Sambuca

Does he still need to develop a tool if he is a tool?

How does that work exactly? Did they stop providing him a clean uniform for every game?

Anyone know how is stuff is today compared to when he was drafted? I am assuming injuries have left him as a shell of his prospect form.

I think we will. Having your hip completely rip in half just from running in a straight line has to be quite the traumatic experience. I am thinking an offseason of strength/conditioning and mental rehabilitation should go a long way. It’s amazing how quickly he was back on the field and playing at an elite level.

Ben Sheets hit zero home runs in his MLB career. I’m guessing his power at age 43 wasn’t too hard to project.

Those appraisals are non-existent.

Someone alert me when this becomes a Machado/Tatis, ARod/Jeter, Seager/Turner situation.

We don’t even have a semi-capable player to push one of our best players out of their regular and best defensive position. This is such a dumb and pointless conversation.

A competent organization just acquires a good 2B.

It’s all we have left.

Grichuk kind of sucks (RH, low OBP, high SO), and the Sox would be taking on a decent chunk of salary in 2023 as well. I really hope they didn’t exercise Kimbrel’s option for that.

If they end up keeping Kimbrel, signing another reliever with their “last” 7mil doesn’t seem like the best usage of limited resources. I honestly would have rather used that money to sign Cesar than rely on internal 2B options while pulling Leury out of the super-sub role. However, I am on board with bringing back Rodon.

Very upset. There’s a lot of things the Sox do that I can fool myself into rationalizing, but this is not one of them. Leury is needed in a backup role for just about every position on the field. Starting Leury exclusively at one position, not only limits his value, but more importantly severely weakens the roster. It does not allow the Sox to maximize talent on the roster and it hinders flexibility of the roster. Mendick’s bat is pretty much non-existent, and I have very little confidence in Romy as a major league contributor. There is also no guarantee we can acquire a better 2B at the deadline if we cannot acquire one now. We are supposed to be a World Series contender next season, in a massive market. We need to start the season with a real 2B, not a collection of bench players. That is embarrassing.

Yes!!!

What else can we discuss about Leury?

This makes a lot of sense, especially in a vacuum, but both sides need to factor in the damage an extended lockout, including loss of games, will do the sport overall. And they have no idea how to predict how long those damages will last, and if they can recover.

This thread is really making me depressed.

Judging by their bullshit “meetings” they were only having days before CBA expired, it appears the owners were only willing to “negotiate” after the players were locked out.

So what’s the end game here? Are the owners just hoping to lock the players out until they stop asking for stuff, or is any substantial progress expected to be made?

With the White Sox lack of power and elite pitching for the majority of the season, can we speculate they were mostly playing with the “dead” ball?

They need to get it done before then. There are a ton of free agents out, teams are not nearly complete, and most players start reporting to ST by mid February. Looks like the first ST games are scheduled for 2/25.

1/16 has a lot less risk to compared to something like 3/40, which is probably on the lower end. Above average closers are looking for multi year deals with fairly high AAVs. Teams might not want to deal with that on the open market to acquire one for next season. Not even sure what closers are still available as FA, but I don’t believe there’s many which means teams will probably have to overspend in a bidding war.

Stroman won’t play for La Russa, but he will accept money/create revenue from/for the Rickett’s family. Cool.