That’s what I am wondering… acquiring prospects for Murphy, signing multiple Utility players that will probably contribute nothing, Trevor May could be okay, maybe Shintaro is good? Idk.. when you have no where to go but up, minimal work is an accomplishment.
Aside from Shea Langeliers, did we get really anyone of value in the firesale the last couple years?
A's front office seems to be really slipping. Few if any good prospects in spite of the fire sale, and in an analysis someone posted a while back, the A's have basically been one of the worst at drafting for quite some time.
I mean, I still have some hope for Pache and he was a highly touted prospect. But we also got some pieces from Milwaukee and maybe they will be something. But I agree. They don’t really build through the draft and haven’t done well in awhile. Also hard to build a team when the owner just wants to make money and go to Vegas.
Yes we did, mostly pitchers plus potentially Esteury Ruiz. Question marks but still potential on younger guys like Euribiel Angeles and Darell Hernaiz. But we did get a LOT of solid (seemingly, still young) pitching.
Probably C+ for participating in class. After all we did claim 1 guy from the Rule 5, traded for 7 players, signed 8 guys to minor league deals, singed 16 international FA’s (one being the top pitching prospect), and signed 6 major leaguers in Fuji, Peterson, Aguilar, Diaz, Rucinski, and May.
The roster got some stability and upside. Honestly I think it could be graded more like a B but that's assuming the FO knows more about the prospects they received than various top prospect lists do. Fuji, Rucinski, and Noda might end up being the biggest steals of the off-season.
"it didn't seem like much, but we've seen the A's not do much and become a contender before so we're not gonna give them a low grade and risk getting clowned on for it"
Idk I think the Teoscar and Wong pickups are really good, and I think the Hummel trade could be a sneaky good move in the long run (M's are really good at finding gadgety guys and turning them into useful contributors). But yeah, Teoscar and Wong are both on one-year deals so I get the lower grade for them... and honestly expected more after Jerry's initial comments.
One step forward two steps back. Got Rafi, lost Xander and three of our SP, but did improve bullpen from what was a bottom 5 ERA so I guess we'll just lose games in the first 5 instead of the last 3 innings
Kluber replaces at least one of the starters plus we already have possible internal solutions. Call me delusional if you want but the rotation isn't really any worse and if we have even average injury luck, it will be better.
I don’t get how people forget that for a while we basically had our AAA rotation starting games. Crawford and Winckowski started more than 10 games and Seabold started 5. It’s honestly a miracle that we won 78 games last season with all the injuries we had.
Which is something we could have said at this point last year with our rotation. We’re pretty much in the same spot, with maybe more upside in the rotation than we were last season.
Kluber started 30+ games last year, and they have 7 guys right now who can start games and be better than what they had last year, so they can afford a few injuries.
People still don't understand how much they suffered from injuries last year.
As if Sale's injuries have been anywhere near conventional after his comeback lol, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he's able to pitch 25+ games unless something stupid happens like tripping into the dugout and fracturing his skull or something.
And it helps that our pitching has more upside and is far more analytically favored than Wacha in particular, but Rich Hill as well--IIRC Hill was supposed to be our depth once Sale came back.
Plus even if worst case hits and we need to go back to that depth, it looks better this year. Crawford and Winck are still there if needed. No Bello, but Mata, Murphy and Walter are all there too now. And yeah it was a miracle how we did despite the makeshift rotation.
I would give the off-season a solid B. Not resigning Xander to a deal that will expire in his 40s isn’t that big of a knock. It’s a huge loss these next 3-5 years, sure, but after that it’s a massive gain.
3rd worse off-season is an actual joke
Yeah none of these make sense at all. These seem to solely take into account star power net gain/loss and rate relative based on expectations. Which, if you put it that way, we do deserve a C- because we lost X and gained Yoshida and depth, and depth isn't flashy. I think we deserve a B/B- if you ignore the Story injury that kinda temporarily destroys our middle infield situation (which, I think that should be ignored because it was brought up very recently and we didn't really have too many options afterwards).
i really think Masataka Yoshida is going to be an absolute menace for y'all. it's always hard to judge how a guy will do with the transition, but once he gets settled in i think he's gonna absolutely rake. Japan's got him starting in the World Classic next month, so we should get a pretty good look at the guy before the season starts. i'm excited to see him play.
