caulfield12

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"

Leading to an average out of 4 2/3 IP every time out as his K and BB total escalate. Prior to re-discovering the strike zone in 2021, he was actually in that 4.75-5.25 IP range per start over three consecutive seasons. Last year up to over 6 IP per start and 193+ innings, a jump of over 140 IP from 2020 and by far his most in a season by roughly 20 innings. That’s a pretty loud red flag.

“His numbers declined with the Sox, but they did not use him to close games. Kimbrel thrives on save situations. The Padres will likely need to move salary to obtain Kimbrel. Jurickson Profar, Ha-Seong Kim, and Adam Frazier all make sense to some degree. The Padres would love to move Eric Hosmer or Wil Myers, but neither fit on the White Sox roster. The two sides match up well in trade, but they will need to get creative adding prospects here and there to even out a potential deal. Kimbrel would give the Padres a solid closer for the 2022 season, and the Padres could not add payroll if Preller plays his cards right. Only time will tell. Kimbrel will be dealt. That is a given.” https://www.eastvillagetimes.com/closing-options-for-the-padres-in-2022/ While I would enjoy all the squirming if Hosmer or Myers ended up on the Sox for Kimbrel…it would have to be either Profar (money matches up pretty closely) or Kim (ditto). They would be replacing Leury Garcia on the roster, but at a price almost twice as high as we were willing to pay him heading into this offseason. Kim is a great defender who can’t hit, so I will go with the long-coveted Profar. And nobody will be all that happy, in the end. For the record, I think they would rather have Melancon and Kirby Yates back again for the price of one year of Kimbrel…

Well, that’s the Cubs fan’s excuse for the blown Heyward deal (but his leadership during that Game 7 rain delay!!!) and Gleyber Torres trade…which looks not quite so terrible about right now. Sox fans can say how great Cotts was in 2005 and forget that original trade.

You would think. But those deals seem a lot easier for GM’s to justify…compared to closers making $16 million. Someone will likely give Tepera a similar deal and nobody will remember him ten years from now. Let’s think of it as the White Sox equivalent of Dotel and Linebrink. But everyone remembers Billy Koch, for example. GM’s take a lot more heat over that than fanbases going after general bullpen spending. Think the Mets and Edwin Diaz, or Wade Davis after leaving KC.

https://www.gaslampball.com/2021/11/27/22804872/talking-friars-ep-74-what-the-adam-frazier-trade-means-for-the-padres The bottom comments section of this article, might as well be Nick from Everett. Shockingly, fans from other teams go visit other teams’ fanboards to see what those particular fans think about a particular player, and not all are meatheads.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1880902-evaluating-the-success-rate-of-mlb-contracts-over-100-million David Price, Barry Zito, Johan Santana, Mark Hampton, Jordan Zimmermann, Jake Arrieta, etc., say hello. I wouldn’t particularly want to be tied to Stephen Strasburg either, but hey, he won a WS for them, right? We actually gave Contreras another 3 years we shouldn’t have based on that same reasoning, albeit nothing like the type of dollars we see now in the sport. To be fair, it’s a pretty mixed bag. That particular article looked at the first generation of $100+ million deals, and now we’re already onto $200 million as the new standard. If you look at the past decade, the biggest disappointments have been on the position player side like Chris Davis, Ellsbury, Sandoval, Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Hanley Ramirez.

But what about Northwestern vs. Illinois and then Harvard beat Yale 34-31 last week…? Chris Getz can celebrate too, and former Sox Jim Abbott.

The poster? Well, at least they could have a “Men in Tight Pants Admitted Free” promotion…that would be unique, at least.