caulfield12

Imagine a Michigan fan flipping to tOSU or vice versa...you just can't do that, even as a result of marriage. It's ingrained, innate, in your blood for life.

By the way, are we supposed to root for the Astros to win it all now to make the Sox look better, or for Sale despite being on the Red Sox but coming off an injury? Challenging to find anything compelling to root for now, Just tepidly for ATL I guess.

Your penalty for this misguided attempt at a "like" is that you are now Contestant #1 in Squid Games 2. Buen suerte!

Basically you can't make the wrong decision on a franchise player in Lindor and rely on extended pitching health, like ever. Or not doing proper background checks, or ignoring those checks because you have too much Daniel Snyder in your DNA. Incredible the Braves got there without Acuna and Ozuna and pitching issues...and that the Phillies never get there despite talents like Harper and Wheeler.

This is detracting from your ultimate goal of earning a tenured position as Global Moderator.

You also shouldn't ruin Vaughn's early career by only playing 30-35% of the time and not letting him get over the hump against RHP...it would be incredibly short-sighted thinking if you believed so much in his talent to draft him that high.

Collins, really?

Madrigal gets MVP votes and Heuer Roland's Relief Man of the Year (if that still exists) while under the tutelage of Matt Karchner...

And when the Dodgers win the World Series again...will you retract that? Especially considering the disparity in payroll between the two teams, 107 wins in that division and it coming down to one hit in the final innings, along with a non-call. If the White Sox were in the NL West or AL East, we'd have little to no chance of winning a division title.

If you took away the Heyward, Chatwood and Q moves…Soler perhaps (for Wade Davis), as well as Kimbrel, Chapman and Darvish, the Cubs are in a much different place. Of course, many will argue no 2016 World Series title without two of those names + Zobrist. But similar concepts of disregarding youth for veterans here. You could do a Master’s thesis on the Padres getting more and more expensive with bigger veteran names while discarding Ty France, Urias, Patino, Quantrill, Reyes, Renfroe, Margot, Naylor…going all the way back to Rizzo, Trae Turner and Max Fried a development cycle previously. (Obviously Zobrist worked well for a time in KC and Chicago, but you can see the trend here.)

Something we have never heard about the White Sox...like ever. "All of our success has been driven by players exceeding expectations and that's a tribute to their work, and the staff, and the infrastructure that we've built to support them.” That’s Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who took over after the 2018 season and has built a deeper, more modern team while staying — at times confoundingly — invested in the same core that formed the backbone of a dynasty almost a decade ago.....If you pull the individual threads that constitute the tapestry of their success this season, many lead back to Zaidi’s ability to identify overlooked talent. Arming those players with the information to maximize their largely untapped potential has led to breakouts for Wade, Darin Ruf, Kevin Gausman and Webb, among others. “I feel like sometimes guys are kind of taught the same thing. But really, every guy's different and they do a really good job of telling guys, ‘You're really good at this, do that,’” says Webb, who has leaned into his sinker to get more ground balls this season. “There’s so many different numbers now.” https://sports.yahoo.com/how-the-san-francisco-giants-took-a-familiar-roster-and-unearthed-the-best-team-in-baseball-122426831.html

Who in their right mind would be positive about LaRussa coming back or picking up Kimbrel’s option? Now if our payroll was going to be at least $165-170 million…with no Kimbrel on the roster, at least that would be a bit better. This year, we have 3 of the 5 highest payrolls remaining, and even the Braves are 12th. We have ONE advantage over the rest of the league, Cuban player signings. But does anyone really believe Cespedes or Colas will take is to the next level during this window? I might bet more money on Vera. We just don’t do any of the little things well that win you games when trams of similar talent meet. We also don’t have a guy like Scherzer or a farm system that would ever allow you to trade for even half that trade at the deadline, let alone Turner, a sneaky MVP-level player.

Can we also have the Pale Hose Sinema or Manchin just to even things out?…as those comps to TLR are probably just as accurate. Okay, now we can leave politics behind again.

