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Baltimore fans, your baseball team will suffer the same fate of your football team if you don’t acquire Cease. ?

Cease was a 6th round pick.

I don’t think the round they were drafted in is relevant. Either guy could be a mid-rotation type. Six years of control is really valuable.

We don’t need a dome.

I think I'd be pretty bummed if they couldn't pry one of the three position players BA has ranked right around 50 in the top 100.

Yes. Tell me the last controversial thing you posted. You and some of your cohorts love to jump on the guys who think and post anything that is different from your own ultra -conservative baseball viewpoints. You wait to see which direction the wind is blowing then you just go with the flow and bust balls. So brave of you. Vaughn at many points was viewed as a high quality bat. When he was put in the OF his defensive stats looked adequate. You wouldn't dare use your own eyes and say anything controversial like he has no future in the OF while the majority was saying he looked OK out there. Basically you post like a coward. You'd be a yes man if you worked for JR.

I'm willing to overlook a .230 batting average when his elite walk rate still gives him a .330+ OBP, game breaking speed, above average power, and CF defense. He's ranked among their top prospects for a reason, and that's all despite his swing and miss. And again, I'm taking about him as a 3rd piece in a trade that includes Bryce Miller and someone else in between.

I'd love a package headlined by Bryce Miller with OF Jonatan Clase in there somewhere as well. Miller has great metrics. I love to dream on that K/BB ratio and his power fastball. Clase is an absolute speed demon switch hitter. 79 SB last season to go along with 20 HR who plays in all 3 OF positions. He also did this in AA, so he's not far off from the majors. He's very intriguing to me as maybe a 3rd piece in the deal.

Thanks, man. Appreciate it. We took a roadtrip to Charlotte this past summer knowing there’s an opportunity for more interaction with the players before and after games. He was in awe personally handing Oscar Colas and Victor Reyes a ball to sign, getting a baseball thrown to him from a random reliever after a game, and getting some promotional stuff from their staff. You’re 100% right that’s the kind of stuff that helps turn kids into real fans. It’s definitely not just watching entire 9 inning games, especially during years when the team blows. I had to lie and tell him the Cubs were horrible this past season too lol. Glad you’ll be back in action as well!

Jerry blew it for the other owners when he took the state for a ride . He got infrastructure for the UC. The Bears Reno of Soldier Field is a disaster for the city and state. Over 20 years later they owe more than it cost. If somebody really thinks JR is going to get most of the money to build a new park from the taxpayers, they are more stoned than Snoop.

But what about guys like Joseph Ortiz???

He’s gonna start losing these guys to roster crunch and prospect failure. It’s so stupid not to trade some of them.

Detroit is my pick to win the division. 79 wins likely clinches the title, same as the 2023 threshold. Its why it’s so heartbreaking merely mediocre level White Sox ownership, front office and manager could have had an AL Central dynasty throughout this decade.

Miller doesn’t impress me at all due to his reliance on fastballs. He was bad away from his cavernous home park last year.

I guess. M’s are my 2nd team and I’ll be pissed if this move happens. Losing Miller or Woo hardly appeases me after this shitty off-season.

It doesn’t matter. They’re going to suck with or without him. They have plenty of guys to take the ball next year.

The Chiefs are a malignant and malevolent force on the same scale as Russia. They must be destroyed. If some SF DL puts on brass knuckles underneath his gloves and socks Kelce in the Adam's Apple underneath the pile, I won't cry about it. f*** em

If he is even an OK regular he is leaving 10s of millions on the table and not even getting a double digit salary or 7th year for it.

I'm not as clever as Greg or Ron, lol...or SportsGuy. No Profiles in Courage awards for me. Long live Josh Outman! If this gets to 591 like one of my Ohtani threads this offseason, I will be pretty shocked. Almost as shocked as Lions' fans are right now.

I hope the 49ers destroy the Chiefs and put an end to the Swiftie Nation.

Definitely somewhere in the Cease thread over the last couple months. I just don’t give a s%*# if people agree or not. It’s not that important or matters what any of us think. Anyone can submit a shitty trade proposal anonymously. It’s not that brave. I will admit, I at least give credit to Caulfield proposing an actual deal other than “Sox should trade for Varsho” without saying who Sox should give up in said deal, which sounds very familiar. So brave…so heroic posting on a message board lmao Jesus Christ. Thank you for your service over the military overseas. You’re so heroic.

