thxfrthmmrs

Rutherford will most likely never amount to shit and still netted two high end RPs a year after drafted. And that is the point here. The Padres and Yankees traded a bunch of guys to get 4 starting pitchers. Most of those guys are so far away and we probably won’t hear about them for a few years, or ever again. But all the key pieces are projectable players with decent to high upside. Those are the players teams want as center pieces for cost controlled assets, not the low ceiling high floor college picks. Not just that, Sox actually went above slot to sign some of these college picks that had no leverage, which made no sense. It’s more of the same shit on the LatAM side, trading away slot bonus and signing a guy like Yolbert.

I am shocked that our early round college picks - Sheets, Walker, LuGon, Burdi, etc, don’t have much value in the trade market. Not.

I have a feeling Hector is someone the agents use to help drive up the bidding for premier free agents, but they also throw him a bone once in a while, like extensions and stuff.

Put it this way, if Voit was on the White Sox and Abreu was on Yankees, do you see any chance Voit being ranked ahead of Abreu after latter was named MVP? If you want to take a trip down the memory lane, Abreu ranged from 3.1-5.8 WAR per season up until 2018. He's much more proven and just came off an MVP season.

Cruz + Archer easily, and that's why Cruz will likely get $14M and Archer will get $5M plus a couple mil incentives.

I think somebody will, especially if NL adds DH.

I really hope it's only a one year deal if true. I don't see how we could afford Cruz next year and extend/resign Lynn for $18M+.

Somebody challenge Hector to a ban bet.

Typical Yankees bias. No way is Voit above Abreu.

The Spotrac number on luxury tax is correct. Sox are at $145M for the payroll portion of the luxury tax calculation, and $163M overall, thanks to a number of back loaded contracts and Hendriks weird deal that only counts as 3 years. FWIW they have the 2nd highest luxury tax payroll next year, behind only the Padres.

I wouldn't worry about this at all. That's a good problem to have. If Kopech forces his way for a promotion he could temporarily pitch out of BP to keep his innings in check. If Cease struggles or Wainwright hits the IR, Kopech could easily jump in. Also 2021 will be a season where most pitchers will be on some sort of inning limit, having an extra starter definitely helps.

Yes on Springer but they signed Brantley through his age 36 season. I think Brantley is the type of hitter who should age nicely into his mid 30s, especially if they plan to use him primarily at DH the next few years.

Supposedly dropped a lot of LBs, but I still dont think he has the instincts or range to be a passable defender there.

Lourdes/Springer/Teoscar in OF, Grichuk/Tellez and now Brantley at DH. Seems like there is a logjam even if Grichuk is relegated to 4th OF, unless Vlady moving back to 3B.

I wasn’t on at the time and the strange thing was there had been little rumors about Burnes until last night. You basically called your shot and it became a rumor. Perhaps it’s one of those coincidence

Did anyone point out yet the conspicuous timing between this thread and the Reddit post? What’s @bmags Reddit handle anyways? Does he like elevators?

I would think this puts more legs on a Burnes trade. It seems like dominos are falling. It could be a scenario where Sox were Q's preferred destination, but Sox pivoted to Burnes instead and a deal is near, so he went for the Angels.

I like Madrigal as much as the next guy, but there is no way Brewers will trade away a potential ace in Burnes for Madrigal as the main piece with Hiura and Urias already on the roster.

I am excited about the prospects of Burnes, this kid is legit (I am the idiot who traded him away in a dynasty league last year). At the same time I'm afraid what the cost might be. I think it's Kopech + Kelley as headliners at the minimum, if not Kopech + Madrigal (e.g. Castillo level price).

We’re the only fan base that could have a 69 page thread about Trevor Bauer speculations, in honor of Bauer. Heck, if the site owner allows it, we could go up to 420.

This game was as good as it gets for baseball gamers. I think there is still a community out there playing mod versions till this day.

I buy that theory if Sox do not invest in 16 year olds period. But Sox has sign these kids in the past, including this signing period, but just not often enough. Now you could make case that perhaps they only engaged with these kids the year prior to their eligible year, instead of approaching them at 13/14 years old. But I don’t think anyone here could confirm that.

Sox has a strong roster in spite of some terrible decisions in LatAM spending. They could have so much more assets to trade from but wasted their bonus pool on guys like Yolbert or throwing the money away like it’s nothing. When they did spend on the 16 year olds previously, they had not gotten anything to show for (Franklin Reyes, Amando, Nunez, Felix Mercedes, etc). I applaud them for trying but it was at a time they have one of the worst developmental programs in all of majors. Sox and Padres had been on a similar trajectory for a few years now, this offseason has really shown the true difference between how these teams are built. Despite trading for 3 highly valuable SPs, they still maintain one of the top farms in MLB with strong depth.

Back when I played MVP baseball I always drafted the youngest players because they perceived to have the highest upside. It’s not a difficult concept. Take 5 shots with 5 players for $2.5M is a much better gamble than signing a Yolbert Sanchez for $2.5M because he’s a safer choice. Build a good development program and trust your coaching staffs to develop these kids. In the case scenario you could still trade them after they show little promise in DSL or rookie league before anyone finds out if these players are any good.

Grisham is a fantastic young player and Pham and Myers are capable, with Cronenworth now boosting its depth. Is it their strength? No. But it’s far from a weakness.