CaliSoxFanViaSWside

If Acuna turns into a productive player the end result will be much more important than some human mental errors when his answers to the same question over and over becomes rote. Its like the Murakami error. People arent used to Japanese names so the likelihood of an error becomes higher. I almost did it myself when I was typing his name it came out Munekami, a combination of his 1st and last name before I noticed it before I posted it last week. Usually I correct typing or spelling errors after the fact or edit to make a point clearer or word it better. I would be terrible on X.

Right ,it could ve come down to take your pick Mauricio or Acuna and you get the pitcher with either one and we'll pay for Robert's contract. At that point knowing he wasnt getting another $20M from JR he pulled the trigger.

Thanks, that helps my theory a bit if Mauricio was ever in trade discussions with The Mets. AI didnt spit out Mauricio's name to me as a SH. Unfortunately it gave me an incorrect answer about Williams. I was trying to put myself in Getz shoes and its likely Acuna wasnt his 1st choice since we heard they were willing to eat money. And once AI told me Williams was a SH I was like, hmm, thats a name that was speculated on as part of a trade with the Mets earlier. The Robert trade was Jan. 20 and the Williams trade was Jan 21. It all fit together but AI gave me bogus info .

Ok looks like the link didnt include Williams but I took a screenshot of what AI told me about Williams .

Damn I thought I had a pretty good working theory that worked. I asked a question about switch hitting Mets prospects and the AI answer said Williams was a switch hitter. Heres the link that told me. https://www.google.com/search?q=do+the+mets+have+any+good+switch+hitting+prospects+in+2026+%3F&oq=do+the+mets+have+any+good+switch+hitting+prospects+in+2026+%3F&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRirAjIHCAcQIRiPAjIHCAgQIRiPAtIBCTU1MDcxajBqN6gCFLACAfEFJ3JCzw4o0-HxBSdyQs8OKNPh&client=ms-android-att-us-rvc3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#lfId=ChxjMe

Probably the best way to handle it with some humor. Theres not much else he can say to how can you not know he wasnt a switch hitter that many times ? You're the one who traded for him. Any excuse will sound lame. Maybe his original ask was Carson Benge who is LH but that was quickly snuffed out . Then for a long time it was Jett Williams ,who is a switch hitter and the Sox were willing to pay down some of the Robert contract to get him. However Williams was traded in the Freddy Peralta trade . Jan. 21. So Acuna was probably his 3rd choice Maybe Williams as a SH got stuck in his head because Williams was who he wanted for the longest period of time but they settled on Acuna+ and no salary payout. He can't really say Acuna was his 3rd choice. You just take the $20M and reinvest it quickly in other players. He's juggling a lot of possible trade candidates in his head at all times.

There goes all the lefthanded hitting runway Acuna was going to get.

I had a feeling Id be hearing from you if I posted about it.🙂

I see parallels to the 1990 team and the 2026 Sox. I know the Sox were worse in 2025 than 1989 . Torborg was in his 2nd year of managing the Sox like Venable is now . Lots of young guys who all pulled for each other. Some young guys just coming into their own. I was begging in my head for KW to bring up Frank Thomas earlier like wtf are you waiting for ? Frank was killing it in Birmingham putting up absurd numbers but he waited until August and then he put up absurd numbers with the Sox in 60 games.

I meant in terms of perhaps getting Canning or making a trade for a young MLB ready arm not the retreads. There's giving guys runway like Acuna , I'm just not sure that runway includes the ability to keep 2 guys for a full season who last pitched in A+ . That's miles of runway.

Guess that depends on how Paez and Alberto look so can carry a lot of guys in ST and if those Rule 5 guys just dont make a great impression they both might be returned. Even if Paez is already in the Sox Top 15 prospects its extremely difficult to make the jump from A+ for either of those guys.

I recently watched the Jeff Torborg documentary, A Wonderful Baseball Life ,made by the same people that brought you The Last Comiskey 3 part series on Youtube. It's so good along with Part 3 of the Last Comiskey which focused on the incredible season the 1990 Sox had in the last season of Old Comiskey park with Torborg as manager. Your meme about having a chance reminded me that the 1989 young Sox team was 69-92 and then under Torborg in 1990 won 94 games before eventually falling short of the roided up Oakland A's. So many fun memories and stories . The giant jock strap hanging from the LF upper deck was hilarious ! If you ever get cynical about culture, hearing about Torborg and the 1990 Sox might remind you that a good clubhouse along with belief and talent can go a long way. Just visit the Last Comiskey channel on youtube for some great Sox content celebrating some good times. "It reminds you of what once was good, and can be again". - James Earl Jones from Field of Dreams.

