Balta1701
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Posts posted by Balta1701
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I really wish I could convince myself that the Royals will take a leap this year as I believe they spent as much or more in FA as any other AL team this offseason (in terms of 2024 spending).
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7 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said:
Going back to this, if they really are going with a 9-man pen for the first 5 games of the season (won't really need another starter until game 6 of the season), maybe we will get lucky with a rain out or two pushing the need back a couple weeks. We will see I guess.
If they’re not certain how the schedule is going to go, can they actually have him pitching normal games at Charlotte?
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1 hour ago, South Side Hit Men said:
American League Central
- Detroit 85-77
- Minnesota 82-78 (No wild card)
- Cleveland 76-86
- Kansas City 71-91
- Chicago 66-96
American League Playoffs: #1 Texas; #2 New York; #3 Detroit; #4 Houston, #5 Baltimore; #6 Toronto
National League: #1 Los Angeles; #2 Atlanta; #3 Chicago; #4 Philadelphia; #5 New York; #6 San Diego
World Series: Atlanta over New York
Minnesota has 2 rain outs not made up? Bad weather forecast for next week?
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1 hour ago, vilehoopster said:
I am excited about the upcoming season. I am extremely curious about how the Sox starting rotation is going to do. Yes, the rotation could crater, but I am very curious to watch, and I think our 1st three could be good/ solid. The fact that Touki isn't in the rotation looks like a step up to me.
I am completely buying the improved clubhouse thing is going to show a better product on the field. Do I think the Sox will be good? No, but I think the team is less bad than last year in every way, every way.
People complaining about the bullpen. It can't, just can't be worse that last year's. People complaining about the weak bats for our two catchers, how can the bats be worse than Grandal and Selby? I expect a huge upgrade in offensive production from the two outfield corners, not good, but much less bad than last year. And the defense, all around will be way better. I am confident that Vaughn wil take a clear step forward with his bat. NIcky is a big step up from what we've had at 2nd base for what seems forever. Is he great? No, but again, way less bad. People freaking out about Sox 6 thru 9 batters in lineup. Have we forgotten how terrible Sox 6 thru 9 batters were there last year, and the year before, and year before. It's gonna be the same; why freak out over it for the upcoming year?
I'm going with my Ghostbuster quote from before, "There definitely a very slim chance this White Sox team could succeed". I'm going with and hanging onto that very slim chance. I'm a White Sox fan and I'm excited for the season to start.
1. Yes, Martin Maldonado can be a downgrade from the catchers spot last year, because he was worse than the White Sox’s catchers last year. Imagine Grandal except he also doesn’t walk and you have to constantly hear what a great job he’s doing, that’s what Maldonado was last year. Hopefully Lee can do something with this opportunity.
2. Nicky Lopez had an OPS last year 30 pints lower than Elvis Andrus last year .630 is not “way less bad” than .660.
3. Note how much of your concept Is “maybe they will all break out this year”. That was supposed to be a part of their competitive team last year! We heard that all the time. Maybe it happens this time, but with this coaching staff and the GM having no control over rushing people upwards I will believe it when I see it.
4. You’re right, that bullpen performance last year was unusually bad for the resources put into it. However. Same coach, same pitching coach, less talent. Will count it as improved when it is improved.
5. The Sox have some downside risks too. Luis Robert was their only real contributor last year, and he counts as injury prone and likely difficult to coach. Room for improvement if healthy the whole year, but where are they without him or if he slows down a tiny bit?
6. The White Sox had fewer WAR and a worse run differential than the Royals. They only wound up in 4th place because they were a little lucky and the Royals were unlucky. That could repeat this year, they get lucky and it carries them to 65 wins, or a team with better talent could also drop into the 50s, even if you believe they have better talent.
I’ve seen way too many people give credit to a GM who was making poor moves that made people feel good only to proclaim no one could have seen issues coming when they happened. So personally, I still think they’re crap and the jury is out on whether they have learned any lessons from how they got into this mess. That last part is all I’m interested in this season, and the rushing guys upwards who haven’t earned it does not give me any confidence.
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1 hour ago, Kyyle23 said:
You have to think that there is a warning sign hanging over the white Sox org due to the way things have been done, and when JR pulled the rug on Hinch and went with TLR it went noticed. Couple that with the results over the last two years, and you have to think that has adversely affected interest in the job to the point where guys (who just wanted that job so bad it didn’t matter where it came from) like Pedro were the ones who were in the final group that Hahn/Kenny chose from
I think they probably had plenty of interested parties, but Grifol told them what a great job they were doing and played to their already-existing prejudices about how baseball should be run.
