caulfield12

The Royals famously lost 106 before they jumped to the postseason. That required having a generational superstar in Witt Jr and outspending the AL Central by more money than the other four teams spent combined when they brought in Lugo and Wacha, etc. This year just around .500 because that mid market approach still requires all your top draft picks like Caglianone to hit closer to Nick Kurtz at 1.000 ops than in the .500s or .600s like O's "studs" Basallo and Mayo. And that was with resurgent 2025 seasons from M.Garcia, Perez and Estevez. The biggest dropoff was rotation ace Cole Ragans, who has already gone through two TJ surgeries and could blow up any minute.

Robert is now one of our supposed veteran leaders and has the best bat speed on the team, him or Colson...someone earlier in the thread cited bat speed as a reason for believing in a player, but that's just ONE indicator of possessing physical tools and not strength of approach. If we only went by that indicator, Elly de la Cruz and ONeil Cruz would be the two best players in baseball every single year.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/war?teamid=4&lg=&__cf_chl_tk=owc7ySSgDl0fSeYfUuq2dikVQ9x56G.QlrBCmA9xPUA-1759172019-1.0.1.1-rOsKsHkQWC0lrBjNoS.0y8deJsMtqnE1zZ7JgVIgDbs Sox fWAR standings Baldwin Quero Mead being in negative territory the biggest concerns. About what you'd expect with Montgomery Smith and Teel leading. Sosa Vargas Meidroth all in that 1-1.5 range or zone where the obvious flaws in their games are holding them back. Top Ten guys like Houser Tauchman M.Perez obviously can't be counted on to repeat.

Robert had the best bat speed on the team. Where did that get him? Whereas someone like Luis Arraez is bottom 5-10% in the majors, but makes consistent contact. Colson obviously has the biggest overall swing "impact"...but those strikeout rates were alarming. That said, you can live with it if he can play an adequate SS and stay healthy. Teel looked like their best hitter the last 6-8 weeks...he seems like a real keeper.

Not meaningless…but simply not enough Top 25 teams left. USC losing to Illinois after that 63-10 shellacking doesn’t help much either. Petrino’s on like his seventh or eighth chance now.

C- feels about right. Biggest pluses were Colson, Teel and the Rule 5 guys. Quero, Baldwin, Vargas and Sosa had their moments…along with Meidroth, but none of those guys feel like the heart of a pennant contender at present time due to various flaws. Schultz, Hagen Smith and Braden the three obvious keys to the future, and the 2026 draft pick. Speed defense execution/fundamentals, the bullpen and rotation, all need dramatic improvements, especially with Robert (at some point, hopefully) and Taylor both gone.

But the cardinal sin of losing two big games on a schedule with limited opportunities...stats against ARK are pretty much meaningless.

"Accordingly, he acquired players which excelled in those areas, through free agent signings (Orlando Hernández, Dustin Hermanson, Jermaine Dye, A. J. Pierzynski, Tadahito Iguchi), trades (ScottPodsednik, José Contreras for Loiaza, Freddy García) and the farm system (Joe Crede, Aaron Rowand)." Developed the #1 farm system in the game (1999-2000). Matt Thornton for Joe Borchard Carlos Quentin for C.Carter...was on track for 2008 MVP Damaso Marte for pretty much nothing from Pitt Alexei Ramirez signing Jose Valentin signing Buehrle extension in 2003 ($18 million/3 years) F.Garcia for Gavin Floyd/Gio Gonzalez Bobby Jenks and Sergio Santos off waivers, along with A.de Aza "So they traded a huge-salaries homegrown power bat in Carlos Lee to add speed at the top of the order in Podsednik and a bullpen arm in Vizcaino. The money saved in the deal also allowed the White Sox flexibility to add second baseman Tadahito Iguchi via free agency to further complete the championship puzzle.

With Horton out...Cubs' rotation is short with Boyd Imanaga and Taillion. Padres have Pivetta...then no idea where they go between Cease Darvish rehabbing King and Randy Vasquez.

Well, he did have concubines in every city...and the biggest swimming trunks I have ever seen.

