Autumn Dreamin

Not a CS, but they teamed up nicely for the DP there

Four 98+ EVs in the inning and all went for hits. Would like to see them keep knocking Kelly around til he's out instead of trying to coast on one big inning.

Watching the Mets in the background, I wonder if Luis is having 2024 flashbacks. Getting booed by the home crowd, losing 12 in a row... I was looking forward to seeing him on a contender, but maybe that has to wait until the deadline.

Add it to the tally

Spirited comeback in Kanny, 7 run rally bottom 9 to walk it off after trailing the entire game Boughton got his first hit during the rally: Stiven Flores has looked really good, he was 4-5.

Loving Sammy's 2026 so far

I don't know how or why, but in the 3 games they've put Beni at leadoff he's got an 1.000 OPS and 4 RBI, so I'm not that surprised to see them ride it against a RHP.

I'm curious what people are projecting Murakami's future price to be? Fangraphs had his offseason projection in the $20-22m AAV range with some caveats. Less generous projections were around 5/$80-90m. Matt Olson is at $22m/year and he was coming off of a 39HR/111 RBI season with a .911 OPS (.271 AVG) when he signed that 8 year extension. Naylor (🤢) is a quality 2-3 WAR 1B and didn't crack nine figures in FA. Brent Rooker is a little older, but extended for 5/$60m coming off of a 39HR/112RBI/5+ WAR season. Alonso's $31m salary leads all 1B this year and is generally regarded as a modest overpay. There's just a pretty hard cap to what teams spend on a non-premium position (and how many teams even try to in a given season), which is exactly why it's a place Jerry has found himself comfortable before. He's paid a top ~10 annual salary for 1B more often than not over the past 15 seasons, and I doubt anywhere else on the diamond comes close. Mune is basically living up to the good eye/huge whiff/huge power scouting report that just failed to generate a massive bidding war. Barring some wild contact improvement, I don't exactly expect the same teams to be offering him Vlad Jr money in two years. Although even if they did, there's so little on the books in 2028 that the Sox could beat that AAV and still have a lower payroll than today lol Basically, I'm here: I don't think Getz would balk at Mune being the nine figure guy he's already said he expects to sign at some point, and even 5-6 years projects to be at the lower end of that. If he wants to stay here and doesn't suddenly start hitting .300, they can pay market price. I expect them to make a good faith effort. And FWIW, nothing I've seen/read about Mune suggests he's in some rush to jump ship. Most of his NPB fanbase seems to be rooting for him to repeat his Swallows journey with the White Sox, where they were the worst team in NPB the season before he joined (also with some doubts and at a discount) then he stuck it out, proved his worth, re-signed, and helped lead them to success. He's made more than one reference to wanting to be a part of "writing the story" for a team, which is why a clear starting role was a part of the Sox' appeal.

I said "potential" restrictions. I don't know where negotiations end up, just mentioning the possibility. But yeah, I think playing Rushing or Mune at 3B would be pretty unlikely. Mune's future is 1B/DH at the MLB level in my opinion, and Rushing has never played 3B at any level. A less Ironman-caliber 1B than Freeman should leave some 1B starts open for Rushing when he's not catching, but Shohei has been even more of an Ironman at DH so there's little to spare there. And since they currently have a righty primary C (Smith) and lefty primary 1B (Freeman), if/when lefty Rushing takes over as primary C, I think a righty 1B slots in better for lineup balance. Especially with Hope and De Paula being lefties too.

Think you meant this for the LAD thread, but Rushing is why LA isn't the future fit for Mune some people seem to assume. With Shohei as DH, they will want 1B ABs for him. And I'd assume any potential restrictions on spending will make the homegrown guy even more appealing.

KC held BAL to 1 hit until the 9th. The second hit tied the game at 1 with 2 outs in the 9th. They gave up 5 runs top 11 including a grand slam. A BAL collapse brought the tying run at the plate, but the O's survive to win 7-5 in 12 innings. Rough looks for both clubs. KC on an 8L streak, down to 7-16.

