Emergency podcast capturing thoughts about the Chicago White Sox trading for Lance Lynn and signing Adam Eaton.
- Why the White Sox continue their bad habits signing Eaton
- Why the Lynn trade is a good idea and helps their chances of winning the AL Central
Click play below to listen:
Hoping that Cleveland continues to tear down is the most White Sox strategy ever. Let’s not make an aggressive move put ourselves at the top of the division when every other team looks like they’re putting in minimal effort. Instead, how about we just pile on the half-measures and hope our competition does most of our work for us. That way we can probably get what we want without having to play in the upper tier of team payrolls!
Ugh.
I don’t see how anyone could possibly look at the Grandal and Keuchel contracts and say they satisfy the terms of “the money will be spent.” One of many problems I have with the way the rebuild has played out is how the Sox seemed to always finish with the fourth pick in a draft with three stand out players. If the Sox fail to turn around and sign some premier talent on top of needing to draft the guys who might not have enough talent to overcome organizational deficiencies in player development, then all we’ve gained from the last four years is the joyous experience of a couple ~100 loss seasons.
Again, ugh.
Lance Lynn trade seems pretty fantastic for us, keeping in mind a half season of a good SP usually brings more than that at the trade deadline.
Eaton its just a one year deal, could be fine; could be bad but much like Mozara it comes down to whether you want to see Delmonico out there or someone who actually has the potential to be good.
This is directed to Josh and his ugly rant today over the Eaton signing. It may have not been the best choice, but I’m willing to wait and see what else they do before going as ballistic as you did today. I actually stopped listening when your rant just was too much to bear.
Eaton along with many MLB players such as Yelich, JD Martinez, etc. had bad 2020 seasons. But in 2019, he had over 700 plate appearances, and OPS just under 800, and if not for Howie Kendrick, he most likely would have been the MVP of the world series. Nats wouldn’t have won without him. He was loved by DC fans his whole time here (I know cuz I am a Nats season ticket holder) despite his injuries. That one torn ACL caused most of his missed time.
Your rant today made it seem like we brought Trayce Thompson back. No-way was this signing deserving of such venom.
I was surprised because over the years, I can’t ever recall being in such disagreement with your assessment.
You’re a betting man., How about a bet that Eaton proves you wrong in 2021, just like McCann proved Jim wrong when we first signed him (it was nice that Jim acknowledged that today)
Sure. What would you like to bet?
I got four club level seats to to any Nat game in DC (except opening day) once they start having fans. What do you want to counter with?
But of course we have to agree on the terms. What I expect out of Eaton is a .270+ BA, 335+ops, decent defense, and if they platoon him with Engle, that combined, most Sox fans are thrilled with our production out of right field.
So if josh wins he gets to buy a plane ticket?
A .270 average and a .335 OPS would be something like 17-for-63 with 221 sac flies.
Well, with our lineup I do expect a lot of people on base.
Just want to say that Josh’s rant captured my feelings extremely accurately!
Jim’s post today made me see that Josh’s rant wasn’t all about Eaton, but more about the WSox mgt. I agree with that rant if we don’t sign Brantley or someone comparable. But I still like the idea of betting with Josh.
If the whitesox were gonna light 7 mil on fire they could of been more creative about it to fill a better platoon situation in RF. I thought the idea of paying a lot in terms of 6 years of Dunning for 1 year of a cheap starter in Lynn was so that RF, DH, Closer, SP, would be addressed in a more premium way. The eaton thing is bottle barrel hunting and the whitesox have proven to be horrific at these type of signings. And like all previous years the organization has no real backup plan in the upper minors or on the current roster unless you love the idea of over exposing Leury or Engel. Super annoyed, so I better see a Cruz/Bradley type DH signing, a Tanaka/Odorizzi type SP, and then say Hendricks or even Colome back to fill out the pen. I will hold my breathe.
I hope this is the real rationale. The White Sox are confident/have a deal under the table on for Oscar Colas. Considering how well Colas hit in Japan, he could be ready to play by the middle of 2021 or 2022 at the latest. If that’s the case then Springer and Jackie Bradley Jr wouldn’t make sense, so you’d need a one year rental as a platoon player for Right Field, which Eaton can do with Engel. We will see if the Sox land him in January
I was a little surprised by this, but Longenhagen has a 40 grade on Colas. We might not want to be making any plans around him.
