Balta1701

Gang-rape coach?

We got “Do you know who I am!” to a cop and they laughed it off. If they had any decency that would have blown up their whole cabal, instead Nightengale publicly stated LaRussa was correct. “I think there’s so many things on his resume that just overshadow an errant judgment. Whether he had a sip of wine, a couple glasses of wine, what have you. There’s a lot of worse things that [have] happened besides a manager getting pulled over on suspicion of DUI.” None of us get away with saying shit like that to the police. So yeah, even if he’d said something worse I’m 50/50 at best, as long as he didn’t personally insult Reinsdorf’s people.

We got the unofficial official team response from Nightengale - that DUIs were a little people crime. JR couldn’t have cared less. I’m 50/50 about whether they still would have hired him if he went on a racist rant during his arrest - as long as it wasn’t antisemitic.

Reinsdorf knew and didn’t care.

Y’all really think he will willingly sit on the bench until his body makes him?

Maybe, just maybe, the Astros were t that good and the White Sox had a different issue?

As much of a problem as who they chose in the end was the process and even the LaRussa lovers should have a complaint about this. One of the important parts in conducting a real, non phony search was for the GM and coach to give each other feedback, pick their brains, and find some common ground. While they aren’t going to agree on everything, they are at least going to have a working relationship. What did we actually see? LaRuss coming out after game 2 and complaining about how Kimbrel is a closer and he’s just not used to that role. So, the end result we have is the manager publicly saying “bad call GM I didn’t agree” on that move after a playoff game. And hell, the move turned out terrible, so if LaRussa didn’t like it originally, he would have been right! The lack of trust and communication hurt this team and that started with the process last fall.

I'm hoping you're right and they just decline his option after realizing it won't happen quickly, if at all. Who on Earth would add a $16 million reliever without knowing what the CBA will look like in the end? Hell, you trade for the guy, and then the whole season doesn't happen - sorry you're out of luck, thanks?

I still think this is an extremely high risk, low reward move. The high risk is - Kimbrel and Rodon both accepted things by December 1, the White Sox are sitting there with a $170 million payroll and they're trying to shed salary when other teams are just adding free agents in March once a CBA is signed. I certainly wouldn't give up a big trade return for him even if the White Sox were putting in some money - a reliever who struggled, who is being paid $8 million, and who only has 1 year on his contract doesn't have a ton of value as it is. Just take the $15 million and go buy the nice thing you want.

"I will give this guy credit for all good things and use an excuse for all the bad things, thus proving he must be great".

At the same time though, you cannot convince me that there aren't teams (Pittsburgh, Miami, Cleveland, Texas, Baltimore) that aren't making money hand over fist. In 2018, every team received nearly $120 million in revenue shared dollars, before they even sold a single ticket or had a single person tune in to their games. Those teams had payrolls between $40-$50 million this year, and many of them stay that low every year.

I think there's at least a 50% chance he accepts it if offered. We actually have lots of relevant comparisons the last few years of guys who got the QO and it really prevented them from getting multi-year deals. Both Marcel Ozuna and Yasmani Grandal played on 1 year deals until their QO was gone, then went out and signed contracts worth 3-4 times that the next year. Going a little farther back, Dallas Keuchel got a QO, didn't get any contract offers he was happy with, sat out half the year until the compensation expired (costing him money), then got a multi-year deal after that season. Craig Kimbrel got a QO, didn't get a contract offer he was happy with, sat out, and got a multi-year deal once the compensation expired. So, even though his agent is Boras and who knows what Boras will do, the lesson there is that guys who would get a couple years wind up taking 1 year deals worth about the QO, and maybe even less, in a normal year. Combine the uncertainty with the CBA, and you've got a chance at being caught unsigned during a period when all the contracts have to get done. Finally, with Rodon, he's earned something in the neighborhood of $22 million total in his whole career - notably less than a lot of people who receive a QO, so $18 million guaranteed isn't a bad spot for him.

No they weren’t, not in his last 5 years. The only well coached White Sox team I have seen in about 15 years was 2012, the first year after he resigned.

It is most interesting to see Dave Roberts being called out for using Urias 3 days after a 50 pitch outing.

What a slide by Rosario!

I could certainly see some team giving us their bad contract for him, but that means you need to find a team with a bad contract who would somehow fit better on our team. Just looking at outfielders since we need one, Justin Upton fits that description and I’m sure the Braves would give Marcel Ozuna for him (and probably throw a parade), but guys like that the team would give you for free if you wanted them.

If they try to play games by picking up his option, it’s hard for me to see how he won’t be.

I got 39-33 against teams above .500 in 2005.

Maldonado is under contract with the Astros for next year and will not be a free agent. You would have to trade for him.

While that might change things somewhat, the calculus with Eloy is still that he was injured for a lot of this year and is regularly an injury concern, he did not perform well this year, and he’s guaranteed $30 million over the next 3 years. If I’m a NL General Manager, I won’t say no to him, but I’m not giving a monster return for a player like that. He has some value, but you’re not getting back a front line starter or anything like that.

But a few big things are different right now. First of all, for reasons we will probably have plenty of time to discuss, the relationship between the union leadership and Manfred and the owners is at probably its worst spot since 1995. There’s zero personal trust, so the players will think that if they give the owners an extension, the owners will view it as caving, as a sign their position is weak. Second, this will all be happening during the offseason which means nobody loses any real money if there’s a lockout from December through February. The NFL was in this situation a few years ago and they had a lockout start in the offseason and it lasted right up to the point it would have cost them week 1, at which point both sides said they’ll lose half a billion dollars a week if they don’t get something done, so they got something done. Last year baseball and the players both knew they were going to wind up with about a 60 game season to avoid big losses with no fans, so they fought up until the last second they had before they wouldn’t have made 60 games, and then magically agreed on the number they were dealing with the whole time.

Saying that Leury vs. Vaughn/Sheets isn’t a downgrade is also not saying much. Leury in RF was a key part of the game 2 loss. For a bad defensive team the goal should not be to tread water, it should be to improve. I don’t see an easy way out of this with a trade though. Maybe someone who has need of a bat and young pitching to move is willing to go after Vaughn, but it’s tough to figure out who would do that. Sheets and Burger won’t have much trade value, and the White Sox could really use a guy like Sheets at DH - cheap and powerful, able to Homer from that 6 or 7 spot in the lineup. Maybe a full offseason of work on defense will be enough to turn Vaughn into an upgraded RF? I will say I significantly underestimated his ability to handle LF last year.

The White Sox have a habit of striking early if they have a target. Grandal was signed around Thanksgiving. This year that won’t happen, as noted above, until there is a CBA.

Nope.

By Madrigal?