caulfield12

The Braves are going to need those young pitchers...beyond the ones they alteady dumped off on the White Sox. "Frankly, I think the Braves are entering a sneaky period of pitching vulnerability and are about a year behind the 2024 Dodgers in this regard. They haven’t played in the free agent market, partly because they haven’t needed to but partly by design, and that frugality could be a 2025 and beyond issue. Fried is likely gone next year, Morton will retire at some point and has been declining, and Elder had a 17% K rate. You really have to buy Smith-Shawver to think this will be ok without a legitimate FA signing soon. Then you have the high likelihood of a Strider UCL with how hard he throws the ball." from fangraphs comment boards...following citing miserable lack of Sox replacement fWAR

Probably would have stuck Matt Carpenter in LF...although he was essentially reduced to 1B/DH in SD. Ofc that's never stopped Sox from sticking misfit parts in corner OF spots before.

In the same way questions about Bieber health and the difficulties of getting Burnes to extend. Works both ways. Doesn't make sense for Astros to do a teardown with their current roster and salary commitments.

Just wanted to move on...and didn't have to release Carpenter outright and eat ALL his salary to do so. AA OF Drew Campbell, by the way...figures as a potential replacement for Soto and Grisham. At least one player will come from farm...likely the other through trade and FA. https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-padres-acquire-of-drew-campbell-from-braves

Anderson is gone...the odds of his return are about the same as Lucas Giolito's. Robert was much more than OK last year. Those two players (Beni/Luis) don't belong in the same sentence tagged with similar sentiment...because one would cost the team half his remaining salary in subsidies or talent sent along with and the other half another team's farm system.

Padres were desperate to move on from Cruz/Carpenter at DH, get cheaper cheaper cheaper. Preller bought high on Carpenter based off 2022 the same way Hahn did with Benintendi. And Braves liked Kerr's arm...a lot of similarities with Bummer.

And one of the worst starting lineups in baseball at the moment...along with no bullpen. No bench. If they trade Eloy, the second best power hitter would be Vaughn Moncada or Sheets...who would have been waived by 27+ other teams.

Balta

Dunn really set them back, but that was 2011. This was around the time they brought in Abreu and Avisail Garcia actually looked legit...then you had Sale Q, Anderson coming. Eaton later. The big flops of course were Beckham and Viciedo, though. Nothing ever lined up together, though. Then there was the off season of Melky Robertson and LaRoche...which led to more disasters internally. But Hahn always won the offseason, lol. There was that.

All kind of depends which direction Witt Jr goes from here...and whether he wants security from an extension or to stay to be face of franchise with a new stadium eventually. And pitching pitching pitching the story with this franchise. Singer has been so inconsistent, but they have Ragans now too.

Castillo had a slightly longer period of dominance though comps aren't far off. Was also traded at off peak value.

82-80 technically. Cease fits...but they won't trade Salas or Merrill, and will be really judicious about which of their five young pitchers they are willing to part with. They will only deal those top line names for being able to move Cronenworth off the roster...or maybe even Bogaerts. (JR ofc isn't the type to assume that type of risk after the Moncada and Alex Rios Experiences.)

Andujar as well.

Anti Rays... Ran down values of Anderson Kopech Moncada Madrigal Vaughn and Eloy. Even Cease to a lesser extent. Then watched Robert become too valuable to trade...and too risky for other teams to put together prospect packages. Then matched them together with some of the worst coaches in baseball and top it all off by decapitating your scouting department as well. Oh and lost Rodon for pretty much nothing. Fortunate to get what they did for Giolito because the Angels we're so desperate to hold onto Ohtani. Might have sold high on Burger...time will tell there if Ramos was the better long term play. Of course that trade also might have gotten KW and Hahn fired, too, for being at cross-purposes.

Their Eovaldi now...

Now we're getting outspent by the Royals this offseason...that's a pretty big accomplishment, to lose a two-team race to the bottom. It's pretty preposterous to think Getz hitting the ground running is providing any significant advantage when they're not even attempting to compete in the first place.

On the Braves he is…

Arte Moreno/Angels declined multiple opportunities to match LAD/SFG offers to Ohtani https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2023-12-14/shohei-ohtani-arte-moreno-angels-offer-dodgers Ohtani costing $46 vs. $55 million in terms of the salary cap hit in 2024…the cost of one Joe Kelly https://global.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/39104627/shohei-ohtani-contract-dodgers-deferrals-free-agency

Bears trading Justin Fields? GMs explain why it’s the best route and where compensation could land https://sports.yahoo.com/bears-trading-justin-fields-gms-explain-why-its-the-best-route-and-where-compensation-could-land-153257987.html

Supply and demand.

Rays did send $4 million along with Margot...who costs $10 million guaranteed for 2024 plus a 2025 $2 million buyout. Close to $35 million saved by Tampa.

So there's much more parity today...it just doesn't feel like it. The problem is that you have been advocating a return to the 1950's 60's hey-day of massive TV and radio broadcast rankings day baseball....which revolved mostly around the Yankees, Dodgers, Cardinals, etc.

Right, you have mostly independent management/administration of AA/AAA franchises...yet the players are tied to their major league teams due to affiliate agreements. In theory, you'd have the Charlotte White Sox competing (now wouldn't that be something?) with the Chicago White Sox. No way to avoid conflicts of interest. What you would essentially have to do is separate the minor league front offices from being tied to specific organizations on a yearly/annual basis. Let's say the Chicago White Sox were relegated to AAA. A minor league AA/AAA team would scramble to compete for those White Sox players...you might even have a draft/lottery system, etc.??? Let's say Nashville and Charlotte won out among the AAA franchises....so then what? What teams would be going to those two cities? Even more illogical would be changing the front office/ownership groups...for example, Nashville/Charlotte execs going to Chicago along with occupying another major league city and running the team there. So it would be nearly impossible to keep the rosters, front offices/ownership groups and stadiums/cities all together. You'd almost have to change out the entire organization every time there was a relegation...like an expansion draft, with a whole new team coming into existence in let's say Nashville and Charlotte, replacing the existing one that essentially "succeeded" in pushing up to the majors??? The downside of failure seems more obvious....those front offices would lose their jobs and/or rosters would be put together into draft pools along with unprotected players from all the remaining MLB teams, like when the Rockies Rays DBacks Marlins etc., joined MLB in the 90's. A total logistical nightmare, then. So the salary floors in exchange for some type of concession the owners are angling for is the only way to go.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2023/12/14/tyler-glasnow-extension-los-angeles-dodgers-manuel-margot/

The three tiers in MLB today...with the bottom 10 all theoretically looking at relegation in an MLB existence based upon the EPL system. SSHM has his own list. Basically, there's only ten teams that can realistically win (and certainly compete financially) out of 30 possibilities entering the 2024 season.