Also...they have to pay someone lol. Essentially everyone else we can pencil in for 2028 and beyond will be pre-arb, and they aren't going to run a $30m payroll. If Mune keeps it up, I don't think there's a better bang for your buck FA bat available in 2028 who would also be a timeline fit for the Montgomerys, Roch, and co. And though he's skeptical of FA pitching, we've seen Jerry pay a popular 1B even without the unique Japan market element at play. There's also just not a natural window to get some crazy trade haul. It won't be this deadline, the labor situation makes the offseason uncertain, and who is emptying the farm for him in the middle of a potentially abbreviated season? What do you get in return that's worth the reputational cost both to a market they want to appeal to and a fanbase who will want to watch him and Roch in September? I guess they'll have no choice if he makes it clear he won't stay, but nothing I've learned about him makes that seem particularly likely. Or if everything collapses around him to the extent that there's 6 other holes to fill, but in that case they're indeed doomed anyway.

Since it's a full org off day, figured I'd throw a ALC catchall thread up while watching games in the background. There's some rumblings of clubhouse trouble in KC. Matt Quatraro benched Salvy (who has been subpar) and framed it as an opportunity for him to get a "mental breather" Perez publicly disagreed, but they apparently hashed it out. They did call up a third catcher though. Quatraro was also considered in the Sox' manager search. Just signed a 3 year extension, so I'm not sure how warm his seat it. A lot of KC fans seem out though. In any case, this KC vs. BAL matchup is among the most "they both deserve to lose" games I've seen this season lol

Don't really expect him to stick with TOR once they get healthy either way, but I hope he latches on somewhere where there's steady ABs for him. Just doesn't seem like someone who can keep a rhythm well as a sporadic bench player.

Boyer on Mune's impact there (emphasis mine): He also talks about consulting with their AZ neighbor Dodgers and Chicago neighbor Cubs for contacts on building out those Japanese connections, and the prospect of Mune as a White Sox in a future Tokyo series. Landing him was a stroke of luck, but now that they have him I think the goal is something more than a short term flip.

More than 2 years, I think they pay him (for a number of reasons, some more telegraphed than others)

Mune still making front pages even with Shohei's on base streak as competition. Lots of Sox specific context; they talked to Brooke Fletcher and Merkin about Mune's results so far, his work ethic/personality, fan engagement, etc. Merk compared him to Abreu, hence his picture there.

Player of the week honors for both guys too:

His arm angle has lowered from 35 last year to around 30 now, and it's apparently had cascading effects on how his stuff plays. Less deception, worse control, and his sweeper has gone from one of the best pitches in the game to his worst offering. He's missing in the zone too much and guys aren't whiffing on the mistakes when they are in favorable counts and can narrow down what's coming. After the Twins start he said it wasn't health and thought he maybe needed to change the fastball mix. After the most recent start, he said he feels like he knows what the fix is but didn't specify. Hope he figures it out, love watching him when he's on. But another bad start and an IL stint wouldn't surprise me, even if it's a phantom one.

Yep! Anyone one before him or posing a threat to hit after him makes pitchers sweat just that much more. And he's no burner but has better speed underway than a lot of guys in that high HR%/BB% archetype. He's more capable of going first to third or scoring from second on a single than a Schwarber for example. Currently ranked 6th in sprint speed for 1B, around league average overall.

He's been struggling with sliders and offspeed early, but he has a good eye and doesn't chase so he forces fastball counts by getting ahead. And contrary to the offseason worry, he just demolishes fastballs. He's hitting .250 and slugging .750 against them, and that's underperforming his expected stats of .311avg/.834slg If he improves vs. breaking stuff even a little, he'll be such a challenge to pitch to.

The individual HRs were so fun that I'm still processing the bigger picture of Mune going 5-12 with 3 HR, 3 BB (5K), 7 RBI in the series lol And two of the homers were off LHP