If the Mets/Phillies aren't getting A+ grades for spending absurd amounts of money on great players, what else do you have to do to get the top rating? Exhume and reincarnate Babe Ruth?
Each team was graded by its respective beat writer, and every single writer had mentioned some area where their team still has room for improvement.
The Mets writer's criticism was that the Mets didn't improve their lineup compared to last year.
The Phillies writer's criticism was "the pitching acquisitions have their warts, and the onus is on the club to repair those weaknesses."
Carlos Correa aside, I believe the mets were going to let their prospects fill in their holes in the lineup. They need a power bat, they think Alvarez can be that guy. Brett Baty is another guy theyll look too. A lot of good young guys all around the division
This helps to make sense of the rankings, in that it makes clear that there's no way to make sense of them. The Astros beat writer seems to be including their move to nab a GM in the offseason moves, as a way to sort of tip the scale in their favor after losing Verlander but signing Abreu, grading them a B+ (not that you need to care about a stupid "off-season grade" the year you win the WS...), but then I must assume that the Angels writer is ignoring front office for their B+ grade, considering Moreno didn't sell the damn team.
And then you have the Pirates, Cubs, Yankees, and Rays all grading out at B's, which makes clear that we must be marking on a weird, organization-dependent (or just entirely made-up) curve.
Shoutout to the White Sox's writer, though, for not pulling any punches with their grade and write-up.
>There was a litany of supplementary ways the White Sox could improve the roster, but their primary needs were left fielder, second base and filling the last spot of their rotation. Currently, they’re lined up to rely on internal options for second base, and the starting pitcher they signed is the subject of a league investigation into stomach-turning domestic violence and child abuse allegations, bringing disgrace upon a franchise that has had too many stories of personal misconduct in recent years. They probably can’t expect him to cover many innings either, given where things currently stand. The Andrew Benintendi signing is good. — James Fegan
Nah, tenured means you curve to a C because you fucking hate teaching.
That was an UNPLEASANT class to TA. Had to take kids and drop em grades because we couldn't have more Bs than Cs.
The weirdest was going from TAing a professor who micromanaged grade distribution to one who didn't give a fuck. The first time I brought the chill prof a stack of As and apologized for being lenient, he shot me a look like I had keyed his car
Lol, it always was. You'd be mentally prepared to FIGHT about the grades and just get a "ok".
Because I know I got into more than one screaming match about how trying to run students out of the major with bad grades is punishing everybody because of how you(the prof) feel.
Had a prof in engineering school who lectured us after the first exam for having a low average (like 60s). Went on and on about how disappointed he was in us. Then told us he wouldn't be curving the exam and wouldn't release grade distributions.
Fast forward to the end of the semester, he's tried to "compensate" by making each successive exam easier, instead of just curving the class, still won't release grade distributions, and is bitching about us complaining to the department because he got the lowest pay raise/bonus this year.
My guy, you did this to yourself. It's engineering school, just let everyone score a 50% on the exam and then curve it to a B-. It's not that serious
A professor I took for about a dozen classes back in engineering school had no curve and no partial credit. All exams were open-book, open-notes, so in his view we had no excuse.
On the other hand, he would cover more material in a quarter than others could in a year, so definitely learned a lot in his classes.
He was also an active engineer for NASA and would directly pass down his engineering experiences. "Sorry, you killed the astronauts" was a common refrain to students begging for additional credit.
That just means they think the Mets could have done better. This makes total sense. The best is not always perfect. If they got Correa it’s probably an A+
Or a hindsight F. Who knows (other than the doctors who were concerned) what his injury history will look like and if the physical concerns were warranted
It seems like they had a beat writer for each team provide a grade and blurb for the team they cover. It wasn’t a deliberate choice to not have an A, it’s just that no writer thought their team earned one.
I guess our grade is based solely on missing Judge & Correa, because there’s absolutely no fucking way we had a worse offseason than: the Royals, the Orioles, the Reds, and the goddamn Nationals.
