caulfield12

Well, let's see how Crane reacts to losing the World Series up 3-2 going home with Verlander and Greinke on the mound. I don't think Grandal will get $20 million AAV per year, either. We'll see.

Waiting for another Dickerson "puff piece." In all seriousness, I'm not sure it really matters all that much if we miss on Wheeler and don't sign AT LEAST one of the 4-5 hitters (Grandal/Gregorious/Moustakas/Castellanos/Ozuna) that are closer to their "normal/predictable" Sox price range.

Well, we know Cole's going elsewhere. They've got Tucker and Alvarez that are dirt cheap. That probably means they have to part with the likes of Marisnick and Reddick to free up some additional money. They still have Urquidy and Whitley (if he can return to form) for the back end of the rotation. Not sure the latest on McCullers.

For example, the ASTROS. Chirinos is a free agent. If you had to choose between the White Sox and Astros, it wouldn't be a tough call.

I would be willing to go with Gregorious as well...just because he gives you so much more positional versatility than either Castellanos or Encarnacion. I'm at the point where Wheeler, Grandal, Castellanos/Moustakas/Gregorious, cheap fill-in RF for one year and one more reliever is the VERY best that could be hoped for. Reality is probably that we only get ONE of those four hitters...the cheap RF fill-in, and a veteran who has been around the block in the Albers/Soria mode for the bullpen. That's where we are left scrambling between guys like Dozier, Schoop, Kendrick, Gennett, etc.

He would be at first with Abreu DHing...after Madrigal came up for good. Taking at-bats to rest Anderson and maybe Moncada as well.

It may be used with or without placemats, depending on the degree of formality employed by the place setting. One school of thought states that charger plates are meant simply to act as placeholders until the actual china plates are brought to the table.

Ask any Braves’ fan if they’d take him back for the $8-10 million he would be expecting...

The White Sox, home to more placeholders than a Cracker Barrel in rural Tennessee after Sunday services let out.

Then we’d be spending $41 million for two 1B/DH types. Not out of character for this organization, I guess. Sign Wheeler and we pass the Rays with three players, almost.

I’m going to take a wild guess that he has well more than 750 ip in his career...despite the age difference. Let’s not forget LatAm pitchers are essentially 2-3 years older because of extended wear and tear starting in their early teens. Look no further than Felix Hernandez, not that age doesn’t catch up with everyone eventually.

You’re assuming he has a monster year for that to be the case...

Mired in mediocrity, again. Might as well add Gio Gonzalez, so we have two Gio’s.

How can the #9 fWAR pitcher over the last two seasons equate to just a #3 or mostly “future projection“ when he’s already there statistically...ala Q coming into 2017, but with TOR stuff to go with it?

Because the Braves had hardly any money invested in their starting rotation other than Keuchel.

The odds of them even being “a part of the conversation” for either pitcher are pretty negligible. From 2016-18 for Wheeler, a 752 ops against LHB and a 638 vs RHB. Obviously, right handed batters are getting more looks, 56% to 44%. 2019, 635 ops vs. RHB, very consistent. 58.5 to 41.5 ratio RHB vs. LHB. Strasburg is averaging 27.75 starts per season over the last eight years. Which means he misses about three weeks per season on average. He had 245 ip in 2019, an 88% increase over 2018. That’s a huge red flag. He’s also a long ways removed from his first TJ surgery, and three years older than Wheeler. He’s also only averaged 160 IP per season over the last five years, including 36 IP these past 2019 playoffs. Career-wise, almost twice as many IP for Strasburg compared to Wheeler, roughly 750 vs. a little shy of 1500. Yet Strasburg will likely get TWICE as much per season with a deal likely 1-2 years shorter than Wheeler’s. You’re paying an extra $30-40 million just for this past season, which is already an overpay since it’s Free Agency and premium contracts are inflated.

Honestly, I’m sure most of the fanbase would rather see that $150-160 million payroll next year, with the Twins taking a lot of hits to their pitching staff outside of Berrios and Graterol...and the Indians considering a Lindor trade to the Dodgers. Why wait? There’s likely only that four year window, and many are already resigned to it being just three or worried about saving bullets for next year’s free agent class...waiting to see how all the young players and prospects develop over the next year, etc. They would still be fine if they went with temp solutions at RF and DH...as long as they get commitments from Grandal (2-3 years) and Wheeler (4-5 years). The rest is fungible. Just make two real commitments of at least $60-90 million. And be right, for once, on both of them. Everything else is just window dressing to get to 2021 with at least a 50/50 shot at a wild card next year...by then you will know about the pitching staff, Collins, Madrigal, Robert and hopefully Vaughn to make the finishing touches heading into the following year.

