caulfield12

How in God's name would the Guardians be anywhere near the top (bottom) when they are one of the very best with young pitching as well as in Latin America? Former scouts no longer with the team voting out of jealousy...?

The problem is our scouting experience/networks were once considered the strength of the organization...but we're now something like Bottom 3-5 in baseball in terms of sheer numbers of scouts remaining, right? With almost all of the veteran scouts shown the door...Vegan wrote about this pretty extensively. So what are our strengths as an organization at this point? Seems like talent recommendations are coming mostly most hitting and pitching coaches, Barfield, etc.

Say...San Diego if they miss on Sasaki? Already familiar/comfortable with NL West.

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/bobby-dalbec/19966/stats?position=1B 29, turning 30 next year and coming off three consecutive negative fWAR seasons...what's not to like at that price lol?

Where would Lux play for the White Sox? His best position is second...and that's precisely where we have the most prospect depth currently. And you'd be flipping him at trade deadline 2026 or extending him?

Not much good…

Based on McCarthy's entire career history...he still looks more like a 4th outfielder than an everyday starter.

Does Baldwin have the arm for right...let alone the power? Seems more like a CF or LF. "Baldwin faired as good as a rookie could fare coming up for the first time. Baldwin had 24 hits, 6 doubles, 8 RBI, 2 HRs, 4 stolen bases, for a slash line of .211/.250/.316 with and OPS of .566." Hopefully they're joking about a 566 ops being an indicator of success. https://www.chicitysports.com/the-chicago-white-sox-have-position-battles

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/baseball-americas-2025-scout-survey-evaluators-fear-games-direction-amid-doom-and-gloom-offseason/ We'very been hearing for months now about how the White Sox have cut into veteran scouts about as deeply as any organization out there...scary, because what exactly is replacing it? Just JR Getz Shirley Bannister Barfield and TLR in the old KW "War Room" with the big whiteboard? "Not to knock the romanticized history of scouting, but traditional scouting is just guessing. It is imperfect and capable of being heuristically silly. But that humanity is what makes the industry compelling. This is an entertainment industry and storytelling is a part of that entertainment. I doubt Vin Scully would have been as beloved as he was if the story he told about a player coming into an org was as bland as ‘The team ran his Trackman feed through its model and the model flagged his spin rates and exit velos.’ We’re losing that storytelling ability. The broader industry wants games to be done with as fast as possible. To identify players with a single click of a refresh button on its internal dashboard. And to employ as few people as possible whether that is to help hoard resources or remove the risk of dissenting opinion. MLB: The Show has a simulation feature, and it would be nice if that were enough to satiate those who are too impatient to endure and enjoy the ride.”

It's about as exciting as Mike McCarthy as the new Bears HC.

Baldwin and/or Ramos will be the first two to go...Vargas could move to left as well, but not sure how eager Benintendi is to DH full time.

Well, any team in baseball could use 2023 Robert...but Edman promises less volatility and fits their team well as proven in the post season already.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/mlb/reds/2025/01/06/how-cincinnati-reds-gavin-lux-trade-impacts-matt-mclain-noelvi-marte/77499453007/ Argues Lux will get most of his time replacing Marte (AAA bound) at 3B but also LF DH 2B possibly even 1B. Jack of all trades/utility role envisioned. Doesn't seem like Cincy has any plans to repackage him at all. Dealt India to demonstrate faith in McLain leading team again like he did two seasons ago...opened up second base officially.

Left Fielders *Miguel Andujar (31) Michael Conforto (33) too expensive Tyler O’Neill (31) – can opt out...too expensive Rob Refsnyder..too old Chris Taylor (35) – $12MM club option with a $4MM buyout...too old Center Fielders Trent Grisham (29) thoroughly inconsistent on offense and not cheap *Cedric Mullins (31) best of bad options Luis Robert Jr. (28) – $20MM club option with a $2MM buyout ADVERTISEMENT Right Fielders Cody Bellinger (30) – $25MM player option with a $5MM buyout too expensive Mitch Haniger (35) too old *Max Kepler (33) maybe but decline coming Starling Marte (37) too old Tyler O’Neill (31) – can opt out Hunter Renfroe (34) old and slow Austin Slater (33) White Sox special *Lane Thomas (30) Kyle Tucker (29) too expensive Mike Yastrzemski (35) too old but Hawk would be elated/psyched for this

https://sports.yahoo.com/2025-nfl-mock-draft-shedeur-231259294.html Nightmare scenario of Banks Jr. going 9th here....

Adolfo sure looked good in a uniform at least.

To be fair...2010 and 2012 were at least fun/competitive seasons compared to 2022-24.

He was also the #1 prospect in all of baseball...and lived up to that promise. The odds of any of the Sox hitting prospects being a 5 fWAR contributor...let alone a 10 like Witt Jr, are pretty much the same as winning the powerball. So they won't start their arbitration clocks until May in all likelihood...

You're not far off? Many many months ago I started a thread asking who the Sox had to excite the fanbase from a hitting standpoint other than Robert (and Burger at the time)...? There's SORT OF an answer now. You've got Colson Montgomery after the AFL, Braden Montgomery's debut season in the Sox system, Kyle Teel (Boston catcher), Quero and hopefully Brayan Ramos. And that Meidroth kid (2B) from the Crochet trade put up some impressive AAA numbers, but seems (at least for now) to have limited power.

I'm not buying into any of this hype after Vera...talk to me when he's in High A, lol.

Edman is supposed to be primarily a CFer or LFer this year.

The general point is that even the Fedde 2 year/$15 million contract is a fantasy right now. JR definitely won't give it to Junis as a trade/flip candidate when that would do zero to sell any tickets.

That all sounds great...but I would still rather have Gio Lopez Dunning Cease and Kopech as a starting point than that entire list. No matter how you slice it, you're still relying on Smith Schultz and Taylor to carry 75-80% of the load if you want a truly outstanding starting staff from a pure stuff standpoint. At least 1 of those 3 will not make it and the other one will likely get injured. That's just how topline pitching goes these days.

Mutual options are very rarely exercised. If a player enjoys a strong season, the club will often exercise its half of the option in the hope of retaining the player on a one-year deal. That doesn't mean it never happens. If Lorenzen was happy enough in KC and got to hit and start every five days...anything is possible. KC is a great place to raise a kid in the suburbs.

Well...what's the old adage?? Make a player first prove he doesn't have what it takes at SS before you move him off the position to 2B or CF. Force the player to remove himself from shortstop consideration by proving that he's not up to the task...otherwise, his peak value as a minor leaguer will always be higher just with that idea he COULD potentially be an MLB SS long-term. Heck, we once considered Michael Morse a legit SS candidate and Montgomery has to be more smooth/fluid/dynamic than that, right? Montgomery sticking at SS solves all kinds of problems. Unfortunately we can't hire Ron Washington to coach Colson up.