Leaderboard

Great, but what are we getting for Cease?

I miss the days of Soxtalk when the 69-page threads were about players that the Sox were rumored to be acquiring and not 69-page threads about players the Sox were selling off.

Pedro better not get his nose too far up Tony's ass. JR and Getz need turns.

I hope we lose 120 games next year

I would not make this trade for Robert + Cease.

The patience Getz has shown in slow walking the Cease trade market is going to pay off big time IMO.

I'm the opposite actually. I want batters (all else being equal)

And will probably go down even more next year given the likely horrendous attendance for 2024

Yes, the benefit of the doubt should ALWAYS go to the Sox, no question. I mean, look at how successful Katz and this organization have been as of late. They’re gonna need a bigger trophy case soon.

And that we never got? Those days sucked too, to be real.

Random thought, but I think the Sox should sign Kyle Lewis to small major league contract. We have zero OF depth and while I hope we can acquire a potential RF via a Cease trade, it would be great have a cheap placeholder like Lewis who can also be part of the DH mix if Eloy were traded and worst case is a bench piece. The Dbacks non-tendered him vs. paying him like $1.7M, so we are talking dirt cheap and he’d come with three years of potential control if he performed well. I see zero downside from such a move.

I'd take being in the postseason hunt every year over being basically eliminated in May. Every. Single. Time.

Noted: Caulfield sees a Padres-esque downfall in the Dodgers future. Clearly they have walked parallel paths up til now

That's incredible. And in 2018, they 'only' won 92 games. In 2017, they won 104. I wish we had nice things.

Per Trevor Plouffe on Twitter. I honestly thought he was gonna come to the Sox to be with Katz.

How much did you expect them to get for one year of Glasnow at $25M with his track record of health? Throw in the dumping of Margot and this is a great deal for the Rays.

What?

When two teams suck, I'll take the one that has an enjoyable broadcaster and is expressing a willingness to improve over whatever Jerry is doing.

Also, from the same podcast: - sounds like Mets asking price for Alonso is Cade Horton - Bellinger is asking for 300 million - teams have concerns about Bieber’s elbow

Two Cubs fans criticizing what the Sox are doing? I don't believe it.

Yes, and we should have the tie-breaker in Katz if the money was the same. Unfortunately, it’s painfully obvious that Reinsdorf is slashing payroll well beyond even our own expectations (and mine were pretty large).

Tony La Russa admits he's not the decision maker but he was referring to his bowels.

JR catches a lot of heat for making bad hires, you're almost there Tony. JFC, I defended this dude more than most but FFS why the hell is he even involved AT ALL in the franchise right now?

If you have to ask a coach if there's a quarterback controversy...there's a quarterback controversy.

I hope they keep Cease to open the season unless they are blown away by an offer. There should be no desperation to sell unless the price is right. This doesn’t seem to be a good offseason to sell a SP with a dozen or so pitchers still available in FA that teams don’t need to lose prospects to acquire. What hurts more is the death of the Padres owner which ends their spending ways, and the Mets scaling back as well, limiting aggressive teams to just a few. I’ve always thought there was a close to zero chance the Orioles would want Cease because their cheap ass owner would be concerned with paying $20M plus over the next two years, let alone giving up any prospects for him. They added dick at the trade deadline despite record profits last year and a solid fan attendance. Just a disgraceful franchise, worse than the Sox IMO.

White Sox should relieve San Diego of Jake Cronenworth, if they really do need to move his money like MLBTR suggests. If they took like half the money, he immediately slots to the top of the 2b depth chart at a commitment of just $40M over 7 years. Might even get something back if you took that much money or more. Or take him back as part of a Cease deal to strengthen the return. Seems like a perfect opportunity for a savvy front office with payroll space and a lost year ahead.

The only team that could afford Robert are the Orioles. And that would mean them trading Holiday

I also agree that the Baseball trade values website is low on Cease's surplus value in this environment. Often it greatly overestimates how valuable a prospect is vs. a proven MLB talent. So many prospects bust and deliver little, if any, value. Short of injury, you largely know that Cease will give you really solid 30+ starts for two seasons with #1/2 starter upside. When Seth Lugo ate age 34 is getting 3/$45 million, Cease's age 28 and 29 seasons for 2/$25 million plus potential qualifying offer compensation is a steal Yamamoto/Snell/Montgomery are all going to cash in on massive deals I laugh when I see Orioles fans thinking Joey Ortiz and Cade Povich can headline a deal

Yea, give me position players as well. Pitching everything else being equal, is just more prone to injury risk and sudden changes in true talent. Try and build a decent core around Colson and whoever comes back in the Cease trade and figure out the pitching once that is hopefully accomplished.

This. They were lucky Luis Robert didn't break in half before all star week last year with how little rest they gave him. Thompson's job wasn't to be good, it was to keep Luis Robert alive.

Right on, I've always liked the guy, just a shame such a great fielder just can't hit, good luck to him. I'm still hoping the Sox can sign Kevin Keirmaier for right field, if he can stay healthy he would be a very good addition, the guy gives 100% and maybe some of it would rub off on some of our guys like Moncada. Right now the Sox have 2 legitimate MLB outfielders on the roster in Robert and Benintendi, they have Sheets and Colas listed on the 40 man roster, we have to do better than that.

They have been to 3 World Series and finished in the NLCS 3 times in the last decade. There is no other NL team that has done anything close to that. I know you are struggling here and trying to make it a dire scenario but it’s not and they just signed quite possibly the best player on the planet and are trying to acquire more great players to go along with the team that won 100 games last season.

Wish him luck. If he could hit for even .250, he's probably a starting major league center fielder somewhere. Sneaky power, surprisingly good defender.

Rip Van Winkle up thread just woke up, he fell asleep in 2006 apparently.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/12/14/24000128/tonys-place-healthier-larussa-back-wants-state-where-he-fits-with-white-sox-reinsdorf-grifol-getz On his role in 2024, including being at Spring Training nearly every day. La Russa also denies being involved in the Front Office Purge and is pissed off at AJ. Continued losing impacts Jerry’s health.

Because relegation is stupid. Relegation leads to LESS parity, not more.

We saw what the asking price was from Reds according to Levine

Shuster isn't much to write home about either.

I’m certainly not complaining about a Braves return. Can’t have too many arms. Especially with this team.

We obtained alot of pitching that was relatively well thought of at the time in Nastrini, Eder and Bush and now signed Fedde and traded for 2 pitchers from ATL. They also presumably spent good money to lure Bannister here to develop our pitchers and we have a potential ace in the pipeline that probably isn't super far away from the majors. So let Bannister work. If we have blow our wad on elite prospect pitching in order to get good pitching, WTF is Bannister for? What value is he adding? We now need to address positional needs. We do not need to obtain 7th and 8th pitchers BEFORE meaningfully addressing positional needs. Savages come first and no Grissom is not a savage.

Pitching is still a long term need (until proven otherwise). Edit: also might be better than what other teams are offering? Hmmm…

NBB said payroll is being cut “substantially”

They’ll still suck.

Never thought I'd continuously look at the Tigers with such a wistful gaze.

I did the “free” route for a long time but the quality and reliability of the legit mlb stream spoiled me. Having the option to switch between tv & radio calls, or home & away also makes it well worth it IMO. Blackouts are dumb but when the local team sucks ass it’s not so bad.

TLR might be even less popular than JR and Terry Bevington at this point.

Same problem his ignition lock gives him.

I think that's a given either way. At least for the foreseeable future.

I like how you are thinking here.

Interesting, as he said the Orioles were leading the other day: