moonslav59

While true, they did go a pretty long stretch at mega spending and getting bounced from the playoffs early. They have made the playoffs 13 straight seasons, so I'm not poo-pooing their efforts and commitment to winning, but for many years they were viewed like the NYMs are now. Sure, the won in the short 2020 season, but they failed to make the WS in 2019, 2021, 2022 & 2023. That was four out of 5 seasons with the short season being the exception. It's hard to think that 4 teams had a better record in 2025 than the LAD, including 2 from the ALE. The Cubs had 1 less win. Not taking anything away from the Dodgers. They earned those rings, but there was a time when their spending choices were not all that successful.

Well said, and the trades we make might be the true measure of how much we want to win in the next 1, 2 or 3 years. Having depth and so many promising future assets, mostly pitchers, is all well and good, but there comes a point where balancing current needs with future ones needs to be applied. (Not that Brez & Co are not doing this. There are a couple months to go for deals to be made.) I'd be fine with one or two short term FA contracts given out- maybe E Suarez/ Okamoto or Ra Suarez/Bassitt and then one blockbuster trade- maybe K Marte/Greene/Skubal/??? or a couple significant ones for guys like Ryan/Lodolo/Gore/Alcantara/??? and Paredes/YDiaz/Contreras/Donovan/???

I'm not projecting we sign a big FA, but you do realize 6 of the top MLBTR FAs are still available, and they counted Murakami as one. There are several top FAs that would fill the top 2 needs we have: 1. Tucker (trade 2 OF'ers for 2B/3B and SP) 2. Bichette 5. Bregman 6. Valdez, 7 Imai, 10 Ra Suarez (15 Gallen) I'd be fine with #19 Okamoto or #20 E Suarez

Depends on how many of these guys end up in the MLB pen. That may be the one good thing about Hicks: he'll keep a kid as a starter. Assuming all are healthy, including Dobbins, Crawford and Sandoval, we have 8 pitchers looking at the 5 man rotation, not counting Tolle & Early! Crochet, Gray & Bello are locks Oviedo, Sandoval, Crawford, Dobbins & Harrison are the others. 1-3 might go to the pen, but assuming none do, our AAA rotation might be: Crawford, Dobbins, Harrison, Tolle & Early-- WOW! That leaves these guys for the AAA or MLB pen or traded or AA: Uberstine, Drohan, Sandlin, Mullins, E Rivera. That's not a bad AAA rotation, either. AA: Bennett, Holobetz, Wehunt, Rogers, Dean (2-3 look promising) A+: Valera, Fajardo, Witherspoon, Phillips, Eyanson/Aita (looks awesome to me)

Is the alternative any better? You can shout for a regime change or for JH to spend more, but that's not anything that is likely to happen. What can Brez do now, with a limited budget?

Tolle and Early may start the season in AAA and might be the best one-two pitching prospects in any farm system. Both are ML ready and actually have some experience there. Dobbins and Harrison graduated recently. We have a ton of young pitchers under control for many years. I'm not for trading away a bunch of them. I do think we can trade 1-2 that are not at the top of any list in a package for a bat. I'm fine with trading away another 1-2 for an established pitcher with 2+ years of control or 1 with a sure extension to follow. We will have to convert some SP'ers to RP'ers or start the season with too many pitchers on the 40. By age... With MLB experience (10 SP'ers/ 7 w 3 or more years to go) 22 Tolle 5+ years of control 23 Early 5+ 23 Harrison 5 25 Dobbins 5 26 Bello 5 year contract 26 Crochet 6 year contract 27 Oviedo 2 arbs 29 Crawford 3 arbs 29 Sandoval 1 36 Gray 1-2 yrs RP'ers 27 Slaten 4 yrs 28 Moran 5 28 Hicks 2 29 Whitlock (1), 30 Weissert (4) & Kelly (4), 37 Chapman (2) ______________________________ No MLB experience (5+ years) 7 SP'ers at age 23 or older 17 Delzine 19 Valera, Fajardo & Cason 21 Witherspoon, Phillips 22 Aita 23 Holobetz & Monegro 24 Sandlin 25 Bennett 26 Mullins, Samaniego, Uberstine & Drohan 28 Watson

Murakami to CWS for $34M/2. I was not for signing this guy, but it is another 2 year deal off the boards.

Once again, you miss the point. They'd have to take them for me to make that trade- hence, it's not happening.

I find it interesting that we are about as far away from the NYY and the TBR, in terms of % spent. I think we were one of 7 teams that went over the tax line, so maybe a shift upwards is underway. If we'd stop making so much money, we could move up on this list! LOL>

Masa, Hicks, Rafaela, Crawford & Arias for Eovaldi and Seager. Sign Okamoto or Suarez. Sign Refsnyder. 1. L Anthony CF 2. R Okamoto 1B 3. L Duran LF 4. L Seager SS 5. R Story SS 6. L Abreu RF 7. L Yoshida/ R Refsnyder DH 8. L Mayer/ R Romy 3B 9. R Narvaez C SP: Crochet, Nate, Gray, Bello, Oviedo/Sandoval Seager is owed $31m x 6 years ($31M AAV) Nate is owed $25M and $20M ($22.5M AAV) Total AAV: 53.5M x 2, then $31M for 4 more years. Yoshida is owed $18M x 2 ($18M AAV) Hicks is owed $12M x 2 ($12M AAV) Rafaela is owed $48M/6 ($8M AAV) and Crawford might get $2.5M in arb for 2026. Total: $40M for a couple years, then just Rafaela & Crawford. Net gain on the Sox Lux Tax budget is just +$13M for a couple years. ($23M for 4 more.)

