bmags

this is one of those things about the suburbs. There's extreme winners and losers. For anyone on north and west or farther south sides, 35th and shields is a little painful but not bad. Move them to Tinley /Orland Park and it's painful east and south, and there's no "take a train after work and uber home" left. For football, I never minded the idea of them going to arlington heights. But for baseball, inconvenience is death for me attending a weeknight game.

I'm fascinated by how the best run orgs do so well at hiring. The Royals, with new owner, get put in the same situation as our clown show, let Grifol go and hire Quatraro. He works with their young players and helps turn them around. The sox hire Tony LaRussa, a retired, old out of touch manager who was completely wrong for the team. The astros hire Dusty, a retired older manager who was the perfect steady hand for that team. The Mets hired Buck Showalter, a kick in the butt who had mellowed out and got them an exciting year after underperforming for a few. We will sit here and look for a profile we like. But for these roles like GM, like manager, the interviews and reputation and set-up they have matters a lot. Whomever they hire, we have to assume he sucks, because Jerry Reinsdorf believed he would be good. That's called updating our priors, I think.

I think it may have been hard to make a last minute change in london with 200+ people getting shelter, etc. I understand them going later considering they'd be away from families for 2 weeks instead of just the weekend like the bears. It's a tough situation but I think they deserve some grace here, hard to make last minute adjustments with a huge operation like this.

More realistic is you'd take 3-4 pitching prospects over one can't miss one. And no, i'd take the can't miss one.

I'd counter that this board was pretty much in agreement that the sox should not take high schoolers because they couldn't develop them because of Courtney Hawkins, and it was mostly just ignorant of the fact that the sox weren't drafting high schoolers so the one that failed stuck out. They finally stopped that crap and their drafting has gotten much better. Yoan Moncada was only an oft injured but definite MLB starter, and Kopech was just a ok then dominant closer, so the white sox should never again trade for top prospects? It's a dumb idea. I would be more open to "don't trade your everyday 3B for a 25 year old pitching prospect coming of TJS" more than Moncada.

Luis was signed, and Eloy was in A ball. That deal also netted Cease, who became one of the top pitchers in baseball. Those trades were actually fine, they netted starters. The problem was just laziness. The concept of trading for good prospects is not unsound because of the last rebuild.

Haven’t been following but assuming this trade is near complete right

I watched the steelers/cowboys last night. Main thoughts: even as I wanted to move on, it was clear Justin Fields was a top 25 QB in the league. The Steelers don't need a lot at QB to win, but he is so much better than what they got with Kenny PIckett. You never know but I 'd be surprised if Russ gets job back. I think we should have gotten more, but you can see that Arthur Smith is providing about the best offense for him, and Smith didn't even want him. I think it's true that nobody really wants to make an offense around Fields, and 75% of the league is Shanahan/Mcvay now which isn't a great offense for him. Jalen Tolbert is finally getting more play on the cowboys, even Velus had outplayed him from their 3rd round position. Third rounds under Poles (Pickens, Velus, and I'm gonna throw out Kiran) have been confusing to me. Kiran may be great and that makes it all moot, but still 3rd round should be solid starters, strange to me to go huge project so soon.

For example, bengals got right last week vs panthers, hang 38 today vs ravens. Could have easily been a ho hum affair like last week even if they pulled it out.

I don’t care it was the panthers. They’ve looked much better with Dalton prior to today on offense. Only thing that stopped bears today, once again, was penalties.

He’s a much better run blocker, hard for me to complain as everything has been better with Pryor vs davis

Lynn trade was fine. Hard to time young pitching...and imagine not getting into the playoffs in 2021...oof. Compared to hahn trying to fill RF with Nomar Mazara and then Adam Eaton, this is like acquiring Fernando Tatis Jr. for James Shields.

“It’s so good because the players are earning little and are still hungry for success”

I have no doubt they could sell out a full week.

It's not a voluntary position, we are held captive.

I can't imagine being a guardians fan seeing a white sox fan pity them

I don't get emotional about sports like you losers. I get emotional about the tone on sports message boards.

A lot of this is true but I think there is a downside to bigger orgs in that you can just get kinda awkward timing. He DID land a big fish in Correa...and then have the medical staff nix it. They thought they had Judge, but could not compete with him being given "Mr. Yankee" status. He took over after years of borrowing on talent depleted them, got that one big year, and has been awkwardly successful since. He, however, showed a much greater ability to work the margins. Whether it be the pitching staff, or the Joc Pedersons of the world. In fact I think that success paralyzed them as he wasn't sure when to go all in vs. finding value, and chose to go all-in on some tough offseasons. His drafting wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible, and drafting during some of the covid stuff sucks. Kyle Harrison is still only 22 and did ok in a tough division. Patrick Bailey has been bad offensively but fantastic defensively. Bryce Eldridge is the 35th overall prospect. Overall he'd be a hell of an improvement. You shouldn't get 5 years at a major market team like the giants with only one big year. But that said, I think Chaim Bloom and Zaidi will have a successful second run. I think what Zaidi was best at would work extremely well in chicago, he'd probably be single best person to work in Reinsdorf's system.

I don't understand why we need a press conference. The letter was perfect and said it all.

Oh god, "like you I am disappointed" no no, he is nothing like me, he is directly responsible for it. I'm just out here giving them great ideas for free.

Right I guess I'm just saying "his way" isn't necessarily enforcing the opposite of, say, an orioles or rays, as much as just not really trying that hard at anything, and definitely not record-breaking spending for any player.

I think it would almost be nicer if Jerry truly was maniacal about winning "his way". It kinda sucks he's just like a neighborhood nimby, powerful enough to tell people no and slow any changes and progress, but not actively building or showing off what the "better way" is even supposed to be.

I guess I’ll be the contrarian. I was really upset about the season, but then I read the letter. I’m all in now. They’ve got this.

We can’t get the #1 pick, but what might we expect from the tigers, royals and Guardians (and frankly even the twins) for gifting them 12 wins and boosting their playoffs? Cash seems too informal. Thank you cards too light. Ah, I know. I believe we should receive their competitive balance picks.

I've said it before but if I was unattached to the weeds of this loser Reinsdorf...on its face this playbook looks very much like an owner trying to sell. - Tank the team and lose attendance - Put forward a proposal for a stadium requiring taxpayer funding on claims existing place is not sustainable due to attendance - Get denied because there is zero chance - Tell MLB you need to move to be competitive, the state won't support us and the fans have abandoned us We are at 2/3