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I'm with you on Baldwin. I just love the underdog everyone keeps wanting to pencil into a superutility role. Screw that, we need more speed , lefties (SH) ,OF's & power. The defense will get better with more reps and coaches in his ears.

I just think its just a way to keep things civil. You're blowing it out of proportion putting words in their mouths. What's someone like Getz or anyone going to say to angry fans ? Getz can't admit the real truth even if many fans already know it but it took them longer enough. "JR no longer has any interest in spending much money on the 26 man roster because he's preparing the team to be sold and rather his sons get more millions. Period end of story. I'm sorry. We're doing what we can right now to improve our player development and we believe we are making significant strides in building a solid foundation with what little we do get. I know this is not ideal waiting for an old man to die so new ownership can spend more on the on-field product. Please dont kill me. Thank you. "

I know but West Eddy mentioned mop up innings in the spring for any pitcher who hadnt bought a ticket to Japan or Korea yet.

Dayan Viciedo too.

Berroa should be pitching in the spring right ? He's been off the longest with his TJ surgery .

(Free) Agent Kay signs with Men In Black 😋

I meant the trade market not being strong thats why I said unless his stuff and numbers are better than expected which we won't know until he pitches in MLB. I also meant surprised the SOX signed any player to a multi year deal because of a possible strike and JR maybe not wanting to pay much for players not to play. But I don't know what the CBA says about payment during a strike .

Surprised a multiyear contract but with any amount of success he'll be gone at the deadline.But as we saw with Fedde, the market isn't strong for these comeback types. He'll have to be outstanding with better than expected stuff to be in demand.

Tanner McDougal may get a shot before any of the TJ starters if he can pitch well in the minors if he starts the year in AAA. He pitched 113 innings last year and could make some Top 100 lists.

4 division titles in 18 years, 3 of which didnt result in advancing to the next round and 1 year in 94 that JR sabotaged his own team's shot at a championship and the white flag trade in 97.

Spare me your gibberish. As always you stretch the truth as if it was made of rubber. 5 paragraph personal attack ? I disagree with assessment of the leadership of this franchise during JRs ownership and Getz ' so far, brief time as GM and brief time spend with multiple bosses and no real power in his previous role because of the lack of a foundation that JR , Hahn or Kenny Williams failed to build. It's a baseball argument pure and simple covering many many years that cannot be done in any short way that I am aware. He thinks Getz sucks, I do not and gave sound reasons as to why not and Lip said as much. I hold no animosity towards him . I respect Lip for all he has done as a Sox historian. He poured his heart and soul into covering a team he loved and they let him down and like any fan he has a limited knowledge of the whole truth as do I which is why I find it difficult to scapegoat anyone but the guy at the top. I'm sorry I cant create narratives out of thin air that supports the whole everything Sox related sucks routine like you do. You has quite the knack for fiction.

All money thrown away on his acquisitions While other small market teams fare better ? This is rather hard to prove don't you think ? How much did he get and where did it go especially in 2024 and on who was it spend and please compare to the same for other small market teams. Not only player spending but please also enlighten me on new front office hirees . equipment, computers, data, scouts and anything else all those teams and the Sox did. Was there any way whatsoever it was a signifcant enough amount in 2024 to prevent another 100 loss season and set a new course for the franchise ? Maybe he chose to spend on restructuring the foundation . You speak as if contention was a possibility while they were in tear down mode in the 1st full year of the rebuild under an owner planning nothing except lining his sons pockets after his death. Did you belive Jerry's horseshit claim that he hired Getz to turn things around as quickly ? You were conned.Trusting JR was always a con as far as establishing a winning franchise with a foundation of a good farm system and modern tactics and data management. You and I both know he cared nothing about developing prospects or the DR which provided more talent than any other foreign country to the MLB talent pool. As far as that bad taste in your mouth and representing all those sharing that bad taste, take it up with Jerry. Your " source naming Getz as Brutus stabbing muliple Caesars in the back in the Sox Ides of July was likely one of those who Getz fired. People with axes to grind always seek out a sympathetic voice. JR is the villain here for over 40 years. Spending on player payroll for a few yesrs while ignoring the foundation may have been something he thought was he had to do but it was misguided except for the Miracle of 2005. He built a house of cards that had a quick rise and a quick fall.

