WestEddy

Didn't watch, yet, but: The investment in the greatest players on Earth is such that you can't just grind them down, throwing them 350 innings a season. In the age of increased tech, discovering spin rates, bat speed, EV and such is inevitable. That data has to be made available to the most competitive players on Earth to keep up with each other. Unless you want the accessibility of MLB to rival Australian Rules Football, or Scottish Shin Kicking championships, enough entities have to be making enough money off of it for baseball to cut through the fog of entertainment options, and make itself easily accessible to you. In doing that, teams have to create efficiencies to keep the best players on the field, and maintain a modicum of competitive balance.

The Dodgers used 40 pitchers, this last season. They even ran Yohan Ramirez out there 27 times. Everybody grabs up guys like this. The Sox can probably promise more of a longer look with him.

Fukudome wanted to be a team's first Japanese player. Yeah, he would be a good signing.

If Sasaki becomes available under the 2024 period, the Sox would have to make multiple trades to for slot space to get to a competitive number. The biggest problem with Marco Paddy's folly is that we don't have a bunch of Aldrin Batistas we could trade and not miss.

From an AP article on remain pool money - 11/9: https://apnews.com/sports/mlb-2024-remaining-international-signing-bonus-allotment-list-5de31a9831cd49ca46077cf98d031890

Dunn, Son of Dunn

It's just funny how you guys default to believing complete BS. https://clutchpoints.com/phillies-news-zack-wheeler-speaks-out-signing-philadelphia-white-sox

Oh well. So they won't "burn" a client by disproving a public claim. I guess that means they accede to it's truthfulness.

I gave you the evidence. The White Sox made a claim about Wheeler's side, and Wheeler's side let that comment stand. The end.

I don't know what you mean. Is Balta invested in suppressing season ticket sales?

Why do you care? Why can't it be possible that when the Sox were at the height of their competitive window, they bid the highest on a free agent, and he took less money to go elsewhere? Seriously, if you have evidence that did not happen, let us know. Otherwise, I can only assume all of this is in service of the popular narrative, here.

And nobody disputed that. Until Wheeler, his wife, or his agent comes out and calls that a lie, we can assume it's true.

I was once at a garage sale. Old man asked the seller how much for the milk crate of Simpsons' VHS cassettes. Seller said "....give me $3, and you can have the whole crate." Old man countered with $2, and the seller told him to forget it, that he wasn't going to sell them to him at any price, now. The Sox "bad luck" on Machado was they thought they could be cute by signing his B-i-L and childhood friend, and piece together insulting incentives to almost get to what he asked for. Wheeler was bad luck.

I've argued all of the Belle/Wheeler/Machado arguments multiple times. However, the Sox aren't going to spend up to a top 5 payroll in the game coming off of a 41-win season. They've pushed into the top 5 when they were in or at their window. They signed Belle when they were one of the top teams in the league. Maybe Getz has mad sales skills, but I don't think he's talking Soto into taking our money to suck for 4 years.

I think they were outbid because Hahn was too clever by half. I believe 10/300 was thrown out there by the agent, and they played around, getting to 10/290, or something, if all of the incentives were met. San Diego basically just wrote what they said they wanted on a contract and slid it across the table.

You seem to have shifted gears. I am positive about this off-season, next season's team, and our prospects for being competitive. KC is a nice story, but we're not there. The Sox never invested in "development", that's why when a window closed, they found themselves at the rebuild part of the cycle. A team has to be pumping prospects into the parent team.

KC made the playoffs by being gifted a 12-1 record against the White Sox. I don't disagree with your argument as vociferously as the mods, here, but KC shouldn't have made the playoffs this year. If the White Sox were even a AAAA team, Seattle gets KC's slot. Yes, the White Sox have the makings of a hum-drum pitching rotation. Cannon, Martin and Thorpe are easily #4s on any competitive team. Yes, they have Schultz, Smith and Taylor. They're not here, yet. Burke might even be a nice #3 if he's firing on all cylinders. Great, big, positive me expects next year's bullpen to be a slightly better version of last year's. Some home grown guys will make it cheaper. Wilson, Leasure, Ellard and Berroa have a rough season under their belts, and there's a few nice, minor league arms who can step up and be Justin Anderson for a season. Yes, I mean Justin Anderson, and not in a good way. I would also expect some focus on offense to result in some gains. Sosa, Vaughn (if he stays), Benintendi, Fletcher and Ramos can't really get worse. I wouldn't bet on Quero or Monty having anything more than a bumpy year getting their feet wet when they get promoted. A Crochet trade would probably be maxed out by taking prospects that are further away. Nobody's trading their top 10 in the game, AAA CF for Crochet. You might get that guy who smacks the s%*# out of it in A+, though. I always think this team isn't all that far away as the glum, here, think, but they're not getting 50 games better in one off-season.

That entire first round was ass. Will Smith at #32 is the only player to reliably produce.

I doubt Milwaukee is going to hang back, thinking they could "fleece" Getz, and take a chance on the Cubs swooping in, and then signing Crochet to a 6 year deal. All teams are hoarding top hitting prospects, the one thing Getz is looking for.

Just being argumentative, but Thorpe and Berroa could quite possibly be on the next contending team.

And we did get something out of Soroka and Lopez. We got a replacement level veteran 2B/utility infielder for $200k less than the Royals paid for Adam Frazier (same production), and they got to take a flier on Soroka, which would have paid off, if he hadn't gotten injured. Soroka might have been cheaper than if he went through free agency. I'm still waiting for anyone to post a similar trade where somebody traded a seemingly cooked reliever for a knockout package of prospects and/or reclamation projects who were all cheaper than just signing free agents. Or maybe a rumor where Boston was trying to throw 3 prospects at us for the privilege of fixing Bummer.

Soroka was a fix and flip gamble. He actually would have brought back a player like Banks did if he wasn't in the IL. Soroka was a good piece to get. It was a fine trade.

All anybody talked about for Bummer was ... maybe a prospect and a flier. Well, they got Gowens (prospect) and Shuster (flier). Soroka would have cost as much if they grabbed him on waivers. Lopez might have been a little cheaper. Adam Frazier was a free agent utility infielder - signed for $4.5 million. Nicky Lopez was $4.3 million. So, maybe the Sox could have waited out waivers and free agency, and have gotten Nicky Lopez for $100k cheaper? I think people are complaining about the Bummer trade just to complain about it.

I seem to remember reading that as the Phillies fell out of first place in 1964, Dick Allen became a focus of the press, even though the guy hit .419/.471/.710 from 9/18 through the end of the season.

I agree with most of this. Shuster is league minimum for the next 2 seasons. He's a cheap body to eat up innings. Soroka made MLBTR's top 50 free agent list ahead of David Robinson and Tommy Kahnle. Turning Bummer into 3 bullpen arms is a fine trade. I would love to see all of these system-emptying trades everybody knows were on the table for Bummer.