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Congrats @caulfield12

He had a 120 wRC+ as a 20 year old call up from AA! You guys are insane.

Eloy to me is a classic hold to the deadline guy. You can’t get much for him now. He figures how to get the ball airborne more often, he stays healthy, he has more team control than Cease. He keeps getting hurt and hitting grounders. He has a $3 million buyout.

I don't understand why expansion is even a thing considering half the teams in the league arent even trying to compete. Yeah $$$ talks, but its still silly.

Unban @Marty34!

I liked Codi Heuer when he was here. Whenever i see his name I always think of an Angels/White Sox game where I was watching the local Angels broadcast and the Angels guy said Heuer had the look of a TV/movie villain. He was right too, in that moment on the mound the dude had like an evil smile and his hat was like darkly covering half his face at that angle. It's hard to describe but they were definitely right, almost like a young Frank Gorshin or something who had the look on his face like he had concocted some diabolical plan.

Depends on if was mostly labrum or the actual capsule. The labrum is around 60-80% for return to prior level of performance. The actual capsular repair is below 50%.

I mean, you’re even more risk adverse than Balta & Parkman, so not overly surprising you feel this way. But you got to take some risks when you’re in our position and I’d rather in a potential TOR starter who can help us in 2025 than pay for mediocrity that gets us an extra win or two in 2024.

I do like how in soccer they demote teams if they suck hard enough, even if that means our shitty org would be in AAA purgatory

I've brought up that scenario before about saving for next year . Frankly you'd have to trust JR and there's nothing to stop JR from saying yes I'll give you an extra $15-20M next year and then he increases the payroll $5M and tells Getz we incurred a lot more losses than I anticipated because the team was so bad. You knew I wanted to compete asap. You should've spent the whole budget on a better team. Trust JR to keep his word and telling Getz you're fired for questioning his authority to do as he pleases seems more likely

You would have to think if he's here meeting with team that he would want to maybe agree and finalize a deal before going back home for Christmas right? The end of the week Tweet definitely makes sense.

I don’t see how they’d be better than the Yankees?

The Royals have never yet gone down to the "drop your payroll to $30 million and rake in the money" level we've seen from Pittsburgh, Miami, Oakland, etc. Instead, they always try to give their fans something at least a little respectable, put a couple guys on the field and play decent baseball in the first half. If a couple of their guys like Witt were to break out they could imagine having a better season than expected, and if not they hope a couple of these guys wind up movable at the deadline. Especially given that he has an opt out, Wacha fits in that mold - they can be a farm system for playoff teams and get a couple of long term pieces back in return. It's a better strategy and quite a bit more honorable than the $30 million rosters we've seen.

Maybe the new regime wanted him but the clown car wanted the unathletic kid with the weird batting stance.

This would be great.

Updated off-season plan from this point forward: RHP Cease to BAL for 3B/OF Mayo, IF Ortiz, & OF Beavers RHP Yariel Rodriguez - 5/$40M (one year stop-gap if not him) RHP Brandon Woodruff - 2/$25M ($5M in ‘24 | $20M in ‘25) OF Kyle Lewis - 1/$1.5M (controllable through ‘26) OF Rafael Ortega - 1/$1.0M (or similar cheap placeholder) RHP Codi Heuer - 1/$1.5M (controllable through ‘25) Lineup: 1B: Vaughn 2B: DeJong (Ramos | Sosa | Popeye) SS: Ortiz 3B: Moncada# (Montgomery*) LF: Benintendi* CF: Robert RF: Lewis (Mayo) DH: Jimenez CA: Stassi Bench: IF: Lopez# OF: Ortega* UT: Gonzalez BC: Lee Rotation: Soroka Fedde Kopech Rodriguez Shuster* (Nastrini | Eder* | Mena) Bullpen: CL: Santos SU: Crochet* SU: Heuer MR: Patino MR: Garcia MR: Drohan* MR: Leasure LR: Toussaint

Cease makes zero sense from a timeline perspective, even considering they'll be getting O'Neil Cruz back healthy again for SS. https://www.mlb.com/pirates/news/pirates-need-starting-pitching-for-2024-season They basically have to fill out an entire rotation after Keller. It would be shocking if they gave up T.Johnson after picking him so high in the 1st. Unless they simply didn't learn a thing at all from parting with the likes of Glasnow, Musgrove and Taillon. Certainly not a team that typically sheds young prospects for players with just two years of control remaining.

Great teamwork.

Christmas Eve is fine too. I'm more than fine listening to Sheena Easton's It's Christmas All Over the World while excitedly watching highlights of new Chicago White Sox left handed savage Termarr Johnson.

That's exactly the year I was interviewing....fall of 1993 winter meetings. Remember being excited to meet Mike Veeck but he was quite irascible/grumpy. Portland and SLC were in transition periods at that time. Still think Nashville/Charlotte is one choice. Mexico City wouldn't be totally shocking....if you look at it from Manfred's international the sport perspective.

That is still like 12 more days and we are literally dying here. A New Years deal still sucks. Yamamoto should get something done by Friday, Snell to SFG and Montgomery to TEX same day and then a bat heavy Cease deal done in the early hours of Christmas morning.

