Quin

But instead of "this guy's a Bummer!" people now get to say "he sure does suck-roka!" Think of the creativity! (I'm probably just foolishly grateful to have any warm body because my soul is battered and bruised by Jerry)

Well... People despise Bummer, who will probably be amazing with a good defense behind him. The Sox set him up to fail. Sox painfully need a starter so even though Soroka's last good, fully healthy season was Moncada's last good, fully healthy season, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ After that, yeah, it's just stuff. Shuster feels more like a "throw a starter against a wall and see if he sticks" pitcher. Lopez is purely a meme acquisition. I guess Shewmake has a glove and people will get excited when a glove-first lefty hits in Charlotte only for it to be fool's gold.

Soroka's a good gamble. But also lmao Nicky Lopez.

Pragmatically, I know this. You know this. I'm just being petty because I want to see them try and justify everything right after MLB puts anti-tank measures in place.

Flipside of this is you have guys doing things that bodies were just not designed to do. White Sox and Herm, who at this point I'm convinced traversed the astral planes to keep people healthy, kept Sale mostly healthy by not maxing him out. Then he has his best season ever in 2017 after the Red Sox crank his fastball and slider up another mile per hour on average, and increase the slider usage. He was still good in 2018 but that's when injuries began popping up and it's been downhill since. Another example is Adam Engel. Dude is built, but is glass.

Add Angelos.

Grifol isn't a tank commander. He's a tank chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

John Fisher to A's Fans: "It's Been Worse For Me Than For You"

My tiebreaker is that I don't want them to have an argument to present to fans for tanking. I'd love to see JR and Getz spin putting out a bad team and be like "we wanted to get the #10 draft pick!"

I'd be shocked if it's not the Dodgers, Giants or a massive fucking bag of money from the Mets.

Whit Merrifield, 2-way player

To prove how not-serious the A's took stadium negotiations, this snippet from Nightengale's piece.

I mean, I've stanned my fair share of flops. Unfortunately I think my sole "Am I the only person who thinks this person will have an MLB career?" pick is Leury Garcia. Which was a fine pick until TLR.

Now write up a thesis about how you were the first person to start the Yermin bandwagon and were actively posting here about how absolutely wrong websites like FutureSox, Pipeline, etc. were for not having him ranked highly.

For what it's worth, that list isn't ranking value, it's a combo of value + likelihood to be dealt. From the Luis Robert (24th) blurb:

Trade rumor. Meanwhile, this current game is a perfect encapsulation of Zach. Subpar for the entire game. Suddenly catches NBA Jam fire to tie it. But left too much time for Magic. They win. Patrick tries to dribble to the hoop with 1.4 seconds left and never shoots. This year's team mantra is "too little, too late."

The AFL is done so it's basically winter for baseball. Diamond Club is closed, so feel free to post all MLB news in Pale Hose Talk.

But consider that if Cease is traded, our Opening Day starter may be Touki, another Cleveland cast-off

https://www.mlb.com/news/toughest-rule-5-draft-decisions-2023?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage From this list, Haskin, Ginn, and Jarvis all feel like "invite to training camp for a look" guys

Opening Day starter

As much as I rib the Padres/Preller, Seidler was basically the anti-Jerry and thus necessary in sports.

Doesn't compute, because as SSHM has outlined, the Sox basically only won when TA was throwing pasta parties.

Greg out here buying wagyu cold cuts and handpicked heirloom pomegranates.

Re: Thompson, I also want to see Bannister get a shot with him. For some reason I have an itching feeling that the Rays could swoop in and suddenly fix all his issues.

I still think Carela gets added. He's got good stats as a young starter — some destitute, White Sox-esque team like the Royals or A's might figure they can make him a reliever for a year. I tried to find defensive grades on him last night and he wasn't in Pipeline's Top 30 for the Cubs or Fangraph's Top 52. Like, maybe if they jettison Sheets?