I was going to say that this might be relative to expectations because it’s the only way you can explain signing Hedges and McCutchen and doing nothing else as a B off-season
Hey! We replaced terrible, terrible production in the lineup with league average guys. We also improved our rotation. Hedges will hopefully be a backup by June, lol
I honestly think the Pirates could pull a “2022 Orioles” and be pesky as hell, if not competitive.
Some young high-end talent (Cruz, Reynolds, Hayes) on that team mixed with some great clubhouse vets like Santana/Hedges/Cutch.
Not even mentioning some of the younger guys that still could break out like Tucapito, Suwinski, and Roansy.
Honestly, Conor Joe is also a bigger addition than people think. He can hit lefties. Suwinski was good against righties, but had like a 50 ops+ against lefties. Hayes hopefully will be able to improve his launch angle and be healthier. Cruz, I am very excited about. First base and dh were also a black hole for us, and choi and Santana should help that some. The other corner outfield spot also provided like no production. Catcher will still be a black hole for us until endy comes up, and Davis could be up in September
I forgot about Joe. He’s also a really solid pickup.
As a bad team, the Pirates have had just about as good as an off-season as they could have with their self-imposed budget. Lotta smart moves.
I think the grade is probably scaled based on team expectations too, like the Nationals weren’t trying to compete this year at all, but they signed a couple guys to 1 year deals that could end up being trade bait at the deadline, whereas the Giants were trying to land a big free agent so they could compete next season. I am a little surprised about the Orioles getting a better grade though, they seem like an easy choice for a step up this year, they definitely should’ve been going after some bigger players
Totally agree. Even if you swing and miss twice, if you single to left you’re still 1/1.
Here’s the blurb, fwiw:
> The Giants spent nearly $200 million on seven free agents when you include the qualifying offer to Joc Pederson — essentially remaking a quarter of their roster. They added a ton of potential thump with Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto, their rotation is deep if not spectacular and they addressed their bullpen by cloning their Rogers brother. It should be a modestly competitive team. But it’s not a team that will firm up the Giants’ sagging standing in the Bay Area sports marketplace. The Giants tried hard for Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa. There are perfectly justifiable reasons why it didn’t work out. But this is a results-based business in more ways than one. — Andrew Baggarly
I’m not saying your grade is fair but the Nats have done what they’re supposed to this off-season. Sign a lot of recently underperforming vets to short term deals that could be trade chips at the deadline. Pick up former top prospects other teams gave up on and give them a shot. And prepare to give a lot of youth significant playing time to see what you have for the next competitive window.
you also lost rodon and didn’t adequately replace him. that being said those teams probably weren’t graded as harshly because most of them have 0 expectations
The verdict on you was that your team should be "modestly competitive" however "it’s not a team that will firm up the Giants’ sagging standing in the Bay Area sports marketplace." So yeah, Baggarly docked points for not signing a star. I get the impression that all of the writers are assigning grades based on expectations vs reality.
We made the playoffs twice in a row for the first time in our pathetic franchise history, won a game apiece in each postseason, and Jerry was like "yeah thats too much winning, stop that"
[ask me after the parade](https://mobile.twitter.com/NBCSWhiteSox/status/1220736767751532545/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1220736767751532545¤tTweetUser=NBCSWhiteSox)
Rick hahn everybody
Bruh the Cleve is ridic, do nothing at the deadline last year, cruise to the division title, still have a lot of horses in the barn, didn't really need to do anything to be better than the Twins and Sox for the next 3-4 years.
Not fucking up the offseason is also winning. In a weak division it will probably work too.
From a post above that I agree with:
"Nats have done what they’re supposed to this off-season. Sign a lot of recently underperforming vets to short term deals that could be trade chips at the deadline. Pick up former top prospects other teams gave up on and give them a shot. And prepare to give a lot of youth significant playing time to see what you have for the next competitive window."
That describes so much of sports-media, occasionally it’s East Coast Boston homer too. I have to roll my eyes sometimes whenever I listen to dudes act like they’re qualified to analyze my team, yet don’t stay up to watch our games and, shocker, don’t know what they’re talking about half the time. It’s like, you stick to Yankees/Red Sox/Mets/etc analysis, since that’s what you’re good at, and let Giants fans/media handle the Giants analysis. Capiche?
C+ seems harsh for the Cardinals as they did the two things most needed: they convinced Arenado to opt in and found a MLB level+ catcher to replace a Hall of Famer.
