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This is exactly what I feel when people talk about the Ishbia's bad spending in Phoenix. GIve me failed effort over no effort all day, every day.

Why is this organization so infatuated with the Royals??

Good for everyone around Don’t get me wrong, there’s a chance the Jays absolutely regret this…but at least they are going for it. Must be nice

I thought the purpose of not trading him at the deadline was because they were gonna tender him and keep him around another season

bobby witt jr could end up on this team and this board would still be like "sigh another royal"

Worth a shot. I liked him a lot in the 2016 draft class. Reinvented himself in Japan after adding a 2 seamer. Feels similar to the Fedde situation/signing.

I mean two things can be true at the same time. Jerry Reindsdorf is embarrassingly cheap AND this is a bad contract.

Yep. As Sox fans, we've spent the last 20-30 years remarking at how certain free agent contracts have been terrible for that other team and that they're going to regret it. Meanwhile, the Sox have held the line at the $75M contract mark and have been one of the worst teams over the last 20 years in terms of making the playoffs and actually winning playoff games. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to pity these other franchises for their supposed stupidity, I'm going to ENVY them because we're stuck with the Sox organization's stupidity at how they do things.

Got PAID! Good for Cease.

“That’ll be $27 dollars your eminency.”

The Sox should sign him. That's it. That's the thread.

I would prefer an owner who breaks/bends rules to spend more money, than our current one who probably breaks/bends rules to spend less.

Non tendering Tauchmann makes sense. Superfluous with Tucker.

Have you talked to Caulfield before? This is who he has been for the better part of 20 years now.

What is Querro's value? A recent top 100 prospect who generated 1.2 bwar when called up. 22yo switch-hitter at premium position. Yeah he is slow, so are almost all catchers. The fact he didn't bomb when called up I would think adds to his value so I would be holding out for a similar young player with some success in the outfield or if getting prospects a top 100 plus more?

SportsGuy is in shambles

Would prefer to trade neither for now, but I'd rather see Quero go instead of Teel if one of them is going.

If you want to give the assistant pitching coach credit for all of their successes why are we not blaming the White Sox current assistant pitching coach for the performances that got the guy above him fired? I hope he’s good, but face it, no one on this board has any idea, good or bad.

Let’s just complain because the guy is from the Royals and not actually look at the performance of the pitchers under his guidance. 🙄

They better hire some Temps in the ticket office.

Some will.

Per Japanese pitch tracking data, Kay had a 5-pitch mix last year. Four seamer, cutter, slider, sinker, changeup. The cutter and changeup are mainly used against righties, the slider mainly against lefties. Stuff+ really likes the cutter, slider, and sinker. Hitters did not hit them very well either. None of the stuff he throws generates much swing and miss. Pounds the cutter inside to righties, changeups are almost always thrown below the zone and away to righties, slider almost always thrown low and away outside the zone to lefties, sinker almost always in on the hands to lefties. 4 seamer aimed at the top of the zone or trying to snag outside strikes. The xERA suggests his good results were mostly deserved although not at a <2.00 ERA level. As you'd expect, he's better against lefties than righties. Very high groundball rate against lefties. Note that the Japanese baseball has more armside run and tends to have better rise. This is due to a mixture of better grip + larger seams, leading to higher spin rates and more seam-shifted wake. Kay doesn't rely on spin rate but he might be affected by lower seams on MLB balls. Of course, every pitcher is relying on at least one of those two things. 4-seam fastball averaged 94.4mph last year, roughly the same as when he was last pitching out of the pen in MLB.

Nice. I'd rather take a swing on him than resigning Martin Perez.

It's a fine signing. Saw he was hitting 96-98 in Japan as well. Very similar to the Fedde signing. Locks up Martin, Smith and Kay in the rotation. Burke, Cannon, and Thorpe (when is he coming back) and then all the kids in the minors on the way up

Since Jerry isn’t around, I am sitting at Table 1 to punch Tony in the face.

There's a lot of money in baseball and it has to go somewhere. Props to Blue Jays ownership for being willing to spend and actually trying to win.

