caulfield12

5th/6th if you count Rodriguez or Ramos. Not sure about that MILB free agent guy with a French-sounding name.

Just inefficiently. Have fallen from 7th to 12th in payroll now.

Machado to the Cubs. Sox sign all of Ohtani's Japanese friends and former teammates in a bid to get Shohei for only $425 million.

(Padres chastised by Rockies' ownership and Rob Manfred for "unsustainable" spending.) If only JR heard the same criticism during his lifetime...maybe Albert Belle signing, but that was done intentionally by JR to mock the free agency system and escalating salaries prevalent in the mid to late 90's. He didn't get stuck holding the bag with that deal for very long, either. God knows if 2005 even happens if not for the Orioles interceding fortuitously.

https://sports.yahoo.com/nbas-player-movement-era-creates-buzz-for-league-freedom-for-players-but-is-there-a-downside-050528086.html Was just reading this article about the NBA and how stars moving so frequently and dictating trade terms is good for the league. Would have to argue the exact opposite for MLB...as it's increasingly a regional sport and stars in their first 6-7 years of player control are the lifeblood of small market teams, like Jose Ramirez in CLE or Wander Franco in TB.

"The Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets are widely expected to be his (Ohtani's) most aggressive suitors, but several others -- namely the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners, to name a few -- could have the payroll flexibility to get into the sweepstakes. And the Angels, who opted against trading him last summer and in the ensuing winter, would certainly be interested in bringing him back." https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35702907/agent-says-shohei-ohtani-right-explore-free-agency Calculating if we'd really want the Cubs to sign him for $450-525 million depending on how this season plays out...

Sad thing is Andrus is likely to have quite a few more stolen bases than Yoan when Moncada was once universally touted as a 25/25 or even 30/30 guy like Chisholm flashed last year.

Frazier for more money? Same thing as Andrus, take of two completely different seasons in 2021 and 2022. Hard to trust a compromise number in the middle is the likeliest scenario. Does provide LF/2B option at least in terms of positional versatility.

Villar and Odor. Odor probably holding out for more money and/or a better team in terms of playoff odds. Odor years away from that previous star in the making status with TEX.

Kind of like Pollock playing RF? Well, I'd bet on Andrus at least being average at 2B over KNOWING Pollock would be an epic disaster in RF and would be run on nearly every opportunity by CLE.

Unless they already “ruined” Sosa last year… Cue “he wasn’t likely good enough to be a big league regular anyway if he couldn’t handle failure,” same things we read about Marcus Semien, and also lacking one dominant defensive position as well.

Until Colas for RF?

Except Leury is being paid handsomely to back up all three infield spots as well...now we have overlapping spots with him as well as Andrus. So not really any room for Romy/Sosa as they likely go to Marisnick for OF.

Poor Burger is disappearing...

Yadier Alonso and Jon Jay say they are willing to add veteran stability and leadership again as well...at a price.

Moncada definitely the most controversial Sox player in terms of his body style versus maintaining ideal conditioning for baseball, particularly core and lower body. Just having balked up arms doesn't equate to massive home run numbers. Way too top heavy, always manages to have leg and core issues...not surprisingly. It's like he is more concerned about looking good in a reggaeton video than being the best baseball player on the planet. Guess this has already been covered ad nauseam.

"Seemed like he hustled and tried and hit OK." Send to Brooks Boyer and the White Sox marketing team for their 2023 tagline.

Confused him with Dave Wilder/Luis Silverio Scandal speedy outfielder Anderson Gomes for a second.

Available in fantasy drafts in the same neighborhood as Oscar Colas...well, I guess Rodriguez turning into a superstar kind of made up for it with those M's. (The state of Wisconsin baseball, maybe not so much.)

Bread and water for everyone! They don't call it The (Prison) Cell for no reason.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/cardinals-righthander-ryan-loutos-discusses-unique-path-to-pro-baseball/ White Sox need to do more "thinking outside the box" things like this... A computer science major, the Cardinals coveted Loutos as much for his potential fit as a front office candidate as they did for his skill as a baseball player. The organization quickly put him to work, collaborating with the analytics department to build player reports and interfaces. Headed to the Arizona Fall League after the completion of Memphis’ season, Loutos sat down and spoke with Baseball America about his journey from a Division III nondrafted free agent to a Triple-A reliever moonlighting in his free time as a front office staffer. This conversation was lightly edited for clarity:

Stockholm Syndrome. The money will be spent. Personally, would have preferred Villar or Odor, simply based on the chances of Sox "lightning in a bottle" over performers repeating that fluke success twice are slim and none. Kind of having the same feeling about Hamilton repeating his same impact from 2 seasons ago, if he were to make the team over Marisnick. The craziest thing is that Leury's grand slam in the playoffs ended up securing an $18 million (lifetime security) contract from Hahn...that's going to be financially hamstringing the front office for 2023/24.

Hamilton/Andrus/Marisnick >>> Leury Garcia Burger definitely is looking more and more likely to be headed for the minors (again). We'll have to wait and see how it goes with Sheets/Colas.

That will 2000 hit milestone will result in an 86 person attendance bump...maybe! Let's start counting Andrus jerseys in the park starting in ST and see if we can get up to that number by the end of his time with the Sox...

Well, that and you HAVE to showcase Anderson at his natural position if you're actually planning to trade him in the next 17 months.