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https://x.com/jeffpassan/status/1726281514995114057?s=46&t=9lkBcVJmwvxFpyVi5DNtCg

Noah Schultz is #31 on Baseball America

Just keep in mind Colson is basically a top 15 guy, Schulz top 30. So there is a difference between “two top 100 guys” and “two top 30” guys.

Good news is BA drops their updated Dodgers top 10 tomorrow

Didn’t realize there was a Dodgers rumor. Interesting. I figured a Cease trade would have been more likely to be post big FA moves, but for teams up against the tax maybe we do see a move. (Don’t even know if dodgers are, but maybe they expect Shohei and want cheaper stuff to afford it)

I think Tink Hence’s tough second half makes them a difficult trade partner. But if you could get a Carlson, Wynn, victor Scott and hope that Carlson can turn into a better trade chip, that could be interesting. Ill be honest, not totally sure what Carlsons value is to weigh this, but having a left side of the infield of Wynn + Montgomery would be a load of fun.

I like both Iowa pitchers, Brecht/morgan will be fun to watch.

The thing with Phillies is their rotation is mostly set. The thing to watch is if they can keep Nola, or go FA instead. But I could see Dombrowski pull a trigger rather than rely on young pitching.

There is a lot more than you listed. Casey Gillespie, Alen Hanson, Wily Garcia, Charlie Tilson, Jose Rondon, AJ Reed. Luis Patino, Brent Honeywell, Kodi Medeiros, Toukki Touissant Hahn always jumped a chance to get a guy that he had seen in the BA100 who had fallen off rather than a guy who may still be on the rise. We found nobody with the extra playing time we had, but they absolutely tried* *in the laziest way possible by jumping at players they heard of

I keep wondering if the phillies don't get what they want in FA if they could go after Cease. Do they want to rely on some of these close to the major pitchers? Getting a Painter/Able and then some of their very interesting Crawford/Miller/Caba position players would be a nice start.

I would not tender Romy, too injury prone. I really don't think we need to protect Veras. Still like him, just don't think it's remotely a threat. I agree on a lot, I'd probably lose Romy too. I would also keep Cronin. That's about it.

And sorry I know the A baller went to U of I and isn't 19 but "younger, farther out pitcher with upside" can substitute.

I don't mind that we traded bummer, and I don't hate it, I'm just stating that after many of the hahn rebuild trades my least favorite were these "rebound" type players that had an extremely short amount of time to prove themselves before we had to make roster decisions on them + showed a very limited ceiling. Are they more accomplished and likely better players than some 19 year old arm in A ball? Probably, but the 19 year old can hold some more value for longer. So I'm glad we got that. I just don't think the hyperventilating about the number of players we received back or that they used to be an interesting prospect is interesting. We've seen enough excitement about casey gillaspies and such.

Soroka is the least interesting piece to me. Guy is washed. Touissant is more likely to be a good started next year.

I’m not expecting a lot for bummer, but nearly all these guys are out of time. Their pedigrees mean as much as Hahn trading for former top 100 guys. If Shewmake struggles in AAA as a 26 year old, he has no value. Schuster, also 25, I’ll say this. His slider maybe means he can turn into a bullpen piece with control. But I feel like over the years we’ve taken on X number of former Atlanta top prospect pitchers and they’ve never been wrong that a guy is washed. I mean a handful of the Aball pitchers I’d like more from a profile perspective. Id non tender Lopez. He’s not gonna get $4 million.

I’m surprised how positive people are on this trade. This is a bunch of trash with limited upside. I like the single A guy I guess. Reminds me of acquiring 4 Ryan cordells

This is a bird in hand situation though. I know I've read people aren't super high on this class, but we KNOW we are top 3 bad this year. So if we get a top 3, is it worse to be 3 this year and 10 the next, or 7 this year and a potential to still be 4,5,6+? I'm a bit confused by that part. BUT, it's one reason why I'd be open to signing that cuban reliever and seeing if you can flip him for a comp pick next year should you be top 3 this year, and still get a decent budget.

OTOH we have tank commander Grifol

My only thought is it’s hard to lose 100 games even when you try. I think this is one of the few years where the obvious worst team ends up with worst record. Sox will be bad next year, but in the least good division which may mute losses. Id be happy if they get top 3, super annoyed if they got 5/6

I’d like them to try and get Spencer Jones from the Yankees. If Wolkow pans out, along with Colson, it could make up for our short first baseman

Are you rooting for them outside top six this year?

amazing how little we care about the bulls that none of us can bear to talk about the lavine trade.

Here's a really dumb trade that made me laugh where sox take back Stanton + cash for Cease and get Hampton/Jones/+ and we end up in that fun period after GarPax talked about getting better defensively and then them being excited about getting an old dinger-hitter

One time I got free tickets to this STH event where the sox hall of famers had a luncheon with pretty much every living one but Frank. This was just after Baines got elected. I was kinda floored to be sitting at the table with fans who like, did all the "sox cruises" or "sox vacation in mexico" where these people just like loved the sox and loved every player on it regardless and just wanted to go to games and root for them. JR was there. There were like 100 people total. Anyway my first thought after that experience is this is who Jerry thinks the fanbase is. These very nice, incredibly forgiving group of people that just wanna see nice young men play baseball. And so maybe that is who JR is trying to communicate to and it seems so insane to us.

Not a TAM candidate but Barry Odom has completely turned around UNLV in one year. He showed a real knack for coordinator hiring while at Mizzou (Heupel, Ryan Walters) but just couldn't recruit enough (drinkwitz initially couldn't find the best assistants but could recruit and fixed the latter). I think a year or two of success and he should get a call for a major program again. Get one that has innate recruiting and he could be a really dominant hire.