caulfield12

Pretty sad every Sox player comes attached with caveat...get him away from that coaching staff or that clubhouse. Saw recently where TA7 was expected to get somewhere between $10 million and the QO amount. Other than maybe Burger...and some will argue Bummer...Sox haven't gotten anything resembling increased value from any of their in-house assets. Stuck with Santos for now, too.

Gets even worse for FA's in CF: Kevin Kiermaier, Michael A. Taylor and Harrison Bader are your three top choices, after Bellinger.

Closer to 3 minutes...too reliant on Tyreek Hill to bail them out. Tua's taking way too many sacks and not as careful with the football the last month or so.

No reason to deal Eloy without trying first with a new set of hitting coaches...with an almost completely turned over starting roster and simply the fact that with Burger gone and Moncada soon to follow, you really have to get power from SOMEWHERE in the line-up when you play 54 games in the Chicago summer months at GRF.

Just one season....he was already at roughly $40 million, conservatively, the last couple of seasons, as a non-playoff bound Angel. Remember, he's getting equal or even greater amounts back in Japan for endorsing everything under the sun. Then you're combining the Ohtani phenomenon with how dominant the Dodgers' brand is in California as well as across the Pacific Rim.

Going to be a lot of Roy Oswalt comps...Pedro Martinez would be another. Stroman. The high school pitch counts in Japan are just insane. Hopefully Yamamoto and Sasaki can come out of their inevitable surgeries intact.

Who was the last international position player that totally busted on a high-profile deal like this? Off the top of my head, You had the Cubans....Yasmani Tomas (DBacks), Rusney Castillo (Red Sox) and Hector Olivera (Dodgers, 2B).

1) There's no way the White Sox fans can exert nearly as much pressure on the JR's of the world, compared to hyper-loyal UK football fans 2) There's no way after reading articles like this that one can have any faith in the Red Sox or their operations moving forward...if the Red Sox can't or don't even seriously consider spending the money to keep Mookie Betts or Bogaerts, well, that doesn't bode well. Of course, they COULD have signed Betts, they simply chose not to. Same with Bogaerts, which was probably the right decision. But Devers of those three was the most flawed (and cheapest) of the group. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/soccer/glory-and-fury-liverpool-boston-and-a-tale-of-two-teams/ar-AA1kKwn4

Ohtani is going to make $60-75 million...from endorsements, and that's conservative. Trout is second at $5 million and fading. He's a unicorn in terms of being able to ride out a deferred deal like this...and not have to worry about his cash flow one iota.

Closer to complementary than star. Like Lance Lynn when he was first acquired...or Grandal.

Giants must see the writing on the wall and fear missing out on all the big names. That's not going to move the bar enough because it will take time to adjust mechanics to fastball velocity in majors...just like HaSeong Kim progression. Kim was one of the most valuable players in the game this year but one season too late. At least defense doesn't usually slump...unless you're Benintendi.

Can't afford Jung-ho Lee and starting pitching in this market. They were expecting $60-75 million on Lee deal. No closer in sight, bullpen and bottom half of roster not good enough, pretty much have to sell off Machado and Bogaerts now at some point in the next couple of years as ticket sales fall off inevitably. Will probably let this year play out...definitely won't go all in on Cease. Exercise in futility.

Sports Illustrated publisher fires CEO after AI debacle https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/media/sports-illustrated-ai-articles-ceo/index.html

I was just told that anything non directly Sox-related shouldn't be posted on the Chicago White Sox FA/Offseason Board, so: So then we simply shouldn't talk at all about the Cubs...Cubs should be banned entirely from the platform and Diamond Club during the regular season as well. Ban the Padres and Jared Kelenic, too, whatever. Ron883 shouldn't be allowed to threaten to leave and become a Cubs' fan over and over and over again, either.

Great thread!!! I guess you did start a thread, after all. Good stuff. Not exactly a page turner, but a thread nonetheless.

https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/cubs-news/now-what-here-are-the-cubs-options-after-missing-out-on-shohei-ohtani/524327/ https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/cubs-news/here-are-the-richest-contracts-in-the-chicago-cubs-history/524458/

NOBODY FUCKING CARES ABOUT THE WHITE SOX OUTLOOK BECAUSE IT FUCKING SUCKS. They're not even going to sign anyone from here on out for more than $7.5 million...it's freakin' pointless.

