Balta1701

No they do not. It makes it a more competitive game but there is no guarantee they win game 3. He had solid outings against Oakland this season but it's the playoffs, they would push him hard. A 6 IP, 2 run performance - it's a 2 run game for the bullpen to hold for 3 innings, and we saw how Oakland worked every at bat against our relievers so it could be tough for him to hold that. In his last outing against Houston, Lynn went 5.2 innings and gave up 10 runs. That was going to be a tight game no matter what, an elimination game everything gets pushed, and Oakland had way more playoff experience than us.

Lynn would be a 33 year old, 1 year rental who in 2020 was on pace for a 4 fWAR season and who is being paid $10 million next year. He's not a bad player, but that's the kind of player I would trade depth for, not a guy I actually like. If you're shooting for that level of player, go sign Mike Leake for a year. He won't be as good for probably similar money, but would you trade Stiever for 1-2 fWAR total next year? I'd trade guys like Lopez, Rutherford, and Fry for that - clear out some 40 man spots and give the Rangers some depth. Kevin Gausman for 2 years would probably be similar money too. Hold onto Stiever and move him at the deadline if you have to.

There are still ways to improve the team even if COVID screws up the ability to sign things like we'd want. Every time, and I mean every time someone gives the absolute statement "we must spend this offseason" in any form, that should be the reply, because it's true for now. You can find plenty of places where I'm indulging the discussion right now. That's the one clause I can't indulge without the caveat of "nightmare universe" being noted.

There is none. We made our decision on McCann the day we signed Grandal. We placed a bet that McCann could not repeat his 2019 numbers/that he would be exposed if he continued to be played as a starter. James McCann will go somewhere else as their #1 catcher next year, and we just have to accept that, and maybe he'll be more exposed, maybe he won't, but he deserves the shot somewhere. There is absolutely no way that spending premium money on a catcher makes sense when we already spent premium money on a catcher - go spend the extra money, whatever it is, on your pitching staff or RF. If Grandal winds up costing us a pennant somehow, we can flash back to that decision at that time.

For a 1 year deal worth $10 million sure I'd consider it but I'm not giving up Stiever, let alone Vaughn or Cease, and they weren't nearly going to accept a deal like that at this trade deadline apparently. If you're bringing in Lynn as your main pitching addition, then either you're going cheap the whole offseason (Fine keep Mazara but non-tender him first), or you have money to spend to bring in a better RF even if it's not Ozuna.

Then...as much as I hate literally every trade Rick Hahn does...you have to trade for someone. There's no reason to spend on front line starting pitching this offseason if you're not going to fill out your roster. There's no reason to spend on front line starting pitching if you go up and down the list against the Yankees and think "yeah we're the underdogs".

That bullpen performed pretty darn well this year given all the youth. By including 10 years you included Quintana.

I'm of the mind that (if it's possible), if you're going to spend in 2021 to put a team on the field you think can win the world series...you don't leave yourself a lineup hole on paper. Even if that's by trade...which of course I will probably hate when Hahn does it.

1. I am intrigued by the Yaz idea. I could see ways for that to work. 2. I'll say again - any statement of certainty like "There really should be no excuse to spend during this offseason" is wrong as the payroll for next year for us and every team is entirely at the whims of a virus.

If no one else is spending because of COVID, you can convince yourself of just about anything.

Ironically, our options at the time were Dunning (Very limited experience), Cease (Very limited Experience), Crochet (Very Limited experience) or Rodon (ugh). It's possible Dunning could have worked out. The team rolled the dice on a bullpen game, that was the choice they made coming into the game, probably in fact it's the choice they had made coming into the series, and if that's what they said they were going to do they needed to follow that decision. I am not certain I would have made the same decision coming into the game, but there is no obvious right answer here. Best criticism I have of yesterday is why Rodon was on the roster and not Detweiler. He's not a special player, but I'd have had way more confidence going to him in the 4th and 5th innings of yesterday's game than Rodon.

Note that this says nothing about whether keeping their transponders on for public viewing is normal.

Technically Mazara was the last out so... But anyway, on a more serious answer - assume Abreu is not an MVP candidate next year. We were the #5 offense in MLB this year by runs scored, #8 by OPS, and #12 by OBP. Robert improving, Moncada getting healthy again offsets some (ok, maybe all of it with Robert). McCann being lost is a big offense loss. There's a need to keep improving this offense. Think about the Minnesota Twins last year. Top offense in baseball - Signed Donaldson, and because of some regression, were 18th in runs scored this year.

That's only if they offer him arbitration, which means they'd be offering him a $6 million-ish contract next year. If they want him for less than that, they would have to non-tender him, and then offer and sign him to a contract of the new dollar amount. That contract would be a free agent contract, meaning it would be guaranteed unless it was a minor league deal only.

Just ask yourself this - if the White Sox were to go out to spend on a quality starter, would you still want them to risk RF on that platoon? Mazara would be a fine addition for someone like the Royals or Tigers, a team where, if he struggles, it doesn't cost them games in an obviously competitive year. He's the kind of move the 2018-2019 White Sox should be making, not the 2021 White Sox.

The press is now rightfully asking why there are no specific details about what the condition of the President currently is beyond vague statements like a "mild fever" with no statements from the White House Physician.

Because a guy 1 year from free agency isn't going to recover his value?

They waited until the markets had closed for the weekend. They've also got the helicopter parked to block the view out of the white house.

Even if they sign someone else, they should be. This is not the season to judge a guy to be a failure based on 10 starts, especially not the first 10-20 starts of their career. It should be: Person X Giolito Keuchel Dunning Cease Person Q/Lopez/Kopech/Steiver and others.

It is entirely possible that the debate on Tuesday could have served as another spreading event and Vice President Biden wouldn’t have tested positive today even if he had it. You could literally have seen the president shedding virus as he spoke of you had super vision.

And that’s why DeGrom is unlikely to be moved. With that contract he isn’t bringing back Luis Robert, and the Mets shouldn’t move him for a middling offer without a great headliner or two:

My guess is the market stalls for everything as of December 1. Some team might go out and grab one guy they targeted like us with Grandal last year, but any player hoping for bidders will guess that several teams will wait until the last minute to put anything on paper, so they shouldn’t sign anything early unless it meets their asking price. My best guess remains a couple of deals in November and a complete stall until February. Just a guess again, but that’s my logic.

That's fair. Trump didn't test positive until yesterday evening. The President coming down with something like this is something you can't hide. Like I showed 2 posts up, the military takes actions just in case when something like this happens, this can't be hidden. They were just as irresponsible as they've been all year and it finally got them on one of those flights or meetings over the past week.

I don't think this is a "cover up" in any sense. I think this is the normal progression of the virus. Even if you're getting tested every day, it can take 4-5 days after exposure for your first positive test to show up. The Tennessee Titans had people exposed between Friday and Sunday of last week and still had a person test positive for the first time on Thursday. The Cardinals had a person whose positive test didn't show up for at least a week after he was exposed.