WestEddy

Combs had a BB/9 over 4 in his college career. Gilbert had a nice line in AAA Lehigh Valley in 24.

It's always good to get those drunken "I'm cutting Shewmake!!!" resolutions out of the way, quickly.

Cherry picked? Are people only talking about the PAs where he got a hit and are ignoring the strikeouts? No. His entire batting lines from LA are being taken into account. What I see is that he seemed overmatched in 2022, but from 2022 to 2023, his k% dropped, his bb% doubled, and his LD% rose, indicating adjustment. These rates stayed the same into 2024 with the Dodgers, and even in a small sample size, started to get on base and slug at acceptable rates. It has been mentioned that his strength dropped off last season. He slumped, and just couldn't pull out of it. It's fun to say "he must work for it", and "nothing should be handed to him", but he would have to continue his abysmal batting line through all of spring training, and at least 3 of 6 players (ramos, sosa, deloach, colas, meidroth, baldwin) would have to put up steady hitting lines in ST in order for Vargas to be squeezed out. Like it or not, he was the main piece of the Fedde trade. It's not Getz' ego to give Vargas a long chance to show what his prospect belied. We paid a high price for him. That would be like buying a new car, then leaving it on the side of the road once the gas ran low. If Sosa hits, he's your 2B. I think Ramos may still need a good half season in Charlotte to get in a groove he could jump off of when promoted.

It is baseless. You called Getz "Captain of the Early Call Up", and a few of us came up with 5 players who could have taken longer to get to the majors. Ellis? Who cares? He can't even hit in AA. He's not a prospect. Thorpe? He was making AA look ridiculous. He was ready, and did well until his elbow gave out. Ramos was an emergency, and got a look in the bigs. I wouldn't call that "rushed". When opposing teams adjusted to him, he was sent down. Baldwin was hitting in AA and AAA. I suppose they could have played games with his service time for two more years, then brought him sporadically in 2027, 2028 and '29 so ensure they had 6 full seasons after that. What would the point be? Iriarte was on the 40-man, and got a September call-up to see how his stuff played. You make these weird statements about Reinsdorf "loving his rebuilds" or Getz rushing players, but the facts don't really bear that out.

Oh, wait. Duke Ellis was another emergency call-up. Benintendi, Fletcher and Tommy Pham were all injured in the same 2-day period, so they called up DeLoach, Colas, and put Ellis on the 40-man to have enough OFs. That guy was chagrined that Getz made yet another roster move. Just as Getz should have known that all of Yoan, Eloy and Luis Robert would have been out, injured, by the 11th game of the season, he should have also known that Pham, Fletcher and Benny would get injured around June 3rd.

I really can't think of anyone beyond Ramos, who was kind of an emergency situation, the only infielder on the 40-man, at the time. I'm really amazed that the guy who twists every single move so he can complain about it is pretending that Getz rushes players so he can complain about it. But really, Thorpe, Iriarte? Both were jumped from AA to the bigs. Thorpe did well, Iriarte - 2 of his 6 outings were a little rough. He's on the 40-man. September call-up.

I would think the Sox continue to ramp up Schultz as they've been doing. He had one game where he threw more than 65 pitches this last season. He can't just throw 4 innings on Saturdays in the bigs. Same goes for the ramping up of Hagen Smith. I would think each has a good 5 months in the minors before we start talking about them.

I would think he just doesn't want his decision to be distracted by Ohtani and Yamamoto.

EF Hutton... We're an Easy Target!

Now there is zero reason to resign Clevenger...

He's more of a RF. He's only played 8 games in CF in the minors.

You also have Ron Marinaccio, who should probably challenge for closer.

This probably proves your point even more, but Bryce Wilson has about 50 starts, and Jared Shuster 11.

Elias broke the Haiku engine.

Maybe now that his defense has settled in, he can concentrate on getting his hit tool back.

The '22 team came into the season with Cease, Giolito, Kopech, Lynn and Keuchell as their rotation. They had Jimmy Lambert and Davis Martin starting at AAA. They picked up Vince Velazquez and Johnny Cueto after spring training started. Pretty light considering what a club needs for the season, but not exactly what you describe. I don't remember anybody making any proclamations that Soroka was the #2 starter. If you do, please link to a story about that. I always understood the acquisitions of Fedde, Soroka and Flexen to have been a package gamble that one or more of them could be "fixed".

I don't know. You complain about every single expenditure, so maybe you can speak to that. I like the thought process behind bringing in a great arm to rehab for $3 million for the chance that he pops, and then you have a valuable piece. Montgomery is a junk-baller who may bounce back, but then you're probably eating some of the $7.5 million due him for the remainder of 2025 to trade him. I'm all for Reinsdorf spending more money. I don't need him to pay a beer vendor $1 billion to prove he wants to win, or something.

Which was the whole point of my comment. I'm not sure what is "wise" about taking on $22.5 million for a really bad pitcher to get another guy who could top out as a utility infielder. No, Jerry Reinsdorf shouldn't approve that. They have the makings of a stable rotation with Cannon, Martin, Burke, Thorpe, Wilson and Smith, plus Bush, Adams, Nastrini and Iriarte in AAA.

Missing the point, yet again. Soroka was expected to be a rehab project, which he was. "Flipping" a player is one benefit of having a player on your roster. Another little known benefit is that these players can actually play in baseball games, all of which have 9 defensive positions to be covered for the entirety of the game. Please tell me about all these deals where a team gets a top prospect for taking on money.

The most expensive Cuban exiles don't cost that much. And the 1-1 slot of this last year's draft was less than half of that. The way people wail about paying Mike Soroka $3 million to turn out to be a good reliever, imagine taking on $22.5 million to watch the equivalent of Nick Nastrini's 2024 production, just for the privilege of taking on another Dominick Fletcher.

The Rangers went out and signed Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Jacob DeGrom, so it's not like the Rangers are the Tampa Bay Rays.

Teoscar back to the Dodgers. 3/66