Exactly like Hahn as a GM. Risk-averse and risk-mitigation. That's why KW was so much better than him, for that reason alone...Hahn going with all those overpriced over-the-hill veterans instead of having the balls to invest that money into one solitary star player like a Harper or Machado. That same strategy with the Angels/Moreno/Trout/Ohtani or what happened with the Padres/Mets last season serves as a perfect alibi for JR never to take a significant risk again. Or he can simply argue look what would have happened had they signed Giolito, Anderson, Kopech, Vaughn, etc., to an extension.

Grizzly Adams DID have a beard!

You’re right. No big guaranteed payout for any single year at the end of the deal and those buyouts are tiny. That’s better than Hahn’s contracts and is ridiculously team friendly. Sure doesn’t seem like the kid is all that confident in his abilities, but I guess he is now set for life regardless of what happens. Even if he doesn’t pan out as a starter, that isn’t horribly overpriced for a bench bat that can play 2B and 3B.

I think your expectations may be too high then. The Sox are trading 2 years of control of what some people don’t think is an ace. I think it’s fair to at least call Cease a very good #2 starter right now with ace potential. If the Sox get 6 years of a #3 starter back for 2 years of a #2 starter, how much more talent should the Sox get back along with that starter? Guys like Woo and Miller are now considered to be proven mid rotation MLB starters. If you want a large return, you would have to forego these guys and go for an all prospect return.

If we're willing to take a mid-rotation guy as centerpiece, our asking price isn't as outrageous as advertised.

So the O's guys are gone now right? it's been a good news day.

Exactly and if football fans can attend games in sub freezing temperatures surely baseball fans can attend games in the 40s. That being said, football is supposed to be played in the fall with the season ending around the 3rd week in December and baseball and the World Series finishing up in October, don’t get me started on hockey in which we see the Stanley Cup finals ending in late June. All these long seasons are because of one word, GREED.

Oh dang so Chiefs will be new Pats where they look vulnerable every reg season now with Mahomes on his contract only to have Spags coddle together a top 5 defense and Mahomes do just enough to win every year. Sweet. Draft Caleb Williams.

Sigh.....I hate the Chiefs with every fiber in my being.

Think I'd pass on the guy with a 30 hit tool. Sounds like there is a ton of work to do there with him. Not sure I trust the Sox to develop that. Though I guess he'd be fine as a final lotto ticket piece.

Whatever they do...it's important to improve the big league team with at least one player as quickly as possible. Unless they get the ideal prospect haul...see Adam Eaton deal, where two guys were there and Dunning just a couple of years away. That's unrealistic for Cease, obviously. At least for now. Red Sox and Mariners just seem to have no discernible direction right now, along with the Angels and Rockies.

Jimmy has sort of implied BAL has offered one of Cowser/Kjerstad, one of Norby/Ortiz and "more" (Povich/Mcdermott?) but Getz is insisting on Westburg as the second piece. If thats true, that's a solid and acceptable offer but you still wait to see if NYY or someone else will cave in ST before accepting it.

He was also drafted by the Cubs with the knowledge that he needed TJ surgery.

I don’t think Emerson, Ford or Young is realistic with one of Woo/Miller. Thats too much. I could see Montes or Gonzalez though for sure

I always go BA over Pipeline.

Outdoor baseball can only work in warmer climates like Wrigleyville, Boston, Minneapolis, and Detroit.

Does Wrigley struggle with attendance in April if the team is decent? If the new Sox Park is done right I think it starts to negate some of those weather detractors.

That is not an overly encouraging scouting report at all. No thanks.

Say what you want about Dipoto, but the guy keeps it interesting. I wish we had him.

I LOVED that dude in the draft. He's a nasty SOB. I loved Emerson Hancock in college. Emerson Hancock and Colt Emerson are confusing the hell out of me.

I think Woo has more value. Maybe a Cease + Eloy for Woo++. I still think it’s dumb from Seattle’s side, but who knows with Dipoto.

Hmm. Woo + one of Young/Ford/Emerson + a lesser third piece? Too much? Too little?

Good. f*** AJ Preller

He would obviously play CF after Robert is dealt and be one of the veteran leaders at 28 of the "hastened" rebuild. Stassi and Maldonado are unlikely to make it through the season anyway.

WTF? Have you even watched Montgomery play? a) There's a pretty good shot he stays at short early in his career, and he'd be a plus 3b. b) Ryan Sweeney, had no power Olerud and Grace had very little power. Montgomery has plus power that he is just growing into now. I hope to God you're being sarcastic.

