It's a rare situation for players to be both bound enough to their current team to re-sign within the five-day exclusivity window while also being good enough for anyone to actually care what they do. Mostly we have teams cutting ties with undesirables at breakneck speed, and that's what we have here.
Read MoreI had an extremely cynical idea for a post-World Series post, where I would pretend to have filed before the game started so I could freely watch and enjoy, and write up a list of lessons that the winning team had taught us about how to build a winner...and write up the wrong team.
Get it? The constant affirmation of the Royals approach would suddenly ring hollow as positive results.
Somewhere around the Royals losing in Game 7 with the tying run on third base in the bottom of the ninth, did this start to feel like an unduly cruel treatment for a miracle run that was instructive.
Read MoreI've seen them.
I've seen your off-season plans, filled with free agent third baseman acquisitions.
Have no doubt I have tabulated these blasphemies against CONOR and taken them into account. Dreams of Chase Headley's defense, fantasies of Pablo Escobar panda hats with increased lining for 40-degree temperatures in June. Crackpots schemes of moving Hanley Ramirez to third.
Read MoreEaton is pretty good. He has plenty of recovery speed and basically no limitations in his willingness to dive, leap into walls, and crash into things, often to his own detriment. He can follow balls over his shoulder, but not to the point where he plays abnormally shallow to cut off bloopers. His jumps seem adequate and aided by good top speed. His throwing arm was praised coming over from Arizona, and while he is capable of strong throws from the outfield, he tends to need to get his full body behind it, leading to a fairly long load-up process.
Read MoreThe World Series has finally started, meaning we're somewhere around a week or so away from baseball going out to buy some smokes and disappearing for months. But that does at least mean it's finally hot stove season. And when your favorite team has been bad for two years running, hot stove season winds up being far more fun than it actually should be.
Read MoreBy and large, we want two mutually exclusive things from the playoffs: high-stakes drama, and a process that bears out the best team in the sport. Drama is usually only interpreted as the top teams being threatened and challenged, but if they never truly have an advantage because the process is chaos, the premise of the drama starts to erode. A random team emerging from a chaotic churn is dramatic if a lottery drawing is dramatic.
Read MoreThe Royals are an obviously incredible story. Just what they've actually done.
Read MoreThese are people on the White Sox 40-man roster. Grown men. Proud men. They've dedicated their lives to a challenging, brutal craft and many have lived their last few years fighting against the odds to keep it going, even as the once dreamed about financial windfall become faded and childish fantasies, they've trudged on dutifully and fought to keep playing until they're asked to go.
Let's fantasize about cutting them.
Read MoreSo, using context, it's hard to understand what the motivation would be for the White Sox to use Carlos Rodon out of the bullpen next season, as they were reported to be considering back, oh, two weeks ago; back when there was White Sox news worth commenting on.
Read MoreThis is a pretty quiet time for the White Sox. While their 2014 season is done, the offseason hasn't quite begun and - J.J. Hardy's extension notwithstanding - the hot stove hasn't been turned on yet. But right now, fans of the Dodgers, Nationals, and Angels are all grieving after experiencing something that White Sox fans know all too well.
Read MoreCompetent shortstops are always rare and in demand, but are they especially in short supply so as to inspire a bidding frenzy for an (All-Star) 33-year-old shortstop with a year left at $10 million and a club option?
Well, what are the free agent options if J.J. Hardy is gone? There are recognizable names, but they may not be good anymore.
Read MoreI cannot imagine what possible inspiration there would be to discuss anything besides the excellent, excellent MLB postseason to date, and since I cannot imagine it, it's a major hindrance to writing about it. The AL Central results in the playoffs so far have been rather extreme, and discussing the fallout can only be fun.
Read MoreTuesday night’s game was objectively amazing. The Royals were such an unrelenting, unkillable beast, there was no semblance of my weeks--nay, months--spent resenting their stumble into media darling status, I simply could not do anything but admire the complete triumph of their approach.
Read MoreMost of the gang got together--James Fegan (@JRFegan), Nick Schaefer (@Nick_TCS) and Matt Adams (@2015WhiteSox)--to wrap up the last threads of the 2014 White Sox season, talk about Paul Konerko's goodbye, other weird stories about the Sox roster usage, mourn the bullpen, pine for Melky Cabrera in free agency and...
Read MoreThe Catbird Seat is a White Sox blog by White Sox fans that focuses on intelligent and humorous baseball commentary. Brought to you by ESPN's SweetSpot Network.
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