jehr

Don't think we are close..... CJ, Heyward, Javy, Russell, Jay, Montero, Contreras, Strop, Rondon, Almora. That's 40% of the roster that's not white. Arrieta is half Puerto Rican (I think), does that count?

Agree in principle... but to be fair... most relievers are failed starters, both the good ones and the ones that stink.

I love this trade, because I see it potentially as a lose-lose for both teams. Nat's overpaid for Eaton, whom I think is very good, but not great. This was all about getting a very good, controllable player with a team-friendly contract. Dex would have provided comparable value over the next couple of years, at a higher dollar cost. So the Nats just gave away three high-ceiling arms to save what, $10 mil a year, after they'e all but acknowledged they're not going to pony up for Harper? In today's market, not sure that math works as a win for the Nats. This is definitely a win-now-while-we-still-have-Harper kind of move. When you look in aggregate, the Whitesox offensively have basically replaced Eaton with Moncada. Moncada's ceiling is quite a bit higher, but if you shoot for the middle of his ceiling and floor, you're probably realizing Eaton's offensive value. So by giving up Eaton and Sale, offensively, they gained years of control and saved some money for likely comparable production, with a decent-to-good chance of significantly more production, while stockpiling arms, which is where the majority of the return-value from those two trades lies. I don't think anyone here fails to see the risks with an approach that looks more like the Mets. Personally, not a fan of stockpiling arms to that extreme. I'd rather have a killer lineup and have to plug holes in the back-end of the rotation from year to year than have a never-ending supply of high-ceiling arms and have to get creative or overpay for offense. I'm glad the Sox aren't taking our approach to stockpile bats.

I'm okay with this. Not crazy about it, but okay. At the end of the day, it's impossible to tell when Soler's value would peak until that peak has passed. Davis fills a need with an elite ability. This time next year, we'll likely grade this trade based on Davis's health. We know for a fact that the front office is aware of the history concerns, and are read in on the same predictors and trends for forearm / elbow injuries. They also have the best docs money can buy evaluating the medicals before making this call. I'm cautiously optimistic that it's reasonable to assume they feel confident that he has a reasonable likelihood of making it through the year healthy. At least as far as any pitcher can be assumed...there's always that increased risk with pitchers because they're pitchers and their arms frequently fall off. KC will valuate the trade based on Soler's health and continued growth. My frustrations are more with the fact that he is still represents unrealized potential moreso than the fact that we just traded him. Even if he learns to hit like Stanton, would he ever be that guy who could stay on the field? Best case to me seems like he would evolve into that player that gets paid for his incredible talent but never gives you the approximate value in return due to not staying on the field. I could be wrong.

It could be even more simple than that, that the commissioners office or players union or some combo can allow guys to come over outside of the set IFA rules at their discretion for the betterment of the game. That might work well for a clear-cut case like Otani... but at some point, you'll hit the sliding scale where you have harder, no-so-clear choices. It's a slippery slope that potentially opens up the commissioners office to complaints of favoritism in the future. If I was the commissioner, I'd say thanks, but no thanks.

There's some really poor math here with Passan's quote. It's absolutely NOT $6 mil vs $250 mil. It is $6mil (presumably over two years here), then a big contract as opposed to whatever he's getting in Japan for two years, followed by a big contract. Whereas before it was the big contract up front. He's losing money either way due to the CBA... but it's not like he's losing $244 million by coming over now as opposed to waiting two more years. Depending on what he's getting in Japan, it may or may not make sense to come over sooner than later.

I would imagine, like last time, the IFA cap doesn't affect Japanese players who already are under contract by teams over there. I may be mistaken, but I thought there was some other requirement on that like age or number of years of professional status...I read something earlier this year that intimated that he's was unlikely to ask to be posted this year because the next year he'd be a regular FA. Don't recall exactly what it was about, but waiting one more year changed his status in a way that would likely financially benefit him. Anyone else recall seeing/hearing something like that?

Hard to believe they're still smarting from the Sosa trade. It's their own damned fault they overpaid for George Bell so bad.

