caulfield12

Madrigal N.Lopez Shewmake Murray Vargas Meade J.Gonzalez Meidroth (maybe not all top prospects or first rounders but a general type) Romy Gonzalez could at least hit. We’ll see if OBP and more doubles can carry Meidroth. And time will tell about Antonacci and Carlson. Not sure if Baldwins fits, but no standout defensive position. Did show more power in 2025 than previous years.

Probably a reliever at this point.

https://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/justin-ishbia-interview/ Thought this was interesting... Looks like brother Matt will be heavily involved in MSU "Push for Sparta" $1 billion fundraising drive for improving/updating sports facilities. https://statenews.com/article/2025/12/msu-launches-1-billion-fundraising-push-for-sparta

5.3 fWAR over last three years, 2.3 in 2025 but turning 30 and limited control. Doesn't make any sense with timeline 2-3 years away.

Losing to Oklahoma at home is a pretty hard one to overlook as well...as offensively challenged as they have been since the Texas game. That UGA win alone doesn't offset both FSU and OU.

Well there's always this ownership risk "Ballmer has also ruled the Clippers according to the one thing we know about him — that he is one of the richest men in the world. He was supposed to be a breath of fresh air, a fun-loving personality who cared about fielding a contender. Instead, Ballmer has steered them right back to where they started, as a joke. The Clippers are under investigation by the league office for allegations of salary-cap circumvention. That seems like a big deal, and it is, as Ballmer allegedly funded a corporate sponsor, Aspiration, which then paid Kawhi Leonard roughly $50 million for a "no-show" job, according to noted finder-outer Pablo Torre. Chris Paul left the organization in 2017, pushing for a trade to the Houston Rockets, and ever since Ballmer has collected every big-name player he could get his hands on, no matter the risk. In one fell swoop, he signed Leonard and traded for Paul George, sending out Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and every available draft pick in the process. When a partnership of oft-injured stars yielded three playoff series victories in five years, Ballmer turned to James Harden, who has made the Clippers his latest vanity project. Not in a good way." yahoo sports

If you want to pay similar or slightly less money than Devin Williams or Helsley. You're overpaying a second tier closer coming off his career year and he's getting older, too. Regression risk is quite high. But the getting more wins in 2026 only pushes back your draft position to mid teens from 11 or whatever. If they were actually going to attempt to legimitately compete in 2027...sure, then it makes sense.

That doesn't make any sense...even to Getz. If it was more than $10 they would have just given him the buyout and moved on.

If the goal is improving outfield defense, then just put Bleday on a corner. Having watched a lot of O'Hearn, just really worry about his having peaked first half last year and buying high before a dip down or perhaps worse to mean career numbers from last year's outlier. At any rate, Fuller would be able to make the right call on OHearn. Seems like Pereira will at least platoon in RF...or replace Robert in CF when Braden theoretically comes up mid season.

1k Diamond giveaway for 10 Kay k's to ten lucky fans...? Wouldn't be that difficult to insure. Kay not a high volume strike out guy so odds of paying out pretty negligible. Maybe 3-5%? PS: Anything better than rehashing Vargas April 23rd swing change.

O`Hearn (not really an everyday OF), W.Castro (terrible after trade) Yazstremski and Kepler are your Tier B/C LHH corner guys. Yuck!!! Other Free Agent Corner Outfielders: Tommy Pham (nope), ***Michael Conforto, Lane Thomas (30), ***Dylan Carlson (at least younger), Chris Taylor, Mitch Haniger (almost 35), Hunter Renfroe, Austin Slater (not happening again), Kiké Hernandez (LAD), Jason Heyward (retiring?), ***Alex Verdugo (29, -0.3 bWAR) So 7 options...none all that appealing, O'Hearn best fit but not in the OF. Buy low/pillow on Castro? Kepler/Yazstremski both familiar with Central. So Benintendi to DH full time? That would block Sosa perhaps unless you play him at first.

But remember he has to now adjust from majority flat swinging "dead ball era" hitters in Japan to more common lift and pull/uppercut swings in the US. One side or the other will prevail. But two totally different games/styles.

Well Fedde went south pretty quickly after the trade. Houser slipped as well. Just depends on how much impact Katz and Bannister had. Remember...these guys AND Kay are/were all vets and in their 30's, so the odds were always going to be against them being around for the 2028-2030 "competitive window." Not sure either guy would have been offered more than $5-$7.5 million per season to stick around anyway. The goal was always to limit the number of bigger contracts on the books for the 2027 lockout year when attendance might really bottom out depending on how bitter the dispute turns out to be (1994-95 was particularly devastating to almost all teams across what is now the AL/NL Central, the Heartland and Rust Belt down to Cincy.)

It means they really don't plan to compete in the division until 2028...unless all the lookout issues are somehow miraculously resolved before December 1, basically one year from now. So Getz has what is in essence a 4 1/2 year run of rebuilding.

1) At his age and contract numbers, simply a placeholder to protect the injured/rehabbing pitchers and better prospects that are still at least 3-4 months away. 2) With any success similar to Fedde, likely a trade and flip guy. Contract numbers will be quite affordable for basically any contender out there looking for deadline upgrades. 3) Still doesn't exceed $5 million per season...that was likely the limit to JR's budget for FA signings. 4) Essentially replaced Trevor Bauer for the BayStars. 5) Looks like DaVitt and Cannon will be battling it out for the fifth spot...and possibly another Rule 5 guy. 6) Nice to have at least one lefty for some balance in the rotation. One concern is everyone in the Sox rotation throws basically the same speed...93-95 mph, with the exception of Shane Smith. 7) Vasil still in the bullpen? Probably? Maybe? 😎 Probably puts NPB FA Takahashi in the $15-25 million range. And finally, perhaps Kay can help the Sox with recruiting one of his teammates? "Our ace Katsuki Azuma, a little lefty. He throws 88 to 90 and a bunch of different pitches and can just dot it everywhere...(sounds a lot like Imanaga with a lesser FB, so even more dependent on pin point control). And Andre Johnson a fellow BayStar."

