caulfield12

Was considering going until I saw no Rojas Perez or Slater appearances... Uribe's probably pissed they already dumped his son. Would also be nice to see Crede or Rowand, but maybe they're not getting around very well physically after getting beaten up so much over their careers...heck, would take Carl Everett at this point.

This is like dinging Frank Thomas for the 2000 playoffs against the Mariners. Witt was terrible against the Yankees, for example. It happens to even the best players, like Judge as well in the WS...or Soto. Or when Edman and Lux might outplay Betts and Ohtani enough to...

Kremer Povich Suarez as fifth for now...they did lose Irvin and Means, but doing the traditional KW Deadline flirtation seems to be the preference, rather than ocercommitting money before the season has even started. All depends on keeping Rodriguez healthy across a full season...and him taking that next step like Skubal or Crochet last year.

The Hangout is convinced Pablo Lopez, Framber, Luis Castillo, Cease or a Pirates starter not named Skenes is there for prospects that they are shockingly overvaluing again. Or counting on Sasaki...but even most Padres' fans seem to be scared of the Dodgers at this point. I'd suspect it would require Dean, Mouncastle and Povich. That'd be a lot to give up but Pablo is a very solid Top 2 in your rotation guy.

Eflin is underrated by most...and there's this player named Gunnar Henderson who very might well be an MVP if not for Witt/Judge. That can make up for a lot of shortcomings.

https://forum.orioleshangout.com/topic/56141-63-million-in-free-agency-added-to-the-2025-payroll/page/6/#comments Orioles have committed $63 million in FA this off season but RollTide about as happy as CrimsonTide football fans with DeBoer...

He was as consistent as they come with the Rays...but I guess the Joe Kelly/Graveman/Kimbrel possibility is there. Heck the Os even tried Kimbrel three years after his Sox debacle and the smoke and mirrors act worked for a couple of months at least.

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/rhys-hoskins/16472/stats?position=1B/OF Hoskins was your classic 2 fWAR firstbaseman every year of his career until last season. Vaughn has never approached that level.

“If you don’t have that true No. 1 type of guy, you have guys that can improve also. I think Grayson’s got No. 1 stuff. Grayson could be that guy. I look for him to take a big step forward next year. We need to pick up the pieces, those 33 awesome starts that Burnes gave us and what he brought to our team and continue to see what happens here with the rest of the offseason with what we bring in.” Most of the other available starters wouldn’t be able to single-handedly replace Burnes, who finished in the top eight of Cy Young voting for the fifth straight season in 2024. But bringing in another No. 2-type starter — the same level as Eflin and Rodriguez — would still make the rotation a formidable one, even without having a true ace. Elias said during the winter meetings that the competition for starting pitching is “enormous.” That’s been evident by the contracts given out, as every starter who’s signed so far this winter has been given more money than projected by MLB Trade Rumors. https://www.thebaltimorepost.com/2024/12/18/baltimore-sun-after-adding-tomoyuki-sugano-orioles-rotation-is-one-big-arm-away-analysis/

"The O’s are in agreement on a one-year contract with right-hander Andrew Kittredge that is worth a guaranteed $10 million, a source told MLB.com. The club has not confirmed the deal, which includes a $9 million salary and a $9 million team option for the 2026 season (with a $1 million buyout). Kittredge, 34, is coming off an impressive season for the Cardinals. He posted a 2.80 ERA over a career-high 74 appearances, tied for the ninth most among MLB pitchers. His 1.5 bWAR was the second-best of his career, behind only his 2021 All-Star campaign with the Rays (2.4 bWAR)." mlb.com Also getting Bautista back in 2025...

Well, you've got California (not sure that's a positive with all the fires and complaints about taxes) and a AAA facility. Tampa Bay is going to be using the Yankees' High A facility, with a capacity of something like 12,500 (cue the jokes about better attendance).

Sheets? Vaughn actually started in LF in his outfield conversion...where he was "mediocre" but at least passable (obviously zero range), then gradually got worse and worse, especially in RF.

What was it, something like 1/3rd of the veterans on the White Sox ended up performing pretty well for playoff teams last year? It was a crazy amount, but mostly on the bullpen/pitching side of things... And then Romy Gonzalez suddenly blossomed into a solid contributor for the Red Sox after foundering on the rocks with the White Sox...in much the same way that Lenyn Sosa has bounced up and down.

