almagest

This team is an experiment to me. I'm interested to see how the "all defense no offense" approach goes. I'm interested to see how Benintendi does now that his wrist injury is behind him. He showed a little power at the end of the year, and if that is real then maybe he's something like the guy we hoped we'd get. I'm interested to see how Moncada and Eloy do in a make or break year for both of them. I'm interested to see if Vaughn can ever be more than a second division starter. I'm interested to see if guys like Fedde and Soroka can be decent 3rd or 4th starters. This is likely a 70-ish win team. I can squint and see more if a bunch of the above questions go their way.

Good cover

That’s Bannister

The Orioles are about to learn some hard lessons

Why? He's completely done.

So it seems like no other team really wants to trade any prospect with high value. Hopefully that changes at the deadline, but who knows.

No it isn't. Pitchers need to build back up to game velocity. He's where he needs to be right now.

Yeah, and they traded him for broken down Syndergaard last year. Cleveland clearly didn't want him, and the Dodgers don't make that trade if they don't have injury issues. They were pretty desperate, but still didn't want to deal with TA. Uribe is a pretty good comp for Rosario offensively. Uribe's a better defensive player though.

TA is bad but Rosario isn’t good either. He had one really good year defensively in 2022 and has been below average otherwise. i don’t know why character concerns holding TA back is so controversial with some of you that you need to prop up ancient guys like Andrus or second division starters at best like Rosario. TA sucked last year but he’d still be a White Sox if he didn’t have personal struggles, or someone would’ve taken a flyer on him by now as a second baseman. What TA went through last year absolutely factors in if a team thinks he’ll rebound and provide good production, and it matters to their clubhouse culture. He’s not worth the gamble right now.

And the rest of the guys you mentioned besides Chapman, who was awful in the second half of this year, are all too old and bad to consider. Hernandez was worse in 2022 than TA and only played in about half the games, while Rosario was nowhere near a 4 war season by fWAR. TA has also been a much better hitter than him by wRC+.

Yes it does. He was good but has way too much baggage. Same as Bauer. TA has too much baggage for his performance level last year as well, even given the potential upside a healthy TA brings at age 30. That has been my whole point.

Most of these guys are closer to retirement than a contract, have multiple bad recent years, and/or haven’t had the track record Tim did before this season. None of them got into a fistfight on the field and got knocked out either, nor did they have any drama around them. If TA just had a bad season the Sox would’ve picked his option up.

They’re absolutely comparable. TA would 100% have a deal already if he wasn’t a potential behavior liability. Someone would bet on a return to form, or the Sox would’ve picked his option up.

How is it not accurate? What Bauer and Clevinger were accused of is worse, but they have been successful in the past and recently. Tim had a putrid year and got knocked out on the field after starting s%*# with someone who is a pretty nice guy by all accounts. Not even talking about the infidelity. They're all too much trouble for what they bring.

Combine his negative WAR along with his personal issues that showed up on field and it's not surprising to me at all, considering guys with personal issues who are or could be good (Bauer & Clevinger) are also still without jobs.

Hope you enjoy the seven angels on their seven trumpets then 'cuz this world is OVA

Cowser/Kjerstad, Ortiz, Hall and a comp round pick would have been a fine trade. For sure it wasn't offered.

Sports media sucks and everyone in it sucks.

There definitely is. I have a buddy in that group. Has his head in the sand about the realistic outcomes here.

And doofuses like Herb Lawrence ran with it, of course. https://x.com/Ecnerwal23/status/1753205274121253295?s=20https://x.com/Ecnerwal23/status/1753205274121253295

Caleb Williams is liking Chicago real estate posts on Instagram. Sure sounds like someone who isn't dreaming of playing here. Cowherd is a blowhard.

I mean I GUESS we can take him...

I keep thinking of Calvin Johnson, who is probably the best WR ever - he went to 2 playoff games and also suffered through an 0-16 season. Stafford had almost 5K yards in 2012 when Megatron set the WR yardage record and that team went 4-12.

Yeah, once Snell and Montgomery sign you'll see teams put their best offers forward. We've got like 3 weeks until pitchers and catchers report, so I'd assume they'll both be signing before then. There's no point in taking whatever is being offered now (if it's not what you want) before seeing what the teams that miss out on free agents will do.