caulfield12

Padres with 6 on BA Top 100, tied fir most in majors with 5/6 in the Top 57 selections and two Top 17. And had a lower ranked farm system than the Sox over this same rebuild period...bottoming out at #28. BA Top 100 this week #8 Ethan Salas #17 Jackson Merrill #27 P Robby Snelling #38 P Dylan Lesko #57 RHP Drew Thorpe #99 SS deVrieze, hasn’t played stateside after signing as #1 BA international name this past week Plus Mazur, Martorella, Zavala, Dillon Head, Jairo Iriarte, Marsee, Eguy Rosario, Homer Bush, Jr. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/san-diego-padres-2024-top-mlb-prospects/

Cuban Connection officially dead with Robert the last one standing, and neither him nor Colas nor Cespedes have much of a shelf life with the Sox.

Yariel? Yeah that's a lot lower than initial projections in the $40-55 million range. Same as a Pagan or Joe Kelly type these days.

https://dknetwork.draftkings.com/2024/1/17/24041613/mlb-free-agency-2024-rankings-2025-next-year-list-tracker-top-25-juan-soto-alex-bregman-zack-wheeler Just to have something else to discuss besides everything we already know about the Orioles Top 40 prospects... Seeing Zack Wheeler's name there kind of stings...what could have been had the money been allocated efficiently. At least another playoff appearance in 2022.

There's zero point in settling out of desperation. Hahn rushed that trade with the Yankees for Frazier Kuehnle etc. and none of those prospects came close to panning out. But there was a high draft pick involved so that partially justified it. Of course it was equally a salary dump for JR...Cease most assuredly is not, unless paired with Moncada or Jimenez.

Would love to see their idea/s of which two year rentals are actually worth the pearls they're clutching on to... We've posted 100+ times the fWAR values of Cease over the past three years combined, where's he is a Top 8 pitcher in the majors as well as one of the most durable. Strange how pitchers are worth so much in FA but not under shorter term deals since everyone can pick out obvious flaws/health concerns on every single option out there like Snell and Montgomery. (Yet the Dodgers approached their offseason from equal amounts marketing and on the mound performance POV.)

Pundits?

Since we've spent 100's of thread pages on the Orioles...I have felt all along the Padres were a really good match for Cease due to the limited financial commitment, the "win now" situation AJ Preller currently finds himself in and the pressure on the Padres/DBacks/Giants created by all the Dodgers' moves over the offseason. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/san-diego-padres-2024-top-mlb-prospects/ They were considered somewhere between 7th and 9th coming into the offseason in prospect rankings, and have surely moved up to #6-7 MiLB system ranking with the signing on the #1 international prospect in SS Leodalis de Vrieze. This after being ranked as low as #28 at the bottom of their first rebuild in 2019-2021. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/san-diego-padres-top-39-prospects/ They also have 4 pitchers in their Top 7. One has to assume their Top 3 and probably De Vrieze are not going to be made available. White Sox fans would ask for Lesko or Snelling...pretty obviously, as their top piece. 5 Nathan Martorella 22.4 A+ 1B 2026 45 6 Robby Snelling 19.5 A+ SP 2027 40+ 7 Adam Mazur 22.2 A+ SP 2026 40+ 8 Samuel Zavala 19.0 A RF 2026 40+ 9 Brandon Valenzuela 22.8 AA C 2024 40+ 10 Estuar Suero 17.8 R CF 2028 40+

"This could end up being one heck of a steal for the Padres, as some relievers like Emilio Pagan and Joe Kelly are going for $8 million a year. Despite having Robert Suarez and Yuki Matsui, Heyman said Go is likely to be the team’s closer (not sure if I believe that)." Surely closes the door on Hader returning...Snell is another issue altogether, but likely done with SD unless his price sinks below $150 million. Go, 25, pitched for the LG Twins in South Korea for the past seven seasons, posting a sub 3 ERA in three of the seven years. He has combined for 87 saves in the last three years. His posting window was scheduled to end today at 2 p.m. so the Padres are getting this done almost at the deadline. https://www.gaslampball.com/2024/1/2/24023367/report-padres-close-to-signing-woo-suk-go

$13 million remaining for this season and then $6 million total to buy out 2025/26. If they could recoup at least $8-10 million, it would constitute a minor miracle.

In comparison...zero excuses the Sox can't have better international signings. SD traded boatloads for Clevinger, Nola's brother, Soto... https://www.gaslampball.com/2024/1/15/24037947/padres-land-1-international-amateur-prospect-leodalis-de-vries And now back to a Top 5 system with these intl moves over two consecutive years.

Or still have a fairly pedestrian performance compared to past results, yet still bring in Cease and Jimenez when GM flinches. If this was the NFL, there would be 2-3x more pressure to make a move at this point in the off season. So many teams are in need of quality AND affordability without onerous long-term financial commitments...especially with all the swirling RSN revenue generation questions still up in the air for small and mid market teams.

Assuming they've already done Aparicio and Billy Pierce... Should start doing visiting/opposing team's players like Ohtani or Yamamoto.

Flappable, flippable, fap-worthy or unflappable?

But he's in a protracted 3-5 year rebuild...without the ability to quickly spend his way back out. A premature Matt LaPorta/LaFatta- like return that kills off 1/2 the remaining trade capital hurts him more than anything else...he's got to establish a reputation here for looking at the long-term over possibly "winning the off season." And that ship has already sailed at this point. KC won...and outspent and entire AL Central in the process. Even Hahn pulled this off once successfully with Jose Quintana.

Or he could go sideways and start to become as much a suspect as a prospect...ala Madrigal.

That was two years ago. He and Cortes both have to be at 100% or they will be in a lot of trouble. Also shed King and Severino. Clark Schmidt no bueno...not for a serious contender. Or Stroman's second half. At one point, Jordan Montgomery wasn't even good enough for them to get a single post season start. That feels like ages ago.

Exact problem in Philly right now...that disconnect. Players didn't know who was calling the plays...then they started freelancing wheels trust broke down. Hurts with the injuries lost scrambling ability, and needed to start throwing less deep balls downfield instead going short medium and over the middle. And the defense just collapsed like Dallas over the weekend. Worst in league since 10-1.

Sox not doing Astros many favors with Graveman and Abreu (unless you seriously overvalue post season.) Conversely, already get a feeling Maldonado’s name will go down in Sox history, but not in a good way.

Or you figure out a way to draft Daniels and Nabers together but that’s getting too cute. Have to go Williams and pair him with a QB coach he respects and is already familiar with obviously.

Not enough power…

Hays Mountcastle or O’Hearn. They might throw in Urias or Mateo.

Then goodbye Vaughn or Eloy.

Basallo and Ortiz and Hall…for Cease and Santos/Kopech. Throw in Golden Spikes Vaughn for Mayo or Kjerstad. 9

Can’t waste a 70 arm on 1B. Not until you prove he simply can’t adequately play LF RF 3B 2B first…