Balta1701

One obvious problem - Colome's salary next year is going to be higher than Benintendi. A deal where they are taking on money actually makes their luxury tax bill higher.

The trick continues to be that I don't want to give up much to fill this position when I have a ton of money available but not a lot of spare, mid-level talent in my system. Benintendi is a guy who has been a 2-4 win player in B-R numbers and who will not be a free agent for 3 more seasons. Even a decent player who is that far from FA will command a high price. Would you give up Vaughn or Madrigal as a key guy in a deal like that? I sure hope the answer is no. Outside of them (and obviously excluding Robert, Kopech, Cease, Jimenez, etc), we have no one in our system who counts as a top 100 guy. Packaging like 4 guys outside the top 100 - Collins, Rutherford, Adolfo, and Stiever - does that really get the Red Sox to move him? I'm not sure, and I really don't want to give up so many different guys to get a solid player when I can just sign a solid player as a free agent.

I was hoping that this year, especially based on his 2nd half of last year, but he's flat out gone in the wrong direction fundamentally. His 2019 was worse than his 2018 on defensive fundamentals.

Oh wait, so since a 3b is included do we get to include Ventura? he alone dropped 5.3 rWAR as a 23 year old, Ozzie Guillen and Ventura combined for 7.4 rWAR that year. Does a 3b to a 1b count as a double play combination since 3b and SS is this one? Because I've got a good 3b and 1b combination from those years.

The one thing that really establishes that there has almost certainly been a change in the ball itself is AAA. In one year, they went from the AA ball to the major league ball, and nearly doubled the number of home runs in the international league and the pacific coast league. They had their full season 2018 home run totals by the all star break. It is simply inconceivable that the only effect is the players driving this; if there were a big load of people at AA last year who were on steroids, the stats wouldn't have shifted so abruptly at the start of this season as guys get called up to AAA during the year if they're performing well. In that case, it is literally an on off switch - change the ball and the HR rate responds immediately. Other factors can certainly be in play. There could be a new PED that we don't know about yet. Launch angles are affecting things. But none of that could switch the performance in AAA so rapidly.

Yeah, but that does nothing to help our bullpen next season. Totally ok with doing it, but still need the same amount of bullpen help.

Rutherford is notably young for his level and was only at AA this year. He should at least get substantial time at AAA. Collins may not be a young pup, but catchers do seem to take longer to develop because they're not just learning to hit, they're learning how to be the field generals managing the whole staff, every pitch, and all the defenders. That does take some time. Given everything he has to learn, I'm ok with him not catching 5 days a week, but I also don't like the idea of him playing 1b a couple days a week...unless you're bringing in a starting catcher elsewhere. If you're either saying that Collins's bat is so good that we need him playing more often, or you're saying that Collins is never going to be a catcher and he's another failure by our scouts, then go ahead and play him at 1b. If you think he can be a catcher long term and you're willing to work at that, then you act like it. If Collins is playing 2-3 days a week and McCann 3-4, I'm ok with that. If McCann is playing 6 days a week and Collins 1 day a week...well I'm ok with that if Mccann is earning it. IMO, he still looked better defensively than Castillo.

The Jets are going to be out Darnold for at least the next 2 games, which they then follow up with games against the Cowboys and Patriots. They're starting 0-6 barring a miracle. To win 7 games, they need to win 7 of their last 10 games.

No?

The Baseball Prospectus version has McCann 12th worst in baseball in framing and substantially worse than even Collins. He was roughly average on the other things catchers do (blocking and throwing) in their version.

I added one...but seriously, the Steelers even with a backup QB are no where near as bad as some of these teams.

With teams like the Giants, Dolphins, Jets, Raiders, Washington Football Franchise in this league?

This sounds weird to me. Unless we're 100% all in next season, he's demonstrated clearly that he can hit pitching at Charlotte over the last few months including making adjustments. If we're going to sign Grandal and cast Collins aside we may as well trade him, but unless we do that, sending him back to Charlotte isn't going to teach him much when we know he can hit AAA pitching.

Gregory Polanco signed a contract with a guarantee, he's fully under contract and guaranteed for the next 2 seasons, followed by 2 option years. He can't be non-tendered. He could be designated for assignment, but then the Pirates would have to buy out the $20 million remaining on his deal.

In general they would be better off had they not made those moves, but they also might have missed the playoffs in 2018 had they not acquired Jose Quintana, and they may not have even made the world series in 2016, let alone stayed in it, had they not thrown Chapman out there so heavily. That's an open question that for the White Sox it would be nice if we actually had to answer it someday. If I were the Cubs, I might not have done the Darvish deal, but I'd almost certainly have made the Chapman and Quintana deals. My Cubs team was far worse in 2020 than it would have been had I not done those deals, but at the same time I have a world series trophy. IMO, win your title, then do everything you can to stay competitive for a few more years and give yourself another shot or two. If you don't win another, at least you get several more playoff appearances. Then, at some point, you have to decide whether to extend everyone, start trading everyone, or do last-gasps and then let guys you can't pay walk as free agents. Houston has sorta avoided this issue but even they lost a little this year when Morton left, and next year Cole departs, so eventually attrition may well get them too.

Rather than ripping the Cubs for being in the top 10% of performing teams...let's also gawk at the Dodgers and Astros. The Dodgers still haven't won a world series, but their player development has allowed them to be on a level that no other teams have reached. The Astros won their title and they are still, 2 years later, hanging right there with the best in the league again - without the type of signings the Cubs kept making to try to stay in the race as their roster started to weaken. The Cubs are in what looks like a normal rebuild - they peaked once, but have slowly fallen off from that peak. That's how most rebuilds go and you're lucky if you finish it off - Cleveland, KC, San Francisco - all peaked, 2 of them won their titles, and they've withered since then. We saw the Yankees and previous red sox teams do the same thing. Houston lasting for 3 years like this is already some next-level S***.

For those guys you have to be talking about Kopech, Cease, or Jiminez as the first piece, probably with Vaughn or Madrigal as a second piece, and then a couple more bits to fill things out.

This. The Texans haven't been able to keep Watson from being hit.

His season has convinced me this is a good idea. The problem right now is that in the eyes of JR, this would be "breaking new ground" as no one has ever really signed a deal like that, and that's one thing this franchise won't do. What we really need is for someone else (Soto?) to sign a comparable deal such that this becomes a deal someone has done before. Suddenly then it's not JR reshaping the market.

IMO, no, very good chance he's stuck on the market until midseason if he turns down a QO and doesn't sign with the White Sox.

Those situations only happened because the teams that those players left didn't want them back or were up against the tax and couldn't bring them back. The White Sox can totally bring Abreu back if they want to; him turning down the offer makes it far less likely that he'd sign elsewhere.

You know what? That's not a bad suggestion and I hadn't thought about it.

IMO this should be Zach Collins. People aren't thrilled about his defense but so far I think he's an upgrade from Castillo already.

The Dodgers are tough but by no means unbeatable. They only won 92 games during 2018 and the Rockies finished 1 game behind them. A couple of injuries here and there and some breakouts from your guys and you can challenge them, but you have to do it well.

There is literally no one in baseball history outside of pitchers who have had >50 at bats and been this bad. The worst in history is apparently a pitcher, Doug Davis, who was 1 for 64. He's got to get down to 0.16 to beat that.