caulfield12

And that has basically been true of every AL Central division winner or WC dating back to the 2016-17 Indians...

Of course, Dodgers and Red Sox fans will forever believe they were cheated out of additional championships, but this Astros' run as well as the Dodgers ascent in 2013 through today are almost as remarkable as the Braves' 14 year run...at least in the modern game. Along with 1996-2001 peak Yankees. It has also been the era of the underdogs, Twins, A's, Indians, Rays, Brewers...falling short but fighting the system valiantly like Don Quixotes.

Ultimately with KC it was hitting on the Gordon Hosmer Moustakas draft picks in the first round, the Zack Greinke trade to Milwaukee and the Shields trade...culminating with finishing moves for Zobrist and Cueto. Plus the scouting department for finding Salvador Perez. That and assembling the very best bullpen in history that pretty much ushered in the modern era of 5-6 inning starters. Then contact hitting, solid fundamentals, defense and the combination of Dyson and Gore to almost automatically get runners in scoring position in the late innings in close games. The death of Yordano Ventura and health/payroll restrictions quickly led to a demise in 2016-17... Of course, there were numerous times from 2006 - 2013 when KC fans and the local press lost their belief in the rebuild. It felt like Rany's prediction from 2009 was coming to pass:

Right, how many times have the relatively paltry signing bonuses for Latin American players come up? It’s just like stock market investing. Taking your 25-30 shots with small incremental amounts is almost always going to win out over the amount of talent surrendered and then $500+ million for a Soto extension. The only positive is that you can pretty quickly rebuild your minor league system when you have those frontline stars to move if your team still can’t compete. A broadcaster the other night was praising the Sox for their payroll allocation because there were so many “bets” made in the $10-20 million range as opposed to $20-45 million yearly deals. As we all know, most of those deals aren’t looking all that great right now. Back to the Cardinals example. Their fans want frontline/ace pitching, but options like Musgrove, Castillo and Verlander are already off the board. deGrom is unlikely to leave NY. That likely makes Carlos Rodon one of the top FA pitching options, which is probably scaring the heck out of a lot of GM’s right now. Eovaldi or Thor? Kershaw? Freaking Adam Wainright arguably is the fifth best option if he doesn’t retire or re-up one final year with the Cards or LaRussa, lol.

You read enough front office bios, you never see any crossover with the White Sox “trees”. I guess Hostetler leaving the Braves (seemed like writing was on the wall on his departure)? Getz from KC, that’s pretty much it. Otoh, you see terrible organizations like the Orioles realizing the only way to survive in the gladiatorial AL East is to bring in the best and brightest…who have actually produced positive results elsewhere. Mike Elias graduated from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia,[1] where he was born.[2] He attended Yale University, graduating in 2006.[3] He played college baseball for the Yale Bulldogsas a pitcher.[4] After his sophomore season, Elias required surgery to repair a torn labrum.[5] After graduating from Yale, Elias became a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2007.[3] When the Houston Astros hired Jeff Luhnow from the Cardinals as their general manager in 2011, Elias went to Houston with him as their director of amateur scouting.[6] Elias is credited with the Astros' selection of Carlos Correa in the 2012 MLB draft.[7] In 2016, after David Stearns was hired by the Milwaukee Brewers as their general manager, the Astros promoted Elias to fill Stearns' role as assistant general manager. He was given oversight of player development and minor league operations.[8] On November 16, 2018, the Baltimore Orioles hired Elias as their general manager and executive vice president.[3] Elias hired Sig Mejdal from the Astros as his assistant general manager to bring analytics to the Orioles.[9]

