caulfield12

We were talking about it the other day," Correa said. "It was me, Altuve, Yuli, Bregman. We've asked the same question. We said, 'Why? Why do we keep showing up and getting it done?' And we came to the conclusion that it's because we hold each other accountable. And what I mean by that is we expect everybody to be better than [the] previous year, and we expect everybody to show up in great shape. ... We make sure that they prepare every single day to help us win because we know that the four of us can't get it done by ourselves." ESPN.com/Jeff Passan

The one that says they’ve sustained their competitive window alive longer than any team the last decade not named the Dodgers… They have been in the thick of it for seven seasons now…if it wasn’t for this play, the Royals wouldn’t have been in the 2015 World Series. The Dodgers are at nine, but this just MIGHT be their last year and they’re doing it with a $250+ million payroll.

Can I cut and paste this quote for later in the offseason when they still haven’t offloaded him or signed any player to more than a $12.5 million/year contract due to “payroll concerns/flexibility” or hints they will make their needed changes in-season or at the All-Star Break? Hahn really had a good situation with Hernandez at $6 million before that became untenable. Because we have never succeeded under Hahn in FA in the position player market (unless you count international/Cuban free agents only)…so why would or should we suddenly expect that to change or improve?

Except the Astros are going to have an extra $50 million of financial flexibility from where they will end the World Series payroll-wise compared to the Sox position with Kimbrel added... While our pitching is unlikely to improve on 2020 numbers, they somehow have a better farm system and the home field advantage bringing Verlander back into the fold for his last seasons. Knowing them, they'll probably take a shot at Syndergaard, Kershaw or Bauer, too.

And never holding runners or throwing anyone out...not to mentioned all the extra bases surrendered by improper fundamentals and lack of accountability for said mental lapses and/or lack of situational awareness.

Ironic, since we discovered Escobar, Semien, Anderson and Tatis, Jr...

"The free-agent crop of relievers is, as always, a crapshoot, with Raisel Iglesias (34 saves, 2.57 ERA with the Angels) perhaps the best of the lot, with Daniel Hudson and Ian Kennedy next in line among closers." MLB.com Then Kimbrel and Kenley J.

I don't think they will commit to any $10+ million contracts until the Kimbrel and Rodon situations are resolved...and the potential Kimbrel may take months to materialize, or drag into the regular season. They're unlikely to give a high enough enough subsidy or include a good enough prospect to make offloading Keuchel logical. It likely also drags into the regular season, hoping he can re-establish himself, but that makes it just as likely the Sox would keep him or have to worry about hitting his incentives to lock in yet another season at a price the White Sox cannot afford when they're in the hear of their window.

Game, set, match. Alvarez and Tucker can rake, thank god the former isn’t on the Dodgers. Managed to shut down Red Sox for three games in a row without McCullers or Verlander or Greinke. Since our other thread derailed, Scherzer out with a dead arm, Kelly hurting, they might have to go to David Price/bullpen and hold Buehler back for a possible Game 7. Doubt they would risk starting h8m twice in one week on short rest.

Watching it in two hours…

Seems there were all kinds of budget and safety concerns on set…there was also a mass walkout and some non-union replacements thrown into the mix.

How many runners could Maldonado gun down with the Sox pitching staff? Seems like his CS percentage would fall by 20-25%+, but certainly no automatic bases from average runners with a gun like that.

Okay…so the question is whether to give Taylor 3 years vs. 2, and how much they have to overpay ($28-30 million for 2) to aboid that third year or make it a realistic option based on year 2 performance. And have no doubt he would be starting at 2B Opening Day. The problem is where we get the payroll space for that kind of move….or Conforto/S.Marte or some of the secondary options in RF.

With Ketel Marte included, you’d have to trade Jimenez/Vaughn (probably ask for both to start) and Crochet. Not sure you get there with Sheets, Burger and Crochet. Which means the fairest package would be Vaughn or Jimenez, Sheets or Burger, and Crochet. Once again, that pretty much limits the remaining window to the next couple of seasons.

Schwarber showing off some stellar defense at first…kept it to just a 2-0 deficit.

Technically, we already had Rodon in-house, it's more a semantics argument. Hendriks and Lynn were different situations.

Top MLB free agents 2021-2022 Rodon #15, Conforto #20, Chris Taylor #22 Kimbrel and Kenley Jansen unranked. Lots of options of short-term or intriguing options on the pitching front like Syndergaard, Verlander, Kershaw...one or two of them are going to pay off like lottery winners, and a few will blow up in teams' faces, like a Ray or Gausman, perhaps. Some, like Bumgarner in the past, were relatively predictable disasters. Guess we'll see with Keuchel this year if we really made a big-time mistake or if he can resurrect himself.

And based on that, we should have had the best bullpen in baseball based on pure stuff/physics/spin rate. There are lots of other factors beyond infield shift rate to explain all those failures dating back to the very first series in Anaheim. We also had the most expensive pen in baseball the final two months of the season.

Speaking of eye tests, everyone can see Cease has great stuff...BUT, based on the often repeated fWAR numbers and 4th in the AL or majors ranking, does anyone think he could CURRENTLY fetch the same return Corbin Burnes was generating (Madrigal, Vaughn, Heuer, etc.) during that offseason? Would he even get back anything close to Jimenez and the younger version of himself? The psychological side of the game.. controlling emotions, loss of command, sometimes those pitchers just don't quite come around and have career trajectories more like Javy Vasquez if they're fortunate.

And Escobar. The supposed medical isdues. that might have been a negotiating tactic that backfired when the trade wasn't consummated. Just like you could have looked at James Shields' starts in April of 2016 compared to the weeks before the trade...eye test is just as good as statistics, the ball just wasn't coming out of his hand the same way. Heck, we could apply that to Lynn and Rodon as well the last six weeks, throwing out the entire season's body of work. One could argue the race was wrapped up, they were just going through the motions, but that obviously wasn't the real issue, it was physical. Giolito it's always noticeable if his stuff is crisp or flat.

Kike got 1/$8 from Boston and is a year younger and a better defender...Taylor seems closer to 2/$20-22 million, $24 if the spending went up again after CBA is reached.

It would be okay to spend $11-12 million x 2 years on Taylor if it got Leury off the roster…it’s probably better than Story or Baez, anyway.

Feel like Chris Taylor could easily end up as the big acquisition this offseason…which is kinda scary based on how high his stock will be after these playoffs.

We might need a few more Hail Mary's and Our Father's to win a championship with Micker Adolfo playing a key role next season...

Yep, Phillies won so to speak on both Harper and Wheeler yet with nothing to show for it. Harper has such a high ceiling but struggles to consistently maintain it.