Why should we trust the White Sox in free agency with self-imposed spending limits…in the draft and development game…in international free agency with the Cuban Connection drying up…and in general when the Big 3 trades (not to mention Frazier Robertson Kahnle) have been roughly cut in half and there’s no tanking for draft position or subsidy for operating like a small to mid market club??? Long winded, yes. The answer will probably be the new stadium, the new stadium, the new stadium will generate sufficient additional revenues to eventually compete.

This is a sad sad place some times. Caulfield is a great Sox fan. He wants to help and has ideas and is brave enough to share his ideas with us jerks he knows will scorn him and laugh at his ideas because we can't express ourselves in any other way than short chaotic bursts of sarcastic derision like cavemen grunting. Caulfield I think the mistake you are making is thinking the Sox actually want to compete quickly like Jerry told us. I, too, at first thought trying to get younger established high floor guys with control was more of a sure thing and the Sox could use more tradable assets. So early on in the Cease trade talks I suggested getting a controllable younger player who had already had a good year or 2. After all the Sox are so bad every avenue we turn seems like a dead end. So I figured try to get mix of a tradable controlled player and a prospect for Cease. I forgot the young controllable guy I wanted in return but it wasn't seen by the vocal majority as a good idea. We saw first hand how even the best prospects are extremely inconsistent in this organization or get injured. We think it's JRs fault for not hiring good scouts and development people and we probably are right . It also could be true that the Sox could be experiencing what other teams do with injuries and inconsistencies of many prospects. But what other choice do we have than to cling to the idea that Cease is a rare commodity worthy of the high asking price as recently described in a fangraphs article ? Getting top prospects is still viewed as the only way of actually getting in a strong position to be truly competitive again at least in recent competent organizations like the Astros, Tampa Bay, Orioles, Cubs Diamondbacks. Despite the way the rebuild crashed and burned, a bad organization like the Sox managed to get to the playoffs for 2 consecutive years for the 1st time in the franchise history. Those were exciting times and the glitter of top prospects is so very shiny until the corrosion sets in. The currently deceased rebuild showed us how destructive that corrosion can be when those prospects don't pan out. The corrosion is the nature of prospects, bad development, a bad organization , bad luck. Right now it could be all of those things combined. That makes for a very angry, divided, and confused fan base. Getz isn't calling it a rebuild because his boss says we want to compete as fast as we can . That's the excuse JR made for hiring Getz. Hit the ground running. A new guy from outside the organization will take time to learn everything Getz already knows. The scary thing is we can't yet get a handle on what Getz is doing for the future of the franchise. Everything he's done so far seems to be based on improving the current rosters defense and pitching at the expense of hitting . The only thing is it's all very temporary based on creating tradable pitching pieces out of the cheapest arms he could find. How could that go wrong ? It has very little chance of succeeding but that's how desperately the Sox need more guys who can brings in prospects . Getz knows it's a rebuild and he has to start from a terrible roster while Hahn got to start with a mediocre roster. Getz and the Sox are fucked if Cease or Robert start showing that same Sox corrosion that tarnished Giolito, Moncada , Eloy, Vaughn, Kopech and others. He's also fucked if he can't magically create some tradable pitching assets using defense and his staff to create something out of mostly nothing's. This is one high level SNAFU where nobody has the right answers and all ideas are inherently bad because the Sox haven't shown us that they are capable of running a Tampa Bay like organization that stresses low cost high level development of prospects , or do much of anything else right. This is everything we are getting from the fan base now. 1. We actually are expecting too much for Cease. 2. Cease is worth the high asking price but settle and trade him because something is better than nothing. 3. Start the season with Cease . Hold out for the best trade you can make by counting on a healthy and very good Cease. No further corrosion allowed . Cease will be shiny again. 4. Trade Robert ASAP before he turns into a pumpkin . Sell high before his shiny season gets Sox corrosion. 5. Robert, Jr. is too good to get what he is now truly worth based on his 1 healthy breakout season. Hold him for another year when he'll the model of health and a glorious vision of a shiny nice thing . 6. Getz is doing great. We might be able to win this crappy division if a few things fall our way. I like this new idea of speed, pitching and defense. f*** the HR , give me more Go Go Sox/ Royals championship baseball ! 7. We are going to be really bad in 2024. What the f*** is Getz doing ? He hasn't done one thing yet, as far as player transactions , go to improve the future. 8. Hope the Sox are just good enough in the 1st half of 2024 to actually trade half the pitching staff ,Moncada, Robert and Eloy for more prospects. We are a really traumatized fan base who finally realized that rebuilding with JR in charge is doomed to fail but now have to rebuild with JR still in charge hoping for more shiny happy prospects that can make us shiny, happy fans again... until the corrosion...