“Working with Andrew Friedman, depth was always something that was critical to our organization," Erik Neander, the senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager, told ESPN.com earlier this year. "For health and also for unexpected performance in both directions. Depth is a way to have guys who can surprise you in pleasant ways. In this division, we usually don't bully clubs with the top of our roster. It's really about flattening the talent slope from spots five through 40, making sure we're strong there." After Friedman's departure, the unorthodox approach to franchise building and willingness to stretch the impact of analytics on the field continued with an all-star quartet of executives, including Neander, who was named MLB's 2019 Executive of the Year. Matthew Silverman started his career at Goldman Sachs, where he helped Rays owner Stuart Sternberg structure his bid for the team before being hired as its president. Senior vice president of baseball operations (now Red Sox chief baseball officer) Chaim Bloom wrote for Baseball Prospectus before joining the Rays as an intern. Current Astros general manager James Click also rose from Baseball Prospectus writer to intern, then all the way to vice president of baseball operations with Tampa Bay. Together, they developed a front-office culture where decisions were collaborative, nontraditional ideas were embraced and negative reaction from others outside the organization was largely ignored. "Try to appreciate the strengths a player possesses at any given moment. ... You don't necessarily know what [paths] they're going to take, but the more options, the more possibilities, the more you have a chance for them to take that step. It's easy on any given player to focus on what they can't do, especially prospects."Rays GM Erik Neander on scouting and developing players Not that being in St. Petersburg, Florida, hurt. While the front office sometimes faced blowback from the national media regarding some of its forward-thinking moves, the lack of the daily scrutiny found in larger markets like Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Los Angeles meant more room for experimentation, according to former Rays executives -- not to mention the necessity to be creative with money. That relative freedom is something Rays alums say they've come to appreciate after moving on to bigger markets. In recent years, the success of Tampa Bay brought attention to Bloom, who interviewed with the Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants and New York Mets before taking the job in 2019 running the Red Sox. All of the final four teams in this year's playoffs -- the Astros (Click), the Braves (team president Alex Anthopoulos worked under Friedman in L.A.), the Dodgers and, of course, Tampa Bay -- have roots and ties to the Tampa Bay organization.” https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30146884/world-series-2020-how-rays-became-rays-brain-trust-mlb-most-innovative-team The strange thing is that Hahn by and large gets a free pass from the Chicago media…so that’s not an excuse either. Jed Hoyer on the Northside gets a LOT more scrutiny and that’s even after that 2014-2020 stretch of competitiveness the Cubs enjoyed before finally tearing it down last year. Ricketts is easy enough to dislike, but he also gets more arrows fired at him than anyone but the Bears’ front office/ownership group.

Pretty sure just two games at Chavez…

But the oblique would be equally tested on those twisting throws where’s he’s coming straight towards the plate and throwing crosswise against his body towards first…does he wince after every one of those plays? Or jumping in the air?

And if the Cardinals are unable to qualify for October baseball, it would come down to one principal reason: the front office didn’t do enough to strengthen their starting rotation before the season, and they didn’t respond to the rotation’s significant decline after being struck by the inevitable and predictable injuries. The Cardinals trail the first-place Brewers by three games in the NL Central despite having a 40-man luxury tax payroll that’s around $26 million higher than Milwaukee’s this year. Mozeliak has put three different managers in charge of pushing Craig Counsell and the Brewers into the also-ran category again, but for now the Brewers remain on top. And it would be a embarrassment for Mozeliak to see the Cardinals take a step back after Mo fired Mike Shildt and replaced him with rookie manager Oli Marmol. Since the start of the 2018, the Brewers have a .564 winning percentage, won two division titles, and made the playoffs four times. Over that same time the Cardinals have a .546 winning percentage, captured one division title and have made the playoffs three times. And that’s with St. Louis spending $222 million more on payroll (the 40-man) over the last five seasons. How would Cardinal ownership-management defend that? Answer: it’s indefensible. And I wrote that BEFORE the Brewers traded monster closer Josh Hader to San Diego on Monday afternoon. Hader can stroll into free agency after the 2023 season, and figures to make about $15 million in ‘23. Milwaukee president of baseball ops David Stearns is thinking ahead – securing a package of talent with a bigger picture in mind. Stearns also knows that he has a perfectly fine closer, Devin Williams, to take over for Hader. And Padres closer Taylor Rogers is headed to Milwaukee as part of the trade – though he hasn’t been good so far in 2022. Does the Hader deal take the Padres out of the Soto sweepstakes? Heck, no. Hyperactive baseball boss A.J. Preller is always all-in, pursuing big names the way kids chase autographs at the ballpark. He just wants recognition and praise from the national baseball media. Never mind his record. Since Preller’s first full season in San Diego (2015) the Padres have spent a fortune to have the No. 25 winning percentage in the majors over the last seven-plus seasons. And they have made the postseason one time – that coming in a pandemic-shortened season in 2020 and was also the Padres’ only winning season under Preller to date. https://www.scoopswithdannymac.com/bernie-the-heat-is-on-john-mozeliak-to-deal-but-can-the-cardinals-be-aggressive-without-being-stupid/ I would argue with the three Cardinals “legends” on their way out, plus Goldschmidt and Arenado…the Cards have more pressure than nearly anyone. The Mariners, Phillies, Padres and Blue Jays along with StL. I do believe that in the end the Brewers will fall off with the more difficult schedule and the mixed messages behind the Hader trade backfiring this time around (see Graveman deal last year). Milwaukee is short at least one bat if not two from when Yelich Braun and Huira looked so good together three years ago. Sweeping the Yankees this weekend suddenly makes the Cards huge favorites, at least for now. (Of course, you look carefully at the offenses of the Rays, Guardians or Mariners’ and also say “what the heck?” Baltimore, too.)