This is your new schtick for the entire off-season lol? How about "Getz is good, Getz is great!"...?

Especially as Drury didn't even appear for the Sox...

Always reminds one of the Ramirez TKO of Tim Anderson...at least no Josh Naylor haha.

MLB not very happy losing Mets/Dodgers in the first round. Guess it will be hard for some to choose between the Padres and Cubs lol.

Yeah, it's 823 am and the Cowboys/Packers are on...and have to find a replacement for Malik Nabers. China is on holiday this week, btw.

The only problem is the 102 losses in-between...

There are much more important things to read/watch today...namely football, fantasy leagues and basketball.

Progress if you're a Galapagos turtle...

Please don't waste your breath selling Charlotte AAA outfielders as anything but what they are for 2026...although potentially the Sox can trade them to CLE for pitching.

Shouldn't it be "my only friend, the end"? thread title

Here's another GM to criticize, the Astros' Dana Brown...managed to break the nine year consecutive playoff streakI Fireable offense? "Meanwhile, every single one of Houston's big free-agent signings under the current administration has blown up in its face. Josh Hader (five years, $95 million) is hurt and has posted an ERA with the Astros half a run worse than the rest of his career. Christian Walker (three years, $60 million) hit .236/.296/.410 this year, his first in Houston. José Abreu (three years, $58.5 million) was an unmitigated disaster. Rafael Montero (three years, $34.5 million) has posted a 4.81 ERA over the course of the contract and is now playing for the Tigers. The Astros once had something that worked. They have something different now, by their ownership's choice. So far, it isn't working out." yahoo sports Apparently advisor Jeff Bagwell is leading the chart away from analytics...which isn't exactly working out too well. Ofc they also had numerous significant injuries this year...and weren't eliminated until the final weekend.

Guess Manaea will get one last opportunity on Sunday...against E.Cabrera. Singer got rocked his last time out for Cincy. Comparing GM's is always a challenge. The Red Sox had previously missed the playoffs in 2022, 23 and 24, and there was a considerable amount of heat on John Henry. What did Breslow really do? Dumped Devers, traded for Crochet, watched Roman Anthony mature in his system...but moves like the Buehler signing as well as Dustin May (-0.7 fWAR) were pretty much atrocious. Giolito was a bad contract for 1 1/3rd seasons as well. If you watched the Netflix series, he (Breslow) doesn't come off very well at all...kind of an Ivy League egghead trapped in a LHPer's body. And if you're going to criticize Stearns for this year, doesn't he also get some credit for having the hottest team in baseball the last 4-6 weeks of 2024, with Jose Iglesias playing like an MVP during that time frame?? For getting the Brewers to the postseason for five out of six years against the Cubs/Cardinals? And how do we know that Murphy as manager over in MIL isn't just as impactful...subtracting the overhyped Craig Counsell? After all, the Cubs had all the bigger stars and payroll and hype comparatively, but the Brewers ran away with that division...yes?

Getz can't possibly be better than the GM with the best winning percentage since the 1950's/60's with the Sox until he actually wins something...or at least gets this franchise back over .500. And not waiting until 2028 to actually compete would help. Next it's going to be that Getz is somehow better than Stearns if the Mets miss out on the playoffs tmrw. But by which measure? Wins per $$$ spent? The Guardians Rays Brewers Marlins A's etc. are running laps around Getz by that measure.

"Some of us love our ugly step child and accentuate positive things going on while some of you decide beating the kid is necessary and then claim our positive parenting skills are delusional." Equating being child abusers to being realistic about the White Sox...well, that's a new one for me. Isn't just giving the White Sox a "participation trophy" instead of expecting a standard of excellence to be set everything that's supposedly wrong with parents today? Wanting to be friends with our kids instead of being firm and setting clearly demarcated boundaries? Unconditional support in any situation isn't always beneficial, either. Should we tolerate beating step-children if they're not our own kids biologically, lol?

Well that's because they lost Laureano to a fractured finger and are now trying to figure out the best lineup for the first round next week on the fly.