WestEddy

Billionaire Daddy Syndrome. The belief that billionaires will ride in and save you. Winning is a by-product.

Road trip to see the inaugural Moose Jaw Marauders' season opener.

I stayed down the street from the Embarcadero, took the BART, and hopped off right outside of Oakland Coliseum. Easy peasy. I think the owner of the OKC Thunder did the same thing to Seattle. He's accused of moving out of spite, and he did, but I think he also wanted his free tourist village. It's important to keep saying that Ishbia isn't buying the team because he loves us, the fans, and wants us to be able to walk down the street, drunk, every November, high fiving strangers during yet another Championship celebration. He's buying it to hold Chicago hostage in his own way, cheat us out of our tax dollars, and then start his own rocket ship company to colonize Venus. There's no such thing as a "good" team owner.

Apparently

I hate billionaire owners as much as the next guy and wear out the FieldofSchemes.com link. However, Fisher made the investment to get free land, infrastructure and tax breaks to build a little tourist village. Oakland offered him something like that, but it wasn't his preferred location. He bought to fleece the city. There's no concept of "doing the right thing" and selling before he got his money pump.

Murphy does throw strikes. I wasn't paying attention to Schweitzer's handedness. Yeah, they probably select his contract. Murphy seems like the type of finesse lefty every team has a few of. We also have Jake Palisch and Grant Umberger. I think Preller head-faked a few GMs one year into protecting guys who were well away from the bigs. Preller took four guys in the 2015 Rule 5 draft and that spooked Hahn into protecting Micker Adolfo and LA Basabe years before they would sniff AAA, starting their clocks early, and forcing a situation where they had to be rushed.

These were the final standings of the 1994 season. I think you're a year off. East Division Tm W L W-L% GB New York Yankees 70 43 .619 -- Baltimore Orioles 63 49 .563 6.5 Toronto Blue Jays 55 60 .478 16.0 Boston Red Sox 54 61 .470 17.0 Detroit Tigers 53 62 .461 18.0 Central Division Tm W L W-L% GB Chicago White Sox 67 46 .593 -- Cleveland Indians 66 47 .584 1.0 Kansas City Royals 64 51 .557 4.0 Minnesota Twins 53 60 .469 14.0 Milwaukee Brewers 53 62 .461 15.0 West Division Tm W L W-L% GB Texas Rangers 52 62 .456 -- Oakland Athletics 51 63 .447 1.0 Seattle Mariners 49 63 .438 2.0 California Angels 47 68 .409 5.5

Coach or Manager? Pretty much every hitting coach who left has found other work. Apparently, TLR still haunts some people here who think LaRussa's "in Reinsdorf's ear".

Merk thinks they may add... Into The White Sox Off-Season With Scott Merkin

Sox in the Basement has a nice interview with Don Cooper. He talks at length about the 2005 playoff run, the 4 complete games, Jenks, and has thoughts on the game today. A Conversation With Don Cooper

I think the Sox protect McDougal, Pallette, and Adams. Shane Murphy is a toss-up. The White Sox had about 3-4 guys like him at A and AA. Crafty lefty who could just get hammered in the bigs if he isn't perfect. Pallette has special stuff. None of Coffey, Dalquist, Schoenle, Plymell or Kelly has forced the issue, and every team has arms like them. They would just run with their own fastball dudes who can't throw strikes instead of tying up a 40-man spot all year. McDougal is our Shane Smith. If we don't protect him, somebody takes him. Adams was getting reps as a starter in ST this last year when his elbow blew up. He would be in somebody's rotation to start 2027. It would be a mistake to start the clock on somebody like Aldrin Batista or Samuel Zavala.

I can't imagine the howling that would follow a White Sox pitcher dropping dead from asphyxiation after a fentanyl/oxycodone cocktail provided by team sources. The White Sox had a bad clubhouse with coach/spies throughout the org. Not saying the Sox are squeaky clean, but I don't think they've reached those depths.

Here's an "article" fleshing out the news of the Sanner hire. Nothing more than a little background on his resume - which could get us all through the rest of today. White Sox hire JC Scanner to coaching position in organization | Sox On 35th

If a player doesn't remain active on a team's 26-man roster for at least 90 days, their Rule 5 status rolls into the next year, and the same rules apply - they can rehab on the IL, but must be on the active 26-man for 90 days of the 2026 season. I don't know if this rolls over for years and years, though, or if a team would even entertain more than two seasons of the restriction. I don't know about being "eligible" for the next season. If they remain on the selecting team's 40-man roster for the next off-season, they're protected from the next year's Rule 5 draft. During the off-season, there is no 26-man active roster for a player to be on. Everything is about the 40-man. So, the Rays selected Lavender. He sat on the 60-day IL all season. At the end of the World Series (I think), the 60-day IL disappears, and players are put back on their team's 40-man roster. The White Sox will have this crunch with Drew Thorpe, Ky Bush and Prelander Berroa. If the Rays keep Lavender, because he didn't spend 90 days on the Rays' 26-man roster, they will have the same restrictions for him. He needs to be on their 2026 26-man roster at least 90 days. They can't option him to the minors without putting him through waivers, then if he clears, offering him back to his original team for $50k (i think). If the original team refuses, Rule 5 restrictions go away, and he belongs to the Rays.

The Blue Jays took Angel Bastardo from the Red Sox and stowed him on the IL all of 2025, and the Rays took Nate Lavender from the Mets' system and stowed him all season. Both were recovering from TJS, albeit both had more compelling strikeout stuff, Adams had good command and control and was going to get a shot at the Sox' rotation in 2025.

Kieboom was a 1st rounder (28th) and was a top 25 prospect.

I'm guessing the Angels wanted Pujols' $1M a year services contract to be rolled into his managerial pay.

Run into many at the Scottsdale Starbucks?

And seriously, it sounds like the right people survived the jungle atmosphere. The remark about Shirley, if somebody played baseball, they probably made the traveling park All-Stars at 10, and their entire family participated in the game since. Somebody doesn't need to have played 20 years in the bigs to have been in the game their whole lives. I don't think anyone here would begrudge Dave Dombrowski saying he's been in baseball his entire professional life.

Does every single penny earned from a baseball village go towards the team's bottom line? Like, when people go ice skating at Wrigley in the winter, then stop off at the Budweiser Brickhouse for beers, do the players want their 60% of that money?

Again, these are all appreciated. I would think that most people holding a job in America are trying to get ahead. You ever go have a few drinks after work on a Thursday evening? Everybody's smarter than their boss.

You didn't indicate it was from somebody within the org. In that context, it seems like your source should have been fired, too, as all he does is criticize the org he works for. I found it very interesting. The Thames blurb was moreso than Katz. I always appreciate the insider info.

Just talking about the coaching situations, and you snapped. As usual.

If they sign a higher profile OF who will expect to start, they're going to block Baldwin, maybe even possible innings for Ramos as a backup. If they sign Josh Naylor (they won't, but pretend), he pushes Sosa to 2B, and Meidroth to the bench. I can only see them signing another Martin Perez, and MAYBE a closer. They probably have another couple of Penn Murfees and Tyler Gilberts in them.

You have a weird way of just shutting down a conversation.