caulfield12

List all the available players (not counting trades) you would be happy if the White Sox were to sign only one of them. Four SS, K.Bryant, S.Suzuki, Gausman, Conforto, Ray, Kershaw...better not hear either Greinke or Bauer.

In Rick (Hahn) and Romy's High School Reunion We Trust.

See early Cubs' career Bryant...

Paging Endy Chavez or Ender Inciarte for RF.

When he played being the three key words...

That might be too optimistic, your last sentence...

Being a Sox fan is like hoping Iowa or NW beats Michigan or Ohio State in football...it happens about 5-10% of the time, enough to just keep you hooked but never enough to set your expectations too high, only to end up totally disappointed. White Sox have to turn 2-3* recruits into All-Stars, just very hard to do on a consistent or sustainable basis. Could we at least be Wisconsin or Michigan State?

Well, there goes my offseason plan. Fascinating contract...still doubt it elicits much of a reaction from Hahn. Heightened risk/even higher potential reward move to the nth degree.

Ummm...so now everyone is using babes? Brad Miller? Leury? Happ? What happened to the $190-200 million payroll White Sox? This is the Aldi/Cub Foods version...the Whole Foods arugula-consuming hopes lasted all of one week.

Levee, as in dam? Or tax levy? Or ESPN's Mark?

Who is left that could be considered TOR if you remove Scherzer, Kershaw, Gausman, Stroman…? That only leaves Ray (that won’t happen), Rodon and J.Gray, basically.

I hope that’s the explanation for Kopech second half and they figure out how to address it somehow, then.

Didn’t anyone besides TLR realize that before the trade was made? How massive the role adjustment would actually be? AS CWS points out, he wasn’t Cubs’ closer for most of 2020…loses the role, regains it again and then loses it yet again in the span of one year. How is that not going to have a massive psychological impact on him to keep changing his prep/mindset?

https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/30653/year/2020/category/pitching Almost none of his outings in 2020 were meaningful after those first four disastrous appearances…three save situations, and a hold, which was a one run lead against the White Sox that Jeffress saved ultimately. Then another tie game that eventually became a win in extra against CLE. So how does pitching in all those mostly meaningless situations in the 7th and 8th indicate anything of value? 12 times he pitched in Cubs’ losses, just 7 times in wins…and 3 of those 7 were the first 2 2/3rds IP when he was absolutely getting shellacked to start the season.

7 inning DH games… From 8/7 to the end of the month, he only pitched with one lead the entire time, ironically against the White Sox in the 8th up 2-1, and Jeffress actually pitched at the end for the save. Then his first official blown save in the 7th against DET, shortened game. 2 2/3 IP and 7 runs to start the season. The first two weeks of September he was also pitching in all games the Cubs trailed. But a number of meaningless games where he was pitching in the 7th or 8th (on the road, trailing).

You’re not looking at the context of those situations…for example, how many times did he pitch the 7th when it was the final inning of a game, where it was as THE closer? Would like to see how many of those 7/8th innings were tied games…or non-closing. How many just getting work in? 27 1/3 innings over an entire career up to that point proves only that he has almost always been used as a closer…and that more than 25% of outings in 7th and 8th came in anomalous Covid-related shortened games.

What exactly are we spending $190-200 million on now? Assuming Scherzer is off the board, Gausman, Kershaw, no Stroman due to TLR, no Top 4 SS…that leaves everything pinned to either Conforto, Semien or Rodon. Seiya Suzuki?

In this market, how is he not going to get at least five…if not six or even seven? The White Sox have never been that comfortable going beyond three years, with a couple of four year deals the outliers for outside FA’s and not team-friendly extensions.

As a closer…not in the 7th or 8th. There are hundreds if not thousands of guys in baseball history that could pitch the 6th-8th but not the 9th. There are only a handful who will make it to Cooperstown for that elite skill of dominating in your designated role of finishing games for a decade plus.. So why try to pound a screw in with a hammer when it will never fit? Why demote someone essentially that was the best closer in the NL if not all of baseball the first 3-4 months of the season? Why would you want to mess around with a successful dynamic and also mess a bit with the psyche of your newly-signed and All-Star FA closer?

https://phillysportsnetwork.com/2021/11/17/jean-segura/ “How much cap space do they currently have to do so? $43 million. Considering Jose Berrios‘ seven-year, $131 million contract extension in Toronto and Noah Syndergaard’s one-year, $21 million move to Anaheim, and that does not seem like much. Sure, the Phillies could go for cheap options to fill the gaps like they did last year, but we all know how well that worked out.” The White Sox clearly won’t take Gregorious, but dealing Segura to another team that really wants him for SS (one of the teams losing out on the Big 4 at SS and then Semien as well) to free up that money to turn around and spend it on CF and LF makes equal sense for the Phillies. They have prospect depth up the middle and need to open up those spots by trading Segura and attempting to get a rebound from Gregorious. Realistically, they could use Kimbrel AND Vaughn, but then who would the White Sox be going after beyond Segura? Obviously not Wheeler, Realmuto or Harper…and trading Nola at a discount doesn’t make much sense either, because you just opened up another hole in their rotation.

We can excuse it away…shortened season. See Semien, Marcus.

He didn’t have to be. Kimbrel had to be better as closer than Diego Castillo or Kittredge in Tampa…because they were looking at adding him for $5.33 million as the defined CLOSER. Balta and Tony LaRussa could have known this without watching Kimbrel with the Cubs once in 2021. And the Rays did come up short in the post season, so they obviously had concerns. As far as the Dodgers go, they were considering moving on from Jansen…and it would have been a tryout for the 2022 option as well with Jansen an impending FA. Now you can argue that the Dodgers had a lot of bullpen talent, but there was always the nagging feeling that Jansen would implode again in the postseason or some point during the second half. Whether as co-closer or supplanting Jansen, they had their own vision…but it wasn’t a must have like Scherzer and Turner. And, once again, they came up short as well despite adding 2 of the Top 5 talents available at the deadline. Their starting pitching ran out of depth, in the end…forcing Buehler to go twice on short rest was too much to ask. In no world did it make sense to pay two closers that kind of money…with Hendriks already in place for three subsequent seasons. Having Kimbrel around even in 2022 was illogical, too.

Is that a trick question?

The Dodgers aren't going to deal Bellinger if they want to win another WS title, because selling him for 50-65 cents on the dollar just doesn't make sense when his ceiling is league MVP.

"Billy Koch, his wife (Brandi) and their children have been suffering from a condition, called Morgellons disease by those who believe it to be a true condition but generally thought among the medical community to be a type of delusional parasitosis, which can cause sufferers to experience what they perceive as a crawling feeling and ...Sep 27, 2015"