TheFutureIsNear

Why wouldn’t he be able to get another 200-250 AB’s between 1B/DH?

How is getting 500 AB’s (or at least close) for your recent 1st round pick that has proved himself in the minors dependent on signing a free agent? It either has to happen or Collins has to be traded. Anything in between is pointless imo.

Unfortunately I can’t help but be pessimistic with the combo of historically cheap ownership and a history of incompetence in free agency by our front office...I’d be very happy with that off season given what my expectations are

Just switch Collins and Jose in that scenario. I haven’t see much of Collins at 1st, but I can’t imagine he’d be worse than Jose. Especially if given time to work on it in the off-season. Which to me definitely needs to just happen. If Collins’ ability to catch is still very much in question at this point then just scrap it and let the kid hit. Too many things to think about is 1 of the worst things for a young player in my opinion.

Ya I want to see things through with Collins. LH, Good pop, great on base skills...checks a lot of boxes of what we need in our lineup. I’d like to see him get 400-450 AB’s next year...I could see him hitting something like .240/.350/.450

I have absolutely no problem losing 14 names from that list...and there’s a at least 3-4 more that I could go either way on.

Lol you have no clue what you’re even attempting to argue at this point My “mantra” all along was the Sox would have to overpay to sign marquee free agents. So yes, if there is 10’s of millions of $’s difference I 100% agree with you that the player will throw everything else out the window to sign here. All things relatively equal and the player will choose to sign with the more attractive destination. That’s hard for you to understand? Also, our offer to Manny leaking doesn’t = “like every time.” That leaked because it was an attempt for our front office to save face that they gave an actual honest effort to sign him.

Too early. We’ve all seen “can’t miss” prospects fail to get too cocky too early in this rebuild. I really think it’s going to come down to pitching....if Cease and Kopech aren’t what we hoped they were it could be rough sledding trying to assemble a starting pitching staff that is capable of carrying a team deep into the playoffs. With that said, I’m not optimistic about the cubs present or future either so could go either way. Although, I’d prefer to start comparing ourselves to teams like the Yankees or Astros real soon and not worry about the cubs at all

Ahh so it’s the “prove me wrong or I’m automatically correct” argument? Got ya Personally I think I’m speaking in common sense. But this is a message board of fans posting their opinions correct? That’s what I’m doing...if you don’t agree thats perfectly fine, i already made my “we can agree to disagree post”. I honestly don’t care if you choose to get your hopes stomped for a 2nd straight year. I don’t do that and choose to deal in what I consider reality. The likes of Rendon and Cole haven’t even crossed my mind for the Sox this off season.

Yeah because you asked me for evidence that’s impossible to provide. Neither you or I have access to the information of exactly what teams bid on free agents. How about you prove me wrong that the player takes the highest bid every time?With evidence of what every team bid. I’ll wait... But go ahead, live in your fairy tale world if it makes you feel better. I was right that the Sox were never going to sign Harper or Machado and I’ll be right again this off season. AGAIN, whatever helps you sleep at night. Myself? I prefer booze and weed to delusion...works much better

Offering significantly more $ than what other teams are offering isn’t the same thing as overpaying to you? But it’s whatever, we can agree to disagree. If it makes you feel better to have hope then go for it. I’ve learned my lesson enough times with the Sox though.

I said the Sox would have to overpay to get marquee free agents...you listed 4 guys that were overpaid to go to bad teams. What goal posts were moved? If anything you moved goal posts by naming the likes of Eric Hosmer and Jayson Werth. I’m talking about great players that have a lot of suitors, I.e. Garrett Cole in this free agent class. I’m not claiming it will be difficult for the Sox to sign an Ozuna or Grandal type of they really want to. I’m saying we have about a 1% chance to sign Cole unless it’s a crazy contract, which we all know isn’t going to happen. Just like I was saying last off season when the Machado/Harper madness was going on here. You are right about a rod tho, for some reason I thought I remembered him struggling with Texas. Clearly he was great.

Sure, and how were all of them NOT grossly overpaid? And did they work out?

Do you have the facts of what teams offer what to certain free agents? Because myself and the rest of the general public don’t. And aside from machado what really good players have signed with really bad teams?

