caulfield12

Which is further irony because all three of those guys were dealt due to defensive shortcomings the White Sox were either unable to identify and/or fix…

Yeah, it’s almost like we’re betting everything on rolling the 2005 “everything must go perfectly/stars must align” dice at this point…because the White Sox were never going to have a 6 year window like the Cubs, 7 years like the Astros and 9 like the Dodgers. We get 4 years, and perhaps 5. Two are gone already. And the Cubs, Royals and Astros each experienced a lot more success than two total playoff victories in the beginning years of their respective windows.

Yet they still advanced in the postseason despite a quite pedestrian 60 game stretch of play.

Obviously the Braves are the best example of making the playoffs so many times with only one title over three decades to show for it. That said, the Dodgers were just not hitting well late, were missing too many key parts of their team and starting Buehler twice on three day's rest caught up to them. That and Matzek. Roberts also made some terrible managerial decisions in this series...especially his usage of Urias. In the end, the Braves did a great job shoring up their offense at the trade deadline and having a deep enough farm system that they could still overcome the losses of Soroka and Ynoa. They've also been able to develop MVP caliber talents like Riley, Freeman, Acuna and Albies internally.

The Brewers didn’t even have a $100 million payroll at the beginning of the season…give that front office even another $50 million to get to MLB average and they will be right there. Even the Braves were #12 on Opening Day, $47 million higher…and made a ton of acquisitions at the ASB so they finished in the Top 10.

Might as well turn it into an SPAC and the value will shoot into the billions, especially if they can branch out into football helmets... Buehler's luck just ran out. Former Sox killer Eddie Rosario. Still would probably take him over Carson Fulmer, lol.

Who were you formerly named? Before I was the biggest Puig fan, then the Royals, then Tatis, Jr., can I be all those things simultaneously and still follow every White Sox game? That would require lots of multitasking and the ability to write thousands of posts about a team that is supposedly not my favorite. Maybe I'm also a fan of Covid-19 and politics, lol. And I guess it's a pretty bad thing to be knowledgeable about teams playing in the Senior Circuit, especially since it might benefit my fantasy league team.

Man, PSU and Indiana were really overrated, and probably Iowa State/Okla.State too. PSU is going to lose by 30+ next week if they don’t get it together somehow. And Iowa will undoubtedly lose again in Madison. Only question is if NW can take them down in Evanston. Not even confident about Illinois or Nebraska at this point. And the West team will get absolutely smacked around in the championship game.

You don’t want to see the lowest TV ratings in WS history?

Braves out to the early lead…Dodgers just want to keep it as close as possible through 5 or 6 with Buehler on fumes.

And you’ve looked at his numbers after the trade how closely? They will prioritize moving a bigger salary, someone would have to overpay. Kim is the guy you could basically assume his contract and they would be happy with a B/C prospect. But then you’re committed to two years at even more money than Hernandez for a huge question mark offensively, especially changing leagues.

Nobody wants hard-ass authoritarian guys like Showalter, Scioscia or even Bochy around their teams anymore…it’s not laid back enough for the modern player. Girardi is one of the last, although he's had to become more relaxed over the years. Gabe Kapler is pretty much the ideal…someone really into psychology, fitness, advanced metrics. Maddon kind of started that trend.

Fine, you got me, he has signed one position player who worked out “okay/decently,” especially considering his price tag, in a decade. Pretty remarkable stuff. Somehow I image Jason McLeod will get more offers now that he’s leaving the Cubs.

Yes, because the Brewers have obviously not advanced out of the first round of the playoffs…in like forever.

This is one way to beat OU….keep their offense off the field or intercept Williams/Rattler. There’s just no way they are the #3 team in the country, the defense can’t even stop lowly Kansas.

So if you have ten years of position player moves in FA and Yasmani Grandal sticks out as the best, that’s not exactly saying much. Any GM in baseball could have had him for those same terms…but weren’t to do so. The Brewers, for example. got a lot more out of Grandal for just a one year commitment, then Narvaez, Pina, etc., for a fraction of the price. Wouldn’t it be better if we could have developed the full potential of our own players like Semien or Narvaez (or even Collins), rather than trading them off early when they struggle in one area or another? Then we have no option but to try to fix that hole through FA. Even Avi Garcia, we arguably would have been better off retaining him than misallocating for that position since he left the Sox and moved on.

