caulfield12

1) There's no way the White Sox fans can exert nearly as much pressure on the JR's of the world, compared to hyper-loyal UK football fans 2) There's no way after reading articles like this that one can have any faith in the Red Sox or their operations moving forward...if the Red Sox can't or don't even seriously consider spending the money to keep Mookie Betts or Bogaerts, well, that doesn't bode well. Of course, they COULD have signed Betts, they simply chose not to. Same with Bogaerts, which was probably the right decision. But Devers of those three was the most flawed (and cheapest) of the group. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/soccer/glory-and-fury-liverpool-boston-and-a-tale-of-two-teams/ar-AA1kKwn4

Ohtani is going to make $60-75 million...from endorsements, and that's conservative. Trout is second at $5 million and fading. He's a unicorn in terms of being able to ride out a deferred deal like this...and not have to worry about his cash flow one iota.

Closer to complementary than star. Like Lance Lynn when he was first acquired...or Grandal.

Giants must see the writing on the wall and fear missing out on all the big names. That's not going to move the bar enough because it will take time to adjust mechanics to fastball velocity in majors...just like HaSeong Kim progression. Kim was one of the most valuable players in the game this year but one season too late. At least defense doesn't usually slump...unless you're Benintendi.

Can't afford Jung-ho Lee and starting pitching in this market. They were expecting $60-75 million on Lee deal. No closer in sight, bullpen and bottom half of roster not good enough, pretty much have to sell off Machado and Bogaerts now at some point in the next couple of years as ticket sales fall off inevitably. Will probably let this year play out...definitely won't go all in on Cease. Exercise in futility.

Sports Illustrated publisher fires CEO after AI debacle https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/media/sports-illustrated-ai-articles-ceo/index.html

I was just told that anything non directly Sox-related shouldn't be posted on the Chicago White Sox FA/Offseason Board, so: So then we simply shouldn't talk at all about the Cubs...Cubs should be banned entirely from the platform and Diamond Club during the regular season as well. Ban the Padres and Jared Kelenic, too, whatever. Ron883 shouldn't be allowed to threaten to leave and become a Cubs' fan over and over and over again, either.

Great thread!!! I guess you did start a thread, after all. Good stuff. Not exactly a page turner, but a thread nonetheless.

https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/cubs-news/now-what-here-are-the-cubs-options-after-missing-out-on-shohei-ohtani/524327/ https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/cubs-news/here-are-the-richest-contracts-in-the-chicago-cubs-history/524458/

NOBODY FUCKING CARES ABOUT THE WHITE SOX OUTLOOK BECAUSE IT FUCKING SUCKS. They're not even going to sign anyone from here on out for more than $7.5 million...it's freakin' pointless.

WHERE IS THE CUBS' OFF-SEASON FREE AGENT THREAD, OR A THREAD FOR FREE-AGENT RELATED INFORMATION THAT'S NOT HERE...?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Well, obviously it's in the DIAMOND CLUB, WHICH IS CLOSED. Since the White Sox won't do a single thing in FA, what's the point of this thread? The only one that really matters is the Cease thread. Period. And Ohtani, because that's 10X more interesting than anything that the actual White Sox are doing or contemplating.

Cubs seem to be circling back to Bellinger. Other names out there include Chapman, Glasnow and Rhys Hoskins. Hard to see how they're even going to be as good as the 2023 team...unless it's attributing miracle-working skills to Craig Counsell.

Hopefully better than Elijah Tatis, Jr. (referring to Profar)...

Could just imagine them dealing with Chernobyl in that doc-style retelling...

Hostetler is gone?

