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I really wish Youtube TV still had MLBN. I liked having the Winter Meetings coverage on in the background during the work day the last couple of years.

Juan Soto, assuming he makes the HOF, will likely wear the hat of whichever team he signs his 10+ year contract with.

You say this a lot but, you have to recognize that there is a difference between the wealth of the owner and the operating revenue of a team. The latter is liquid, the former is overwhelmingly not, and much of it is tied in the market value of the franchise itself. If your argument is that the owner should continually liquidate wealth to infuse more cash into the team at a loss until he/she runs out of money: well ok, I guess you can want that, but even if it happened, the owner would be setting off a spiral that would make the franchise insolvent, torpedo its value (which represents a great deal of the wealth in question in the first place), eventually leading to hundreds of lost jobs and a set of tremendous tax burdens on the city. I say this as someone who believed as you do for a long time, and I do really get it, but I have actually “seen the books” and I think everyone would be surprised to see how narrow the margins actually are year over year. The reason owning a team is a good investment is not because they print money — it’s because the franchise value increases reliably and significantly over time, but that value isn’t just something you can withdraw like a bank account. You can take loans against it, but again, that gets dicey really quickly if you do it very often. Believe me, I have no tears to spare for the rich. But it isn’t as simple as “be less greedy”

Funny you don’t bring up Heyman & Rosenthal claiming we should receive a “monster” package.

Covey was a good pick, he was really close to figuring it out a few times. Sometimes pitchers gonna pitcher.

Yeah I don't believe we are getting garbage offers right now. Rosenthal is reliable. If there's a dozen teams in the hunt and LAD is "most aggressive" there's no way we are getting garbage offers. I believe LAD has likely offered Busch plus a pitcher of our choice in the Top 100. I have a strong feeling that's already on the table. I think Chicago might be a bit squeamish cause even with a savage bat he's likely to end up at 1B and each of the pitchers have issues and they don't want to pick the wrong one. I think if LAD also throws in Pages it will be tough to resist, unless BAL gets serious. IMO, if BAL offers Cowser/Hjerstad, Norby and Hall, this will be a winning offer even if LAD throws in Pages. But there's no way we are going to accept just one Top 100+. That's garbage.

Ironically, the players Getz has acquired so far (DeJong, Lopez) would make Bummer a better pitcher.

I'm gonna just keep trying to manifest Gonzalez into taking off and channeling all our negativity into an awesome 2024.

Soto isn't signing an extension anywhere. You're basically trading for one year of Soto plus the draft compensation you'll get when he leaves as a free agent.

You can always spot an educated guess misrepresented as a rumor when the author replies to their own tweet essentially listing all of the reasons they personally think their fake rumor might be correct.... it is like a kid in school showing their work. They always do it, can't control themselves.

better him than salvy

Passan also said today a "hefty" package FWIW.

If these are the types they are going for, their offense will make Iowa’s look competent. Could this mean the Salvy Perez stuff was BS?

If he picks the Cubs, wow. The Sox really should move at that point. The Sox will have their 12,000 loyal fans (including all of us on here). The Cubs will own the city and he'll be the new Chicago sports icon (Hull, Banks, Minnie, Big Hurt, Butkus, Sayers, Payton). Not sir Michael though. He's forever in a class by himself. Sox should sell team and get Ohtani.

so many times when I look at other systems I find myself just wanting to use Cease to re-do our 2023 first round draft.

I haven’t seen one rumor about the Rangers offering a package led by Leody Taveras. Seems to me you are just doomsday posting.

Him for Eloy makes more sense

If the Cubs signed him, they would get an entire country of Marquee subscribers.

Getting the D-Backs #4 prospect (per MLB, #18 on Fangraphs mid-season rank) as the top guy would be borderline baseball malpractice.

I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the research in that book, but I'd point out a couple things: 1) As you acknowledged, it would be a gross understatement to point out that things have changed since 1995. In fact the very strike event that is subject was a watershed moment for MLB labor that has kicked off three decades of major gains in terms of revenue invested into player labor. Inflation since then is roughly 100%, but MLB salaries have grown at closer to 400% over the same time span. Also the internet happened, and major bumps in broadcast revenue. In the 90s, front offices had a couple dozen full-time employees, today there are a couple hundred. This is all good news -- but the reality is that the economic landscape from then to now isn't similar. I have no idea how much profit Jerry Reinsdorf, for example, was pulling in 1995, but there's a good reason he wanted to collude with all his other cronies back then, and his fear has become a reality. Player salaries are literally the majority of the operating cost today, and that's crazy when you consider the cost of operating a stadium nearly daily for six months out of the year. 2) I haven't read the book, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the analyses of that type I've seen over the years include asset value as part of the "losing or making money" equation. That is very important when the question is whether or not owners deserve any measure of subsidy for investment (they don't) and or whether or not we should sympathize with them when they cry poor (we shouldn't), but it's very different from the issue of annual liquid revenue, and more specifically, the ability for an org to cover significant spending increases based on team need. I'll just reiterate that I'm not suggesting for a moment that all the owners are doing just fine and always will be. It's just important to make the distinction between the entity that owns the capital an the entity that actually makes up and runs the business. And is is critically important for ALL of us -- fans, players, employees, etc. -- that the business remain healthy, because as icky as it feels, without the business, none of this even exists.

I did find it funny that we finally got an infield focused on defense after abandoning the sinker baller reliever profiles Hahn was obsessed with

Looks like he's only under contract for this next year at $23M and then he's a FA. I want him to be good for the sake of fun baseball, but hope he turns into Jacoby Ellsbury for a year if he goes to NYY.

I don't particularly want either one, but if signing Maldonado means no dumb franchise altering Perez trade, then sign me up.

