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Bowden's Winter Meetings wishlist, cause we're starved for anything Cease to Rangers for Leodys Taveras, Cody Bradford, and Josh Stephan Eloy to Marlins for Jacob Amaya, Karson Milbrandt, and Jacob Miller

Elbow inflammation It's not the worst idea to package him with Cease if it drastically ups the return. I'm also not furious if they keep him since they have him for five more years.

I mean, his best pitch was getting batters to chase outside of the zone? Do we think the Braves are stupid acquiring him? Edit: Just checked fangraphs and he's had remarkably consist pitching types throughout his career, batters made even less contact in the strike zone and he through more first pitch strikes last year. Throw in a drastically lower FIP than his ERA and you basically come to the conclusion: He had s%*# fielding behind him. https://www.fangraphs.com/players/aaron-bummer/16258/stats?position=P

The fact that the Sox are burning payroll to the ground and can't get in the sweepstakes is disgraceful. Like we all knew it and there's no way Ohtani would have ever come here, but goddamnit Jerry.

Man, Oops! All shortstops does not look great in retrospect unless Preller extracts a bounty here.

Ironically, the players Getz has acquired so far (DeJong, Lopez) would make Bummer a better pitcher.

Last season was the perfect time to blow it up, especially to try and keep their pick, but man, "continuity."

No DeMar or Zach and the Bulls beat Milwaukee with 8 guys in double figures, P-Will animated, Vuc going off, and 32 assists (they average 22). Man, they should have traded those two when they still high value.

That's former 2018 #7 overall draft pick Adam Haseley and assassin of Danny Mendick, mind you.

Unless the Rangers give up Carter, such a deal would kill @SoCalChiSox

To keep us from spinning in circles, who are some teams we'd like to see jump in if things go poorly for them at the Winter Meetings? Padres, Red Sox?

Let's make it fun and have it happen during the draft lottery for no discernable reason.

There's also a pretty decent chance that if Romy gets cut the Sox can re-sign him to a minor league deal once you bring his health issues into consideration. On the other hand, players may attempt to flee the org.

My man.

Double Kjerstad, fwiw

Cause if you a set a price and a team pays it, you take it. Just make sure it's a good price.

Packaging bad deals with Robert while already slashing payroll would actually be the death knell for the franchise.

I don't think any team that can afford Robert's price would want to pay that price

Imagine the savings we could get with Danny Duffy and Brad Keller!

Ok, ignore my above post because I definitely misread you after prior posters arguing that Cease isn't even that.

But what team is he a number 3 on other than like, the Phillies (Wheeler and Nola) and let's say...Seattle? Maybe Houston if Verlander stays strong and Tampa if they keep Glasnow (so, likely not), but after that, there's not much argument for Cease being a #3.

If there are 60 starting pitchers better than Dylan Cease in MLB, than the talent level in the league is absurd. I'm basically arguing against the notion that he's not a top of the rotation starter. Even in his "down" season last year, he was 18th in fWAR, ahead of Burnes, Verlander, and Castillo.

The hill that Cease isn't a top of the rotation starter, since 2021: 8th in fWAR 1st in games started 4th in K/9 22nd in FIP - so it could be better, but Snell is 21st and Gallen is 23rd 15th in wins, despite being on the Sox 20th in HR/9, ahead of Gallen, Rodon, Montgomery, Ohtani, etc. and just behind Bieber at 19th.

the b in bWAR stands for Baseball-Reference the f in fWAR stands for FanGraphs They calculate them slightly differently. FanGraphs uses FIP whereas BR uses RA9, so FanGraphs isn't gonna penalize a pitcher for some horrendous fielding.

I'm highlighting the Hostetler part. Look man, Burger is the ultimate feel good story, but he wasn't the #1 college bat. You're already walking back from "top..#3 at worst" to "top 3-5." There's no point retroactively making the Sox a worse franchise, because they're already horrendous. And if you leave the things that they actually did right in - such as taking Burger higher than expected - then it only serves to highlight their glaring flaws even more.