Chisoxfn

I pretty much agree with everything you said.

I think that is because Rams backloaded it cause they have no cap space now after paying so many guys. Hoping bears did not back load this deal.

What is the cap hit on this per year? We front loading some?

Amazing how fast this whole thing has played out! I wonder how much or how little Mack will play in week 1? Hope we don’t rush him and have some injuries show up.

Any hesitation I had went away when I learned we were getting a 2nd round picks back too. What is the condition for that 2nd raiders pick to come back to us? Based on Mack’s performance or more based upon where the bears picks fall in the draft. My main original hesitation was fact that two firsts plus handing over a massive contract is a very steep price to pay and from a depth perspective not having those first round picks the next couple years will impact our overall depth. We won’t have many picks the next two years.

One reminder...Vegas revised their Super Bowl odds from 100-1 to 60-1. Raiders purely moved to 25-1 (and no one has them as a super bowl darling). Just saying...there is still a lot to prove and there is still a decent chance we will have the worse record in the NFC north. Saying it more so that people don't jump off cliffs when we have the inherent growing pains associated with new staff + so many new faces.

How fast until Mack can play?

Long term I like the direction the arrow is headed. Now we need to hope the on field production of the team backs that statement. Sucks we don’t play in AFC. NFC is so loaded.

I meant it more that I think we are a year away from needing to make this kind of move. That said generational talent like Mack doesn’t always come available so I certainly understand the move. I just think that our offense will still have growing pains and even defensively Mack and Smith haven’t had any real practice in our system. I still view us as a 7 to 10 win team largely due to inconsistencies on offense.

I agree. I feel like this move was a year early. Taking more risk than I'd like but could certainly pan out. Hopefully it does.

I won't speak to the M's, who had stunk for a long while prior to signing Cano, but below are the Angels w/l the 10 years prior to signing Pujols. They were consistently one of the best teams in baseball and a perennial contender/playoff team. Over a 10 year window they averaged 91 wins (909-711 record over that time; +198 games over .500). Post Pujols and Hamilton they became far more mediocre (even than they had a 98 win season back in 2014 followed by an 85 win season in 2015). Year: Wins 2011: 86 2010: 80 2009: 97 2008: 100 2007: 94 2006: 89 2005: 95 2004: 92 2003: 77 2002: 99

Is anyone watching castle rock?

He sure doesn't get many guys to square him up. His stuff is so good. I think he's just becoming a better pitcher, albeit, his ability to be effectively wild is very strong (stuff is so good and his ball is so live). Of course I've long been one of Rodon's big advocates. The only thing that will prevent him from being a front of the rotation guy would be his health, followed second by his command. The nice thing is, he's pitching deeper into games, etc.

Fantastic. I love it Kopech. Keep emotions in check but some fire is good.

I disagree with this statement wholeheartedly and pivot it more to a conversation about people who played the game for an extended period of time vs. those who didn't. You are taught to take the game out of the umps hands with two strikes. What that means is, as a hitter, you are typically taught to slightly expand your zone with 2 strikes so that you don't give up an at bat. Period. Moncada looks at too many close pitches and quite frankly too many pitches in general (that are in the hitting zone). This is an approach thing and while he absolutely has a good eye, he also is not near aggressive enough and is going to have to look at film and come up with an adjusted strategy. The entire Sox offensive coaching staff is essentially blasting Moncada for not being aggressive and it goes back to this basic concept that is essentially grounded in baseball players heads from a young age. And even as strike out numbers amount, the reason people are striking out a lot more isn't because they don't swing with 2 strikes and let strikes go looking...its cause they swing as hard as they can every damn time (vs. shifting an approach with 2 strikes to be more contact specific...look for the base hit vs. the HR).

Fantastic post (and a first post too). Welcome to the board and completely agree with everything you said, as well as what Sir has articulated.

Nah..he was waiting for me to make my post...damn, had I known that I would have posted about Smith missing the entire preseason a month ago.

It seems pretty likely this holdout is going the whole off-season and will probably end right before the regular season (when guys start actually losing money).

