Chisoxfn

This guy is not good. A nothing burger signing.

With summer league in flight time to get a new thread and away from that old cursed thread

Let’s go!!! Time for training camp to begin!!!

Awesome - I think it’s time for a new thread with training camp starting.

Or they want to draw a fine line and don't want other team(s) agents think the Sox have $2M sitting aside that might impact their leverage in dialogue.

That has always been my view point.

I have a sneaky suspicion we will see change on the Paddy front soon.

THis - that is why I always assumed you see more of those big reaches come now (where you might take 2 stabs knowing you maybe get 1). Probably more so this year vs. past years given it seems like across the board the high schoolers have a bit of unrealistic expectations (or at least relative to what the MLB teams are willing to do). Probably a lot to still figure out related to NIL / transfer windows.

I think the difference is - Witt was part of a young nucleus all coming together where as the Sox just aren't there, hence you have to hit a hard reset and start getting the depth where it needs to be and guys aligned on timelines....than you can start playing in free agency, etc. With that said - a hard reset done right will get them in a good spot - but to really turn the corner they will have to be much better developing from within and managing the roster construction in-line with JR's free agent rules. This means they have to operate at times like the Rays and trade a guy a year early because you know you won't keep them and also be much better where they do play in free agency. As a general rule of thumb - I think the Sox front office should spend more money on buying international free agent $$$ and acquire draft picks where they can (basically increase their chances on cheap players), invest in talent development, and than don't assume JR is going to let you go 10yr on some $300M guy, which means don't plan on it - but be ready to jump in if a market isn't there to go big money on shorter-term deals (think of Cody a year ago to the Cubs type of moves) that you might get JR to jump at (and when those deals hit - the club has to be ready to move them a bit early to keep building up capital and maintaining it). Best bet at buying guys is going to be in trade market (vs. major free agent deals). Be smart when you buy, etc - and that also means they have to be successful drafting, international free agency, and on development front. I'm not expecting them to make the above all happen - cause I just assume somehow they won't - but I still go back to, as bad as the on field product is (and as much as Getz was at least part of the problem on development where I wouldn't have hired him myself) - thus far I still don't have any major issues with what he has done in a year 1 of a rebuild (with exception that I'm not big on Grifol - but I also get it - sometimes just let the guy run them into the ground).

Great summer league play doesn't mean much - but being awful in summer league play is usually a bad sign. Matas has certainly had his flashes of positives. You can see he is raw and has a lot of work on - but you can also see some projectible upside in him.

Love what they did with first 3 picks. Hagen was my favorite pitcher in draft and is going to be a stud if he stays healthy.

I think of it - he has great bat to ball skills, despite an aggressive approach, which in fairness could be because guys in college don't want to throw anything near the plate so he had to adapt and could still hammer it. Can he dial it in, who knows. Than again - Vladdy was one of the most aggressive hitters ever with a cannon in the outfield. Could Cags be that? I don't know - but I like some of his high end tools enough. Are Sox the org to harness some of those weaknesses, probably not - but 2 of those tools are special (power and arm). And I go back to - lets see if he can play in the outfield.

Robert has avg'd very good WAR over past 4 years so I don't see high risk there either. Some risk - but also high degree upside as well. I think Bmags showed he is Top 5 in WAR at his respective position since 2020 (or 2021). That includes missing time etc.

I would be exstatic if he was the headliner in a Crochet or Robert deal. At this point I presume Crochet is getting the most value.

I hope Lavine has a good couple of months - Bulls can than extra some value for him. I don't expect they will be very good - I don't think 25 win bad, but I don't think they are a 40 win team as I do think the loss of Caruso and Demar is pretty big - but I definitely can see some scenarios where they still end up as a 35-40 win team - but even than - if they are doing that and its because young players are performing, you can still move Zach and Vuc ideally to free up cap space and than leverage cap space and hopefully improving young(er) players to continue to retool (and by dealing those 2 ensure you are ideally getting a top 6 pick in what appears to be a draft that projects to have a number of #1/#2 caliber players in the draft (i.e., multiple guys in this draft would be #1 or #2 picks in a typical draft). That is based upon what I've at least read - who knows whether that holds true following the college season.

