People should not have their hopes up with this org.
I seriously doubt any of those guys are up this year. Never mind being any sort of ready as Montgomery was forecast to be, but obviously over matched right now in the minors I just do not think there is any benefit for them to be starting their clocks for a team that will be miserable, as any veteran talent they have currently on the roster will be likely traded if they can (and Im sure Getz will (as 'The Chairman's' mummy loves spending less and lusts for those 'traded for cash' deals) by the AS break.
Heck, if they really wanted these guys to learn at the big league level then Quero probably could have been up late last season but was not even though his bat looked ready. I doubt the Sox are doing anything but competing for that #1 overall draft pick for next season and you do not do that with a few of your 'top prospects' up in the majors, especially when this rebuild has barely gotten started. They already should have learned a lesson by bringing up Thorpe when this team was not close to competing, now his clock is running and he is done for this season and part of next. His claim to Sox fame may be being the first traded If and when the next rebuild occurs.
@ choof:
My favorite right now is probably Skubal. What a no-nonsense, bulldog, no excuses, team leader mentality he has. We really need that pizza money to go all in on him, sign him for life!
@ Melchez:
I have watched a lot of Oakland A's games over the past several years, in person and on TV. Esteury Ruiz is not a serviceable centerfielder. Despite his speed, he is not good defensively or at the plate.
Also, Ibanez had the highest out OAA on the Tigers last year, he is a sneaky good fielder. I hope they give him a real chance this year, hoping he can hit right handed pitching.
I don't think it's accurate to say the Phillies have interest in an extension with Realmuto. J.T. definitely wants to re-sign but I think the Phillies plan to play the season out and see how Marchan does.
Kyle Schwarber, though, should be extended, and the price goes up every day. You just cannot rotate players into the DH spot and replace 100 runs scored, 40 home runs, 100 RBI, and 100 walks a season. A full-time DH who gets on base with pop is very valuable. If they wait until the offseason, they run the risk of losing out on Guerrero and Tucker and by that time, Kyle already would have signed elsewhere.
that take is mostly based on my trolling Cub fans, and how great it would be for the Astros to pull off a coupe like that, for Tucker to resign with the Astros and to have picked up Cam Smith, Parades and Wesneski in the one year rental, could be an all time coupe, and one that will fry Cubs fans noodles for the next five seasons.
What makes you think they are cheating? The rule says bats can be no more than 2.61 inches wide, but they're well within their rights to make the bats as wide as the rule allows. Having a smart idea that no one else had is a lot different from cheating.
You are right about Baltimore. Zach Eflin is a good pitcher, but there's no way he should be the Opening Day starter on a club with championship aspirations.
Wow... what a list. You've totally missed my point, and made that point for me at the same time.
But back to your list: Meneses and Ritter are legitimate.
Young and Schwartz are s on the IL, and Schwartz is likely ticketed for DOUBLE-A when he gets activated.
After that, you get points for imagination. McKinney is purely an OF, cannot hit at all, and had zero power when he did hit. De Los Santos has used a 1B glove a time or two. But to call him up part of the depth at that position is, again, imaginative.
But all in all, you've basically proven my point: what you have is a handful of marginal players, all of whom are unlikely to be productive at the major league level. The person swinging the hot bat at the time is the one most likely to get called up. And it could be any of them.
That outweighs options and versatility in a short term injury situation. In case of a long term injury, none of them fills the bill and the Mets will probably go in another direction.
Fever—correct. Theo Epstein gets wayyyy too much credit for the ‘04 team. Duquette built that team. While I agree with many that Theo made key trades and signings that put the Red Sox over the top, overall that was Duquette’s team.
Tito's teams always start slow and come together late. His 2013 Indians are the best example, they went 15-2 in their last 17 games to reach the playoffs. He was actually a pretty good manager with the Phillies too, it's just that he had absolutely no relief pitching and only one good starter.
I think you're right, I expect the Cardinals to win that division. The Pirates would have had a chance if they added a couple of pieces, but Nutting once again lost his wallet for the entire offseason.
It's going to be a dog fight but look at the NL West right now. Everyone needs to stay hot to prevent dropping far behind the others. I don't recall a start to the season with three clubs after one week combined have just a single loss (and no postponements).
Has it happened before where the same team started different pitchers with the same name in consecutive games? I remember Wilbur Wood starting both games of a doubleheader with the White Sox. For those who don't know him, he was a knuckleball pitcher who that season if I remember correctly both won and lost 20 games.
