Last call: 50,000,00 — OK, 50 — White Sox GMs Can’t Be Wrong

UPDATE:

Just a reminder that we’re about a week away from the beginning of the SB Nation offseason simulation.

I’ve gotten some great feedback from all my assistant GMs out there, many of whom I’ve gotten back to already with thanks, and follow-up questions. Some of the recent flurry of suggestions, I’m still compiling on my GM cheat sheet, and haven’t responded. I will.

But hey, tick-tock, people. Drop me some knowledge, or forever hold your piece.

Or, hold it until the SSS offseason plan barrage begins.

Perhaps you’ve window-shopped our Fanposts and saw Max Rieper’s invitation to participate in the SB Nation offseason simulation.

Well, here’s the dillio: I’m manning the GM post for this season’s Chicago White Sox entry.

With a twist: You’re gonna help.

Yeah, I’ve insisted long before I ever ascended to the managing editor chair here that I’m no wiser than any of you. OK, most of you. Some of you?

You get the point. I want help with this gig. It’s only an entire offseason of transactions crammed into, like, three days at the start of November, so, no pressure.

Plus, helping me out gets you warmed up for your own offseason plan, to be unleashed in November on these very pages.

[When I shared my “crowdsourcing” concept with Max, he said, “that’s a great idea,” which I think might be polite code for, “you have no idea what you’re in for, bub,” but I don’t care. I’ll try anything with you guys, at least until you convince me to never try it again.]

To keep your master plans secret, email me your ideas for the team:

• A trade you’d propose (or at least a player you’d target in trade)
• Manny Machado? Bryce Harper? Both? Neither?
• Smaller, sneakier, more White Soxian free agent targets, preferably with contract terms
• Minor leaguers in other systems you’d like to pilfer
• Guys on the roster/in the minor league system you want to dump off in trade

You get the point, yeah? The more specific the idea, the better.

Unless you’re a master procrastinator, you’ll have published your full offseason plan before Max publishes the complete run of the offseason simulation, so don’t worry about the premature publication of your secret, crypto-clearance ideas that are so wise they’ll get you hired by the White Sox themselves.

Likewise, I will not be submitting an offseason plan of my own, so there’s also no worry that I’m gonna steal your best ideas — although if some rich South Side Sox fan wants to create a juicy cash prize for the best plan, zoink, all bets are off, baby.

What I may do is publish a plan after the fact that, in my mind, combines all the best ideas of the offseason plan project into one place, like the “perfect” White Sox offseason, crediting the source of each clever move. Dunno. That sounds like a lot of work, but sometimes I fall into rabbit holes, so who knows.

Of course, to protect the brightest bulbs out there from yourselves, I’m publishing this with comments snapped off, so you don’t accidentally share your best secret plans with the world in mid-October. Also, this is not meant as a premature public forum for this year’s offseason plan project; we’ll all be jumping in and praising/criticizing each other’s GM work soon enough.

So for now, let’s keep it between us. If you send me brilliant enough ideas, hell, I’ll bail on this whole crowdsourcing, democracy-in-action project, and just toss you the keys.

Cool? OK, now, get to work. They ain’t paying me for this.