Teel can hit and can play outfield. He's obviously the most valuable. To me Quero passed the eye test at catcher; he's 22. Lots of potential And I still like Lee as a backup. Don't trade any, unless it's for a premium (and a big premium for Teel).

Honestly can’t think that Ishbia entered into Twins discussions with a new stadium in mind when Target Field is only 15 years old.

Oh please, try 3 hours a day every day for 162!

Another year off my life and I'm good with it

I'd be pretty happy if they signed him. I honestly think he may end up being the better hitter than Murakami.

What is new is that this is the first time Ishbia has publicly commented on his intention to get a new stadium built and his commitment to keep the team in Chicago. I know we can say "well, duh! that's been so obvious for months", but as far as I know this is the first time he's said anything at all about the team and the stadium situation. The only other instance I'm aware of in which Ishbia said anything to the media was his generic press release after news broke about the eventual sale of the franchise to him. I find this story exciting because it's an affirmation from the future owner of the team of what we've expected for months to be in the works. And yeah, there's no doubt a lot of work going on behind the scenes. Not only do you not come in cold on a $2B franchise purchase, but even for a billionaire, I don't imagine it's as simple as writing a $1B check for a new stadium as if you were putting down payment on a new house.

I don't even think MLB: The Show would let you force this trade.

You shouldn’t wonder that at all

its nice to see possible reasons why they would hire someone who could be classfied as an "up and comer" rather than silly emotional tripe about infatuation with the Royals or cheapness. They're doing what they have to do to ID coaches who fit modern , hardworking, problem solving, individualized approaches . This is not one size fits all coaching. It's specialization. Yes we all know its easiest to become hateful and fatalistic whenever they make moves but this place is just a parody of meatballism now. Openmindedness has all but vanished.

See this is where you are mistaken. You would NOT have autonomy to operate however you want. We have complete evidence that Jerry interfere's with day to day operations with his teams.

Give it 7 or 8 years.

Royals had some damn good pitching last year but don’t let that stop the narrative.

Nothing wrong with hiring from the best organizations — the Marlins and Royals Bet they came cheap. 🤣

?

The Luis Robert experience continues for one more year in Chicago. Maybe this is finally the year he stays healthy and puts up a monster year! Stop me if you've heard that one before...

Who

No. I also believe the occasional bad contract is a healthy sign of a team being competitive.

I think we really need to start accepting that most deals for good players are not going to age well on the back half. It just is what it is. Getting past that reality, I love this for the Jays. They lock in a #2 starter while being squarely in their window to contend. And let’s not forget the division they have to deal with. Free agent splashes/overpays are more or less necessary.

It's a lot of dough but the guy has never missed a start. Consider how much money 'elite' pitchers like DeGrom or Sale were paid to barely pitch any innings. With deferrals, Cease is being paid $26mil AAV. Boston gave Sale a 5-year contract, $29mil AAV, and he only pitched 151 innings for them in 4 years to a 3.93 ERA after signing the extension. Rangers extended DeGrom for 5 years, $37mil AAV, so far he's pitched 213 IP in 3 years. Burnes just signed for 6 years, $210mil ($35mil AAV) and now he's 31 and recovering from TJ. This contract reminds me of what the Yankees gave Rodón which is to say I think it's an overpay but he's still a valuable pitcher who will almost certainly perform across the life of the contract. I figured he would sign for 1 year and get a bigger deal depending on his performance. I'm sure a lot of other teams were offering him that. Anyway, congrats to him. It'll buy a lot of frisbee golf.

The brilliance of being the worst organization in baseball is you can take from any team and it's an upgrade.

It's literally impossible for the Sox to find a better player on the FA market with anywhere close to this upside on a 1 year $20M deal (really $18M because $2M was sunk cost), with an additional 1 year team option at the same rate. Absolute no brainer move imo. I get why a chunk of Sox fans want to move on, but this was an easy decision.

Grip savant? In what industry...!

If they got him back to play him again, it is one thing. If this is because they want to try to trade him for the same package of garbage they wouldn't take 3 months ago, this is stupid.