bmags

Yeah, he wasn't the worst owner. But I'm tired of having an owner more invested in the health of the league than the health of the franchise. Like, dude, the revenues are 10 billion, stop forcing your franchise to be the martyr just so you can bend the cba to you year after year.

I feel very confident that if sox offered him 10 for 340 he would have signed it despite these limitations.

people only care about it because of the luxury tax implications which will matter for a team like the phillies that invests in its ball club. Would have mattered less for white sox who are unlikely to ever operate at that level.

and the phillies get a rare elite asset to provide value to their baseball team during what looks like a competitive run. Seems fair to me.

and, I don't understand why it needs to be repeated, but baseball isn't a traditional business and all the owners are billionaires.

If the sox actually need to operate under similar constraints as the cleveland baseball team than they need to operate with the same efficiency as the cleveland baseball team.

the dodgers have one of the deepest teams in baseball, one of the best and most productive pipelines of international free agency and dominate their division. I think they are doing fine.

I hate garpax with a passion. They are much better than the kwpres/hahngm era because they can still draft well, and hahn has shown no strength in the traditional team building avenues which is why they needed a big splash.

Anything south of 350 i would have felt disappointed sox didn't go for.

oh totally. We learned a lot for the next go around though: - "stealth mode" is not a thing. maybe for trades, it isn't for free agents. - jerry reinsdorfs ability as a businessman could not matter less - how elite free agents value themselves matters, and if you aren't prepared to sign them at their value, plan your organization accordingly.

People are confusing "upset because this deal should not have been out of reach for a team that seriously targeted the top free agents for 2 years and need it for a stifled rebuild" with "upset because they believed they were getting harper and didn't" I will always believe the sox are capable of making the correct and achievable choice, and always upset when they can't execute it.

I didn't say they couldn't get any better, that's the argument you created. Moncada had a 97 wrc+. Giolito legitimately had the worst xfip among eligible starters in baseball. If moncada gets slightly better he's above average. If giolito gets slightly better he still may be one of the worst starters in baseball. I think he will get better, he needs to get extraordinarily better.

Obviously the present is always more fun than the past, but the next 8 years they can build a disgusting offense, in 2032 $25 mill for a player will be annoying but not destructive. And as always, no trade clauses and dollar amounts are bad in that they reduce your return, but they are not insurmountable.

13 years 330. Again, the cheat codes were there to sign these guys. Sox live in a bubble where they didn't think it mattered.

It is pretty high expectations to expect him to not be the worst pitcher in baseball.

haha

The sox need to start raising their expectations. They grade themselves on a curve. You can do that if you were the yankees. When you've won 2 world series in 110 years? Nope.

?

I guess it goes to show that @ptatc is still a better doctor than me.

...didn't see that coming,

Good article here. I'll be nice with sampling. https://theathletic.com/842154/2019/02/28/lucas-giolito-is-back-in-the-lab-trying-to-start-a-prove-it-season-on-the-right-foot/ Behold, what gio looked like last year. The glove goes around laterally, which he says he struggled to maintain and caused him to go off balance, as we certainly saw. Now, I can't embed what is showing up for his new motion, but here is his description. the good and bad: good luck to the adam engel of pitching.

To me the problem wasn't slow playing it, its the same issue phillies are having. The sox and phillies did not acknowledge or prioritize at all the value that the player believed they were. They only thought they should pay attention to what the market was willing to pay. Other teams then said "hey we think you are worth x, we are going to offer you that", and when it aligned with the players own value they signed him.

Yeah. I’ve said it before but even if he bounced back this year, I’d have no confidence he would be “fixed” and not just forget how to pitch for a year again.

Acting like they missed out because of how they value the player still makes them look like idiots

solid free agents are terrible investments.