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1 hour ago, Tony said:
While I don’t follow the Sox as closely as I used to, I don’t think Pedro is trying to sell to the fans. I really believe he thinks all the ra-ra bullshit is going to fire up his players and the team. It won’t, they will be terrible, but I think he believes in taking this ultra-optimistic approach with the media is the way to go.
He was in WAY over his head the day he was hired, but he was most likely one of the only candidates that would accept the job
I understand Joe Espada wanting no part of this, but I can't believe no one else was willing to go for one of only 30 MLB manager jobs. Maybe no one else wanted it at the salary Reinsdorf was willing to pay, but that's different.
Weren't there a ****ton of reports about Bruce Bochy being interested?
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1 minute ago, WestEddy said:
They were talking about Nastrini and Mena possibly being ready to be promoted in 2024 last year. If the pitching brain trust of Bannister, Katz and Zaleski think his stuff is ready, why send him to a bandbox in Charlotte to be lit up?
But the real answer is that a decision hasn't been made, yet. So everybody is pre-emptively complaining about a move that hasn't happened yet. Typical.
If they were talking about him being ready why were his minor league numbers not better? Do those coaches just not know what they're doing?
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29 minutes ago, SoCalChiSox said:
Why aren't they keeping Nastrini down for service time?
It would be dumb to have him on the OD roster. It's not like they are going to win anything either way.
Especially now with the low but nonzero chance at extra draft picks, combined with how the whole org looks, I'm not going to get bent out of shape about service time.
I am getting more bent out of shape about the fact that he really doesn't seem to have earned it. ERA over 4 at AA all year last year, including once traded, 4 starts at AAA, ERA over 4. This feels like a guy being rushed to the big leagues by default, because there's an open spot, not because he's actually been good enough to earn it.
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1 minute ago, ChiSox59 said:
I probably would have gone with the extra pen arm to start the season and called up Nastrini when needed, but fine with rewarding him for a nice spring.
Assuming you pretend yesterday didn’t happen.
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3 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said:
No, the comment was that he’d rather extend Robert than Colson.
Ah Ty. Colson hasn’t been healthy yet either I guess.
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11 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said:
Scott Boras is also his agent so any thought to extend him is already fucked.
At some point it would be nice to have a team where paying for this type of player made sense, but just in general the comment was that they’d rather extend Robert than Cease. Right now Cease has been healthy since he was called up while Robert has had one major surgery and at least one minor injury costing him several weeks over the last 3 seasons. If I had to gamble on who would be more likely to contribute at age 33, for now wouldn’t Cease be the obvious answer?
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2 hours ago, WBWSF said:
I would rather extend Robert Jr.
With his injury history?
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1 hour ago, South Side Hit Men said:
Wow, thanks. I would have understood if Cease told Getz he wants to test the open market. Not sure what if anything was discussed regarding a possible extension with that quote.
Would be really sad if the Sox don’t extend Robert, and Oakland signs a nine figure contract (likely after a move to wherever) before the White Sox.
Let’s just remember that Cease’s agent is Scott Boras, so an extension isn’t going to involve any massive discount.
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37 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:
Guessing you're not counting 2025 that a serious injury could also seriously hurt his value for the 2 year length of his contract.
No, that’s why I said 1/2 of a season, referring to 1/2 of a season.
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9 minutes ago, WestEddy said:
I'll take strawmen for $500, Alex.
It's almost like a player's entire career doesn't already exist for people to decide if they're ready or not. Or that the professionals watching him throw his pitches for a solid month, now, can't see if their arsenal is major league ready or not. I'm pretty sure that the people making these decisions aren't just reading the box scores and high fiving each other, even though that's what the glum crowd pretends is the case.
Great. He has 27 games at AA with an ERA over 4, 4 games at AAA last year also with an ERA over 4. Send him to AAA and call him up when he starts impressing. Thanks for agreeing, entire career makes it obvious.
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1 minute ago, WestEddy said:
I've never claimed they're better than all the other teams. Just because I'm not constantly whining about every single development, and tying it all back to Jerry Reinsdorf demanding that every player suck so he makes money - doesn't mean I don't acknowledge reality.
