caulfield12

That was obvious he was due for a correction with all the overhype. Ten run rule?

Fedde for De Vrieze Snelling or Lesko. Sox Pick 1/3. Preller has no choice if he wants to make the WC. Darvish Mugrove out. King hitting innings highs. Vasquez still largely unproven but good recently. Waldron has held his own. But they are riding Cease now for all he's worth while waiting for Tacos return next month. Mazur just not ready to be relied upon in in a pennant race.

If you're Getz selling the best rotation in the future and the return from Luis Robert down the line sounds much more plausible than filling nine full spots across a starting lineup or signing Soto Alonso Wheeler Machado etc. We already have in hand 4/5 pitchers we will need on that future competitive roster. And at least five more starters to dream on in the minors... We just might have 2-3 league average hitters right now. MIGHT being the operative word here.

John Deere has a museum that covers that nicely.

When are we going to do the 90s and 2000's Sox thing of winning 10-9 slugfests? 2028? 2029? Debut real hitters with the new stadium?

You have a better plan? Let's see it. Strip out Sasaki they still SHOULD have an excellent rotation with Crochet AND lots of depth. Not nearly as exciting though to electrify fanbase. Don't forget Davis Martin, too. Someone just suggested keeping Fedde long term but we need position prospects and he's now in his 30's.

See there's your FIVE ace starters. They are slow walking him so much wasn't convinced he would make it by 2027 lol. Sasaki Crochet Schultz Smith Thorpe Quite realistically best rotation in the majors to start 2027, at very least Top 3-5.

It's Merkin's Sox Beat emails that eventually are published online verbatim. There was no link available besides my email address when I read it. I certainly wouldn't pay anything to read Merkin lol. If anything they should pay Sox fans to read it instead. This all reminds me of Jerry Manuel comps to Gandhi and MLK back in the day.

Searched everywhere online for link out of my inbox article will cut as soon as avail but this is important stuff to ruminate on CHICAGO – Manager Sergio Santos has been leading the overall excellence for the White Sox Double-A Birmingham squad with the help of a great coaching staff, a receptive group of talented players and the words of Marcus Aurelius. Make that Aurelius -- and other individuals from the ancient Stoicism movement. “The ancient Stoics, they have these certain fundamental rules and that’s what I impress on the players, where it’s only, 'Worry about what we can control,'” Santos told MLB.com during a phone interview Thursday. “There are so many times we try to control so many things, and you can’t. “More of everything is about reaction: Bad things are going to happen to you, but how are you going to react? These are things I continuously bring up to the guys … This is every single day. I try to create an atmosphere where these guys are looking forward to going to the ballpark. I’m fortunate the players have responded super well to it. It’s been a good year.” Good enough that the Barons won the Southern League North first-half title. They are 8-15 in the second half, but have had top young players such as White Sox No. 3 prospect Drew Thorpe, No. 4 prospect Edgar Quero, No. 5 prospect Bryan Ramos, No. 10 prospect Jake Eder and No. 16 prospect Ky Bush and No. 23 prospect Brooks Baldwin promoted to Triple-A Charlotte or the White Sox. Those Birmingham players have great things to say about the youthful staff of Santos, his bench coach Angel Rosario, pitching coach John Ely and hitting coach Nicky Delmonico. “This here feels like a real team,” said right-handed pitcher Jairo Iriarte, the No. 9 White Sox prospect, through interpreter Billy Russo on a recent Zoom. “All the coaches are trying to help you. They are straightforward with you. The players too. It’s an amazing atmosphere.” “It was a great group of guys we had in Birmingham. That’s part of the reason I had such success -- the coaching staff and the players,” Baldwin said. “Even the coaching staff in Birmingham, they were like part of the team, part of the players, and I think that’s why I was able to relax and play the game I know how to play.” Santos, 41, was a popular reliever for the White Sox in 2010-11, finishing with 30 saves and 92 strikeouts over 63 1/3 innings as the team’s closer in ’11. He moved into managing with the Florida Coast League Yankees in 2022 and Class A Hudson Valley in ’23 before leaving the Yankees and rejoining the White Sox. After being immediately entrusted with the prospect-rich Barons, Santos readily admits the coaches have had fun with the players across a long season. They also understand the hierarchy within the team. Call it enjoyment among stoicism, a study beginning three or four years ago for Santos when he admitted some bad things were happening. Santos got into running and started reading these teachings. “It blows my mind these guys wrote this 3,000 years ago, but it’s still so relative today in 2024,” Santos said. “Just by practicing some of their principles, it has freed up a lot of anxiety for myself and expectations and all this stuff. Being present, where my feet are, and it has worked. “I found the correlation with baseball being so difficult and sometimes a lot of the results kind of being out of our hands. This can work across the board, and when I rolled it out in spring and even in the beginning of the year, I got really good feedback after I would speak to the team. I like it. It makes me present. It makes me grateful for the position I’m in.” That position is guiding needed hope for the White Sox future amid a dreadful big-league season. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Santos said. “We have some guys in 1-to-3 years who can really make a big impact and can help restore what the White Sox were when I was there and in ’05. “Hopefully, win an American League title and eventually win the World Series. I know it’s tough. But I would hope that they don’t quit on us. I would say roll with the punches, and there’s something great coming.”     MERKIN'S MUSINGS *******• I’m guessing the White Sox move five or six players by the Deadline Tuesday. I also believe Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert Jr. will remain with the team. I’ve written this before, but they are great players to build a team around. *******• Dylan Cease throwing a no-hitter was a matter of when, not if. I was there on Sept. 3, 2022, when Cease yielded a two-out single in the ninth to Luis Arraez to lose the no-hitter, but he had no regrets on pitching to the one man in the Twins lineup who could get him. He looked primed for a big season during Spring Training. • A young lady was eating a sandwich while on the treadmill in my gym Thursday. Is that a new workout trend?

