caulfield12

Chuck Hough/Wakefield

And the Brewers are in a completely different situation, by the way...retooling on the fly versus a total rebuild after Robert is traded. Just expect to get a lot of crap if Ortiz and Hall are total flops for Milwaukee. Undoubtedly the last Cease ST start and Cole news amped up expectations...as well as Rangers Padres Giants involvement. Did you go to Yankees' boards and provoke them too this week?

Pretty sure he went into collegiate coaching already...somewhere in the Midwest.

Johan Santana was far from dominant with the fastball. Tom Glavine would be yet another that comes to mind.

Yeah, he definitely could amp it up in to the mid 90's when needed, but usually sat at 91-93 with all those sinkers.

Except they didn't get Snelling or Lesko either...all these teams involved in potential deals with Cease basically holding back their Top 4 prospects.

Padres trying to cut salary anywhere they possibly can to stay as close to $200 million payroll...

If Mena's really in the mid 90's on a consistent basis, it's pretty hard to bet against him proving the White Sox wrong...something almost everyone traded the last two decades comes around to do at some point down the line. But you have those two guys, the noted upside concerns with Gonzalez, even Burger had more than his share of flaws but sheer will/determination helped him to overcome a number of those negatives (without much if any help from the team itself).

B-/C+ for White Sox A-/B+ for Padres (fits perfectly within a limited budget and they don't have to give up any of their main farm assets...can continue to cut salaries/trade Cease if things continue to go south, so two years is really about the back end of their current "window" without re-initiating another rebuild behind Tatis, Jr. and their still Top 10ish farm system) Needed to get either Head or DeVrieze to really tip the balance...also, let's see what, if anything, they can get for Steven Wilson at midseason. Iriarte not being a reliever and Zavala sticking in CF are two of the obvious keys to consider.

If only they had this kind of starting pitching depth in 2003/10/12 etc. But yeah most baseball fans love the hitting side more than the pitching aspect. KW's whole philosophy was essentially giving Sox fans 7-11 games with lots of fireworks going off. Emminently preferable to what we will see the next couple of years out of the offense.

We will likely never know what NYY Rangers and Giants were offering. Just that Baltimore was always going to be light unless the Padres trade him for even more this mid season if they're stuck around .500 again.

Burger Watch 2 lol...

2 1/2 to go is where SD moved on Soto...that's certainly a possibility. Next offseason doesn't feel realistic if he's a near MVP caliber player at that point. Hard to put up those type of numbers with current projected Sox lineups as well.

Who would rather have Duran Porter Leiter? It's not like Texas was going to deal one of their two most coveted Young outfielders unless Cease was leading the AL Cy Young race at the halfway mark of the season...maybe not even then for Langford.

As long as they draft a college player with higher ceiling and plus tools for a change...doubt they will go against past form and take one of the 2-3 prep position prospects that will be under consideration just months from now.

Iriarte with lowest floor and highest ceiling ... lots sleeping on him.

Boyer, Our Chuck and Merkin retweeted?

All five Central teams lined up #19-25 lol. You would never figure out the near hopeless one going by this.

PetCo and a really strong defense behind him will work wonders...

Might as well throw in their blocked young catcher as well...Basallo.

"That's a slightly painful trade, probably because I heard the (good) Cease news before I heard (the bad) who we gave up. Thorpe, Iriarte, Wilson, and Zavala. Thorpe is the tough one. BUT.......we get Cease for two years, and our front four will match up with anyone. The Padres are a better team in 2024 than they were an hour ago." go to gaslampball.com for Padres' fan reactions

Not adding Head or DeVrieze tips it slightly to the Padres' side. Then again...who knows, maybe Wilson shocks the world, but SD has tons of questions across the bullpen and wouldn't have included him if they liked his upside all that much. Reunited with Tim Hill.

Tatis Machado Bogaerts Kim Campusano Cronenworth is fine...it's the other three spots at the bottom. All depends on how quickly Merrill adjusts.

Had to get payroll under $200 million after Seidler died. Too much downside risk attached to that salary.

Thorpe definitely ahead of Quero...and Nastrini.