Brito's injury another big loss for the Padres, I thought he was one of their better options to plug any holes in their rotation this season, either as a trade chip or pitching for the Padres.
Pivetta could have a good season. Vasquez had a nice start, no walks through seven, his K's will come.
Looks like its Kolek/Krob/Groome as depth options if Vasquez and/or Hart bomb at some point. Austin Krob had a good start in AAA and is an interesting prospect. Lizaraga also is interesting but looks to be a year to two away, could be a nice trade piece.
Good start for the Padres. Wonder how bad Dharvish's elbow is. If he can return strong this season, Padres will be all right.
Unfortunately, this appears to be one of the UNSUCCESSFUL RECOVERIES of the ever popular SUCCESSFUL SURGERY that we hear so much about. Hopefully he eventually gets healthy enough to return to the mound.
Mets have a ton of players that can play first with most having options and they will most likely be moving one of the corner outfielders to 1st which they have been trying. out.
Just from a versatility point they have Young, Meneses (some of), Williams ( can also relieve C), Schwartz, McKinney (OF just signed and younger with more experience), Ritter, and De los santos Many of those can play other positions and have option available which singleton does not and most are either before prime or in it which would be a higher chance of the hot hand.
Singleton offers no versatility no options and is the the oldest player on the the AAA squad and doesnt really add mlb experience since he only has 2 years of service time along with not really showing much upside and being older is less likely to give you a ton more.
Funny part is the story says the Sox had the biggest impact this off season. I would argue the Yankees had just as big of an off season losing Soto but becoming a more balanced roster. Their injuries are the difference right now
Ryan Howard was a Hall of Fame-caliber player who suffered an injury in the 2011 postseason and was never the same again. Unfortunately, he was never at 100% throughout the entire time his extension covered.
But at the time the Phillies extended him, he had driven in 598 runs in his past four seasons. He held the clean National League home run record with 58 home runs in a season, Giancarlo Stanton now holds it with 59.
I think the extension only looks bad in retrospect because of his injury. It's not a situation where the player's talent didn't merit that extension.
I see Tommy John Weighted Baseballs is afraid of me and my knowlege of the great Roger Beshens. He has muted me. I've already disproved his rants and wild theories. I choose to preach the true gospel of Roger Beshens and will not be stopped by a mere muting
Bad - Not true, there were several other options besides trading Mookie. For instance if they had packaged one of Xander, JDM, Devers, Eovaldi or prospects with Price I'm sure they could have found a trade partner.
It wasn't about dumping Price's contract, it was about the Sox not being willing to give Mookie what he was worth. They negotiated with him before trading him, if he had accepted then obviously he wouldn't have been traded.
Baseball - No offense but you lose people when you say things like "worst defensive 3B in the game".
Even if by "game" you mean MLB, from 2018-2024 there have been 492 players who have played 3B in the majors. Many of those 492 didn't last very long, didn't play many innings because they weren't good enough.
Now if you wrote something like "Of all the MLB players who have played at least 7,500 innings at third base, he's the worst defensively" THEN I would agree with you .... but there's only 3 others who have played that many innings.
Bo is gonna be a bigger factor than most people realize. He was hurt almost all last year and awful when he wasn’t. A return to his normal is huge as he is around a mid 4-5 war player who was a -.3 war last year add in other improvements in outfield, DH and bullpen and you can easily see this team going from 74 wins last year to easily mid 80s-90s without any additional moves
Forgot to mention Heyward. He looks alright to me. The bat will come around a bit more, and even if it doesn't, he still contributes in the field and on the basepaths. I don't really get the hate for him.. he's older, sure, but 35 and league-average against righties the past 2 years is beyond serviceable
But they already have a vet in Joe who I'm sure would do fine (or at least better than Gurriel). I get after Manny and Tatis there's no real righty-thump in the lineup, but I'd much rather have the guy who can give competitive ABs than trying to turn back the clock with a guy who hasn't shown it for 3 years straight.
Pads - Yeah how did the Sox ever manage to make it to TWO ALCS and win a World Championship with him as the primary 3B ...... great question, I suppose your tin foil hat tells you an impostor was pretending to be him those years.
Good analysis of a team that is getting better. But it probably won't be popular with the know-nothings commenting here, because they are bullies who are getting off on repeating un-thoughtful insults of the White Sox that they have heard or read elsewhere.
