caulfield12

Lyle Mouton at this rate...

You must be quite fun at dinner parties...but even game threads aren't three pages these days. DJ Moore was mildly disappointing but will probably recover to have a somewhat decent season. If there was no overreaction or hot takes in the media....well, we wouldn't have every single College Gameday being hosted in Boulder, Colorado for a month in a row. We wouldn't have manufactured "slight" or diss stories that lead to reaction and then counter reaction coverage. (At least until the Buffs lose to USC Washington Oregon etc.)

Maybe Rock Raines is closer then. Literally a HoF player and he was solid for the White Sox but nothing close to the dynamic force he was in the first half of his career with the Expos. Or maybe it's just that Bears' offseason tall radio tends to even overhype the likes of Cole Kmet when there's not as much baseball other than the Cubs to discuss.

Even Connor McKnight? That's like upside down world stuff right there.

https://sports.yahoo.com/hiring-chaim-bloom-signaled-a-change-in-the-boston-red-soxs-philosophy-firing-him-signals-the-lack-of-one-001854554.html Bloom built a Top 5 farm system in less than four full years but two last place and now another out of the playoffs doomed him. Similar payroll to the White Sox...just right above them at #12. Ofc Rays and O's #28/29 in spending. The Red Sox have the outline of a core forming in the big leagues, with international hit Masataka Yoshida and homegrown young players in first baseman Triston Casas, pitcher Brayan Bello, outfielder Jarren Duran and newly promoted center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela. Behind them, there are several exciting prospects within shouting distance of Boston, most notably shortstop Marcelo Mayer and surging outfielder Roman Anthony at Double-A. ..... To be sure, the next executive in Boston will have a lot to work with. The farm system is one of the top five in baseball, by FanGraphs’ estimation, and there’s plenty of offensive talent in the majors. But the defense is dreadful, and the pitching staff needs more robust patching than James Paxton, Corey Kluber and a wave of other early or late-career fliers can provide. That could be easily remedied, assuming said executive can get past the big Green Monster — no, not the wall, the payroll question.

Don't recall ever comparing someone to a Bulls' player...but decent effort overall I guess.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/39631/luis-robert-jr 538 OPS in 32 September at-bats. He was fine in July and August...over an 800 ops both months. Actually at 910 for August.

Can't imagine there's a lower paid GM or field manager in the entire sport...maybe the A's or Pirates. For example, TB Rays are much smarter than that, surely they invest more resources in their front office and constantly replacing all the poached talent.

Getz and Grifol are not tied in any way to Moncada's past or future like Hahn was with the Sale trade. There's THAT at least.

Feels like that was Zavala against all pitchers this season...

No way Getz is going to be able to control Grifol, that guy in so set in his "old school" (Dayton Moore Ways) mentality...and now he feels empowered to "spread his wings" with the owner and GM both having his back, so to speak.

Almost impossible to fathom at the start of a year a situation where KW and Hahn would both be gone...but the result with Getz and Grifol returning is pretty much DAMPENING spirits of the majority of the fanbase. Still have two weeks left after this and the interest level is pretty much at an all time low except for going for the 100 loss mark lowlight. In fact, it's pretty hard to identify more than a couple of posters who adamantly argued for either of those two guys as GM or 2024 field manager.

That Bogaerts contract has started out as a disaster for SD....and looks even worse on the back end. Now you can argue that signing Devers to that type of contract with his defensive liabilities was another incorrect decision....but putting all their eggs in the Betts basket in retrospect would have been the better move all things considered. Seems like Cherington, Dombrowski and now Bloom all lasted exactly four years. Not much of a shelf life. DD won a WS and still got canned...as did Cherington on the coattails of Epstein.

Probably throwing harder than Kopech does as a starter...

Rooting hard for 62-100... Hard to imagine the Twins losing any of these games. White Sox already playing like it's the very last game of the season. Wouldn't be shocked if Colas goes AWOL in Charlotte as well.

Well, we knew that Sheets and Burger were really close and used a lot of the same tech as well as likely shared hitting philosophies....not that it helped Gavin much this year. Might as well trade him as a platoon (maybe) DH to Baltimore and reconnect him with his father's MLB legacy because he has no future in Chicago.

Eloy and Benintendi will be the next whipping boys (along with Cease/Kopech) after Moncada is gone...

https://www.mlb.com/news/why-twins-are-under-the-radar-world-series-contender Five reasons the Twins are a potential World Series contender...

https://www.mlb.com/news/mike-clevinger-records-quality-start-in-tough-luck-loss-vs-royals “He gets his stuff done and he gets himself ready to pitch,” Grifol said. “This was a good outing, a really good outing. The ball is jumping out of his hand. He’s been really fun to watch this year.” With a 3.61 ERA over 21 starts, Clevinger has been the most consistent member of the ‘23 White Sox rotation. The team has only Cease as a set starter for ‘24, although Grifol has said Michael Kopech is a starter moving forward despite currently working out of the bullpen. So, could Clevinger be a fit in Chicago beyond this one year? The White Sox have a $12 million mutual option, the sort of options not often picked up with both sides needed in the mix, with a $4 million buyout. “We’ll see. They haven’t talked to me about anything,” Clevinger said. “I’m definitely open to talking with them. We’ll see where it goes. Right now, my body is in a great spot and everything is coming out nice.”

Only another $140-150 million to go....but the majority across just three players. Clevinger in some ways might be the most interesting case because there are so many sides to it.

Shocking! Or that the Blue Jays haven't swooped in now and picked up KW and son...

Asst GM or broadcasting booth future with Sox...or both.

Benintendi cumulatively put up 3.1 fWAR for 2019/20/21. Of course he's now shockingly at 0.3 when you subtract him from the Yankees.

Ironically...two of the better hitters in Moncada and Burger couldn't fit on the same roster together. But we still do have plenty of room for Benintendi Andrus Sheets Vaughn Eloy Grandal etc.

Lol. There are two sides to every coin. There isn't the FDIC system here to insure bank deposits for example. OTOH...with the entire country and economy being so shaky and uncertain right now, the LAST thing the government can afford to do is something that will be universally unpopular that has to do with money. Just a few protests in December (mostly university students) last year crushed a three year old government Covid policy imperative. American politicians...OTOH...have almost zero fear of the electorate. It's a bit ironic that democracy worldwide has become increasingly non - responsive to the needs and wants of the majority of people. (All that said, freedom wins out for now...in the end. The problem is who is deciding the limits and scope of that freedom, though.)