caulfield12

But Kyler Murray the last month or so suddenly looks like one of the most dangerous QB's in the entire league, with Daniels starting to struggle a bit, too. Let's not forget he was recovering from ACL surgery the first half of the 2023 season...last year isn't a very good indicator of his still considerable upside (despite his height/size). https://www.espn.com/nfl/qbr #2 in current QB ratings With Murray under center, the Cardinals had the 9th ranked offense in the NFL (362.8 ypg) and averaged 22.4 points per game. Israel Woolfork is in his second season with the Cardinals after being hired to coach quarterbacks on 3/1/23. He previously served as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Browns and Miami University, only 34 years old. So the moral of the story seemingly is don't give up on mobile former Oklahoma QB's too soon, like the Cleveland Browns did with Mayfield and many wanted to do with Murray as well.

Plus, Odunze also a rookie with perhaps unrealistic expectations...not unlike Harrison with the Cardinals, very up and down season, like a lot of the Bears' players outside of Swift for the last 6 weeks or so.

Cam Ward is going to be 23 next summer before his rookie season in the NFL. There are really ZERO standout franchise QB's this time around, compared to the unquestioned top 3 in 2024. Sanders, Milroe, Ewers, Nussmeier, Beck, Gabriel, all with major flaws in their games.

The only "big name" signing would have to be someone like Sasaki where there's almost no downside risk on a first big league deal...since the original amount would clearly be in the single digits for millions of dollars committed. Which is why the odds are approximately 1/1000 of it actually happening. (JR would still probably blanch at the posting fee "tax" paid...no matter how insignificant compared to Matsumoto's $50+ million posting fee with ORIX.)

Two Hall of Famers and one who will at least get Veterans Committee consideration but come up short.

Odds are looking like closer to 75-80% that Montgomery is destined for 3B eventually...plus the physical demands of the SS position are such that a player who battled injuries all last season might be better off in a less taxing position, where he can rely more on reflexes/instincts. The biggest plus for him is going to be offensively, so it's advisable not to put him in a situation where defensive struggles/questions start to impact the other side of his game.

Baldwin is going to have to put together an amazing spring training, because the time out with injury/inactivity in Aug/Sept. and the sheer amount of responsibilities for a major league SS are going to make Charlotte a much likelier destination for more seasoning.

Hello Amaya starting SS.

Price?

https://www.mlb.com/news/chris-getz-will-venable-partnership-white-sox Merkin laying it on thick about Getz/Venable partnership...Dayton Moore quotes. Lol at Crochet getting Cy Young votes with the White Sox next year.

Wouldn't we be relegated to drafting 10th in that too every other year?

https://www.mlb.com/news/top-mlb-international-prospects-for-2025 #4 is another Salas brother, #5 a name that should be familiar with Sox "internationally-oriented" fans Sasaki’s arsenal is the type that makes evaluators salivate. His fastball sits 97-100 mph and touches 102 with remarkably little effort. His 89-91 mph splitter is a soul-destroying pitch batters can’t hit even when they know it’s coming. He flashes an above-average slider with late, vertical snap and has a curveball that he can land for strikes. He maintains his velocity deep into his starts, has an athletic, durable, 6-foot-2 frame and fills the strike zone with plus command and control. The Dodgers’ interest in Sasaki has been no secret, and has been a long time coming. Under the posting system between Nippon Professional Baseball and MLB, Japanese teams receive a free from the signing MLB team based on the contract signed, on a graduated scale starting at 20 percent, down to 15 percent for any amount exceeding $50 million. For Yamamoto, whose $325 million contract signed last December was the highest ever for any pitcher, the Dodgers paid Orix a posting fee of $50.625 million. But because Sasaki isn’t yet 25 years old and lacks the requisite professional experience, he is subject to MLB’s international bonus pool, which severely limits his earning power. In the 2024 international signing period, which runs through December 15, total bonus pools ranged from $5.1-7.1 million, and most of that is already spent. The Dodgers reportedly have somewhere between $2-2.5 million to spend in this period, which is the most in MLB. It made for an awkward, and also amusing moment prior to Game 1 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium, when Ronald Blum of Associated Press during a press conference asked Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman of the team’s interest in Sasaki. “Are you serious right now? That’s really the question?” Friedman snapped. “This is the World Series, Ron. This is outrageous. You want to talk about our hitting philosophy and the player development. Seriously, this is not important for right now. That’s outrageous. It’s crazy.” https://www.truebluela.com/2024/11/9/24292018/roki-sasaki-posted-chiba-lotte-japan-mlb-dodgers

Monday was the first day of the 2024 international signing period across Major League Baseball, the annual addition of teenagers — many with advance deals in place from unfathomably young ages — that might one day help in the majors. On the first day of the period, the Dodgers announced the signing of 19 players, headlined by 17-year-old shortstop Emil Morales from the Dominican Republic. Morales was rated the No. 2 international prospect in this class across baseball by Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs, who wrote Morales has “a shot to do a little bit of everything and develop into [a] five-tool player” and “he could perhaps be a very good defender at a second-tier position (third base).” The 6’3 shortstop was ranked No. 10 by Baseball America, with Ben Badler writing, “It’s a sound swing for his age with power that has trended up as he has added strength to his lower half and should spike more in the coming years. Morales is an offensive-oriented shortstop who is built more like a third baseman, with many scouts believing he will slide over to third base in the near future.” MLB Pipeline has Morales as the 14th-best international prospect. Basically, it's just ONE player who would get the majority of attention... https://www.truebluela.com/2024/1/16/24039199/dodgers-international-signing-period-2024-emil-morales-rafy-peguero

And I tried to add the Iguchi tie-in as his Marines manager for multiple years to at least create a plausible path...where he would be hired to coach infielders for the White Sox AND help recruit his player to the Sox (because Machado Friends & Family worked so well, right?) I mean, it's not like we have ever replaced Durham/2005-06 Iguchi...at second base, nearly two decades later. Moncada in 2016-17 was the closest.

If the White Sox really wanted to sign Sasaki, going through Iguchi would have been perhaps the ONLY way... When he retired as a pro in 2017, Tadahito Iguchi, the second baseman for the Chicago White Sox’s 2005 World Series champs, said he someday hopes to be back in a Sox uniform. “Yes. That’s my dream,” the second-year Lotte Marines manager said in March. Remembering Ozzie Guillen Iguchi said the biggest skill he takes into managing is communication and cited his former Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen as his biggest influence. “In some sense, he (Guillen) is kind of crazy,” Iguchi said. “But he communicates well and is charismatic.” “Having been with the players here as a teammate when I was still playing and speaking with them on the bench, I think I’d established good communication with them.” How about the motivation side? “He (Guillen) has the ability to motivate people. That’s something I think I lack,” Iguchi said. One of just a handful of Japanese position players to go to the majors, Iguchi said he gained some insight into the differences between Japan’s game and America’s. https://jballallen.com/iguchi-eyes-sweet-home-chicago/

https://www.si.com/mlb/roki-sasaki-what-to-expect-japan-pitcher-free-agent “His ceiling is he’s the best pitcher in the world,” said one MLB talent evaluator who has watched him in person several times. “[But] he’s definitely not a finished product. Most people in Japan would agree with that.” What does he throw? 1. Four-seam fastball with elite velocity and movement Sasaki’s heater this year averaged 96.9 mph, down from 98.9 mph in 2023. It has 17 inches of induced vertical break, a measurement of “ride.” Only six MLB starters last season averaged at least 96 mph with that much vert: Taj Bradley, Dylan Cease, MacKenzie Gore, Hunter Brown, Luis Gil and Jared Jones. That’s not all. Sasaki’s four-seamer also has ridiculous arm-side run: 12 inches. Only one MLB pitcher this year had that combination of so much velocity, ride and run on a four-seamer: Philadelphia Phillies reliever Jeff Hoffman. “The movement profile on his fastball is elite,” the evaluator said. 2. Elite split-finger fastball The low-90s dive bomber (not sure that's the right word after WWII), thrown with a wide, four-seam grip, is a swing-and-miss pitch. “His command of the split is phenomenal,” said one scout. ..... That mentality is waning. As a high schooler in 2019, Sasaki was clocked as fast as 101 mph (163 kph) with his fastball, breaking the national record of Shohei Ohtani (160 kph). In the national tournament for Ofunato High School, Sasaki did throw 194 pitches in a 12-inning victory and 129 pitches in a semifinal win three days later, but did not pitch the next day in a loss in the championship game, prompting a flood of calls to the school asking why he didn’t pitch again. Ofunato's manager explained he was protecting Sasaki’s health. The next season, 2022, was his breakout season. He posted a 2.02 ERA over 129 1/3 innings while coming within three outs of back-to-back perfect games. His manager, Tadahito Iguchi, had decided before the second of those games to pull him at around 100 pitches. Sasaki’s innings fell to 91 in 2023 and 111 this year, in part due to arm soreness and an oblique issue.

Matt Ginter II...

The Steelers can get away with running basically FOUR routes for their receiving corps....and get into the playoffs or at least finish .500 or above for 17 consecutive years or something like that, so how is it THAT hard for all of the teams in Chicago? Two QB's that looked on the verge of playing themselves out of the league both look "dangerous" or at least not woeful/pathetic like Matt Rodgers in NY.

"They want the $6 billion because they want expansion teams in Seattle and Vegas, and Mexico City is kind of looming as a third team. But they want to get $6 billion apiece for two franchises for expansion, which would mean a check of $400 million to every NBA owner, all 30. So they're trying to establish a price for this Celtics team." https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/jeff-bezos-boston-celtics-sale-bill-simmons-grousbeck-nba/ On top of that, they don't own TD Garden, so probably a new stadium build like Ballmer in LA.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos rumored to be willing to spend up to $6 billion for the Boston Celtics...which would simultaneously blow up the expansion fees for the next NBA move down the line.

Remember, JR owns "only" 25% or so of the team, so his windfall would be much closer to $500 million before taxes.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have been friends going back to their days playing in Japan's top baseball league. Now, they're making their Major League Baseball playoff debuts together for the Los Angeles Dodgers. They teamed to win a gold medal for Japan in last year's World Baseball Classic.Oct 4, 2024. They teamed to win a gold medal for Japan in last year’s World Baseball Classic. Their next goal? Win a World Series championship together. “The experience back in Japan, Japan Series and the World Baseball Classic, other big games will definitely help,” Yamamoto said Friday through an interpreter. “And I’d like to utilize it.” As the much younger player, Sasaki's highly unlikely to have already developed the depth of those relationships from ONE singular WBC together.

It makes sense, in a way. Coming off a World Series title, for both Matsumoto and Ohtani. That's why the Orioles, Mets, Cubs, Red Sox, Padres...start to make more sense. Every player wants to be the star on their team, right?

JR won't even commit to the $700 million Rays' ownership came up for their stadium project...

$14,537,000 Career earnings, plus lifetime MLB pension I'm sure he's doing quite well if he invested his money wisely... https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/42315424/miami-marlins-hire-clayton-mccullough-manager Marlins end up taking Dodgers' McCullough, who was the early front-runner for the White Sox job