Are you suggesting that Nastrini forgot how to pitch today? Or that he sucked all along, and he's been lucky up til now? At some point, the glum crowd are going to realize that they sound ridiculous when they pretend that even good things are bad.
How about that 12 innings in spring training isn’t a good way to make a decision about whether or not a guy is ready for a callup?
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3 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:
The bulk of the money is the Cease contract. JR never take a risk of him pitching for another 3+ months. Don't u think the other GMs knew that when they made offers? It wasn't just his down year or metrics. When you put it in perspective the return is a lot more logical. I'm 99 % sure it was Jerry's call.
Cease’s money for 1/2 of the season is basically one Martin Maldonado.
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28 minutes ago, Texsox said:
Or saying it another way.
Whether drafting rookies or veterans why would you want a later pick? I don't want to go fourth in the draft, let's go lower after everyone else picks, then we'll take whoever they don't want. We're not that good at development that we can take other team's rejects, develope them, and beat those teams.
One thing I'm certain of after fifty years or following this organization, for every time we actually "fix'd 'em" (Loaiza) there are dozens and dozens that really did suck so bad no one else would sign them.
Whats ironic is that this is actually a pretty good description of how Reinsdorf viewed the draft for years and how he still treats the international signing market.
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3 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:
Between not having to pay a possible $4M to Mous and $3M to Pillar and $8M? to Cease that's $13-$15M+ The 2025 Cease salary w/e it was is off the books too. The Sox saved when JR made sure they weren't paid.
The Clevinger and other pitcher who signed already for 4.5M were just distraction tweets. JR wouldn't pay them.
JRs fingerprints are all over these moves. Follow the money. No way JR wanted to risk losing $18-$20M and more if Cease got injured.
I complained enough about selling off Cease at a discount already, I will not complain about them avoiding paying Pillar and Moustakas $5 million or Clevinger anything. Those would be like Maldonado, bad signings and wasted money to make us feel Royal, it would do nothing to help the Sox in either the short or long term.
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1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:
Arguably, those at-bats could/should have gone to Colas, to DeLoach, to Phillips (if they were so determined to keep him on the roster from the beginning).
Or Fletcher, obviously.
Not going to argue that Sheets should have had MORE opportunities. That's a bridge TOO far.
And giving Moustakas all those bats as a "favor" (see Justin Fields/Bears) prevented them from going to Lee, to Popeye, Sosa, etc.
If we look at 2017-19, there were numerous players given valuable playing time without any return at all, either via trade or having that playing time actually turn into (at the very least like an Alejandro de Aza) a part-time player to supplement the so-called core super prospects.
As CinC of the “the Sox can’t develop anyone because their front office are idiots” club, I’d like to note that “this guy failed to develop because he didn’t get enough at bats in spring training” isnt a thing.
I was worried that having so many guys in camp would mean dumb moves like Pillar and Moustakas staying with the team would happen by default because of veteranyness.. Clearly this didn’t happen, so another minor correct decision here for Getz.
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6 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:
Is that already corrected for Cease being out?
You look at all those lost innings from Lynn Gio Scholtens Kopech Toussaint...almost a total reinvention for this year.
Yes, it has 350 innings and 4.5 of those War from Thorpe, Crochet, and Soroka.
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4 minutes ago, poppysox said:
Same guys who picked us to win the division last year. Let's just play the games.
Like you?
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6 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:
Even with Grossman and Fletcher on the roster, the Sox could use an actual glove first 4th/5th OF. Wonder if any interesting ones get released this week.
Brett Phillips is both able to back up CF and a former Royal, so him making the roster does make sense.
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32 minutes ago, WestEddy said:
Dude rakes vs. LHP. I suppose they can absorb his glove against lefties.
Opening day right-fielder?
Unless he was playing for someone else the last 3 weeks I can’t imagine he’s ready for that, and I don’t see anyone having cut him. April 10 maybe?
Ohtani's interpreter fired for stealing money
in The Diamond Club
Posted
How about “this is super weird as presented and for it to go this way a whole lot of safeguards have to break down in a very peculiar way.”
Between the bookie giving a $4.5 million credit line to a guy who probably wouldn’t make that much in 10 years and these transfers not setting off alarms with Ohtani or anyone he employs, it seems worth some real skepticism to me that this is the whole story. Is that fair?