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You want to compare mookie betts to jeff samardjiza, todd frazier, melky cabrera, david robertson.

He makes us better for a year, which is valuable, and it lets us negotiate his record-breaking deal the white sox should surely be willing to give in the offseason. The idea that the sox may not be willing to go after betts as a free agent is geniunely ridiculous, and that should be the focus of why this would be considered a bad move!

I like this post because it at least gets at the idea that mookie betts becoming available is genuinely shocking and taking advantage of that should be heavily considered. That we have to consider the sox self-made restrictions to judge it a bad idea is an indictment on our ownership/management team. As we had done last year, though an individually large contract, in terms of total salary there is no reason this team can't afford an exceptional contract. But yes, I'd say the ideal is to just sign him next offseason. But, what if the dodgers acquire him? I don't think he gets away.

This may very well be true but the question is how often when a player is intent on testing free agency and the incumbent team is also intent on keeping them do they lose them? THe nats did not really pursue, nor the orioles. The only one that sticks out to me is the Cards with Pujols.

No, absolutely not. Hate this logic. This is what this board did from 2007-2016, where we acted like merely plugging the leaks was akin to improvement. Going from -3 WAR to 0 WAR is no where near the improvement of going from 0 WAR to 3 WAR, and is not close to going from 3 WAR to 6 WAR. Depth is great, but it's not getting elite players. Get elite players!

I don't want to diagnose a player over the internet but yeah more worried about mental health episodes than drugs.

That's scary. Hope he's okay.

Yeah, I think the question for me there is had those teams still pursued in free agency (which I do not believe the nationals did in earnest) what would have happened if they kept those deals as a starting point. I think Harper would have been a national for instance. Machado - I don't know. Orioles were a mess.

Well the $430 is key but yeah I'd do like a 10-12 year/435-440 absolutely.

I don't think this is true. From Betts I'm sure one of the driving parts of this is also respect. Both machado and harper had numbers when they went to FA last year. Machado wanted to hit 300 mill. Harper wanted to beat Stanton. Those were driving aspects of the way their deals were structured just to beat it. If the sox (which they wont) said to betts they were going to give him the largest contract ever handed out I don't think he hits free agency. And even if he did I don't think it would take long for him to come back. But they will not do that. I do think it would be worth it to trade and then lock him up long term to a very expensive deal.

Ok but we can't bank on that any more than we can signing top talent for market price.

No, pretty explicitly said that in the first post.

I think you should expect him to hit free agency but also I would say my posture would definitely be "I'm adamant on hitting free agency" in the years leading up to free agency.

Yes, and I want to know what is actually available from that.

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/teammates-prepare-life-without-betts-we-dont-think-theyre-going-be-able-afford-mookie If the red sox are really going to wave the white flag on betts, they will likely trade him this offseason. Betts has a year remaining. I assume he will try free agency. And yet, and yet. After trout and arenado signed extensions and the other extensions that followed, I have to wonder if the number hits the right point whether it should be assumed betts gets to FA. And for me mookie is a guy you say how high for. But that's with payroll. UInlike when we talked of trading for machado, next year could legitimately be a winning team with betts immediately. How much is that cost of a year? With the availability of second baseman - madrigal is definitely preferable. But Vaughn is also just a 1b, and the yankees got an .850 ops dh for basically nothing. The elephant in the room of course is the white sox ownership. Hypothetically, i'd part with some pieces that we expect to be on a winning sox team for the year of betts + hope of signing him long term. But he will break records on the deal or come close. He should not get a home town discount. And when that hangs over it...it would be impossible to judge if they suddenly traded for him. There would be too much uncertainty that they will have judged his market correctly and will inevitably stick to their number and be bewildered when he signs elsewhere. Anyway, mookie betts is great.

We've hashed out most of the known available players or likely acquirable. But for me I'm most interested in finding out: - What signals the red sox send - What signals the pirates send - What signals the cubs send - What signals the Royals send These may end up pushing some interesting players into consideration. For me, I'd rather trade some of these pieces while still valuable than hold on until warts are exposed.

Before we move to baseballs whirlwind action packed offseason, I did want to think back on this year beyond the stats. For me, the nationals games were the highlight of the season: - This game where jimenez hit his first homer at home, that seemed like it went 700 feet https://www.espn.com/mlb/game?gameId=401075731 https://www.mlb.com/news/eloy-jimenez-launches-462-foot-home-run-vs-nats Then the week prior had this game that the sox lost but was just a great baseball game: https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=401075643 - Jose/Wellington back to back jacks that tied game in 8th - Just prior to that, moncada smoked a ball into the gap that featured one of the best catches I've ever seen by Robles, who was amazing. https://www.mlb.com/news/pitcher-vince-velasquez-throws-out-runner-at-home-from-outfield The vince velazquez game - just insane. Sox Cubs - 6/18 game - Eloy homers in the 9th to break a 1-1 tie, in his first game at wrigley as a pro 7/3 Jose's walk off blast vs tigers https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2019/7/3/20682009/jose-abreu-yoan-moncada-cordell-chicago-sox-doubleheader-sweep-tigers - Also had Yoan homer from both sides of plate - Cordell hit 2 home runs in this game One of giolito's starts need to be mentioned but can't remember when the best ones were. https://www.mlb.com/news/tigers-strike-out-20-times-in-loss-to-white-sox Sox pitchers strike out 20 tigers, with 14 from lopez Any others?

That said, you know how sometimes when watching the QB start to throw it and you feel your eyes already start to "look downfield" to see where it might go? My favorite sacks are when you start to follow that like a camera man only to jump back and see the QB on the ground with a surprise, massive hit like williams had on cousins. It feels like it's almost always a dtackle that does those kind of hits that sneak up on the Qb. Fun moments.

yeah that definitely provided a feel like "this isn't gonna be like the second half last week"

I can’t pick my favorite sack from yesterday. Think it may be the kwit blowup to nick Williams. But Mack double team was pretty good. Then when Williams exploded Kirk. And the other 3.

I’m excited to see what shakes out in Boston. If they are prepared to shed salary OR signal that mookie will not be re-signed opens a lot of possibilities. I don’t love the Gardner idea, but I’d take him over Calhoun. I wonder what Solers availability may be. With ownership switch, decent control, it would be an interesting fill of RF.

Either he’s timid or the staff (probably rightly) decided not to risk it. But now it’s a question of how big of a risk it is if he’s not that good without his legs.

There aren't that many instructional league teams still left so hoping we get some good reports.

By fall on the sword you mean get promoted to special assistant to the GM right

Your actual question here is good. It is very frustrating, they appeared to have "handled" multiple overlapping prospects by platooning them. Moncada should have taught us the value of reps for players batting opposite strengths (yeah, I know switch hitting is different, but still). It's important for them to be tolerable against their weak side, they lose so much value when they aren't.