caulfield12

https://sports.yahoo.com/hicks-presents-giants-intriguing-pitching-224527064.html Hicks did not exceed two innings pitched in any of his 65 outings last season and his career high is five innings, which coincidentally came against the Giants in 2022. While it's unclear what role Hicks has been preparing for this season, the 27-year-old could have a slow ramp-up to a starter's-level workload to begin the 2024 season. Also, 2.05 ERA in 2023 when not exceeding 1.0 IP.

They simply need a cheap/young DH/1B who can hit better than Jimenez and Sheets, .850-.900 and ideally non platoon or at least LH…that seems relatively simple. But he should never be the key piece to any trade, for Cease and certainly not Robert. Always better to start from the middle of the diamond and push out rather than starting with corners in mind.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports-saturday/2024/1/12/24035584/caleb-williams-justin-fields-chicago-bears-nfl-draft-2024-usc must read story on Caleb Williams for supporters and detractors alike

Bulls president and CEO Michael Reinsdorf addressed the situation in a statement to NBC Sports Chicago in which he lauded Krause as "an important part of our history." "His legacy deserves to be celebrated and respected," Reinsdorf's statement read in part. "We were incredibly honored to have Thelma with us this evening to recognize Jerry as a member of the inaugural Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor." Not nearly good enough… Espn.com https://chicago.suntimes.com/bulls/2024/1/12/24036676/bulls-ring-of-honor-ceremony-misses-michael-jordan-scottie-pippen-dennis-rodman

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/bulls-ring-of-honor-ceremony-gets-ugly-as-fans-loudly-boo-jerry-krause-in-front-of-his-widow-034405372.html Neither Reinsdorf said a thing about the booing. They have a closeup video of her facial expressions/reaction and someone trying to comfort her. At least Kerr and King and DeRozan spoke up. Jordan is going to have to address this issue and the three no shows as well. Krause also worked for the White Sox as a scout in Brazil/Latin America near the of his public career. Par for the course with the Reinsdorfs.

It would fade after a week or two. The Benintendi Bounce lasted less than three days...and that was when the team still looked like a potential contender entering 2023.

Dodgers acquired Glasnow...

Or Hahn asked for Holliday straight up...

No, you have to get two high quality guys rather than one really solid Top 50ish guy and 3-4 lottery tickets unless you have a great scouting and evaluation as well as development side. Especially as 2B shouldn't be the priority compared to SS. Odds are pretty high Montgomery ends up at third or potentially 1B...obviously 3B would be exponentially preferable.

Sox are excellent at transforming assets into nothing in return...the anti Rays.

He kept mocking him with Jackie Robinson taunts?

Except that "luck" from the 100+ win pitching staff hadn't held up over time...Wood DeSclafini then later Rodon. Only one really really solid starting pitcher on the roster now. Things would look entirely different had they been able to retain Gausman.

Two bad companies.

Donaldson/Ramirez or his former 3B ex Royals teammate who took his knee out and started the avalanche of bad in 2022...?

De Boer was hired by Bama because he won at every single level. Grifol and Getz haven't even been winners since university. Hahn didn't win a thing but a spot on the Harvard law review due to connections and nepotism. And De Boer was also 5-0 against his top rivals...but Lanning in particular at Oregon. Other than Smart...no better choices in the country. Otoh, Getz and Grifol would struggle mightily to get similar jobs at any of the other 29 big league teams.

And already agreed to keep an incompetent manager in place as a condition. Or worse yet...believed it was 90/95% the players and not flaws in incorporating or messaging the so called Royals' way was the actual problem within the organization.

Yeah that was it...and it was like totally out of nowhere.

It's Leasure Eder Santos Kopech Nastrini for me...not all that sold on Mena. Will also be watching if Carela/NYY and those two Dodgers' arms for the Korean intl signing $$$ go anywhere at all.

Bannister coming from SF is sort of positive...I guess. And obviously he already was aware of Katz from his work in California. That said...the proof will be in the pudding. And they honestly don't have much to work with outside some of the interesting AA/AAA arms they injected into the system around the deadline last year...along with Schulz and then another group of A ball arms with 3-4 maybe 5 legit prospects in there. They deserve at least three seasons to demonstrate progress together.

Or another in a long string of bad reliever moves that just burned through money that could have been pooled together for 1 and possibly 2 All-Star quality position players.

Joel Zumaya - esque if executed well. Not a starter and not durable enough to even consider it. And Zaidi isn't known around the game for being dumb. Quite the opposite. But this one feels more desperate than anything.

The key prism to view what's going on right now is how many of these players acquired are future above average big league starters (rosters as of today) and how many can be flipped for someone who will actually move the meter forward...in a positive direction? That's the main source of frustration. It's not even dumping Cease and Robert. It's that "hitting the ground running" has actually led to tearing the entire team down to the studs in a way that looks like a 3-4-5 year rebuild in the worst division in baseball.. having to hit the Cease and Robert trades exactly right or already behind the 8 ball. When they are once again willing to give 3-4-5 year deals...then we will know it's time to actually start paying attention to what's going on. And that's at least two years away. There (likely) won't be any jump starts to take things seriously like the Cubs pulled off with Jon Lester to notify fans know the rebuild was ready to genuinely kick off, that fans could start dream a little... And that requires a Top Ten farm system...not a Top Twenty one. And this Cease trade should put Sox into the 12-15 if executed well by Getz. The another year to move Robert for the next boatload of legit prospects.

Except Los Angeles…

Royals had four years, precisely. 2013-2016. 2017 already well on their way to a tear down. For every Elias or Hahn that waits due to ownership for favorable market conditions to eventually somehow favor them, a SD will jump in and take away a Machado, or the Phillies with Harper and Wheeler. The ONLY time this worked in FA for the Sox was when only COL needed a 1B, so they got Abreu before 2014 in a two team race…and then the Cuban Connection was enough to push Robert from St. Louis to Chicago despite actually being outbid by a historically much better franchise. Who picks Baltimore over roughly 23-25 big league markets? Maybe the National Aquarium…or USS Constitution.

He is clearly more Altuve/Biggio than Madrigal according to all O’s fans… Let them persist in their delusions. Let them try to thread the needle just like the Rays do nearly every single year…moving out those vets with 2-3 years remaining on their big league contracts. Let Bieber get hurt again while costing CLE significant payroll space…or Glasnow. Or Snell following in the footsteps of Rodon/Cortes, etc.