Dojji

No, that team is finding magic at the right time, every time, in these playoffs. Tito's up to his old tricks again. The Guardians have a destiny feel to their run (but then so did the Rockies in 07)

Guys I'll be honest -- I have no idea where this meme comes from that Quintana is available. It sure as hell doesn't come from any credible source. And it doesn't come from an honest thoughtful analysis of the White Sox situation. I'd write off Quintana as an acquisition target until there's ANY smoke -- at ALL. The price of a guy like that with no behavior question marks and years left on a very cash-reasonable deal, would be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY outside even the scope of a guy like DD. We're talking about probably the most individually valuable asset in all of baseball -- and Chicago really has no reason at all to consider trading it. Chicago wasn't that far out of contention this year, they were right around .500 and their biggest issue was a lack of consistent offense. That's not all that difficult to fix with FA and a few moderate trades, no responsible GM would give up on Sale or Quintana without taking a couple more years to patch the other holes in the roster and see if they can make the magic happen. In short there's NO indiciation that the White Sox want to, need to, or even should blow it up and deal their crown jewels for a bag of maybes and prospects. Maybe in a couple years, but right now the White Sox' major issues seem solvable, so no sane GM would blow up the team at the moment. All the White Sox need to get back into contention is to sign some impact bats, and they're by no means a poorhouse team, they easily have the money to throw some contracts around. IF they sign EE and grab a decent outfielder or two, they're right back in it for all intents and purposes, and then Quintana and Sale become their primary weapon to try to win championships. There is simply no credible reason for the White Sox to willingly part with either one of those pitchers.

No, there's no roster you can make that will guarantee a championship. Ask the Yankees. They sure as hell tried.

Contradictory. We had not yet traded Espi for Pom at the start of the season.

Given a choice between Frazier and Moustakas, I go after Moustakas. They're basically the same guy statistically, they're both on their last year and about to get expensive for their team, and Moustakas has a ring.

While I put forward that silly trade proposal, I more or less agree with Jack. We have a good-not-great starting 5 that isn't fantastic at the top, but has the potential to be very deep and strong and all 6 of the starters we could slot into it have been dominant in flashes. The potential for an exceptional rotation is there. Failing that, we should be at least good enough that an above average offense can get the job done. The rotation gets a lot better if Price rounds back into form.

All of the players so honored thus far have had a combination of great careers, a strong presence both on and off the field, and dynamic moments in the postseason that cemented their legacy. The only active player I could see getting that kind of recognition when he goes is Ichiro, who has the international panache and recognition factor to make up for the lack of postseason appearances. Pujols was on track a few years ago, but recent seasons really hurt him. To be honest, it's not really in the nature of most players to announce their retirement before they actually retire. Generally speaking by the time a player is ready to go it's often because their league is ready to see the back of them. If a player can depart the league on good terms, while teams might still be interested in paying them, that's pretty exceptional in and of itself.

I doubt Lovullo was ever a serious threat to Farrell's job, except in the eyes of the rabid haters and the Boston media (but I repeat myself)

Farrell would blow smoke up our butts in the offseason regardless of what he really thought about Pablo's condition in the offseason. Part of the job. Yeah, that's why I put those qualifiers on it. The fact of the matter is that if it was the play I think it was, Sandoval got injured trying to lever himself quickly back up into a throwing stance after a dive. His extra weight contributed directly to that being an injury play rather than a play any competent 3B could make in his sleep.

Reluctant to hang Lester on E-Rod. He can be a decent power lefty. Lester is somewhat better than "a decent power lefty."

I'll correct you on Hanley -- he was a nondisaster at 1B and that's all we ask. He's no Kevin Youkilis, but he's no Dick "Dr. Strangeglove" Stuart either. Agreed that it's well within his ability to improve and I think we saw him do it over the course of the season. I was very pleasantly surprised that the number of lapses in concentration and bonehead plays at first base was very low, especially considering his performance in the outfield last year. 1B may be Hanley's home for the final years of his career. He's definitely got the stick for it.

