WestEddy

And Jared Shuster is right back up:

George Wolkow in May: .292/.357/.500 3 HRs I feel like they've been working with some of these guys to establish the strike zone, prioritize contact, and now they're exploring their power.

Anybody worthy of note has been thoroughly scouted, and they're either signed or under agreement for their age 16 year. If David Keller was walking along the beach, and stumbled upon an unknown 17 year old kid throwing rocks into the surf at 101 mph, he could certainly sign him for under $10k. He could sign hundreds of kids for under $10k and that doesn't count against the pool allotment.

Maybe Fuller or the bench coach knows or noticed something about his swing that can be corrected. Otherwise, I would think they have shortstop covered between Meidroth, Baldwin, Sosa, Rojas and Tristan Gray in AAA.

There was an open 40-man spot, so no corresponding move is needed there. However, he's out of options, so I'm guessing he bounces Amaya.

For a team in the first phase of their rebuild, they have no depth issue, regardless of whether you "give them credit" or not. Their depth exists. Bryce Wilson had 3 productive seasons, 2 of them directly preceding 2025. He's a fine swing-man.

None of that has anything to do with my comment. A weird, hidden benefit to signing a pitcher is that they actually pitch some games for your team. Trade value is an added bonus.

Actually, 4 Tommy John surgeries and Perez' injury resulted in the guy they promised a shot at starting - starting games. So that's 5 injuries, and 2 guys in AAA not being able to throw strikes, if we're going to get technical. And even with that, they still have 3 guys on the 26-man with starting experience behind Bryce Wilson, 2 other guys at AAA who might get starts in the bigs, and Jesse Scholtens may even be back by the middle of June. So, yeah, they had and have depth.

Actually, it isn't hard. He pitched well. Please try to follow the conversation.

They signed Martín Pérez to a big league deal, he wasn't awful. The Sox had starting pitching depth. Not everybody is the Dodgers with 11 FA starting pitchers on the IL.

Martín Pérez wasn't.

Again, just spit-balling options.

Right now, it's looking like various shades of nothing, or at best, an exchange of projects. If he does the "one year rebound" with the Sox, you still have the chance to trade him at the 2026 TDL.

Just spit-balling the options. If Robert kills his TDL value, but rakes the last two months of the season, he may feel he's worth much more than 2/40.

Weird, Google AI gave me the opposite answer. I appealed to the AI engine's ego by calling it a wise, handsome AI engine, so maybe it just gave me the answer I wanted.

Yes they can. And if this really is what he is, and the QO tanks his value, they can resign him at a cheaper $10M, or whatnot.

They could keep him, buy out his option, offer him a QA, and when he signs somewhere, the draft pick will probably be worth more than anything they get for him.

Could just be me, but I would think a player would be happier making much more money in the bigs and accruing service time while holding down a spot on an up-and-coming team. I don't think baseball players have the same attitudes as keyboard warriors.

Is that me?

Alcoholism is a disease. It's not as simple as "just don't drink", but I do understand.

Sounds familiar. Santo shouldn't have had to promote himself. He was a top five 3B all time, pretty much, when he retired. When he was dying from diabetes, those guys could have gotten over their anger.

Maybe MLB could tell the families of Dick Allen and Ron Santo what horrible crimes they committed to have been denied the honor of induction during their lifetimes. Dick Allen's treatment was horrible, but what happened to Santo seemed almost deliberate, as if guys like Joe Morgan and Mike Schmidt had a chip on their shoulders, and they were really going to stick it to Ron Santo. They did.

Then if you didn't really mean 1980, it's generally not helpful to answer the question with it.

I thought a resurgent Brooks Baldwin could have made for an awkward choice when Slater comes off the IL. I'm not thinking that so much right now.

So then, to answer Tony's original question " At what point do you start to wonder if it's not about the people they are hiring, but the business might simply not really know what they're doing? " - I'm going to say certainly after the 1st house cleaning in 45 years. And I'm going to give the current regime longer than just under 2 years hitting the ground.