Snopek

I understand the sentiment that Conforto may lose a lot of value in year 4 of a contract, but I don't understand why that should matter to a team trying to win NOW. So, what are we actually trying to do here? Is it maximize our chances of winning now? Or is it trying to sustain some moderate level of success and relevance for as long as possible? Because it's incredibly hard to do both.

Fair enough. And that’s why I’d like to see them add as much talent as possible i.e. Conforto.

Lol the poster I quoted literally said they were 100% positive.

The 100% grateful part I get, but why do you feel the need to be 100% positive? If a front office “lucked their way into building a championship caliber roster,” I’d be less inclined to have unwavering positive feelings towards them.

The thing is, being hesitant to hand out a risky contract because it might not work out is such a passive way to operate for a title contender. That leaves you with hoping smaller contracts end up as bargains, hoping current players have breakout/bounce back seasons and hoping everyone stays healthy. And that’s the real handcuffing IMO.

Yup, just saw that as well. Was looking forward to seeing how he did when not used every single game.

aka The Victor Diaz Trade

Them adding shit players isn't true because they haven't added shit players yet. Unless you're deciding that Leury is the starting 2B. In that case, still not a shit player, but a shit decision.

Yup, that was the assumption I was making. With Kemp and Harrison being those lesser options I'd be okay with.

Great post, gross options. Gimme Harrison, Segura, Kemp or McNeil I guess?

I know I'm oversimplifying here and being a GM is an incredibly hard job (despite what many of us on here seem to think), but the idea of waiting to shed the salary of guys that were brought in to help win a championship so that we can...bring in guys to help win a championship makes feel all kinds of loony.

Poor Orland Park finally got to host the winter meetings and this happens.

I do find it amusing when he talks about the market as if it’s something on the other side of a fence. Like, dude, you’re part of the thing. Put the binoculars down.

I get it, I just find the speculation to be more interesting and entertaining. It’s not like anyone’s forcing me to believe any of it. Meanwhile, my general reaction to most Heyman, etc tweets is: “Huh, okay. Noted.”

I really don't get what's so hard about just scrolling past tweets you deem not legit. Besides, the foodie/rando tweets provide about as much useful information to me as Jon Heyman saying the Marlins and Nationals among others have checked in on Chris Taylor.

I'm over here outspending all these teams on pizza alone. Kudos to me and my front office.

If you think he’s barely a serviceable bench guy, your standards might be a little too high for bench players. Also, where are you seeing that he’s the starter at 2B?

It's funny to me that this whole time you're assuming I thought we were getting Scherzer and that I don't understand how budgets work, when I'm actually annoyed that we weren't in on Eduardo Escobar on Alex Wood, who I considered to be both realistic targets and players of note...hence the whole subjective comment.

The complacency is maddening.

This is a pretty subjective thing to say.

The rest of the league thanks the sox for their complacency.

But he already did.

To be fair, he said we were interested in a pitcher like Ray and 2B like Semien, which of course has as much meaning as saying nothing at all.

I feel like this is where the bar has been the past couple years. At some point "pretty damn good" isn't good enough anymore. Take the next step. Haven't we already tried this approach enough times? It's going to be hard to get true impact players without what we're describing as "overpaying" for them. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single contract for a star or major impact player that's been described as team friendly or fiscally smart (extensions notwithstanding).

Hopping into an Adam Frazier thread only to see more “I knew the Kimbrel trade would backfire” posts