It feels like the trade deadline wiped away any good will he’d created. Hernandez and Kimbrel couldn’t have worked out worse than just picking names at random from a trade targets jar. He essentially lucked into Rodon and Lance Lynn in his mid 30s isn’t an automatic guarantee anymore either…added on to Grandal and Keuchel jamming up the payroll. Way too many one-dimensional 1B/DH/1B types. Also, unsure what’s going to happen with Kopech and Crochet. Finally, giving up on top 5 picks Madrigal and now possibly Vaughn or Eloy at 75 cents on the dollar (to replace them with fading veterans) seems idiotic, at best.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/2021/ #1-4-5-12 in payrolls in the Final Four. Three of Top 5. Giants were #10. White Sox at #15 (league average) are certainly not the Braves, Rays, Cardinals, Brewers, etc. But we might just get stuck being cute with QO’s to Kimbrel and Rodon and blow the entire offseason budget with no RF, 2B, veteran starter, RH reliever (Tepera) or decent veteran backup catcher.

How much money would we have to pay St. Louis to take him? $7.5-10 million? It would be worth it…and generate more positives for the franchise than the 2022 equivalent of Adam Eaton in RF. Heck, I’d ALMOST rather have Ozuna. Almost. But it’s a close call.

Which is the last year of Giolito as well...and when the Tigers should be right there, and maybe the Royals if their pitching continues to turn a corner. That said, Sal Perez and Merrifield will soon hit their decline stages.

Yeah, you’re probably right. Don’t want to get excited and then end up disappointed when it was more or less a PR ruse for the offseason to sell more season tickets with promises that the front office and players have never been so on the same page before.

That’s kind of an impossible position to put the players in… They vote? Abreu, Anderson and Giolito decide? We know how Leury and Lynn would vote, haha. Do we have to listen to Keuchel’s opinion, still?

Unless they decide to trade Jose Ramirez. Detroit is probably one more year away. The Guardians are still a team with Franmil Reyes as their second best hitter. Wouldn’t be a shocker at all to see his number flip flop with Eloy’s. How likely is Quantrill to repeat his rookie season success his second full season? They might close the gap with a healthy rotation, but the White Sox still have a massive advantage offensively.

https://www.mlb.com/news/carter-hawkins-cubs-gm Guess nobody stuck out across the city, like Haber...that said, no Brewers' front office guys, either, or Cardinals, Giants, Dodgers, etc. "According to The Athletic, the Cubs narrowed their GM search to four candidates, including Hawkins, James Harris (Cleveland's VP of player development), Carlos Rodriguez (Rays VP of player development and international scouting) and Jeremy Zoll (Twins assistant GM)."

Or Peter Gammons is a voodoo/witch doctor/shaman bringing the karma gods down on Houston, but simultaneously sparing manager Cora.

They've definitely passed the Royals and the Cubs on the rebuilding success meter...especially with a second WS title (were they to win THIS year). I honestly don't think that they have enough starting pitching over a longer series with Verlander (and better Greinke), and the back 3-4 of their pen aren't the most intimidating in the world, but they've been effective enough. And the Dodgers have had the same issues with Jansen on and off...especially in the postseason...over the last few seasons. Seems like he'll get into a 7-10 day stretch where he really falls apart and then miraculously manages to right the ship somehow.

Yoan was Tucker...just two seasons ago. Therein lies the problem, at some point, teams like the Twins/Indians (and White Sox, historically) typically decide that it's not worth paying $25 million for a 4ish fWAR player, despite any Balta-esque $$$/fWAR free agent acquisition cost calculators you throw out there. That's why parting ways with both Madrigal and Vaughn would REALLY start to hamstring the team financially down the line...if you start replacing them with more expensive veteran guys, or more likely go cheap for the Eaton and Cesar Hernandez types. Honestly, not even sure we can afford the likes of Starling Marte if we're going to offer a QO to Rodon (and he accepts it) as well as picking up Kimbrel's last year...and then we end up having a difficult time getting sufficient value back to justify a second Kimbrel do-over trade, then somehow end up carrying him on the active roster for another 3-4 months into 2022.

https://sports.yahoo.com/tony-la-russa-astros-character-shortage-white-sox-alds-014336495.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink Got to hand it to TLR for getting his name out there somehow when the season's already over and there's nothing left to fight for...