It could also mean that we intend on going with Javy as primary 2B, Zobrist in RF, Heyward in CF, Schwarbs in LF with Almora and Soler as bench. If that's the outfield, then that most likely means no more Dex, Cogs, or Szczur, as we'd be sitting at six OFers if Zo plays more outfield than in. Unless I'm forgetting someone, and if you consider Javy a starter, that leaves only La Stella as a backup infielder. We're also note going to have three guys rotating through catcher.... So big fat bullpen early in the year, with Jeimer on the roster if he has a good spring? Right now, I'm expecting to see a Soler trade for pitching and Cogs brought back to back fill him on the bench.

Not that I disagree with you on Almora, I don't think the value trade-off is that far off. Defensive skills begin to decline earlier than offensive... And a huge chunk of the aforementioned 13 WAR was based on 2015 defense with Kiermaier. All that said, I'd still do it too... Just that I don't think it's quite as one-sided if you consider age, years of control and future, projections on both CFers. From TBs perspective, they'd only make that deal if they think Almora is more likely to hit his ceiling than what other teams would be offering.

I don't know about any "limbo" scenario. I think he's traded in the offseason, or not at all. If anyone trades for him as a rental at the deadline, then they're in the race, and we might be facing him in the offseason...so dealing him at the deadline when we're trying to win it all again is counter-intuitive. If someone like the Braves wants to pretend like they have an outside chance of making the wild card this year (like AZ last year or SD the year before), then sure, deal him in the offseason. You don't tend to have people willing to trade away anything legit after pipe dreams at the end of June.

Are there any lower end starting pitchers that profile well through the first time through the order but drop off on the second? I'm thinking they might be looking hard at starters who might be prime candidates to transition to a long relief role. Cashner is mentioned in one of the links above as a possibility. I think the market is going to be higher than normal on relievers, whether you're talking trade or FA. Buying low on a starter as a swing man / long reliever might provide better return on investment than getting a known good reliever.

I just now saw that. Nice gesture and tribute. So do we lock the thread at one page next year? How does that work? #firstworldproblems

It's too late now... but I was kind of hoping they'd put Hammel into Cahill's role of the long, RH guy out of the pen. With his late season history, putting him in the pen and saving the innings on his arm seemed to make sense to me. He could always revert to be the 5th starter if needed as well. For the additional $10mil it would have cost them, he'd be a little pricey, but I'd be okay with that. On the open market, someone's going to try to get 180+ innings out of him and will pay him for it.

I get what you're saying but that's a UPS/FedEx issue. UPS ships here, granted at a higher cost. They won't ship to my local non-APO address either. They could ship USPS if they wanted. It's an overseas thing.

I actually like it... but only because they obviously invested some resources into developing it just to have this team shove it back down their throats.

Not to mention you have Szczur (unless traded/released) and Almora for depth, both can play any OF position (you're taking risk with Szczur in CF compared to Almora, but not the worst third option), plus you also have KB, Baez or Contreras for emergency OF depth. Unless we make an unexpected move for another CFer, the only OF move I can see is resigning Dex. I think that's more likely than bringing in Reddick.

How about a championship banner for the top of the forum and the front page?

I think this front office has proven that no one is untradable, but that they're unlikely to trade young talent without getting young talent in return. It's more a matter of whether they're going to actively shop him, and if someone will offer more value in return than Javy means to us. I think it's a long shot he gets traded at the end of the day.

Pics or it didn't happen.

What's the record for pages for a single game thread?

Wow... It's kind of funny with some of those moves to see how often some guys are released and resigned. Some of those guys I forgot existed.

Given our outfield logjam... I think Szczur is at least twice as likely as Zagunis to get traded. Szczur has no options left, so he can't be stashed in AAA in case of injury to someone else like Zagunis can. The only reason Szczur doesn't get traded is if he gets released instead due to lack of interest... But I think someone will at least offer a PTBNL for him.

Hey Chicago, Whaddya say? The Cubs are World Champs today!

Never underestimate a mental gymnast's ability to rationalize anything to stick with their preconceived ideas and biases. We'll always be a terrible, flawed organization based on losing to them, even if we win the next 10 world series in a row by scouting, drafting, and developing the next 10 Mike Trouts and 10 Clayton Kershaws. Arguing with bitter Cardinals fans is like getting into an argument with an idiot... they'll drag you down into a dumboff, and beat you with experience.