Chicago White Sox

What’s the ROI on a 1st round pick in the draft vs. the average nine figure free agent? Do you actually think the expensive free agent provides the better return on dollar spend?

Your lack of business sense is astounding. Look at the god damn regional TV deals and tell me with a straight face the Rays & Marlins can spend as much as the Dodgers & Yankees. You are legit embarrassing yourself with these takes.

You clearly don’t understand the value of amateur talent. If the Yankees, Dodgers, etc. could just outbid the the low market teams for said players it would be game over from a competitive integrity standpoint. I can’t believe we’re actually having this debate.

No one is entitled to a specific type of job or company. You act as if these guys aren’t baseball players then they’re unemployed for life. If they want to be a MLB player, then they have to potentially play for the Rockies or Pirates for a period of time. If they just want to play baseball for a living, they can go to Japan. Stop trying to make every labor situation into a massive immoral dilemma. And aren’t you the most pro union guy in the world? You do understand how seniority works right? Doesn’t seem like pay for performance is what you actually care about.

For amateur talent? Hell yes.

Good counter-argument. Why don’t we also transfer all equity to the players since what’s best for them is all that matters.

You understand how free agency works right? Do the small market clubs usually get access to the best players?

It’s really fucking stupid.

So we should hurt the competitive balance of the game instead? How is that the answer?

I don’t understand how anyone is against drafts for major league sports.

How quickly will activity begin once a CBA is agreed to? Could we have transactions as soon as tonight or is that optimistic?

And that could have worked. Ultimately Hahn decided to swing for the fences in hopes of adding a player with Andrew Miller or Aroldis Chapman type potential. Obviously we didn’t get that out of Kimbrel and we paid a very steep price.

And I’m ok if people feel like acquiring a closer wasn’t the right move because of the price, I just don’t know how anyone could argue addressing the bullpen was a low priority. We needed to add a high leverage setup man at a minimum.

You are correct, had the date range wrong. Regardless, I’m not sure what’s so different about his 1st half numbers and his peak years? K/9, BB/9, & HR/9 all look very similar.

100% percentile xwOBA. I don’t think you understand the purpose of that statistic if this is your argument. And his ERA, FIP, & xFIP were all within 0.40 points of each other. No idea what the Rays & Dodgers’ front offices were thinking by pursuing a dude who was bound to crash & burn at any point.

Gotcha, so let’s ignore all context. First, Bummer & Heuer were struggling mightily at the time. Second, the only other relievers worth a damn besides Hendriks were Crochet & Kopech, who pitched a combined six innings the previous year and were likely wear down by the time October hit. You actually think that’s a playoff caliber bullpen?

Why?

I’m certain both sides have models for a proposed international draft ready to go and simply need to be refined based on proposed assumptions. Should they have a couple of days to work through in a perfect world? Probably, but it doesn’t take weeks.

What numbers are you talking about?

Dude, the Sox needed a high leverage reliever. If you want to argue Kimbrel was overkill, that’s a debate worth having. If you think we had a playoff caliber bullpen without a major addition beyond Tepera you must not have watched the games like everyone is saying. The bullpen was a real problem and citing reliever fWAR doesn’t change anything as that stat is heavily by the production of Liam Hendriks.

This is absolutely absurd. No one, not you, not Andrew Friedman, thought Kimbrel would go from the other best reliever in baseball to absolutely terrible post acquisition.

Kimbrel had a 100th percentile xwOBA at the time of the trade and was one of the most coveted players at the deadline with both the Dodgers & Rays in hot pursuit of him. Rip the price we paid or the decision to pick up the option, but the best baseball minds were trying acquire him and it wasn’t just because of his ERA but rather him being the best reliever in baseball at the time.

Good call there…could see it happening

I don’t understand this at all.

Agree fully. This idea we can’t play one or two regular extra innings is crazy to me.