caulfield12

Along with Konerko and Contreras, among others. Peavy deal worked out okay in the end as we were able to dump him. No to Buehrle, of course.

Machado Tanaka ARod Torii Hunter Harper Wheeler

Balta??? His crusade for the next generation.

Only after moving on from Narvaez because they misjudged his defense and parting ways with an ex-Tiger now in NY.

Thankfully we accidentally turned out to be correct with Giolito. Just like we almost signed Alex Gordon, except he really didn’t want to be here, either.

At least Scott Merkin, the mlb.com Sox rep, admitted he was wrong. Too little too late but some sort of reckoning nevertheless. (Pause for those who know me to stop laughing. Or those who don’t know me. Or those who will know me.) But in my Newsletter from Sept. 6, I wrote the following: “By the time the White Sox return home from this seven-game West Coast trip on Sept. 12, they should at least have a share of the division lead, if not sitting atop alone.” Well, they came back from a solid 5-2 run in Seattle and Oakland at 2 1/2 games back in the American League Central, and despite my season-long mantra of the White Sox being a playoff team, they were eliminated from division title contention on Sunday. If you believe in true baseball miracles, the White Sox enter their final 2022 road trip with an elimination number of three in the AL Wild Card and trail Seattle by 7 1/2 games with nine to play. The White Sox were only in first place from April 10-20 during this entire disappointing campaign and my days of predictions might be on hiatus. Side note: Cleveland is going to win its AL Wild Card series, regardless of opponent. Ok, that was just one more prediction to get out of my system. So, what went wrong with the White Sox? I’ll save that analysis for the end of the season, but this story is focused more on why I was wrong. And the answer to that question involves two words: Cleveland Guardians. When I made the aforementioned prediction, Cleveland was coming off a stretch where they had lost 8 of 10 games and scored one run in a four-game stretch against Baltimore and Seattle. Not one run per game -- one run in total. Cleveland had been a great story all season, predicted by many to finish near the bottom of the AL Central and by few if any to win the division. But I’m not sure if the Cleveland front office really believed this outstanding overall performance would take them to the postseason. Then, with the season on the line and with the White Sox and Twins closing in, the Guardians showed they were more than a good story. They were a really good team. Try 18-3 in the last 21 games. Their victory Tuesday in 11 innings against the White Sox really took the heart from an underachieving crew knowing it basically needed a sweep of Cleveland to win the division. I knew if any one of these three teams went on a roll of this nature, it would take control of the AL Central. I just didn’t think it would be the Guardians. In my mind, the White Sox still have the most talent in the division, even with their plethora of injuries, but the Guardians clearly are the best team. They played hard every play of every inning. They took the extra base. They had a solid front three at the top of the rotation in Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill and had one of the game’s best closers in Emmanuel Clase. Again, I was wrong. I overestimated the White Sox ability to reach an extra gear when needed, especially when they had been between five under .500 and five over .500 all season. My true error, though, was overlooking Terry Francona’s crew.

It's not a tie because of Ohtani Trout Rendon. We have Cease, TA and a ton of question marks up and down the roster. The biggest is arguably Luis Robert. At least the most important. Hendriks and Iglesias cancel out.

Born in Clinton, Savanna until 1976, Bettendorf/Davenport ever since.

Battle for Second Place Bowl. Hope the Twins can manage to get there and keep their entire staff and front office in place. But likely no such luck is forthcoming. Wouldn’t be totally shocked if Andrus replaces Correa, either.

They traded Sandy Leon to their rival the Twins. They traded LHP Alex Young to the Giants. They even looked at dealing Plesac and Civale. No additions of any kind. This was supposed to be their season just to get to .500 and above, like 2013 for the Royals. Already arrived.

Funny someone from Bettendorf and two more (Steve Swanson played at Burlington HS in the post Charles Cannon Era) Midwest kids ended up at GSU. For me, it was so late after GRE, got a full ride and Ohio Univ, UMass and our program were the three best for sports admin at the time, early 90s. Btw, this is undoubtedly the worst football season for Bett since the 1970's. Things are changing, and not for the best. Pleasant Valley dominates now.

