caulfield12

Cespedes has two homers already and has made some amazing plays and throws on backfields, Adolfo looking good and healthy for the first time in 2-3 years and Colas and Burger in the best shape of their lives, except for the dreadful sunburns caused by the new mesh hats from New Era, everything is hunky dorey.

Yet Hahn has struggled to quickly find someone even to take on his contract, meaning the perception is that he's only worth $10-$13, maybe $14 million on the open market. The Braves clearly decided one year of Jansen was preferable at the same $16 million rate.

Eduardo Escobar + Romy/Mendick >>> Harrison and Leury Plus you can always add bench players as salary dumps at the deadline. Our entire roster construction process is backwards. You logically address RF/2b/starter first, then bullpen, bench maybe backup catcher if one suits your fancy.

It's the Sox cardinal rule of never bringing back young players we traded away foolishly...certainly not for the going FA market rate. Last year, the (trade deadline) excuse was Eduardo Escobar's quad. We ended up bringing in someone who fared much worse.

Hicks and Gallegos...St.L seems like one of those teams like the White Sox used to be (post Koch/pre Robertson) that would never overspend on a reliever.

Vaughn has gone all the way today...guess they're making up for missed at-bats the last two seasons. Just lined a base hit to CF. 2/4.

What would be interesting to see is the current movement in season tickets sold from last season into this season for the AL Central...the White Sox and Indians might be the only ones losing from their 2021 ticket bases at this point. Whenever they get a bump, Merkin and Boyer are pretty quick to put it out there.

The White Sox's offseason was geared around their bullpen, as they added Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly, and Vince Velasquez to their bunch. They also exercised Craig Kimbrel's option, ostensibly with an eye on trading him. That deal has yet to materialize, but we're not going to ding them too much for an apparent misstep. Their only moves offensively were the retention of Leury García and the addition of Josh Harrison. We would've liked to have seen them add another outfielder, but that's a complaint that can be addressed at the deadline if need be. GRADE: B Twins got an A. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-offseason-grades-dodgers-blue-jays-mets-braves-twins-get-high-marks-yankees-astros-needed-more/

So what is their job then, exactly?

2005 White Sox, 2014-15 Royals, Brewers, Rays, 2016 Indians all say hello.

Story 6/$140, same as Baez.

Can understand the trepidation about pitching...that's one thing. But at some point you have to trust your scouting and evaluation players to make the right calls or bring in someone better. Or simply revamp the entire system. To this day, KW and Paddy are the only two that have a proven eye for talent on a consistent basis.

Those are all rational enough excuses. Sure, it takes a ton of effort and investment of time and resources. Rome wasn't built in a day. Look at how we went from Minoso, Contreras and El Duque to where we are now with Cuban players. I hoped the same would happen w/ Venezuelan players (Aparicio/Carrasquel), but that country went sideways in terms of MLB academies and Ozzie Guillen only leveraged a family member in Garcia. Even that played no small part in our title run.

Isn't the the perfect situation for the White Sox...as long as their evaluations on Colas and Cespedes are right on? This feels like the not dealing with 12-14 year olds in Latin America...we also don't give up control of players, instead either going with club or at worst mutual options. Living in perpetual fear of having our own Heyward deal (Danks was pretty much the one, coloring all the pitching contracts up to Wheeler and Tanaka.)

Agree 100%. Try something different, we watched the Indians for years make the most out of nothing. Brewers. Rays. Heck, even the Royals and Twins. It's not like we don't have plenty of templates for alternative approaches. I still don't understand why we have completely given up on the Pacific Rim in terms of scouting.

Red Sox Story done deal.

It's deliberately meant to elicit an emotional reaction and get one off their game. Internet banter. Can't take it all that seriously.

Not all alumni are like that, but that's fairly typical of those who go to Northwestern, Michigan and particularly Harvard Law School. The sarcastic joke about the Tatis trade is the most we're going to get out of him in terms of self-reflection.

https://www.eastvillagetimes.com/the-padres-and-michael-conforto-are-a-unique-fit/ Already went after Suzuki and Soler, so clearly in the market at a corner. Have experience in these competitive bidding situations with super agents. West Coast location...opportunities to spend significant time in SF, LA, Denver and Phoenix, better weather overall than Rust Belt teams. Went to Oregon State, but Mariners not a fit. GM under massive pressure to winthis year, can't blame another young manager with veteran Melvin in place.

Miguel Cabrera 8/$248 Justin Verlander 7/$180 Javier Baez 6/$140 Jordan Zimmermann 5/$110 Justin Verlander 5/$80 Victor Gonzalez 4/$68 Juan Gone turned down 8/$140, one of the dumbest contract moves in?history. Sal Perez 4/$82 Alex Gordon 4/$72 Gil Meche 5/$55

Hahn clearly was asking for too much...to the point where just paying that $16 million to Jansen made more sense. Therein lies the danger of being left without a seat when the music stops. Keeping in mind the Braves already won a WS with now former closer Will Smith. They might have the best pen in baseball if Kirby Yates can put it back together...with their battery of setup guys like Jackson and Minster.

Between the Yankees and Dodgers, they each just have one in the past 44 combined years....

Wickman was the best, maybe Sweeney second.

Except it would have meant it never got out there for public consumption in that case...as the conspiracy theory was to appear to be trying their best to sign him for the fanbase/PR without really wanting that to actually happen.

Unless they shock the world and sign Story for 2B, which would really render Harrison extraneous...