caulfield12

Sheets should also be ahead of Collins at 1B...

Any team in baseball could have tried to spend $60 million on Latin American prospects alone in 2016, with half the money going to taxes and penalties. Was that smart? Well, it certainly boosted their minor league system into the upper tier, and in a hurry that bottoming out and drafting like the Royals or mid to late 80s White Sox would require hitting on nearly every first first rounder before the competitive window pushed picks down. We can criticize the Hosmer and Myers deals...or even Pomeranz before last year, but it’s certainly more fun to follow a team willing to dream big dreams rather than one getting by by exploiting market inefficiencies or niches like the Rays or A’s. Look at what’s happening in Atlanta, or with the Blue Jays. It’s not rocket science. Even the Marlins are getting up off the deck. I mean, honestly, that sounds exactly like a complaint of White Sox fans against the Cubs the last 20-30 years...calling them yuppies, that they’re only there to skip work, party/drink, play on their cell phones, aren’t as knowledgeable as Sox or Cardinals’ fans, pee everywhere, frat nerds ogling babes in bikinis, it’s all the same currency being spent, whether it’s a grandma from Des Moines or Pete from Peoria at the park.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/padres-have-tossed-aside-small-market-stigma-to-act-like-a-model-franchise-heres-why-its-great-for-mlb/ Speaking of which, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic in response to the Tatis extension voiced a concern that wasn't hard to find among some corners of the baseball cognoscenti. He wrote: "Fans in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and some larger major-league cities would love their clubs to operate as aggressively the Padres, who are locking up their 22-year-old superstar rather than starting their countdown to trading him. And yet, there's a danger here, and it can't be dismissed, even in the giddy elation of Fernando Tatis Jr.'s 14-year, $340 million extension. How the heck are the Padres going to sustain this?" That question gets it precisely wrong. A better way to frame the Padres' boldness would be to use it as a cudgel against the vast majority of other teams. That is: "If the Padres, denizens of one of the smallest markets in MLB, have achieved all this, then what the hell have you been doing?" For all the diversionary oxygen being devoted to pacing concerns and the dearth of balls in play and the like, the gravest current crisis in MLB is the overabundance of team owners who have no interest in winning as many baseball games as possible. Not only does treating cherished civic institutions like portfolio holdings disaffect fans (i.e., customers), but it also makes ongoing labor peace between players and owners much less likely. It's the hometown nine, not a tranche of debt instruments. When a team like the Padres gives primacy to the goal of winning -- as they darn well should -- it puts the lie to all those risible claims of financial woe emanating from most other C suites around the league. Seidler, who rose to the top of the Padres' org chart late last year, is not deluded about such matters. He knows MLB is a wildly profitable industry. He knows the claims of financial hardships resulting from the COVID-compromised 2020 season are temporary and almost certainly overstated. He knows that owning an MLB team yields investment growth that can be duplicated almost nowhere else. He knows the best way to get fans to care is to improve the product. So that's what he's doing even if few other owners have the fortitude to behave similarly. That kind of behavioral pressure from within is exactly what the current guild of MLB owners badly needs. Promising $340 million and a wire-to-wire no-trade clause to Tatis isn't a sign that the Padres are doing too much. Rather, it's a sign that many of the more well-heeled MLB teams aren't doing enough. The next time your team's owner costumes "I choose not to" as "I can't," cite for them the wee-market Padres and Tatis. After all the lies and self-defeating avarice on the part of MLB owners, we need to deprogram ourselves and stop thinking of signing a deliriously popular and deliriously excellent young franchise shortstop as something to wring hands over. Again, they're doing what they should be doing. With their fine and many-splendored ballpark, near-perfect weather, and re-imagined uniforms that evoke the strong franchise identity that was there in the beginning, the Padres have the trappings and settings of a model franchise. That they've lately been acting like a model franchise is an unqualified good thing and should serve as an example for the rest of baseball. Nice to see someone calling out the Pirates, Orioles, Royals, Tigers, Indians, Rays (understandable enough), A’s, Mariners, Cubs, Brewers, Rockies, Reds...although this could just as easily be aimed at White Sox and Twins’ ownership as well.