Gurriel and his .125 BA looks bad. Iglesias still has not hit a ball out of the infield since the calendar turned to 2025. Of the entire bench, only Lockridge looks like he belongs in the majors.
Heyward is hitting .143. While Joe and Ornelas are tearing it up in AAA.
The Padres are still 7-0, so its working even though those players are not contributing.
Teams can operate without losing money. It doesn't mean they can compete. The discrepancy between the Dodgers payroll, and teams like the Marlins, Rays, and Pirates is ridiculous. They don't have the revenue stream that the large markets do. As to the TV partners, most teams don't have a long term partner. Most are hoping the group coming out of bankruptcy will last thru this season, after they accepted a lower rate. The changing factor is that revenue went down. Something needs to change.
The vets with a history of power surges make better bench bats. The don’t complain about lack of PT and they are focused on isolated ABs.
A 22 year old needs every day for development and mindset isn’t to sit around and get 4-5 ABs / week.
Now that said, J Hey and Uli are on a short leash - I hope. Both have had their moments this year already so if you watch the games you should have seen Yuli with a hit that won a game and J Hey has had some really good defense for an aging vet.
Devers has literally detracted from the team's success by being on the field at 3B. If all those years he was already at DH the team would have won more games.
Im not the one criticizing others directly.
I took a hack at a couple players and a couple teams but I didnt cut any of the commentors on this message board I dont think ever.
I see it how I see it. Your feelings get hurt by my assessment of a team well I aint going to change my outlook about your team because you think Im being insensitive.
The only team I troll is the Cubs, because Im from Chicago and Im a White Sox fan and thats what we do here, and I really dont like the Cubs. I dont like the Dodgers either but they are hard to troll on. But the other 28 teams I shoot them straight.
To have a job. To keep playing. To get paid. Valid reasons for agreeing to a cap on other players, when their contract is already set, once the lockout ends. (To be on the negotiating committee, it seems you need to be one of the highest paid players.)
I mean, I get your sinister question. But the greatest Padre of all time is Tony Gwynn, and he was clean, and kind. And I'll take any opportunity to sing his good praise.
Not Surprised with 4/20 coming up, that no one wanted the colas that don't hit worth a damn...hes some straight mids.
I'm starting to think the Sox are now some sort of reality contest: "So you think you can play in the Majors (and also do it for dirt cheap)?"
People should not have their hopes up with this org.
I seriously doubt any of those guys are up this year. Never mind being any sort of ready as Montgomery was forecast to be, but obviously over matched right now in the minors I just do not think there is any benefit for them to be starting their clocks for a team that will be miserable, as any veteran talent they have currently on the roster will be likely traded if they can (and Im sure Getz will (as 'The Chairman's' mummy loves spending less and lusts for those 'traded for cash' deals) by the AS break.
Heck, if they really wanted these guys to learn at the big league level then Quero probably could have been up late last season but was not even though his bat looked ready. I doubt the Sox are doing anything but competing for that #1 overall draft pick for next season and you do not do that with a few of your 'top prospects' up in the majors, especially when this rebuild has barely gotten started. They already should have learned a lesson by bringing up Thorpe when this team was not close to competing, now his clock is running and he is done for this season and part of next. His claim to Sox fame may be being the first traded If and when the next rebuild occurs.
Rox > Yanx
😛 YBC
Another example of not striking while the iron is hot. A year ago would have brought back a decent relief pitcher
Average Joe's had a Pirate. How'd that work out? Tune in to the Ocho to find out
@ choof:
My favorite right now is probably Skubal. What a no-nonsense, bulldog, no excuses, team leader mentality he has. We really need that pizza money to go all in on him, sign him for life!
Two on the Mets. Casey Stengel called one of them "Nelson."
Whose baseball card
A sap, ASAP
Gar, matey.
@ Melchez:
I have watched a lot of Oakland A's games over the past several years, in person and on TV. Esteury Ruiz is not a serviceable centerfielder. Despite his speed, he is not good defensively or at the plate.
Also, Ibanez had the highest out OAA on the Tigers last year, he is a sneaky good fielder. I hope they give him a real chance this year, hoping he can hit right handed pitching.
Maybe Perry was unavailable?
Perhaps this transaction will Delay another loss?
I'll see myself out.
Don’t delay, ACT NOW!
Nutting needed to sell Delay to make up for the cash deal for Canario
"F" Scott Fitzgerald!!!!