Todd Boehly (also Dodgers' director) and Clearlake 'have cut Chelsea's average wage to under £75k-per-week', with contract negotiations 'fraught' as they face losing Mason Mount over failure to agree a new deal Chelsea have endured a tumultuous first campaign under Todd Boehly and Co. The Blues have signed 18 players for a spend of more than £600m this season But, the squad's average wage has been reduced to under £75,000 per week Chelsea's average salary has been dramatically reduced under the Todd Boehly-led ownership group, according to reports. The American businessman, who is a co-owner of the Blues with Behdad Eghbali, joined forces with Clearlake Capital to purchase the club a year ago in the aftermath of Roman Abramovich being sanctioned by the UK government. However, it has been a dismal and chaotic first season of ownership, with Boehly becoming a figure of fun in many quarters after several decisions have backfired. Chelsea are languishing in 12th place and are on course for their first bottom-half finish since the 1995-96 campaign despite spending more than £600m on 18 players across the summer and winter transfer windows, as their strategy has often looked haphazard and flawed. This has culminated in the Blues using a whopping 32 players in total this season - the second most in the top flight behind Nottingham Forest's 33 - while they have also had four caretaker or permanent managers in the dugout. And, according to The Times, one of the key legacies from their first year at the helm - which will soon see a third permanent manager of their tenure arrive when Mauricio Pochettino is announced - has been the reduction of the Blues' wage bill. Upon arrival, Boehly and Clearlake were shocked at the sky-high salaries that were handed out under the previous regime, with Chelsea often gazumping several other clubs to signings by virtue of offering larger wages. This was no more evident than with the signing of Romelu Lukaku for £97.5m in the summer of 2021, with the Belgian striker becoming the highest-paid player in the club's history on £315,000-a-week. However, Lukaku's return to the club where he was previously at between 2011 to 2014 was a disaster and he has spent this season out on loan with Inter Milan - but the 30-year-old still has three years to run on his mega-money contract. The report goes onto state Boehly and Co. wanted to change this and lower the risk of signings potentially going wrong. As a result, several of this season's additions such as Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Muidryk and Noni Madueke have all penned much longer contracts on significantly lower wages. Those three new signings - who arrived for more than a £200m outlay - all signed Chelsea deals until at least 2030. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12123177/Todd-Boehly-Clearlake-cut-Chelseas-average-wage-75k-week.html

Padres with 7 $100+ million contracts and certainly a valuation less than SOX...? And then Ha-Seong Kim will be headed for yet another (#8) if he repeats his 2023. Heck, utility player extraodinaire Cronenworth is even over that amount. We'll never know how how long they could have sustained that under Peter Seidler...as the first white flag was obviously dumping Soto's $33-34 million salary for just ONE season to get back to under $200 million.

Or be able to hold onto "aces" like Glasnow who get up to $25 million per year in arbitration without anything approximating predictable availability. (Guardians have the same issue with Bieber, Brewers with Burnes/Woodruff, etc.) Meanwhile, the Dodgers can overcome the losses of Bauer, Urias, Buehler, Gonsolin, and Dustin May, to name a few. Or Kershaw missing increasing chunks of the season.

Assuming your combined salaries are 4X your assumed mortgage payments, roughly...you always have to consider cash flow.

As long as baseball generates 1 1/2 to 2 new subscribers for every Greg775...simply due to the signings of Ohtani, Yamamoto and Jung-ho Lee (S.Korea) alone, it will be a huge win for MLB and MLB International.

How many of the playoff appearances the last 10-15 years have been Teams 1-8 or 1-10 in payroll. Last season was a post child for "bad" spending like the Mets, Padres and Cardinals, for example. There's definitely a correlation between payroll and playoffs...but it has never stopped the Rays, Twins, Guardians, Brewers, Orioles (now), A's (more 2000-2015ish), etc. The Royals almost won more WS titles than Dodgers/Yankees/Mets/Angels, over the last twenty years or so. Marlins have won two. Giants won 3 WS titles and had the best record in baseball three seasons ago without ever having signed a huge FA deal (except for Bonds, who was internal and obviously an exceptional situation.) The Braves have done nearly as well as the Dodgers without running one of the Top 6-8 payrolls in baseball every single season. ETC. ETC. White Sox have allocated money for 0-1 scouts over the last twenty years in the Pacific Rim. They've allocated more than $15+ million to Leury Garcia, however.

https://theathletic.com/5126268/2023/12/11/chelsea-manchester-united-aston-villa/ Todd Boehly has been doing this with Chelsea (8 year deferrals over time) and his other Premier League for quite some time. More famous for his Ohtani contract now. EPL looking to close the loophole soon.

But look what happened to most of the favorites in the playoffs this year... Texas was a WC team. One could easily argue that teams that get that head start and don't have one full week off are actually at a competitive advantage in most cases...despite the pitching staff getting taxed in series that go the full length of games. And nobody expects the AL Central to do anything anyway...despite the Twins winning their first playoff series in decades. If anything, more of a wake-up call to the coastal teams and Astros, whose dynasty is slowing coming to an end. Padres and Mets learned they couldn't spent their way to super teams, etc. Angels didn't even make the playoffs with Trout and Ohtani, not once.

Who's going to underwrite the insurance on that one? Lloyd's of London or a specialty shoppe?

Clevinger and Santos and Shaw...Scholtens to a lesser extent. Those were the so-called pleasant surprises...along with Burger and Robert, of course.