Look at Ray Ray Run

Why is the bat the driving force behind a utility IF signing? Defense and versatility should be 1 and 1a. I know I'm in the minority, but Yolmer, Leury, Mendick and Engel would be my bench pieces. They all do things extremely well - Engel Def/BR, Yolmer Def, Leury Versatility/BR, and Mendick +bat/versatile glove. I would be happy giving those guys a chance to be good in those places. I'm not signing a utility guy for a bench bat when the teams offense goes 8 bats deep right now; maybe 9.

First of all, I want to say this is about 30 spots too low for Frank. This entire piece is worth a read, but I wanted to quote one part about Ozzie that just had me dying - knowing Guillen and Frank's relationship and how interesting it was (Frank and Ozzie were closer than most thought. Ozzie and Frank's personalities were always polar opposites, but they worked well together and Guillen always knew how to get a rise out of Frank but he was also Frank's staunchest defender when criticism was real). "There’s a vivid and telling scene in Reilly’s SI piece about Thomas — it happened after ESPN baseball analyst Dave Campbell suggested that the way to get Thomas out was with high inside fastballs. Campbell cited Thomas’ record against Nolan Ryan; Frank was 0-for-12 with 11 strikeouts against the legend. Of course, all 12 of those at-bats were in Thomas’ first three seasons. It’s fair to say Thomas was not impressed. “Who the @#$%^ is Dave Campbell?” Reilly quoted Thomas screaming in the clubhouse. “A %$#@! .213 hitter trying to tell me what I can’t hit? A .213 hitter? Telling me I can’t hit fastballs?” The scene — which, by the way, was delightfully enhanced by Ozzie Guillen, who egged on Thomas by shouting, “That’s true! You cannot hit fastballs!” — is so telling for any number of reasons. Two of them stand out." Now onto Frank and his ranking. Thomas was arguably the greatest RH peak hitter in baseball history - having one of the three greatest 7 year stretches in MLB history. In the modern Era, Frank Thomas is the greatest pure hitter since the league became integrated. Frank, ironically enough, was slightly underrated in his era because he came around right before walks got their proper due. Frank's story was always fantastic to follow - a baseball player in a football players body and region. Frank never was given a chance, but he was spectacular in every way and proved his talent. https://theathletic.com/1516374/2020/01/13/the-baseball-100-no-74-frank-thomas/ Ozzie was the GOAT teammate; he'd drive you crazy, but he had your back. Ozzie was one of Frank's biggest supporters, despite driving Frank crazier than any of his other teammates.

A couple points from the FG's piece today on Aroz: The underlying metrics are also impressive; he pummeled the ball, hitting 49% of his batted balls 95 mph or harder. (this was something I said yesterday) When it comes to plate discipline, Arozarena shows uncommon poise for a player with his raw tools. Guys who combine his speed and feel for contact often end up swinging too much, overly secure in their ability to hit everything. That’s not Arozarena; he ran a below-average 41% swing rate in the minors in 2019 while making contact on more than 80% of his swings. If you want a major league comparison for those numbers, it’s roughly Xander Bogaerts. (This was really interesting and something that really stood out in his profile to me)

Fair enough, I'll defer to your thoughts here.

The extension was discussed nationally that day - nothing final but it was discussed. Also, he said the Sox were close with Will Harris and 1 hour he signed with the Nats lol. Why do people chose to ignore this anecdote while citing this guy? If you want to know why fake insiders exists - which is a common question around here - you answer that question every time you give this guy attention.

You want Cameron Maybin to be your late-game defensive replacement? He's not a good defender though? I know people are tired of Engel because he represents a bad period in White Sox baseball, but he'd be a fantastic 4th outfielder. He's an elite defender and baserunner. This team has plenty of offensive firepower now.

He didn't piggy back off Jimmy's tweet - FS posted an article on Jan 1 before Cishek's piece breaking down the extension talks. On the morning of 1/1, MLBnetwork reported that extension talks with Robert had picked up steam. Progress on the contract was made at the winter meetings according to Hahn, and frame work had been hashed out by the time Jimmy reported it. Cishek takes tea leaves and reports them. He also said the Sox were closing in on Will Harris and 1 hour later Harris signed with the Nats. Then he shifted and Chisek it was. He threw a bunch of shit against the wall, and he got a few things right. That's the nature of fake sources - Incarcerated Bob has mastered the art.