If the Sox do not intend to call them up, than it was a big PR gaffe for Getz to say anything at all.

I've been a proponent of bringing up Eloy (Kopech I am indifferent on and probably lean towards holding him back for the extra year of controls) but fully agree with your statement. If you are going to do it with Eloy...you do it now...not 2 weeks from now (they should have done it 2 weeks ago to be honest or at least right after the deadline). The longer we go, the worse the idea of losing a year of control becomes (for what grows to be much more inconsequential development time).

Yep; Yoan had such a high ranking because of his "FV". I am curious if at some point the Sox will be able to work out an extension for him (probably hard to do since Yoan already got paid). I think Yoan is a critical part to the rebuild...if he becomes a star, I'll feel better about everything...I still think he ends up being a very good player and I think he'll be the type of guy who once the switch "flips"...he'll just start crushing it. I actually think at some point his K-rate is going to drop significantly (don't ask me why...I just think he has too good of overall tools (quick hands and great eye) that he can't possibly strike out at this clip his whole career (and no I have zero stats to back that up).

The random Trout comparisons (re: Moncada) have to stop. Trout is quite possibly the best position player to ever play the game (or at least is in that debate thus far in his career). Odds of Moncada being better or equivalent to Trout are probably as good as odds of me winning the powerball (slim to none). The reality is Moncada has upside and could emerge to be an elite player but he has a long ways to go. I'm not going to get worked up over game-to-game splits, but in general, I'd say 2018 has been a pretty big dissapointment thus far for Yoan. That said, he has flashed streaks that show his potential but far too often he has shown the rawness we saw in the minors (and which should have been every hint any of us needed that it would take time for him to adjust (and if he couldn't adjust...he had real flaws that could severely hinder his ability to reach his potential). The major bright side for Yoan is that by and large he's gotten a lot of at bats and while I'm hoping he finishes the season strong...he should have enough experience now to be able to work on some things in the off-season and take major steps forward in 2019. Development is not always linear and we should remember that when we talk the "service time" game with Kopech / Jimenez....we can't just hold them back and think it means we get an extra "year" of greatness...more likely reality is we are just pushing out a "year" of growing pains and natural development those players need. If we intend to contend in 2020, it would be nice to give those guys 1.5 (or a little less than 1.5 years) years to get their feet wet before that season (especially since next year other new guys would be coming up in need of development time).

Why does Bezos being worth an absurd amount of money prove that the game is rigged? I don't believe he was raised in an affluent setting so it isn't like he had everything handed to him? His mom had him as a teenager, was divorced a year later, remarried to a cuban immigrant when he was 4? Last I looked Bezos was an entrepeneur who created a business that has become extremely successful. We can debate the goods vs. bads of amazon (as it obviously has put many competitors out of business), but the Company has made a lot of money and employees a heck of a lot of people and in general has driven major shifts in our culture (the whole concept of procuring goods has shifted due to amazon). This whole article reeks of a push towards socialism (vs. capitalism). One constant has been the consistent FAILURE of socialism...yet we have so many pushing for it vs. focusing on ways to better prepare our workforce and population to be independent with the right skills and talents to succeed & adapt in this modern economy and drive value.

The one thing about Covey is...when he is on, his stuff is pretty damn good. I think he's the type of guy, given our options in the rotation / pen, that you keep giving developmental innings to. But as DA said, the fact that he struggles with runners on is not a good thing (in terms of being able to be a reliever). I wonder if he is tipping pitches or something else or if it really is a mechanics issue out of the stretch.

Agree with all of these points; That said, we should probably take last years record and reduce it by a good number of games to reflect the loss of Mirotic (without his run we aren't anywhere near if you take away that run with Mirotic, they win a heck of a lot less games. So while they get all those guys back, the loss of Mirotic (for part of the season) probably is worth a reduction in 5-7 wins (kind of puts us around 20 wins)...than you build it back from there based upon all the factors you outlined. Fully agree with your thoughts though.