Again, we would have to offer a significant amount more...no one is coming to the Sox over good teams because we offered $1M more. Like it or not we will have to overpay to attract big names. -shitty weather for 1/3 of the year -coaching staff that is in the stone ages -haven’t won crap in a decade + -2nd most popular team in the city -horrible attendance And I’m sure I could go on...there’s no need to be delusional about the situation. The Sox are a bad team run by bad ownership with a bad front office. No one (besides Jose Abreu) is clamoring to join this team if the $ is similar in other places. With that said, the team has so much $ to spend that there’s no reason NOT to do what’s necessary to bring in big free agents. We’ll see if it actually happens or not

But again. Best deal...by a large margin. All things close to equal and the Sox are not signing star players that have several other suitors

Wait, you don’t think players don’t want to play for the Sox? The most $ has to be by a significant margin to get us a great player imo...it’s not a matter of bidding a couple million more. Or we could really just sum it up by saying we are never signing a top free agent like Cole. Just like we were never serious contenders for Harper or Machado

I wonder what Seattle’s price for Haniger would be? Everyone on that team seems to be available so I’m sure they’d listen. He would make a ton of sense for us in my opinion...I’d offer a package starting with Dunning and Steele Walker. Not sure how close that would be, don’t think it should be too far off given he’s coming off a down year and an injury

If I haven’t seen your other posts I would think this is 100% sarcasm. Sadly, I know you’re being serious.

I hope I’m wrong too...and in fairness I don’t think McCann is a bad player that doesn’t deserve to be on the roster. I’m just in no rush to extend him and would prefer he be in a backup role. I have a hard time ignoring sample sizes and the fact that the only 1/2 of a season McCann has been a plus hitter in he had a .408 BABIP. However, I don’t think .260/.320/.400 is unrealistic....I wouldn’t bet on it though.

Obviously it’s too early to tell for almost all of our list, but I think it’s a pretty damn good list of talent if you ask me. The biggest thing is going to be top of the rotation starters...if Kopech and Cease aren’t what we hope (or at least very close) then yes, we could be in some trouble. Realistically a team needs like 12 impact players to make a serious playoff run. 3 starters, 3 bullpen arms (1 LH), and 5 hitters. Obviously the rest of the team has to be at least serviceable, but I don’t think we are too far off from that path of a great core 12 already. But again....at lot still left to prove with our players.

The point of a rebuild is to amass as much young talent as possible. Later trading some of that talent is pretty common place. Theres absolutely nothing wrong with the Sox looking to trade prospects for a piece that will get us over the top sooner rather than later. Yoan TA Kopech Gio Robert Eloy Cease Madrigal Vaughn Thats the young (hopefully all) elite talent we tanked for. That’s a great core...now the franchise should be using any and all resources to add as much good and proven talent around them as possible. Jerry opening his wallet in free agency is obviously a huge part of that, but it doesn’t have to be, and nor should it be the only way we add talent.

I hope they aren’t too worried about specifics with any position. Assemble talent and figure it out from there. We aren’t nearly close enough to anything to be that picky.

Not trying to be a dick, but how on earth do you think the small sample size of a hot 1st half outweighs the other 1000+ AB’s of his career? He’s not pressing, he’s just not a good hitter. McCann is still under contract next year, no need to do anything with his contract. C is a position we should be looking to upgrade, but if the opportunity doesn’t come up there’s worse things than having McCann as a starter.

Ozuna- semi high profile bat that fills a need and will get fans/media talking without breaking the bank Moreland- LH, good fielding 1B, above average hitter. Makes sense to pair with Jose 1 of Wheeler/Odorizi/Keuchel- The front office isn’t going to give Cole huge $ despite how bad the team needs him. Saving face on a serviceable and recognizable 2nd tier SP for lesser $ will help Decent reliever like Hector Rondon/Brad Brach- steady the pen in front Colome with a reliable vet. Should be relatively cheap To me thats the very obvious/easy off season for the front office. Not saying it’s the best, but it’s pretty straight forward and safe. If they are less aggressive than this I’m going to be very disappointed...again