caulfield12

He's not a big league CFer. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/foster-griffin-rumors-multi-year-offers-mlb.html Which unidentified team offered Foster Griffin two years? Or just an agent smoke screen to drive up interest?

The only things that will drive up the franchise valuation are: 1) new stadium deal 2) young star talent on cost-controlled deals for favorable rates...Montgomerys Teel Cholowsky etc. Ofc right now none of those guys (or Shane Smith) deserve even a Maikel Garcia deal as of yet. 3) extended winning/playoff appearances/2-2.25 million attendance and trending back up.

$12.5-15 million or a deal with a lot of incentives...or combination thereof.

"The Braves are bringing back Ha-Seong Kim on a $20MM contract, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s a one-year deal, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Kim had declined a $16MM player option and earns a $4MM raise to return as Atlanta’s starting shortstop. Kim spent the final month of the 2025 season with the Braves. They claimed him off waivers from the Rays, who were happy to get out from under the $16MM player option." Noticing a trend with the Rays? https://www.fangraphs.com/players/ha-seong-kim/27506/stats/batting Gambling that he can get back to that 3.2-3.5 fWAR version he maintained for three seasons before the shoulder injury sliding into a base. 30 years old. Very durable/consistent player until that injury. Quiet leader/glue guy. Offense has always been the concern...but he has surprising pop when healthy. Strikes out a lot for what should be a high contact position.

Nobody believes the Brewers Guardians or Rays could actually win it all...but TB did come relatively close. The problem comes when fans in too many cities believe they have no shot at all before Opening Day. Ofc fans in Seattle and Toronto and maybe even Detroit (for now) believe they're "right there." And the example of Oklahoma City in the NBA...even though the Indiana and Milwaukee small market success stories usually don't hold up for long. Namely, it's star players hitting FA.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/evan-phillips-rumors-sign-january-july-red-sox.html Evan Phillips available strictly on a one year deal

Jets Saints Browns NY Giants TN AZ Washington Cincy Two NY teams that are constant doormats, Washington was in the playoffs last year with Daniels and Burrow/Chase two of the most recognizable stars in the game. You don't have the equivalent unless you think Nats are really = Commanders. You also don't have two superstars long term in the NFL equivalent of Pitt Cincy KC in MLB. Well, Bobby Witt Jr. might be the one singular exception.

Most Sox fans don't believe all that much in Pereira...but 100% would rather watch him than Tauchman Bell Arraez Ozuna Kepler Conforto etc. Would anyone get excited about Rhys Hoskins, for example? No, not really. The real problem is they always want to cobble together 3-5 veteran "name" players years past their sell by dates instead of investing $125-175 million into a really really good hitter...we also know quite well the Sox (at least until Isbia) would never even dream on $200+ million, let alone getting that first $100 million guy.

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article/chiefs-playoff-elimination-and-patrick-mahomes-knee-injury-puts-chiefs-dynasty-at-a-crossroads-is-it-a-pause-or-the-end-075325247.html A lot of younger people forget/don't realize that the Patriots' dynasty paused for almost a decade in the middle. KC is going to have to find a dynamic RB in the next 3-5 years (Barkley last year, J.Love in draft, maybe it's Bijan Robinson or Achane via trade or FA). And Andy Reid is already near 70. https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/patriots-super-bowl-appearances 2005-2015 between SB wins 3-2 start exactly like KC Then 3-1 again in their "second wave," and Brady at 37-41 years old.

Not to mention Ohtani Matsumoto and Ohtani are responsible for sonewhere in the vicinity of $150-250 million in revenues generated in various forms in SoCal and especially through Japanese corporate partners/advertisers. Almost the same number of Japanese were watching LA on a Sunday morning for Game 7 of the WS in a much smaller country than Americans watching on a weekend night. And the same advantage is accruing to Toronto as "Canada's team," just on a slightly smaller scale (Rogers is a massive national corporation) that puts them on equal footing with the Yankees and ahead of Boston/Balt. All these resources have also led to a perennial Top 2-3 farm system...where they have 3-5 replacements for every position with the exception of closer, which was addressed with Edwin Diaz after Sasaki made it through the playoffs (barely).

Not to mention Meadiocre.

Having watched him pretty closely the last couple of years...he's almost the very last player to buy low on when he's still going to get something like $12-15 million on name/reputation alone. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/2025-atlanta-braves-player-review-170000563.html M.Ozuna...or Conforto, in following the Encarnacion/Alonso tradition, just somehow feels likelier, because both SHOULD be under $10 million and willing to sign one year "make good" deals that allow them to be flipped to contenders with better performances.

Do we even know this for sure? That week when minority shareholders were offered the opportunity to sell at a $1.8 billion valuation...a surprising number of those share sales went to the Reinsdorf kids and not Ishbia. JR was already around 25% personally. His kids maybe at 5-10%? Ishbia MIGHT be at 45-50% now, Reinsdorf family at roughly 35-40% and also a number of the minority shareholders decided to hold out. At least 10-15% remaining. But there hasn't been any public reporting that the Ishbias are over 50%...and control person title/shares is all that really matters at this point.

https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/what-josh-bells-signing-means-for-the-rest-of-the-twins-lineup-r19547/ From reading this， Trevor Larnach has now become the obvious trade candidate.

Twins now with 9 left handed OF 1B DH candidates and counting.... TEAM CURRENT ODDS OPENING ODDS Tigers +290 Guardians +225 Royals OTB +275 Twins OTB +260 White Sox OTB +15000

https://www.mlb.com/news/starting-pitcher-trade-candidates-2025-26-mlb-offseason Pros and cons of 7 biggest names on FA pitching market

Fine, Oliver Twist in keeping with economic allusions.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/articles/ranking-tarik-skubal-trade-suitors-220222310.html 8 top possibilities for Skubal trade

Even WestEddy accidentally wrote Oliver Done in one of these threads.. A new nickname to pair with Meadiocre.

Roch, yes. Smith or Schultz...not so much.

That doesn't automatically result in more butts in the seats. Just gives fans a reason to watch at home and maybe see something different. It would be surprising if there's even a noticeable increase in tickets sold for a May weekday/night home game when Braden debuts in 2026. Same thing with the Colson and Teel debuts...barely noticed except by diehards. Now if you go back to Moncada Jimenez Kopech and Robert debuting...those were all must see events in the rebuild timeline.

WestEddy reserved fifty season ticket packages if Elko's on the active roster at least 45 days.

Don't be so sure. Especially if Sosa is traded.

Lukakke is Japanese Appling?

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/mets-padres-pirates-interested-in-luis-robert.html 4 teams now? Please just be over. SFG interested in Bellinger. Ofc.