Eminor3rd

I’ll also add that I don’t necessarily have a problem with Getz having held Robert this long. Obviously I’d have to see what the offers were to be certain, but the reality is that he’s been at least a reasonable bet to have a way better season than his last every year of his career. At the end of the day, he just never bounced back. It didn’t work out but the gamble was always defensible. The issue I have is being cheap when you still had one more chance to roll the dice. $20M is a lot of money, sure, but the payroll even WITH him was set to be in the $80-something range, which is borderline malpractice to begin with. Serious question, as someone who doesn’t follow anything but baseball really: Is there a major sports franchise that’s less fun to root for?

And notably, Acuna’s value was substantially higher at that time.

There’s nothing here at all. A utility player that’s already out of options. The Sox will use him, but not to win games. From a baseball perspective, if this is the best return, you roll the dice on a deadline deal every time. Which unfortunately supports the idea that this was a financial decision. All that crap about getting Jerry onboard with the Murakami vision looks made up. Really it was that Getz got permission to reallocate the money to Murakami instead of straight up save it. 2026: White Sox OD payroll trending to just a hair over $60M

This was where they got the Murakami money.

Precisely

With caulfield gone, we’re finding ourselves tempted to post like caulfield. Is this Stockholm syndrome? Is this a new psychological condition, first incubated on soxtalk.com? Caulfield syndrome?

The fact that Getz apparently had to talk Jerry into a 2/$34M for Murakami by making a revenue generation-based argument suggests two troubling things: (1) Getz doesn't have the autonomy to add a 2/34 to his sub-$90M payroll, and (2) Jerry doesn't seem to currently feel like "making the team better" is worthy of monetary investment on its own I just can't quite imagine that we're going to see them taking on any bad money for anything so frivolous as acquiring talent.

I’m not talking about the tedium of basic job responsibilities.

I know enough people that have worked there to call this point into very serious question. Modify your parenthetical to be "loyalty and protection for a select group of executives" and you can imagine how "very good owner to non player employees" becomes its exact opposite for everyone outside that select group, in ways ranging from frivolous to extremely problematic.

wat

The Sox would be one of the few teams that could feel good about giving him a rotation spot of out of the gate. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him get like 1/3m or something. He could be a useful back end starter on the high end, but there just isn’t any real upside barring some transformational change to his arsenal. He's big, strong, and stable, which has allowed him to develop good command, but his stuff is maxed out and just not that exciting.

Kona is fringey, definitely at least a tick below Imai. The sad thing is he peaked two seasons ago and looked ready to get at least what Imai did, but Seibu wouldn’t let him go.

I mean if you put it that way, every players floor is “dies in plane accident tomorrow”

Imai has a much higher floor than Murakami. Would have been very surprising if he fell to the Sox the same way.

Alright, viable then

Blue Moon is a Molson Coors product. Is rate field a Miller/Coors venue?

lol

This would be bonkers, but awesome, assuming it’s another one where the deal is smaller than initially expected. I’ve seen a TON of Imai; he has really blossomed the past couple seasons after being really wild at the start of his career. I don’t see him as an mlb ace by any stretch, tbh, but I do see him as a #3/4 with youth on his side, which would be a boon for this team of course.

Merry Christmas/happy holidays to all

Even if you want to dream big on the positional side, there’s just not remotely enough pitching for an actual run.

I like things about all of them, but if we’re being honest, the median outcome for each of them is a #4

Seriously, what an embarrassing quote

I still feel like Robert to the Pirates makes so much sense for both sides. I’d take Thomas Harrington tbh

I understand why everyone wants to do these extremely low sample comps, but in reality they are pretty much useless in terms of projecting anything. There’s always bound to be just as much different about any two players as there can be that’s the same, in terms of how they actually get to their results. I think the big factor here is age. Many really good hitters from NPB have failed to make the transition to the MLB stuff/velo profile when they’ve come in their late 20s or 30s. I presume a connection between waning athleticism and the ability to make huge adjustments. Murakami at age 25/26 is promising, but we have to remember that numerical age is just a proxy for biological/athletic age, and guys with this body type do tend to peak athletically sooner. I’ll say I don’t think there’s any doubt that age 22-24 Murakami could make the necessary adjustments, evidenced both by his WBC arc and the way the NPB kept redefining how to get him out, the big question will be if age 26-27 Murakami retains that adaptability. Btw separately, Tyler is a really great source if anyone wants to consume any NPB content. He really puts a ton of time into watching and analyzing everything from top team NPB to college prospects.

This is true. But just generally, this will add up to a few million bucks. Not nothing, but also not even close to offsetting the investment. Unfortunately, the league currently retains the right to sell the international broadcasts to nhk