WestEddy

Acuña is the only backup IF on the bench, and he's a righty bat. I know, he doesn't hit anybody, but platoon splits work both ways. Some LHPs are pretty obvious to RHHs.

Teel is joining the team in Seattle tomorrow.

Where's Vasil's wand, now?

Dude's pretty much out until 3rd week of June.

I'm not even sure what set me off on that one. Romo and Quero are mediocre.

He didn't. I was out of line.

Murakami also laid down on the ground in grief instead of popping up and running after the ball.

Sucking a 15" drain pipe.

All catcher defense is "mediocre". Can we stop pretending that there's some tier of catching defense that 29 other teams have solved? Like, seriously, if you're watching a major league catcher, and thinking, "this fucker's got nothing on me", go to Sox Park, and audition. Okay. A bit overserved.

The guy also had to field a team in '24. With pallid interest in Eloy and Yoan, maybe lowballs on Robert and Cease, he moved forward with what he had. I don't think we're talking to too many crypto billionaires here who gambled their house on catching an inside straight. That said, I'm guessing the rest of the industry "knew" what the posters here already proclaimed to "know", and that's that Robert would be injured 9 games into the next season, (or whatever he was).

Blind squirrels don't make major league baseball teams, so no, they don't.

I want a frowny face emoji.

Right up until "speak now or forever hold your piece."

I would imagine every team thoroughly scouted, talked to, and game planned Gonzalez in that draft. Every team who picked after the Sox probably even figured a development path for him if their guys weren't there and he was the last, best resort.

I don't know if I endorse the "post-hype" player when they're actually looking like they might be competing. I sure don't think they should trade Gonzo and Oppor +2 for Sonny Gray in July. I'd think Nishida for a tweakable Houser. This is all fun right now, but they are 2 games above .500. I'm digging them hanging with the Padres, Cubs and A's, but when push comes to shove, I'd think a serious team will study up on the Sox, just to make sure they take 2 of 3, or whatnot. That said, what's a post-hype pitcher? Burke? Cannon? Somebody as ranked as Hagen is going to get dozens of chances to hit. Outlooks on Sandlin must have soured for the Red Sox to have let him go for salary relief.

And thus will start the parade of free pitchers for a week or so.

Were you on a team, or did this happen at the shoe store?

Well, there's certainly no KW to trade, or force a trade of Bonemer and Hagen Smith for somebody's solid pitcher with one year of control who is telling anyone who will listen he won't sign an extension.

I would say that the hard part is convincing the owner to not be so hands-on in the decision-making. Also being patient and letting the contracts on his boys in the front office run out was probably pretty hard, too. Selling people in other organizations on a vision to get them to step out of line for a promotion in the safe sitch they know probably isn't very easy, either. Yeah, it probably gets harder to pry guys like Vargas and Pereira loose once everybody sees what you're doing. And once teams stop looking past the White Sox to their weekend series against the Yankees, the games might get a little harder, too.

He'll be relatively cheap until his 6th year of control, then he balloons up to $30M/yr for 2 years.

Amateur scouting seems to be more on the same page with their development staff. They know what they can work with and what to pass on. If international starts firing on that burner, it would be nice. I'm guessing that projecting 12-year-olds is a whole different game than 16 or 20-year-olds. A few of those early trades also seem to have been sight unseen, or word of mouth. I'd also guess he had an entire pro scouting department he didn't trust or couldn't rely upon. Beyond that, if he's assembled a team who scout, run numbers on and put together trades for Getz to pull the trigger on, who cares if he didn't know Acuña was a switch-hitter or not. I'm sure the guys who watched film of him and determined he was a candidate for Shoman tweaks knew what they were looking at.

The A's, M's, Blue Jays, Padres, D-backs and Cubs may all be there when it shakes out, and the Sox played them all tough. The rotation is smoke and mirrors, at this point. But with that top 5-6 of the order, they're never out of it.

I think it's pretty cool when one of the team studs walks to the plate, and you're like, "right here, assholes", and he clouts one. You're all teed up, and it's great. With Quero, you're hoping for a squibber to keep the line moving, so you're really not prepared for the full effect of his blast. Both are beautiful, but with Lee, you're right there to live it. On Quero's, you have to rewind to make sure you didn't hallucinate it.

I'd think some veterans on minor league contracts would be opting out of their contracts in about 12 days. June 1st is a big deadline for that.