almagest

Did he say the fans needed to execute on that better, too?

This is one of the worst pro football games I've ever watched. They can't do anything against a team that's as bad as Carolina and Jacksonville. They absolutely need to fire Waldron and/or Eberflus after this. Hell, put Bagent in and see if he can do anything, because it literally can't get any worse.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but the White Sox could’ve gotten LUKE F’IN KEASCHALL instead of Vargas.

It doesn’t. Like I said, there’s plenty to be bothered by without making up ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Why does it bother you so much that I call out ridiculous conspiracy theories and laugh at them? On second thought, I know the answer.

There’s enough to be ticked off with this team already. We don’t need to invent things.

.850 OPS over the last month of the season. I'd keep him as well and bet on a solid first half to make him tradable for at least a lotto ticket, assuming the Sox don't pay his salary. It's not like they have some stud LF blocked in the minors.

If the Sox trade Robert + for Lux, or even straight up, then I will be 100% wrong on giving Getz a chance. Even in an atrocious year Robert's value wasn't that far from Lux.

I assume this is pretty across the board in baseball. No one is trading these players anymore. Crochet might end up a volume package.

https://tenor.com/view/mystery-box-family-guy-a-boats-boat-mystery-could-be-anything-gif-15543179

Like I said before, we unfortunately weren't trading with Rick Hahn.

If I took a shot every time he mentioned Luke Keaschall, I'd be dead of alcohol poisoning.

Yeah, he was good enough in relief last year that someone with playoff aspirations will likely pick him up. Would be fine having him back but he's probably gone.

I don't think he's going to have a choice. He was bad as a starter and good as a reliever.

Then I have no idea why you said the Sox have the same problem the Braves did, because that team is good.

No it isn’t, because Banks was way cheaper and was much better last year. Bummer had low surplus value due to his terrible 2023 and high contract value. I already covered this with Bummer.

Gowens is a starter. Also, I don’t think you knew who was a 40 man bubble candidate or not, because you thought they had a roster crunch like the Braves even though both those guys are gone.

Cool, so they presumably took the best deal they could and got back a SP prospect who had a good year for the Sox and should be in AAA, a high draft pick SS who struggled and was worth a shot, and a spot starter/long man with team control who was ok for a terrible team. The Braves also threw in a utility infielder who plays good defense and a project starting pitcher the Sox probably hoped could regain some of his 2019 form. Maybe the Sox could’ve gotten one more lower level lotto ticket instead of Soroka and Lopez, but this trade looks fine to me.

Yeah, just like Bummer. Better after he left. Good thing they got rid of him when they could. The Sox don’t even have a full 40 man roster lol what are you talking about. No one wants most of their 26 man players because they lost 121 games last year and most of them stink, not because of the trade they made with the Braves. You also know that Lopez and Soroka were the non-tender candidates, right? Not the other three players? And you know Soroka is already gone, and Lopez is probably not coming back, right?

Kopech was pretty good in 2021 and 2022, was WAY better than Bummer after he left the Sox, and if you stretch, you can say he returned two low level prospects. Hill was about as good as Bummer this year and was way cheaper. Yankees picked him up for nothing after he stunk with the Sox. Banks was solid and very cheap, and returned one low level prospect. The rest of these guys were either always terrible, too old, or were good previously and regressed here, which doesn't give me confidence that Bummer would've bounced back. Honestly, by looking at what the Sox got for Kopech and Banks, the Braves might've overpaid.

So if you think those guys suck, then why would Bummer rebound here?

So then why was Bummer so likely to rebound here?

🙄

I already covered this - in your best case scenario, there's little surplus value in a 3.5-3.75 ERA, 0.6 WAR middle reliever in August, when he'll be making $7.25 million + a $7.5 million dollar option in the next two years. His contract renegotiation helps to show this. They likely would've gotten a similar package, if not worse.

So what? These "career odds" don't matter when GMs are evaluating who they send out in trades. No one is going to pay 2019-2022 prices for him when his most recent year was so bad. There's also zero guarantee he was going to rebound on a team that was at best going to be slightly better than were the year before, and ended up being the worst team of all time with substantial player regressions across the entire roster.