Snopek

I like some of the back and forth on hypotheticals because it's interesting to hear different perspectives, but that all takes a backseat now that we're finally getting to the important stuff: which posters will end up being right and which ones will need to admit the other ones were right.

And if you still don’t see the return you like at the trade deadline, then what? At what point are you being too stubborn? Getz should obviously be trying to maximize the return, but it’s also such a fine line to walk. I’m surprised at how comfortable some of y’all are with hanging onto Cease. Just insanely risky.

I enjoyed reading the back and forth and hearing the Baltimore perspective from a couple intelligent/non meatball fans, but ultimately it comes down to they value their guys more than we do, just like we value our guy more than they do. Typical fandom stuff. No one’s necessarily right or wrong, but when no one’s budging on their views, it just becomes using different words to make the same arguments over and over.

Well now that it’s too quiet in here, I think we need some Red Sox board posters to exchange stubborn and definitive statements with. There are more subjective arguments to be had!

Three way trade. Sox get Madrigal and a Bill Ripken fuckface card. Cubs get Cease for the first half, O’s get him for the second half. GM’ing is easy.

I love how there’s a Nick Madrigal side discussion going on in this thread

Sure, but afford and willing to pay for are two different things. Based on everything you’ve told us about Elias, he’s 1) Very concerned and risk averse about not overpaying (which, yeah, tends to not get you very far when trying swing trades) and 2) Concerned with needing your OF prospects to fill holes when Hays/Santander are gone.

Chris Flexen has never been on the Royals, but if you divide his career strikeouts and career WAR by his jersey number you get the lat/long coordinates of Kauffman Stadium.

At that point might as well just send out a tweet of a baseball emoji

I really need a Jon Heyman tweet saying there's now a mystery team in on this mystery player.

I'm not exactly sure this is the positive attribute that you're making it out to be. Plus, I don't find it to be particularly true. I think Cease is definitely a better pitcher than he showed during the 2023 season, but let's not pretend he's some big game pitcher who always shines in the spotlight. He's barely even been in the spotlight.

At this rate it feels like we’re heading towards “Ok, once Brad Keller finally signs, the Cease talk will really start heating up.”

IMO the Dodgers should also acquire me. Just sayin.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, but I'm hearing two different things. You say the playoffs are a crapshoot, which I take to mean just get there and you have just as good a chance as anyone to win it all. Then you point to the Rays lack of success because they haven't won a world series, even though they've made the crapshoot playoffs the past 5 seasons.

Sure, but it's just top-heavy on the hitting side. This feels way too much like banking on Montgomery and Ramos to reach their 99th percentile outcome or something. Not a whole lot behind them. This is not an endorsement to solely focus on hitting, though. They need everything. Focus on the players, not the positions. Ehh I get why you say this, but it's one of those things that can be spun any way you want. Texas and Arizona were middle of the pack for most team pitching stats in the regular season, while Tampa and Minnesota were near the top. Pitching wins in the playoffs until it doesn't.

The 05 Sox were 5th in baseball in homers. They had 7 guys with 15+ homers. Obviously not a juggernaut offense by any means, but they got decent production up and down the lineup. Definitely not what I would call a “Konerko, Rowand, and Iguchi” offense.

Maybe for a normal organization, but these schmoes have shown they don’t really care about those optics when it comes to hires.

They weren’t

He’s gonna end up getting two centers (basketball), two more centers (football), another center (hockey), and one more center (soccer? Are there centers in soccer?) I don’t know what this post is.

Haven’t we learned that banking on prospect bats to pan out is a bad strategy? Yes, they can definitely use more pitching, but they need SO many more bats to go with Colson and Ramos.

Completely agree that it would be perfect in a world where he wasn’t just mailing it in at this point. But unfortunately he is, so the upfront work required to change is, well, work. And that’s too big of an ask for a dude that just wants to coast.

Because that would require him to meet and talk to new people.

Someone smarter than me tell me if the Glasnow move now likely takes the Dodgers out of the running for Cease

And on Twitter, there's a lot of "Just go out and trade for Cease, already" from various other teams' fans. I think Cease will be traded, and I believe he will bring back a Chris Sale type deal (2 top 100, 2 middling prospects). https://forum.orioleshangout.com/forum/2-orioles-talk/ Kind of an odd post by the Orioles board person. Like, yeah, the bidding war taking time and then a team either getting outbid or paying too much is basically how trades work. And you're not even gonna consider that the hold up could be due to the rest of the SP marker moving slow?

He could regain his cy young form. He could also be worse than last year. He could also get hurt. IMO it's a huge risk to hold him for that long.