Why SoxTalk at all if everything is hopeless or pointless? Existential question of sports fandom for perennially losing teams... such as the Bears and Bulls as well. Those rare magical seasons, of course. Pitch Sasaki on his being the Michael Jordan of Chicago baseball. Kris Bryant Prior and Wood all fell short in the end. Thomas too in a way. Obviously 7-8 amazing years then downhill.

It would take qualities no Sox GM since peak KW possessed to brashly sell such a future vision. The baseball equivalent of Dawn Staley.

So why run a franchise at all? All four teams in division positioned to bury team and it's fewer and fewer fans forever. So to would be a bust with the Sox just like he was in SD. He won't be worth his contract guaranteed. He doesn't field throw or run well.

At least that plan MIGHT work. To have a real strength and identity... like late 80s early 90s Braves. Sasaki to Sox obviously would take visionary or anti Sox thinking and risk tolerance beyond their usual conservative parameters on both Crochet and Sasaki. All failed starters thrown at the pen would take a lot of luck too. Can't waste there on veterans like recent plans.

It's quite simple. Hold Crochet (extension) and sign Roki Sasaki for whatever it takes. Hold Robert until trade value is maxxed out down the line. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/roki-sasaki-update-mlb-executives-planning-for-npb-ace-to-be-posted-this-offseason-per-report/ That gives you Sasaki Crochet Smith Thorpe and a long list of contenders for #5. Best rotation in the majors. Back end Cannon Iriarte G.Taylor Berroa Eder Bush... throw every young pitcher out there like the Sox did in the late 90s to unearth the next Buehrle over the following two seasons...if it's not already there in the form of Thorpe. Pray for a Montgomery return to health. Wolkow debut in 2026/27. Quero sticks as league average C. Have to dump Benintendi just for the sake of youngsters as a poor dead man walking role model. Get ONE league average starter out of Sosa/Gonzalez/Baldwin/Ramos. Need to fight like hell to get fWAR for bullpen defense and offense to at least around #18-22 in the majors. Obviously hit on all the trades this DDL. Finally move on from Shields and Vaughn. Easy peazy. Breezy. Etc.

Trades for Arozarena Br.Rodgers (extension OR signing HS Kim) and Winker (extension) along with keeping Crochet and Robert could have provided them a puncher's shot if almost everything broke right with pitching development and health. Sergio Santos named next manager for 2025 as of today.

Okay...so basically (Danks) Benintendi Moncada and Jimenez made the Sox gunshy to ever offer an early extension again. Where is this future core that's locked in? Where is the Sox version of Chourio or Colton Keith? All that money that could have gone to extensions is going WHERE exactly? JR's pocket. Now with the Montgomery erosion of value... yet another excuse to never offer an early extension again. Same with Vaughn and Torkelson never really peaking. Madrigal flaming out. So an early extension will go to Schultz or Grant Taylor? No way. Thorpe? What if his command goes south and he can't get it back again? Zero position prospects unless Montgomery's back heals. That only leaves Quero, essentially. He's the definition of a complementary player. And even Smith has a number of future injury red flags.

It does help the resource rich, risk taking or more foreward thinking entrepreneurial teams. Ones that for example hand out Matsumoto money or Ohtani future dollars. Glasnow, etc. So wish the Sox would at least consider Sasaki with their Pitchers First plan. They won't be swimming in that lane ever again, at least while JR is still alive.

It's why Rodon was practically destroyed. Only a $3 million commitment and no buyout or QO for $18 million on the line to protect.

George Kirby was threatening this last year...

If they'd given him a reasonable extension they would be on top of the world now. Think of all the guys like Gio Anderson Kopech Lopez Burger Vaughn they didn't consider backing. Montgomery and Crochet were the only interesting talents left to possibly invest in across the entire organization.

Summary?

Won't be a DFA. Just no way.

Top 3-4 in attendance after shedding $100 million in payroll? Owner died. RSN blew up in a way where they lost more money than practically any team in baseball. Missing two best starting pitchers, likely for the remainder of the season, as well as All Star RF?

Who designed and staffed that same development system?

The truth is, it was probably only a matter of time before Dylan Cease threw a no-hitter. Since 2021, Cease had recorded an astounding 11 starts of at least six innings with just one hit allowed. That’s the most such starts by any pitcher in baseball over that span, and only five pitchers in MLB history have recorded more in their careers: Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Justin Verlander, Bob Feller and Blake Snell, all of whom (except for Snell, who is still seeking his first) have thrown multiple no-nos. Prior to this week, Cease’s closest call had come two years ago against the Twins, when now-teammate Luis Arraez spoiled the bid with two outs in the ninth inning. On Thursday afternoon in Washington, D.C., Cease got it done. Despite an ultra-rare, mid-first-inning rain delay that put his start into question before it even began, Cease took the mound roughly 90 minutes later than expected and proceeded to deliver the outing of his life: a career-high 114 pitches across nine innings with three walks, nine strikeouts and, of course, zero hits allowed. https://sports.yahoo.com/dylan-ceases-no-hitter-marks-the-latest-high-point-in-his-ascent-with-the-padres-055159898.html