almagest

https://x.com/kalynkahler/status/1856782094879314360

Found this on Reddit and verified myself. Nice to (hopefully) put another narrative to bed.

Players throw (and are expected to throw) way harder now too. You can't throw 95-100 for 250+ innings a year unless you want pitchers to throw every other year only because they need TJS after every season.

I'd be fine with that, if they think his value at the deadline or next season will be higher than it is now. I'd say at the deadline it could be, assuming he stays healthy and continues his dominance. I doubt it would be with a year left. I also think there's a difference between "they don't want to trade those players" and "they will not trade those players for a player like Crochet". I think it's more of the latter.

We've heard no one is trading top end offensive prospects so I'm guessing it'll be a higher end pitching prospect and some lower level hitting prospects. If that's the best they can do, then fine I guess, but they absolutely need to develop those hitters and there's no acceptable excuses if they can't.

I am increasingly less impressed with Ryan Poles. Claypool and Davis were terrible moves, but at MINIMUM should've indicated to Poles that he did not have the culture guy in place that he thought he did. Both players had concerns, both regressed big time on the Bears. Waldron I pin more on Flus, but Poles is responsible for Flus.

I can see why you'd want to keep Crochet - we finally have someone who could be a top tier ace again, which hasn't happened since Giolito for like one season. Our trade record under Hahn was ABYSMAL, honestly setting the franchise back by 5+ years when you look at what he traded (Semien, Bassitt, Tatis in particular, using these assets in trades for JAGs like Samardzijia, Shields and Kimbrel, plus getting little sustained value from the Sale, Eaton and Quintana trades). We have been terrible at prospect development. We just "finished" a rebuild where basically everyone we acquired busted. A part of me wants to hang on to Crochet and enjoy him being one of the best left handed starters in the league, and not deal with the potential disappointment of a failed rebuild again. We can't afford to be gun shy, though. This team just needs way too much talent to have any chance in the future, and they're not going to sign premier free agents. They have to amass as much talent as they can, and figure out how to develop that talent internally with a high success rate.

Personally, I preferred baseball post civil war:

Bears released Nate Davis

I am never talking myself into believing a Bears OC hire is a good hire ever again, especially when so much comes out about how that guy stinks.

No. Fields would often just tuck and run if his first read wasn't there. We also saw Fields for three years. We know what he is, and what he can/can't do. Williams is through nine games. He deserves a little time. As for the rest - what I posted addresses a good chunk of the long holds. There's almost nothing there, whether its because the play timing is off (could also be Caleb), receivers aren't putting in enough effort to block or run their routes, receivers aren't winning in time, or the personnel usage is bad and you have guys running routes they can't win. It is 100% true. Look at what Eberflus said after the Colts game. Right away, his focus was on the interceptions. We also saw Fields be very, very cautious with Eberflus. It's even in his stupid HITS system acronym - T is about 'The ball'. Caleb needs to be allowed to make mistakes.

This post (and thread) adds a lot of clarity on how/why Caleb is holding onto the ball - often, he's progressing in his reads and hanging in the pocket, but nothing is open. Lots of coverage sacks.

That's why I said it's not going to happen. I'm just stretching to see how it would be possible in theory land.

It'd be WONDERFUL if they can somehow sell Sasaki on the vision that apparently resonated with Venable, and that he'd be playing on the hardest difficulty by coming here and turning around this tire fire. That is not going to happen, though.

Did he say the fans needed to execute on that better, too?

This is one of the worst pro football games I've ever watched. They can't do anything against a team that's as bad as Carolina and Jacksonville. They absolutely need to fire Waldron and/or Eberflus after this. Hell, put Bagent in and see if he can do anything, because it literally can't get any worse.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but the White Sox could’ve gotten LUKE F’IN KEASCHALL instead of Vargas.

It doesn’t. Like I said, there’s plenty to be bothered by without making up ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Why does it bother you so much that I call out ridiculous conspiracy theories and laugh at them? On second thought, I know the answer.

There’s enough to be ticked off with this team already. We don’t need to invent things.

.850 OPS over the last month of the season. I'd keep him as well and bet on a solid first half to make him tradable for at least a lotto ticket, assuming the Sox don't pay his salary. It's not like they have some stud LF blocked in the minors.

If the Sox trade Robert + for Lux, or even straight up, then I will be 100% wrong on giving Getz a chance. Even in an atrocious year Robert's value wasn't that far from Lux.

I assume this is pretty across the board in baseball. No one is trading these players anymore. Crochet might end up a volume package.

https://tenor.com/view/mystery-box-family-guy-a-boats-boat-mystery-could-be-anything-gif-15543179

Like I said before, we unfortunately weren't trading with Rick Hahn.