Why can't this fucking guy just croak already

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Look at him. Healthy as a horse, walking around, cracking jokes how his team sucks.

He is going to live to 100yrs old. This is quickly tuning into Dollar Bill territory.

You know what helps with team optimism?

Spending gobs of money.

_________________

Yup. I'm 33 and worried the asshole is going to outlive me

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

They are way better offensively and defensively adding Mazara and Grandal. That's fifty more HR right there. Not just gross fifty more HR, net fifty more HR over whatever they would've played at those positions already. Start penciling in an optimistic debut for Robert and a glass-half-full progression of Eloy and Moncada...the Sox are going to score a lot. No doubt about it. What they've done to shore up the batting order is commendable.

But yea, its hard to watch all these pitchers sign and know the Sox stand no real chance at getting any of them. Even Ryu would be a massive help...but that's just not a contract they seem willing to hand out. They're just going to try and catch lightning in a bottle again.

Exactly. 2 franchises are under performing due to his BS.

That's some extremely shaky math, professor.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Shaky from the catching perspective, but not the right field perspective.

The Sox got 6 HR and a .555 OPS from the RF position in 2019. I don't know if Mazara will hit 31 bombs (which would be +25) but I don't think he would surprise anyone if he hit 25 or 26 HRs, which would be a significant improvement from the RF position last year.

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OK. The sox won 72 games last year. the wild card team won 96. The Twins won 101.

How many wins does Grandal and Mazara add?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Only if McCann had zero HRs last year.

At least 30. Maybe 35.

_________________

This team maybe gets to .500.

Hahn is delusional. In what fuckin universe does he think he's earned even a fraction of our trust?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

50 more home runs? How did you come up with that? Did Catcher and RF have zero last year?

By his trades. He's earned some fraction of trust. He's also handcuffed.

NET +50 HRs is a pipe dream. That would mean Mazara and Grandal would have to hit 40 bombs a piece. Probably not gonna happen.

NET +25-30 HRs is very possible if not likely provided both guys stay healthy. That would mean Mazara and Grandal would have to combine for 61-66 HRs.

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Going from having to deal with the Astros and A's staff to now the abysmal AL Central staffs doesn't put thirty home runs out of the question for Mazara. That's plus twenty-five in right field.

Grandal doesn't just boost power production from the catcher position. He gives them a thirty home run guy that can play first, DH and catcher. The Sox situation at DH has been horrible for decades now, the only time they have a decent hitter there has been when Abreu needs a day off from playing the field. Grandal isn't really replacing anyone, McCann is still going to get a lot of playing time (if he doesn't get dealt) and Abreu was retained for a reason. Grandal is basically taking the place of a collection of woefully substandard AAA players the Sox have stubbornly given playing time to. Everything the Sox get out of Grandal is replacing something that barely belongs playing professional baseball, he is literally filling for a void.

Unless you have some insider info on the dynamics that we don't know about, he has 0% credibility. Hahn is the numbers guy, nothing more.

You think it's likely that Mazara and Grandal combine for 13-18 more HR's than they have ever combined for in the past?

Net +20 at the most

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

You're more delusional than he is

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Of course there's about a fifty percent chance Yasmani Grandal completely forgot how to play baseball the instant he signed a contract with the White Sox and will wind up being even worse than the likes of Palka. I'm not oblivious to fate. Grandal is the kind of player who never works out for them...on the flip side they do seem to do OK with guys like Mazara.

Do you really think Hahn is not handcuffed in some ways, FF? Do you think if it were solely up to Hahn and Hahn alone, he would have come up with the extra $40-50 million to sign Machado last year?

Even after the Sale trade, Kenny Williams had to come out and say he engineered that trade.

Hahn hasn't done much to earn our trust, but he has made some good deals. I do believe he does not have full reign to do whatever moves he wants as well.

_________________

Moncada, Kopech, Giolito, Lopez, Eloy, and Cease. They get here by magic? He has a fraction of my trust. About 25%. Another fraction is 25% because he has to follow old man Potter's orders.

Of course I don't believe he has been handcuffed. Who more or less promised Machado last offseason? It wasn't Jerry, it was Hahn.

If Hahn is being handcuffed by Jerry and Kenny then he should resign. Because his signature, not theirs, is on every transaction the Sox have made in his tenure as GM, and the results cannot be classified as anything other than an abject failure. Anyone who has even a fraction of trust in Hahn is a fucking fool.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

What type of credit are we giving Hahn for Kopech, Lopez, and Cease? Lopez sucks.

So yeah, he's acquired like two good players by trading away the best pitcher the franchise has ever had and two other valuable players. Nice work Hahn.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Hahn traded Tatis Jr. for James Shields. You cannot forget that. That's one of the worst trades of the last decade, and will almost certainly continue to get worse and worse every year that goes by. Selling three of the most prized assets of 2016-17 to desperate buyers is a pretty easy thing to do. Lest you think the Sox pulled one over on anyone, the Red Sox and Nationals have both won titles with guys Hahn sold playing huge roles.

That said the owner wont ever spend money, nor has he ever. Its just this current era of hyperfocusing on the monetary value of wins and obsessive farm system analysis has really shown how differently the Sox operate from anyone else in baseball. Generally speaking the teams that dont develop players well offset it by spending a lot of money, and conversely the teams that dont spend money can develop players. A few lucky franchises can do both really well. Hahn cannot do either. The development part is entirely his fault, the money thing is entirely not his fault.

He should be canned but never will.

What drives you crazy is that the Indians are on the absolute verge of giving up while the Twins are waving goodbye to almost their entire rotation. The Royals and Tigers aren't currently making any sort of sincere effort to win games either. This is a time where the Sox could spend just money on a starting pitcher (other than Mark Buehrle) for once and they'd cruise. The Indians would balance the threat posed by the Sox and their odds of making it past both us and the Twins and probably give up. Then all the Sox would need to do is get past Minnesota, who is facing a ton of uncertainty themselves.

There is no easier path to the playoffs than the ALC. It is basically free for anyone who wants it.

Which is still too much for Jerry, hence the Hahn Handcuffs.

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Yep. The Sox could dominate this division if JR ponied up the cash and the fans would come out to support a winner. There is no reason why the Sox shouldn't act like a big market team. But not Jerry. It's his world and everyone must live in it.

Just like the Bulls. They (the Bulls) are now nothing more than a dysfunctional franchise and based on the last few games attendance figures, the fans are saying screw this team.

The Sox made 1 good signing (Grandal) and then the checkbook dried up. What a sad sad state of affairs on the South Side. And it ain't much better on the North Side with their lack of player development and drunken sailor Theo and clown boy Jed and now yes man Ross.