And Burke pitched 134 innings with a 4.22 ERA in his rookie season. It's not unheard of for pitchers to improve. 160 innings should be no problem for him if he can have some consistency.

Frankly Id rather give Baldwin a chance to show improvement as an OF and see how many HRs he can hit. Hes got enough speed to be a decent OF . He just needs to learn you can't be casual out there .Needs to think ahead and focus concentration. Baldwin LF Braden Montgomery RF asap.

I dont understand you Lip. That 25 year period from 1981-2006 you say earned JR the benefit of the doubt. Why ? He's a big market owner playing in a division with small market teams. How many years during that time did the Sox win playoffs rounds ? 1 year. Thats it . 2005 won all 3 rounds to win the World Series. Reinsdorf is the carrot dangler by his own admission. Anyone working under him has had their hands tied behind their backs because of his meddling. Your tirade about Getz is especially troubling. Were there politics involved in hiring Getz? Probably but all JR saw was a cheap, inexperience option who would have to work under him while he was in estate planning mode and stripping down the Sox for his eventual successor to help pay off debts so his sons could make as much as possible after he died and the sale to the Ishbia's becomes final. I highly doubt Getz held much sway over JR. Any politicing Getz did JR probably wanted to stay in house , hire cheap and inexperienced all along. Do you honestly think any GM hired by JR could have not sucked ? Seriously under the circumstances with JR, Hahn and Williams in charge do you think Getz had any real decision making power before he became GM ? After he became GM has he got any money to alter the 26 man roster drastically in any way ? Some would say yes he drastically altered in 2024 but the majority of the damage was already done before he was named GM. Many of the changes he's made are mostly new hires for modernizing communication, culture and player development which can be done with funds that previously would be put into player payroll which is why player development has sucked under JR without any organisational philosophy reflected in the people you hire. What Getz has done to modernize may not be felt for years in regards to reestablishing international ties to the DR and Asia. All this is being done for the new owner's benefit and to establish a sound structural base and the future success of the franchise. The Crochet trade so far is working out very well. The Rule 5 draft last year might be the best one in it's history . They're using their new tools and hires to help with mechanics and Colson Montgomery & Crochet were 2 prime examples. If Getz sucks because he was put in a no win situation and he hasnt put the Sox in the playoffs in his 2 full years as GM of a franchise that was in a coma when he was hired then so be it. But now the patient is no longer in a coma and and will have a new "Steward" soon to nurse it back to full health. I've said it before but most podcasters doing Sox content do not continue to have the jaded, jaundiced viewpoint that you and others here on Tox-Talk do towards Getz. He's making an honest effort with pitiful resources to put the franchise in a position to do some good even if he gets fired under new Stewardship. Why aren't you on any of these podcasts ? You're not an unknown. Why aren't these podcasters contributing members on Tox-Talk ? Sox fans belittle the Sox more and better than any Cub fans do. James Fox used to contribute more than he does now because he's usually pretty fair but I think he's found it increasingly difficult to say much of anything positive because of backlash against it here. If I'm wrong maybe he'll say so.

I don't think there will be any multi year deals signed this year with the Sox. It would surprise me if there was one.

Way too late for that. That was just JR stating the rules of supply/demand. He never said he was ever going to pay top market value for top players.