Buehler going for the second time this postseason (and first times ever) because Price could never go more than two and they just had a full bullpen game. Leaving Urias or a miracle with Scherzer’s dead arm for G7, if they can somehow beat Ian Anderson.

Giolito is nearing the same position the exact same position the Twins were in with Berrios and Buxton this season…and Moncada starts to look less and less attractive when he nears the ballooning back end of his deal.

Going back to Roberto Hernandez, we have never ever spent Top 3-5 money on a closer until recently…that’s the only way to survive with a mid-tier budget. The lone except until recently was Billy Koch, and everyone knows how well that worked out. Linebrink and Dotel/Linebrink two others, but for set-up when they were acquired. In fact, the entire draft philosophy for 2-3 years running was advanced collegiate position players and big arms that were supposedly destined for the big league pen…except there’s not much left to show for all those draft picks.

Except this was never the case historically until Robertson, Hendriks and Kimbrel. Wasted DH spending is altogether different story dating all the way back to 2010 and tge decision to push out Thome for Kotsay/rotating guys.

Sure, and that's why we are always #2/3/4 for an A-Rod, a Japanese TOR starter, Harper, Machado, Wheeler, etc. It wouldn't be possible to avoid if we were in the West or East in either league. We have a MASSIVE advantage of being in the Central, where you can still win division titles with a mid-tier payroll because 80% of the teams are well below the White Sox in revenues/resources. Unfortunately, we're not as good as the Milwaukee, Minnesota, St. Louis or Cleveland front offices over the last twenty years...and we don't have anything approaching the Cubs' ability to spend near $200 million every year, either.

Wherever we are in that Top 10, it's much closer to 10th than 1st at the current moment. How would you rank Tony LaRussa against those 10 managers? Which GM's would you take Rick Hahn over in that Top 10? They really have no choice but to make a high-risk trade OR spend money, and it's not Hahn's nature to do either one of those very well...except for extensions of his own players. For example, if Cease was the actually the 4th best pitcher in baseball, according to FG, then he would get a similar haul to the Sale, Q and Eaton trades. If you don't believe he is ever going to be a true TOR guy that you CONFIDENTLY start a Game 5 or Game 7, then of course you don't ever make that trade, but dealing guys like Burger or Sheets isn't going to move the meter, either. That's the kind of move the White Sox would have to make to shake things up, or trading Lucas Giolito. Otherwise, you're having to move Jimenez or Vaughn to get back anything of value, and I don't currently trust this front office to make the right decisions on either one of those guys, TBH. I actually do prefer not to live in a fantasy world where dealing the guys we don't want on the team like Keuchel and Kimbrel are going to replace spots on the roster that only FA spending can replace when our farm system is so bereft of talent ready to contribute at the big league level. At any rate, thanks for putting words in my mouth. Nowhere on this site this entire season have I mentioned rebuilding. I think you're confusing that mindset with Parkman posts. Until proven otherwise, though, assumptions about a 2022 payroll of $170-180 million are coming from where, exactly?

Let's see what performance we get out of Grandal during the next two seasons, when he's going to be critical to the team's success in the post-season... Considering we have nearly a decade of moves to look at now with Rick Hahn, I would hardly define that signing as an unparalleled success, especially if you consider what happened against the Astros, and the fact that the Dodgers refused to rely on him defensively when he was even younger. Catchers are not meant to maintain their level of play into their mid-30's unless they switch to 1B/DH. Somehow, Sal Perez and Posey managed career resurgences, but I would hardly count on it, anymore than we should expect a Lance Lynn repeat of his 2021 numbers. To me, Grandal and Jose Abreu are quite similar at this stage in their careers. They're not hurting the team, certainly, but they're not generating any surplus value due to their salaries and decline age curves hitting right in the heart of our window. I would give that signing a B/B-, considering the fact that it was the biggest overall contract in the history of the franchise.

This actually would have been the MUCH better choice this past trade deadline...now we're just older and more expensive.

Good idea. The Twins responded quite positively to such threats....they got a chip on their shoulders. Anything is better than complacency in the AL Central. Maybe it will take the Tigers going out and spending on C, SS and their starting rotation to set the tone and force a response from the Sox, instead of KW's usual bromide about the Tigers "just put themselves in a position to come closer to competing with the White Sox" bravado.