The only players that got that kind of publicity were living legends in their time -- Mo Rivera, Ortiz, and Derek Jeter are several cuts above the everyday superstar and did some amazing things on the diamond, and IIRC they're the only guys who got this kind of sustained attention.

It's a question of whether Felix may be concerned that his career is drawing past its peak and he hasn't gotten to the top yet. If he starts needling for a trade, this deal would get done on both sides, if he's happy where he is, he can block the trade whether or not it's a good deal.

I doubt a slightly fuller bag of trash would net us much. Holt alone is the only reason anyone touches that deal right now. So just stick with him.

Dream big guys To the Seattle Mariners Blake Swihart Yoan Moncada Sam Travis Mauricio Dubon Michael Kopech To the Boston Red Sox Felix Hernandez Edwin Diaz Prospect King Felix is at least as available as Quintana or Sale, he's getting a little older (about to turn 31) with a ton of miles on his arm, is super expensive, and with the Mariners in a holding pattern for years now, may be willing to take a trade to a winner, or even ask for one. The Mariners may be willing to trade their top asset for a sufficient boatload of prospects in order to retool. THe Sox would be gambling heavily of course, since 2016 was King Felix's worst FIP year of his career, but nothing ventured nothing gained. One thing is certain, the Mariners are one of the best possible trade targets this year, they need so many of the things we have, in particular their catching is putrid and would benefit from any one of the 3 young catchers we have rattling around, especially Swihart because of their general lack of offense. Also if I thought there was any chance we could score Kyle Seager, that would be one of the trades in which I'd be thrilled to commit Moncada. However Seager has a very very team friendly contract, so I doubt that's a thing.

They were surprised and pissed not that Pablo was fat, but that Pablo had lied. He had promised them that he had lost significant weight in the offseason, and come February he was about 20-30 pounds heavier instead. It's one thing to be fat, this sport has seen a number of successful ballplayers who were heavyset. it's quite another to have no control at all over your own weight and to lie about it to the guy signing your contracts.

Holt's the kind of guy that has much more value in FA than he does in trade. I'd sign a guy like Holt if I had a big hole at a position he can play. I wouldn't necessarily deal talent for him if I can fill that roster spot in another way.

That's the thing, Kimmi, a major league baseball team isn't in the business of just GIVING chances. You earn them. And I just explained to you exactly why I don't think that even if you are in the habit of giving charity chances, Pablo should just be handed one on Opening Day. I honestly do think that whatever the final analysis of Pablo is, it will be a kidness to him to break him back into the roster gently, targeting appearances in roughly mid May rather than April and being willing to extend that time table as necessary. Give him those few weeks extra conditioning in the hands of Red Sox trainers just in case there does turn out to be damage to undo, rather than giving him a pass/fail situation right in game 1 no matter how his offseason went. Doing otherwise will just risk a repeat of the same fiasco he had to endure this April and I do not think that's fair to him. Neither is the problem in this case. I don't think it would be fair to Sandoval to just pretend the last 2 years didn't happen. His performance dipped severely and that's bad enough, the self-humiliation worse (we all remember The Belt) but my motivation is centered around the injury. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't necessarily mind trying a cold start on Pablo, but the very first thing he did the last time we tried it was immediately injure himself on a routine play. If we try the same tactics again, which I'm honestly surprised you're all for under the circumstances, I'm convinced we'll wind up with the same results. I think the best chance for Pablo to come back and be successful is to ease him back into every day play in an extended rehab assignment in MiLB, then ease him back onto the roster when he shows he can handle it, rather than just fling him out there in the highest level of competition immediately and just kind of hope it works. That process might take months but we tried it the quick way last year and the results are what they are.

Lindor is not all that much better than Bogaerts. They're within 1 WAR of each other. You are really underselling Bradley in a deal like that. I do think Lindor is, and is going to remain, a better shortstop than Bogaerts, but trading Bogaerts in a roughly sideways move that also costs us another high performance player is an exercise in outsmarting ourselves.