If they’re willing to go to the $160-170 million range in payroll, sure. If they’re going to be closer to $125-150 million, that’s too much to invest in one player...and would wipe out the likelihood of keeping at least one of Moncada, Giolito or Robert on an extension. If you’re going to be a championship-level club, you basically need to be in the $165-175 range or higher. Otherwise, you’re the Twins, Rays and A’s...not even the Braves or Brewers.

Greinke has steadily been adjusting to pitching without his best fastball for the past 3-5 years. His breaking stuff more than compensates. There’s just zero guarantee that Strasburg could make the same type of adjustment to losing stuff or having a second TJ surgery. Greinke’s also a great defender, athlete and solid hitter...he’s figured out how to make it work for him. You put all that money into one of those guys and the entire rebuild is at risk if it goes south...even with insurance payments. Wheeler is three years younger and is going to get roughly half of Strasburg’s deal. You can at least survive that hit...but it might take Moncada or Giolito extensions off the table.

95% of the time trading trading non-elite relievers for position players backfires. Of course, every decade or so, we get a trade like Thornton for Borchard, except the Cubs aren’t going to take Fulmer in this case. Trading Bummer makes us shakier from the LH side, Colome ended on a downturn and we still need another solid RH reliever. The last thing you want to do with “almost there” young pitchers is blow all their leads with a poor bullpen and substandard defense. We saw that act enough the last 2-3 seasons.

But he can trust the White Sox to add frontline pitching? It’s not like we can guarantee Wheeler and all the other pieces it would take to make the Sox look like a solid bet in 2020 in advance. Based on track records, I can’t imagine the level of faith in the Boras camp runs all that high in terms of the Sox payroll being in the $145-150 million range it would take to really compete from April 1st. Just a hunch, but Texas somehow seems likelier opening a new stadium...but they’re supposedly only willing to spend $30 million in new money on top of last year’s payroll.

Apparently, one of the other points is how much he likes a Boston and went out of his way to go to Fenway as a teenager. Have a feeling he’ll feel he owes a fully healthy season to the Red Sox, with the belief they’re a lot closer to getting back to the a World Series in the next two seasons than other interested teams. Can the Twins or Indians afford him? Not really. Tampa is out. The Toronto surface would be hard on him. Difficult to imagine the Angels with Pujols and Ohtani. The Mariners really don’t make sense. Not many options. Rangers, if they want to keep Gallo off the field, maybe.

There aren’t many teams that can afford the services of J.D. Martinez. First off, he isn’t as good in the outfield as he is as an everyday American League DH. That means a lot of the National League teams will be out in the Martinez sweepstakes. The Chicago White Sox have been a team that has been rumored to be a fit. But, would Martinez want to go to a rebuilding team in the middle of his prime? My guess is probably not. If J.D. is smart, he’ll realize the options are limited and the Red Sox will continue to look better and better to come back to in 2020. He knows how talented the Red Sox are: Chris Sale, David Price, Eduardo Rodriguez, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Andrew Benintendi…do I need to go on? This Red Sox team is extremely talented on paper and can make a run in 2020 if all goes well. Why J.D. Martinez would want to take a gamble on another team at this point is beyond me. You have all of this talent surrounding you and then, you would go to another team and start over again? That doesn’t make a lot of sense. Martinez knows how good this team can be, just look at 2018. Imagine how upset Martinez would be going from a potential 100 win team to a 70-80 win team? Yikes! https://www.believeinbostonsports.com/2019/10/31/will-j-d-martinez-opt-in-or-out/

To summarize: Cubs aren’t going to give away two suddenly important positional players, especially when they’re debuting a new t.v. network and coming off two massively disappointing seasons. Point 2, unless Hahn is willing to eat Heyward’s entire contract, they’re not getting Happ. Stiever’s value is being oversold, and it’s not worth much to a team in “must win now” mode, especially if they were to somehow lose the Bryant grievance. Point 3, we probably need Lopez ore than the Cubs do, unless they have the secret to turning him into high leverage reliever without a propensity to give up as many walks as Strop, Edwards Jr., and Kimbrel did. The comments were not from an article but a typical Cubs’ fan on one of their message boards.

Hinch said the agreement was for protecting a lead in the late innings...not sure how the 7th after the first homer didn’t qualify. Or why a 3-2 deficit with three at-bats left to go suddenly disqualified him from pitching.