The Cardinals are not trading Fowler either; especially not for a non-big leaguer. They moved outfielders to clear a logjam, and potentially re-sign Ozuna. If they re-sign Ozuna, their OF is Fowler, Ozuna and O'Neill with Bader being the 4th man in the rotation. If they don't re-sign Ozuna, then their outfield is Fowler, Bader, and O'Neill. The move for Liberatore seems odds for the Cardinals - who are in win-now mode - and you have to believe it's a precursor to a bigger move for the Cardinals who will ship Liberatore out soon after they acquired him.

Those were the best relievers on the market and the only ones that made sense for the Sox who were interested in relievers and had stated such to Merkin. He didn't call the Robert extension - Jimmy reported it, and then another national writer said they were making progress and right after that he tweeted it out. He also was NOT the first person to report the Mazara trade as has been cited here. He piggybacked off another national writer - might have been Nightengale, I can't remember for sure - and that was that. I followed the guy to see if he was first on anything after he was originally cited here - I also follow all the national/local writers for most teams. He was never first, and frequently piggy backed all his reports of national and local reports.

I said this yesterday, but publicly available prospect rankings overvalue pitchers beneath A-Ball. TINSTAAPP is a very real thing in the executive baseball world. Here's one good read on it. Libertore was a good prospect, but he wasn't elite enough for him to warrant his value in the rankings. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/an-update-to-prospect-valuation/

Rangers seem to wonder how he will sign with them when they're not interested lol.

He was a really raw prospect though; that was the knock on him for his age. He really put it together last year - I am a believer. He's really talented, and he has great strike zone recognition.

He named every reliever that was left on the market that could be considered solid. He SAID NOTHING about Grandal before the signing.

No, he has not. Here is what Cishek has done; every time a rumor has been reported by someone, he has taken it a step further and said the Sox were working to finalize something. Sometimes, it happened and he "looked" right. Other times, he just moved on and pretended he never said it. He didn't get anything first - he piggy backed off of other reports.

The more I think about it, the more shares I'm going to be buying of Alz.

Cease is incredibly exciting because he has all the tools to be absolutely great; he has elite, Cole and Verlander level, spin rates on his fastball but he just doesn't get the right spin right now. I imagine it's easier to teach a slight grip adjustment to maximize the damage of your spin rate, than it is to teach an elite spin rate. Cease's problem now is he gets no lateral movement with his fastball - if he can add a little cut to the already elite horizontal movement he could be flat out filthy. Command and fine tuning his spin are the focal points of his development, but WHEN he unlocks it all look out. My number one concern with Cease isn't his success or ceiling - it's his durability.

I hear you, and I'm not a huge fan of Martinez but I think his elite platoon splits fit the Rays roster well and they probably really like alzaranezo however you spell. I love prospect rankings but need to remind myself occasionally that public rankings are not the same and do not equal private internal rankings. I, for one, am much more interested in him now that he appeared to be a target of the rays. The whole a ball pitcher thing matters too.

Martinez numbers vs lefties in his career are really elite too.

Or they really like Arozarena and are buying all in on his changes last year. Either way it feels really odd. A-ball pitching prospects are the riskiest prospects in the game - in a sense of prospect ranking to success. Even still youd have to think hes worth more than that.

Yeah, crazy pop for sure. Iso, hard hit and HR rates to be envious of. He has holes but his upside is very apparent.

O'Neill is a lot better than you're giving him credit for.

Rays would be swapping Pham and Avi for O'Neil, Renfroe and Martinez while having an even swap between minor league talent.

O'Neil is a high level prospect who is MLB ready. And a position player to boot. This would make sense imo. If the Ray's like Oniel better than Pham, they basically got O'niel, renfrow, maybe Martinez and Edward's for Pham and Libatorie. Would be a big win if the Rays like oniel more than pham going forward.

This was from a fake Jeff Passan account. Jeff didn't take too kindly to this guy imitating him again.

Maybe the Cardinals have a pending deal with Ozuna - that would make some sense for the delay on the big league name.