Chicago White Sox

Exactly, it’s far more reasonable for a contender, but I feel like you better be able to maximize those first three years for this to make sense.

Passing on one particular deal proves that? I would have prioritized RF & SP over paying someone $175M to pay 2B for us too. Let’s wait a bit long before you start patting yourself on the back for being cheap.

Absolute insanity…I’m 100% ok with overpaying a free agent, but for a team like the Rangers who are a couple years out this seems like a huge mistake.

Avi blew his MLBTR projection of 3/$36M out of the water.

Flight taking off shortly, hoping for a big Sox move by the time I land.

Wow…that’s a total steal if he’s ever healthy

Seems like by tomorrow night things need to be done in order to get all the administrative shit done prior to Dec 2nd. Should be an insane 30 hours or so.

Definitely seems like most of the agent plants come from him, Heyman, & Nightengale.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how this pitching market shakes out. Obviously it sounds like Scherzer & Gausman will make decisions within the next 48 hours. After that, it seems like the losers will then need to pivot to Ray & Stroman or go the trade route. Just not much left after those guys if you want a sure-fire TOR type outside of possibly Rodon, but he clearly comes with his own issues. And it seems like there is a handful of teams are in the mix for these same couple pitchers. Mets, Angels, Dodgers, Giants, & Mariners are the recurring names you keep hearing and then you have possibly us (if you believe Nightengale). Interesting to see the Castillo name already start popping.

Nevermind then…lol.

You know what‘s weird, none of the national writers are talking about Chris Taylor. Like I haven’t seen any rumors on him lately. Seems like with some positional movement finally happening we’d start hearing about him some.

Kimbrel wasn’t the Cubs’ closer in 2020

So doing some online sleuthing, it appears that Scherzer lives in Virginia, so not sure why the West Coast teams would have a geographical advantage. Also, it just so happens that Max and his wife are members of the Humane Rescue Alliance and own multiple rescue dogs. Seems like there is another important guy in the org who is big on dogs ?

COVID shortened games?

Lol…definitely some heavy blogging incoming!

Oh fuck

@Y2Jimmy0 - Congrats on the win James! My nephew will be going to Lockport next year and was at the game last night. Sounded like an awesome time!

The option has already been picked up though. Regardless, I’d rather just take a couple C prospects and not eat money that subsidize part of Kimbrel’s salary for a slightly better return.

What 1.5 seasons are you referring to exactly? My argument has always been dude was elite for the ~52 innings preceding the trade. That is a factual statement and me stripping out the first two appearances from 2020 (which was to point out he wasn’t actually bad that year despite many of you thinking otherwise) doesn’t change that narrative. Guess what, put those back and his FIP with the Cubs over the 2020 & 2021 seasons combined was 1.93. So yes, the dude was still elite! Yes, he was bad in 20 fucking innings during the 2019 season. I understand that those 20 precious innings mean everything to you despite them occurring after Kimbrel did not have a spring training and represent less than 1/3 of a normal season for Craig. As such, there is nothing left to argue here. I fully disagree with your point of view and there is clearly nothing I can do to convince you otherwise. I have no desire to carry on this argument because it’s annoying for the rest of the board, but I’m not also not going to sit by and let people throw shade at me for a very valid argument.

There may not be any quality starters left after the Dec 1st deadline

???…you crack me up buddy. Me presenting data / facts in a logical way isn’t “slicing & dicing”, it’s just calling your ass out for routinely calling Hahn “stoopid” due to the benefit of hindsight.

Yeah, it kind of seems like Ray back to the Jays, Gausman to Queens, and Scherzer to the Southside ?.

Craig Kimbrel’s career splits prior to the trade: 7th/8th: 38.1 innings | 17.8 K/9 | 5.9 BB/9 | 0.7 HR/9 | 2.22 FIP 9th only: 486.1 innings | 14.7 K/9 | 3.3 BB/9 | 0.7 HR/9 | 2.13 FIP Also, Kimbrel’s 7th/8th splits for 2020 only: 7th/8th: 10.2 innings | 18.6 K/9 | 5.9 BB/9 | 0.0 HR/9 | 1.32 FIP Small sample size obviously, but your argument doesn’t hold true.

Again, I’m not arguing it was a good or bad deal. I’m arguing that Hahn is not an “imbecile” for assuming Kimbrel wasn’t going to fall off a cliff post acquisition like many posters here are alluding to, which is very different than justifying the price we paid wasn’t steep (which it was and I acknowledged that at the time). That being said, I fully disagree with your view on the value of elite relievers at the trade deadline. Generally speaking, there is a reason the elite guys are always expansive at the deadline and that’s because context matters. I’ve been arguing with you for years over this and the marginal value of a guy who has a high probability of getting three outs without giving up a run in the 8th or 9th of the playoffs is enormous. This wasn’t about getting to the playoffs, this was about adding a guy who should been able to pitch 11% of nearly every single playoff game and get you three high leverage outs. Outside of a legit TOR starter, nothing is more valuable during the playoffs. You cite the volatility of relievers, but any player can go hot / cold during a short playoff series or two. This high likelihood of Kimbrel busting in the playoffs vs any other player is absurd and the best organizations in baseball were prepared to make this same “bet” that we did.