caulfield12

Kang was always sticking with the Pirates for giving him so many chances, and I’m not sure how someone with his off field and visa issues is the best move...Lucroy seems to be done. The other three, up you could be right...but none of those names will turn into 3-4 WAR prospects in all likelihood. Of course, the same can be said of Alonso, Castillo, Colome, Nova and McCann. Actually, you add it all up...a lot of that money should have been invested in scouting, evaluation, coaching, analytics, international free agents like Kikuchi. Just TRY something different. That list from the second paragraph could be a reprint of 2014-16, actually.

You could get those two for $100 million total, 3 years for each...or 2 Moustakas, 4 Pollock. Arenado, Rendon, Bogaerts, Goldschmidt, JD Martinez (will be 32 at end of next season, opt out a good bet if he repeats), Sale, Cole, Bumgarner, Verlander, Wheeler, Porcello...feels like a lot more options that we would be targeting long-term if they were available right now, yes?

What exactly should be the attitude of fans of an organization that has advanced to the playoffs in about 125 years the same amount of times as the LA Dodgers this decade? Eternal gratefulness for 2005? That expires after a complete generation of fans have changed over. Or, ask Marlins’ fans today if they care about 1997 and 2003...?

I don’t think baseball could take Trout to the Yankees, another realistic option given where he grew up. If the Phillies can’t keep moving forward, they’re going to be screwed. What member of their offense can be identified by casual fans, other than Hoskins? If Trout can’t get to the playoffs with the Angels, his immediate concern will be signing with an almost automatic playoff contender. For the White Sox, it means we probably sign Jason Kipnis, lol. We already missed Cliff Floyd and Granderson.

https://sports.yahoo.com/phillies-rumors-best-available-backup-163541158.html This pretty much is the same situation the White Sox fans are facing...except the Phillies are really stuck in the middle about competing or tearing down if they can’t add a whale or trade for Realmuto. That leaves Pollock, Markakis (yuck), Moustakas and Marwin Gonzalez as the four best remaining options...unless you start looking at bargain/buy low guys like Dozier or Lowrie that don’t fit the window. Most Phillies fans want to try for Trout after 2020...but 15-20 teams have that same idea, with 8 teams having the resources to actually pull it off.

Cue “Bird Box” GIFs...

Because they went 29 years between playoff appearances (included in there were lots of years where 810 AM would organize Evil Empire protests against the Yankees), the payoff/appreciation was greater because they were really really good in the 70’s and 80’s, and then it just all went south for decades. While it’s not completely fair to compare KC and CHW markets, I will just say that they had two pretty distinct groups of really exciting position players that were basically homegrown to come through (Beltran, Damon, Dye, DeJesus, Sweeney, Berroa, Febles) and then obviously the group that Hawk talked about for years before they reached the WS in 2014-15. It has been over 20 years since we did the same with Ordonez, Lee, Durham and Cameron/Konerko. So the need for just 2-3 homegrown All-Star position players on the Sox...is off the charts. It’s why this whole chase for Machado/Harper is driving everyone crazy, after watching other teams like Houston or the Cubs manage to do something that’s so elusive (hit on prospect after prospect, with just a few notable exceptions). When this is all over, I think the ease of rebuilding will turn out to have been significantly underestimated. https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/20349712 Apparently, we have fans in Australia, though.

We’re going to end up spending X amount of money on Colome, Castillo and Alonso (even if we dump all three at some point)...that could have been earmarked for Arenado. Of course, if the rebuild still isn’t progressing in 2019 or Kopech has a setback of some sort, then trading precious resources in-season for Arenado against playoff contenders who desperately are vying for his services (say, Milwaukee) will make even less sense. And they’re not going to deal him in the offseason, that would be a Pirates “spitting in the face of your fans” type of move. Unless they want to publicly announce the numbers he turned down for an extension and harm their own negotiating position (see Harper/Nationals), basically acknowledging they have to trade him and creating an uncomfortable situation for everyone.

The amazing thing is I even forgot Chris Sale. Which makes sense, in a way. Great pitcher, just not the huge box office draw like a Greinke in KC or Halladay in Toronto. Definitely the only HoF caliber talent connected with the Sox this decade, unless you count Omar Vizquel in 2010.