In fairness - my 9 year old absolutely loves the call. When he first heard it - it was just a replay while driving in the car and he was laughing and smiling so hard at it (in a good way).

I was happy to see that. He still ended up coming in and pinch hitting though. But at least they got him an off day. Just seems like given he hasn't been on all cylinders and came back from an injury (and team is you know way out of contention) that they would have been a bit more prudent on his rest / load. And this is coming from someone who isn't like some huge "load management" person.

I hope we see basically a deadline bump and teams like Phillies and Mariners who have aggressive GM's basically play up Robert's price tag. Hopefully Robert helps the cause by playing well down the stretch. I have actually been surprised Sox haven't given him some rest days as I would have sprinkled some in just knowing he came back from that injury and it takes time to get timing back, etc. Good thing is he has shown the massive power still.

I personally think for once this is a short sighted view by scouts. The guy is a decent athlete with a cannon who has spent a lot of time honing 2 crafts - pitching and hitting. If he isn't pitching in the minors - than allowing a good athlete to invest the time to become a corner outfielder, in my opinion, is 100% worth it. If it doesn't work in the minors - fine, than adjust - but I think if I were to draft him - I'd do it thinking his bat is absolutely plus plus, but also at least throwing some chips out there that I'll let him learn the outfield (this isn't like a Vaughn who had basically zero plus outfield tools, heck, zero break-even outfield tools). The other way you draft him - is you love his bat and in that case, why not see if he can develop as well into a premium relief type prospect (but use him in a select manner - so you know he's only going 2-3 times per week). As I think the Shoehei rule gives some protection to him to stay at DH once he comes out (but I may be wrong).

Please please let the Bulls win the lottery and get Cooper. Seeing what he did in USA practice at 17 is unreal. I get it - it’s just practice - but talk about a statement!

My point is - they absolutely could have just kept Barnes and gotten the conditional pick - there was no need for the Spurs to be involved (other than the Bulls ownership or front office didn't want the cash). Now if they actually think they can use the TPE to get some assets at a later date or as a 3rd party facilitator - fine by me, but given past precedent with JR - call me skeptical.

I really think only way a trade happens is 2 fold: 1) Getz just decides he wants to move him and takes a much lower offer than he would have gotten last year 2) Robert starts to really put together a consistent 2-3 week run from here on out and closer to deadline teams see he is healthier and are willing to look past his early struggles to pay something much closer (not the same) as what Robert would have gotten last offseason. I am hoping #2 happens and I am not supportive of #1 as I think at some point Scenario #2 happens and that is when you should extract value for Robert.

Spurs twice - getting a FRP from Bulls and there is a 50% chance at some point in next 3 years Bulls fall into spot where they give up that pick. And again Spurs getting a pick swap for taking on Harrison Barnes. It is out in 2031 - so absolutely a chance that in 2031 Spurs are worse than Kings and it is worth nothing or two teams are in same boat -> but also a non zero chance that Kings are in middle of yet another rebuild at that point and Spurs being who they are a playoff team so Spurs end up with a pretty damn good pick just for being a faciltator. To me any one move in isolation may have a lower probability in terms of the outcome - but the upside in the pick the Spurs got from the Kings is massive (it could be a top 3 pick). You than make 5 or 6 of those moves in a 2-3 year window and you end up improving your probability / scenarios. Now in fairness - maybe Bulls will do exactly that and they think use TPE in-season or later in off-season will drive a better return than an unprotected pick swap out in 2031 (or whenever it is). But that swap is exponentially more valuable than what the Bulls got in terms of 2 2nd round picks and some cash plus a player who is going to be a back end rotation player at best.

I stand corrected - not a good deal. Bulls are going to suck for next year or two and they could have gotten an unprotected pick swap out in 2031 and were to cheap to buy it by taking on Barnes. They could have done other things to get under tax and Barnes is a solid vet who you could keep around for the season or until deadline or keep for a year and use when he becomes an expiring. They better leverage that tpe they got to facilitate some future asset cause getting an unprotected pick from an org like the Kings who has historically been bad is by far the best asset in the entire sign and trade (sans Demar).

We can all agree they should have done this last offseason…would have been a far better start to offseason, but thus far this offseason I can’t really argue much.