nrockway

I thought Puig was banned for life from the sport but I guess he hasn't actually pled guilty to anything yet. I'm reading about his case and found this quote from his agent very amusing: “He came to the interview feeling rushed, unprepared, without criminal counsel with him, and also lacked his own interpreter,” Carnet told The Associated Press. “Given his history growing up in authoritarian Cuba, government interviews are triggering and only worsen his ADHD symptoms and other mental health struggles, for which he is in treatment. He would have benefited from this care at the time of the interview.” like, wut?

It's a good point about Turner and I don't know what people were saying about him as a prospect, but I imagine since he was a bit smaller and much speedier than Montgomery, he projected better as a middle infielder. I guess give Montgomery a shot because who else is playing there next season, but he was bad defensively at AA and I don't see his mobility improving as he gets older/stronger. Which is to say, I'd be stunned if he was even 'slightly below average' defensively at SS. Obviously it would be great if he sticks there, but I'd feel more confident about the team with a defense-first SS who can hit the ball a little bit. Maybe that could be Gonzalez, but I like those two guys I mentioned (especially Winn) because they smashed AAA pitching and look like they could be plus defenders at SS or 2B. Rafaela could play the outfield too, I like the versatility in contrast to having 13 first basemen and a center fielder on the team.

Good read, thanks for sharing. Surprised Popeye didn't make the top 27 but he's probably just not as good as I imagine he is. Doubly surprised Adam Hackenberg isn't in the article at all, he seems to me like the most underrated guy in the system. defensively, I bet he could start at the major league level next season and his bat improved drastically in 2023. I think an interesting question to ask is what to do about Ramos/Montgomery. It's inevitable that Montgomery will move to 3B so where does that leave Ramos? Still hoping we can get a legitimate middle infielder for Cease, Masyn Winn or Ceddanne Rafaela would be my preferred choices of the teams that have been rumored to be in on Cease.

Yoan Moncada’s face is most often pleasant, one that won’t always endear him to frustrated fans who’d rather see him angrily slam a helmet or unload on an umpire after getting rung up on a borderline call. nobody cares about that, we just want him to actually play and sometimes hit the ball. I'm convinced "journalists" have to agree to a certain amount of dick-sucking in order to get an interview and appease their bosses. I'd rather just forego the interview and maintain some amount of integrity, personally...or maybe the Sun Times is employed by YoYo's agency, who could say. also, shut up about "motivation." I guess 70 million dollars wasn't enough motivation but the next $720k apparently is.

this is hilarious but totally expected. the marketing department puts its foot in its mouth once a month it seems like...or at the very least, they do something that makes me think "huh".

I'm mostly impressed by how many posts Sports Guy has managed to rack up in a month (in only this thread?). And I thought I posted here too much....and I actually like this team! Put me out of my misery ASAP when I make 1000 posts in a month on an Orioles message board.

This could be interesting, it's a great location. it would have a really great skyline view and could feature wonky dimensions to fit into the rest of the development. But I think they should just stay put. the city and state can kick in money to develop a ballpark as well as all those parking lots, seems like a better use of public money and potentially good for the people who live around there. plus the current park is more accessible than this this place is. it's not close to an L stop nor is it directly off the i90 like 35th/Shields is. I'd be very surprised if this comes to fruition, this land will be developed before the Sox decide to build a new park. I really can't see Reinsdorf building a new ballpark in his lifetime and I don't want him to because he'll f*** it up

Why couldn’t it be these guys?

for reference, Edgar Quero is ranked 8 spots lower than Jones on MLB.com's top 100 list. Do you think 2 years of Cease is worth roughly the same as half a season of Giolito? Something tells me it isn't "self-sabotage" to want to get more in return for Cease than Giolito. If not, keep him.

this twitter guy doesn't know what he's talking about and I don't think anybody cares what he thinks. lol, he thinks it's "self-sabotage" to ask for a mid 70s prospect in return for Cease? I'd rather just keep him than get less than that.

Bauer started off slow, got sent to the minors, then performed pretty well the rest of the season. For context, his teammate was Imanaga Shota and they both performed similarly but Imanaga is 2 years younger. Imanaga had a tick higher ERA but lower WHIP and I would assume FIP but I can't find that calculation and don't know what constant they would use for NPB. Imanaga had an absurd 7.5 K to BB ratio while Bauer had a still good 4.6. Imanaga is projected, I think, to give up a lot of homers and his HR rate wasn't great last season, 1.0 HR/9 in a league that doesn't hit a ton of homers and he gave up 3 more than Bauer in 3 more innings pitched (18 vs 15). Bauer was an above average starter in NPB, but I expected more out of him. He didn't dominate by any stretch of the imagination. So even if Bauer wasn't a clubhouse distraction and an abuser, his market value is probably lower than the $13.25mil AAV Imanaga is being paid and is, likely at best, a 4th starter, probably worse than Clevinger at this point and no team is looking to sign Clevinger it would appear. So I bet he could pitch effectively in the MLB, but not at a very high level, so I don't see why any team would take on his baggage and still pending sexual assault case in Arizona. I think if Bauer tried in any way to seek atonement or to grow up finally at age 32, I might expect a team to sign him. But he's still the same manchild he's always been and a sexual deviant and not nearly talented enough anymore to make up for it. I wouldn't trust the rumor about the Yankees signing him, I think it's a distraction to force the Sox's hand on a Cease trade or lower Snell's value.

