Balta1701

Matt Thompson got a long profile in the Houston newspaper over the weekend as a local prep award winner. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/highschool/article/Cy-Ranch-Matthew-Thompson-AGH-baseball-hitter-14029156.php

Defense and baserunning and the ability to play positions other than 1b are things that exist also.

You know, that's not a bad idea at all.

But there's way more too it than just the money at the gate. I'm going to use the examples for the schools I've been at - I graduated in Assembly Hall and the students here graduate in Reed Arena. Who pays for building those facilities? The athletic side does, but that creates facilities that the university can use. This school had the anti-Nazi event in Kyle Field when the literal Nazi Richard Spencer was holding his event on campus. When the University charges parking fees to people parking on campus to attend a game, do those parking fees to to the athletic department? (no, in most cases I know about they go to the parking services office). This university just built a top quality hotel <100 yards from the gate of Kyle Field, that hotel exists because it will be filled up at huge prices on 7 or 8 sundays a year, but it also has created some excellent new meeting space that the university groups don't have to pay to use. In other words, the money is fungible. Having those facilities around a university provides a number of other tangible benefits and revenue streams. On top of those revenue streams...how much merchandise does a school sell based on their athletic department? All the Indiana shirts I have is money going back to Indiana as licensing fees. Why do those shirts get worn out and replaced? When we're good in March. It doesn't have to say Indiana Basketball on it, but that's what they get used for. And then finally, if these programs did not exist, how much more would the universities be spending on marketing? Me wearing an Indiana shirt around here in March is literally the school getting a free billboard from me. I'll grant that there are likely schools this logic does not work as well for, but saying that the revenue doesn't support the academic side really doesn't deal with how these funds and facilities work.

Spending several years getting to know, scouting, and signing several high-level prospects with our international funds now that we are out of the penalty box would require a lot of work. Finding an older Cuban who has a decent chance of filling a backup role at some point is far less work and is easier on the overworked front office staff.

My worry with Kopech is that in both 2017 and 2018 it took him until the 2nd half of the season to find some adequate control and really "break out" at the level he was at. I'm confident he'll be healthy enough to pitch, I'm more worried about where he'll be on his stuff and control. That said, you absolutely put him in the rotation as soon as he's physically there. Yes you add 2 pitching options this offseason, but Kopech's a guy we have to put out there, sometime early next year at the latest. What he brings to this team and this rotation is essentially irreplaceable.

Previous discussion thread with who he is and why this signing appears to be a huge disappointment for management.

Even if Dunning is back in the middle part of next year, he has a grand total of 62 innings above A-ball and basically hasn't pitched since mid-2018. You might think about calling him up at the end of the year if you're in a pennant race and desperate for arms and he's performing well, but he wasn't a ready big leaguer when he got hurt so there's no reason to think the injury will make him suddenly better prepared to be a big leaguer, so no we shouldn't even be talking about him as a useful piece next year.

Huh?

Maybe he has a big 2nd half, but honestly? With our current payroll and a clear OF need, no reason why we shouldn't look to do better than Puig this offseason. He's a good fit for a team like Detroit where he can get playing time and suddenly turn into his old self.

His ERA was good but his peripherals didn't support it. His BABIP at the trade deadline last year was .212.

Their payroll has been competitive but in terms of top guys their contract offers have not been. It does not matter whether or not the south side is an attractive destination if they are insistent that top level players must give them a 20% discount.

We are now up to "He had ID and presented it but the officer didn't like the ID he presented, the officer pushed him first, and did so because he presented the ID in a 'very threatening kind of way'".

Well I can't say I expected that result.

Are the Rangers just this good defensively or did we catch them on an awesome night? This has been rather impressive.

I told my buddy they were going to adore Q. I have never figured out how he fell so rapidly without losing any velocity between all star 2016 and medicore 2017.

Maybe somehow he's streaky and there's a bad game coming?

.143 average, .821 OPS. Love it.

Moncada is at far lower of a risk of his 2nd major elbow reconstruction in his career.

Not even arbitrators care that much about saves. He'll be around $9 million next year. If he files for $11 million he'll lose. $9 million is more than he'd get on the open market (per year), but that's ok, money doesn't mean that much to the White Sox right now, they won't spend it on anyone better.

We have a new puppy so I haven't been able to come in and say this, she's sleeping now so I'll add...these have been some really fun games the last 1.5 nights.

I think it's painfully obvious we need bullpen help next offseason also, so in addition to signing a guy who can be an opening week rotation starter for us, a swing guy/long reliever is a solid need on the FA market also.

My eyes cry constantly at the lack of exposure to Kopech's beauty.

People spent the entire offseason telling me "you can only trust baseball prospectus numbers when it comes to the quality of a catcher's defense and framing" and McCann is well, poor on the numbers people told me to trust, yet people praise him constantly. I will totally admit that Narvaez was bad defensively last year but with a better coached franchise he's showing improvement, and he's only a thin margin behind McCann's defensive performance this year. Based on the standard people told me to use to evaluate Narvaez, McCann isn't good either.

And furthermore, if a person is going to be a free agent in 2020, they are signable as a free agent in 2020.