WestEddy

Everybody here mocks every statement made by Reinsdorf and Grifol as BS word salads. Except when we want them to be meaningful. I'll wait for camp to break to understand what they're doing.

You're kidding yourself if you think 29 owners are beloved by baseball players, and Reinsdorf stands alone. I'm sure that neither of us know the exact reason DeJong chose the White Sox, and why Getz wanted to wrap up DeJong early. My point is that because of the known toxic atmosphere (which you agree with), the White Sox pay a premium right now to get players they want. That premium either comes in non-discounts, major league deals, or whatever. Yes, there is collusion going on. Pollock wound up $1million down on 2023. A million is still money, and he left $8 million on the table to leave Chicago. Why would he take similar money just to leave? He had $13 million on the table, and went back to the open market.

They could always do something like: th 3/28 det - #1 fr 3/29 off sa 3/30 det - #2 su 3/31 det - #3 mo 4/01 atl - #4 tu 4/02 atl - #1 (4) we 4/03 atl - #5 th 4/04 kcr - #2 (4) fr 4/05 kcr - #3 (4) sa 4/06 kcr - #4 (4) su 4/07 kcr - #5 (4) The #5 slot could be Crochet/bullpen game, where they ease his workload from 3 innings up to 5. I understand you're not saying they must commit to a 5th starter. My mind just does sh*t like this, for some reason.

I'm not arguing they should go with a 4-man. They could skip the 5-spot the first time through the rotation, that's all. Gives them an extra week to make that decision.

C's get degrees.

As far as "chemistry", when people here, at Sox Machine, SSS, wherever, talk about this team, they all say that free agents won't come here. It was a toxic situation. Not mentoring fluff, but AJ Pollock leaving money on the table to get out. To not play here. I also agree that you'd be paying a premium for the Montas/Manaea/Severino level of guys who actually get to choose between a few offers. Benintendi should have been a 3 year deal, but I'm guessing the Sox had to go to 5 just to reel in a vet. If you're grabbing up 1-WAR dudes to fill slots, because you don't want to be paying a 50% premium to drag anybody in, seems to me that glove-first guys are the market inefficiency, and really, DeJong and Pillar are the only real guys they might roster. And again, they might have had to offer a major league deal instead of a minor league to DeJong just to get him off the market. Sure, I agree with the rest. I don't expect Fletcher to be anything more than a 3 year stop-gap, the strong side of a platoon. But there was nothing on the market, and they took a flyer on a guy who was blocked in Arizona. I'm ready to take the L. Every trade doesn't have to be a Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio robbery deal. But Fletcher not turning into a perennial All-Star isn't an L. Neither is the dude putting up 1.5-2 WAR a year until Wolkow takes over RF for the next 15 years. I really don't think Getz is playing 3-D chess, but he seems to be light years beyond Hahn, at this point, who, in retrospect, seemed to be more reactive, and wanting to win the news cycle rather than building a team in his image.

He's assembled a group of bodies to build a bullpen from. No 4 year contracts. That's a win. I don't think there was a silver bullet on the market to provide good offense, good defense at a low cost. DeJong? fine. Pillar? catch the ball. Moose and Maldonado were superfluous, but we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Maybe Moose just needed a spring training with anybody to showcase and stay in game shape. His buddy did him a solid. Maldonado could be, "Here, Pedro, here's your clubhouse leader. If that doesn't work, you can tell your story walking". I think Getz did what he could with the starting rotation. If they go into the season with Fedde, Soroka, Flexen, Crochet and Nastrini, I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of.

I'm joking about the great off-season, but I really don't have any problem with any of the moves beyond signing Maldonado. We all have a pretty good idea what restraints Getz is working under, and nobody believes he could put together a successful playoff team in this one off-season. Last season was such a sh*t show. He had to pick a couple areas to fix. One was team chemistry, and the other was defense.

It doesn't work that way. A team doesn't rank their utility players, then only decide to let the "worst one" go. If Getz wanted somebody's #9 prospect AAA starting pitcher, and they said they wanted Zach Remillard, or Jose Rodriguez, the deal wouldn't die if they wouldn't take Lenyn Sosa. You have a group of similar production players, take your pick. I'm sure nobody assumes that Cristian Mena was the worst upper level arm from our group of upper level arms. He's a guy Arizona wanted.

There's a day off after the opener.

The first year of clown college is all basic curriculum, like, Extrapolating career prognosis from 30 spring training PA's 101, Radar Gun Anxiety 101 and Everything Sucks - for beginners. Getz's entire off-season has been a series of great moves.

The D-backs have seen enough, and have already cut Mena to minor league camp. Since Reno is such a hitter's paradise that surely inflated Fletcher's stats, I wonder if Mena will have an ERA less than 10.00. He'll probably cry a lot, then retire. People pretending that Getz made a bad trade should be very worried.

How in the world do you come to this conclusion?

The funniest part of this is that everybody laughed at thinking Fletcher was good based on 102 MLB PA's, but are now declaring him a bust over 30 spring training PA's. Smells like Troll Spirit.

They started out with about 15 starting pitchers, and are now down to about 3.5. They have to play the games, and put 9 players on the field. Why not get the more advanced guys started this year? It would be nice to not reenact the 2011-2013 Houston Astros clown show, or the modern loss wonder that was the 2003 Detroit Tigers with an all-rookie team.

It's the future for the next 3 months. Thorpe and Nastrini will be in the rotation by year's end.

It's not just the Sox. I think the Marlins have 4 starters injured right now. We're doing pretty good still having Soroka, Fedde and Flexen still standing.

Fedde, Soroka then pray for sunstroke-uh. Then Flexen. I'd guess Kuhl and Touki might get a couple turns until they earn an extra year of control on Thorpe and Nastrini. Crochet can get major leaguers out, so why not give him 3-4 innings every time through? I don't mind starting Thorpe's or Nastrini's time clock a year before Monty, Ramos and others. There's something to be said for staggering their free agencies.

Didn't see this coming...

Nightengale informs us Clevenger's looking for a 2-year deal for over $20 million. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2024/03/17/padres-dodgers-pandemic-espn-karl-ravech-eduardo-perez/73000437007/

per Nightengale, White Sox showing interest in Tommy Pham if he doesn't sign with the Padres for a 1-year, $3-4 million deal. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2024/03/17/padres-dodgers-pandemic-espn-karl-ravech-eduardo-perez/73000437007/

Wait until they find out the White Sox infected him with the failure virus, which will spread to the rest of the team. Should have given up Kjerstadt, MFers!

He should mix it up. "Hey, now!!" "Hey, then!!"