caulfield12

The outfielder and 2024 World Series champion agreed to a three-year, $66 million deal with Los Angeles on Friday, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan. The deal reportedly includes a fourth-year team option for $15 million, a $23 million signing bonus and, as is common for the Dodgers now, around $23 million in deferred money. yahoo.com/sports Question to answer in 2025: Can anyone knock the Dodgers juggernaut off its perch? Plain and simple, the Dodgers are acting like bullies, which gives them a strong chance to become the first MLB team in the 21st century to win back-to-back titles. That, far and away, is the biggest storyline heading into 2025. Can anybody knock this juggernaut off its perch? Shohei Ohtani will be back on the mound. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman should be healthier than they were in ‘24. And there’s no way the Dodgers will suffer as devastating a barrage of starting pitcher injuries as they did this past season. The MLB playoffs remain deliciously random, and the 2025 season is far from a done deal, but boy, oh boy, do the Dodgers look like a steamroller at the outset. — Jake Mintz

"But Keith, a left-handed hitter, is taking reps at first base this offseason to expand his defensive versatility, creating internal competition for first baseman Spencer Torkelson in spring training. Although Keith has previous experience at third base, he won't play there because of injury concerns with the labrum in his right shoulder. One configuration for the 2025 Opening Day infield is Keith at first base, Torres at second base, Trey Sweeney at shortstop and Matt Vierling at third base. It's unclear if the Tigers will continue pursuing free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman. There are 90 days until Opening Day." freep.com/sports First thought was why sign him after Keith....but apparently Torkelson will be DH. Nationals wanted to sign him for 3B but has never played there before.

Going with 55-107...one game behind the Royals' pace two seasons ago. That seems optimistic considering they had Witt, Singer, Perez, Pasquantino, later in the season Ragans.

Mr. Ligue? Someone beat me to the low hanging fruit. Thirsty Thursdays/Two for Tuesdays.

On a consistent basis? Power 5 conference games? NFL games? He did the KBO (Korean League) games before... Early life and education Schriffen graduated from Dartmouth College, where he called baseball, basketball and hockey games for the school's radio station.[2]

Fox is definitely getting their money's worth...and Jason likes to keep a really active schedule. Obviously that leads to inevitable conflicts when the seasons overlap.

I'm not sure for some of those April/May/September weekday games that they wouldn't make more money trying to fill the stadium with local youth/elementary and middle school school field trips (perfect attendance, etc.), but then those teachers/parents would have to desire going to a Sox game in the first place. Research for decades has shown that the spending levels on "giveaway" days are much less on food/souvenirs, but it's going to be one of the toughest years in history attendance-wise. They're to the point where they almost have to start promoting "the chance/opportunity to witness history" if they can't challenge the 50 win mark again in 2025...and if they're not at least approaching 60-70 wins in 2026, then something has gone radically wrong again with Rebuild II (Part Dos). One of the Sox e-mails, thought it was the Grinch at first and not Southpaw. Merry Christmas! Come see us in the new year at SoxFest Live at Ramova! Held in the heart of Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood at the historic Ramova Theatre, this year’s event promises a unique blend of entertainment, interactive experiences with players and White Sox greats, and celebration of seasons’ past and those ahead. You can also take advantage of this year’s hottest deal and purchase a Holiday Flex Pack before it’s too late! We look forward to seeing you in 2025!

This sounds like the precise KW/JR philosophy for 13 years...the farm system was typically for trading potential/possibility for established veterans the managers trusted more to play...at least for the most part. But that requires winning the majority of your trades, not just 20-30%.

Jason Benetti reminds me a bit of voices like Nantz, Enberg and Al Michaels of the recent past that had the versatility to do at least three major sports. He's now got men's and women's major college basketball, college FB and baseball down pat. Meanwhile, we've got the Schiff Schtick

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5732045/2024/08/30/baltimore-orioles-eloy-jimenez-white-sox-trade/ McGuffey called him out pretty directly when he was traded...but there's no other word but disappointment for 2021-2024, four consecutive seasons where he underachieved or simply wasn't available to play. Plus you had the negative optics of often jogging down to 1B to preserve what remained of his health.

https://movie-sounds.org/comedy-movie-sounds/quotes-with-sound-clips-from-old-school/you-re-my-boy-blue-you-re-my-boy

I must have been thinking of Leyson Septimo from 2012. LHP. But even he started with the DBacks before debuting with Sox. Honestly can't remember the last Dominican pitcher who originally signed and debuted w/ the Sox.