Youre easily one of my favorite posters. Your opinions are always spot on and you probably hold your tongue on a lot of the BS you read here. I'm too much of a Sox supporter to see Sox fans constantly trashing the team like this was a Cubs forum. While I don 't buy into the Sox /Cubs fans fighting I do acknowledge the animosity is there. I understand there's a lot to be critical of but the amount of butt hurt has far surpassed anything I thought grown men could cry about over a baseball team . It's like a custody battle , just irrational biases against something you once professed love for but will coming crawling back to eventually. Sox podcasters and national media are more fair. I just saw a Baseball America Podcast with JJ Cooper & Geoff Pontes pontificating over the state of the Sox rebuild. And while they arent sure who will be part of the core they they were as fair as possible on seeing the youngsters flaws and what could derail or propel them forward. Funny thing was I dont think they mentioned the Ishbia's coming ownership which is perhaps the biggest reason to think the Sox finally could have an owner willing to play with the big boys. Jj Cooper thought Getz was really trying to modernize. If Getz can just keep the team developing prospects and pushing the win numbers forward for the next few years the Sox just might be in a position for Ishbia to come in with a flourish of spending to push the Sox from a near or slightly over . .500 team to a team that can win the division consistently. The fans from 20-50 years old may get to see a new stadium and a pretty good modern team that supports the farm and 26 man roster with equal gusto .

I was responding to a Caulfield post which I quoted so you should know what Im talking about. Maybe try reading what he said to elicit my response. These are handshake agreements. There is no money exchanged officially and anything else is a direct violation of MLB rules until there is a signature on a contract at the age they can sign which I believe is 16.

I was talking about the naysayers in general here more than I was Caulfield. Soxtalk in general does not chant "Development is not linear " over and over as a calming mantra. Future Sox was the one place in Soxtalk where more patient minds assembled until the rot invaded there too. One person got pissed when it was me not a moderator who reminded them of that but mods overlook people who are constantly kissing their ass and on the same wavelength as they are. Caulfield is so polite that I cant really be too hard on his wild theories like speculating Getz will give prospects he's acquired more chances than other prospects when theres been no indications so far of that. You'd think as an educator he'd be more CNN than TMZ. If you hire a bunch of coaches and implement data as a major tool for development and strive to make decision making more collaborative as a collective hive then his ego shouldnt be a factor. I dont think its Utopia but its not a KW or Hahn "multiple championships" ego as far as I can tell atm. I think higher draft picks will get more leeway than lower ones like resigning rather than non tendering Vaughn. That's fairly typical when you suck to give high draft picks a lot of rope.

Do you actually worry that far ahead about the position players and their abilities ? You're not leaving room for surprises . It's boring in your crystal ball. I know the Sox reality with JR makes for a boring off season but player development in season are always very controversial topics when it pits the hopeless against the hopeful. There's always enough for everybody to be right on at least 1 player per year since most prospects fail. So there will always be more hopeless people saying how they wish they were wrong but just playing the odds that failures far outnumber successes so being a pessimist ensures being right more often and therefore a smarter fan. Being an Eeyore is good for ones ego I guess.

Soxtalk needs to talk about something other than just nicknames for bad players. It may take till the ownership change to actually see supplementing our prospects with impact talent through free agency. JR isnt going to pay for that now. The Sox are a lame duck team waiting for the impact of new structural changes to start paying dividends maybe a year or 2 before the Ishbia's take over. It's a boring waiting game now every off season. Prospect and young players watch has to wait til the season starts.

It is what it is. Just build the foundation and opening the avenues for acquistions home and abroad and with more open paths for talent acquisition in the DR and perhaps Asia too, then results for those efforts will start bearing fruit in a few years. By the time the Ishbia's take over there should be trickles of higher end talent from the DR making its way through the farm system. This never was going to be a fast rebuild. JR provided enough money for Getz to build a better foundation and infrastructure and a winning culture in the minors. That's the complete opposite of all his other years as owner when the focus was on the 26 man roster. Maybe that will translate to being much more competive in the division once theres also money to spend on the 26. There's no reason that the Sox can't make the playoffs on a more consistent basis in a division filled with small market teams with the Ishbias than they did under JR's miserly ownership. It's difficult for the fans because we cheer for the 26 man roster. We don't cheer for new coaches or minor leagues championships, new computers and software ,new scouts and front office personnel , slo mo cameras, new DR facilities. and Trajekt machines. The Sox haved shared those plans with the fanbase and it gets a collective sigh of "Yeah right we've heard BS like this before." Unless the changes result in consistent appearances in the playoffs we're arent interested because we have no idea how long just 1 playoff appearance will take. All we want to hear about is how big is the player payroll going to be. What else could they possibly share with the fans that's not obvious already ? Do you really think they'd hold a press conference to say the Sox aren't ever going to add any significant amount of money to player payroll while JR is still the owner.