I don't think it's accurate to say the Phillies have interest in an extension with Realmuto. J.T. definitely wants to re-sign but I think the Phillies plan to play the season out and see how Marchan does.
Kyle Schwarber, though, should be extended, and the price goes up every day. You just cannot rotate players into the DH spot and replace 100 runs scored, 40 home runs, 100 RBI, and 100 walks a season. A full-time DH who gets on base with pop is very valuable. If they wait until the offseason, they run the risk of losing out on Guerrero and Tucker and by that time, Kyle already would have signed elsewhere.
Is this going to help us win a game?
that take is mostly based on my trolling Cub fans, and how great it would be for the Astros to pull off a coupe like that, for Tucker to resign with the Astros and to have picked up Cam Smith, Parades and Wesneski in the one year rental, could be an all time coupe, and one that will fry Cubs fans noodles for the next five seasons.
They did a trade without us?
Another Pirate off the sinking ship
Apparently Eguy was not THE guy…
You can have Colin Rea for whatever is the most popular food item at Truist Park?
What makes you think they are cheating? The rule says bats can be no more than 2.61 inches wide, but they're well within their rights to make the bats as wide as the rule allows. Having a smart idea that no one else had is a lot different from cheating.
Any relation to Willie F*****g Bloomquist?
The real Roger Beshens doesn't spend time on you.
Wow, didnt know cloning was legal in MLB
Keep 'em coming. I think there were three Bob Millers playing MLB at the same time once, many years ago.
You are right about Baltimore. Zach Eflin is a good pitcher, but there's no way he should be the Opening Day starter on a club with championship aspirations.
Wow... what a list. You've totally missed my point, and made that point for me at the same time.
But back to your list: Meneses and Ritter are legitimate.
Young and Schwartz are s on the IL, and Schwartz is likely ticketed for DOUBLE-A when he gets activated.
After that, you get points for imagination. McKinney is purely an OF, cannot hit at all, and had zero power when he did hit. De Los Santos has used a 1B glove a time or two. But to call him up part of the depth at that position is, again, imaginative.
But all in all, you've basically proven my point: what you have is a handful of marginal players, all of whom are unlikely to be productive at the major league level. The person swinging the hot bat at the time is the one most likely to get called up. And it could be any of them.
That outweighs options and versatility in a short term injury situation. In case of a long term injury, none of them fills the bill and the Mets will probably go in another direction.
Fever—correct. Theo Epstein gets wayyyy too much credit for the ‘04 team. Duquette built that team. While I agree with many that Theo made key trades and signings that put the Red Sox over the top, overall that was Duquette’s team.
Tito's teams always start slow and come together late. His 2013 Indians are the best example, they went 15-2 in their last 17 games to reach the playoffs. He was actually a pretty good manager with the Phillies too, it's just that he had absolutely no relief pitching and only one good starter.
I voted for the Rockies every time so kudos!
We have Luis Castillo… and Luis F*****g Castillo!!!!!
I was actually hoping another team would give him a spot on their 26 man roster. He’s a MLer
There's absolutely no chance Tucker goes back to the Astros, I agree with you on that.
If not for the Rockies, 24-3
I think you're right, I expect the Cardinals to win that division. The Pirates would have had a chance if they added a couple of pieces, but Nutting once again lost his wallet for the entire offseason.
What's wrong with Bryce Miller then? Oh man, we don't need another injury to our starting rotation! Fml.
The Mariners overvalued their starters this off season, they really need a good bat or two.
It's going to be a dog fight but look at the NL West right now. Everyone needs to stay hot to prevent dropping far behind the others. I don't recall a start to the season with three clubs after one week combined have just a single loss (and no postponements).
When is a bat also a phallic symbol for 200
Has it happened before where the same team started different pitchers with the same name in consecutive games? I remember Wilbur Wood starting both games of a doubleheader with the White Sox. For those who don't know him, he was a knuckleball pitcher who that season if I remember correctly both won and lost 20 games.
Brito's injury another big loss for the Padres, I thought he was one of their better options to plug any holes in their rotation this season, either as a trade chip or pitching for the Padres.
Pivetta could have a good season. Vasquez had a nice start, no walks through seven, his K's will come.
Looks like its Kolek/Krob/Groome as depth options if Vasquez and/or Hart bomb at some point. Austin Krob had a good start in AAA and is an interesting prospect. Lizaraga also is interesting but looks to be a year to two away, could be a nice trade piece.
Good start for the Padres. Wonder how bad Dharvish's elbow is. If he can return strong this season, Padres will be all right.
