If you are really going with the butterfly effect, without Grandal they would have preemptively bought out Mccan's last year of arbitration with probably a three year deal with easy terms, something like 15-20 million.

Moncada would have probably been moved to RF. If you remember at the time, he was not a particularly good defensive 2B. He ended up flourishing defensively at 3B but there were concerns about him handling the position. Madrigal was already drafted and quickly rising. He was considered gold glove level defensively as a prospect.

So, Manny would be at 3B, Madrigal at 2B, Mccann at C and Moncada in RF. Even with Manny's contract, the money saved on RF and C contracts still would have put money in JR pocket.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

You can't factor in Machado. The offer by the Sox was the max they would go....regardless of Grandal. It ended up being a good non-contract.

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I don't recall any talk of RF for Moncada.

I know you were ticked off when they didn't sign Machado, but I don't see how singing him would have saved them money. He got $300 million from the Padres. To bring him to the Southside, it would have taken probably somewhere around $320 million. Grandal's contract is $73 million and Eaton's contract is $7 million this year with a club option for next year. It would have taken a lot of years of Moncada providing a low cost option in right field for that money to balance out.

Madden pretty much threw Pujols under the bus yesterday on some podcast. Made it clear that Pujols couldn't comprehend that he was much worse than the Walsh kid, much less Ohtani. Albert expected to start five days a week because he was Albert Pujols, damnit.

At some point it's a sunk cost and you just say hasta la vista...

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Joe commenting on any controversy is pure gold. On the release, " Then you have to maybe absorb people that don't understand it, or weren't there with boots on the ground."

I will magnanimously absorb Taylor McGregor when the Cubs start selling off all their decent players and she's left interviewing Eric Sogard and his wife.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

We've had some lousy signings (Mo Vaughn, Vernon Wells, Josh Hamilton) but Pujols was by far the worst. Nobody on the team will say it but I think everyone is glad he's out of there. Hunter said he was a lousy teammate always with the bad attitude if he wasn't doing well even when the team was winning. He was the most selfish player I ever saw. Instead of going with a pitch the other way he'd still try and pull it and hit a grounder to 3rd. Nobody will touch his record for GIDPs. I'm surprised he was willing to sacrifice his average for home runs. He could still have been close to a .300 hitter if he changed his approach.

Is Walsh the real deal at 1B for the next few years until they have to eventually move Rendon there? Adell reminds me of Byron Buxton, somebody who's going to take a few painful years to get to his potential.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Who cares? They can't pitch. When they do find a pitcher, he ODs.

Yeah it looks like Walsh is for real. When Pujols was shut down in September he came in hot and he's been able to carry it thru spring training and April/May. If Adell starts to hit he might be the future at 1st. He's so bad in the field I don't know how they fix that. A lot of guys look lost at the plate when they're called up but watching him in the field was jarring. I think we probably should of moved him for pitching but his performance last season probably hurt his value. I think Brandon Marsh will be the RF of the future (or CF if they move Trout to RF).

We'll have Pujols off the books next season so that money will go to pitching and with the logjam in the outfield I would rather they move Adell than Marsh for more pitching help. I have no idea why the front office was loading up on outfielders and middle infielders in the draft instead of pitching.

I did not realize Mongo was a baseball fan. Nice to see.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Was just looking at another all-time heinous contract: Miguel Cabrera. Signed a 10-yr, $292m extension in 2014. Got three good years and then it's been a complete disaster:

YEAR SALARY WAR
2014 22m 4.9
2015 22m 5.2
2016 28m 4.9
2017 28m -0.8
2018 30m 0.6
2019 30m 0.0
2020 30m -0.2
2021 30m -0.4
2022 32m
2023 32m

Yikes

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That one was a little different because Illich was dying and he wanted Cabrera to be a Tiger for both the rest of his life and the rest of Cabrera's career. He didn't care about saving his kids' inheritance, he just wanted to try and be happy.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

True, plus Cabrera was actually coming off off his triple crown year so you could say he earned it. But it wasn't like Cabrera was a lifelong Tiger -- he had been with Detroit for six years after five with Florida, and hadn't won, so it was different than Pujols with the Cardinals.

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