caulfield12

Rodney McCray? Terrence Gore? Dyson?

MAYBE, JUST MAYBE...we should look at the Top 8-10 teams AFTER the spider tack ban and see who those pitching coaches are????? Obviously you'd have to isolate other factors, such as beginning "talent levels," players added through trade/FA, etc. Acquisition/opportunity cost, but there should be a way to objectively assess/analyze it.

Can we at least go with Modelo, Dos Equis or maybe Corona/Light?

And the Red Sox still invested $38.5 million into Giolito...for basically one season now, 2025. If they didn't see enough value in him (and he was terrible after the trade and then subsequently on the West Coast)...well, they just don't throw money away there, not after the Yoshida contract.

They also had to let Duke Ellis go to put Chuckie Robinson on the active roster. Or we're talking Corey Julks for RHP Luis Rodriguez???

As Ray Ray mentioned, let's see evidence of some real "innovation" here at some point. It's easy enough to copy other teams, and utilize the same equipment and even statistical analysis/models that they have created. Where's the niche/competitive advantage going to come from? Cubans? Not anymore. Keeping players healthier? Not anymore. So it has to be pitching (and left-handed pitching, specifically)...as it's certainly not positional prospect development, unless you just start counting all the players brought in from other organizations as "success." The problem with that has always been that there was no cohesiveness with so many players coming in with training in numerous outside ways of doing things in their original organizations...but WHAT exactly is the "White Sox Way," so to speak? Last year, it was supposed to be bringing in young players who weren't already "corrupted" by the big league clubhouse who would play winning baseball, defend, fundamentally-sound, ability to execute and play small ball due to the lack of big boppers in the line-up that could pound the opposition into submission, winning the close games due to starting pitching (obviously the bullpen was a MASSIVE weakness after tens of millions were previously invested into veteran bullpen guys).

This just in...White Sox on precipice of bankruptcy after Thaiss addition, offset by the $740,000 they save from their international bonus pool allotment. Yoan Moncada already enjoying his $29 million for 2024, at least. 11 hits and 11 strikeouts on the year, or $2.64 million per hit/K. Amazing production. Hopefully he invests his money wisely...and not in the reggaeton music/production industry.

Camp/Project Birmingham, lol... Or does he not get credit for that. Grouping all the top prospects together on minor league teams and promoting them together as a cohesive core so that they can experienced sustained success/winning/playoff appearances in the minors is something that was already a concerted strategy of the KC Royals and Dayton Moore roughly 15 years or so ago when they started bringing all those Top 10 picks along with international prospects such as Salvy Perez, Alcides Escobar and Yordano Ventura. Not exactly cutting edge stuff.

Hey, it worked out for Odell Beckham quite nicely...BTC, that is.

Not quite buying the Cubs as Central favorites over Milwaukee, not yet at least... The odds of keeping Tucker must be like 20-25% at best. Is this the new Central definition of "all in"? Francona and the Reds would be the team to watch for me.

Pretty impressive...considering this past season. Do you play fantasy baseball?

Because we have seen this same song and dance with 100+ players previously. Not converting on Machado Wheeler and Harper was actually so on brand for this team when the opportunity was sitting there basically on a silver platter. Over two plus decades, Dunn Abreu Robert and Hendriks were the only consequential players they truly "won"...as they overpaid Grandal and Benintendi.

We don't need fourth outfielders...that's building in the opposite way of up the middle strength at C SS CF and perhaps even a legit 2B at some point. Now hopefully they have C and maybe 2B, but two key spots are completely uncertain.

Maybe the only reason Getz "won" is that neither Hahn nor Williams presented JR visions of an "acceptable" $50 million payroll team...since both would have been acknowledging non-competitiveness and complete failures on their part. Whereas to Getz that was job security in a position he didn't deserve and wouldn't have secured with another organization for at least 3-5 years, if not longer. Largely due to the lack of Top 1-3 picks coming in, FA costs exploding/revenues bottoming out, no TV presence and the ambiguous at best stadium situation.

"Sugano enters his 13th season and will play in a Camden Yards that will be less pitcher-friendly than last season. The Orioles will move the left-field wall, where home runs often went to die, by as much as 20 feet in some places. Sugano has been a heavy groundball pitcher for most of his career and induced 51.1% ground balls this year."

Seems like he got into the Clevinger situation somehow...messaging support to his ex or current gf or something strange like that.

And the closest they ever came since Belle were the signings of Adam Dunn and Robertson/Hendriks as top closer contracts.

How far off are the Sox from a grievance for spending money so inefficiently that 3 AL Central teams (two with .500 records minus head to head with Sox) made the playoffs over the "coastal elite" teams of the AL East and West? Without Robert and Benintendi, they're at a $50 million payroll without a single marketable player, let alone a star. The A's at least have Rooker, a young offensive core and are spending in FA, as well as adding Springs from the Rays...who is over $10 million per season.

It would probably help if the A's weren't wildly outspending them going into a AAA stadium for three years.

Draft: Drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 4th round of the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft from Saint Mary's College of California (Moraga, CA). High School: Centennial HS (Bakersfield, CA) School: Saint Mary's College of California (Moraga, CA) Pretty sure Bakersfield was even a Giants' farm team in the California League, too. Dodgers as well.

