Leaderboard

Calling out a toxic environment doesn’t inherently make one an asshole.

Keep Cease and have him lead the team into the 2024 playoffs.

Andrew Vaughn confirmed as opening day RF...

The rationale for not trading Cease at the deadline last year was because there would be more suitors available in the Winter, correct? Now we are a few weeks from Spring Training and the rationale is to wait until the trade deadline as teams will be more desperate for pitching then? Makes no sense to me.

*pulls up Royals Front Office staff webpage*

As soon as they were locked into not picking higher than 10th, they should have committed to spending.

I don't see how going to bars after a night game is what families with children want to do or what thousands of fans from the SW suburbs would want to do given that they could have a 30-45 minute drive home and have probably downed a few during the game. Safety? Public transit in the City is not safe and neither is walking the streets at night. You are better off getting in your car and heading home or towards the suburbs after night games. Gun violence, especially in the City, has changed everything.

But Middleton didn’t actually name any names specifically. I remember he said one reliever was falling asleep in the bullpen but he never said who it was. Besides, multiple players came out and said similar things as Middleton once they were traded from the Sox. It sure sounds like it truly WAS a toxic environment.

Getz had a group of three players he targeted from the O's. He wanted two of them. The O's were only willing to give up one of them. A deal was never going to happen because they were too far away. Ortiz was not one of the three players.

This is the same guy whose mother or whatever bitched the White Sox cut off his free baby sitting service after he was traded and then trashed the organization. https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-white-sox/keynan-middletons-mom-said-the-white-sox-kicked-his-kids-out-of-daycare/ I’m glad the toxic duo are now with the Cardinals. Both sucked on the White Sox and beyond, with the other one giving up four home runs in a playoff inning. This guy sat out the final month in New York, finished the season with a 0.1 fWAR (doubling his career total). https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/diamondbacks-make-playoff-history-with-four-home-runs-in-one-inning-off-of-mlbs-most-homer-prone-pitcher/ “History” - Hawk Harrelson

I think “asshole” is a bit harsh. He was just honest about a dysfunctional team. Refresher link for reference: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38147621/ex-white-sox-reliever-keynan-middleton-rips-club-no-rules-culture

f*** it, I'm with @WestEddy. This is a winning move by a playoff-bound team!

Lmao Colas.Theres now a full useless journeyman platoon in his way. Wtf did this guy DO to this org? He must have pissed Jerry off somehow. EDIT: Wait I take it back. I somehow didn’t immediately see that this is the end of Sheets in RF. This move is brilliant.

Love bat only guys that also don’t have a bat

Gotta hand it to him, very committed to the bit

If the going rate for Burnes is an old, low-ceiling IF prospect, a high-variance project arm, and a (n essentially) second round pick, then it's reasonable to hold Cease for the deadline. Deadline markets tend to increase the value for pending free agents, but there's always a premium for the second year of control. Yes, there's risk, but the Sox have to try to do better than what's on the table now -- and if Cease is healthy and effective, they likely will.

Loyal fan since 1970, I have finally reached the point where my interest in the Sox is equal to the Sox interest in me.

Phenomenal move for the orioles. If this was available for Burnes, there was no argument for either side on making a Cease deal.

He has poppysox syndrome.

Ortiz isn't even an O's prospect any more. Why the f*** is this dude still here arguing with Sox fans?

Never should have fired Ricky Renteria. Hahn was a loyal employee and a yes man for a long long time. He should have been fired before the Sale trade was ever made, but good on him for getting a nice fat paycheck for another 7 years. Good for him, terrible for Sox fans.

Signing Bellinger to the deal he wants would be an awful move.

This is a strange thing to say. He doesn’t have the upper hand or else Dylan would have been moved. You go to a garage sale and refuse to sell your hutch for less than $1000 and nobody balked, sure, you still have an asset that may hit $1000, but you also have to keep paying to store it because you have no current use for it. The market wasn’t good this winter for a trade. That has proven out. He’s not wrong for holding him, but we don’t need to lie that we are in a strong position. We are a 100 loss team whose best asset to trade entered a well supplied market. Yippy what a great position we are in!

Getz knows that he has the upper hand in any negotiation for Cease. There are still teams that need pitching and could/should be willing to part with what Getz wants in return. There's less pressure on the Sox to deal Cease than there is on other teams to add a pitcher that could be crucial to their season and post-season hopes. If Cease is with the Sox on opening day and has even a decent first half, he will still command a haul in return if traded.

You're silly. He was right.

I"ve seen this year after year with the Royals except for that 2-3 year window where they were great. The Royals talk a great game in spring training then by mid May are 15 out and done. Or early May. That's the upcoming fate of our Sox. We stink Who is our SS this year, Lopez? LOL.

Get the hell out of here and never come back!

If only the front office wanted to sign a few good FAs we could compete in this shitty division this year with Cease

Bye Ron.

What’s fascinating to me is that every argument of his against the move is immediately disproven by the existence of the Cubs.

he also hasn't played there in years. I think this is who gets called up to DH when Eloy is injured in early April.

I more blame Shane Riordan (his producer), who has never gotten a story even close to right one time, ever and in general is the worst.

Didn't really feel worth of a new thread but Marlins hired away Sam Mondry-Cohen to be their VP of Player Personnel . Was Sox MLB analytics coordinator for just one year after being an assistant GM with the Nats. Getz noted Mondry-Cohen as recently as last week as one of the guys they hired from outside the org, or without Royals ties.

