caulfield12

Almost outdrawn by AZ @ CLE and Minnesota hosting Detroit at the same time won by 5000 plus. You can explain 1-2000 away because of inclement weather, but that was surprising. None of those opponents were interesting…the main difference being first place and a fanbase excited/energized by an injection of talent.

Yet they were able to afford a $140 million extension for Jose Ramirez, almost twice Grandal's money...with 2-3 more hitters, they're going to be a bear to deal with even at an $80-90 million payroll.

Not sure how CLE is tanking...or God help the Sox when they are actually trying to compete. Baltimore might be the positive surprise of year, along with Seattle. Even Pitt and Miami are trending upwards.

SF doesn't care that much about money as talent return. Detroit more complicated, but the Guardians dealt Sandy Leon to their rival the Twins so anything is possible with a mutual interest/benefit in mind.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/ Look at the Top 13 payrolls, higher than MLB overall league average. All of those teams are in solid playoff position except Red Sox White Sox and Angels. Angels already fired Maddon, Phillies did the same with Girardi. The other online is Cardinals right there for the division and final WC spot. Red Sox already started to prepare for transition phase losing Bogaerts Eovaldi Martinez but still added more than the Sox because Hosmer is an improvement over Dalbec and their other 1B. Yes, they'be been that bad. Angels already making plans around Trout's health and Ohtani's future. Those three teams are the closest to stuck, with the Cardinals at least possessing a much strong farm system and more payroll flexibility. They just didn't think trading the entire farm and Carlson/Gorman made sense for Soto. With Diekman, they added even more bullpen salary commitments for 2023. All they can do is trade Jimenez or Vaughn, but that results in a very similar team next year.

Very obvious that criticism of Hahn will be lighter if the team continues to underperform, Robert stays injured and then there’s the TLR excuse. If he did try to fix them and all the trades went awry like last year...goodbye Hahn. Almost wrote "Goodbye Lenin" because Hahn is stuck in a 1989 mentality and can't move into or adjust to modern times. The fact is that the Guardians have the best farm system in the division now and are already utilizing eleven rookies this year. The average age of their offensive core other than Ramirez and Reyes must be somewhere around 2-3 years younger than the Sox, and that's closer to five considering how few even make it to their mid 30s anymore, outside of mostly relievers and just a handful of position players.

This is the best hitter of ALL hitters in the AL cumulatively for BA over a rolling three and one half year period now….ranging from 309 as a low to his Silver Slugger and overall AL hitting title .335 in 2019. How can you mess that up?

And he’s really strong against RHP this year, at least by lowered Sox standards. Versus LHP 1.016 Versus RHP 806

Until it passed on to Jack McKeon…

Don't know about vast knowledge, but I at least constantly watch all the teams and players that I am commenting upon. We all have some over the top ideas, but I honestly think 25% of the posters here could do a better job than Hahn or especially LaRussa with the right information. The irony now to me is that both baseball/professional sports work and assisting students with university personal essays/Common App has gone the way of only Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard Yale Stanford degrees. Georgia Southern Ohio U and UMass were the three three best sports admin programs in the early 90s when I went, but those degrees and especially English at University of Iowa are worthless now. But wouldn't trade all my life experiences and travel for anything. That said, almost everyone here has all kinds of unique experiences and insights to share. When things are going well it's sort of like an online family and connection to home/the US. I do feel the divide or chasm between Gen X and the two subsequent generations is widening by the day, unfortunately. This board is a good example. And that's fine, leaders from the Baby Boomers and X screwed up lots of things and aren't leaving a better world behind, which is probably more important than how Rick Hahn influences my everyday life.

According to mod report, 24% of your likes and Sacamano are complaining about me. Something to be quite proud of. Did you also report Ron for talking about the Cubs so much...and all the fans in that thread who are quiting the White Sox soon like Texsox, lol?