"They have very flat swings over there. Fastballs atop the zone don’t really work too well because they just foul it off and work 10-pitch at-bats every time just to be annoying. They weren’t even trying to put the ball in play. They were just going up there to get the pitch count up. I started working on the two-seam last year and had some success with it. Coming into this year, I was really going to commit to it. Once I started using that as often as my four-seam, that really changed how I pitched and how I attacked some of these hitters. Even with those guys working up counts, you still managed to throw 155 innings last year. The two-seamer really changed everything. Every four-seam was getting fouled off, and I just really wasn’t sure what to do at that point. I was watching a lot of these guys flip in some sinkers at 88-90 mph and they were getting ground ball after ground ball. I kept thinking, “I need that.” That changed everything for me." What’s in your arsenal? Two-seamer, four-seamer, cutter, sweeper and change-up. I’ve been working on a curveball, not the best! But we’ve been working on it a bit just trying to flip it in there one percent of the time. It’s not a pitch I’m totally comfortable with throwing at all times.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/47190646/white-sox-lhp-anthony-kay-agree-2-year-deal-sources-say It’s a familiar page in general manager Chris Getz’s playbook: sign a former first-rounder to a two-year deal on the heels of a strong run pitching in one of the top leagues in Asia. That strategy worked out reasonably well when Chicago signed Erick Fedde for two years and $15MM in the 2023-24 offseason following a terrific season in the Korea Baseball Organization; Fedde was traded to the Cardinals in a three-team swap in July 2024, netting the White Sox Miguel Vargas and minor league infielders Alexander Albertus and Jeral Perez. Vargas was a league-average bat for the South Siders in 2025 and is controlled another four seasons. Albertus and Perez rank within the top 25 prospects in the Sox’ system. The Sox will hope for similar results in their similarly priced investment into Kay. The 30-year-old southpaw (31 in March) has pitched 291 2/3 innings since heading to Japan. In that time, he’s logged a 2.53 ERA with a 20.9% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 54.5% ground-ball rate in 48 starts out of the BayStars’ rotation. https://fansided.com/mlb/exclusive-anthony-kay-reinvented-himself-in-japan-to-earn-another-shot-at-mlb https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/white-sox-sign-anthony-kay-two-years.html

In a surprise Tuesday night during the penultimate ranking show on ESPN, the committee moved Alabama up to No. 9 and dropped Notre Dame to No. 10. That’s crucial because, with the ACC and American Conference champions almost certainly finishing outside of the top-12, the last at-large spot will go to the team ranked No. 10. Why is that potentially bad news for Notre Dame? It all comes down to, of all things, the Big 12 championship game between Texas Tech and BYU... yahoo sports So let's Bama loses a close one to UGA and BYU somehow wins over TT, it's essentially a battle of Miami ND and Alabama for the last spot. Crazy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DRkf9t4EUV4/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=19f6b879-c16b-4e18-b55f-296954625ed2&ig_mid=B6005C57-8884-4ACD-83B8-2EC1D5EAF1C5 Yermin Mercedes living his best off season life possible. Margalus labelled it something like a "pre/early mid life" crisis.

They were out as soon as the contract terms ballooned over $10 million.

https://www.mlb.com/news/angels-alek-manoah-free-agent-contract Former SoxTalk target Alek Manoah signs with the Angels...

Sun, 10/19 @UK W16-13 OT 5-2 (2-1) Manning 132 Wisner 37 Moore Jr. 37 Sun, 10/26 @MSST W45-38 OT 6-2 (3-1) Manning Arch Manning has improved by leaps and pounds in the second half...but their best victory is still a neutral field one over Oklahoma, with Mateer rushing back from hand surgery and far from 100%. What does his "star power" or Q Rating as a QB count for here?

Mississippi getting pushed back into a road game and Bama missing two years in a row with Texas/Vandy also out is going to have the SEC seeing red if Miami does in fact make it. Then again, the SeC did it to themselves with the whole Kiffin debacle. Carson Beck would have a small measure of revenge. Btw, is the Tulane coach still going to lead them if they make the final spot? https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/alabamas-doomsday-scenario-from-conference-championship-game-to-missing-the-college-football-playoff-161103756.html

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/blue-jays-cody-ponce-finalizing-three-year-deal.html $30 million reported this week was exactly on the dot. 7 deep now in their rotation with Eric Lauer, 8 if you want to throw Yariel Rodriguez into the mix. Bassitt could also return as a swing man. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/02/style/faberge-winter-egg-auction-sold And $30.2 million for a rare Faberge egg haha.

The A's did this last off season...but they actually have/had some unusual clause inserted that they have to reach $100 million floor in payroll at a certain point as a result of negotiations with MLB over their classification for CBT subsidies. So it was more about preserving all the benefits of being a small market team when technically they didn't meet any of the requirements except for the way in which they operated in a practical sense. Meanwhile Sox staring at $62 million and much less without Robert.