648 posts already? HOLEEE SHIIIIIT

Cowherd already walking it back. Shocked!

I can already forsee the cope narratives if, by chance, this story is correct: “Guys….. it doesn’t matter how well Williams is playing. He didn’t want to play here.” ”We would have ruined him like everyone else.” ”(Insert team) had a better coaching situation for him” ”(insert team) had a better locker room for him to thrive in, like the Eagles with Jalen Carter.”

They would have to figure something out with the state to stay at GRF. Anyone who thinks they'd leave Chicagoland doesn't have a clue about the economics of baseball. There's been 1 relocation in the last 50 years, by a team playing in a stadium that was, well, the biggest dump in baseball with plenty of structural issues. There is another one ongoing for that same reason. Forbes ranks the SOX 15th in value despite decades of mediocrity. The prospect of this move might see them gain spots in the next ranking, and the top 10 is very much within reach once if everything with the 78 goes to plan. There is no remaining market where they would be anywhere near that. Other owners would not approve a move that is a step back and would decrease the average team value.

Same group it's been. This changes nothing. The O's have been out for a while.

Some players may very well want to know that an employer is crap before they have to decide on working there.

They’re very similar players, and if Madrigal played in the minors his age 25 season, probably would have put up insane numbers. No one disliked his time with the Sox more than Harold and I, but he put up ridiculous defensive numbers last year. I know I posted the YouTube highlights from Ortiz time in the majors last year, and it was shocking how similar their hitting styles were. I don’t particular like the fit for the Brewers with Ortiz, as you’re not getting nearly enough power from 3/4 of your future infield in Turang, Ortiz and Black.

I disagree. Players don't want to be called out in public, they want it kept in the clubhouse. Same should apply to them.

Hopefully the Cards understand they have agreed to provide daycare services in perpetuity for Middleton's children and any children he has in the future.

It makes the team easier to watch which is what I kind of like in my team. I had no issue with looking to trade him and getting over slot value for him but to be pissed they didn't make a trade makes no sense to me. Enjoy he is here, if in fact he is here.

Madrigal’s last meaningful minor league time came in 2019 as a 22 year old, and he performed the same or better than Ortiz at the same stage of his career, slashing .341/.400/.451 in AA and .331/.398/.424 in AAA. But at the same time, who gives a s%*#.

I think this belief has run its course myself. Just FYI, the print edition of Sports Illustrated has a big story by Tom Verducci on Dave Stewart and his efforts to get the expansion Nashville franchise. He's put together a very impressive list of contributors on the ownership side and Manfred and he have already met to discuss what the front office would look like. Bottom line the Sox aren't moving to Nashville, full stop.

Just stopping in to thank Sox fans here for the good discussions of the possibility of an O’s deal for Cease over the last two months. A few parting thoughts: 1. I think the O’s probably would have been willing to pay more for two years of Cease than they did for one year of Burnes. But at the same time, Burnes is a much better bet to be a true ace starter in 2024 than Cease would be for either of 2024-25. So, I’m very happy getting Burnes. He’s far less risky performance-wise. 2. I wouldn’t necessarily say that Ortiz was the lead piece of this deal Hall has long been a top 100 prospect (still is, under BA’s criteria of who qualifies as a prospect). He still has a very high ceiling (Snell/Hader) and at this point, a good high leverage reliever floor. 3. That said, you guys have always been too dismissive of Ortiz. The Madrigal comp was very stupid. Ortiz is an excellent defensive SS and Madrigal’s a decent 2B/3B. Ortiz has a .150 ISO in the minors compared to Madrigal’s .099. I am not saying that Ortiz will turn out to be a better overall player than Madrigal (though at this point, I think it’s likely), but they’re really not the same type of player, so the snarky “Nicky Ortiz” comments were never warranted. I think he could have been an excellent addition for your team as the second piece of a trade and you would have enjoyed watching him play. We’ll see how that goes in Milwaukee. 4. From my very first post, I said Cease wasn’t the O’s only option, the O’s weren’t the Sox’s only option, and I doubted anything would happen until the second half of January or later. I was right on all three counts! Good luck to you in finding a good return for Cease. For your sake I hope he has a good year if he’s still in Chicago so that you can get a nice return at the deadline and enjoy watching him pitch until then. Meanwhile, I’ll be enjoying watching Burnes pitch for the O’s. Ciao.

Scott Boras

They have him for 2 full seasons. If he was a FA after this season, maybe. But if Cease can remain healthy, and doesn’t regress, which again I’m pretty confident in him having a solid season, Getz will get a haul for him come the deadline when more than half the league is looking for starting pitching, let alone, beyond half a seasons worth of control. Cease is worth more than Joey Ortiz, DL Hall, and a Colton Cowser who may have not even been on the table, I think @Y2Jimmy mentioned Elias balked at a similar offer at the deadline

They all make over 6 figures, speaking of the actual fulltime hosts. It's still lucrative enough that the Newspaper guys like Mully and Haugh left their jobs for this. But the days of Mike North making $1.5 million a year are long gone. Also, I appreciated what Speigs told the the two Civic Clowns. when he mentioned he's rooting for two healthy baseball teams for this city. He gets it, without healthy sports their jobs are donzo.