Hahn is so bad he has roughly 1/2 the fan base advocating for a third rebuild as this competitive window was so uniquely disappointing. Not even the Indians/Guardians pulled the plug so quickly.

Why would anyone believe the White Sox could successfully or even possibly/realistically fix Bellinger? We can't even excel with hitters successful elsewhere, let alone 2-3 years removed from that status.

Buy low on Dominic Smith. KW won some of those trades, at least his share, don't keep doubling down on had trades and making them absolutely worse. The only place where we have done well was two catchers before Grandal, Rodon, Cueto and Andrus.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-players-with-tough-2022-seasons Feels like Dominic Smith the targeted LH "buy low" bat this offseason over Nimmo, Conforto, Gallo, Pederson, Rosario, Bellinger, etc. Giolito and Madrigal mentions. Chapman/Crochet/Lopez replaces Hendriks/Graveman. That won't be particularily popular.

https://theathletic.com/1845734/2020/06/02/meet-mike-mcneive-the-one-constant-tasked-with-gathering-intel-for-hawks/ Included on the list, lol. I will nominate one of my two best friends from grad school for Hahn’s position because while he “only” went to Monmouth University in Illinois and Georgia Southern, he’s 10x the hard worker and perfectionist, while Hahn cares more about how is perceived in the media and avoiding blame. From Freeport, played around the same time as the same time as Jamal Meeks. Unfortunately a Cubs’ fan. My signature quite came from him. Unlike Hahn, he played baseball, basketball and football and actually understands athletes and not just contract law.

It’s pretty nice to be a clown who was allowed into HLS Class of 1996, Michigan and NU/Kellogg. Personally, I’d rather have Quin Snyder, though.

For a decade, lol?

“AJ Pollock's second plate appearance today will give him 500 for the season, which means his option for 2023 will be $13M, which will make it harder to take a $5M buyout, which prolongs the consequences of exercising Craig Kimbrel's option.” There we go with that $1 million again that could have gotten us out entirely from Kimbrel. But not no escape is possible. Now we have a fourth outfielder nearing age 35 paid like a starter (when at best a platoon player going forward) hopelessly out of position if do choose to leave Eloy in LF, along with “You’ll Love Him Eventually” Joe Kelly, Leury, Moncada, Diekman, Grandal…this is the definition of insanity, and doesn’t even encompass Bummer, Graveman or Hendriks. So now they’re basically forcing Pollock back on the 2023 roster. Congrats. Stellar work! Which means they’re likely going to have to trade the younger and (potentially) more valuable pieces like Vaughn or Jimenez, Crochet, Giolito, TA, Lynn, to clean up the currently poorly-constructed roster and significantly reduce payroll. They’re acting like the A’s or Reds and attempting to deliberately alienate their fanbase, aren’t they? If this was a publicly traded company, there would be a massive investor-driven lawsuit…what next, Abreu for $20 million with another pointless option year tacked on for every possible perspective but Jerry Reinsdorf’s? If that’s not bad enough, we can’t even manage to reward the players who actually showed up to play down the stretch like Cueto and Andrus. Instead, we massively overplay guys who don’t even want to be members of the White Sox pr even professional baseball players any longer. Only in the AL and NL Central would this be possible. I mean, I might actually take Pittsburgh’s Cruz Missile, Suwinski, Hayes and Reynolds over this nonsense.

Right, plus, with the changes in shifting and throwing over to 1B a limited number of occasions, then Guardians’ emphasis on speed/defense and athleticism will provide them another huge advantage. Unless unless unless they go back to the 2020-21 baseball again. it hasn’t exactly stopped Judge, but he’s a unicorn.

Or at least attempted to trade for him at the DDL.

Yet somehow the other moderators have given up attempting to change posters here, as life is too short for them to waste invaluable time and effort.

But not really a difference maker anymore and he has to play left so then you have to trade Jimenez or Vaughn unless you cast Abreu aside to open DH and 1B. That would also force Pollock to Raf where he simply isn't well suited. And Sheets as a depth/trade piece, which is fine.

Then you’re advocating a rebuild, unless you can get AA and AAA prospects back. And most teams will be leery about trading those guys much closer to the majors.