It’s a sexy Sox self-own!

So, one day into the semi-official start of the offseason, the usually deader-than-the-dog-days-of-August GM Meetings, Ken Williams injected some life into the proceedings.

Shots fired!

New South Side Hit Pen writer James Fox hammered that nail inmediateamente:

And the Hit Pen put its own spin on things:

More shots fired!

Obviously, White Sox fans have had a very solid seven-year stretch of bad baseball and a utterly gutting 2018 offseason stoking their fires — and they’re heading into 2019’s offseason locked and loaded.

But ... perhaps there’s something to KW’s early flurry, as the White Sox have already been linked to Zack Wheeler and, for good measure, athletic’s Jim Bowden and the NBC Sports Talk outlet put out that fire with the gasoline of adding Anthony Rendon, Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg to the mix.

Right. Thankfully, another astute fan jumped in to throw the flag:

As teased above, the best part of Bowden’s piece is where he completely forgets about the White Sox’s fast-rising, 2018 first-rounder Nick Madrigal:

Don’t be surprised if they make a run at free agent Anthony Rendon with the idea of moving Yoán Moncada back to second base and then trading second baseman and Gold Glove Award-winner Yolmer Sánchez.

But hey, the White Sox are in the news ... and no one is outright laughing, yet?

In other interesting Twitter debate news of the day, SSS alum PNoles seized upon the 21st anniversary of the Paul Konerko-Mike Cameron trade to point out that, in fact, the White Sox did not “win” the swap:

What Noles says here is not wrong, and he later wrote that with the 2005 World Series in hand, of course the White Sox can claim to have “won” the deal, much like the Cubs don’t cry over dealing ascendant superstar Gleyber Torres to the Yankees to help secure a wife abuser/closer in Aroldis Chapman or perhaps even the Nationals won’t try over trading Lucas Giolito, Dane Dunning and Reynaldo López for Adam Eaton.

But they didn’t win the deal.

Cameron, if only for his defense at a premium position (and by extension, his five-tool game), wins out, every time. The WAR tally isn’t close, over nearly-identical, 17-year careers: Cameron 46.7 bWAR, Konerko 27.7 bWAR. Per JAWS, Cameron qualifies as the 36th-best center fielder in history, Konerko the 92nd-best first baseman.

You can say that PK provided incredible leadership for the White Sox, although aside from mentoring Gordon Beckham not much is clear there. That would also imply that Cameron was incapable of such leadership, which if by no other measure a 17-year career might indicate isn’t true. Konerko was more apt to stick around and spend 16 years in Chicago? Dunno, seems Cameron would have liked to plant some roots, as a guy who, like Konerko, was traded twice early in his career.

Was Cameron more apt to leave in free agency? He certainly wasn’t greedy, making about $55 million less than Konerko in his career for greater production.

Anyway, it’s a fun debate, on the anniversary of the trade. How do you weigh in?