Robert already showed us how low his lows can go last September, forfeiting what seemed like an easy claim to AL Rookie of the Year honors by hitting .136 (11 for 81) with a .409 OPS. It's not fair to assess a player by his worst month, of course, but when that month is basically half his season (not to mention his career), it weighs heavily. Only one of the seven qualifying batters who struck out as often as Robert did in 2020 (32.2 percent) had higher than his .233 batting average (Willy Adames at .259), and while we've seen players like Aaron Judge and Joey Gallo thrive with that sort of strikeout rate in years past, it required them to be some of the hardest hitters in the game. Robert's average exit velocity (87.9 mph) was actually in the bottom half of the league. His expected batting average, according to Statcast, was .226. His expected slugging percentage was .466. No matter how scarce stolen bases are, Robert won't live up to his ADP without taking a leap as a hitter, and while such a leap is possible, I'm not willing to project it onto him at the expense of another ace or a Corey Seager-type hitter. There will be chances for those sorts of gambles later. https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/fantasy-baseball-rankings-2021-sleepers-from-advanced-model-that-called-will-smiths-strong-season/

This idea of Sheets as a possible DH or corner outfielder getting more than a handful of at-bats seems even more implausible...except for the fact he’s probably going to have a better big league career somewhere than Zack Collins or Yermin.

This idea of Sheets as a possible DH or corner outfielder getting more than a handful of at-bats seems even more implausible...except for the fact he’s probably going to have a better big league career somewhere than Zack Collins or Yermin.

He’s quite fortunate that he is now going to be able to get out of his original $750k investment in AMC at around $8 with a 30-40% profit in just a few weeks. Claimed to already have lost the same roughly on GME. https://twitter.com/RazerSliced/status/1364746958049533957/photo/1 BlackBoxStocks

Robert at 5, Jimenez at 8 and Vaughn at 21. Moncada 25 years old already. Madrigal (23) and Kopech (24) not mentioned. https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-best-players-under-25?partnerId=zh-20210225-156906-MLB&qid=1026&bt_ee=fCmeGMRvCaJnHXI9fXyGVuRvlHCMzP6Ut8PVgiwhUALVNnB4NOwQgudsK9nRO%2Fk2&bt_ts=1614256686777 https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-spring-training-four-young-players-including-gavin-lux-and-jo-adell-with-something-to-prove-in-2021/ Adell, C.Kieboom, Lux, Mize

Don’t forget LuGon.

Ultimately, you can argue that Hendriks will be hard-pressed to repeat or better Colome's success, that Grandal/Keuchel/Abreu/Dunning are definitely regression along the aging curve candidates, Eaton/Rodon/Moncada's health...Kopech being away from the game for so long and then the psychological adjustment side (he's going to want to go out right away and throw 100 again.) Plus, you lost McCann's leadership and rapport with Giolito. Finally, Crochet's being able to remain healthy in a year where he will certainly be over-utilized by match-ups master TLR is a definite concern. We should certainly expect to get more production out of Eaton, Moncada, Robert and whoever is at DH, but there's a lingering question mark to go along with nearly every positive point. And better defense and base running from Nick Madrigal. Which is why the White Sox are perceived as being neck and neck with the Twins, and perhaps slightly behind since they're defending the division title and made a ton of moves in the last 4-6 weeks to improve themselves. Yay, 15 names!!!

Not beating up on the Tigers and Royals alone will definitely test the White Sox this year. They have to prove they can somehow vanquish the Indians first, before they worry about the Twins. With a more balanced schedule, most reasonable Sox fans would expect 88-94 wins this upcoming season (not knowing about injuries, obviously, how much money they have to spend at the deadline, when fans will return and in what percentages of capacity, even whether Vaughn will be held back or not to gain another year of control contractually.)

We shall see. But can you imagine "old school" Tony LaRussa being force-fed an inexperienced rookie at DH in a year he's expected to compete for the AL pennant? I can't. Now maybe if it's just the Cardinals' history, where they seemingly come up with a rookie impact (many not highly touted) player nearly every season, but that hasn't historically been the case with the White Sox farm system. You have to go from two decades ago in Rowand/Crede to Gordon Beckham/Viciedo and then all the way to TA and then the last 3-4 seasons of acquisitions and high draft picks to get any significantly impactful players in a given year. Heck, somehow Carlos Martinez's son became a near All-Star level hitter with them for a season or two after starting out with the White Sox.

Craig Biggio

No way. They'll pick up someone like a Smoak/Pearce/Moreland just to hold the position down...not those names, of course, but a veteran cut lose in the last couple of roster cutdowns before Opening Day, most likely a player they're actively already watching in Arizona.