I think part of the issue with ballpark construction is that only one firm builds all of them, HOK/Populous. Teams do not want to depart from a strategy that is making them plenty of money and HOK makes the cookie cutter model a little more efficient each time...removing amenities that aren't turning a large profit and replacing them with more nostalgia-based restaurants and bars. I actually disagree with the author of this article because he talks about "looking to the past" which I'm really not a great fan of nostalgia-themed architecture. I'm not an architect or engineer, but there are probably some cutting edge ideas they could have to create truly unique ballparks rather than being derivative...Fenway and Wrigley look the way they do for practical reasons due to constraints that don't really exist anymore. A new Comiskey wouldn't be limited by needing to be nestled into the grid, their present site is gigantic and they will definitely replace the parking lots with "amenities" if they choose to build the new park there. There are a few other sites too, I still like the idea of Soldier Field being converted into a ballpark if the Bears leave. You can have your nostalgia factor and have it actually make sense rather than constructing something brand new in 2030 to look like it's from 1914. That being said, there is a "new era" of ballpark construction as seen by Truist and Globe Life, the KC Royals and Mets proposals and to a lesser extent Busch, Target, Nats and PetCo. Which is that the ballpark is no longer the only thing, but rather the focal point of a large and comprehensive development/redevelopment. I have mixed feelings on this idea because I think I'd personally rather just have a ballpark and not an entire consumption/theme park district, yet this ballpark-led development seems to actually be beneficial to cities' coffers and could justify public investment. I've written about this on this forum before, but the area around GRF is basically a blank slate for this kind of development and I'd like for there to be some amount of public investment/democratic input on how that development proceeds; that there might be some public amenities that aren't there to help Reinsdorf (or whoever the owner will be) turn a profit but might actually be beneficial to Chicagoans, especially to kids. I think it could be a good idea to let the team do whatever it wants on all the parking lots, but also build something like a non-profit youth sports complex on the other side of I-90 on the Stateway Gardens site. I think it could be something very positive for the kids in Chicago and also re-ingratiate the team to the South Side because it feels like the Cubs do more community outreach than the Sox do down here. This could be a win-win-win for the team and the city government and our residents, and expand on this idea of "comprehensive ballpark district development" to be more than a yuppie theme park, but express the idea that a baseball team has a social role in the community beyond turning a profit. Hell, chances are that these 'free', public amenities have the affect of raising adjacent land values and helping the Sox profit and city derive tax revenue even more. I think this is something the city and team could both get on board with and it isn't just a pipedream.

I root for Bellinger because we went to high school together and I like to joke that he's the reason I stopped playing baseball because he did everything I did on the field, left-handed outfielder/first baseman, only he did it 100 times better.? Still, I think it would be a mistake to sign him to the contract he's likely to receive. I wouldn't mind a high AAV contract for 3 years and with team options for a 4th and 5th year but I don't think he's the best fit on this team. His best value is in center field and we already have a center fielder. I think the risk is too high of having two corner outfielders who can't hit for power when ideally that's where you might want to put some sluggers, especially considering our first baseman doesn't really hit for power. Maybe he can continue to bat .300 and hit 25 home runs, but I think it's risky. still, wouldn't be unhappy if the Sox signed him.

he said the same thing when he was trying to get out of his NPB contract too lol. I didn't realize slaves got $2.7 million signing bonuses when they started working at the plantations. What a silly thing to say especially given the context, he sped through the minors and there was good reason he stayed at A+ so long. I read an interview the other day with Andy Barkett from Jan 2023 about Colas, Benintendi and Romy. He said this: “(Winston-Salem Dash manager) Lorenzo (Bundy) did an amazing job,” Barkett said. “Holding him (Oscar) accountable to the point of ‘Do you want to go to Double A? Do you want to move up? Well, you need to do this every day.’ (Colás) would come in his office after every game, and they would go over a checklist. ‘Did you do this today? Did you do this today?’ It wasn’t about getting two hits. It was like, ‘Did you go to the cage and prepare? Did you do your outfield work?’” It seems to jive with the lack of preparation and poor fundamentals he was criticized for on the major league team, that he stayed in A+ so long because he wasn't taking the necessary steps to improve into a major league player. I hope this past season was a wakeup call for him. Also, didn't realize til now that Barkett was fired. Does anyone know who they replaced him with?

that hat is awesome. I regret not attending the game and I can't find it for sale anywhere.

well, Tim did say “I kind of feel like today’s Jackie Robinson. That’s huge to say. But it’s cool, man, because he changed the game, and I feel like I’m getting to a point to where I need to change the game.” which is hilariously naïve and deserving of mockery, he's nothing like Jackie Robinson. so it doesn't surprise that a s%*#-starter like Donaldson would be the one to say it but people were acting like he burned a cross on TA's front lawn.