Only more of the same if you assume that the problem was Farrell's management. I think our roster isn't anywhere near as good as it was playing in the early part of this year, to be honest this team is simply not as talented as it appeared to be. Personally I have to give Farrell some credit for the team playing over its head at key times this season, but at the end of the day a house of cards is a house of cards. We were gambling a LOT on certain players who came out of nowhere to have good parts of years, Shaw, Leon, Wright spring quickly to mind. Bogaerts looked like he'd taken a big step forward only for it to turn out he took a rather modest one. Bradley broke out then cooled WAY down. The bullpen alternated between dominant and fragile all year. We were pencilling in Porcello as our #4 in Spring, and he may win the CYA this year but he came back to earth with a bump at the last minute. All of this bit us hard in the playoffs. This team is an illusion. So many things happened this year that we simply can't count on again, and couldn't have counted on in the first place. It really could go either way next year and I'm convinced the actual strength of our roster is severely overstated both in the media and on this forum. DD worked hard in the offseason and was reward with strong progress in regular season numbers. Now he still has his work cut out. We're not a slum team anymore but the team builders still have a lot work to do before we need to worry about any kind of dynasty, that's for damn sure.

I still say that Mike Moustakas is an option. He's on his last year next year, and the Royals have a top prospect who looks like he's right on the verge of "getting it" playing behind him (Cheslor Cuthbert). The Royals have something we need and can potentially spare him. The question is what we have that they need. Now what the Royals need more than anything is offense. And we have some offensive prospects we can spare. If the Royals don't get stupid (such as demanding Bradley, etc), I think a deal could get done.

And it still isn't that hard to find a replacement 3B. THe fact that we've had some really weird luck over the last few years really doesn't change that.

Bogaerts was the heir presumptive at SS. The team was committed to Bogaerts at shortstop long term, all talk of Bogaerts to 3B as a permanent option was by prospect watchers. Iglesias meanwhile was also a fulltime SS. He was good enough to start as was Bogaerts, but he was the lesser player in terms of overall potential. Now they could have accomodated Iglesias by moving the better player to a position where he's far less valuable, so that a lesser player could take over full time SS, but why the hell would you do that when it isn't that hard to find a replacement 3B through trade or FA?

I do. Let me be clear about "What happened this year." Let me lay this out for you Kimmi, because last Spring if you recall I actually made arguments on your side of this discussion until 2 facts became clear. 1: Pablo had clearly lied about working hard on his conditioning that offseason. A man who claimed to be 20 pounds lighter showed up 30 pounds heavier maybe more. This is not about conditioning. This is about the fact that I cannot trust Pablo or his trainer or his handlers to TELL THE FREAKING TRUTH about how hard they're working this offseason. We can make no judgment on his conditioning until next February at the earliest, and history is not in Sandoval's favor here -- at all. Any offseason hype about Pablo's condition or his work ethic gets drowned in his sheer lack of honesty. 2: Pablo, who for all the crap he fed us offensively, was a good defender in 2015, immediately got hurt on a routine play only a few weeks after being allowed to even play part time at third base. That could easily happen again with the extra weight he carries. I am not in favor of setting any man up to injure himself. If we allow him to try to earn his job back immediately, he'll start writing checks his body can't cash trying to do exactly that, just like he did this year. It's the nature of the athlete. Just throwing him out there to win his job back without riding very careful herd on his health is an invitation to the guy to go wreck himself, possibly permanently this time. I don't think it would be a kindness to Pablo not to bring him back to the field rather carefully. What that means to me is that no matter how good he looks, I'm not going to immediately make the mistake of asking him to go out there and injure himself trying to earn his job immediately -- instead I'm going to start Sandoval on a rehab assignment to Pawtucket in April that takes as long as it takes. If he shows he can handle first part time 3B, then after a few weeks, full time 3B with no adverse effects, in AAA, then we move on to the next step. If that means that we have an issue at 3B in April, and the first couple weeks of May so be it. Shaw gets at least that long to prove he can get back to the level of performance we came to expect of him in the first half this year.

It should be noted that in the last 2 years Iglesias has provided the Tigers 1.5 and 1.8 bWAR. Less in 2 years combined than Bogaerts provided us in this year alone.