Look at Ray Ray Run

Fair enough, I'll defer to your thoughts here.

The extension was discussed nationally that day - nothing final but it was discussed. Also, he said the Sox were close with Will Harris and 1 hour he signed with the Nats lol. Why do people chose to ignore this anecdote while citing this guy? If you want to know why fake insiders exists - which is a common question around here - you answer that question every time you give this guy attention.

You want Cameron Maybin to be your late-game defensive replacement? He's not a good defender though? I know people are tired of Engel because he represents a bad period in White Sox baseball, but he'd be a fantastic 4th outfielder. He's an elite defender and baserunner. This team has plenty of offensive firepower now.

He didn't piggy back off Jimmy's tweet - FS posted an article on Jan 1 before Cishek's piece breaking down the extension talks. On the morning of 1/1, MLBnetwork reported that extension talks with Robert had picked up steam. Progress on the contract was made at the winter meetings according to Hahn, and frame work had been hashed out by the time Jimmy reported it. Cishek takes tea leaves and reports them. He also said the Sox were closing in on Will Harris and 1 hour later Harris signed with the Nats. Then he shifted and Chisek it was. He threw a bunch of shit against the wall, and he got a few things right. That's the nature of fake sources - Incarcerated Bob has mastered the art.

The Cardinals are not trading Fowler either; especially not for a non-big leaguer. They moved outfielders to clear a logjam, and potentially re-sign Ozuna. If they re-sign Ozuna, their OF is Fowler, Ozuna and O'Neill with Bader being the 4th man in the rotation. If they don't re-sign Ozuna, then their outfield is Fowler, Bader, and O'Neill. The move for Liberatore seems odds for the Cardinals - who are in win-now mode - and you have to believe it's a precursor to a bigger move for the Cardinals who will ship Liberatore out soon after they acquired him.

Those were the best relievers on the market and the only ones that made sense for the Sox who were interested in relievers and had stated such to Merkin. He didn't call the Robert extension - Jimmy reported it, and then another national writer said they were making progress and right after that he tweeted it out. He also was NOT the first person to report the Mazara trade as has been cited here. He piggybacked off another national writer - might have been Nightengale, I can't remember for sure - and that was that. I followed the guy to see if he was first on anything after he was originally cited here - I also follow all the national/local writers for most teams. He was never first, and frequently piggy backed all his reports of national and local reports.

I said this yesterday, but publicly available prospect rankings overvalue pitchers beneath A-Ball. TINSTAAPP is a very real thing in the executive baseball world. Here's one good read on it. Libertore was a good prospect, but he wasn't elite enough for him to warrant his value in the rankings. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/an-update-to-prospect-valuation/

Rangers seem to wonder how he will sign with them when they're not interested lol.

He was a really raw prospect though; that was the knock on him for his age. He really put it together last year - I am a believer. He's really talented, and he has great strike zone recognition.

He named every reliever that was left on the market that could be considered solid. He SAID NOTHING about Grandal before the signing.

No, he has not. Here is what Cishek has done; every time a rumor has been reported by someone, he has taken it a step further and said the Sox were working to finalize something. Sometimes, it happened and he "looked" right. Other times, he just moved on and pretended he never said it. He didn't get anything first - he piggy backed off of other reports.

The more I think about it, the more shares I'm going to be buying of Alz.

Cease is incredibly exciting because he has all the tools to be absolutely great; he has elite, Cole and Verlander level, spin rates on his fastball but he just doesn't get the right spin right now. I imagine it's easier to teach a slight grip adjustment to maximize the damage of your spin rate, than it is to teach an elite spin rate. Cease's problem now is he gets no lateral movement with his fastball - if he can add a little cut to the already elite horizontal movement he could be flat out filthy. Command and fine tuning his spin are the focal points of his development, but WHEN he unlocks it all look out. My number one concern with Cease isn't his success or ceiling - it's his durability.

I hear you, and I'm not a huge fan of Martinez but I think his elite platoon splits fit the Rays roster well and they probably really like alzaranezo however you spell. I love prospect rankings but need to remind myself occasionally that public rankings are not the same and do not equal private internal rankings. I, for one, am much more interested in him now that he appeared to be a target of the rays. The whole a ball pitcher thing matters too.

Martinez numbers vs lefties in his career are really elite too.

Or they really like Arozarena and are buying all in on his changes last year. Either way it feels really odd. A-ball pitching prospects are the riskiest prospects in the game - in a sense of prospect ranking to success. Even still youd have to think hes worth more than that.

Yeah, crazy pop for sure. Iso, hard hit and HR rates to be envious of. He has holes but his upside is very apparent.

O'Neill is a lot better than you're giving him credit for.

Rays would be swapping Pham and Avi for O'Neil, Renfroe and Martinez while having an even swap between minor league talent.

O'Neil is a high level prospect who is MLB ready. And a position player to boot. This would make sense imo. If the Ray's like Oniel better than Pham, they basically got O'niel, renfrow, maybe Martinez and Edward's for Pham and Libatorie. Would be a big win if the Rays like oniel more than pham going forward.

This was from a fake Jeff Passan account. Jeff didn't take too kindly to this guy imitating him again.

Maybe the Cardinals have a pending deal with Ozuna - that would make some sense for the delay on the big league name.

The Rays finally are pushing the pieces into the middle and trading from their prospect surplus to improve the MLB roster and go for it all. FINALLY!

Ahhh true true. I shouldn't have cited the housing in the same way I cited education. My premise was more so related to the buying power of that dollar; the escalation of home prices has been artificial for about 3 decades now as well, but that's for another discussion. The first thing a modern company cuts is middle and lower class people - they never cut the executive wages when the numbers look bad.

If you have questions Jack, feel free to PM me. When I get time, I will happily respond with my thoughts.