almagest

Really good numbers in 2023, decent last year. Had a nice postseason. Wonder if Walker McKinven also vouched for him.

Now we just need someone with the last name "Harpar" and we'll have our "Bryce Harper" at home

Oops, missed the catch all post. Ignore!

Media team doing great work for the Sox.

I don't think they can be that bad again, either. This should be a normal bad team, even given they traded some of the only good players from last year. Then again, it IS a Chicago sports team.

Then they just need to hold onto him, because it doesn't sound like there's much of anything out there for Robert.

I’d be really surprised if they win more than 60 in 2025, and I’m one of the more hopeful posters here. This is not something they’ll recover from quickly.

Yeah, Imanaga's stuff played up because his fastball is really deceptive and he has good command. He was also good at making adjustments once teams started catching on. Maybe Sugano's offspeed plays up the same way, but I doubt it. If this is the best pitching acquisition the Orioles make they're in trouble.

With his age and the difference in MLB vs NPB? I don't see him being very successful - probably a 4 or 5 at best. The pitchers that translate well from NPB have elite stuff. This feels more like a successful AAA journeyman getting his shot finally.

That definitely doesn't help him, but his approach and health are bigger problems.

Then they need to hang onto him and hope he can recover enough value to get something at the deadline. If not... oh well. He'll take the Moncada route out of here.

And Stroud hasn't been any better than Caleb this year.

Elias sounds like the perfect GM for the Orioles!

This all makes sense to me. You'd just need to make sure you find enough at-bats for both Quero and Teel if they hit. Being the weak side of the platoon could be rough at C.

I'm also skeptical, as I'm sure everyone here is. I'm just not declaring failures on trades within the last year yet.

I don't think there's anything wrong with pushing back on an opinion, especially when it's presented as a fact.

Most of the chatter I recall was around the deal being a little light on the back end, not that it was a bad deal. This trade is better looking, true, but Cease likely got dinged because of his control issues and his down 2023, plus the Padres were seemingly the only team ready to actually trade for him. This time, we have Dombrowski and the Red Sox trying to compete with the Yankees.

You can be skeptical, and I think we all are, but that's a lot different than declaring the trade a failure already. Also, if you're assuming failure on prospect development in general, then the Crochet trade is a failure already.

Sure. The last 3 years don't justify calling the Cease trade bad, though. Early returns aren't great, but there's a long way to go. If Thorpe is a solid contributor next year and Zavala rebounds we're looking a lot better. Iriarte has already been solid in AA at age 22 and has a chance to be a contributor as well.

I would like to keep trading Dylan Cease every year, yes absolutely.

If you don't want to trade impact prospects then you trade for the expensive guys, I guess. Bohm, Casas or Abreu seem like a lot for Castillo unless the Ms pick up his salary. Luzardo you'd be buying low, but he wasn't very good last year. Cease we all know (if the Padres somehow get "more" than the Sox did for him this board is gonna explode). Valdez is a premium starter without a lot of control left. I could see one of Bohm, Casas or Abreu going in a trade for him. Sonny Gray is in his mid 30s and is likely in decline. I don't think he'll fetch much.

His White Sox career was outstanding. He was basically Frank Thomas in 2006.

I think it'd be Ian Cunningham.

That is much more of a fair trade than my initial knee jerk reaction thought it was.

Yeah of course it was. He went from the worst team ever to winning a World Series.