caulfield12

Fangraphs' Payroll Resource has it as: 25. Cleveland $97 million 26. Pirates $79 million 27. White Sox $78 million 28. TB Rays $76 million 29. Athletics $70 million 30. Marlins $66 million But imagine if we can dump Benintendi and Robert...??? Bonus savings extravaganza. Vaughn at $6.4 million would be 3rd on the team for highest salaries. The highest guaranteed salaries after that are $1.95 million for Tauchman and $1.75 million for Slater at the current moment.

Build the center of the field (C, SS, 2B, CF) and move outward from there....the White Sox always seem to manage to do the opposite (corner OF spots, 1B/DH) with defensively limited players at nearly every position around the diamond.

https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/ Believe it or not, behind the AAA/Sacramento A's, and only ahead of the hapless Marlins at $65.5 million. 26. Pirates $79.4 million 27. A's $68 million 28. Tampa Bay Rays (also playing in the Yankees' minor league facility), $67.8 million 29. CHW $67.1 million 30. Marlins, $65.5 million AL East and AL West have six teams in the Top 15 of payrolls, and the AL/NL West have 8 teams (Rockies bringing up the rear). AL Central has the Twins at 18th ($141ish million), 20th, 21st and 25th (CLEVELAND). NL Central has only the Cubs at 13th in MLB, $172.5 million.

He was already working with the Mets, so surely they had their own list of Latin American targets already penciled in....

63-99 would be a miracle...but 50s for wins just feels a lot likelier with all the Central teams either standing pat or potentially improving.

Webb, Ray, Hicks, Harrison and Verlander the projected SFG rotation. Might be an indicator they're no longer a serious contender for Sasaki's services.

Well the Cubs would not be ideal if he's halfway as good as projected...

Well, you've listed about 30-40 pitchers in the last few days. Remember last year when everyone thought Leasure was the guy to secure the closer's role? Yes, the assumption for the future rotation was already "baked in" with Schultz/Smith/Mr. 90-91 MPH FB/Cannon/Burke/Taylor and whoever else you want to throw into the mix, but the point was that they're still below where they stood in 2018 or 2019 in terms of overall pitching talent (not to mention a lot of money was soon to be invested in the bullpen, which is much less likely to happen this time around, it's going to have to be produced internally, for the most part.)

The Mariners have the natural/historical connections and the Blue Jays went balls to the wall to go after Ohtani (almost getting him on a plane to Toronto)...so you'd have to think he would actually have MET with a team (at least once) before ever considering putting his signature to a contract.

Mystery team involved in Sasaki sweepstakes. Jan. 7: Mystery team involved in Sasaki sweepstakes? The Sasaki sweepstakes are entering the home stretch, with eight days to go before the start of the 2025 international amateur signing period on Jan. 15 and 16 days remaining before the right-hander’s posting window is due to close on Jan. 23. We last heard from Sasaki’s camp on Dec. 30, when agent Joel Wolfe told reporters that the coveted pitcher had returned home to Japan to mull over his decision after meeting with teams in Los Angeles. To this point, Sasaki has met with seven known clubs: the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Giants, Rangers and Padres. However, those might not be the only teams Sasaki is considering. Wolfe said that 20 teams submitted presentations when Sasaki was posted by his NPB team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, on Dec. 9, and MLB Network insider Jon Paul Morosi reported Tuesday that at least one other club beyond the aforementioned seven has spoken with the hurler. While it's unknown which other team (or teams) was granted the opportunity to speak with Sasaki, the Mariners, Red Sox, Phillies and Blue Jays were all previously mentioned among the likely contenders to sign him. mlb.com Down to final 7 or 8...

How in God's name would the Guardians be anywhere near the top (bottom) when they are one of the very best with young pitching as well as in Latin America? Former scouts no longer with the team voting out of jealousy...?

The problem is our scouting experience/networks were once considered the strength of the organization...but we're now something like Bottom 3-5 in baseball in terms of sheer numbers of scouts remaining, right? With almost all of the veteran scouts shown the door...Vegan wrote about this pretty extensively. So what are our strengths as an organization at this point? Seems like talent recommendations are coming mostly most hitting and pitching coaches, Barfield, etc.

