All Activity

I think the timing is such that Contreras wasn’t their first choice. Although as it turns out, STL is retaining some salary so BOS is only paying him $32mil. Have to think that’s close to what they offered Murakami and then completed this deal after he was off the market. Contreras is “proven” but he’s also pretty old at this point.

1) White Sox give him little to no pressure to produce his first year, adjustment period 2) Ability to experiment at 3B and drive up his perceived market/trade value 3) Marketing opportunities in #2 media market, as already the biggest name player on team 4) Comfort level with Suzuki and Imanaga in town already and adjusted 5) Coverage over 2027 lockout year 6) Ability to go back to FA market at the very start of his physical peak…which is quite rare in today’s game 7) Relatively easy short RF target zone at GRF…been saying that 35 years now…shorter gaps/alleys as well Not to mention ST shared facilities with Dodgers…

Almost assuredly in true baseball fashion he'll be referred to as Moonie when his manager and teammates talk about him.

Add 1 more bat at RF or 3B and figure out who deserves a starting spot between Vargas/Sosa/Baldwin/insert name of fringe player on the roster

The massive difference is that Contreras has been a proven run producer (when healthy) for quite some time…if their scouts were 100% sold on Murakami, they surely would have secured him on a $20-22 million one year deal, or higher AAV two years. Red Sox are not even 100% about Bregman holding up in his 30s, but he’s still a surer thing. Same with Bichette, for that matter. And they still have their young core intact, with the possible exception of moving on from Duran.

Love this move; been following him since the WBC. Let the rosterabation commence.

One of the most upvoted comments suggests that our old friend Shingo advised him on how it is in Chicago. Just a random comment but interesting.

Early nickname candidate - “Money Talks” Murakami.

Benny is a liability in left. Honestly just cut him.

That's on the front page, right now, called "If Ishbia gave us one early present, who would excite you to add to this not ready team" Well, it seems that it was a weird year for teams needing 1B and scouting tanked this kid's value further. $15M per felt about right to establish himself. Somebody answered SS2K5's question about staying in Japan. Like the minors, he's got nothing else to prove there, and he can't solve his issues against 90 mph junkballers. I figured he'd take a prove it contract to get his feet wet, then go back into FA.

The ugly Sox just traded for willson Contreras. Have to think they would’ve preferred Murakami. less money, a decade younger, wouldn’t have to give up prospects.

This is such a weird year. After it looking like nfc was a gauntlet, now the afc looks as dominant record wise. Meanwhile the bottom is putrid. Which reminded me - there has been so few dumb nfl upsets. Panthers over rams is the biggest…and panthers are a playoff team.

Thats strange about college freshmen. Why are HS seniors eligible at presumably 18 yrs old but most 19 or 20 yr olds arent ? You'd think if you're good enough to play for a big time college program at those ages and excel that's more impressive than inflated HS numbers against what is usually far inferior pitching.

Yeah, maybe they decide to spend a few bucks to supplement after the last signing, but they burnt the bridge with Giolito.

I was dead wrong about his contract and you were as close as or closer than anyone when you said 3/$45M. Of course I never thougt the Sox had much of a chance at signing him because I also noted the Sox hadn't given out more than a 2 year contract since JR hired Getz. What puzzles me is there was a thread that talked about if you could sign a certain type of free agent ( I forget the parameters) who would you sign and I know I said Murakami. But despite searching I cannot find that thread. Maybe the whole thread got deleted if it degenerated into Star Wars Revenge of the Sith. It wasn't that long ago since it talked about the off season.

They film NBC medical and police dramas here, thank you very much.

This is basically my lineup. You can rotate Beni, Mura, Teel in with Quero at DH. Kinda a sexy young lineup really. Baldwin has a chance to be a player imo. His fielding was horrific but park in RF and see what he can do to start the year imo. His EV numbers suggest with everyday playing time he could improve to an average regular bat assuming his defense isn't bottom 30th percentile in RF. Chase has something to prove, but so does almost everybody other than Beni, who is just playing out the string. A nice change in this stage of the rebuild.

If the season started tomorrow, I would roll with this: 2B - Meidroth (R) C - Teel (L) SS - Montgomery (L) CF - Robert (R) 1B - Murakami (L) 3B - Vargas (R) LF - Benintendi (L) DH - Quero (S) RF - Baldwin (S)

JR is old news on the South Side. Thank the Lord.

Making the playoffs for this team is an amazing achievement after starting 0-2. I think we all know anything beyond this is house money for this team as they are far exceeding expectations. But in the NFL, you need to take advantage of every opportunity regardless of what people thought of you prior to the season. Because things can unravel fast. I think we need to take a look at what happened with the Lions and Commanders recently. Washington and Detroit both made the NFC Championship game ahead of schedule but neither will be in the playoffs this year while both are in the middle of their competitive windows. It's not going to be the end of the world if this team gets bounced in the playoffs, but I think they really need to capitalize on their momentum this year and make a run. Because it's never a guarantee they'll be back in a similar spot next year.

You have watched Jerry manage the team payroll before, right? That is not how he operates. As soon as they signed this guy, they were calling for season tickets. They will trade Robert to reduce payroll, the side effect will be a possibility of making the team better in the future. They had a chance to made a trade last offseason and retain some of his contract and jerry balked,

Moon-Aaaaye !!! The Fonz 👍

It definitely felt like the refs didn't know wtf happened. The ruling on the field definitely should not have been a TD. If anything that just riled up that crowd up for disappointment.

Oh you used Murakami- Sama which means God. So now the Sox have the Pope and a God !

It was crazy that they didn’t rule forward progress was stopped on that play. That would have been an even crazier ending than the Seahawks / Bears games had there not been a penalty on Lions