It’s really a middle-ground hybrid of the Rays/A’s/Giants (effective platooning galore) and Guardians/Brewers (pitching pitching pitching) and then the Dodgers. I read somewhere recently that the Cardinals had never exceeded a $165-170 million payroll in franchise history, and never sold out the farm system completely for “all-in” seasons, and that approach makes so much sense with their attendance advantages but overall lower-tier broadcast rights deal. And then the ebb and flow of talent in the much easier Central divisions (especially post-Cubs) vs. the four East/West that is soon to be equalized. But Mariners-esque or Rangers-esque in terms of scope and scale should be a reasonable expectation…and that requires a new stadium eventually.

It didn’t come into existence under KW. His ego wouldn’t allow anything else, which is why he was forced upstairs after 2011. It must have been in that 2013-2016 time period that Hahn started to take it out for a trial run. With an added caveat… — “The White Sox, as the reigning division champs and the team squarely positioned in the mist (midst) of a championship window” Nbcsportschicago.com

https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/07/13/rays-falling-apart-the-opener Whoever follows the minors a lot more than I do could write 1250-1500 words on the biggest drawback of the Rays’ system, the tremendous amount of pitching injuries over the last couple of decades.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2021/09/11/among-the-secrets-to-rays-success-buy-in/ Read this article (3-4 minutes) and it will automatically cause you to make some quick comparisons with the Sox. A couple really jumped out. One is most Sox players other than Abreu and Harrison don’t seem to have that burning fire to be in the lineup day in and day out. Why is that? Particularly Moncada and Robert…but this team just seems so passive? Have guys like Pollock and Vaughn just learned to accept their inconsistent playing time? Do they even bother talking to the coaching staff or LaRussa? Have a hard time seeing any pushback happening from players…for way too many reasons. The Rays, otoh, seem to thrive on platooning, changing batting spots in the order constantly (which TLR gets hammered for creating instability or undermining “comfort zones”)…and being ready to pinch hit or enter the game from pretty much any point from the fifth inning on. Same thing with the entire pitching staff, relievers starting, starters relieving and everything in between. Nobody is totally comfortable. Everyone has to fight for playing time, they have to earn it and work hard to keep their spots. Sounds totally unfamiliar, right? Part of the reason this works is the massive amount of quality depth in their system in either AA or AAA. That also keeps players honest, they can never get too complacent when equally talented and younger/cheaper players are pushing up from behind them. Whereas the White Sox have so many guys like Anderson, Moncada, Robert, Jimenez guaranteed spots because of their contract situations or LaRussa favoritism (Leury and Sheets) and/or lack of any better options thanks to Hahn. Then there’s the biggest one to me, and this is more of a reflection from the 2014-15 Royals and also the 2013-22 Dodgers. To me the biggest successes from those teams all relate to scouting and development. The Royals must have had 8-10 players come up together on the same minor league teams…they learned to trust each other and win championships together. When they advanced to the big leagues, they created their own winning culture….swagger, whatever you want to call it. They didn’t care about the long losing history and playoff drought back to 1985 and being a joke franchise ever since George Brett left. Same thing with the Dodgers, having wave after wave of homegrown depth from both the draft and international signings…from EVERY region of the world, not just Cuba. Then the Dodgers have so many under the radar but ultimately massive scouting wins: Kike Hernandez, Chris Taylor, Turner at third, Max Muncy, Lux, Buehler at his draft spot, Tyler Anderson, Gonsolin, Urias, etc. Nobody else comes close. It’s why they will have 112-116 wins despite