CaliSoxFanViaSWside

Ancient history. Time to stop looking backwards The future is here.

Fans dig the long ball. Sox fans will come Caulfield of Broken Dreams.

I often hear that it sucks for fans that you can't hang onto players.But that fantasy went out the window 50 years ago when Free Agency started. You can extend players before they become really good but we saw the downside of that. The Dodgers are actually good at finding and developing talent despite signing many great and very expensive free agents and winning a lot of games every year. You want to build and then continue to expand the foundation in the remaining Reinsdorf years when money for the roster is scarce. More money could show up depending on the CBA, and unexpected success of the team or if Colson Montgomery and Murakami both start the 1st couple of months on a 40 HR pace and attendance spikes up. By the time Ishbia takes over I think the Sox will be in a better place to emulate small market development teams that they have hired from like the Brewers and Tampa pay while Ishbia outspends at least the other teams in the division on a regular basis with a chance to even spend on a level the Sox have never been. For the next couple of years we'll see if the good start in 2025 for the hitting positional player prospects can continue while they work in the high profile pitching prospects that got a huge boost from nabbing Shane Smith in the Rule 5 and Tanner McDougal's big jump last year. Then Grant Taylor could move into the rotation next year if this year goes according to plan as can McDougal or maybe even half or more of this year. We need McDougal type leaps from Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz . Taylor could be a beast this year after just screwing around with a 2 seamer and finding out he could get a lot of movement on it. If McDougal can show he can command his pitches his stuff is outstanding. He is actually the closest to moving into the rotation. Christian Oppor also had a nice jump last year. Not sure where he starts the season, maybe Birmingham. He needs to find a 3rd pitch that works for him. He's got a good FB and changeup. Sweeper/Slider could be it. McDougal (2021),Oppor (2023) and Sam Antonacci (2024) were all 5th Round picks so Sox have been finding value other than the 1st round. Just have to wait to see where it goes. But if you've been watching ST games you can see the high talent level of Antonacci and McDougal.

Cannon in for his 3rd inning and promptly gives up a HR to tie it at 5.

Cannon 1,2,3 7th.

Giants screw up another DP ball on a one hopper by Lee after a Hill walk . Lee promptly steals 2nd. O.Dunn walks. Bergolla (LHH) gets to face a new LHP. GO FO at 2nd.

Dont forget about recruiting more Sox fans and selling Kool-Aid.

Cannon escapes the jam with a DP GO. Gave up 1 run. 5-4 Sox.

Cannon now.

Ha live a little.

Vargas and Wade follow up the Acuna solo HR with singles. Sosa fielders choice on a DP ball to the right side. Bad throw to 2nd still got the force out but no chance to get Sosa at 1st. Tanner Murray pop up ends inning.

Acuna goes yard !

Nice to see Kelenic get a hard hit against a LHP.

All tied up. Oops, not any more Sox up 4-3. Always nice to tune in and and discover you're behind 3-0 and see the comeback to take lead in a couple innings.

I think a nice progression of wins from year to year because of player development is the goal of any rebuild ,right ? 2025 was the 1st year after rock bottom. It has to happen again and again and again. Its not crazy to think it will consudering the talent in the pipeline and the talent yet to be drafted in the most important draft ever for the new front office and staff. Think about this. The most important international Latin American free agent market year still might not be for a few more years. It takes time to become players for the most high profile younger talent . Rome wasnt built in a day. Could take 4-7 years to turn a 16 yr old into a Major Leaguer. Wether or not Getz is around for new ownership isn't what the vision is about. It's about building a foundation that you can build upon and expand to sustain a talent pipeline. Then even in years where you don't have high draft choices you can still identify and develop talent.

It's based on run differential so you can't get the Pythagorean win total till after the season is over. They had a lot of close losses and hit a lot better in the 2nd half. So, like any team filtering in young talent slowly you get variances in run production and runs allowed. We can see where they were weak. Overall it was a lot of late inning losses or the high leverage relief pitching was bad .The starting was less than mediocre. 1st half of the season the offense wasn't scoring enough . The 2nd half ( which is not a totally accurate term) the hitting was much improved due to some young hitters finding their way. So in theory you get better relief pitching and continue what happened with the hitting, then those theoretical wins become real wins . I think its fairly evident that there's been more effort to get more late inning wins and improve the record in 1 and 2 run losses. Getz wants to establish more wins every year, hopefully by 10 or more each season as they work in more of the top pitching prospects and create enough depth among the hitting prospects to end up with an over .500 team in year or 2. How far above .500 is based on how fast those prospects become consisently good. 2025 was a very good year for Sox rookies and the organization. They now need to show it was real. And the depth has to keep getting better. The Sox should get more high quality talent in the 2026 draft. There will always be those who quibble about organization wins now because this is all pretty new and as much as I'd like to think getting Shane Smith and Mike Vasil in the Rule 5 may have been about the best you can hope for, you dont really know until a few years after. But traditionally it's not been a fruitful way to help very much. But it's great that they can take advantage of the bad records and upgrades in scouting and R&D to identify and develop guys like that in such a short period of time. Shane Smith, in particular, would be akin to watching a top pitching prospect develop in the Sox system for 3 or 4 years but it happened in less than a year after the Rule 5 draft.

With aggressive baserunning which has got a lot of steals and extra bases this spring, you do get outs on the bases too.

Don't think so respectfully.

Sosa sugar greets the Cubs RP ! Sox sweets yummy !

3 way tie for Sox ST HR lead w/ Antonacci & Murray.

Willie Mays Hays leadoff solo sugar. 1 per inning for the Sox . 104.6 on your FM dial .

The brother from another mother Braden Montgomery solo sugar !

Cubs 2nd batter goes yard copying the Sox

Tanner Murray great diving play to down the line and throws out 1st Cub batter.