Timmy U

Ha ha. The difference isn’t the sport or the responsibilities. The difference is that the MLBPA has decided in concert with MLB to absolutely screw over young players to give that money to 35 year old DHs. Now that the steroid era is over, that might be changing. Owners know how lucrative this arrangement is and it will take a strike to change it. For the life of me, I can’t understand why people would rather see JR get the money than Michael Kopech.

I don’t like service time manipulation. Compare baseball to even rookie contracts in basketball and it is so unfair. Check out what Cody Bellinger is making this year v. Yonder Alonso. I hope that Kopech is ready to go next year from the jump because he is fun to watch. The only good reason to send him down is if he has issues ala Burdi.

Enjoy. I went last night, which was a mistake. Happy Cease Day, everyone.

“The money will be spent.” - Rick Hahn

I wonder what this means for Lenyn Sosa. Move to W-S? Or move to 2b? Probably the latter. With Zangari hitting better and Vaughn on his way, it is going to get crowded at Kanny.

I love that it’s not just Tatis’ brother, it is also his cousin. Salt meet wounds.

I am not disagreeing with you. I love Moncada. But for a longtime baseball fan, Chapman is super fun to watch over there.

Yeah, Chapman’s defense is insane. Worth the price of the mlb app.

It wasn’t a ranking, it was an article. You may recall that the trad was rumored for over a week before it happened. In that period he warned that it would be a huge mistake. Turns out, he undersold that.

I get that. I could see giving him ABs in AAA to sharpen his eye on outside breaking balls cuz that is how he’s going to be attacked, but fundamentally, I agree with you.

I am not convinced Robert is ready, but if you want to contend in 2020, isn’t better to let him adjust to the league now when the games don’t matter?

So what you are saying is that me, my brother, and Keith Law are from the future?

This implies that scouting is meaningless. According to Keith Law at the time of the trade, scouts from other orgs thought Tatis was good enough to go 1-1 in the following draft. Verlander was throwing way better than Shields at the time each was traded. It's not luck. The White Sox were dumb at the time of the trade, a lot of people said so. I thought it was a disaster at the rumor stage. My brother almost quit being a fan because of it at the time. This is not 20-20 hindsight.

You mean in Birmingham, right? Overall, Robert has the edge by a wide margin.

Congrats to Gio. Even last year he was one of my favorite people on the team, glad he's been rewarded for all his hard work. Described himself as a cool nerd and not that athletic. I can get behind a guy like that. As far as I'm concerned he's the anti-Jake Arrieta (my least favorite human to ever put on a baseball uniform.)

Hey, what did Skokie ever do to you?

Maybe I was wrong about Madrigal, showing a little more pop in AA. Very low Babip in W-S, high in Birmingham, but still, nice improvement. Double for Blake as well

Or have him play his whole career in Charlotte? He is from the South after all.

Yeah, this is the worst trade in Sox history. All that’s left is deciding if this is the worst trade of all time for any team. It is in the zone of Smoltz for Doyle Alexander, Bagwell for Anderson, Brock for Broglio, although Brock was never going to beat out Billy Williams. I have reached the acceptance phase, but this trade made me angry when it was a rumor. If I knew it was stupid and I am just some fan, what the hell was this front office smoking?

Ugh. I am going to the game on Tuesday. Still excited for the young man. He’s a hard worker and will learn from his mistakes so even if they lose, at least progress on the rebuild is being made.

I agree that in two years no one is even going to remember these moves. I think what is instructive, however, is that under Hahn, the Sox make a lot of dumb moves like the Yonder signing. When half of this message board could see the implications of giving a division rival $9 mil in salary relief but the front office can't, that's a worrisome sign. From Shields/Tatis to Holland to Nova and Yonder to how they have drafted, it seems like they are not in the top half of front offices and it looks like both Cleveland and Minnesota are. If they expect to compete with those two organizations in the next few years, they have to stop making so many blunders.

They got $9 million.

Nice to see a little Taoism to class up the board. It’s really true. I know the Sox are selling the future, but part of the joy is living today. I hope Eloy hits another homer and that the Sox win today.

Nice list. It hurt to see Steve Lyons on it, though. I remember him playing 3rd. Perhaps the worst player I have ever seen get close to 500 at bats. How about Chris Singleton? He was good for one year. Or Dewayne Wise? Not a great player, but the catch? Hell, give me Thad Bosley. Anybody but Lyons.

Great article. Now I understand why Sox are signing that Cuban guy. JR is skittish about sinking millions into an 18 year old high school kid whose probability of making an impact is risky. So a 16 year old would be more so. Now, in the DR they’ve moved on to 13 year olds. Talk about a lottery ticket. I am against an international draft, but mlb has to start enforcing the signing rules. This stuff is ridiculous. It’s essentially child labor. When you’re encouraging 10 year olds to leave home for a baseball career, something is terribly wrong.