caulfield12

Beggars Pizza vs. Little Caesar's/Domino's...can't even win the great pizza wars with DET, let alone broadcasting ones. Not too long ago Mario Impemba and Rod Allen were trying to kill each other in the Tigers' booth.

If there's not going to be a salary floor/ceiling (especially the FLOOR part)...what's the point for the majority of the bottom half of the major leagues? Citing the Orioles, DBacks, Rays, Guardians, Twins, Brewers as reason for SOME tepid optimism? With MLB considering expansion....why not have those Bottom 5-7 teams in baseball be in danger of relegation like in English soccer/football? Play-in/play-out tournaments for survival? All of the AAA/AA markets fighting for an opportunity to get that shot at a major league shot based on running their franchises exceptionally well and having at least 25-30,000 seat stadiums. White Sox, Royals, Rockies, A's, Marlins, Pirates, Nationals, Brewers (if they do a total rebuild and don't get the $300 million from WI, for now they get the benefit of the doubt) and Angels would be in this bottom 9 as of right now. Then you can argue about the middle-tier grouping of the Tigers, Reds, Twins, Cubs, Guardians, Red Sox, DBacks, Mets, Padres, Cardinals, Mariners...could easily move down the Guardians for 10/10/10=30 balance TRUE TITLE and/or FINANCIAL COMPETITORS: TOR NYY Baltimore (for now), TB Rays, Houston Astros (for now), Texas Rangers, Dodgers, SF Giants, Phillies, Atlanta Braves (just 10 teams) Since they're unlike to push it all the way down to just 20 teams like the EPL (numerous reasons for this), they should do something to pressure the Bottom 10 teams in baseball to either spend or emulate the Rays/Orioles and innovate their way into the Top 10 at least.

Unless your defense is to the level of Maldonado about 4-5 years ago...and you need to pair that guy up with certain pitchers in your playoff rotation (like when the Dodgers dumped Grandal due to defensive concerns). With pitch framing disappearing and robot/AI umps closer and closer, you're looking for veteran game managers and throwers with quick releases who can instill additional confidence in any pitching staff, veteran or Years 1-3/4 in terms of experience.

He probably won't be able to pitch again until June/July, but it doesn't really matter to their fans or front office because of his legendary status with the team. Comebacks from those type of injuries in your mid 30's are pretty dicey, though.

Clayton Kershaw is basically stacked up somewhere between #9-11 in the Dodgers' current depth chart...assuming he signs at some point this year. He would be #1 on the White Sox, assuming the Cease trade comes to fruition.

Ohtani Gonsolin May Kershaw all added for 2025. Plus the survivors of the pitching tryouts between AA and AAA staffs. Gives TBR a chance. They were never in a million years going to deal Arozarena with the Franco uncertainty. Rays with $35 to spend not to mention MLB decision on Franco contract pending investigation results. LAD have to go through same with Urias.

Mize Manning Skubal Olson Maeda Flaherty best rotation in the division as of right now.

Not with billions to throw at the problem...as well as a deep farm. They certainly need TOR with all the uncertainty surrounding Buehler's comeback in his most challenging year.

They only care about the postseason. Will probably invest the Kershaw money in 4/5 innings eater types to stabilize the back end of the rotation.

Montas will get $30-35 million. The bounce back guys are all now pipe dreams. Maybe Martin Perez and Alex Wood?

More frustrating is CLE and MIN begging the rest of the division to actually fight. They're just totally surrendering.

Well, 33 year old catchers have such a limited shelf life. Maybe the year off will rejuvenate him physically. Grandal basically fell directly off a cliff, but he was a regular for most of his career, compared to Stassi's baseline. All that said, experience means a heckuva lot at playoff time. IMO, Gary Sanchez would have been a better flip candidate because the majority of his value comes from offense.

Being blocked from Minnesota, KC, StL, both Chicagos and Milwaukee isn't exactly a death sentence for 2024...Flyover Territory has never been more appropriate a phrase/description. If those cities aren't enough...they will even block Denver in western Iowa.

Travel to Seoul for Opening Series w/Ohtani lol...simple answer there is to support minor league baseball franchises if they are independently run. But even the minors is consolidating behind deca millionaire/oligopoly groups. Clintons and Burlingtons and Waterloo's are all dead.

TLR might be even less popular than JR and Terry Bevington at this point.

Decision maker now for the Nashville White Sox...but allowing Dave Stewart to run out front for appearance's sake.

The White Sox are now Waffle House gruel...not even close to I-Hop or Village Inn. Maybe a Denny's...in the 80s and 90s.

Not sure how Seidler dying and the RSN models of revenue generation drying up help the White Sox exactly. It's contributing to basically the bottom half of the major leagues being left behind from a competitiveness standpoint. Especially those same lower tier teams being more risk averse like the Orioles and holding onto their prospects for dear life for fear of "all in" seasons that blow up like the White Sox over 2022-23. Sox are currently in the #30 position despite being in a massive media market and with their own self-controlled tv networks even...how is that even possible? What fans want the opposite of Seidler, an ownership group whose primary goals are financial and where a 3rd to 4th place finish might be considered ideal if setting record profits?

Kirby is on the market too after pulling himself from a game down the stretch? Or mostly Gilbert?

Padres fit because they’re not going to make any more commitments longer than 2 or possibly three years into the future in all likelihood with ownership changes more than likely on the horizon. But Preller has been burned so many times adding vets for youth that he’s going to be much more gunshy this time around. New Boston GM has to do something big to establish his own identity and remain relevant in that division…

They didn’t trade him due to pressure from SoxTalk, lol. You can add AJ Pollock to that previous list…he fooled Hahn in a similar way to Benintendi. Heyward to a lesser extent.

But we did that with Machado and Harper, lol…even signed Jay and Alonso.

Well, the White Sox didn’t find one single 3-4ish fWAR Chris Taylor, Max Muncy, k*** Rodriguez, Outman or Justin Turner in ten years of Hahn. The Dodgers…pre and post Friedman, have been able to come up with one of those guys on average every two seasons.

Nobody said anything not being a winning team in the regular season. It’s only about postseason titles at this point.

And 2013-2023 has guaranteed what exactly in the postseason? If the Dodgers had four 2005 White Sox postseasons in a row…would anything change at all for Jerry Reinsdorf? And if Friedman had some magical elixir that only worked for him and none of the other Rays executives, wouldn’t they have more than one 3/8ths of a season title (2020) played in neutral Texas in like 20+ opportunities across all those teams with former Rays’ front office execs leading them? The issue with the Rays’ Way isn’t the postseason at all. It’s winning the whole thing. Even Dodgers fans would get frustrated with ownership…Roberts and Friedman if they fall short now with all the advantages in the world. The Padres had one of the best ERAs in baseball last year with FOUR superstars and it only led to an 82-80 record…there’s going to be a tremendous amount of pressure on the Dodgers next year and in his first season back pitching after two UCL surgeries. And then how would his never being able to pitch again (third tear in future) affect him psychologically? The pressure of US and Japanese media being increased 3-4X? Of course it sounds insane right now to question whether it will be a resounding success…but nobody even can project the financial state of affairs for the US and world economies ten decades from now into the future.