Isn't it $11mil AAV? That seems reasonable for a 27-year-old closer if he fails as a starter (not that he would take that role away from Doval) and I agree with you that SFG would be the team to help him with his command issues. Whether or not his body can hold up or still throw 100mph as a starter is a different question. I like these kinds of risky moves though.

Those guys are on other teams though. Donaldson is actually who I was thinking about, the whole team had Tim’s back on that even though I don’t think Donaldson actually said anything particularly bad. Donaldson himself seems like he has a history of being a bad teammate actually. Not sure what you’re referring to regarding the Royals.

yeah I never got the impression that he's a bad teammate or anything, actually the opposite, he simply sucked at baseball last year. and he behaves in a way that rubs some fans the wrong way. the only "clubhouse issue" I can recall is that rumor about a conflict with Groundball where Tim seemed to be in the right.

very detailed post and some great information here, thanks for sharing. Oscar is clearly talented but seems like a knucklehead, and old enough that he should be expressing better judgement. That's so weird and kind of funny about Clevinger's ex, you'd think a professional athlete could attract female attention without resorting to "liking" his teammate's ex's social media posts especially in consideration of everything that transpired between her and Clev. Pretty gross honestly and seems like the sort of thing that creates bad blood in a clubhouse. It sort of reminds me how Eury Perez and lots of other MLB players were "liking" the posts of Wander Franco's abuse victim. Like, why can these guys not find a girlfriend the normal way like everyone else in history has done? What is it about the zoomer mentality that you must find a girlfriend over the internet and "sliding into the DMs"? I think the culture problem was a big deal the past couple of seasons and really impacted the team's performance which is why I like the signing of Maldonado. He's a winner, mature and vocal in the clubhouse and best of all he speaks Spanish. I hope he can make an impression on guys like Colas, Eloy, Moncada.

I tend to agree with your post, but if they are trying to sign an outfielder in free agency to replace Colas, those are the two guys left I'd look at on one year deals. Kiermaier and Bader would've been my first two choices, but I get the impression we're not signing an outfielder for actual money. But yeah I'd rather it be Colas starting or a potential return from Cease, I'd actually love to watch Kelenic on the Sox if Atlanta forked up the right price, he seems like a prototypical right fielder, he's a good enough defender and has a cannon for an arm.

no way this guy starts, but he's not completely useless as a 5th outfielder or injury replacement. he walks at a respectable clip and doesn't strike out much. he was actually pretty good with the cubs and not god awful with the Mets. for reference, he produced as much WAR as Benintendi last season despite having 1/4 the amount of plate appearances. I think they gotta roll with Oscar though unless they acquire someone who is actually good to play in right. I like Gallo or Michael A Taylor in free agency but would still prefer to see Colas or someone gotten back in a Cease trade.

prospects for prospects is always interesting and it seems like a good trade for both teams. Cubs get a proper slugger to play 1b and get some help for their tragic bullpen while the Dodgers had no spot for Busch and now have a very talented LHP prospect. I like it better for the Dodgers because I don't think the Cubs are still all that competitive and they should've leaned into acquiring more prospects for Bellinger instead of trying to make a run for the postseason.

Chapman had a fine season last year after a disastrous 2022 where he clearly was a clubhouse cancer. there's good reason he was still available in January and signed with the Royals. I agreed with you that he was clearly the best free agent option, but there were several guys already on the team that were better options to replace Liam, namely Graveman who had a pretty much equivalent season to Chapman. the fact that Santos impressed just goes to show that it's pointless to spend actual money on relief pitchers. something tells me this team wouldn't have been better off if they paid one more relief pitcher.

like who? some options would've been Andrew Chafin (negative WAR) Michael Fulmer (0.2 WAR) Chad Green (negative WAR) Luke Weaver (negative WAR) Will Smith (probably the best of the bunch but still posted a 4.40 ERA and 0.3 WAR) then the rest of the relief pitchers who were still available pretty much signed minor league deals. Chapman was by far the best of the bunch. Probably should've signed some of those pitchers to minor league deals regardless, I appreciate that Getz is doing what Hahn did not by adding AAAA quality pitching depth, but none of those guys were replacing Liam's production. realistically, Santos was probably Liam's replacement. We traded for him before Liam publicly announced his cancer diagnosis, but likely after he informed the team. so it seems to me like the best decision was made out of a really terrible situation.