FT35

It wasn’t smart to think Robert would increase his trade value while hitting in this lineup. If they wanted to deal him for something of value, why not pick up a couple of cheap vets a couple years ago to put around him to increase the probability of him putting up positive numbers these last 2 years? Someone to drive in? Someone capable of driving him in? If not, why not just move him for the low return that will match the player he is in this lineup? They could have already had their AA bust player for 2 years and saved that poor guy getting his hopes up for developing properly and becoming something. How about initiating some sort of plan to trigger some sort of statistical relevance to his ABs? Are they banking on his value coming from what he’s maybe capable of doing in a good lineup?

I don’t know. Looking at these predictions and the Sox sitting at 0%, I think a lot of people are underestimating just how big of a move the Austin Slater signing was…

I could see Alonso going all Adam Dunn here.

Totally agree here. This is the way to go—but our player evaluation is non-existent and I have zero faith that they get it right, leading to said millions of savings. There is value in all MLB at bats. Whether they are used to try to evaluate current talent on the roster or to increase value of older players who could be flipped for more upside than the internal crop. Again—choosing the correct path for players has not been our strong suit. They have been taking a beating on playing internal options AND capitalizing on flip value.

I wonder if paying them a good amount of money would help…soften the blow a little…like forever luxury living money for them and generations to come?? I loathe the idea of moving. Buuuut someone could probably talk me into moving somewhere for 6 months for say…25 MILLION DOLLARS EVERY YEAR for a half decade. I don’t know…I might check with my wife but something tells me she would ok that.

Why wouldn’t all the FAs want to sign here? If they are good, they are as good as out of here at the deadline and they know they will have shots with a playoff bound team. That seems better than signing with a team that should have a shot at contending but ends up not contending—but ends up keeping players who may contend another year. Seems like a great offer to top talent—if you want to play in the 2025 MLB playoffs—sign with the WHITE SOX!!

If he’s awful, they’ll just let him play out another punt year here. If he’s amazing, he could end up flipped to the Dodgers at the deadline for…well…no one actually.

Now…if we could just flip Robert for say a good young catcher prospect, things could really start to look up around here.

Juan Soto might never see an at bat if he signed here. He literally might approach 400 walks per year. He’d be a half-billion dollar 8-10 HR guy and may not drive in 30 runs. We would likely witness one of the most unthinkable stat lines in the modern era. .280/.850/1.200/9 HR/27 RBI/40 Runs? Pitch counts would be down league-wide from the number of times they’d point to first.

Totally! I did say “about a billion.” I know the Rangers were at a half billion…but they were closer than we are with the rest of their roster. We are a billion away at least. And that counts calling up minor league talent before it’s ready.

What if Venable sells Jerry on how the Rangers went out and spent about a billion dollars on FAs and it led to a title in like 2-3 years? They sign Soto and Burnes and a closer. They keep Crochet and Robert. (Lol to all!) But they could end up with a rotation of: Crochet Burnes Thorpe N. Shultz H. Smith And a team of: 1B Vaughn 2B Some FA SS Montgomery 3B Ramos OF Soto OF Robert OF Benintendi C Lee/Quero They have some decent bullpen pieces and if they add a closer—that is starting to look like a team that could win at LEAST 50 games, no?!?!

Absolutely bonkers to think that the Sox could be the most improved team in MLB next year by 21 games and still be a 100-loss team and likely finish as the worst team in baseball.

Haven’t been able to say this very often, but it’s been a solid 2 days for the Sox.

They’re so slow to the analytics game, something new will come along before they get good at it.

lol! I’ll work on something!