Balta1701

This may be the most mind-breaking concept I have ever seen presented at Soxtalk.

While I understand this, I've also reached a spot where if they decide to move on from him, I won't be outraged. He won't return much, he won't return anything near what he's worth if he's healthy. However, I think he has developed several serious issues with coaching and health, I think he is nearly uncoachable right now at least for the people in this organization. If the organization has decided based on last year that they can't coach him, then is he likely to have a better season this year? The likely end result would be him released for nothing at the end of the year by having an option declined. In that case, you might as well take something for him as opposed to nothing. For Cease, there was a clear backup plan if offers sucked - hold him to the trade deadline. For Crochet, there is a clear backup plan if the offers suck - hold him to the trade deadline. Selling low on either of those guys was and would be dumb because there's a backup plan. If Robert's offers are "some pieces", and the White Sox think they can't coach him, then there's no backup plan better than "Some pieces".

I think "Some pieces" is a fair return for Robert right now, but that doesn't change the mess the White Sox are in, particularly if they have a $75 million payroll limit for the near future.

https://www.mlb.com/news/best-rule-5-draft-picks-past-10-years Santander Canha Garret Whitlock Odubel Herrera Brad Kelly a bunch of people I've barely heard of except one of them was a DeShields.

Who is trading solid pieces for Luis Robert right now?

I continue to have zero complaints. Convince the other team to do this.

Eh I'd just start off with the label "Swingman/Long reliever". Let the roster sort out where he winds up, if he winds up looking like a starter great, if not then a reliever, and if someone gets hurt or gets shelled early he's stretched out for 4-5 innings.

This wasn't either of the top names people were mentioning/guessing, right?

Straight up question, with all the outfielders they've added, and Ramos being OF'd, you really think both Robert and Benintendi remain on this roster?

Is there any obvious reason for "Vargas to be ahead of Ramos" other than "Getz acquired one of these and not the other, so Getz needs to be made to look good"?

Wouldn’t Ramos benefit from this too?

Every decision on Vargas is being made on hope. He showed no signs of being a tolerable hitter, but we hope he will suddenly become one. He showed no signs of being a good infielder but we hope he will be, so they make decisions based on that assumption. After all, if the White Sox traded one of their only assets for a guy who was an immediate bust, some unfair people might judge them for that.

Teams don’t want to trade that kind of talent, but teams don’t want to have obvious rotation holes either. When they don’t have ways to fill them other than trades, they have no other choice. This market is rapidly moving in that direction.

Who the hell complained about this being inactive?

After today and Eovaldi I kinda have the opposite feeling. On FG, out of the top 11 free agent starters, 7 are now signed. Last year it was obvious that Snell was going to be stuck out for a while, this year he’s already signed, and I think everyone expects Burnes to have someone meet his price. The only thing that seems like it might slow down the market might be Sasaki, but if you need reliable pitching the FA options are almost gone.

Cease is totally going to the Orioles.

Please let us know what exactly this has to do with the Yankees.

This is definitely going to be Mike Clevinger.

Interesting thought line. I can't imagine a pitcher getting this kind of money. As great as Henderson is, his first full season was when he was 22, not 19. He just turned 26, whereas Henderson will turn 28 during his first year after free agency, for about 2.5 years older at free agency. Maybe inflation wins that fight, but maybe the fact that he's older limits the total money.

In reply to a post calling him a "clubhouse presence" and "Veteran stopgap" as a justification for signing him. Thanks for the personal attack, I'll go a lot harsher next time you defend Getz.

There's an interesting thing to consider in that the Dodgers have a more direct across-the-ocean connection with a larger Japanese community in the area than Chicago, but at the same time Chicago is more centrally located in the US and hasn't had anyone like Ohtani in the area. He already had the LA area known to him through time with the Angels, so it's possible that new marketing opportunities would present themselves by going to Chicago. At the very least, I don't think there's a huge loss in endorsement money by leaving LA for Chicago. Considering the deferments, an offer comparable to what the Dodgers gave him but without the deferments - maybe? 10/$600 is worth more than the face value of the Dodgers deal. Maybe that could actually get it done? He'd lose his playoff time this year but he wasn't pitching this year anyway.

Oh so last year the leadership "prevented a full mutiny"? Name a business where you actually bring in people from other businesses successfully just for leadership, but without putting them in managerial roles or giving them any instructions, support, or training from the corporate level. Your, I dunno, stock person in a warehouse driving a forklift is supposed to be the leader that the organization needs.

1. But they brought in leadership. That's always a good thing. How could it suck massive balls when there was leadership? That's the benefit of this signing, right? Leadership. Why else would it keep getting mentioned? It's always a positive. They brought in leadership and 2024 was the successful result. 2. What does that matter?

If there was any lesson, any single lesson we should take from 2024, it's to never, ever, ever look at a signing and count "leadership" as a justification for it again. The concept should be one that everyone points at while laughing after 2024. It should be a word that is so triggering that we all collapsed in tears when it was first mentioned in this thread. In 2024 Getz tried to import guys specifically to be leaders, brought in numerous players who were poor fits and overpaid some of them for no other reason other than their leadership, he brought in a dozen veterans to help out during spring training, and the end result was 121 losses. It has never been clearer. You cannot sign leadership. You cannot import leadership. This concept is flawed. This will not be a team of 22 year olds, and even if it was, there's a coaching staff. Stop spending extra money on leadership. Stop using that as a justification for bad moves. Your 2024 team's results are what you get when you try to. Guys who you bring in for leadership keep being guys who are problems, both here and elsewhere. The guys who ripped the White Sox in the press were repeatedly their supposed leaders. The worst problems in the White Sox's messes have been the supposed imported leaders. The Astros are not a big fan of the leadership of great leader Jose Abreu, and it was an expensive lesson for them. Spend money on guys who fill roles on your baseball team. Understand your roster and what can fit on it. Bring in a good coaching staff. Provide your players with the resources they need. Develop your culture over time with a consistent message, resources, and accountability. Stop hoping for a quick fix with a cheap signing that somehow makes everyone better through leadership. Do not sign generic Getz clones for leadership and expect them to paper over other issues.

An .823 OPS in Charlotte is simply not that impressive to me. For a #1 prospect in the big leagues? Dude struck out 102 times in 309 at bats. That's just not great at AAA, that would be among the worst K-rates in the leagues in the big leagues. I'd like to see him actually dominate AAA offensively at least for a month, and I'd like to see him showing signs of controlling that K-rate at least a little. What was his problem in 2018? It was his approach and K-Rate, he was probably the only guy we've ever called up who was too patient, guys could throw him strikes and he still didn't swing.