Snopek

If so, I've done a really poor job exploiting him for his fame.

He should be able to do both if Keuchel lets him borrow his golden mitt.

It's pretty obvious to me that they're gonna have Kimbrel fill Rodon's spot in the rotation.

I've seen more posts complaining about the complaining than I've seen posts that are actually complaining.

Oh yeah, for sure. I thought you were talking only about actual performance, as in his effectiveness in the starts he did make was a fluke. Because I see no reason why he can't pitch as effectively next year as he did this year. But yeah, when factoring in durability/reliability/availability, the odds of a repeat season are clearly lowered.

What are you basing this on?

This thread feels like Twitter ?

Are you interpreting games finished as appearances? I think it's more along these lines: https://www.mlb.com/glossary/standard-stats/games-finished And it looks like he finished 11 games in 2020 and 43 games in 2021 (scroll down to advanced stats): https://www.mlb.com/player/craig-kimbrel-518886 So, unless the $1M increase is for 53 games finished in 20-21 combined (awkward wording choice if so), the buyout should only be $1M

Huh? I don't see what you are seeing.

Okay, but what does that have to do with us as fans? Because your initial statement here seemed to insinuate that the fans should have approached the playoffs knowing the Sox were going to lose. And if that's not what you're saying, I'll go back to my original question of what do you mean "people didn't want to see it"?

What do you mean by "people didn't want to see it"? We were all well aware of the road record, the record vs winning teams, etc. Most of us just figured that it might be a good idea to let the games happen instead of deciding the outcome ahead of time.

Seems like there was a glitch in the simulation.

Well, when you say there is "incontrovertible evidence that it was doomed to failure," yes, you actually are saying that it was impossible. For the record, I went into the Astros series feeling that the Sox were not the favorite. But being the weirdo that I am, I wanted to actually see the games played instead of relying on your evidence that's not actually evidence.

If I'm understanding your argument correctly, it was quite literally impossible for the sox to win the world series this year, yes?

I already gave this the requisite “like,” but I just wanted to say that after rereading it, I like it even more than my own.

Want them to do: RF - Sign Startling Marte (with Conforto as a fallback option) 2B - Sign Chris Taylor C - Sign Yan Gomes SP - Sign Robbie Ray, sign Alex Wood (injury risk, so include incentives for IP) RP - Resign Tepera, sign Kendall Graveman Utility - Resign Leury Trades: Figure out how to offload Kimbrel and Keuchel, even just for depth pieces Stop hitting groundballs Think they'll do: RF - Sign Conforto 2B - Sign Jose Iglesias C - See trades SP - Resign Rodon, talk up Keuchel, Stiever and Lambert as capable arms, hope as hard as they can for good health in the rotation RP - Resign Tepera, see trades Utility - Resign Leury Trades: Offload Kimbrel, Sheets and Burger for a quality backup catcher and bullpen arms (not necessarily in the same deal) Continue hitting groundballs

Isn't that how it's pronounced? eh-LOY?

Because we are eager to put Hahn's lawyer-speak under a microscope in order to squeeze out more speculation in the form of threads with questions we can't answer? That's my best guess at least.

Is there a general sense of what we're thinking Kopech's IP will look like next year? I can't imagine him going much more than 150 or so, so we'll need another body to help fill that rotation spot. I'd agree that Lopez will likely play a big role in spot starts/back end of the rotation, though I prefer him coming out of the pen. The team was pretty fortunate with SP health this past year. If they're banking on that good health once again, things could get ugly pretty quickly while scrambling to give starts to Lopez, Stiever and Lambert. Unfortunately, I don't think it's realistic to bring in a Gausman or one of the other solid SP options out there, but at the very least I'd like to see some depth that is a little less of a question mark than Stiever and Lambert.

Thanks for elaborating. I understand your point a little more, but I still think we shouldn’t ignore sustained success in the playoffs from teams like the Dodgers and Astros, even when they get knocked out some years by seemingly inferior teams.

I don’t think I understand your overall point because how is the Dodgers making it to the World Series 3 of the last 5 years not relevant? Is the Astros making it to the World Series 3 of the last 5 years also not relevant? Are those not random enough for the crapshoot thing? Teams that are seemingly underdogs can win playoff series, yes. Teams that are clearly the better team can also win playoff series.

You mean to tell me that a hall of fame manager can’t find a way to address these things at the same time? And if your answer is somehow no, exactly whose fault is it that so much time was needed to gain the respect of the players?

I get what you’re saying here and I agree with parts of it. The playoffs are definitely a crapshoot. That said, I think the whole ‘randomness of the playoffs’ thing has gotten a little carried away where we’re forgetting that the better teams still win a LOT of these series. The lesser team winning is still the exception to the rule, but it gets a lot of attention for obvious reasons. I guess my point is…Comparing the Sox/Astros series to the Dodgers/Braves series, which it seems like you’re doing, feels a bit like apples to oranges. Getting beat by legit good players like Altuve, Correa, Yordan and Tucker is very different than getting beat by an out of his mind Eddie Rosario. I have no interest in rolling the random playoff dice and hoping for storybook hot streaks. Gimme the best team we can put together on paper and I’ll take my chances there.

Yep. I've had similar thoughts with how the Keuchel contract is playing out. (Although his regression should have been a little easier to see coming than Kimbrel's IMO.) And yeah, technically Keuchel was not "top of the market," but in the White Sox world he basically was.

I mean, sure, in hindsight this all seems crystal clear, but: - Is a 0.52 ERA sustainable? Probably not. But I'd argue that just as few people anticipated an ERA over 5 the rest of the way. - I feel like the closer vs non-closer argument didn't really gain traction until well after the trade when we were looking for answers for his struggles. - He had 39 appearances in the 2021 season with the Cubs, but only 19 of those were vs the NL Central. And if you want to remove the Reds from that, as your point indicates, 14 of his 39 appearances were against the rest of the weak hitting NL Central. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=kimbrcr01&t=p&year=2021 Was it a bad trade? Of course. It turned out to be an absolutely awful trade. You could argue they gave up too much, ignored larger areas of need at the deadline in favor of this, and stubbornly mismanaged Kimbrel down the stretch and I'd completely agree with you. But I'm not on board with the argument that they should have foreseen this type of implosion coming for the reasons you say.