caulfield12

"Beginning with a four-inning long relief showing at Yankee Stadium, Soroka punched out seven batters. He went on to fan 15 in 9 1/3 frames over his first three relief outings. From May 18 through season’s end, Soroka pitched to a 2.75 ERA and struck out a gargantuan 39% of his opponents. That includes a two-month absence due to a shoulder strain, but Soroka returned in late September averaging an improved 94.5 mph on his heater and closed out the season with 7 1/3 shutout innings and a 13-to-2 K/BB ratio. His overall command was an issue, as Soroka walked 13% of opponents even after his move to relief." https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/11/2024-25-top-50-mlb-free-agents-with-predictions.html Soroka another guy who actually improved last year and was rewarded with a $9 million deal.

Didn't realize that about Smith. Well...Cole Ragans is the test case here. Two TJS's in his past and one of the best pitchers in baseball last year. Usually the second was a death sentence for starters and led to no more than 3-5 final years pitching (more often in relief). Ohtani will be another. He's already changed his delivery to be smoother and exert less pressure on the elbow. And of course we went through it with Rodon (multiple injuries) and Kopech. Dylan Cease, otoh, has pitched with incredible stamina/durability since his TJS very early on. Giolito now with his second major injury. Reynaldo Lopez has been pretty resilient too with how hard he throws...although he was nicked up a bit last year if I recall with ATL. Danks was a shoulder injury...that's still the hardest to overcome.

No way...the agents will advise them to wait for FA once they make it to arbitration since the White Sox will likely expect hometown discounts again. The only way is if the team's at least halfway competitive again.

Until further notice or JR's demise...we are the defacto farm or feeder team for the rest of baseball. Used to be the Pirates or Marlins.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/02/astros-brendan-rodgers-agree-to-one-year-deal.html This is the guy I wanted over Rojas to man SS before Colson... "The right-handed hitter has turned in a .266/.316/.409 slash line in more than 1800 career plate appearances. He put up virtually identical numbers last year, posting a .267/.314/.407 mark across 539 trips to the dish. Rodgers hit 13 home runs with middling strikeout and walk rates. He hit the ball on the ground at a career-high 56.1% rate. Among hitters with 500+ plate appearances, no one hit the ball on the ground more often." Fuller could have fixed him...haha.

He was technically the best hitter on the White Sox last year...at the very least, he had the highest fWAR, which, once again...isn't saying all that much. https://www.fangraphs.com/players/paul-dejong/18015/stats?position=SS For the full year, he was at 1.7 fWAR. Pretty sure Luis Robert at 0.5 was the second highest on the team. Maybe Pham? https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&type=8&season=2024&month=0&season1=2024&ind=0&team=4&qual=300 DeJong was actually 1.0 (just with the Sox until the trade deadline, not overall) and Nicky Lopez 0.9 due to his defensive position. Pham 0.2 and Lenyn Sosa 0.1 fwar, fwiw. And that was pretty much it for positive contributors.

“It always seems like ballplayers are more expensive than you think,” the owner told reporters (including Newsday’s Tim Healey and Jorge Castillo of ESPN). “Listen, I have the ability to spend if I have to. I want to win. And I want to put the best team I can on the field. But free agency is expensive. … Even this year, I had a thought of where I wanted to be, and I’ve already blown through it. And I really wanted to be there. And just circumstances created, ’all right, I have to adapt my thinking.'” Landing Soto required an eye-popping $51MM average annual value that handily shattered previous precedent. They successfully waited out Alonso’s market to avoid a long-term commitment, getting him on a two-year deal with an opt-out after the first season. That comes with a lofty $27MM AAV and a $30MM figure for the upcoming season, so it’s still a huge investment in 2025. Manaea landed three years and $75MM (albeit with deferrals), while Frankie Montas, Clay Holmes and A.J. Minter all secured multi-year contracts with eight-figure salaries. RosterResource projects New York’s raw payroll around $331MM. Their competitive balance tax estimate is slightly lower at $325MM. Those seem to be within the ballpark, as Cohen told reporters that he expects to finish the season with a payroll in the $340MM range after accounting for in-season pickups (i.e. waiver claims and trade deadline acquisitions). By Anthony Franco | February 18, 2025 at 8:03pm CDT mlbtraderumors.com Just put this here because we don't have a "potential 2027 lockout" thread...kind of a catch-all for MLB's various financial issues. They're (Mets) apparently not interested in bringing back Jose Quintana, even though he (supposedly) would like to return.