Not to mention Erik Johnson was the "well-known" part of that deal on the day it was made, surrendering TWO players to save money on Shields' deal instead of keeping their own talent in-house...when Fowler was desperate (this was put into the press quite openly, not an industry secret) to get Shields off the team as quickly as possible during that time span.

https://theathletic.com/884960/2019/03/25/everybody-was-surprised-but-here-we-are-an-oral-history-of-how-the-padres-acquired-fernando-tatis-jr/ And here's your answer... https://theathletic.com/2395904/2021/02/18/padres-fernando-tatis-extension-lebron-james/

The quote was that BAL gave him the money before he was on a single Top 40 list. Then he popped when Keith Law suddenly had him in the Top 5-10 and almost nobody could believe it. The arm strength was always there, and the speed/explosiveness, but that he was able to maintain those two characteristics while adding 2-3 inches in height/leverage/power while still being able to play a spectacular (defensive ratings in 2019 were down because he made numerous mistakes trying to turn every single play into an ESPN Top 10 moment) shortstop. Guys that size in the past like Ripken and A-Rod (Michael Morse would be another) always ended up at 3B or even the outfield.

I really like SouthSider2k5 when he's on baseball-related topics, but he always comes across as Potter from It's a Wonderful LIfe when on the subject of finance/stock market. It's perfectly natural for him to have a bias that's more towards protecting the point of view of his employer than representing the so-called 99%. Sometimes it comes across like "you guys don't understand something so complex, so you're going to have rely upon the foxes and wolves to guard the hen house." Janet Yellen's Net Worth: $16 Million Between 2018 and 2020, Yellen earned $7 million from 50 speaking engagements.1 hour ago Beyond the SEC, you have the Treasury Secretary, and she's almost as much captured by the system that she represents as Steve Mnuchin, Greenspan, Rubin, Larry Summers, etc. Then you have basically degrees of complicity, but still with tendencies more towards advocating for Wall Street interests as opposed to protecting "Joe the Plumber." Heck, this idea of the Clintons being in the pocket of Wall Street was a not insignificant factor in her 2016 loss. If we didn't witness what happened in 1997-98 (Asian crisis), the tech stock/Nasdaq crash (and the pumping and dumping of all those names like Nortel, JDS Uniphase, Enron, Worldcom, Cisco, Lucent, AIG, etc.), then in the 2000's, all the mortgage originators not even performing rudimentary due diligence and of course Wall Street banks not separating institutional investment, retail banking and all the collusion with the ratings agencies on the sub-primes and CDO's/credit default swaps. Nobody got punished or held accountable. And that was under a 100% Democratic-led executive and legislative branch from 2009-2010. The last time it happened that anyone of note really got into trouble from the political and banking/high finance world was the S&L Scandal in the 1980's, and that left some of the key figures censured but certainly not out of commission permanently.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-players-respond-to-kevin-mathers-service-time-comments-and-preview-upcoming-cba-fight/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/sports/baseball/thinking-fast-and-slow-book.html?referringSource=articleShare

Basically, if the US population of those 18 years and older is 234.6 million... And 25% are Republicans.... And 44% of those Republicans say they will adamantly refuse to be vaccinated, EVER... This is just answering the general question, do you plan to get vaccinated or have you already been vaccinated? You get 58.65 million GOP X .53 (% rejecting vaccine)=31 million You get 72.5 million Dem X .22=16 million You get 96.2 million Independents X .44=42.3 million That's roughly 90-94 million Americans. Essentially 25-26% of the entire US population.

Last November, before any vaccines had been approved, the gap between Democrats who said they planned to get vaccinated (51 percent) and Republicans who said the same (43 percent) was relatively small. Not anymore. Now, a full 78 percent of Democrats say they have gotten vaccinated or will get vaccinated versus just 47 percent of Republicans — a 31-point chasm. Among Republicans who haven’t been vaccinated yet, a plurality (44 percent) say they will “never” go through with it. And while most Democrats and independents who were unsure about vaccination back in November now favor it, the opposite is true among previously unsure Republicans, who either remain undecided (25 percent) or have split evenly between the “yes” and “no” camps — making the GOP the only political group with more noes now than before the election. This hardening hesitancy on the right stands in stark contrast to a growing pro-vaccination consensus that otherwise cuts across demographic and racial lines. The numbers are clear. Among Democrats, the margin in favor of getting a COVID-19 vaccine — a.k.a., the gap between the yeas and the nays — has grown by 31 points since Election Day; among independents, it has grown by 18 points. Among white Americans, it has grown by 17 points; among Black Americans, it has grown by 31. Only Republicans have bucked this trend, showing no net shift in favor of vaccination since last November. https://www.yahoo.com/news/new-yahoo-news-you-gov-poll-covid-19-vaccine-acceptance-is-rising-except-among-republicans-003242019.html

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30952867/yankees-gerrit-cole-calls-mlb-service-manipulation-exposed-exec-video-blatant-not-productive

In fact, the third biggest contract in baseball history after Trout and barely trailing Mookie Betts, arguably the two best players in baseball, at least position player-wise.

Umm...they beat the Cardinals last year. Quick would be the Cubs getting swept by the Marlins in two games.