almagest

“To make such a deal happen, the White Sox almost certainly would need to include cash to make Robert more affordable. They are open to doing that as a way of enhancing the return, according to a club official.” It also talks about how the Mets don’t want to trade any of their good prospects and would likely only offer a marginal return for Robert.

The numbers don't lie!

Worlds tiniest violin begins playing

As long as he doesn't end up at the center of a gambling scandal like the last 100 mph cutter guy I can think of.

Not in favor of policing anyone's thoughts, but some of you could sure use a helping hand based on some of the posts here.

Yeah, fair, and neither of them spent much time in the minors here. I'll call that "talent evaluation" then.

I am absolutely going to be watching UCLA baseball games this year

We've got some of that on the offensive side. Montgomery and Teel look like potential fixtures. Quero and Meidroth came up and showed some promise. Sosa looked pretty solid for a guy who swings at everything. Baldwin could be a nice bench piece. They've got some potential reinforcements coming from the minors and the draft, too - they might still lack that big time, Bobby Witt Jr. type, but maybe that's Cholowsky. The pitching landscape is rougher, but there's still a lot of guys to work through. One or two of the current starters (Smith? Burke?) could end up being long term answers, there's still hope with Smith and Schultz, Oppor looks like a potential dude, there's some other positive pieces throughout their top 30 as well. I feel better about their system now than I did in 2019, for sure. They had more top flight talent then, but absolutely nothing behind it. If they can add/develop some of that top flight talent then I'll really be encouraged.

Yeah, and an fWAR of zero wouldn't have led the 2025 White Sox either. Once Santana figured it out he led the 2002 Twins with an fWAR of 3.4 (which is not some insurmountable ace-like number), so by your own standards that 2002 team was terrible, because a rule 5 guy was their best pitcher. Probably even worse than the Sox, because it was three years after he was picked. If Shane Smith is leading the Sox staff with a 3.something fWAR in two years you guys are gonna have an absolute FIT.

People are encouraged we got some pretty solid, potentially projectable value out of a rule 5 pick, and a waiver claim from a rule 5 pick that didn't work out. Hopefully that bodes well for their talent selection and development in the future, even if rule 5 claims are a total crap shoot and they never hit on another one. I also don't see how this indicates a major talent gap in the Sox system. They were a top 7? system that's now middle of the pack because they just promoted a bunch of talent to the majors. I'll give you a major lack of talent in the majors pre-promotions, because we all know the Sox are an objectively terrible team. The hope is that we're moving in the right direction.

Maybe we should give them more than one season to do so? Shane Smith may end up being lightning in a bottle, or he may end up being a consistently solid starting pitcher. Some of the hurt pitchers might come back and be good. Some of the guys on the staff now might end up being good. There's a long way to go with a lot of young players. Johan Santana was a rule 5 pick by the Twins. I doubt they were too torn up by him being their best pitcher by fWAR in 2002.

It's good that he wasn't actually the best player on the roster by b or fWAR, then.

How stupid are the Guardians, to guarantee a roster spot to a guy that a 121 loss team wouldn't even protect? Worst run organization in MLB.

Might be overextended and need to pare back, yeah. No idea what they have in their system on the 1B/reliever front to provide similar value to those two though.

Mets lost Alonso and Diaz. Rough offseason so far.

I'm fine with Quero's bat at catcher. I'm definitely not fine with it at first base, unless he develops much more power and shows some defensive acumen over there. I also don't think it's particularly valuable to show that a catcher can also play first base. You can DH him, but again his bat doesn't carry that role and I don't know if it ever will. He's likely your second catcher and plays ~80 or so games there while Teel is the catcher for the other 80 (and is the DH when Quero catches). Teel might be able to play first and hit enough to have some value there, but it's much better to put him at DH and keep him from even the remote possibility of getting injured in the field. If you can get a solid outfield prospect for Quero (back half of the top 100 is likely, as others mentioned) then I'd seriously consider it. Otherwise keep him and see what happens this year. Maybe he takes a leap and you keep him, or you can trade him for something better. Or, if he sucks, you make the choice between him and Lee as the backup.

Not sure I'd count the 80s. Signing Fisk was great, but they only had 3 above .500 seasons and were flat out bad from 86-90. Also I don't think Reinsdorf had anything to do with '83, as Hemond had been the GM since the early 70s. Reinsdorf ended up chasing him out, too. 1990-2008 were very good, with four division titles, a WS win, and a bunch of competent teams that had a shot.

I'm sure every team is showing interest in every young guy with some talent and projectability on the Sox roster. I really doubt any of them will be traded.

So... how's about those new coaches!!

Darwin was an alright 5th starter in '97. Alvarez was a solid #2. Hernandez was a damn good closer. Do the Sox overtake Cleveland that year if they don't make the trade? Maybe. Certainly doesn't seem impossible like Reinsdorf said, as Cleveland only won 86 games. A better question is - what if the Sox traded for Mark McGwire instead of the Cardinals? The prospects were pretty mediocre in that return (the best of them was an okay middle reliever), so I'm sure the Sox could've beaten that. Imagine 97 and 98 with Thomas and McGwire alternating at 1B/DH, with Albert Belle also in the middle of the lineup? This team ABSOLUTELY could've won more than 86 in 1997. Cleveland only won 89 in 1998 too, while the Sox won 80, so maybe they could've challenged for the division in 1998 too. We also wouldn't have been able to trade Keith Foulke for Billy Koch, so even if they didn't win the Central from 97-99 we'd still have that. I'd also bet the Sox still win the Central in 2000 even without Foulke and Howry.

I don't know enough about either of them to form much of an opinion, but KC had some very nice pitching performances last year from unexpected contributors, so I'm intrigued.

Bears out-gained the Bengals by 80 yards, were +3 on turnovers (really +2 not counting the Hail Mary pick) and won time of possession by 9 minutes and STILL almost lost. That is really hard to do, so... kudos to the defense and special teams!

I like being wrong

Almost no pressure on him either.

He pretty much won 3 of the 4 games for the Dodgers, so yes I think so