Sigh....this thing may get dragged out beyond Christmas And here I was with dreams of a quick Yamamoto signing and then waking up on Christmas morning, with smells of a wonderful breakfast emanating from the kitchen and the sound of steaming hot cocoa on the stove, I arose to find multiple left handed savages from Baltimore all beautifully wrapped under the tree, bows and all, forcefully pried from the cold dead hands of Mike Elias with almost surgical precision. It's Basallo and Cowser and Hjerstad, theyre all here! I got every savage on my list. Thank you Santa Chris, oh thank you! As Suzie in Miracle on 34th Street said, "I believe....I believe...its silly but I believe". Alas on 35th and Shields there are no feel good stories. Chris Getz wasn't the good and benevolent Santa and he was in no mood to deliver savagery. He was more like the evil Santa in A Christmas Story. "3 left handed savages? What's wrong with you kid, you'll shoot your eye out! Here's a stale candy cane, some defense and alot of "character""....and then he kicked me down the slide. Such is the life of a Sox fan on Christmas. Hurry it up Yamamoto even if my dream is no more than a fantasy

What was? I'm definitely not following because they've had a Salt Lake Bees AAA team since '94 after the original(ish) SLC Bees left in '84. I know the owner of the Jazz wants to bring a NHL team there and hasn't been shy about that fact in public.

Perhaps if they were really into genealogy.

Glad retirement is going well for you.

I think I just figured they contracted the As and would start fresh with a new brand in Vegas.

At least they're trying to do SOMETHING... JR hasn't died that I have noticed...but the team is stuck semi-permanently in baseball purgatory. They at least acknowledge the existence of the Pacific Rim with a scouting presence as well...and are playing the Dodgers in Korea to open 2024. Looking at making HaSeong Kim one of their future centerpieces if they can pull it off financially...have invested a lot into Darvish as well, obviously. Had to replace Kerr/Pomeranz and continued to lower payroll while simultaneously dumping Carpenter.

So... I just got an email from the Sox. I am still a 20-game season ticket holder and I have been invited to a "Winter with the White Sox" - a season ticket holder party being held January 26, which happens to be the same weekend Soxfest is typically held. No other details were given as to what it actually entails.

That is a tough one to get right. The need to guess how tight to make it. Too tight and there isn't enough flexibility to get the velocity needed. Too loose and the instability and symptoms are still there.

He had capsule surgery, the same one that killed John Danks and Johan Santana's careers. I'd stay far away from a pitcher coming off that surgery.

Probably closer to $7M increase based on where we are today, which I think is very doable. As for Woodruff, I don’t think anyone is giving him a four year deal coming off shoulder surgery unless the guarantee is minuscule.

You’re being obtuse. He signs for the same or more money than Eloy is making in 2024 was the underlying assumption in this comparison. Presumably, that means he passes a physical. If he doesn’t pass a physical, he doesn’t get signed and it’s a moot point obviously.

I don't love anyone, I just like almost no one in a Braves offer. Dominguez would be a good get. Chase Hampton is a better pitching prospect than any Braves guy imo. Dominguez, Hampton and Lombard would be my ask.

While true, I'd imagine there are still some Expos faithful around. MLB returning to Montreal would have to opportunity to create new fans as well. Not that I believe Manfred would ever do something good for the fans.

Without knowledge of Montas's injury, I will go with Montas unless the medicals say otherwise. Over the last 3 years, Eloy has been a 2.4 fWAR player total, Montas has been a 6 fWAR player. Over his entire career Eloy has put up 5.4 fWAR, Montas has put up 9.4. Both of them have clear injury issues, but Montas has been clearly the better player over the entire stretch of Eloy's career, and teams have shown they will specifically overpay for pitching at the deadline (see: Lance Lynn).

Sure, they start Ortiz in the minors then. I also have an issue with Mayo as the headliner. Isn’t he similar to Burger?

I’d rather just keep Eloy and hope for a bounce back than do that. If McCarthy is all they can get, you might as well just give Colas another chance at that point.

If Eloy is half as good as these people say then why aren't we talking about a top 100 prospect for him? He's a good hitter right? Last year we were told that Eloy and Hendriks for Jeff McNeil and the game's number 1 prospect was a move people didn't want to do because Eloy might hit 40 home runs and they needed the offense. If he's an .840 OPS hitter why aren't people beating down the door for him?

If you want to cherry pick stats and arbitrarily say the 3 years means more fine. His 785 OPS is still well above the AL average of 730 over the past couple of years. So yes he still has a useful bat for a team that is well below average offensively. If you can say they will replace him with a much better hitter, I would agree. But until they get much better hitters, he is useful to this team.

I'd hold Eloy. But you also have to at least consider the fact that if he has another meh season in 2024, he's getting bought out and we get nothing in return. If someone makes a good offer for him, you really gotta consider it. But I am not just trading him for whatever to get him off the roster, that's for sure.

I don't understand why people continually berate owners for asking to have cities/states to build stadia. It good business if you an get someone else to pay for it. Blame the politicians who approve it. They are the one who shouldn't do it. It's an awful thing and they continue to approve them.

If you could get a couple interesting pieces for him, I wouldn't mind trading him now. But in the meantime, there is no immediate replacement and might as well see if he bounces back as a full-time DH. He's proven he should never be in the OF. Can't really blame for the appendectomy though.

Between Austin and San Antonio? Perfect. The Hill Country Hitters! Bring it.

This dude really needs to sign…he’s holding up the entire off-season. Hopefully that happens by tomorrow so there is a possibility of other action before Christmas.

No clue. It certainly seemed like Manfred did everything in his power to not help them out though.

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.

The more I think about it, the more angry I get about canceling Soxfest. Especially coinciding with the failure of the rebuild. They're not even trying to hide their contempt for the fanbase.

Didn't see this posted. Zach covers the Cubs Pre/Post Game for the Score. He did Bears work over the years, not sure if he is still involved on that end.

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.

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