Eminor3rd

I didn’t realize Hahn refused the opportunity to sign Ohtani

Those were dark days

Wait, Klentak? Conservative? Any deal this big needs major owner buy-in. But owners dictated even the Santana signing, and have been barking about being impatient and wanting to spend for a couple years now, even before this free agent class. They DO want to spend. And if the market on the second of these players falls apart to the extent that JR thinks he can afford both, the price will also be very within what the Phillies want to pay.

Even if the Yankees/Dodgers/Cubs interest is overblown and the money isn’t there, I don’t see how there’s any way the Phillies let the Sox get both.

You are unbelievable. The mods are trying to defend you, and you poke back at them. STOP ANTAGONIZING PEOPLE.

Taylor Trammel has had a lot of helium lately. I can totally imagine a Kluber deal centered on Trammell. Fits Cleveland’s organizational needs super well too.

Honestly, I think that if they’re going to leave Wrigley, they’d be better off leaving the city. Can you imagine how angry the fan base would be if they moved to the suburbs?

This will disrupt the talent pipeline that already exists to the NPB. Selfishly, i like Japan’s access to that talent, because it makes the league better. But this is better for the players, for sure.

16 third baseman had a better road OPS than Arenado last year?

There have been studies on this, though I don’t have quite the time to find them now. Essentially, nearly EVERY player hits better at home, and the gap is significant. The gap at Coors is more significant than at other places, but if you normalize the typical split gap, you see that the difference is often very overblown by pundits. A better way to analyze a Rockies player in terms of Coors Effect would be to compare his splits with other players splits. In most cases, you’ll see a much smaller difference.

Everyone keeps forgetting that the Yankees already have a very promising, popular, major league ready SS with five years of control in their organization. Gleyber Torres. He only played 2B because Didi was the incumbent. He is Plan A if/when Didi his to FA next year.

That’s pretty much what I’m saying — the FO track record is absolutely a factor. But it’s just one amongst many, including a wide range of talent across all levels of the organization, everything that comes with choosing Chicago over anywhere else, total dollars on the table, managerial relationship, etc. some of those will change over the course of a contract he’d sign, others won’t.

How did he compare to the “road” versions of all of those players?

Choosing to look backward instead of forward would be a classically and commonly dumb way to make such an important decision. The team’s reputation over recent history is absolutely a factor in how you assess the immediate future, but it’s only one factor. If the past ten years is his primary decision driver, he’s missing the first for the trees in an epic and tragic way.

If our FO is smart, they’ll be reiterating to Machado that when you sign a ten year contract, you have a lot more to think about than contention chances in year one. I can see wanting to play for the Yankees or Phillies or trusting in one FO versus the other as potentially significant factors, but butwould be hard for me to believe that the White Sox projected 2019 record could be what disqualified them. Over ten years, you’re likely to see two complete contention cycles with any franchise, regardless of where each is at the start.

This is not a sentence.

Well I mean, I think my whole list is guys who I hated for objective, performance reasons. If it was the all-scumbag team, I’d have different answers for sure. I can see how you could interpret the OP either way.

I didn't remember KW wanting Thome back, but that's on brand, too. So sorry for that post, KW. Actually I'm not sorry, KW, because you never should have let Ozzie talk you into that dumb shit. You were the boss.

Yep, part of the famed and now meme'd "KW always gets his man" era, where he'd sign "premium athletes" when they were 34 and slow, only to put them in positions that required them still to be premium athletes.

Avisail Garcia Jeff Samardzija James Shields Scott Linebrink Mark Teahen Honorable mention: Mark Kotsay. Nothing personal, I just hated his inclusion on the roster and everything it represented.

1. Frank Thomas 2. Lyle Mouton 3. Matt Thornton 4. Jose Quintana 5a. Paco Martin 5b. Ron Karkovice

They JUST dumped Santana so they could move Hoskins back to first, had the worst defense in a decade last year.

Alonso is a substantially better defender than Abreu. But yeah, this means Palka has to *gulp* play the field... !

I'm fine with that -- I meant I hope we didn't give up anything significant.

It's a trade