You may end up being right, but I'm doubting it. Two winters ago, we signed Criswell and traded Sale for Grissom, Dugo for Fitts & Weisert and Robertson/Santos for O'Neill in December. We signed Giolito January 3rd. We did sign hendriks in FEB. Last winter, we signed Wilson in November, Chapman in mid December and Buehler for $21M at the end of DEC. We signed Sandoval in DEC. We also traded for Narvaez & others in DEC. Only Breggie was a late signing. It's really not a pattern.

I have my doubts on that. Many decent 3Bmen become fine 1Bmen. It's very rare when the look worse at 1B, even though they are usually older or very old. Anyway, I can't imagine anyone worse than Casas.

I think the Lux Tax resets with a new CBA, so I don't think it matters much.

The final four is set: 2 Ohio St. vs 10 Miami (12/31) 9 Alabama vs 1 Indiana (1/1) 5 Oregon vs 4 Texas Tech (1/1) 6 Ole Miss vs 3 Georgia (1/1) I'm going with Ohio St, Indiana, Texas Tech & then Ole Miss with the upset. OSU>> Texas Tech Indiana >> Ole Miss Ohio St over Indiana

Joe who?

Well, Casas is about as bad on defense as any 1Bman in MLB, so he could still be an upgrade. (Casas might be our DH sooner than we think.) If he's okay at 3B defense, I'm wondering why he sucks at 1B. The option may be E Suarez, who is not great at 3B, but should be okay at 1B, if needed there. He might take a 2 year deal of with a mutual option 3rd year or opt out after 1 and or 2 years.

I'm not as high on DHam and a certain poster thinks, but I know many teams would want him as their sub. He's pretty good at 2B defense. He's a great PR'er. He can probably be oaky vs RHPs, but that is not for sure. With Romy looking like he may morph into a FT player at 2B or 1B, maybe we don't need DHam as a platoon, but he's nice insurance. Too bad his SS defense is really bad. The metrics shows he's better than I think he is: 3.6 bWAR 2024-2025 (511 PAs) 14 HRs/55 SBs 1.7 fWAR is still not too bad. (That's top 30 in MLB among 2Bmen) Complaining about a sub with numbers like that seems silly.

I'm thinking we may just sign one guy: Okamoto. He can play 3B or 1B, so he allows for a number of scenarios to develop: If Casas is healthy and doing well: 1B Casas 2B Mayer/Romy 3B Okamoto SS Story If Casas is not ready: 1B: Okamoto/Romy v L 2B: Romy FT or v L/DHam 3B: Mayer v R/Romy or Okamoto v L SS: Story Maybe we add a FA RP and/or #2 SP via trade. (Rafaela or Duran)

Gio was not signed while injured. Perhaps there is a 2 year jinx, but that one wasn't planned. The Jansen & Chris Martin 2 year deals worked well, but that was Bloom. The 2024 Ref signing to 2 years worked very well, but let's not discuss good 2 year deals. It is a bummer that these are the only deals we have done, recently. I hope we break the mold.

Like who?

Remaining top FAs (ranked by MLBTR) 1. Tucker OF (no chance) 2. Bichette 2B/SS (fat chance) 4. Murakami 3B/1B (Hmmm) 5. Bregman 3B (maybe) 6. Valdez SP (nope) 7. Imai SP (only if we trade 2-3 pitchers) 8. Bellinger OF/1B (nope) 10. Ranger Suarez SP (not likely) 15. Gallen SP (nope) 19. Okamoto 3B/1B (might be our best chance at a top 20 FA) 20. Suarez 3B (1B?) Maybe? 22. Imanaga SP, 24 Bassitt SP, 27 Giolito (longshots) 29. Realmuto C (I hope not.) 30. O'Hearn 1B/DH/OF & 34. Arraez 1B (doubt it) 33. N Martinez SP, 35 Littell SP & 38 Verlander (maybe on 1 yr deal) 43 S Dominguez RP, 44 Fairbanks (maybe?) N/R J Wilson RP, Hoskins 1B, Moncada 3B/2B, Refsnyder OF

They'd have to take Masa and maybe Hicks.

At their cost, just sign Bregman and Suarez.

It will take more than Castro, so maybe we can give them 2 SP'ers- maybe two from Drohan, Sandlin, Mullins & Uberstine... LOL. (I doubt all 4 get him.)

2 years is not too long for JH. Nate has a pretty decent injury history, so that fits the model, too. That being said, he is a #1/#2 when healthy, for sure. Wonder what the return would have to be.