WHERE IS THE CUBS' OFF-SEASON FREE AGENT THREAD, OR A THREAD FOR FREE-AGENT RELATED INFORMATION THAT'S NOT HERE...?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Well, obviously it's in the DIAMOND CLUB, WHICH IS CLOSED. Since the White Sox won't do a single thing in FA, what's the point of this thread? The only one that really matters is the Cease thread. Period. And Ohtani, because that's 10X more interesting than anything that the actual White Sox are doing or contemplating.

Cubs seem to be circling back to Bellinger. Other names out there include Chapman, Glasnow and Rhys Hoskins. Hard to see how they're even going to be as good as the 2023 team...unless it's attributing miracle-working skills to Craig Counsell.

Hopefully better than Elijah Tatis, Jr. (referring to Profar)...

Could just imagine them dealing with Chernobyl in that doc-style retelling...

Hostetler is gone?

Todd Boehly (also Dodgers' director) and Clearlake 'have cut Chelsea's average wage to under £75k-per-week', with contract negotiations 'fraught' as they face losing Mason Mount over failure to agree a new deal Chelsea have endured a tumultuous first campaign under Todd Boehly and Co. The Blues have signed 18 players for a spend of more than £600m this season But, the squad's average wage has been reduced to under £75,000 per week Chelsea's average salary has been dramatically reduced under the Todd Boehly-led ownership group, according to reports. The American businessman, who is a co-owner of the Blues with Behdad Eghbali, joined forces with Clearlake Capital to purchase the club a year ago in the aftermath of Roman Abramovich being sanctioned by the UK government. However, it has been a dismal and chaotic first season of ownership, with Boehly becoming a figure of fun in many quarters after several decisions have backfired. Chelsea are languishing in 12th place and are on course for their first bottom-half finish since the 1995-96 campaign despite spending more than £600m on 18 players across the summer and winter transfer windows, as their strategy has often looked haphazard and flawed. This has culminated in the Blues using a whopping 32 players in total this season - the second most in the top flight behind Nottingham Forest's 33 - while they have also had four caretaker or permanent managers in the dugout. And, according to The Times, one of the key legacies from their first year at the helm - which will soon see a third permanent manager of their tenure arrive when Mauricio Pochettino is announced - has been the reduction of the Blues' wage bill. Upon arrival, Boehly and Clearlake were shocked at the sky-high salaries that were handed out under the previous regime, with Chelsea often gazumping several other clubs to signings by virtue of offering larger wages. This was no more evident than with the signing of Romelu Lukaku for £97.5m in the summer of 2021, with the Belgian striker becoming the highest-paid player in the club's history on £315,000-a-week. However, Lukaku's return to the club where he was previously at between 2011 to 2014 was a disaster and he has spent this season out on loan with Inter Milan - but the 30-year-old still has three years to run on his mega-money contract. The report goes onto state Boehly and Co. wanted to change this and lower the risk of signings potentially going wrong. As a result, several of this season's additions such as Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Muidryk and Noni Madueke have all penned much longer contracts on significantly lower wages. Those three new signings - who arrived for more than a £200m outlay - all signed Chelsea deals until at least 2030. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12123177/Todd-Boehly-Clearlake-cut-Chelseas-average-wage-75k-week.html

Padres with 7 $100+ million contracts and certainly a valuation less than SOX...? And then Ha-Seong Kim will be headed for yet another (#8) if he repeats his 2023. Heck, utility player extraodinaire Cronenworth is even over that amount. We'll never know how how long they could have sustained that under Peter Seidler...as the first white flag was obviously dumping Soto's $33-34 million salary for just ONE season to get back to under $200 million.

Or be able to hold onto "aces" like Glasnow who get up to $25 million per year in arbitration without anything approximating predictable availability. (Guardians have the same issue with Bieber, Brewers with Burnes/Woodruff, etc.) Meanwhile, the Dodgers can overcome the losses of Bauer, Urias, Buehler, Gonsolin, and Dustin May, to name a few. Or Kershaw missing increasing chunks of the season.