caulfield12

“According to ESPN's Buster Olney, the expectation around the league is that Freeman will sign elsewhere after he and the Braves were unable to come to an agreement before the lockout began. The Braves reportedly offered Freeman a five-year, $135 million deal, and the first baseman is keen on getting a sixth year.” “The presumption among a lot of rival executives last year was that Freeman and the Braves would eventually work out a deal. But Freeman was not among the stars who signed a pre-lockout contract -- even after the Braves won the World Series and the franchise operated with the championship glow (and cash injection). So the industry view has shifted; there is a growing belief that Freeman will land somewhere outside of Atlanta because of the standoff in his negotiations. The Braves offered $135 million over five years, sources say, and Freeman is looking for a six-year deal. "I think [the Braves] will move quickly to settle on an alternative and move on to get past the conversation," one official said. Maybe that's a deal for Oakland's Matt Olson. Maybe they'll sign Anthony Rizzo. But the Freeman negotiations became a competition, and as one agent said, you never want to do that. Freeman would be a perfect fit for just about any lineup, especially with the universal designated hitter likely to be used in the National League in 2022. Even a team with an established first baseman could envision Freeman splitting time between DH and first base.” https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/02/22/freddie-freeman-braves-free-agency-mlb-lockout

We should blame this on Manfred, too, haha…like Tyler Glasnow and the spider-tack controversy. Baseball remains the one sport that does a worse job promoting their stars in this modern media age (see Trout) than in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Somehow MLB is increasingly regional, whereas the NFL and NBA are increasingly national/international. (Of course, one part of this is the relatively limited financial potential and some ongoing safety/security concerns of the Caribbean/Central/South America and the far-removed nature of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.)

Who’s to say they don’t…losing one GM and seemingly not even missing a beat despite what happened to their pitching staff, Ozuna and Acuna, Jr., last year.

Shades of Aaron Rowand…minus being one of the faces of MLB at the time. Hard to say he’ll even learn eventually, it’s just the way some top athletes are programmed, to push themselves to the limits in every aspect of life, like Michael Jordan with his golfing and especially gambling. Obviously different types of risk there.

They’re both head-scratchers without having access to inside information from the Braves and White Sox. That said, they’re not tremendously far apart in value despite Rodon having only two solid seasons and Freeman being nearly on a HoF path. Everyone knows Rodon has the talent/potential to be one of the 3-5 best pitchers in baseball. Freeman has been one of the 3-5 best NL players, period, so there has to be something that everyone is missing because it makes almost no sense on the surface.

That’s what happens when a corporation gets involved in the decision-making process…although it’s still shocking in this era of prospect overvaluing to see that much talent go out the door. Perhaps their difficult to repeat success rearranging an entire outfield on the fly is going to their heads.

Just doesn’t make any sense, unless they’re expecting a massive drop-off soon…just like the White Sox with Rodon, you usually give the benefit of the doubt to the team letting that player go. (For example, Goldschmidt in AZ another similar name that comes to mind, nobody was/is in the Pujols category when he left St. Louis with that massive deal.)

There’s no star available in RF. Suzuki has even more questions surrounding him…than Conforto…and that’s despite Ohtani now being the universally-acknowledged second massive impact Japanese position player after Ichiro (some would also argue Hideki Matsui, but he wasn’t nearly the athlete.)

Yet we avoided Eduardo Escobar like he had the plague. Pitchers in the same sentence with nerve damage never exactly a reassuring thing. Now really feeling they will keep Kimbrel on the roster, assuming a war of attrition the first 2-3 months of the season due to an abbreviated spring training will ensue.

There’s a lot of rust associated with Colas, remember all the time Robert ended up sitting and then the injuries on top of it…of course, it’s almost impossible to completely derail Superman for too long.

Classic supply/demand curve. More dollars chasing the even now more limited talent at that particular position.

Well, they have two bad contracts in Hosmer and Myers, the risk surrounding Tatis…added all those pitchers last year, and still put the medal to the metal. Not to mention they have Abrams, Gore and Hassell, hard not to look on without feeling a little bit of frustration with the White Sox roster construction at this point.

There’s no way the Twins are going to sign Correa or Story after fighting to get out from under the Donaldson contract. Detroit would make a lot more sense, and who we should be more concerned about signing him.

"The Padres could use some thump in the middle of their lineup. Considering they’re in good shape up the middle, they can focus on finding a corner-outfield/DH type exclusively for his bat. Kyle Schwarber and Jorge Soler fit the bill. And who knows? If the Padres can clear some salary elsewhere, they might even splurge on a player of Nick Castellanos’ ilk." mlb.com This makes (financial) sense if they can move Myers, especially. They've also got a top OF prospect in Robert Hassell. Assuming Tatis is back at SS, that leaves Grisham, Myers and Profar (more of a 4th outfielder, utility guy), to name a few. They're also looking at Nelson Cruz as their full-time DH.

With Turner and Lux, they don't HAVE to do anything right now, not to mention Taylor and Muncy.

You have to also look at it in terms of their drafting philosophy of going after high upside relief arms. We had a pretty average farm system in 2012 but almost made the playoffs behind Quintana and 12 other rookies pitchers, mostly in bullpen roles. The two best White Sox internally-produced relievers after Bummer shouldn't even be used in those roles, arguably.

Well, you'd think with one of the, what, five most iconic players in the city of Chicago over the last decade that there would be SOME noise?

Dream on. Has there even once been any insider naming the Sox as an interested party?

I've seen better feeding frenzies in the Sharknado Trilogy.

Ask any Dodgers fan how much they trusted Jansen the last 2-3 seasons.

The lemmings have been right for four decades straight with the exception of 2005...which of course has proven nearly impossible to replicate. You don't go into a full rebuild then deliver the equivalent of an 80's Johnny Bench Krylon paint commercial to inspire their season ticket purchases. The lemmings were there shouting from the rooftops and rafters that acquiring James Shields was never going to work out...even if they had given up nothing in that trade besides taking on salary.

If he wasn't related to Yoenis, he'd be just another Latin "tool box" guy likw Adolfo with major questions about his ability to put it all together.

It's more about TLR and how he utilizes his roster...Leury and Harrison will be almost impossible to get out of the everyday lineup.

A bit reminiscent of how Thornton would go through tough stretches even though the stuff was still there until his last couple of seasons. Bummer could be downright nasty, but had that uncanny knack of giving up weak contact that ended up with the worst possible results somehow.

Hendriks really needs to go back to that multiple pitch mix to keep opponents honest. Those off speed pitches only make it that much harder to dial up the fastball. Hopefully some better pitch calling after one full season of familiarity with his arsenal will make acdiffetence. He's a horse, wants the ball practically every day and is clearly one of the emotional leaders of the team.