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Call me crazy, but I really don’t care what positions we get back for Cease. Just want Getz and co to be smart and maximize value. This team is so far away from actually competing (not just for the central) that trying to get prospects for certain positions is a pointless worry. And like it or not, Robert is going to have to be traded before this rebuild of the rebuild is finished so whatever you don’t get for Cease you can address later in a Robert trade if need be. If you’re being realistic, who whinin the entire organization are we confidently penciling into the 2025 lineup/pitching staff? Montgomery and ….? Obviously we have some other prospects to be hopeful of, but the void of talent is so glaring that thinking we need to focus on any certain positions is kinda crazy to me honestly.

AJSS flew up 4 levels as a 20 year old and put up 85 innings of dominant ball in the minors and good starts for a playoff team. Grissom flew up to MLB from AA as a 20 year old and threw up a 120 wRC+. Reports have been that his defense has improved as a 2b last year, though it's true, right now as a 22 year old he has more work to do to be passable at 2b. That's a strong start of players who can handle the moment, and play up to competition. Owen Murphy (IL HS woop) was one of the youngest starting pitchers in A+ last year. Didier Fuentes was one of the youngest pitchers in carolina league. His mix reminds me of what was successful with Mena. I get that when you are dreaming of 3 top 100 guys from Baltimore they are giving it makes people mad not to get it. But I ...would really like the above. Atlanta has shown itself really strong at finding players with the mental makeup/growth mindset to handle tough assignments and thrive. Let's lean into that.

I think it’s a big mistake if they don’t. Where is the offense coming from?

I'm glad we've introduced AJSS as an acronym we all understand because I straight up cannot ever remember the name after the hyphen despite googling it 20 times. Definitely smith-schuster ruined this guys name forever.

While I too would prefer a position player driven deal, I feel like you need to maximize the return on Cease regardless of the prospect mix. If Atlanta is willing to overwhelm you with quality pitching prospects so be it. But then again I'm pretty into AJSS, Waldrep, and Murphy. I also come back to Baltimore prospect hugging. There's a good chance the Orioles just aren't willing to trade the prospects that make sense in a Cease return. Even though they match up so well on paper doesn't mean Baltimore is a willing participant. It takes two to tango.

The thing that drives me insane is that if the Sox are so high on Waldrep, they could have just drafted him a few months ago.

Chill, Bruh.

No more over/under slot. They're too fucking stupid to outsmart the system. They keep trying and they keep fucking it up. Just take the best player in every round and pay them slot. Listen to your scouts in rounds 3-10. They'll find the players who have some upside and will sign for slot. No more college seniors who sign for $10,000 and are released in 3 months. That's how you end up with zerp depth in your minor league system.

I don't think Oakland stands a chance at seeing another team any time soon, if ever. Why would MLB put another franchise after a decades long battle to move the A's to Vegas? There's plenty of new markets they would rather expand too.

Dont forget about pitcher Lloyd Allen, I dropped my glove from the stands in the outfield during warm ups and he was shagging fly balls for whatever reason and he was nice enough to toss it back to me

…

With their draft pick being 10 at best in 2025, they need to do more than a regular rebuilding team would do this offseason. It wouldn’t kill them to win 75 games.

It's hard to see any team giving up much for Eloy. Someday, he's going to figure out how to get the ball in the air more often, but thr Sox can't seem to help him. I don't think he's the problem child some make him out to be. His teammates love him. He did lose the weight the Sox wanted him to lose, and then his appendix burst. I guess what I'm getting at is I wouldn't trade him just to get rid of him.

I think we will be much better than people think...but that's just me. Cease brings us that long lost RF bat and a couple plus arms. We were picked to win the division last year. Not having Grandal, Anderson, and that whole group of underperforming bullpen arms is a big plus. Moncada and Benintendi need to be reasonably healthy along with Eloy. Yeah...things need to break well but that's baseball.

Seaver was a nice addition though.

Harold you said earlier they are going to get bats in this trade.....WTF.

Let’s say the Orioles don’t want to give up Cowser or Kjerstad simply because they feel they will need them soon. I think a fair ask would be Mayo, one of their major league ready infielders (Westberg, Ortiz, Norby), and Beavers. Honestly, I’m not making a trade to the Orioles without one of Mayo, Kjerstad, or Coswer plus one of their infielders (preferably not Norby unless our scouts have more faith in the glove than I do). I’m really not sure another team can do much better than that.

Zaidman would be such a bad hire.

It’s just so maddening to me how people can’t see it with Fields. If you have to wait until these final weeks to make a decision, then the decision has already been made. We know what we have. Maybe he’s “good enough” for a fringe playoff team (which the Bears could be), but that shouldn’t be enough. Expect more, Bears fans. Start raising the expectations. We all wanted Fields to be the franchise QB, but it’s not working for him here.

Nyls Nyman Ed Stroud Harry Chappas Jose Paniagua Adam Leroach Ron Bloomberg Bobby US Bonds Daryl Boston Todd Cruz Ron Lefleur

After which Yoshinobu will celebrate at KFC, as is Japanese tradition on Christmas day since 1974.

John Angelos has already come out and said he doesn't think he can afford to extend their current core. Angelos is just like JR. I'm mocking that paragraph for sounding like White Sox fluff the past few years.

Grissom doesn't really fit any of the characteristics Getz has preached. I'd be surprised if he is the primary return. You can probably get that deal (Grissom, AJ S-S/Waldrep, and a lotto) in July. There is no reason to take that now. Just because Getz hasn't accepted an offer as we sit on December 18th, or even 6 weeks from now, doesn't mean all is lost. It probably means he is asking for the moon, as he should. I know we all want something interesting to analyze, but this is probably going to take awhile still.

