Look at Ray Ray Run

You are pigeonholing a prospect you know nothing about and have never seen play. That's absurd to me.

In this world. Their prospects, their drafting, all say this pretty clearly. I'm not sure what you're confused by. The organization had a draft philosophy of extremely toolsy but raw athletes - with great ceilings but dreadful floors. When they traded the farm, the acquired more tools and less production than the opposite; Moncada, Kopech, Cease etc etc. Those were high risk, high reward prospects. The Sox rarely play it safe. Robert was also a high risk, toolsy athlete, with feel issues. Madrigal is the first guy in a long time that fits the high floor demographic.

Would it really shock you if the Sox had an insider in Cuba that said the kid was likely leaving? Given the Sox prowess in Cuba, that would not shock me at all, and I know nothing about the international prospects so I'm not going to throw a fit that we got one guy over another.

You never know how any of these guys will pan out. The Sox have a history of always going high ceiling low floor over high floor, lower ceiling players. That leads to a lot of busts. Sometimes, it's nice to maybe lock up a guy with a higher floor and a perceived lower ceiling. Those guys sometimes becomes superstars too - see Jose Ramirez. Baseball is a tricky game.

Beltre is one of the greatest 3rd baseman of all-time. Beltre shows you have funny and inconsistent baseball can be too. Anyone who remembers young Beltre remembers that he was considered a bust despite being pretty good. He couldn't hit in LA until his FA year where he hit the 48 HR's - which, at the time everyone thought was juice induced... and after the rest of his career, I'd argue was probably juice induced. Then, he took a big step back the year after with Seattle after signing a big deal. He struggled more in Seattle offensively - being very inconsistent - until he fully figured it out late in his career in Texas. Beltre has had an up and down career though - 5 of his first 12 years were under 3 WAR (4 under 2.4 WAR), and shows the ups and downs of even stars in this game. That said, Beltre was 100% juicing his 48 HR season.

Well, he's not 1 tool at all. In fact, he has one way above average tool and two above average tools and two tools bordering on average/below average. I don't know what to say pal.

Players sign where they get the most money.

Much more limited? He'll be top 10 in his class. Possibly higher. I have no idea what he'll become. But he's not a bottom tier guy next year.

I really dont understand your point here. Someone was going to sign him. The Sox have a great in with Cuban prospects. If they thought/knew he was coming and planned for it, theres absolutely nothing wrong with that.

This is a pretty brutal argument pal. So elite players only sign with big teams? That doesn't make much sense.

Seems pretty likely to me. This was from some time back. Which led me to believe the Sox were that team and they felt they could make him wait with their Cuban track record. Whether the kid is any good or not, who knows. Hasnt hit yet, that's for sure. https://twitter.com/longenhagen/status/1092852624989122560?s=20

I don't see it as that puzzling if he was part of the 2019 plan and they were confident he was pushing back.

if they know nothing about you - but for the personal things you brought front and center - why do you care about their accusations anyway? i usually just get a laugh at stuff like that - no point in getting worked up. waste of energy.

If magglio doesnt get badly injured they may have kept him.

They had already retained buehrle once. No where am I arguing all stars should stay for life but they retained him when the time came the first time.

Yes, the Indians have been crying poor since the days they were selling out a decade in a row. The organization has never paid to maintain their guys and they could certainly afford it. It's one thing to miss out on a free agent. It's an entirely different thing to never retain your stars because you refuse to pay them.

No. They are shopping them because they dont want to pay them. Although I'd trade Kluber myself as he's trending downward fast.

Name a white Sox star they havent paid and retained? One who left via free agency because the Sox couldn't afford him.

Almost feels like you're punishing your kids and withholding their ability to create those same moments and memories of happiness and togetherness that you created with your father... all because the Sox didn't sign a free agent. It would appear that those experiences weren't created with your father because the Sox were good or signing big free agents. They were created because it was a bond you guys created together supporting something that you both loved - Baseball and the White Sox.

I read somewhere that keeping more April games in warm weather cities has been a focal point of baseball scheduling for a few years. edit: Looks like this was something they looked into doing, but didn't fully implement. I stand corrected.

Shapiro was running shop there. I don't think there was any secret to that. Shapiro was making the calls. Let's see what the new leadership does. So far, it hasn't been much since his departure. Cleveland's poor cry is the same bs as any other mlb team that cries poor.

There arent enough teams to keep everything south.

Baseball does everything in their power to keep northern teams from playing home games the first week.

Not sure how you can say this. The current people in charge took over for Shapiro in 2015. The people in charge now have done next to nothing to improve the team. Most of the acquisitions were made by Shapiro.

Hank Aaron was another front foot hitter.