The double name train power game! The Mariners message to the rest of the league: we’re gonna throw every Luis Castillo we got at ya!
Glitch in the matrix
I get 2 Max Muncy’s but this team’s got 2 Luis Castillo’s. Dang.
Just days ago I posted they should select him, this is fantastic hahaha
Timing is a publicity stunt
Unfortunately, this appears to be one of the UNSUCCESSFUL RECOVERIES of the ever popular SUCCESSFUL SURGERY that we hear so much about. Hopefully he eventually gets healthy enough to return to the mound.
Red Sox are a complete team. Orioles don’t have enough starting pitching.
Mets have a ton of players that can play first with most having options and they will most likely be moving one of the corner outfielders to 1st which they have been trying. out.
Just from a versatility point they have Young, Meneses (some of), Williams ( can also relieve C), Schwartz, McKinney (OF just signed and younger with more experience), Ritter, and De los santos Many of those can play other positions and have option available which singleton does not and most are either before prime or in it which would be a higher chance of the hot hand.
Singleton offers no versatility no options and is the the oldest player on the the AAA squad and doesnt really add mlb experience since he only has 2 years of service time along with not really showing much upside and being older is less likely to give you a ton more.
Sad news for Luis. I hope the Astros get him back soon. He was a reliable rotation piece and is missed.
Funny part is the story says the Sox had the biggest impact this off season. I would argue the Yankees had just as big of an off season losing Soto but becoming a more balanced roster. Their injuries are the difference right now
I don't think they're the best team at all, but never count the Yankees out
Good piece, thanks!
Two years. Wow.
Ryan Howard was a Hall of Fame-caliber player who suffered an injury in the 2011 postseason and was never the same again. Unfortunately, he was never at 100% throughout the entire time his extension covered.
But at the time the Phillies extended him, he had driven in 598 runs in his past four seasons. He held the clean National League home run record with 58 home runs in a season, Giancarlo Stanton now holds it with 59.
I think the extension only looks bad in retrospect because of his injury. It's not a situation where the player's talent didn't merit that extension.
Extreme SSS, but an 81 EV and 41-degree LA do not inspire confidence. He's hitting the ball softer than Maldonado.
I see Tommy John Weighted Baseballs is afraid of me and my knowlege of the great Roger Beshens. He has muted me. I've already disproved his rants and wild theories. I choose to preach the true gospel of Roger Beshens and will not be stopped by a mere muting
Bad - Not true, there were several other options besides trading Mookie. For instance if they had packaged one of Xander, JDM, Devers, Eovaldi or prospects with Price I'm sure they could have found a trade partner.
It wasn't about dumping Price's contract, it was about the Sox not being willing to give Mookie what he was worth. They negotiated with him before trading him, if he had accepted then obviously he wouldn't have been traded.
In the debate of security vs earning power I think I would always lean security, especially this early.
Even if he never makes another dollar over $60MM he is set for generations.
I get the feeling we'll see him replacing Gurriel at some point (his RBI single on Saturday notwithstanding)
Wait, so neither Billy Ashley nor DJ Peters ever hit 40 jacks in the bigs?
Done and done
Baseball - No offense but you lose people when you say things like "worst defensive 3B in the game".
Even if by "game" you mean MLB, from 2018-2024 there have been 492 players who have played 3B in the majors. Many of those 492 didn't last very long, didn't play many innings because they weren't good enough.
Now if you wrote something like "Of all the MLB players who have played at least 7,500 innings at third base, he's the worst defensively" THEN I would agree with you .... but there's only 3 others who have played that many innings.
Gavin Sheets is going to be the biggest move of the offseason. Big difference hitting after the Padre hitters and Whitesox hitters.
Bo is gonna be a bigger factor than most people realize. He was hurt almost all last year and awful when he wasn’t. A return to his normal is huge as he is around a mid 4-5 war player who was a -.3 war last year add in other improvements in outfield, DH and bullpen and you can easily see this team going from 74 wins last year to easily mid 80s-90s without any additional moves
Forgot to mention Heyward. He looks alright to me. The bat will come around a bit more, and even if it doesn't, he still contributes in the field and on the basepaths. I don't really get the hate for him.. he's older, sure, but 35 and league-average against righties the past 2 years is beyond serviceable
For five years, as it turned out before flaming out early as most reflex players do.