Fine, how confident are you that Schultz, Smith and Taylor won't get hurt in the next 5-7 years? I suppose there's some study out there that PTAC has access to that we can put an actual number to it...if we can agree to an official date when "max velo" pitching actually started. Then in July of 2013 Will Carroll came out with an article stating that 33% of opening day Major League pitchers had undergone the surgery. I, however, found the study problematic, which I discussed in my previous article. In March of 2014, Jeff looked at players who threw a pitch 100MPH or harder and found that 25% of them had the surgery. And finally at this year’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Dr. Glenn Fleisig found that 16% of all pitchers had Tommy John, 15% of Minor Leaguers had Tommy John, and 25% of Major Leaguers fell under the knife. So how does this relate to velocity? Well in my previous article I found that 32% of pitchers who threw 95+ MPH on average had the surgery. If we are to believe Will Carroll’s findings then really there isn’t any significant risk of throwing harder. If we, however, choose to look Dr. Fleisig’s results then throwing harder does increase your chances of having Tommy John. https://community.fangraphs.com/velocity-and-the-likelihood-of-tommy-john-surgery/ That was almost a decade ago...so the numbers surely have increased from that isolated point in time.. "Since the introduction of pitch tracking in 2008, Major League fastball velocities -- and the velocities of other pitch types -- have climbed higher and higher. That increase in velocity has correlated with the increase in pitcher injuries over the same time period."Dec 17, 2024 But it's not just fastballs. Pitchers are now chasing "stuff" -- velocity, spin and movement -- on all their pitches, especially with all the tracking technology now available to them. Teams value pitches with higher stuff grades, so pitchers work to attain certain measurables, both during the year with their MLB team and often in the offseason with independent pitch development labs. That also might be increasing stress on pitchers' arms. "With all the modeling of pitches that goes on now, it’s very binary that higher velo with a better shape is going to yield more positive outcomes. It’s hard for guys to step off the gas because it’s me versus you, and if I’m going to give less than my best effort, and if you hit it over the fence, I’ll be kicking myself because I know I could’ve done more," said a pitching development executive from one MLB team. Pitchers throwing as hard as they can, or their nastiest breaking ball, with maximum effort every pitch is the combination that the experts surveyed agreed was the likeliest cause of arm injuries. That consensus will help MLB focus its research going forward. "If we interviewed 200 people, I was concerned that we'd get 200 different answers," Fleisig said. "The fact that there was agreement in this report -- that most people think the No. 1 issue is velocity -- is great. The survey does not prove what the issues are, but it shows us what people [in baseball] think the issues are. So it gives us a gameplan or roadmap for what we should try to solve." https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-releases-report-on-pitcher-injuries-2024 .

Mr. Beast has been taking ALMOST as much heat as Kevin Hart, which is pretty amazing in and of itself.

NBA Celebrity Game, Rising Stars, down Friday night Friday’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.21 million viewers on ESPN, down 27% and 23% respectively from last year (0.9, 1.6M) and the least-watched edition of the event since at least 2007. It was still the most-watched sportscast of the night, topping a college basketball window on FOX (UCLA-Indiana: 1.14M). The Rising Stars Challenge followed with 912,000 on TNT and truTV, down 15% from last year’s 1.07 million, but up 3% from two years ago (888K). https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2025/02/unrivaled-1x1-ratings-most-watched-nba-all-star-friday-nascar-trucks/ The enthusiasm was validated by the game’s huge ratings: According to ESPN, the U.S.-Canada game averaged 4.4 million viewers on ABC, peaking at 5.2 million. It makes the matchup the most-viewed non-Stanley Cup Final hockey broadcast since 2019. https://frontofficesports.com/nhl-4-nations-face-off-steals-the-spotlight-from-nba-all-star-weekend/ “Real humans are watching NBA skills competition over USA vs Canada and I feel bad for them,” wrote one person on X. “I didn’t have Gary Bettman outshining Adam Silver on my bingo card this year,” wrote another.

The hunt for Caitlin Clark rookie cards has the newest release of WNBA trading cards selling for higher prices than the NBA equivalent for the first time. On Feb. 12, Panini, which currently holds the exclusive trading card licenses for both leagues, released its flagship 2024 Prizm set for the WNBA. Even though the league’s 2024 season is long over, hobby boxes are presently selling for an average of around $1,200 each across retailers, according to Waxstat, which tracks sports card retail prices. Panini’s 2024-25 NBA Prizm set will be released on Feb. 19 and the average presale price of a hobby box is currently around $800, according to Waxstat. WNBA and NBA Prizm hobby boxes each contain 12 packs with 12 cards in each pack and a guarantee of two autographed cards per box. Hobby boxes of 2023 WNBA Prizm carried a suggested retail price of $150, which means the price of the latest release marks a 700 percent increase. https://sports.yahoo.com/caitlin-clark-rookie-card-chase-213105532.html

Counterpoint: they had EVEN MORE in the 2017-2019 (plus Rodon) and 1998-2000 prospect cycles. It took the Contreras and Freddy Garcia moves in 2004 to put them over the top coming into the 2005 season. Odds are that at least 25-33% of pitching prospects will get injured, it's just an irrefutable fact in this age of super max velo.

He just doesn't have the positional flexibility of a Josh Rojas...whether he's actually worth the money for such a light hitter, we shall see.