"Joel McKeithan, Terry Bradshaw, and Tim LaMont have all been dismissed by the Reds and will not be returning for the 2025 season. The Reds finished the 2024 season ranked 21st in OPS, with several key players experiencing a notable regression from their strong 2023 performances." McKeithan was quite young to take over as hitting coach with Cincy and only lasted for one season...Terry Francona apparently came in and wanted to bring in all his own staff, which is perfectly reasonable above and beyond the overall team struggles (outside of Elly de la Cruz.)

$22.5 million and coming off a 1.65 WHIP and 67 ERA+??? What kind of Diamondbacks prospect are we talking, because JR's seemingly planning a $50 million-ish target for Sox 2025 payroll and that alone would represent a 45% increase. The Benintendi Experience is enough to scare them off multi-year contracts for veterans in their 30's, lol. There's just no way that JR would even consider it, even for even a Top 30-50 MiLB prospect.

Bryse Wilson, yes

Robert for Lux/Outman would be the suggested trade...which I still don't like that much. At this point, rolling the dice and holding him makes more sense.

I remember back in the 90s asserting 4-5 years for a high schooler and at least 3-4 years for a power conference position player was pretty much the norm. The White Sox seem to have cut that time table in half as they continuously rush to plug holes in the big league roster. At any rate, someone was thinking that Braden could possibly be debuting for the Sox as early as next season.

Maybe Harold is a "double agent" working for the Dodgers secretly while getting paid by Getz lol.

Robert for Lux alone makes just about zero sense. At the very least, get someone back from LA that can play a credible CF....probably Outman, since they won't as easily give up Pages.

Maybe replacing Mike Gellinger's old role in the system...sort of a jack of all trades.

If he was a legitimate major league SS, I'd almost be for it....allowing Montgomery to concentrate more fully on his offensive game and making the transition to 3B (hopefully not first, where his bat wouldn't be as much of a plus or added value.) But we already have FIVE players (including Vargas and now Meidroth) who profile best at second base. Didn't we learn from before when the Dodgers told us by their playing time decisions that Grandal wasn't a strong defensive catcher and Pollock was definitely not a RFer by any stretch of the imagination???

Spectacular at what? https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/40423/gavin-lux He was under a 678 hitter for every month but two...July and August he was white hot. But that only averages out to a .703 OPS, which still would have been right there with everyone's favorite 1B, Andrew Vaughn. 464 April 678 May 591 June 937 884 659 Sept -2.1 defensively even with the position change from SS to 2B...that doesn't scream the centerpiece of any trade, because two years of Lux just equals (maybe a QO) but likely another trade/flip before free agency. Then they start over again with the next iteration of Vargas.

Where the philosophy was typically to dump prospects for much more reliable veteran players...which eventually proved to be unsustainable as the 2005 WS team gradually withered away on the vine. But it was a competitive/at least "in the game" model for 13 years. And the Sox were certainly relevant as a historic franchise with an identifiable branding/logo.

When Fedde for $15 million/2 years was pushing the budget and guys like Sean Manaea are getting 67% more for just one year... Remember how long that Machado thread was and how many times we thought a signing was imminent...at least 2-3 ESPN headlines worth, we currently don't have a single FA in the Top 50-75 that we're known to be targeting, and that's pretty much 60-75% of every off season. Sasaki's clearly not going to sign here...but half the fun of this off season is just rooting for big names not to land with the Dodgers Mets or Yankees. Having just a glitter of hope over a potential new stadium deal (and not a team relocation to Nashville) would probably help as well...as even the A's fans have some hope now, right?

When is the last time they physically even had a single scout covering Japan Korea and Taiwan? The last original Dominican White Sox signing to make an impression was pitcher Jesus Pena nearly a decade ago.