caulfield12

TN has already announced that's not happening...all the money went to Titans' new facility.

Sure but he's pretty much the official mouthpiece of the team and is simply a reflection of current team thinking. Is protecting Montgomery as a starter coming off last season's major disappointment really going to sell any more tickets? He could have put Teel or Quero as the starter over Lee...who everyone assumes is just a placeholder now. He was conservative about pushing Baldwin or Meidroth into the starting lineup. And a lot of Sosa fans who were counting on him to start SOMEWHERE in the infield are going to be disappointed. This alignment makes him, Baldwin or Amaya the utility infielder. Sosa seems like the type who needs to be at one position getting regular at-bats to be most effective.

Taxpayers are out of more than $30 million for University of Illinois' scuttled South Loop project That’s how much taxpayers had to pay when the University of Illinois pulled the plug on plans for its Discovery Partners Institute research hub at the sprawling 62-acre South Loop site being marketed as The 78. https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/01/31/discovery-partners-institute-university-illinois-the-78-related-midwest-bruce-rauner "Both The 78 and the Pritzker/UI quantum computing facility are being developed by Related Midwest." Doesn't seem like Related is all that screwed yet...

WHITE SOX Lineup 1. Mike Tauchman, RF 2. Josh Rojas, 2B 3. Luis Robert Jr., CF 4. Andrew Vaughn, 1B 5. Andrew Benintendi, LF 6. Bryan Ramos, DH 7. Miguel Vargas, 3B 8. Colson Montgomery, SS 9. Korey Lee, C Austin Slater provides a right-handed-hitting outfield option against a left-handed starter for the Angels, if the team chooses to go that direction. Robert should continue to draw trade interest during Spring Training, while Montgomery would be making his big league debut on Opening Day. https://www.mlb.com/news/projected-lineups-rotations-for-every-2025-mlb-team Not sure about giving the most at-bats to two disposable veterans. Tauchman offers OBP but Rojas is a weak 2 hitter. Rojas should be at 3B with Vargas at 2B imo. #4-7 in the line-up won't inspire much fear in opposing pitchers...also, second time (recently) Ramos has been named as starting DH. Colson Montgomery starting the year in cold weather Chicago at SS will draw the most raised eyebrows...biggest debate topic of slow/uneventful offseason. At least Fletcher Sheets DeLoach and Julks are gone for now...seems like a positive.

Two of the ejected fans held large poster board signs that read, "FIRE NICO" -- a reference to Dallas general manager Nico Harrison. One of those men was seen mouthing "fire Nico" on the arena video screens earlier in the game before the camera quickly panned out. "In the first incident, the guest brought in a sign that broke the following rule included in the NBA Code of Conduct: Clothing, garments or signs displaying explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterization towards any person(s)," Mavericks vice president of corporate communications Erin Finegold said in a statement released to reporters. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/43790513/fans-break-nba-code-conduct-ejected-mavericks-loss

Dead in the water. The White Sox stadium plans. The end.

Rojas 3B Baldwin SS Sosa 2B Vargas/Ramos DH

It's going to be nuts if somehow if 3-4 vets in their late 20's/early 30's are all starting on opening day. Merkin's most recent article featuring possible roster/line-ups coming into camp suggested Brayan Ramos as the starting DH. That's just hard to believe, as poorly as he hit last year at the big league level, but NOBODY I MEAN NOBODY wants to watch any of those veteran guys they're carrying actually hit in 2025. Definitely want no part of watching Jacob Amaya taking at-bats either. It has to be some combination of Vargas, Sosa, Ramos, Baldwin and Meidroth...at least for the first month of the season. Also really have a hard time believing we'll see Teel or Quero unless they're absolutely on fire the first 4-6 weeks.

The Rockies and Marlins are going to push them for worst record, of that there's little doubt. 4 is pretty hard to imagine, though. What's crazy to me is the Rangers are drafting 12th coming off a WS two years ago, and they're definitely a large market team if ever there was one. Angels, Cardinals and Blue Jays all drafting before the White Sox as well...all because of that "large market" distinction when the White Sox are currently a lot more like the A's than anyone but TB/Miami/Pitt.

Sean Burke, RHP, Chicago White Sox His delivery is good enough for him to have at least average control, and he gets excellent extension over his front side. If he stays off the injured list, and just improves the changeup a little bit through repetitions, he's a potential No. 3 starter.Jan 29, 2025... MLB prospects who just missed Keith Law's top 100 ranking That's where a LOT of the Burke love is coming from, the Keith Law write-up...technically, that puts Burke over Colson Montgomery. Cannon looks more like a decent 4/5 starter, Burke's all over the map of possibilities, Davis Martin is likely to be traded at some point as he starts hitting arbitration (but his future salaries will be somewhat suppressed by missed time due to injuries), Martin Perez is just rotation filler and will likely be traded (if he pitches like 2nd half 2024), Wilson is trade bait/filler unless he can unlock something in his arsenal heretofore "hidden"...I don't think ANYONE could honestly look at that projected rotation and conjure up the description "STRONG" by any reasonable stretch of the imagination. As far as depth, FutureSox posters are already speculating about the "excess" of arms in the Sox system and coming up with such names as Eder, Bush, Nastrini and Carela as trade bait, but what they're worth collectively right now IS NOT VERY MUCH.