The most interesting takes from Janish is that the comp of Baldwin to a Ben Zobrist was a lot "higher" (especially in the power department) than the likes of "Jamey Carroll, the Nick Punto, or maybe even a Jason Bartlett-type of player, Bartlett was more of a pure defender, but those are the kind of comps I would give" for Meidroth. That reads more like they see Chase as a utility player, and Baldwin as more impactful...a combination of a lesser Chone Figgins in terms of speed and a lesser Zobrist in terms of eventual power. Combine those two, you have a great, impactful player. Ofc it's not so simplistic, because the real question is to what actual extent with Baldwin does his speed/athletic ability/dynamism impact the game on the basepaths, stolen bases, advancing extra bases....but he's not (at least for now) the kind of guy you look at and project 20-25 homers from, at least not at this point. 12-15 homers at peak? 15-18? 20? That's what separates a 1.5 fWAR from a 3-4 fWAR guy, in the final analysis. Cutbacks to short-season ball (once upon a time, you had Bristol in the APPY League for HS draftees and Great Falls in the Pioneer for more advanced collegiate guys) have obviously impacted the White Sox as much as any team in the majors, IMO. Then all your Latin American kids that were making their debuts in the US but weren't yet ready for the SAL League/Kannapolis. The last observation is that the "hitting center" is still a work in progress, compared to the relatively more advanced development of the Bannister/Katz pitching school. Obviously, Fuller has just come into the organization this offseason, so it's going to take him at least a year to get into the full swing of things. Hopefully he can make a lot of progress with both Montgomery's, Gonzalez and George Wolkow as well.

His son has been more penurious...but they were involved in the Bregman negotiations and outbid the Red Sox eventual offer, so that's a big sign they have finally moved past the Javy Baez deal psychologically, and are again willing to absorb more contract risk.

This. The Padres have recently invested in something like 5-6 additional players for less than $10 million, including Pivetta on this year's payroll. One was a KBO signing over half of baseball was tracking. If Getz had waited until the last couple of weeks before spring training both offseasons...he wouldn't have had to waste nearly so much money that could have been invested into scouting or "Sox infrastructure" building out. You're not going to get a Rodon or Profar for pennies every year...but the smarter/more competitive teams are just better with these $1-3 million signing than the Sox on the margins.

One bonus "like" for utilizing the criminally-underappreciated word haranguing today...

The quality of 26 and under players in the organization... 20 points possible for major league young players (Robert/Vaughn/Fletcher last year), 5 points each for prospects, hitting and pitching. 30 points total. Not scientific, but a good snapshot. The Guardians, Twins and Tigers were all up there in the Top 10-11 last year, where they remain. KC was lagging. SD #8/9 based on guys like Merrill (turning 22 on OD this year)/Tatis, Jr. (26, last year of "eligibility"). They had a much better farm system a year ago, but cleaned it out for Tanner Scott and Jason Adam at the deadline, so I would guess they're #10-12/13 in this year's rankings when they eventually come out. So it's not shocking that the experienced veteran teams in NYY, NYM and Phillies (we've discussed their prospects over Robert trades pretty consistently this offseason) would be at the "top" (in this case the bottom).

Nice to see three former Sox pitchers in the Top 11 for fantasy baseball drafts. Well, sorta... https://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy-baseball-rankings-starting-pitcher-sp-tiers-for-2025-drafts-183159229.html Rodon/Lopez "third tier"...jury still out on Giolito's eventual return. Q still on the FA market.

The problem is nothing in his last 3-4 years of play would indicate that's going to occur...but it's a White Sox FA signing, anything is possible I guess.

Except odds are greater than 50/50 that Bregman opt's out again after one year hitting at Fenway due to that contract structure...which would work well for the Cubs as well. Ofc if he continues to slide a bit...left holding the bag with a bad contract. Same basic situation though in Boston...as Cubs w/ Shaw, opening up positions for Campbell and Anthony in the next 6-12 months.

There’s not much left though. Veteran presence/leadership. Combined 2023/24 for 1.1 and 1.2 fWAR seasons…at least three full years since he was still a really dangerous hitter. Maybe he has a Pujols-esque final run in him, and it might be a case where he starts the year and Shaw is the relief guy at third if he just can’t get going out of the starting gate this year at 40.

Cubs can't afford (figuratively) to offer him a spot in a rotation that's supposed to be playoff caliber.

2024 "If not for Luis Robert Jr. and Colson Montgomery, the White Sox would be dead last in our rankings. Those two in this organization are like that meme of a $2 million Bugatti in a raggedy driveway, though Andrew Vaughn probably doesn’t like that comparison." Prospect pitchers (2/5): RHP Nick Nastrini, RHP Jordan Leasure, LHP Jake Eder, RHP Prelander Berroa Young major league pitchers Garrett Crochet, Deivi Garcia (1/5) Those were both WAY WAY off. 12 points last year's vs. 11 in 2025, 6/10 alone for Robert/Vaughn/Fletcher and 3/5 for Colson +...minor league/prospect hitters https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-26-and-under-power-rankings-nos-20-16-how-high-are-the-ceilings-for-bobby-witt-jr-oneil-cruz-and-evan-carter-160013786.html