If both were FA and signed minimum contracts, I might agree with you. But Salvy comes with his hefty contract and the acquisition cost. I don't see KC being willing to part their franchise icon for cheap. Especially within the division.

it would have to be free. also salvy seems to have become more like a DH lately. salvy = more lee

Nah I'd absolutely rather have Salvador Perez.

Not sure Gilbert is on the market and neither Bieber nor Glasnow has Cease's value. They are both in their last year of control. And anyone who points to Cease's loss of velo ought to look at Bieber. He's lost 3+ mph over the last few years. That's without considering his arm injury at the end of the year. He's buyer beware as far as I'm concerned.

By all means, drive up the price. The more bidders the merrier.

Their top 3 guys on pipeline are all the types I imagine Getz drooling over. Speedy, grindy, and really short (5’8”, 5’9”, 5’6”).

They're gonna have to bring in some veteran-type. You can't go into the season with Korey Lee and Carlos Perez as your catchers. Maldonado was (at least before last year) a very good defensive catcher. I'd rather have him as a backup then see Perez on this team. At least he'll be cheap.

Why? He has little no upside either to the Sox or as a future trade candidate. The fact the catcher position should be wide open should be attractive to catchers looking to rebuild their value. You want to take a flyer on someone go sign Gary Sanchez at least he was ok-decent for the padres.

He was absolutely terrible last year, even defensively

Can't we at least match his -1.2 fWAR with in-house options?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-legg-mason-miller-idUSKCN10M1DV/ This guy was the most famous stock pickers in the world, with the most credibility of anyone, even more than Warren Buffett even…he beat the S&P 500 Index a record 15 times in a row. Most of the Rick Hahns of the world could only accomplish this feat maybe once every decade…as 90% plus of actively managed funds don’t even beat their indices. But take a look at his track record from 2007-08-09 through today. He’s probably in the Bottom 5-10% overall during these past fifteen years.. Was he a success or failure? Were those who invested in him after that impeccable record of success idiots or merely unlucky? https://www.forbes.com/profile/stewart-horejsi/?sh=6db14a863aa3 Likewise, is this guy one of the smartest, luckiest or most credible to end up with $2.8 billion dollars from investing all his money with Berkshire Hathaway beginning in the 1980’s? Success and credibility are often times a product of sheer luck and being in the right place at the right time.

You have to remember that Balta will use anything possible to support his negative takes, including made up trade proposals from a former incompetent GM who is widely panned by the broader baseball community.

Why not? If Bradfield was the 3rd piece in a BAL deal why would we refuse that if we liked the top two pieces? If Teel was paired with Mayer or Anthony, why would we say no? You can't cry over spilled milk. Hahn sacrificed the pick in a last ditch attempt to get an allegedly close to MLB position player with an allegedly high floor so he could fill a roster spot on the cheap to save himself, and it didn't work. He didn't save himself and the player turned out not to be anywhere close to MLB ready, what does that have to do with Getz evaluating a trade package now? It's over. We choked or in Teel's case, Boston stepped on our dick with work boots. I would absolutely love to still have Kyle Teel. The draft is what it is.

I’d say Caulfield has more credibility than Jim Bowden.

To be fair, Bowden's was a hypothetical.

I really don’t think they can afford to wait until the deadline. It’s far too risky if Cease does come down with an injury.

Provided Bummer could throw the ball over the plate.

Wonder what the record is for a one year option being declined? $21 million has to be pretty darned close. Looks like Rodon turned down $22.5 million in the SF deal to take 6/$162 from the Yankees. From $3 million to $44 million to $162, not bad at all!!

Stroman declined a $21mil option, has injury concerns and also exploded in the second half. These guys are getting paid, or at least the potential reward is worth the risk. I can't imagine giving up 27 runs in 26.2 innings and then saying "no" to 20 million dollars.

pitching seems like the way to go in the rule 5 draft this year. there are some solid dudes that are worth a look, certainly more interesting than Padilla. maybe Banks and Lambert have some trade value and could be moved before the 6th to clear another slot. I'd stick with Touki. I bet if they were targeting bats, Remillard would be off the 40 man roster.

I think we are going to have to say this daily - Santos is almost certainly untradeable.

Just wait until next off-season when Juan Soto is a free agent!

No DeMar or Zach and the Bulls beat Milwaukee with 8 guys in double figures, P-Will animated, Vuc going off, and 32 assists (they average 22). Man, they should have traded those two when they still high value.

I've learned not to rely on you with your absolutes.

I think it purely comes down to Benetti talking to the media about how signing an extension was "kind of a pain." He talks a lot and Amin doesn't. Also think Benetti is better at his job than Amin, I really can't stand Bulls broadcasts since Funk retired and will try my best to listen to the other team's. Stacey has become unbearable, hawking his hot sauce and his podcast. Amin just kowtows to him. Doesn't help that the team is in a worse position than the Sox are. Frankly, I don't like having "national" guys as broadcasters. They're seemingly more concerned about not pissing off their bosses at Fox or other team's fanbases than they are about rooting for the home team, which is logical from their perspective. I'd rather have a homer than the best of the best. I can look at Baseball-Reference or Fangraphs or otherwise go on the internet to talk about advanced stats or whatever. I want a homer in the booth. Both guys see a close call and say "well let's go to the replay and get the whole picture, we can't really say". Wrong. the call needs to go in our favor every time and when it doesn't, it's refball. Make fun of Kwame Brown's tiny hands too. Amin's best moment was when he went after Grayson Allen for several minutes calling him a dirty player when Allen kinda just made a hardnosed basketball play that wasn't dirty in the slightest, just physical. That was the first and last time I ever saw him stand up for a Bulls player and Allen is an easy target since his days at Duke.

Like I said, Cease trade 100% happening Saturday afternoon…Getz has to get his work done before Michigan plays Iowa that night