Balta1701

I'm somewhat surprised that the Profar projection is only 3/$40, is it really that low for him coming off of last year? I am intrigued by the idea of signing Hoffman to move him back to starting, this does seem to be a league-wide trend that is working for people.

Isn't that though?

You're right. I got the years wrong. But you know what's fun? You know why I missed this? We have tried this every year! AND IT NEVER WORKS! 2020: Kenny Williams quote describing DALLAS KEUCHEL: "There is a very real leadership and motivational component. And presence will always remain something that is very hard to quantify. You know it when you see it." Does anyone here want to talk to me about the benefits of Dallas Keuchel's leadership? 2021-2022: Jose Abreu, the greatest internal leader ever is here. Was 2022 a well led team? This is a joke right? 2023: Thank god Elvis Andrus is back, this is the leadership we need. Also a veteran leader in Benintendi. Was 2023 a well led team? 2024: We spend the entire offseason adding leadership. It's basically the only thing that is added other than Fedde. Was 2024 a well led team? 2025: Tauchman: "Well at least he's a leader, this will surely be the year that the leadership will kick in." We keep signing guys who fit this profile precisely, declaring them to be leaders, then being astounded that every year is a poorly led group of players. The lesson from Mike Tauchman should not be to sign Mike Tauchman for leadership. It's that the Cubs signed a guy out of Korea, got a couple of years of cheap control and production from a guy in his early 30s. That's what we should be doing! Give me a guy who has a couple of years of control remaining, or who might be tradable. Dylan Carlson or Austin Hays or Bryan De La Cruz from the guys non-tendered this year, they're 5 years younger, they don't provide "That veteran leadership", but they have >1 year of control and if they have a good first half could be tradable for something. Or maybe find a guy from Korea, like the Cubs did, I'm not sure if there's a guy who has been over there who could do the same thing this year. Or hell, just play the AAAA guys from our system, it's cheaper and they have years of control, just not "leadership".

Oh ok, so the 2022 White Sox are the team you think of as having strong character and leadership.

“The 2023 White Sox were well led and that is the type of thing we should repeat, find me more players who look like that” is the kind of thing we should be pointing and laughing at.

You’re calling me a Cowboys fan and I’m off my rocker? Oh I know the solution, you need more veteran leadership.

Bringing in white guys and declaring them leaders by default can never fail. It can only be failed. The 2023 White Sox were brilliantly led by their great leaders, it is only us who fail to understand the greatness of their leadership.

I’m suggesting that 2023 did not go very well and that the results of 2023 might indicate a flaw in the concept itself.

2023: “this guy will bring a valuable clubhouse presence”. 2024: “oh my god did we learn nothing from 2023”

The relevant question for the White Sox should be “is he a guy anyone would trade for at the deadline”.

Getz did say he wanted an OF.

You can't write this post about salary dumping without noting the salary they're trying to dump.

I actually can't tell which of these is which. Personally, I'd say let Quero up to start the year, I see no problem with that. I would put Schultz on something like the setup that Skenes threw last year, conserve his arm in AAA for a month or two then let him in the big leagues. Smith, I dunno, maybe next year a debut late in the season? See what he does? He's thrown 70, 70, and 90 innings in recent years, so pushing his arm up into the low to mid 100s isn't unreasonable.

While true, imagine that roster without either Crochet or Fedde. I think more important could well be that the environment was so toxic thanks to Grifol and the other coaches last year that this really did make the outcomes far, far worse.

FWIW, in 2017 Moncada did not look ready when he was called up. He wasn't called up because he was performing well at AAA, he was called up because Hahn traded Frazier and open spots meant high level prospects must come up. He had a lot of work to do and a really rough 2018.

MLB definitely is happy when you get a Yankees Dodgers World Series, no discussion here. The big spending teams have an advantage. The final 4 teams this year were the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets....and the freaking Cleveland Guardians. For teams that are poorly run, baseball runs poorly for them. For teams that are well run, there is a path to get through, or at least there has been for the last few years unless things have completely changed now that spending has resumed. It isn't easy and you may have more hurdles than the Dodgers, but it can certainly be done.

The 2023 World Series was the Texas Rangers vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks.

If I've done the math right, this is likely <0.3% of MLB revenue during the time period of his contract.

I’m gonna call bullsh*t on this sympathy for the Yankees. In 2004 the Yankees payroll crossed $200 million for the first time, I think with the ARod trade. At the time, their payroll was about 5% of league revenues, estimated about $4.3 billion. MLB revenues should cross $12 billion this year. The $300 million payrolls of the Yankees and Mets will be about 2.5% of that, half the rate of two decades ago. Were the Yankees bankrupt in 2004? If not, this is a massive proportional payroll cut by them. Even if their revenue is growing more slowly than the rest of the league (didn’t YES premier after this?), that’s easily $200 million more their owners are taking home per year. Poor Yankee ownership can’t keep up though.

Apparently he can choose between an opt out and a $4 million a year salary increase.

Failing to deal with a person proselytizing during business hours in the real world is literally an HR violation. Had there been only one case of this, it’s probably fine. The story we have now is of a team that ripped itself apart and hated each other all the way to a loss record. That’s on the players themselves, but also Tony LaRussa and Pedro Grifol, Hahn for not realizing the mess he was creating with his acquisitions, and the development staff for never working to turn these guys into adults as well as not helping Hahn recognize that there was a brewing problem. I’m afraid yeah, your hero is on that list.

This conversation literally started because I said that Nick Madrigal’s bad attitude should probably reflect on the franchise. You can add Anderson, Kopech, Rodon, Colas, and im Sure others I am forgetting to the list of guys where we have heard bad things about their attitude. This is basically constant, the list of guys we hear nothing bad about is shorter.