Say...San Diego if they miss on Sasaki? Already familiar/comfortable with NL West.

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/bobby-dalbec/19966/stats?position=1B 29, turning 30 next year and coming off three consecutive negative fWAR seasons...what's not to like at that price lol?

Where would Lux play for the White Sox? His best position is second...and that's precisely where we have the most prospect depth currently. And you'd be flipping him at trade deadline 2026 or extending him?

Not much good…

Based on McCarthy's entire career history...he still looks more like a 4th outfielder than an everyday starter.

Does Baldwin have the arm for right...let alone the power? Seems more like a CF or LF. "Baldwin faired as good as a rookie could fare coming up for the first time. Baldwin had 24 hits, 6 doubles, 8 RBI, 2 HRs, 4 stolen bases, for a slash line of .211/.250/.316 with and OPS of .566." Hopefully they're joking about a 566 ops being an indicator of success. https://www.chicitysports.com/the-chicago-white-sox-have-position-battles

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/baseball-americas-2025-scout-survey-evaluators-fear-games-direction-amid-doom-and-gloom-offseason/ We'very been hearing for months now about how the White Sox have cut into veteran scouts about as deeply as any organization out there...scary, because what exactly is replacing it? Just JR Getz Shirley Bannister Barfield and TLR in the old KW "War Room" with the big whiteboard? "Not to knock the romanticized history of scouting, but traditional scouting is just guessing. It is imperfect and capable of being heuristically silly. But that humanity is what makes the industry compelling. This is an entertainment industry and storytelling is a part of that entertainment. I doubt Vin Scully would have been as beloved as he was if the story he told about a player coming into an org was as bland as ‘The team ran his Trackman feed through its model and the model flagged his spin rates and exit velos.’ We’re losing that storytelling ability. The broader industry wants games to be done with as fast as possible. To identify players with a single click of a refresh button on its internal dashboard. And to employ as few people as possible whether that is to help hoard resources or remove the risk of dissenting opinion. MLB: The Show has a simulation feature, and it would be nice if that were enough to satiate those who are too impatient to endure and enjoy the ride.”

It's about as exciting as Mike McCarthy as the new Bears HC.

Baldwin and/or Ramos will be the first two to go...Vargas could move to left as well, but not sure how eager Benintendi is to DH full time.

Well, any team in baseball could use 2023 Robert...but Edman promises less volatility and fits their team well as proven in the post season already.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/mlb/reds/2025/01/06/how-cincinnati-reds-gavin-lux-trade-impacts-matt-mclain-noelvi-marte/77499453007/ Argues Lux will get most of his time replacing Marte (AAA bound) at 3B but also LF DH 2B possibly even 1B. Jack of all trades/utility role envisioned. Doesn't seem like Cincy has any plans to repackage him at all. Dealt India to demonstrate faith in McLain leading team again like he did two seasons ago...opened up second base officially.

Left Fielders *Miguel Andujar (31) Michael Conforto (33) too expensive Tyler O’Neill (31) – can opt out...too expensive Rob Refsnyder..too old Chris Taylor (35) – $12MM club option with a $4MM buyout...too old Center Fielders Trent Grisham (29) thoroughly inconsistent on offense and not cheap *Cedric Mullins (31) best of bad options Luis Robert Jr. (28) – $20MM club option with a $2MM buyout ADVERTISEMENT Right Fielders Cody Bellinger (30) – $25MM player option with a $5MM buyout too expensive Mitch Haniger (35) too old *Max Kepler (33) maybe but decline coming Starling Marte (37) too old Tyler O’Neill (31) – can opt out Hunter Renfroe (34) old and slow Austin Slater (33) White Sox special *Lane Thomas (30) Kyle Tucker (29) too expensive Mike Yastrzemski (35) too old but Hawk would be elated/psyched for this

https://sports.yahoo.com/2025-nfl-mock-draft-shedeur-231259294.html Nightmare scenario of Banks Jr. going 9th here....