southsider2k5

I am going to guess right around 100 for this season, but wouldn't be surprised to see him peak late as he starts to figure things out.

But knowing there is already some bad blood there, I would imagine something about the Bears situation would have to actually stand out in the positive and not just be "not as bad as Houston" to be a place that Watson wants to go. The whole not even talking to him around the draft is a thing for him. He has already shown that he is willing to raise a stink when he doesn't like things. I just don't see what about Chicago would sell Watson on wanting to come here.

The question is how big do you think that chance is? 1%? 5%? 15%? Making the playoffs means you could go all of the way, but when you have major flaws and a lack of depth, those odds aren't as high as those who don't have them.

This seems to be more like, "hey give my guy a call and interview him at least" which Houston ignored and broke the final straw.

There is reasonable expectations for a team. It isn't reasonable to think that Michael Kopech is going to throw 200 innings this season, but this franchise would be damned lucky if he did. It is reasonable to expect a guy like Giolito and Lynn to be around the 200 inning mark this year, but it would be bad luck if they didn't. If you start putting together a list of reasonable expectations for both the Sox and the top franchises right now, the Sox list would come up short of what those other top teams are looking at. That is where I am talking about needing "luck" When you start talking about bad luck situations, because the Sox are already playing from behind when it comes to reasonable expectations for this season, they would need a ton more good luck to make up for it. Other teams have more depth and more quality player development to help contribute to those expectations and luck factor. This just kind of reinforces that idea that without some breaks, the expectations for the Sox are not what would usually result in a WS type team, but maybe with more luck than others would need, they have a chance. Sure that puts them ahead of like 20-25 other teams in baseball, but you don't play these teams to be 5th.

Do the Bears include their players in that process? I honestly have no idea.

Again, that all depends on your standards. For most of the Sox universe, this is supposed to be a chance at sustained success and World Seriess' (plural). If the standard for you is to make the playoffs, that is fine. But most see with some strategic pieces, this run could be potentially more than that. That's not a "hot take" that is recognizing the difference between a playoff team and one that has what it takes to go all of hte way. Think of it this way, do you want to see a repeat of last season where we made it, but were so flawed that we got beat by a not a not great team in the first round? Do you want to repeat the Twins recent playoff history? Because that is where we are now.

He also really seemed to feel like he had the right to be involved in the decision making processes for staffing.

I guess it all depends if you want this team to be "good" or a non-luck needing World Series contender.

If "the point" is that the White Sox are legitimate World Series contenders, I say "the point" was where the whiff occurred.

This is exactly the point that the Sox whiffed on the off season. If they had been able to add two quality starters to their rotation, as good as their pen and offense are, it gives this team another step towards WS level squad instead of just AL Central champion level, hoping for prayers to be answered in the playoffs.

Obvious burner account, liked to delete tweets that were wrong, and then deleted his account. Hmmmm...

Another little guy whose body and injuries finally caught up to him.

The ones I see on the regular are fixed roster dates. For example, the players gets the option to request a release if he isn't on the MLB roster by April 1, or whatever date. Any bonus would be something negotiated between the players/teams to meet whatever standards they agreed on.

Without a MiLB season last year to see growth, Cespedes makes this group look A LOT better. Odds are even if Colas was here today, he'd slot in at #2. I think of the guys who were already here, Krogman and Bailey are the guys to watch for breakout seasons.

Yes. Teams can offer a minor league contract to start with a salary of X if the contract is purchased by the major league team. This is a super typical type of deal in these situations. The one hole is that if the contract doesn't get picked up, they don't get the major league money.

There was already this exact thread. It is now merged with the original.

Zavala is probably the 3rd catcher right now.

Except it isn't a spending cut at all, as top, middle, and bottom salaries are still going up. This is more of a "fair share" kind of argument, which is entirely different.

That isn't the same thing as the massive spending cuts that he was trying to sell.

To recap: Until COVID, there were no spending cuts in baseball. The amount of teams in the top payrolls increased The amount of teams at middle payrolls increaesd The amount of teams at the lowest payrolls decreased Over the last half decade of normal baseball, payrolls increased by nearly 20%.

Let go of this and get back to baseball. Even if you want to quibble on this you haven't shown anything approaching what you are rambling on about in baseball.

Literally none of what you have said actually holds up to fact checking. None of it. Show some actual facts here.

The NFL and NBA alone prove this wrong.

Again, WAY more teams were at 100 150, AND 200 million in payroll in that 5 year span. Top, middle, and bottom payrolls all increased. Everything expanded. That is literally the point. Overall payrolls went up as did payrolls for teams at the top, middle, and bottom of the scales. Your "top" contract numbers aren't actually accurate either. We have gone from Arods 275 to Cole's 324 or Harpers 330, which actually has about the same AAV as Arods deal from 12 years ago. Even if you boil it down to AAV, it has gone from 27.5 to 36 in 12 years. That is about 3% per year on the top end. I know you are trying to make up some new goalpost that works here, but nothing you have said is actual reality.