Chicago White Sox

Yeah, I don’t think last year went off the rails because we brought in too much veteran leadership. But if your theoretical plan for 2025 is to have a roster with basically no veterans, then I find that to be quite the take.

I’m not following. Are you suggesting the veterans we brought in last offseason like DeJong, Lopez, & Maldonado were bad clubhouse guys?

Tauchman is a perfectly fine role player at what should be $2M to $3M. I don’t think adding him is about getting a potential trade deadline asset, but more so a veteran stopgap and clubhouse presence. I will wait to see what other moves happen being drawing conclusions here. I don’t love the idea of an all veteran OF next year, but I kind of think Robert or Benintendi is getting moved.

But again, why rush our top prospects if they aren’t ready and burn valuable service time? Does having Montgomery & Quero up a few months really change anything in terms of long-term attendance?

This team will not be entertaining next year. Not trying to be a dick, but I’d recommend finding something else to keep yourself busy if you’re looking for an enjoyable product. Hopefully we won’t be historically bad though.

Making the team watchable should be the least of our concerns when it comes to a Crochet trade. Getting the best, highest ceiling talent should be the main priority, although I would prefer some near-term proximity all else being equal.

Take this with a grain of salt for obvious reasons:

Wow, very weird the Blue Jays didn’t tender him a contract

Unfortunately, that approach doesn’t work great in free agency as you will be restricted B & C tier free agents with much lower margin of error when it comes to natural regression.

Braves are a bad fit and I don’t see where a three way trade solves that gap.

Yes, them and the Padres. I just don’t see any of them being realistic trade partners based on their prospect pool and/or desperate for Crochet. I think the Yankees buy a SP, likely Fried, before the Winter Meetings are up. The others may want Crochet, especially the Padres & Braves, but don’t have or are unwilling to trade what it would take.

Alright, so here are my Crochet trade partner power rankings at the moment: Red Sox - Desperate for impact talent in general, desperate for a TOR starter, and have the positional talent needed to get a deal done Cubs - President of Baseball Ops in last year of contract, in need of impact talent in general, and have the positional prospects to get a deal done Phillies - Aggressive GM willing to make a big trade, likely more focused on difference makers that help in October than complimentary pieces, and have the positional talent to get a deal done Mets - Team appears to be all-in next year with a crazy owner willing to do whatever it takes to win, but lack a true headliner and would have to offer more of a quantity package to get a deal done Orioles - Desperate need for a TOR starter, but have a GM reluctant to trade high-end prospects and may not have the secondary pieces to get a deal done to our likening Reds - Looking for impact talent but lack a strong centerpiece and would have to offer a quantity package that likely could be beat by the teams above if interested

We back!

Mods - Go ahead and delete, see the original is back up and running. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Alright, since the last thread got closed due to Elon Musk discussions, I felt compelled to create a new, better version for random rumors & nuggets that don’t warrant their own threads.

They have him as a 65 FV guy, so he’s got to be up there. Just can’t imagine they would give up that type of talent.

So Soto going to the Mets is good news for the Crochet market. The Yankees will now be desperate to replace Soto’s lost production and will almost certainly get aggressive with Burnes & Fried. I personally think the latter ends up with the Yankees, while the former ends up with the Giants. This would put the Red Sox is a pretty tough spot from both an impact player and SP perspective. Flaherty would be the last potential quality SP available, but even then his track record has been spotty and he’s not a true ace. The Red Sox finished five games out of the wild card last season. While the AL Central should regress some next year, there are other teams who missed out on the post-season who will likely be better as well. I think it’s clear they will need a much bigger SP addition than Flaherty to move the needle enough and Crochet can provide that type of impact. Also, Soto to the Mets puts more pressure on the elite NL teams that aren’t named the Dodgers. The Phillies & Braves now have a rival with an improved chance of winning the division and who will serve as another potential obstacle alongside the Dodgers come October. There is going to be an arms race for impact and Crochet is one of the few aces available. While the Dodgers don’t really match, the Phillies have the pieces to get a deal done if they are motivated enough. Hopefully this Soto news creates that sense of urgency and we can get a couple of desperate teams to bid against each other.

I won’t root against a player like this, but I do hope one day one of these insane contracts completely falters and isn’t covered by insurance. Without a cap I’m not sure it would be that crippling to teams like the Mets & Dodgers, but it would certainly sting and hopefully reign them in a little.

Forbes estimates their Operating Income to be $2.1M last year. Again, no idea how accurate those figures are, but I do think you are probably oversimplifying things quite a bit. For example, how much has revenue sharing changed over the past 20 years? Also, I’m guessing on a relative basis all the new national TV is bigger for a small market club than it is for the Yankees.

It’s absolutely wild, but none of this is good for the game. And I’m not giving the cheap owners a free pass, but the lack of a real cap (and floor) is a legit problem if you care about parity at all. Unfortunately, the MLB is all about making sure the large market teams are deep into the playoffs every year.

60 wins here we come!

I fucking despite the Dodgers and anyone who thinks this is somehow good for the sport (and yes I get Conforto himself isn’t that good).