caulfield12

Which developer would not be self-serving? A community trust or charitable organization running the White Sox...like a Green Bay Packers' public stock situation?

The Dodgers will figure out yet another way to be creative like they did with Ohtani...since they've already had at least a year to plan for exactly this scenario. If not immediately to LAD...then it's an interesting battle in the next signing period between 5-7 teams that can AL lake legitimate cases for him being the one player to push them over into WS contenders. The White Sox likely end up with another teams' "suspects" at the pre-A level who are 3-5 years away from the big leagues in order to pay for Jimenez Hendriks Grifol.

Obligatory nothing to get upset about post...but comebacks from shoulder surgery are quite rare.

Would rather sign Warrick Dunn or the Phoenix Suns' Ryan Dunn...

"That is massive. Not only is he someone scouts and evaluators consider to be one of the best pitching talents in the world, but he's also a player who has been on the Cubs' radar for a long time with him being someone they might have scouted more than any team in the MLB." https://www.si.com/mlb/cubs/news/roki-sasaki-will-officially-be-posted-chicago-cubs-could-become-top-suitor Cubs already out on Soto/Burnes...

The 2024 international bonus pool period does not end until December 15. Currently, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles have the most money available, but that does not mean other teams cannot trade assets to acquire more money from other teams. And if the posting process isn't completed by December 15, Sasaki would be signed as a part of the 2025 class, meaning every team would have its maximum allotment of money to spend. 1. LAD 2. Mets Cohen 3. Cubs Imanaga/Suzuki, not so much Fukudome "The Chicago Cubs recently sent president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer to Japan on a scouting trip to show Sasaki's camp that they mean business. And why wouldn't they? Chicago wants a rotation upgrade but doesn't want to spend for Burnes, Max Fried or Blake Snell, and Sasaki fits the bill perfectly. Plus, the team's recent success with Japanese players including Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki will likely help their case with Sasaki." 4. Orioles, desperately need an ace to replace Burnes, most money in current signing period avail 5. Padres SoCal and Darvish, lost Musgrove to TJS White Sox can't even afford the airfare to send a contingent to Japan...

The irony is that the Twins are the other team in the AL Central in the process of being sold and quite likely rebuilding after shedding $20-30 million in salary last off season due largely to an RSN revenue short fall.

Ahead of the Phillies? From the same article… 6. Twins (44.5 WAR) Top free agents: OF Max Kepler, 1B Carlos Santana, INF Kyle Farmer Biggest needs: Right-handed bats at first or corner outfield; bullpen The first five teams: Yes, sure, all makes sense. The sixth: Wow, Minnesota, really? A disappointing 2024 turns into a more highly ranked start to 2025 than you’d think, simply because they are not losing much production from the 2024 team. There remains a great deal of talent on this roster, although, as always, it remains difficult to actually rely on Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton, and Royce Lewis to be healthy at the same time. Unlike other teams with a truly massive hole to fill at the moment, the Twins could field a reasonable 2025 lineup at every position and most of a pitching staff right now. If the season began today, they’d be in good shape. (It does not start today.) That means that as other teams add, and the Twins likely remain relatively quiet on the market, this ranking is likely to drop. They need some kind of right-handed hitter, preferably one in the corner outfield. Like everyone, they could use another bullpen arm or three.

He was simply a better GM in terms of forecasting the Sox future than Hahn or KW.

Wrigley.

Crochet and Fedde...the end. Until the Vargas trade undid all the good of the latter.

The money will be spent on all the wrong 30+ veterans instead of stars in their primes…and, most weirdly, the bullpen fixation while neglecting gaping holes in RF and 2B.

No player/agent is ever going to burn one of the teams that might potentially sign them in the future…Economics 101.

“If Venable’s task is more normally confined to commanding respect in the dugout on the strength of his professional resume and comfort with communicating the schematics and realities of modern baseball to his players, then it’s a lot easier to say he looks the part with the reputation to match. Serving as the front-facing figurehead of a functional organization is a much more typical ask for this job. The White Sox have many miles to go to convince the public that they are such an organization, but Venable’s hire is supposed to be just a signal, rather than the solution.” Seems like a shot at Grifol/Haber, haha.

This “successful” argument will sell exactly how many 2025 season tickets…?

Albert Belle was signed to deliberately point out the foolishness of such contracts to other owners…luckily they found a sucker in Balt. Thomas’ came after the best 7-8 year run of a RH hitter in modern baseball history and also had the infamous “diminished skills clause” attached despite that aforementioned run of greatness. 7 years/$64.4M (1998-2004), plus club options for 2005, 2006 99:$7.15M, 00:$7.25M, 01:$10.375M, 02:$10.3M, 03:$10.3M, 04:$10.3M, 05:$10.3M option, 06:$10.3M option White Sox invoked “diminished skills clause” 10/02, allowing the club to defer $10.124M/year if Thomas did not make the All Star team, win a Silver Slugger award or rank in the top 10 of MVP vote for 2002. Thomas filed for free agency 10/02 before agreeing to re

How Cole Ragans Built On His Breakout Season October 14th, 2024 at 9:38pm CST • By Mark Polishuk "Ragans turns 27 in December, and still has another full season remaining before reaching salary arbitration. Locking up Ragans to a contract extension would help the Royals get some cost certainty over a pitcher whose ceiling only seems to be rising, plus the rotation could use some solidification since Wacha will surely exercise his opt-out clause and test free agency again. On the flip side, since Ragans is under team control through his age-30 season and already has two Tommy John surgeries on his resume, the Royals might well hold off on any serious extension talks and just go year-by-year with Ragans for now. Deciding how to best deal with the unexpected windfall of a frontline pitcher is a nice problem for the Royals to have, and in hindsight the Ragans trade was the first sign that K.C. was going to able to rebound from its 106-loss disaster. An inability to develop homegrown pitching prospects stalled the Royals’ rebuild for years, so there is some irony in the fact that the team’s emergence has now been led in part by another team’s seemingly stalled prospect." https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/10/how-cole-ragans-built-on-his-breakout-season.html

Just substitute Freeze and Gundy.

Not legitimately going after Harper was equally dumb...

You'd think the AL East teams would almost strategically prefer to improve the White Sox so as to improve their WC odds by the Chisox not getting run over by the entire AL Central. Without two 1-1's it's tough to push the rebuild along quickly...there would be more pressure on JR to spend in FA OR at least sell it to someone who's committed to competing ASAP.

Basically they are back down to around $60 million and looking to trade all their big names (Gray Helsley Arenado and even Fedde) to go back into "retooling/retrenching" mode for 1-2 seasons. Still one of the most loyal fanbases in the sport, though. There has to be a lot of frustration with the stranglehold the even smaller market Brewers have on the division.

Why would his wrist injury make him one of the worst outfielders in baseball the last two years? On a White Sox team soon to be without Robert...you're really expecting 2-3 fWAR seasons again despite his defense only being slightly better than the likes of Vaughn and Jimenez out there. He has routinely been run on probably as much as any LFer in the majors. We keep forgetting corner outfielders are expected to hit 30-35 homers if offense is their only tool.

2006 was the only Top 5 payroll. It didn't last long. Just like 2021. Losses immediately sent those payrolls falling back into the much more comfortable mid-teens in the MLB picking order. https://tht.fangraphs.com/a-look-inside-the-2006-open-day-payrolls/ $103 million...

Bengals breaking fantasy football at 4-6.