caulfield12

Here’s our list of favorites from the non-marquee names from the free agent pool: Hyun-jin Ryu, James Paxton and Michael Lorenzen. Ryu, who only made 17 starts over the past two seasons because of injury, and Paxton, an oft-injured lefty, are risks. But they both have stuff upside. Lorenzen threw a no-hitter last year for the Phillies and had a 4.18 ERA over 29 games (25 starts) for the Tigers and Philadelphia. No bull on relief Jordan Hicks (81 strikeouts in 65.2 innings over two stops)? Old pal David Robertson is a free agent, too. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/whats-next-yankees-missing-yoshinobu-174000663.html

Just like Branch Rickey before him…

Don’t think you put together a championship-caliber organization by setting the bar at winning the Central. That’s the same mentality that has dragged down the Sox for decades now. Knowing they’ve had all the advantages in the world vis a vis their divisional rivals hasn’t forced them to innovate like the Rays and Orioles in the face of the big three AL East teams of the past 2-3 decades.

It wasn't just that though...misplays, bad reads, throwing to the wrong bases...fear of the walls, being too nonchalant or lackadaisical and allowing runners to take extra bases. Much like Pollock preceding him, he seemed for most of the season like he just would have preferred to be anywhere else but the Sox outfield. Coaching alone can't explain that...because his most logical motivation would be to play well enough to get traded out of a situation he didn't seem to enjoy very much.

The Royals were a play or two and Madison Bumgarner away from two WS titles… That would have put them only behind the Red Sox and Giants going back to 2000.

Zero reason not to. It’s just that he was coming off an injury and had only one start to go one and was also not cheap for a handful of starts down the stretch considering buyout and especially PR and clubhouse chemistry ramifications.

Padres have Cronenworth, Tatis, Musgrove, Machado, Bogaerts, Darvish…all over $100 million, HaSeong Kim would be the next over that amount with a repeat of 2023’s numbers. Will never know how long that would have been sustainable with Seidler’s death placing a cloud over the franchise.

Capture the momentum of 100 losses with zero benefits from that level of ineptitude?

Didn't work well getting anything for Clevinger despite his being the best pitcher.

Orioles 2X or 3x as deep at this same point in their respective windows. Sox used almost all vets relievers and bench players to get over the finish line and it was a total disaster. In the process, they traded or lost Rodon Anderson Hendriks Dunning Madrigal Heuer Giolito Burger, etc.

Brewers...at least until now.

Not hearing Imanata’s name much recently, but he is suddenly one to watch as he was expected to come in around $75 million before all this craziness…and he’s actually the third option currently in FA behind Snell and Montgomery.

Coverage of Ohtani and Yamamoto…about 50-60 Japanese writers will now be based out of Southern California, with 15-20 Korean writers already split between SFG and SD (unless HaSeong Kim is traded off at max value because they cant get enough back for eating the Cronenworth deal.) Then you have the Dodgers/Padres to open the season in Seoul. When the Dodgers are out of town, it only makes sense for some of those writers to be allocated to much closer games than the Cubs (Suzuki) and Red Sox (Yoshida). Also depends of course where those various teams are in the standings.

Looks like other West Coast teams now building around the Japanese and Korean markets except the A’s Mariners and of course the Angels. Looks like they believe they can take advantage of the spillover effect from LA. There’s your new Hader on the cheap lol. https://www.gaslampball.com/2023/12/19/24008210/padres-close-to-signing-reliever-yuki-matsui

And satellite providers. Right now...the majority of big streaming sites are losing money and will have to cut back, merge/consolidate or simply disappear from existence.

It's pretty amazing what the Brewers have done vis a vis the hifher-spending Cubs and Cardinals over the last decade or so. Even then, they inevitably lost Stearns to the Mets and Counsell to the Cubs...and are in the verge of rebuilding if they end up dealing Burnes.

Just have to wait for the trade because $150-175 million for Snell and $100-125 million for Montgomery is even more insane to all but the Top Ten or so franchises…for example, the Braves would never dare touch those two deals.

They’re so far away Luis Robert and probably Montogomery are the only two players one can even feel confident being on the 2026/27 rosters…if not traded. The odds of getting a positional star caliber young player here are probably 10% at best. Even with three of the best trade assets in the game, the Sox didn’t even acquire any All Stars out of the last so called wave of 2017-2020. Rodon was almost an accident (no other options) and we managed to get nothing for him when he left. Anderson was drafted and Abreu and Robert were signed as FA’s.

Can’t imagine where they would have been without Baines and Ventura... Another thing the Sox never used to do was pay through the nose for relievers,,,going all the way back to Roberto Hernandez and Thigpen and Foulke.. Other than the KW Koch disaster, Linebrink/Dotel, Robertson and then Liam and Crew, we hardly ever had big money invested into bullpens until the Royals became the darlings of the sport. And then that niche advantage was lost as nearly evrryone attempted to emulate KC.

Assuming some were right about his wrist...why would he suddenly become one of the worst defenders in baseball simultaneously?

Or Benintendi being so close to Robert...based on what exactly? Benintendi has only had one good season in the past four...and that was largely on the backs of being in that Yankee lineup, not unlike Pollock with the Dodgers then subsequently falling off a cliff.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39170048/steve-cohen-life-goes-mets-missing-yamamoto The get-togethers helped Yamamoto crystallize his priorities before the teams started talking terms of the deal with Yamamoto and his agent, Joel Wolfe, on Monday. Cohen ultimately made a similar contract offer to Yamamoto -- 12 years and $325 million plus opt-outs -- but couldn't overcome the Dodgers, who have now accounted for more than half the spending across MLB in free agency this winter, following the 10-year, $700 million contract they gave to Shohei Ohtani, Yamamoto's countryman. ..... "Last I looked, there's never one player that is going to make or break your team," Cohen said of Yamamoto, who has dominated Nippon Professional Baseball like nobody else in the league's 74-year history since transitioning from bullpen to the Orix Buffaloes' rotation in 2019."

They know they need to have a stable of younger players to offset all those 3 massive veteran contracts. Just like the Astros managed to balance for so long. Also the Rangers are one of the 3 teams currently being threatened with lower RSN rights fees...despite the WS title. This was one year ago coming off Cy Young runnerup lol...and three inexpensive years of control. Texas Rangers RECEIVE SP Dylan Cease RP Kendall Graveman RP Joe Kelly Chicago White Sox RECEIVE RHP Owen White RHP Glenn Otto IF Justin Foscue OF Bubba Thompson

It's not like trading Cease for minor league prospects is going to boost season ticket sales. Zero reason not to wait out the market exactly like Boras does on the player side. Someone always blinks eventually.

It's not so much pitching extremely well (record doesn't matter one bit) as believing in someone's upside. Remember how Giolito was basically the worst pitcher in baseball in the early part of his Sox career and then came out of it? Who knows...if you're not inside that clubhouse. But does Jessie Scholtens or Davis Martin really have any upside? Trade or flip value? Simply placeholders protecting younger pitchers who aren't ready from getting slaughtered? I would like to think the goal at some point is to find the members of the 2026/27 starting rotation.