Jason Ross

My guess is either they're in on one of these controllable players (maybe the Mariners for a younger arm + Ty France thing?, maybe Cease?) that is a pretty complicated, bigger deals, or its a scenario in which they are being overly cheap with their prospects in a sellers market.

Yeah, don't think he's coming here regardless.

Between 2020-2023, the White Sox have been pretty damn bad defensively at a -102 DRS. This is only better than Oakland, Washington and the Phillies. I'm inclined to believe Dylan Cease's peripherals (which are better indicators of future performance than things like ERA) are closer to what type of a pitcher Cease is.

Perhaps "in any way shape or form" was slightly stronger wording than I should have used, so I will rephrase to better explain; I think a "must win" game is a game with far deeper playoff implications than a game on August 1st can be. It would be a game that could end a season, or it could be a game that directly, on its own, puts the season in absolute jeopardy base on a lost. I agree, tonight is important (those words were used in my original post). Must win feels...hyperbolic to me for this one.

Brad Hand off the market. Scratch one LHP relief option.

Well, yeah, we can make arguments about why games are important. Each game between today and the playoffs there's some argument we can make as to why it'd be much better than to lose it. But I reserve "must" wins as games in which you cannot lose in any shape or form. I don't believe in "must" win games in August, personally...it devalues the actual must win games.

Whoops, should have been in here. Cade Horton, promoted to AA.

I would not call tonight "must" win, still early for "must" wins, IMO. It's important to win, but this is a 4 game set. They can lose again tonight, win the next two, and come out even on the series. There's still enough games in the season and 4 more with the Reds after this, that they can still catch ground. 6 games left with Milwaukee too.

I'd guess it's not a major IFA amount. Other thing; clearing Sampson actually gets some money off the books on the tax front. The Cubs are seemingly very concerned about going over (it's silly, but they are), so perhaps this move is in conjunction with the next one to make sure they stick under the luxury tax.

Maybe, but the market is essentially bereft of hitters. At this point, if you want instant offense, best of luck. Add in a year of control and I just think the Mets can probably cash in higher than Wicks and Caissie. You need one team to beat that offer, and despite being big fans of both...I think a team beats that offer.

I would guess another team would beat that. I say this as probably among the bigger guys on Wicks and as self-proclaimed leader of the Owen Caissie fan club. I think Caissie's trade value will be harmed by the possibility of him ending at 1b/DH (I think he's capable of RF for a bit, but that's a real fear). 1b/DH just don't get the love. Wicks, while I think he's got low end #3 upside (I think he plays better than the stuff sometimes sounds on the paper. Not a 1:1 comparison or anything, but he's got some of that Jon Lester in him. Lester's scouting report wouldn't make him feel like someone who pitched as well as he did, and Wicks has some of that feel for me) I just don't/can't see him being the piece for Alonso as the best option. At that trade, I feel like another team would come in. Maybe the Mets just love those guys and that happens, but I think the Mets would need more upside.

I think it's two fold; I do think there's some interesting prospects around, guys with upside. You can find people as low as the 15-20 range on BA's top-20 that I think are interesting in ways. Trey Sweeney at #16, is having a nice season in AA (119 wRC+, K% under 20%). Is he a SS? Maybe not. Is he a star? Probably not. Is there a path to being a starting 3b, perhaps? Yeah, I think. There are a few names I see there that could be interesting. I can't say I'm overly familiar with their system, so I'm just numbers scouting, but they have interesting names there. Secondly, I think the Yankees have a reputation for solid development as of late, as an organization in that teams trust they're doing a solid job developmentally. They've had some successful prospects come through their ranks in recent years (not all of them hit) and players generally seem to be making strides level over level. I think that helps fuel perception as well. There are teams who do a good job with their talent and then there are teams who don't (ex. it's pretty widely believed the Nationals, for example, have no idea how to properly develop the overly toolsy players they so covet, for example. Detroit, as well, seems to have a pretty high rate of prospect fail). It's better to buy prospects who are developing correctly, instead of having to go back through and fix nonsense.

Solid inning from Daniel. Really nasty stuff.

Good comeback so far. Let's complete this thing.

I bet there's a fix/change they want him to work on.

So looking deeper on Cuas...he actually has really impressive vertical movement on his slider but his slider placement is horrible. He's leaving it all over the plate. If you can get him to get that slider more on the black and use your vertical movement to generate the chase rate up, I think you'll have something.

The Royals horsefeathers up pitchers left and right. Their pitching infrastructure is jacked. Cuas is a sidearm guy. He's got great whiff rates, terrible chase rates (this doesn't make much sense). I think there's a tweak here or there you can use to exploit these things. There could be a good RP arm here.

A bit of an ouch on the Kevin Made front on first feelign, though he's slowed down considerably this year. Cubs have Rojas chasing him. Herz...belongs in the BP. It feels worse on the name-brand feeling of it.

Unused and if Candelario is going to come play 3b...I don't see what he does to get playing time. I don't know why Mancini keeps getting PT, either, if we're being honest, so I'd be fine to make him go away as well, but I think it'd be more likely Wisdom.

Yeah, Christian Franklin is a nothing burger from me. Kohl still has arguably the best changeup in the system and a fastball that hits 97/98. Zero consistency and at this point I'm not sure he'll ever find it. Could be a leverage reliever, he has the stuff. With that said, he's the kind of prospect you trade.

Yeah, I had suggested him as a maybe up top, too. Nationals love tools. I'll be disappointed to see Franklin go because he's been a favorite of mine stuff wise, and I still think there's real deal upside, but he's a risky-ass prospect and in baseball sense, it's not a major loss more than likely.

Loxas is unreliable on his best days, IMO.

I'd guess Wisdom.

So, definitively Perlaza is one.