. Something must be cooking even if the timing seems completely off. I’m giving Rick to opening day before I take the pitch fork out again, but will definitely be sharpening it in the meantime.

@fathom - Even you got to admit Merkin retweeting that at 3am is real suspicious like. And don’t the Sox love dropping bombs on Fridays? Plus it just so happens Michigan lost in the tourney last night so Hahn can finally make a move.

Wheeler made $4M or $5M more than Keuchel. I think they would have found a way to fit both him and Lynn in the budget. EDIT: And it seems like you’re missing the point, in a hypothetical scenario with Wheeler, Keuchel is not around. So you can’t have both as you laid out above.

If Yoan’s power ever returns (98th percentile EV in 2019 before COVID) he’s probably a top 10 AL player. Just got to hope those long hauler side effects go away at some point.

Alright, I’m all-in on Conforto once again after that Merkin tweet. Here is the plan Rick: Trade Kimbrel & $5M to the Phillies for Marchan & Y. Garcia Sign Conforto to a 4/$76M deal with opt-outs after years 2 & 3 Trade Burger, Dalquist, Adolfo, & Y. Garcia to the A’s for Manaea Stop fucking around and make this happen Rick! Time to win a god damn World Series!

Parkman posted this in the Stiever thread, but bizarre retweet by Merkin…

Don’t understand this take…they traded for Lynn with Keuchel coming off a 1.99 ERA season.

I think cash payroll was even less than that.

No

What is $181M?

They didn’t sleepwalk through the offseason, they added considerable payroll. They just spent it horribly. That’s why people are pissed.

Is this game on TV?

To be fair, the bulk of the “whining” is happening in the offseason thread and I’m not sure what else you’d expect to be going on in there given the moves we’ve made. I guess my point is if you want to avoid the non-stop complaining, which is totally fair, just stay out of threads that are centered around disappointing topics.

Probably aren’t, but how does this confirm that?

That was one short lived high…lol. What’s funny is Hahn could save this offseason with just a handful of moves, but it doesn’t appear he cares about anything other than having the most expensive bullpen in baseball history.