I watched it this morning. Always nice to hear from the new guys.

Benintendi isnt a prospect so no reason to use him at in an argument whatsoever. Anderson vs Colson comparison has to do with projecting Colson's less than half a season with a full career of Anderson. Colson can certainly regress, stay the same or even get better at some parts of his game and regress in others. Pretty easy to see a bright future for him . Or you can just refuse to see it. That was what your original post was about. Then you used 3 examples of players with speed and defense whose careers were models of flashes of greatness but overall wouldnt even get them in the Hall of Very Good because of injuries. Are your arguments now that you can see it because you used 3 poor examples and the Sox still have some prospects that havent graduated to MLB (Bonemer, B.Montgomery) yet and also havent even played a game for the Sox ( Carlson) or even drafted yet ( the 1:1) ? Can't count on Murakami as a core piece because he is a unique young player who many teams didnt want to take a chance on because a Schwarber outcome is strictly a 1B/DH and seems pretty unlikely . It was unlikely in the Cubs mind for Schwarber to be what he became when he was nontendered. There are people all over the country who can " see " very good futures for a lot of the rookies from last year and rookies of the future Sox. I don't think I went out on a limb to think they might end up with some pretty good players who's careers can eclipse the 3 examples you gave just by staying on the field and reaching some of their upside. 2026 will help or hurt. That's the nature of the game. Schwarber was 27 when the Cubs non-tendered him. Colson was a great prospect, then a bust , now MLB Network ranked him the 88th best player in the game based on 71 games. I understand baseball is a very difficult sport to predict the future and what we "see" can just be based on how we interpret probability ,ability, projectability or our level of belief that since it's the Sox, so fallability is certain. Edit: Caulfield respectfully, you should probably not use your memory of TA if you arent going to fact check what you say to glorify him. No doubt his flair appealed to many fans but he did not win Multiple batting titles , he won 1. He also never stole as much as 30 bases let alone 40 when you said "30 to 40". I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt that you were just remembering wrong rather than exaggerating to make your point seem stronger.

Caulfield are you being purposefully deceptive ? You're a longtime baseball fan. You know very well that Moncada quickly lost any speed he had and defensively he failed at 2nd base. Tim Anderson may have had defensive tools but was an average at best defensive SS. Robert and Moncada were great prospects who ability was severely tarnished by their availability. Of course there are a lot of other ways to measure players. Health is a very key factor . There is much more emphasis on OBP by Getz. Moneyball has been around a long time. Moncada was the only one who could take a walk of the 3 you mentioned. So consistently available above average play over a longer period of time is a way to " turn out better" since somehow a seasoned baseball fan such as yourself has trouble seeing it. Of course power plays a big part. Having 4 or 5 guys who can consistently, year after year hit 20-30 HR is better than a few who couldnt stay on the field long enough to show it. Most of the new group just finished their rookie years and for most not even a full season .As you mentioned there are more (hitters and pitchers) coming including the 1:1 . So just try using a little imagination and projectability and it isn't so hard to see. It's not like you gave examples of consistently good players. They were sporadically good at best. And Moncada's best season came in the bouncy ball year when career years abounded.

Welcome to Tox-Talk 😉

2nd week in March is right in the middle of the WBC so no Murakami, Ohtani, Teel, Dominquez, Antonacci, Mead, Will Smith, Yamamoto, Edwin Diaz and a couple others from the Dodgers that you likely wouldnt care about missing them.

Wasn't Verlander so meh.

When are you expecting him to be called up ? And to play where ? Dependent on a Sosa trade ?

But Baldwin you project for some kind of offensive and defensive breakout so dont you think some of his OF time comes in CF to add to the cumulative WAR total ?

Murakami isnt likely to accumulate too much WAR but 40 HRs would be great. Maybe 1.5 - 2 WAR .I don't see how Acuna could cancel it out. He should be like Robert in that his defense and baserunning nets him a some WAR . I doubt he'll be a negative WAR player. Berroa is already throwing and there's some minor indication that he hit 102 already if you saw the post from @Autumn Dreamin. No one's said he could ready opening day. That seems ambitious but if he really is throwing that hard already maybe it's not so ambitious. But who knows if that clip of him throwing and the little comic character Berroa with a voice bubble with 102 in it in the bottom left corner was just a joke.