caulfield12

Please send me his contract extension details as soon as they become available...

Ewwww. TMI.

That would be worse than the Crochet pitching plan. Let's try not to mess up every single first round draft pick this decade (well, other than Anderson).

But there was a three year age difference, and Suzuki is not a prototypical slappy looking hitter (neither was Fukudome, for that matter). Totally different style of player. But it always come down to the ability of Japanese players to adjust to 95-102 MPH pitching...when the average over there is upper 80s and low 90s. And it did take Ohtani some time for everything to click. We don't have those two years to wait around.

Supply and demand. Last finishing piece on the market, starting pitching-wise, for a number of months.

If you trust in your intl. scouting, no Kimbrel option and Suzuki was the answer. Of course, if they are right on either Colas or Cespedes, it's absolutely perfect timing with Pollock...and they arguably trust Cubans over Pacific Rim talent. But get it wrong and you could be starting all over again in a barren FA market next offseason.

So, let me get this straight. Just because we finally dumped Kimbrel on someone, we now should be elated with the front office potentially rupturing the relationship with one of our most important young players and a team leader to boot? Makes perfect sense.

Just thinking the odds of Pollock and Harrison repeating 2021 at their age don't usually break in favor of the Sox. Then you have Abreu at 35 as well. This year has to be the year to break through. But for that money, just a 2ish fWAR out of the third OF position would be fine. Same with 2B. Just can't be a total black hole.

Even TLR noted that though...see the very bottom of his quotes yesterday. The major question is how prohibitive the cost for current pitching, versus how it will eventually impact 2024-2026. Opportunity cost.

C+/C The one unassailable point is that we keep getting older and more Injury-prone with every passing day. If 2B is now a platoon with Leury and Harrison, it would have been better to just spend the money on Escobar. One can argue Leury can cover all the infield positions, especially SS...but TLR loves his veterans. And still not seeing anything resembling a long-term vision for after 2023/24. That said, let's just win a damn playoff series first. As everyone says, final grade depends on if Manaea or Montas goes to an AL Central opponent because of our system's lack of depth and the fear of giving up Vaughn, Sheets and Burger. Also the LHR solution.

"While changes to that department have occurred, they’re tough to quantify currently. Former director of amateur scouting Nick Hostetler is now a special assistant to Hahn, working on the professional scouting side of the operation. Dan Fabian is a fixture in the front offices at 35th and Shields as well, in addition to rising star Emily Blady, among others. Ben Hansen was employed as a biomechanical engineer and while his influence was positive in multiple departments, his position is yet to be replaced since his departure for another opportunity, outside of baseball." Southsidesox.com https://nishmat.net/alum2019/emily-blady/

Sox save a lot of money on relocation allowance...just walk from one side of Camelback Ranch to the other.

So we should also criticize JR for dividing his attention with the Bulls? I mean...I guess soccer or futbol is a foreign sport, even if it's the #1 sport worldwide and has massive growth potential in Asia and the Middle East. That's just being a good businessperson and diversifying your revenue streams and target audiences. Surely it will be connected back to world financial markets...finding so called synergies.

Twins starting rookie RHer Joe Ryan on Opening Day…whispers about Sonny Gray not being 100% ready yet.

Well, this thread is pretty much even less controversial than if Gandhi, MLK Jr. and Mother Teresa played C, SS and CF. Well, the Grandal comp might be pushing it, lol. The Three Outcome Saint.

We spent tens of millions and still somehow managed to lower our projected fWAR or at best marginally improve it from the #14 payroll at the beginning of last season…right around league average. Ricketts was never going to be able to keep that team together. They had three NLCS in a row and five playoff appearances. Any Sox fan would love to have only three more playoffs out of this window if three were to the ALCS and one to WS. That would be a huge success unmatched with any period in franchise history were they to somehow pull that off. Signing/extending Contreras, Baez, Rizzo and especially Bryant would have led to a couple more playoff appearances but eventually a complete teardown. Now they can try to compete without totally bottoming out for 4-5 years and see how it goes.

But what about 3B, lol? Watching his spring at-bats…well, he looks more like 2017/18 Moncada. Still have another week to pick it up.

This argument sounds familiar? KW? They might want to win an actual playoff series before complaining about fan support. And just spending a lot doesn’t buy fans or success. Ask the Mets. That blackout game playoff atmosphere against Houston was electric, despite the rough start to the series. Don’t ask whether you spend the money, but what you spend it on.

Well, we insist on pushing guys like Burdi and then Crochet to solve pressing major league depth issues because our system isn’t producing enough replacements. That worked with Sale, obviously, but he was such an unusual case and shouldn’t be any kind of template.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/10/previewing-the-2021-22-free-agent-class-left-handed-relief.html Can always try to coax Andrew Miller out of recent retirement and spend even more on the pen…as a former Cardinal, will automatically get a courtesy look.

It's the White Sox, so we pretty much have come to expect nothing short of amputation, avascular necrosis or the need for new surgeries yet to be invented...although Andrew Vaughn seemingly bucked that trend.

Would be nice to have Jace Fry back, but we'll just have to wait and see how Sousa does. Another option would be Keuchel in the second half.

They've taken four lefties who were relievers or profiled by scouts as relievers in the first round, Royce Ring, Aaron Poreda and Crochet. Of course, the other was Chris Sale.

https://www.mlb.com/news/tony-la-russa-clarifies-comments-about-white-sox-roster GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- White Sox manager Tony La Russa opened his Thursday media session with a strong rebuttal of those who have called him rude or disrespectful to White Sox fans after he made a comment some interpreted as criticism on Monday. La Russa was asked about fans being vocal about wanting the organization to go out and add a right fielder -- and whether he viewed such a move as necessary. “Those are probably the fans who are not White Sox fans,” La Russa said. “White Sox fans know there are guys in this camp who can handle it.” Fans did not exactly respond favorably to that answer, especially via social media. But La Russa stressed Thursday that those comments were an absolute show of support for the players he has in camp. “What I said was we are going to win with what we’ve got here. And if somebody is saying we need help, they are not White Sox fans, because they don’t know it,” La Russa said. “They are out there trying to make us spend money. We should make it just with what we’ve got here. “My question to you from Day 1 to now, have I ever been disrespectful to White Sox fans? Haven’t I bragged about who they are, the support we get? I’ve never [said anything disparaging]. So for somebody to take what I said to mean like I’m demeaning White Sox fans, that’s got to be corrected. They have to know the opposite is true.” In La Russa’s opinion, fans criticizing Chicago's moves are from other fan bases or outside observers that don’t fully grasp the large level of talent the 2022 squad already possesses. Right field, second base and starting pitching appeared to be needs going into the season for a team with designs on a World Series title, and while the White Sox added veteran second baseman Josh Harrison and right-handers Vince Velasquez, Joe Kelly and Kendall Graveman, fans wanted something splashier as a "completion" to the roster adjustments. ..... "In uniform, the only time you are really upset is when you think somebody is putting pressure on you to win and you don’t have a chance. That’s when it’s unfair. “You should play as good as X club, and we have a .500 club. That’s what’s upsetting. But when they work this hard to give us a chance and you've got a real shot … In my whole career, we never had pressure from the front office to do something stupid that mortgages the future. They have a responsibility. We have ours.”

Couldn't find it online yet. Did find the modern-day equivalent of Eddie Gaedel, lol.