caulfield12

The same ones who were excited by Benintendi and Grandal...so not that many.

https://fansided.com/who-is-johnny-knox-bears-get-revenge-14-years-in-the-making-on-saddest-td-yet

You can't buy players at peak FA value nearing 30 and believe that's a sustainable team building strategy...those are supposed to finishing pieces when/if your young offensive core hits its competitive window. Right now, there's zero certainty about any positions really other than catcher. You need to get at least 4-5 positions nailed down first. Sasaki is the one and only player any and every team in baseball should be pursuing.

Following a failed Mariners' strategy doesn't exactly scream ideal future outcome. They were trying to pull it off with a pretty awesome starting rotation and Jose Rodriguez. We otoh imagine what that Sox rotation MIGHT be in 2026 or 2027...if almost every outcome breaks their way with Schultz Smith and especially Taylor.

JR clearly believes his cry poor stadium strategy works better at $50-60 million payrolls than $80-100...but no politician in the world wants to get behind an all-time losingest franchise with little to no hope on the immediate horizon. It's already controversial enough in KC for the Chiefs to get stadium funding on the Johnson or Wyandotte County sides of the border and they basically have a dynasty/monopoly in that market/region.

That's simply showing a lot of faith in a veteran professional hitter rather than assuming that youngsters Cowser and Kjerstad can both carry the load in the outfield...and rebalancing the lineup a bit. Still surprised they're holding onto both Mayo and Basallo.

Even the Guardians have made mistakes and they're still trucking along despite the Gimenez premature extension (dumped) and McKenzie falling apart. Having defense speed execution and a bullpen goes a long way in the Central. Is crazy if you like at their rotation three years ago compared to 24/25. Never seem to miss a beat coming up with starters.

Mariners' fans must be annoyed they're not part of the conversation on Sasaki at least. Even his former team was Chiba Lotte MARINES.

But he's something of a one dimensional player...unfortunately. From an fWAR standpoint, he's (Rojas) the equivalent of Romy Gonzalez. Unfortunately the two can't be combined into one complete player.

You might get 5/$70 if nobody else in baseball needed a high quality veteran SS for the second half of the 2025. But his value is intrinsically higher than Benintendi's ever was.

But he apparently had a strong finish lol. There's reason for hope he could still be a 640 hitter.

First 40 games: .347/.411/.515 over 114 PA Last 112 games: .188/.271/.280 over 366 PA So if he stumbles out of the gate with the White Sox and it gets to the point where he’s hitting below the Mendoza Line over the last calendar year, he may not be immune from the Charlotte carousel after all. At the same time, a couple months of credible work will give Rojas the vaunted five years of service time to protect against such a fate. soxmachine.com

Except the Sox aren't going to give anyone more than $5-7 million under present circumstances...

UGA really lacking at WR and then Bowers' spot and just average RB's the last 2-3 years. Defense has lost a ton of NFL talent too. Put together Milroe or Stockton with those Ohio State skill players and suddenly you're cooking with fire. (And now it's hard to assert how good Oregon actually was this past season with two wildly divergent OSU results...one at home. Definitely missed the likes of Irving and Nix and Franklin.)

The sticking point is that shoulder after surgery...he still might miss the first 2-3 months of the 2025 season. He's a $100-150 million player without that hanging over negotiations.

and Venezuelan...

Defense only player...punch and Judy mlb expectations.

We've been saying all off season long, shore up SS, if you're going to do ANYTHING... But of course, we find a guy who just happens to play the two positions with the most depth on the roster in 2B and 3B. Now we don't know for sure if it's quality depth or not, but one would have to imagine at least two of Montgomery/Vargas/Ramos/Gonzalez/Meidroth/Baldwin would be able to handle 2B and 3B. If we go along with the theory that Vargas is slotted as the DH (and not a defined position), with Tauchman starting in RF and Baldwin at SS and Sosa at 2B...just let the kids play!!! If we've already given up on Fletcher and Colas for RF, fine. But at least find a legit CF candidate for when you eventually trade Robert. Don't suddenly act surprised and shift Fletcher there when his best position (and the only one where he has a positive asset/value) is RF. Some are already suggesting that Rojas should get some play at 1B. Why, why, why, when his biggest asset is being an above average field at third and second? Why are we paying Vaughn $6 million or whatever it is and already trying to replace him with a hitter lacking much if any offensive upside?

Well, we did just finish 26th in fWAR, and that's looking even bleaker now if you subtracted Crochet from the equation. Without him, the rest of the team was at 3.9, and a good part of that was Fedde. Fwiw, the altitude-challenged Rockies were 30th in MLB at 3.8.

They were 14-15 games over .500 at one point in early May, but I seem to remember a collapse against Texas and the bottom quickly falling out. When Shields was acquired, they were already starting to slide in the wrong direction. Of course, unless you were a big fan of the often-injured Erik Johnson or simply upset that JR and KW were once again favoring cash savings (Padres' subsidy) on Shields over protecting/preserving your prospect stash...because only Keith Law/Preller were on the Tatis trail at this point. And Shields had been bombed for something like 9-11 runs in a single game (in his previous start) and the owner at the time (Moores) was basically forcing his GM's hand in terms of dumping him on the market for whatever he could get, so the GM obviously had very little leverage to work with at that point.

For once it would be nice if he started off his first month in the 240's or 250's before rallying..

Meanwhile, the Tigers are going to give Skubal $250-300 million...

So we get ND PSU in Miami and OSU basically at Texas...not that it will matter if the Buckeyes keep playing like their last two games.

When can we reasonably expect all these exciting prospects to amount to a competitive team? 2027? 2028?

Yes we wasted roughly $30 million on a boatload of crap like Maldonado and Nicky Lopez. Pham and DeJong were the only decent moves. Pillar and Grossman were meh.