Do you have figures to back up your wild claim? Kind of hard to spend on the 2026 and 2027 rosters right now without having players with multi year contracts but rest assured they will have 26 players in each year making at the very least the MLB minimum of $760K x 26 =$19,760,000 in 2026 so x 2 for 2027 would be another roughly $20M . So were looking at a minimum of close to $40M that will be spent in 2026 and 2027 ( a strike may change the figures) on the MLB rosters and likely much more since all 26 players will not be making minimum wages. What's your figures for international spending so far on guys years away. Give me players names that have already received money from the Sox for the 2026 through 2030 international classes along with the amounts they have received. .Officially the Sox can't even say they've reached agreements let alone provide monetary amounts yet you can ?

We have no idea if anyone is ace quality until it happens. We also have no idea if any of the hitting prospects will last as quality MLB hitters. As I have already stated its nearly impossible to field a successful team with just prospects without money which the Sox arent going to get from JR, without competitive balance help, which they dont qualify for , and to top it all off they will need either a new stadium or a new lease on the Rate. The Sox can't operate like a small market team because they aren't one. They don't get the same benefits as them. Getz' only job now is to pave the runway for the ownership change and not f*** things up. Just help the prospects develop and that's what he's trying to do. So far he's been able to get some results with Colson Montgomery ,Shane Smith , the Crochet trade ,made some good draft picks. He's garbage picking other arms and bats looking to develop talent lost in roster shuffles . After bottoming out as he was feeling his way through the mess I wonder if he had talks with Ishbia as well as JR about a prudent course of action to do as well as possible without much financial help. The Ishbia's seem like they want to be the next owners of the Sox but JR seems like he is calling the shots making sure his sons reap as much of a windfall as possible and leaving the Ishbia's with a stripped down franchise. But they accepted the terms so it would be great if they just let it play out and they eventually become the new owners. In the meantime nothing much happens while we all keep our eyes on the prospects. Anothe year like last year with guys like Colson , Shane Smith, Teel, Quero, Meidroth , Vasil, Vargas, Sosa Baldwin, Burke, Grant Taylor and Wikelman Gonzalez all having varying degrees of success when many had given up some of them for dead would go a long way toward fielding a team that can play more competitve baseball . Further improvement from the guys mentioned above and significant development of others could lead to another 10-20 game improvement. 75-80 wins may not seem like much but its not going backwards and brings us another year closer to new ownership and more prospects making their way up the ladder. We should get another top prospect no matter how the draft lottery shakes out in July. As much as people don't like veterans taking playing time from young players it appears to have worked well in 2025. Just eased some of them in without much pressure . Veterans performing adequately and providing an example of how to be good team mates and support each other made for a good culture in the clubhouse. Robert and Montgomery seemed to have a good bond. Lots of good stuff going on when you want to open your eyes to it. Hope is better than despair isn't it ? It's not exactly life and death . No reason for anyone to have to make up stuff to try to make everything about the Sox seem incompetent and support that narrative. Not every trades holds any significance no matter how you dissect it immediately.Things constantly change . Colson went from a great hope to a great disappointment to a great hope again. Some of us were right then wrong then right again. And we could still end up wrong again. We couldnt even speculate on Shane Smith's development because he was a Brewer prospect until he was a Rule 5 pick who became our All-Star representative while he was faltering only to rise again. This is one crazy wild , rollercoaster ride isn't it ? Sosa, Vargas, Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, Grant Taylor, Meidroth all have seen their share of time on that ride too.