Between Darvish (Iran/Japan), two Colombians, Dominicans, Josh Bell and Grisham, Mazara, Manaea, Cubans, this is the most diverse team I can recall. Last year, they were terribly unlikable with bad vibes/energy. With Bob Melvin, they've never gotten too high or too low. It's amazing the attitude transformation and how it spreads across entire org. 50% is swagger of Soto that so far Luis Robert lacks consistently due to health/confidence ebbing. That said, they could get swept by Braves in first round and Preller could easily be fired. Or Tatis return changes the "aura" again

No wonder he can't hit...wrist problems and dopamine overdose.

Ummm...so much for our PG~13 rating. More like Team America.

Tonight he DH'ed his way to a GS, already more productive than two months of Adam Frazier. Then you have Kim Cronenworth Machado Profar and Tatis can play everywhere as well. White Sox are the opposite fitting round pegs into square holes. The crazy thing is Acosta cost much more in intl. money ($1.25 million) than the $300k in pocket change they will pay Drury for two months. Then sending Lamet to Mil offloaded roughly 1/2 of Hader's salary...so not over luxury tax threshold, barely.

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/colin-cowherd-san-diego-padres-juan-soto-theory Silicon Valley and budget surpluses during Covid lead directly to Soto? Colin Cowherd must have read conspiracy theories about Bulls/Sox spending conmingled by JR lol. How about a far simpler one? Great weather, no competition for sponsors since they lost both the Clippers and Chargers. Only game in town, like Packers or Bills.

Former Iowa Hawkeye forward ... slightly different spelling.

Greg and WBWSF anti shift bunt club charter members.

How? US presidents typically get blamed for economic conditions when there are hundreds of other national and international factors to consider. The Sox equation is much much simpler.

One of best high school friends moved to St. Charles and has happy lived there 25+ years. White Sox only needed to beat a #18 team prospect for Brandon Drury, #20 MLB OPS guy. He can play five different positions, too.

Cleveland came within about 1,000 fans of outdrawing the Sox against AZ at home…that’s yet another issue, but more a barometer of fanbase enthusiasm. Of course, the weather forecast undoubtedly had something to do with it, too. Under 20,000 at GRF…whereas Twins hosting boring Detroit at home after that flurry of deadline moves drew 25000 plus.

Or we can somehow influence the Instagram girls to convince him much better play will result in $225 million vs. $150-175 million in 2024?

Pretty bizarre. Seems they weren’t aware he had just passed five years of service time. They brought back Hiura, also DFA’ed Pedro Severino. Perdomo in their pen was garbage…but an innings eating workhorse. Nothing close to Lamet in 2020. Also, Matt Bush is going to be better moving forward at his advanced age? Brewers’ fans joking they don’t have to worry about Steven Cohen poaching Stearns for the Mets he botched the deadline up so badly.

Lamet was awesome two years ago and then injuries completely derailed him. Maybe it was simply tactical for Milwaukee to cut on SD depth, but odds are very high the Braves and Padres will meet…and Brewers/Cards vs. Phillies on the other side of the bracket. Need to investigate further. Hader at $11 million, likely $15 million in arb next year. Dinelson Lamet signed a 1 year / $4,775,000 contract with the San Diego Padres, including $4,775,000 guaranteed, and an annual average salary of $4,775,000. “Dinelson has a good arm and was included in the trade to help balance out the deal,” Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “As subsequent transactions played out, the roster fit became a little tougher. We are hopeful we will be able to keep him in our system.” Lamet finished fourth in Cy Young Award voting in 2020 but has battled injuries and shaky performance since, pitching to a 5.46 earned run average over 59 ⅓ innings over the last two seasons. By designating Lamet, 30, for assignment, any other team can claim him and add him to their 40-man roster. If he clears waivers, he may be outrighted by the Brewers to a minor-league roster or released. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports

Ragans/Ragams (first start), Otto, Dunning, Howard Have to take 3/4. Minnesota gets Toronto for four and Dodgers for 2. Hopefully 2-4 or 1-5. 2-4 sounds more realistic.