Basically agree with both of what you're saying, with one being more optimistic than the other. If you're Getz, you're trying to maximize raw value that you have. The only thing that should give you pause is if you end up with multiple guys slated to be at one position / level, and they have no flexibility in their positions. If you're in a position to compete in 2025 by some grace of God, you have chips to trade. Right now, the Sox have what has to be near the bottom of the barrel in MLB talent (reflected in wins and losses), top-end minor league talent (reflected in prospect rankings), minor league depth, and, as a sum of all of that, trade capital. We have none of that, and Getz's first job is to build up trade capital.

Agreed. They should add when there is availability. They can't assume who will be available in the coming off seasons.

I think it's a short-term fix too. They want to play really good defense next year if they're going to be bad. It helps the endless amounts of young starting pitchers who will make cameos. They don't want to play "small ball" long-term. Nobody actually wants to do that. Power is just expensive to acquire.

Of course you liked Dick Allen, off the top of my head there was his brother Hank and pitcher Neil Allen, I can’t recall the 4th Allen. Do the owner brothers Arthur and John Allyn count?

There should be a decent amount of talent that is ready by 2025. Offensively, the big ones are Montgomery, Ramos, & Quero. On the pitching side, you have Nastrini, Eder, Mena, Bush, & Cannon. Not all these guys will be good and the ones that ultimately will be will likely have some growing pains, but along with whatever you get in a Cease trade there will be an influx come 2025. We should also have “unprecedented financial flexibility” after this season, but next year’s class doesn’t look overly deep on the positional side and I don’t view us as a threat to sign a true mega star ever. But maybe we can convince Jerry to go out and get Pete Alonso along with a mercenary SP. And maybe with the right development and luck, that’s enough to win a s%*# AL Central. But we need to get the Cease trade right and hit on multiple pieces for any chance of that or more likely a competitive 2026 to happen.

Against certain defenses the ball needs to come out quick. With Bagent this seemed to happen and the offense seeemed to be crisp and in a flow. I am not certain if a coaching staff can fix Fields flaws and get the best out of him but Getsy stinks. I still think Fields can win and the team strength via draft capital can be built around him. Let new HC and OC determine with Poles and Warren what is best.

I’ve just accepted that it’s going to be the Braves and it will be Grissom, one or AJSS/Waldrep, and probably a lotto ticket. And then I will do mental gymnastics believing that it is a good return, even though they could have done better trading him elsewhere.

I don't think that's the longterm vision of the team. I think this is a one year snap back for things that were so grossly ignored for so long. They're going to add power hitters but it's going to take a little time. This team is way too terrible to fix in one off season.

Brooks is looking for his Pedro Grifol, They can suck at their job as long as they bow down.

It was reported on many outlet that Glasnow trade was contingent on extension. Without it, the deal was not going to happen. That is also the reason for a long delay in finalizing the deal with physical and such.

I think that's sorta true, sorta not. I'm not sure how much compensation you'd assign to it, but clearly the fact that Glasnow was open to extensions was part of the reason he's a dodger.

Basallo is pretty much a consensus top 30 to 40 prospect (maybe even higher at this point). His value is enormous and it’s significantly higher than that of Pepiot’s IMO. And I say that a fan of Pepiot.

I don’t think so. Glasnow landed a former top 100 mlb prospect that has shown he can succeed in mlb and still has many years of control as well as the Dodgers #13 prospect. I don’t see much surplus value in Glasnow’s contract that he just signed either. A Cease return should do much better than Pepiot/DeLuca and I would compare the value of Pepiot/DeLuca similar to Basallo + a low level minor leaguer.

That's been the standard for a decade. I've never been a rule follower.

You must not have gotten the memo. We can't say anything positive about the team or players. Now you know.

There is no way that the Orioles will trade Mayo and Basallo for Cease. Like someone said, it is the most delusional time of the year. ?

It would be just so annoying to see Eloy stay fit on another team and start racking up numbers like he is capable of. But the reality is that if he stayed he will probably pick up some freak injury shortly after spring training and miss half the season! And as you say even if Eloy has a return to his rookie season in numbers the White Sox will still suck in 2024.

I still think an Eloy for Jake McCarthy swap makes sense.

Just because he wasn't nice to you and others doesn't mean he wasn't good at his job. His job wasn't to be nice to people. Neither is Reinsdorf's.

Fields isn't the guy, but this QB class seems especially weak.

And here’s to you, Chuckie Robinson, Pedro loves you more than you will know.

Bill Walton/Johnny Depp

I was in the upper deck at that Paniagua game....I treat him as more of an urban legend. I almost bought his game worn jersey at Soxfest just to see the reaction when I wore it to a game, but it was more than $5.

I haven't read this (yet), but have heard good things: https://beltpublishing.com/products/rethinking-fandom-how-to-beat-the-sports-industrial-complex-at-its-own-game Not sure if it totally gets into what you're struggling with, but just wanted to throw it out there.

Glad to read you got some perspective on this. Just stop trying to overanalyze it. That season was not about great individual players (like you said, the only true great was Thomas, and he was insignificant on the whole in 2005). But all of those players collectively as a team added up to greater than the sum of their parts and ran it wire to wire and dominated the playoffs in a way that we haven't seen since. That was special. The fact that it was a one-off shouldn't take away from the fact that it was one of the most special sports experiences many of us have ever had. I'm not a baseball historian, I'm a fan. 2005 is what fans live for.