caulfield12

Wish I had that KW quote equating Ventura to a four-star general or future CEO in terms of his leadership qualities.

https://sports.yahoo.com/back-school-robin-ventura-student-212024906.html

Mixed reaction, but doesn’t take away from the brilliance of the first 85% of the film. It is a bit jarring, but his style has always been to provoke an almost visceral reaction. I think Shoplifters (Japanese film) is equally potent, but didn't receive nearly as much attention from the press/critics.

Tail end? Based on wishful thinking? I guess if Berrios and Buxton elevate their games like Giolito and Moncada....then are lost after 2021, sure, but they should be strong competitors the next 2-3 seasons unless their pitching completely falls apart. Other than Cruz, most of their position players are young/er or close to their primes. Like the Sox, they have control of plenty of that young core, other than the two names I highlighted and Rosario. They also have a very top-heavy farm system, somewhat similar to ours.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/cc-sabathia-yankees-astros-world-series-vacate-011249894.html Sabathia wants 2017-18 WS titles to be vacated... Btw, maybe Balta can convince Kate Upton to leave Justin Verlander while he’s on this crusade...? I mean, everyone categorically supported Jose Quintana and he had a PEDs violation in the Mets or Yankees’ minor league system. Is 2005 tainted partially by Ozuna? Should Frank Thomas be called out for not quitting the team when Jose Canseco was signed to replace him in 2001? Brett Myers? Wilfredo Cordero? D’Angelo Jimenez? Belle? We’ve tolerated a lot as Sox fans...

Sano has averaged 1.7 fWAR the last three years and has a new position. Abreu is a team leader and also won’t do anything to embarrass the organization....I’d call it more or less even in terms of risk for 2020.

You don’t have any right to say that after 12 years of missing the playoffs. Why needlessly give the Twins more motivation to beat us?

https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2020/01/it-seems-trevor-bauer-was-right-about-the-houston-astros-all-along-and-now-hes-enjoying-their-dumpster-fire.html Two great Bauer videos....and you can forget about Colin McHugh/McCullers if we are ever going to target Bauer.

http://twinsdaily.com/_/minnesota-twins-news/josh-donaldson-bringer-of-rings-r8841 Josh Donaldson, Bringer of Rings (being a tad optimistic for Twins’ fans who have witnessed 17 consecutive playoff losses, including 15 to the Yankees)

Buxton could definitely have one year he really puts it all together, but there’s as much uncertainty there as with our pitching...

You're trading him in 2023?

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/if-pete-rose-is-out-of-baseball-forever-then-so-should-alex-cora-230843168.html Rose/Shoeless Joe should be reinstated or Alex Cora should get a lifetime ban

Because he's asking for $150-175 million, lol...and our largest contract in team history is roughly half that. And the fact Moncada (and Giolito) haven't backed up those stellar seasons (yet) in 2020.

https://www.mlb.com/news/jose-abreu-extension-white-sox The evidence seems to suggest that the Grandal signing and Abreu extension were very closely aligned. The Robert extension would be the "cherry on top of the whipped cream" in this scenario. So we have two players that arguably were influenced to sign deals with the White Sox...with one correlated almost exactly with the timing of the Abreu qualifying offer being torn up. How much is that worth to the franchise??

Well, there's never going to be CONCLUSIVE evidence or proof of whatever you want to term it as linking Abreu and Robert. At SOME point, Robert and his agent will publicly something complimentary towards Hahn and how the organization's treatment of Cuban players going back to Minnie Minoso, Jose Contreras and Alexei Ramirez, and how that was a key factor in both him signing originally and then inking an extension. It's probably already out there. Has anyone asked Robert directly if he would have wavered in his commitment to the organization with Abreu only being guaranteed one more year versus three?

Logic says it has to be an important factor...otherwise, it wouldn't have happened in the order it did. Robert and his agent would have approached the White Sox first, negotiated a deal...then Hahn/JR would have just awarded a three-year extension as a "gift" to Abreu. That really makes less sense, doesn't it?

So you would prefer they would have signed Cron to a one-year deal? What happens if you then lose Robert and Moncada (which could go either way, but it certainly more likely with Robert and Abreu and Grandal in the fold now) when they're unwilling to sign extensions?

But those are totally different situations. Abreu was nearing the end of his career. We can compare Anderson, Jimenez and Robert extensions to Miguel Sano a lot more accurately.

But that's like saying Mazara is even more of a bargain if he puts up similar offensive numbers in RF (to Sano at 1B). Granted, historically, Sano has put up the more impressive fWAR numbers over time, despite all Sano's off-the-field/injury/weight issues. We'll see. Sano's defense is going to be tested over and over again by their middle infielders. It's better with Donaldson and Sano on the corners than Sano/Cron, but how much remains to be seen.

The only way we can say that about the Abreu deal is...well, it's impossible, because we don't know how much that signing influenced Robert to commit long-term to an extension. So even if we're overpaying Abreu in 2021-22, we're also getting a positive return on investment from Luis Robert (in the very prime of his career) on the back end of that contract.

It's a pretty even battle. Is Ramirez an MVP candidate, or his first half 2019 version, or, more likely, something in-between? Can Garver, Polanco, Rosario, Kepler and Arraez keep it up? Donaldson and Cruz's health? The Twins had a lot of career seasons, offensively. You can never 100% count out the Indians, they're so resilient in the face of all the disadvantages they face each and every season, it's almost like repeating

Talking about Cubs’ Fest But the one to go to is the business operations panel. Crane Kenney has had the Saturday of this convention circled on his calendar for years, like a bride and her wedding day. It was going to be the crowning achievement of the Ricketts family era of his never-ending Cubs employment. It is, after all, the last big event before the launch of his TV network. The Cubs should be introducing their on-air talent, but there’s a fairly good chance that instead they’ll be left introducing their key advertisers. A panel featuring Peter Francis Geraci, the My Pillow guy, Howard Ankin, Jeff Vukovich and Jillian Michaels would be must-see, and Jillian can entertain the crowd by telling Rizzo he needs to lose some weight. “Fans can later reminisce with Cubs alumni Darwin Barney, Reed Johnson, Miguel Montero, Geovany Soto and Travis Wood during the Welcome Back panel, hosted by Ron Coomer.” And, we should take bets on which one of the panelists makes the first joke about Soto finally coming back to the Convention the year Illinois legalizes marijuana. “Cubs fans can vote on their favorite designs for the Wintrust Crosstown Series Cup, which will be redesigned and unveiled ahead of the start of the Cubs-White Sox series July 7-8. Post-Convention, the designs also will be available for fans to vote on online through the end of March.” https://theathletic.com/1530492/2020/01/13/cub-o-coffee-which-cubs-convention-panel-will-you-attend-and-will-kevin-rizzo-be-there/?source=dailyemail

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/pete-rose-chides-astros-for-signstealing-scandal-i-cant-imagine-doing-something-like-that-172224830.html

The whole Brady Aiken situation Trying to force all the young players to sign below fair value extensions early in their careers (which backfired with Singleton and Grossman) https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/23793/skewed-left-the-economics-of-the-singleton-extension/