The Bears had a chance to land that monster (Jalen Carter). They were on the clock with the No. 9 pick in the 2023 draft when they traded back one spot with the Eagles, who selected Carter out of Georgia. General manager Ryan Poles drafted right tackle Darnell Wright with the No. 10 pick. With the fourth-round pick in 2024 the Bears received in the trade, Poles drafted punter Tory Taylor. The Bears didn’t want any part of Carter after a precipitous fall in his draft stock. Rated as the top player in the draft by ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Carter was involved in a fatal accident on Jan. 15, 2023, when a car he was alleged to be racing against crashed, killing a Georgia teammate and a football staffer. The next month, he left the NFL Scouting Combine early because he was being charged. He pleaded no-contest to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing. Because Carter left the combine, scouts took particular interest in his pro day. He showed up out of shape and couldn’t finish all the drills. The Bears held the No. 1 pick and were in dire need of a defensive tackle after Poles had tried a year earlier to sign Larry Ogunjobi, only for him to fail his physical. Their trade with the Panthers moved the Bears down to the ninth pick, where Carter was still available. It didn’t matter. After the draft, Poles said he didn’t want to comment specifically about Carter, but he said, ‘‘Character’s always going to be important for us.’’ The Bears had enough questions about Carter’s to pass on his considerable skills. https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2025/02/05/bears-super-bowl-jalen-carter-defensive-tackle-trade-not-draft-dominating-ryan-poles-nfl?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sports 020625&utm_content=Sports 020625+CID_fe2c37786a4dee162baf969705bea83f&utm_source=cst_campaign_monitor&utm_term=READ STORY&tpcc=cst_cm

The biggest news here is blocking all the 2B prospects with Rojas and then Vargas at 3B instead of second ... SS is still up in the air. The Ramos projection at DH is interesting. The bullpen with the fixation on LHP that are career journeymen ... doesn't look at all auspicious

From Plunkett: Zaidi was president of baseball operations for the Giants for six seasons before getting fired by San Francisco in September. truebluela.com Dodgers will face Cubs’ Shota Imanaga during Tokyo Series in Japan "Chicago manager Craig Counsell said Monday that the Japanese pitcher would pitch one of the two games on March 18-19. Imanaga allowed 3 runs in 11 innings in two starts against LA in 2024."

Nick Pivetta's the other relatively big name remaining...but still has the QO attached. And 32. Red Sox, Braves, Angels, Orioles and A's (of all teams) most likely to sign him in the "fan vote" at mlbtraderumors.

That's a HUGE drop off, obviously. Put your money where you mouth is, as they say. Can Turner even play the position defensively anymore...? They should just go with Shaw, but rookies are hard to trust these days.

7, 2020, at age 78, will posthumously be inducted in Cooperstown on July 27, 2025. “I am overjoyed that the Classic Baseball Era Committee has recognized that Dick is worthy of being immortalized in the Baseball Hall of Fame,” said Phillies Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer John Middleton.Dec 8, 2024 Compare/contrast reactions...what would you do if you were his family? And it's not like the White Sox owners BACK THEN have anything to do with who runs the team today. They don't (meaning the family) "owe" JR anything at all. It's not like he reached out to take care of him like guys from the past such as Minoso, Skowron, etc.

Well, yeah, it's pretty hard to imagine him going in as a White Sox if your owner doesn't even believe he merits a HoF nod...

The crazy thing is that Bobby Witt, Jr., had an fWAR which is the equivalent of Burke doing JUST that.

So Burke's going to record a 10.8 fWAR over 36 starts? Maybe we should tamper that down to 33 starts and a 9.9 fWAR just to be a little bit more realistic...as DET didn't even start some of their regulars in one of those last games of the season after they'd already clinched and the White Sox were fighting to prevent the all-time record for losses.

I do wonder how long he can sustain this Don Quixote-like energy to tilt at windmills...if the White Sox get buried early and Thorpe/Montgomery and B.Montgomery struggle out of the gate and/or are injured. I guess I should be as optimistic as those FutureSox podcasters, but I'm not even all that interested in seeing Schultz or Hagen Smith up at the big league level this year, because it's not like there will be a wave of FA spending next off-season to "jump start" their contention window like the Cubs did with Jon Lester back in the day. It would simply be starting their service time clocks unnecessarily.

Just the general state of the franchise is pretty darned pathetic...and the Phillies are one of the Top 6-8 "glamour" franchises right now.

And Gray Nic Bolton is the next obvious player to go...

If you flipped the major leagues results the last 2-3 years...between the Phillies and Sox, and especially owners (Middleton/Reinsdorf), just wonder if you get the same outcome on hat choice?

740 is fine for an above average SS...certainly a rookie. Holliday didn't come anywhere near that level. Probably not acceptable for an average to below average fielding 3B...which is probably what he would be without any preparation besides the AFL for a position change. At third, you'd be looking for a 775-825 ops at least, with 850+ ideal.

Martin Maldonado hit .119. Pretty low bar you set there, 57% worse than Martin...