But they already have a vet in Joe who I'm sure would do fine (or at least better than Gurriel). I get after Manny and Tatis there's no real righty-thump in the lineup, but I'd much rather have the guy who can give competitive ABs than trying to turn back the clock with a guy who hasn't shown it for 3 years straight.
ct - Not sure what you don't believe? That he didn't tell Devers privately he would be the 3B?
so where was this article you wanted me to read with my breakfast, Dream?
Reynolds injury prevents him from throwing without pain and being the DH he doesn’t need to throw
Common sense
Pads - Yeah how did the Sox ever manage to make it to TWO ALCS and win a World Championship with him as the primary 3B ...... great question, I suppose your tin foil hat tells you an impostor was pretending to be him those years.
Your memory is faulty.
How white is your neighborhood? very
Some people collect Hummels. Obviously, not the Astros.
So far he has 1 GW hit in 7 games as a part time player (Saturday 1-0 game) so let’s give him another week at least!
Good analysis of a team that is getting better. But it probably won't be popular with the know-nothings commenting here, because they are bullies who are getting off on repeating un-thoughtful insults of the White Sox that they have heard or read elsewhere.
Bats are waking up. So many strike outs though.
This offense is gonna score a ton of runs this year.
It's the HR suppression back to 0.6, 0.7/9 in 2023-24 that makes all the difference. 2.52 and 3.04 FIP. Not elite, but close.
Gurriel and his .125 BA looks bad. Iglesias still has not hit a ball out of the infield since the calendar turned to 2025. Of the entire bench, only Lockridge looks like he belongs in the majors.
Heyward is hitting .143. While Joe and Ornelas are tearing it up in AAA.
The Padres are still 7-0, so its working even though those players are not contributing.
harris - Yeah you go ahead and pretend it doesn't exist.
The 1950's called, they are looking for you.
Teams can operate without losing money. It doesn't mean they can compete. The discrepancy between the Dodgers payroll, and teams like the Marlins, Rays, and Pirates is ridiculous. They don't have the revenue stream that the large markets do. As to the TV partners, most teams don't have a long term partner. Most are hoping the group coming out of bankruptcy will last thru this season, after they accepted a lower rate. The changing factor is that revenue went down. Something needs to change.
York - hope you are right about Eguy. Always liked him as a prospect.
I am concerned that of all of the GM’s out there, no one claimed him - I tend to think they know more (or have access to more knowledge) that us fans.
Fingers crossed and hope I get to say, “York was right!”
The vets with a history of power surges make better bench bats. The don’t complain about lack of PT and they are focused on isolated ABs.
A 22 year old needs every day for development and mindset isn’t to sit around and get 4-5 ABs / week.
Now that said, J Hey and Uli are on a short leash - I hope. Both have had their moments this year already so if you watch the games you should have seen Yuli with a hit that won a game and J Hey has had some really good defense for an aging vet.
They aren’t Matt Carp yet.
Sox just took 2/3 from the O’s in Baltimore. Signs of things to come. This offense is gonna be scary.
I'm happy to keep Rosario in the organization. How long does Gurriel stay on the roster? He's positively cooked with the bat.
Devers has literally detracted from the team's success by being on the field at 3B. If all those years he was already at DH the team would have won more games.
Oscar the grouch
I'm very disappointed Cashman didn't jump on Eguy. He's got to be better than Pablo Reyes.
Im not the one criticizing others directly.
I took a hack at a couple players and a couple teams but I didnt cut any of the commentors on this message board I dont think ever.
I see it how I see it. Your feelings get hurt by my assessment of a team well I aint going to change my outlook about your team because you think Im being insensitive.
The only team I troll is the Cubs, because Im from Chicago and Im a White Sox fan and thats what we do here, and I really dont like the Cubs. I dont like the Dodgers either but they are hard to troll on. But the other 28 teams I shoot them straight.
To have a job. To keep playing. To get paid. Valid reasons for agreeing to a cap on other players, when their contract is already set, once the lockout ends. (To be on the negotiating committee, it seems you need to be one of the highest paid players.)
Gurriel still does not look good. I'm perplexed about what the org sees in him at all.
You definitely fall in love with your own team's prospects.. guess that goes for all the other teams, too.
I mean, I get your sinister question. But the greatest Padre of all time is Tony Gwynn, and he was clean, and kind. And I'll take any opportunity to sing his good praise.
Devers days of playing the field are OVER. The only way he plays the field is if he's traded.
There's not many bats at 3B. Marte will be fine.