I think you can look back at White Sox baseball over the last 20-25 years and say that we've almost never had a situation like the Royals or Cubs or Astros where you had waves of young talent coming into the organization together and then learning how to win in the minor leagues, and learning how to trust each other at each step along the way...and earning promotions when they were merited. The White Sox almost always have been built on "imported" players from other organizations with a mixture of the Cuban Connection...and it worked in 2005 and for half of 2006. Other than that, there just has been a distinctive style or identity around this organization at all....other than poor execution, poor defense, not hustling at all times and taking extra bases (due to injury concerns, but also managerial imperatives), poor fundamentals, never holding runners well as a pitching staff or throwing out runners from a catching perspective, almost every aspect of the team has just been piss-poor since 2012 other than parts of 2019/2020 and then the first half of 2021. Prospects got promoted to fill immediate big league needs (or were drafted with holes in mind)...but we never actually DEVELOPED the players along the way, it's like passing kids from year to year in a school and then hoping that university or the major leagues would somehow teach them what they needed to know when they had zero fundamentals or foundation to rely upon when they inevitably struggled at the big league level.

I think the single biggest problem was the clubhouse split....the Latin American/Cuban players, Anderson was kind of in his own little world, the mostly white players, then you had this weird dynamic with Graveman and Lance Lynn vs. Liam Hendriks. Seems like Jose Abreu just kind of threw in the towel and shrugged his shoulders with all the dysfunction surrounding him. And of course Lynn and Graveman were aligned with TLR/Cardinals' Way. Then you MIGHT have had some jealousy from the "next wave" players about getting early extensions and seeing how lazy/entitled that Jimenez/Moncada/Robert became? And then you had that whole weird dynamic with Giolito as the union rep and getting his balls busted by JR...he certainly was never going to receive an extension from the Sox.

Sure, but 1B and limited tools 2B probably don't historically warrant early extensions...and they certainly didn't earn it with their performances (when they were actually available). Granted, Vaughn got totally screwed up and over with the ridiculous outfield conversion and Covid/skipping over basically AA/AAA, but Madrigal from the get-go seemed a poor fit with that clubhouse. Maybe it was Nick's arrogance coming from the OSU program, his Christianity/proselytizing, his sense of entitlement, it always was just a poor fit...no matter how much Benetti tried to make Nicky Two Strikes a thing. The real irony is Kwan had none of the attention that guys like Madrigal and Rutschman and even Larnach received...and he has become one of the five most important players in the entire AL Central over the last three seasons. Scouting.

Well, the Rays have the farm system but no budget and no stadium (good luck with FA's), Toronto has ONE last go at it with Guerrero and Bichette this year...I still think it's way too early to write off the Orioles being a perennial contender simply because they have Sugano and Charlie Morton now instead of spending over $200 million on Corbin Burnes. O'Neill and Sanchez are winning/playoff-experienced players as well. It was never going to make sense to give Santander a MASSIVE contract based on one Brady Anderson-like season when they have so many cheaper/younger players to replace him.

This was the problem last time....we had our first wave of talent mixed in with the likes of Rodon, Abreu and Anderson...Robert/Moncada/Jimenez stalled out/got injured, there was never a second wave (Vaughn/Burger/Madrigal/Crochet) for various reasons, and the veterans we signed all started going backwards from 2021-22 onward (Keuchel/Grandal/Steak & Potatoes/Hendriks-Graveman-Kelly). They really need to get the timing right with this thing or it's going to be that 3-4 year abbreviated window like the 2014-2015 ROYALS. Of course, every SOX fan would give up anything in the world (well almost) for two consecutive WS appearances after the last 15 years or so being a White Sox fan.

Other than Mayo, Basallo, Bradfield...who do they have left?

What did Ozzie call that one young Brewers/Indians' 1B/DH, LaFatta?

That Jon Lester move never came for the Sox....they just pretended it was Grandal, Keuchel and 'ol Meat and Potatoes instead of Machado/Harper/Wheeler.

Hahn will go to his grave repeating the mantra "an unprecedented, franchise-altering two consecutive playoff appearances..."

https://www.mlb.com/news/front-office-executives-poll-for-farm-systems-2025 Those who voted for the Sox on the underrated and best at acquiring prospects must not be frequenting SoxTalk. Loved Orioles for prospect hugging...Dodgers Guardians and Padres with accolades, most wanted to keep Red Sox as best system overall even after Keel/Montgomery trade.

If not for Torkelson...he would have faced even more criticism, seemingly. Seems one of the most popular criticisms has been the lack of competition in the Pac-12 compared to say the SEC...and feasting on the subpar/non weekend pitchers for the most part. And then he went from a disciplined NCAA walk machine to a chaser/guess hitter with a lot of the same characteristics as Luis Robert.

Ageless Carlos Santana, $12 million for the cash-strapped Guardians...