chw42

It would be hilarious if Elias, in the interest of saving some $, employed a troll farm to neg trade targets on opposing teams' message boards as a psy-op of some sorts. Too bad Chris Getz doesn't read these boards.

Let's see what Vineyard Pipeline has to say about it.

You're worried about Cease's velocity decrease, which is a valid concern, but did you take a look and see the drop-off Burnes had last year? Cease dropped around 1 MPH on all of his pitches last year, but so did Burnes. Let's look at this objectively. You'd give up a lot (I'm not sure what your definition of a lot is though) for just 1 year of Burnes at $14 million. But would not give up a lot for Cease, who has 2 years of control at roughly $22 million ($8.5 million this year, 13.5 million next year)? Even if you think Burnes is a 5 WAR pitcher and Cease is, say, a 3.5 WAR pitcher. You're paying $14 million for 5 WAR in 1 year vs. $22 million for 7 WAR in 2 years. Yes you might be better off rate-wise next year, but Cease's extra control gives him more surplus value.

Haha, I've definitely heard that one before while the Sox were in their contention window.

Only if he's traded to the Royals for Brady Singer.

Also Penix is way too old to sit. He's only a year younger than Fields and Fields is almost done with his rookie contract.

The national championship could raise or sink Penix/McCarthy's stock quite a bit. Kiper had them outside of his top 25 before the semi finals and now both are on there. Penix at 10 (too high) and McCarthy in the low 20s. If both have a good game and do well during pre-draft there's a chance both are gone by the early 2nd.

He's 43.

This is like going to another team's subreddit and constantly telling them how they're wrong. He would have been banned a long time ago in that situation. It would have been amusing for the first time or 2, but not when he's one of the top posters in a 180 page thread. Also there's having a friendly convo about this and then there's telling people they're stupid for having a different opinion. You don't go on another team's board and do that.

Any rants about how the Sox actually beat the Tigers 14 times last year if it wasn't for the corruption in Detroit?

What's the White Sox discourse like on there?

I think the conundrum with Fields in general is that you need to build an offense around him for him to truly succeed. Yet, if you do that, there's a good possibility he ends up missing at least 25% of the season because his game gets him hurt and he gets absolutely no calls from the refs when the other team tries to concuss him every time he runs. I think there was a reason Getsy tried so hard to make him a pocket passer in the early parts of the last 2 seasons. Because in order for him to be the long term solution, he needs to develop as a pocket passer. That's for his own good and for the good of the team in the long term. On top of that, because his game is so run dependent, his stats and performance in obvious passing scenarios are abysmal. Do we really want a QB who has a bunch of issues in obvious scenarios leading you on crucial drives in late and close games? Because if you do, you're basically limiting yourself to winning games where you're just way better than your opposition. That usually doesn't happen in the playoffs. And if you look at the games the Bears have won this year, they've more or less lead big in all of them from the start with the exception of the Vikings game. I think what's interesting about Fields this year is that his stats are actually not that different than the down year Lamar put up in 2021. Their adjusted rate stats were very similar. Exact same QBR+ at 94, similar sack rate, similar ANY/A+. The Ravens were also 8-9 that year. That was also Lamar's 4th season. The difference was that he was the MVP 2 years before that and he was also much better in obvious passing situations late in close games. Ultimately, I think Fields' biggest problem, regardless of how his overall stats look, is that you can't really count on him in situations where his arm has to win you the game. He's only done it once in his career and he's had a ton of opportunities to do it over the past few years. It got so bad that you could predict a turnover in a situation like that and you would have been right almost 75% of the time. Nobody can really guarantee that Williams or Maye will be better than Fields next year, but if Williams answers a lot of the questions about his size and character pre-draft, I almost think you'd have to pick him. Because unless Fields takes leaps as a passer (in his 4th year, which usually does not happen), you're not going to win with him consistently. Especially if you want to win in the playoffs.

He's hilarious.

This guy is perfect when you need a position player to pitch.

The only guy the Bears should be interested in from the Raiders is Crosby. If you can get Crosby, 2 firsts, and a 2nd from the Raiders, you might have to think hard about it.

It would feel a lot like what the Lions did last year when they beat GB to keep them out of the playoffs.

I think they need a Packers and Vikings tie too. I don't think that's happening.

Outside of Moore and Kmet, everybody on this team has butter fingers. They definitely need to upgrade the WR room, regardless of who's QB next year.

This was a statement game for Fields...for Atlanta to trade for him. He should have had a couple of dime TDs today, if it wasn't for Scott dropping them.

I think he wanted to get Moore 200 yards. He was at 160.

Just don't have him pitch the Patriots' Day game.

Ah the mystery lefty. Just like the mystery teams that pop up in free agency for Boras clients. See? We do have a seat at the table.

Coby White has gone ice cold from 3.

I was hoping the Stassi trade would make them not sign guys like Maldonado.

What the f***? Why?