Hopefully NU, Michigan, Harvard and Stanford teach critical thinking skills which would empower Hahn and KW not to be so easily bamboozled. He’s supposed to be the king of contracts and finance, right?

Because they already had that trend of being pretty boring/mediocre every other season. 2007-09-11-13 The Adam Dunn fiasco was yet another huge setback...followed up by LaRoche and Melky. Bad decisions and poor talent evaluation compounding, mixed in with Beckham/Viciedo sliding backwards and Quentin’s health going. Tried to hold the veteran core together too long, there are so many things we could point to.

Even the Cubs’ dynastic run is starting to show cracks in the foundation. We’re not going to emulate the Astros, so it has to be the Brewers. They need the two nasty guys in the pen, to pull off a great trade for an MVP-caliber player (Yelich), the perfect FA signing in Cain, identify a blocked prospect in Aguilar (Thames in Japan, etc.) and supplemented with mid season veteran acquisitions like Moustakas. That’s the more likely Sox path, but executing it is another matter entirely. It’s going to take franchises willing to dump talent in dubious circumstances (Raiders/Mack and Marlins’ fire-sale) to pull that off. Even then, Dee Gordon and Ozuna didn’t end up having close to the impact of Yelich. But last offseason, you could have legitimately argued that Ozuna looked like the better player. Of course, the White Sox have never been in the business of assuming contracts like the one for Stanton, either.

We need an owner who thinks of the Sox more like Ilitch with the Tigers. He always put winning over balanced budgets. Of course, we can argue even that wasn’t enough to get a World Series title and they’re being forced to rebuild with Miggy’s contract still on the books, but they had a really nice sustained run beginning with 2006 all the way up until the Royals and Indians passed them. That said, with most franchises currently in the $1-3 billion range, it’s increasingly a sport for billionaire investment groups more concerned with ROI.

Better off with Donn Pope Pall.

I would be more upset as a Phillies’ fan, but that city also has an inferiority complex. They’re the ones with the “stupid money” owner still not being enough to entice anyone, were/are closer to contention and had dominating World Series teams more recently, East Coast for more media coverage, etc. Still...almost equally disheartening for Sox fans, some who even believed both were possible there for a week or two.

The Mariners at least had identifiable franchise cornerstones in Ichiro, Felix and Cano. We had...Buehrle and Konerko, then Abreu. Nice covered modern stadium, trendy city with lots of tech companies...compared to now one of the older stadiums in a so-so area of the city, and certainly not the heart of an entertainment district. And then the Cubs’ Marginalization Effect, too.

Sure, but they also peaked at #8 in franchise value at that time. Where are they now? It would take another five consecutive years of 90-100 loss teams to fall into the 20’s.

The Mariners went out and added Cano and Cruz when they signed their new deal with ROOT Sports...already having Felix Hernandez under a long-term deal, when he was still a fireballer. The A’s have never been able to afford ONE big contract. The closest was Cespedes, but they go over $70-75 million as often as the White Sox.

If they are small market, it’s only because of a decade’s mind-numbing results on the field, busted draft picks, value-oriented Tier B free agent spending patterns and the lack of any visible marketing appeal (Abreu jersey sales lagging behind Madden, for example)...we’ve pretty much been conditioned as fans to think of the team that way. Heck, the Cubs’ bat boy jersey might be leading Moncada or Anderson. Nevertheless, we wouldn’t have one of the better media rights deals in baseball without having a significant potential market...despite the atrocious ratings...we’re a sleeping “mini-giant.” No excuse for not being a Top 8-12 franchise in the game if things were executed properly.

We did go on something like a 26-5 or 25-6 run in the middle of that year, lol.

They seems to have moved the M’s up despite being competitive this year...the Rays had a surprisingly good year record wise and still moved up 23 spots due to attendance/stadium issues highlighted by Pham and Dick Vitale this past week.

Miguel Cabrera also comes to mind, if we include team extensions...Alex Gordon and Cespedes, but those are expiring sooner than the really huge deals.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24367000/the-top-25-most-miserable-fan-bases-professional-sports Trailing only the Padres among MLB franchises...Reds 7th, Bears 9th, Mariners 13th Hey, at least ESPN didn’t forget us, finally!

How can anyone know until the first week of January is over with no signing?