I agree EB, but don’t get me wrong, I badly want the Sox to sign him. It is troubling that the guy who literally wrote the book on future value is not very high on him. Sox certainly should not rule out premium FA right fielders because of an expected Colas signing. I’m sure Sox have already ruled them out for other reasons (okay, just one…$$$), but Colas cannot block anyone upon his signing. I doubt he’s MLB ready in 2021.
Yep, well said. I’m all for signing him, but he doesn’t sounds like an elite prospect they need to keep a spot open for.
Willie Harris, who “interviewed” for the Sox manager’s job, is the new Cubs’ 3B coach.
This is the best tweet I will see today.
Trying to imagine being a ballplayer and hearing that Henry Aaron was proud of something I did. That would be everything to me.
The video is here. Abreu was more composed for this than he was for the MVP award, but still moved, and he dedicated his award to Minnie Miñoso.
Not many things I like about the White Sox more than their Cuban past and present….
“Like I’m a clown?”…Yes Jerry, you are.
Sox fans entering the offseason: Tommy in his finest suit, going to become a made man. Then we enter the room and see Tony La Russa and Adam Eaton sitting there. “Oh no.”
THIS!
Lol, it’s too bad the joke is on Sox fans.
Dream finish to the offseason is:
Signing those three at ~12 million average takes the payroll up to 144 million.
That’s obviously not happening. But ~132mil tracks with the high end of the OPP. That would mean signing two of the three.
Personally, I would do Sugano and Hendriks leaving the Sox to fill the DH spot internally. This team has offense and Sugano could cover the back of the rotation minimum and maybe even be on the tier of Keuchal. Hendriks locks down the 9th and gives us a murderers row with Marshall, Bummer, and Hendriks (with Crochet in the wings).
Gambling on high end, Japanese starters has been 3/4 in recent memory. Only Kikucki disappointed
I went back to 2019 as it was the last season where salaries weren’t prorated. A payroll of 144 million would put us 13th in payroll in 2019. If Jerry is unwilling To even go to 144 we got real problems.
I have the sox at about 105-110 committed thus far, id go with a cruz/brantley signing which is probably gonna take 18-20 to fill dh, hendrik to be the closer takes 8-10 as long as it a few years, then quintana or some other veteran arm in the 7-8 range for a year… sox “should” have no qualms about a 145 mil payroll give or take. That roster is pretty darn good then and you have some actual depth because you can keep Vaughn in AAA, let Cease, Kopech, Lopez battle for the 5th spot, Crochett, Lambert, Stiever all remain options in the rotation for 2021-22 without being blocked. The scary thing no one is talking about is the sox are doing a hell of a bait and switch on spending cause pretty soon the excuse is gonna be we cant sign anyone cause the guys we have under control are becoming expensive…. just wait til they cry poor because arbitration and contract raises are tying up payroll.
I’m waiting for them to cry poor in 2 months…COVID is the perfect excuse to assume they won’t move much past 120 – 125 mil this offseason. They obviously need some bullpen help and another veteran SP. But I’m not expecting any of those to be more than veteran rehabs. And DH I think they’ll try the rearranging of deck chairs with hopes that Vaughn can slot in there at some point. I think they need to find 5-6 wins out there somewhere.
The Eaton signing just makes it all feel very half-measur-y. They have a penchant for throwing “small” deals at bad players in attempt to get a bit more shine from a turd. Of course if you just reallocated the money to players that are actually currently good at baseball they wouldn’t need to work so hard to fix their past problems with more bad money. Oh, and it comes with the added benefit of, you know, winning.
Jerry is the happiest guy on Earth he got to rob fans and stockpile loads of collective bargaining money for years with a promise of future spending, only to watch the window open during a pandemic that gives him what he thinks is enough cover to cry poor.
The its the cubs plan mantra is gonna be freaking hilarious…. cubs gave 6 years 155 mil to lester in 2014, 8 years 184 mil to heyward in 2015, and 6 years 126 mil to darvish in 2018
Well we got Grandal…. lol
I’m sure his response would be something to the effect of “if not for COVID, that was the plan”. They’re going to hide behind these “losses” for years as a convenient way of keeping payroll down (not just the Sox, but many teams I’m sure).
Great podcast. The comments on the Sox confident posturing make me think Will Farrell movies should be required for the front office. The unearned confidence is so comedically ridiculous. With Hahn talking about multiple championships again this week without ever winning a playoff series, disappoints me that he didn’t end one of the sentences with “shake and bake”.