Not even WestEddy could attempt to make the counter-argument on this one going back to 2022.... Weather is certainly not going to count as a point in Chicago's favor, either...even if he planned on spending no time from October/November through spring training in the city.

The Rangers front office has been scouting Sasaki since he was fifteen years old, and as recently as last season, Chris Young and staff traveled to Japan to scout him. So what did we learn today? Did Wolfe provide any new information and does it favor the Rangers? Let’s break it all down. Somewhat of an already known but Wolfe reiterated that Sasaki won’t necessarily be signing with a big market team. Wolfe said, “There is an argument that a smaller market team would be more beneficial”. It’s important to note that he said it “might” be and not that he’s not saying that it “will be”. We learned today that Sasaki has been watching a lot of MLB games this year and has been paying attention to how teams did not only this year but in past years. That works well for the Rangers who won the World Series title in 2023 and still has that same core intact. Perhaps most importantly we learn what Sasaki is valuing here in this almost college recruitment-like process. Wolfe said that Sasaki often asks about weather. We know the Rangers playing in Globe Life Field will do nothing but help the pursuit of him. Not to mention the outdoor weather isn’t too bad in DFW either if you don’t mind the heat. Sasaki also values pitching development and with Mike Maddux, the Rangers have one of the best pitching coaches in MLB. Obviously, the Rangers haven’t been the most successful team in terms of developing pitchers but one very important hit was Japanese sensation Yu Darvish. https://www.fansfirstsports.com/everything-we-learned-about-the-rangers-persuit-of-roki-sasaki/

SAN DIEGO -- It’s been a week since Japanese ace Roki Sasaki was posted, and per the timeline laid out by his agent Joel Wolfe, Sasaki could begin meeting with teams as soon as this week. Almost certainly, the Padres will be one of them. Wolfe seemed to acknowledge as much last week, saying he assumes that San Diego “would be a team [Sasaki] would seriously consider.” OK then! It’s time for the Padres to make their pitch to one of the sport’s top international stars. Here’s what that pitch might look like and why San Diego might be the right fit: 1. It’s a unique opportunity Let's start by talking baseball. Strictly baseball. When Wolfe was asked explicitly what Sasaki is looking for in a suitor, his answer started with the obvious: Sasaki wants to win. "The best I can say is he has paid attention to how teams have done as far as overall success, both this year and in years past," Wolfe said. "He does watch a lot of Major League Baseball." Sure, there are organizations that have won more than the Padres recently. But San Diego has reached the postseason in three of the past five years -- in a baseball-centric market that is uniquely hungry for a winner. “I feel like we're in a good spot for a multitude of reasons,” said Padres manager Mike Shildt. “One, we're in San Diego. We sell out our ballpark every night. We have a very competitive ballclub. And it's a chance for him to come in and create a legacy for himself -- to help win the first World Series (and likely beat the Dodgers in the process).” 2. Deep Japanese ties Clearly, Sasaki has an immense level of respect for Yu Darvish, one of his childhood favorites and a teammate at the World Baseball Classic. Wolfe, who is also Darvish’s agent, wouldn't delve into the specifics of that relationship. But he did praise general manager A.J. Preller in the summer for his handling of Darvish’s personal matter -- which kept Darvish away from the team. The Padres haven’t specified the level of Darvish’s involvement in this process, but … "Yu will be involved," said Shildt. "To what degree? That will be up to Darvish and, of course, A.J. will help shepherd that. I feel confident Darvish will take his rightful spot in doing what he can." Of course, the organizational ties to Japan run much deeper than Darvish. Japanese pitching icon Hideo Nomo is a senior adviser to Preller, and the team has long made scouting in Japan a priority, even as other organizations cut back. It recently landed them lefty reliever Yuki Matsui, another of Sasaki's teammates at the WBC. 3. The right market? Of everything Wolfe said last Tuesday in Dallas at the Winter Meetings, this might’ve been most notable: “There’s an argument to be made that a smaller or mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing coming from Japan, given what he’s been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media. It might be. I’m not saying it will be. I don’t know how he’s going to view it, but it might be beneficial for him.” To reiterate a separate point Wolfe made, Sasaki isn’t ruling out big-market clubs. But he was clearly upset by the way his family was thrust into the spotlight amid rumors he would be leaving Japan. While the Dodgers remain among the favorites to land Sasaki, this would seem to be a point in the favor of the Padres. Plus, there’s something to be said about the market itself. It’s a baseball-crazed city. It’s a city hungry for a championship. It’s a city that fills the ballpark every night. But it’s also not the type of place where Sasaki would be squarely in the national public eye. Or the type of place he’d be booed off the mound or badgered in public. AJ Cassavell, mlb.com Of course, you could also make the same argument with Darvish originally joining the Texas Rangers...as a "big/ger" baseball market but certainly not the glaring spotlight of LA, NYC, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.

Yes, spider tack, but someone deserves credit from his going from one of the worst starters in baseball between his season with the Nationals and first year with the White Sox. Whether it was his extension on pitches due to his long frame, deception/deceptiveness, regaining velocity/movement/spin-rate, perfecting the change-up...