significant struggles/injuries to Bellinger, Kershaw, Buehler, Heaney, Dustin May (might have the best stuff on staff). Of course, they can always go out and get a Betts or Scherzer/Turner whenever they want. Only a handful have that luxury as well. Comparing to the White Sox, the Sox just don’t have hardly any guys who developed from A ball through the big leagues. Tim Anderson is the sole exception on the position player side. They have tons of talent, but have never gelled as a team. All of their most important players spent pretty much less than two years in the minors…and they all basically came up to the big leagues individually instead of advancing as a unit, year after year for at least three if not four seasons together. Hence, there’s almost no discernible team identity. It’s just a collection of imported talent around just a few homegrown players. I mean, not even Andrew Vaughn and Madrigal were able to stay together for more than a season. The White Sox, or any team in baseball for that matter, can never experience sustained success without 40-50% of the starting lineup and half or more of the pitching staff (ESPECIALLY relievers) being amateur draft and international pool players that spend at least 3 and as many as 4-5 years growing and improving and learning how to trust in each other on the field, most importantly. So between the front office, ownership, coaching staff, players, scouting, strength & conditioning/training, it’s quite apparent to an outsider that the trust level is low and morale is pretty darned low…as low as I’ve ever seen for a .500ish ball club with a $175-180 million payroll. Finally, there’s something really broken with Grandal, Moncada and Robert to a lesser extent…it’s hard to put a finger on, but there’s some kind of disconnect. Obviously, Abreu for his age might be having his most impressive season yet, but what explains the mysteries surrounding three of the five of the most important Latin American players, with Jimenez the other enigma? How to fix or address that? It might be the most important task of the offseason.

So if I write the same thing to someone (obviously not a mod) who disagrees with an opinion about baseball, I can write exactly as you have. Great to know, got it. Because if a mild argument over movies is enough to get this response, god help having any legitimate discussions.

Also, if they fail to make the postseason, with 52 games left and Tatis coming back next week…Preller will be launched into the sun and someone else will be brought in to finish the job. Melvin might be gone, too…but likely he gets another chance in 2023 with an entire healthy roster for the season, in theory. SD falling short might get so much attention around baseball that it will take some of the attention away from teams like the White Sox and Angels. Losing 15/17 or 16/18 to the Dodgers dating back to last August simply isn’t acceptable for a $230 million payroll team. Thankfully, they have an ownership group not content to finish second or third to LA every year. All that said, the odds of losing out to Philly, Milwaukee and St. Louis aren’t THAT high, but anything is possible. One could even argue the final 6 WC spot against Milwaukee or St. Louis would be a better path than through Atlanta 4/5 matchup…just like playing 3 Minnesota instead of the 4-5 Jays/Rays/Mariners on the AL side of the ledger.

Rodon 10-6, 161 k’s, 2.95 ERA.

Note to all teams…don’t walk batters in front of Max Muncy with strikes on them or hang 2 strike sliders when he has the worst average in baseball among qualified hitters against fastballs at .173 and had struggled with that pitch earlier in the at-bat.

No no no. The concept and budget were fine for what it was…definitely felt more big screen than something on The CW, but it was essentially a female empowerment story mixed with colonialists are the bad guys. Nothing exactly original or unique. The Native American actress was excellent, though.

At least $3-5 million these days. Inflation. Depends on age/wear & tear.

Would prefer Rodman just for entertainment value.

Hair Club for Men/Cy Sperling hardly a global elite unless Mike Lindell is too.

Quentin?

Time to take those three games off.