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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Got PAID! Good for Cease.

Do you really think Chris Getz is building his offseason plans around selling season tickets and fan reaction? He’s simply trying to make the team with the very limited resources he has. Our payroll was like $80M last year and that’s without a TV deal to open the season. There is no way they go down again after showing some signs of improvement. Let’s also not act like a $90M payroll is a big deal, it will almost certainty be in the bottom 5.

Can't wait for Schriffen to start singing "Every miss begins with Kayyyy" for his strikeouts followed by Stone sitting quietly in contempt for 5 mins

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Saw this meme floating around Facebook/Twitter and thought it was pretty funny. Which table are you sitting at and why? Table 4 for me. Would love to pound some beers with Buerhle and then get some time in with drunk Ozzie.

Just realized this is an old friend alert. Brandon Hyde, the Oriole manager fired earlier this year, was once a White Sox minor league catcher. He played on the 1999 Burlington Bees team that won the Midwest League Championship, that year. Mark Buehrle also pitched on that team. Due to work and family responsibilities, I found myself single a lot that summer, so I'd jump in the car, and go see the Burlington Bees or the Cubs' Lansing Lugnuts play. I made it a point to visit every stadium in the Midwest League. The most beautiful one was the home of the Quad City River Bandits, which was featured in the film Sugar. Cedar Rapids had a great, old stadium, too. I really didn't like the new ones, like Kane County, or Fort Wayne. Oh, well. Just wanted to share that realization. Rays Hire Brandon Hyde As Senior Advisor To Baseball Operations - MLB Trade Rumors

To absolve the head of minor league development for a complete lack of minor league player development is criminal.

They don’t even have a concept of a plan…

As far as the plan Getz has said some things to the media about self-improvement (for wont of a better term) from the young players and "building from within." With the lockout coming the belief is JR has told him no contracts longer than a single year which automatically rules out any good free agents. More than likely the plan will be to look for pieces that could be dealt at the trade deadline for prospects. Some call that "dumpster diving" which isn't inaccurate in my opinion. You are correct nothing really changes until JR is gone from the organization along with his lackeys and ass-kissers. My guess with Tauchman is because he is in his mid-30's has been injured often and they think he won't stay healthy enough to repeat his production. Hill supposedly gives them a guy who can play center field when Robert is either traded or gets injured. Hill of course can't hit worth a damn.

Just stop with this. No one complained after 2005. Not even Lip, me, or any of the others who ruin your life by not liking bad baseball.

Al Michaels REALLY wanted us to remember the double doink

Just imagine never having signed a player to a $100+ million dollar contract and your biggest contract handed out is to a buster named Benintendi. 🤣

When you are a combined 122 games under .500 for 2 seasons, mediocre is a large improvement.

LOL. No you wouldn't. You're not happy when they win. My point stands. 29 teams don't run 3 All-Stars out there with 2 more on the bench. The Sox are in a rebuild. They will get better, regardless of when Ishbia takes over.

Caleb in my opinion is clearly the guy and also still has a bunch of work to do which should be the norm given he’s a 2nd year qb working his 1st year with a new coach. I Feel like there’s so many wild opinions on him out there either way but the reality is he’s solid already with a lot of things he needs to get better at and has a lot of room to improve in with his talent.

LFG BEARS

Youre easily one of my favorite posters. Your opinions are always spot on and you probably hold your tongue on a lot of the BS you read here. I'm too much of a Sox supporter to see Sox fans constantly trashing the team like this was a Cubs forum. While I don 't buy into the Sox /Cubs fans fighting I do acknowledge the animosity is there. I understand there's a lot to be critical of but the amount of butt hurt has far surpassed anything I thought grown men could cry about over a baseball team . It's like a custody battle , just irrational biases against something you once professed love for but will coming crawling back to eventually. Sox podcasters and national media are more fair. I just saw a Baseball America Podcast with JJ Cooper & Geoff Pontes pontificating over the state of the Sox rebuild. And while they arent sure who will be part of the core they they were as fair as possible on seeing the youngsters flaws and what could derail or propel them forward. Funny thing was I dont think they mentioned the Ishbia's coming ownership which is perhaps the biggest reason to think the Sox finally could have an owner willing to play with the big boys. Jj Cooper thought Getz was really trying to modernize. If Getz can just keep the team developing prospects and pushing the win numbers forward for the next few years the Sox just might be in a position for Ishbia to come in with a flourish of spending to push the Sox from a near or slightly over . .500 team to a team that can win the division consistently. The fans from 20-50 years old may get to see a new stadium and a pretty good modern team that supports the farm and 26 man roster with equal gusto .

None of them. Sitting at the kiddie table with Getz this offseason, as usual…

Agree 100%. Is Cease worth a $30M AAV in a vacuum? And for 7 years? Probably not. But was he one of the best available arms this winter for a team clearly in their window in one of the toughest divisions? Absolutely. If the Jays win the East and play in the World Series over half of this deal, they won’t regret it at all. It’s the price of competing at the highest level.

100%. I think “value” has become a coping mechanism for fans of loser franchises. And I say that as a fan of several loser franchises.

Yeah, I don’t really understand some of the reactions. We don’t like it when teams refuse to spend or try. But then we dismiss a contract like this as a mistake. Good luck finding that nearly impossible ideal middle ground.

Yep. Even if this turns into a bad contract, White Sox fans have been shamed into thinking every contract is gigantic because we have been silenced into submission by a tyrannical miser of an owner over the years.

That is awful there has to be a team option of something? He's not that good.

Feel like that’s going to be a bad one quick.

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

Running game has been incredible

Brodie Brazil has a very interesting new video on Youtube. He maintains the White Sox are a sleeping giant of a franchise.

Merely to make a point to the other owners...not because he really wanted to keep him on the payroll long term.

Very true. It's all in the eye of the beholder. If Cease performs up to his norm, Toronto makes the playoffs a few times during his deal, and (I assume) they'll reap the benefits vis a vis attendance, marketing and advertising money it won't be a bad deal at all.

It remains to be seen if this is a bad contract. If Toronto wins the WS next year with the help of Cease and then he's washed up during the last half of the contract, will it still be a bad contract?

Good for Dylan

Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. Slightly different than if I was back in Texas.

My comment isn’t that deep. He’s a guy who struggles to go 5 often. Worth 1.1 WAR last year. Not a guy I would be that excited to spend $30M/year for 7 years on. Maybe if it was high AAV short term deal.

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.

This is the type of deal Jerry would lose his mind over...and he is right. This is BAD spending. Ishbia will want to make some splashes once he takes over...but if #3s are getting 7/210...the league is totally F'd