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He seems pull happy. Two guys that fit Fenway might be the oft-mentioned Isaac Paredes and the rarely mentioned Miguel Vargas. The less Vargas is mentioned, the better. He’s reportedly a huge *******…

… and we can have more 2024 postseasons where teams get in because they play the White Sox 30-40 times…

National TV revenue - FOX, ESPN, Apple TV - is shared among all the teams whether they play in those games or not. But teams keep 100% of their local TV deals. Some teams are owned by media outlets or own their media (ex. The Yankees and the YES network). But I don’t think that should exempt them from paying other teams that they put on the air…

If you’re putting another team on the air, they should be compensated. It’s baseball; you need two teams to have a game. I think that draft model works better for MLB than for the NFL or NBA, where draft picks are expected to make an immediate impact. Plus I’d rather see teams still playing hard get rewarded as opposed to some team that pawns off half their roster in July and plays out the string with a team that looks like it was assembled using the same process used to convene a jury…

So the Mets have Bichette, Lindor, Semien, Polanco, Brett Baty, Luisangel Acuna, and Mark Vientos to fill four INF/DH slots. Meanwhile 22yo Carson Benge (.583 OPS in limited AAA action, but a .978 OPS in slightly more AA time) as their starting LF. And Tyrone Taylor in CF. But more important, their rotation appears to be Nolan McLean, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, and Kodai Senga. Was infield really their weakness?

Is Torres available? I have to think Detroit was ready to pay him when they offered the QO..,

Any reasons?

I think the charges were not so much that he doesn’t know how to build bullpens, but rather that he largely ignores the task in favor of other areas..

Soft cap/hard floor model? I admittedly skirted cap issues and revamping payroll penalties, but they are necessary fixes…

SP couldn’t be a lesser need for that team. However, they do need a setup guy who can throw the ball home without sailing it to the backstop…

Suggestions to fix MLB league parity 1. TV revenue divided. Moon proposed tjis and it does make sense. If the Reds are appearing on TV in Los Angeles, they should be paid for it. The Dodgers get the same courtesy for appearing on TV in Cincinnati. 2. League-controlled revenue sharing allotment system. Instead of handing out checks and hoping teams spend, give each team a league account that is used solely for spending on their team, in free agents, draft picks, extensions, etc. If you don’t spend it, you don’t get it. (I’m open to rolling it over, but you still don’t get it if you don’t spend it.) 3. Revamp draft order for all non- playoff teams drafting in order from best record to worst, followed by playoff teams in the current “worst to best” format. Stop rewarding losing teams and reward the teams that are trying. Lotteries are stupid. Not even sure what they are supposed to accomplish, especially weighted ones.. Does the league really think they prevent tanking, etc? 4. Fire Manfred and replace him with an orangutan that knows sign language. Or one that doesn’t. Both are steps up…

And Narvaez?

With Wheeler, Nola and Sánchez already on board, it was one area he didn’t have to worry about. From what I’m reading, DD might be getting close to his budget limits. MLBTR has him not being able to sign Bichette unless he can unload some cash, notably Bohm as he wouldn’t be needed anyway, and isn’t unmovable like Castellanos…

Absolutely. Yoshida isn’t 13 for 13 in stolen base attempts because he has blazing speed…

Not even close. Ottavino was dealt for a PTBNL. Duran and Chisholm have both been All Stars in the past two seasons. The best I could think of was Mike Easler for Don Baylor, but as good as both were, they were also post-prime players in their mid to late 30s…

He’s a lock. I trade him because he’s good enough to fetch a decent player back but his talent is really no better than many of the other pitchers fighting for a rotation spot. And unlike Crawford and Sandoval, he pitched last year…

Same. I’ve frequently compared Sam Kennedy to Squealer from Animal Farm…

What was the last Sox-Yankees trade involving two players of that caliber?

Duran for who?

That was what got Bloom fired (as far as I can tell). But I don’t think firing Bloom meant abandoning relying on the farm…

And not the Dodgers?

As Benjamin Franklin said “there are three certainties in life - death, taxes, and the Dodgers ruining baseball thanks to their ridiculous television contract.”

We didn’t do that yet. Last year Bregman didn’t get added until mid-February. Even this year, as recently as 48 hours ago, people were still demanding a #2 starter. Now, we have a topflight and very deep pitching staff. All the Sox need is another infielder, and another bullpen arm certainly wouldn’t hurt. We’re in a good spot. But baseball offseason is annoyingly slow. Of course speeding it up doesn’t make the season start sooner…

But that’s one way. They brought in Bloom because they wanted to win without spending so much. They wanted a sustainable farm delivering them quality talent without wasting time and (lots of) money on players on the wrong side of 30 that had their best years for other teams. It might not be as effective (it wasn’t, certainly not at first) and it might not work every year, but that’s not the same as not trying…

But if they find a way to win for $100 million, are they supposed to spend $250million to prove commitment?