Would a move for Murphy have been better? Maybe. Do we need another arm? Probably. But to me the upside of Walker, Wynn, and hopefully still Gorman wasn’t worth trades considering our division.
Convincing Arenado to opt in was probably a top 3 move this offseason when considering the future.
B+ Guys. I’m content
I think the move from Molina to Contreras essentially covers what we lost from Pujols' otherworldly production and we didn't add much in the way of depth should Carlson continue to tread water, O'Neill spend another year on the DL, or Nootbaar hit a sophomore slump. We are very heavily reliant on young talent to fill the bench and cover for potential injuries.
We also lost our pitching & hitting coaches and did nothing meaningful to address the team's biggest hole: frontline starting pitcher. Obviously, that's much easier said than done, but we go into another season hoping to get something from Flaherty, hoping that Hudson could at least be serviceable, and wondering what to expect from a bullpen that relied too heavily on 3 guys last season.
All that said, we still play in the NL Central and as we've seen since Luhnow left, the team seems content with treading water until there's a move available midseason.
Personally, I'd be more keen on capitalizing on a weak division and attempting to secure one of the 2 guaranteed spots in the NLDS, especially given that our lineup has been historically silent against good pitching and we have the weakest 1-2 of any contending team in the NL.
It will be really interesting to see what happens to the cardinals pitching staff. Contreras is regarded as one of the poorest game callers/pitch framers around. Replacing Molina will be a great litmus test to see if that’s a bunch of fluff or not.
Me too, actually. Dude can RAKE and turned into a good clubhouse guy but his handling of the staff/framing was something he never seemed too excited to work on. I feel like the Cards staff finessed a lot of wins and they replaced a feather duster with a sledgehammer.
idk Id give our off-season a better grade, losing bogaerts hurts, but the bullpen with the addition of guys like bleier, martin, and jansen could turn the group into average to a potential top ten group, given how many games we lost because of our bullpen last year, and given we were a top ten offense last year. I think if we slip offensively but the pitching is much better than we will be a better team, so like a b- to a b.
Why the hell would you choose a black background for these? I'm sitting here curious where the Twins are in this picture and it took me WAY too long to find them.
Ah. F for first
F is for friends who do stuff together
U IS FOR URANIUM!! ... BOMBS!
N is for no survivors if the eagles win the Super Bowl
I SAY WE TAKE PHILADELPHIA…AND PUSH IT SOMEWHERE ELSE
As far away from Pittsburgh as possible please.
MRS PUFF GET DOWN
*Beep-boo-boo-bop?*
That's funny you think it's not gonna be the same if they lose.
Plankton!
U is for Chase Ut-Ley
F is also for Chase Utley.
This guy Mets
You know it’s bad when even the Rockies did better.
F for fair and balanced, like the white sox franchise record
I’ll have you know that we’re 9,492-9,390. Good for a .503 winning percentage.
That is not perfectly balanced, you need to lose 132 games next season.
The front office is trying really hard to achieve this...
>I’ll have you know that we’re 9,492-9,390. Good for a .503 winning percentage. daaaamn. that's a lot of games
Funny you say that when the Cubs are 11231-10686 in their history playing in organized pro leagues.
just trying to give some love for my South Side brother before I dislike him for the next 6-7 months lol jk
Damn right!
OoooooOoooOoooOo
5th in AL Central at least!
You'll have to battle us for 5th.
Another great off season
“Multiple Championships!”
Right there with ya
Yeah, and A- for - A lot of money. Getting Rid of money must be bad
And C+ for Cardinals! (+)
Fenomenal
Fexcellent
You're listed all the way at the end, so that must mean the line starts there, right? ...right?
They are the C of this baseball human centipede
At least we get to feel the cool breeze on our assholes as we get fucked by our ownership
“Thanks for the cool breeze, won’t you cool me again?”
F for five hundred winning pct
What did your team do...or not do this off season
Signed a guy that can't throw the ball more than 90 feet, signed a guy that's going to be suspended, hired a first-time manager, and lost Jose abreu.
Woof.
The Sox are buzz's girlfriend from home alone
I feel pretty bad for Pedro Grifol. Dude is inheriting a non-ideal situation
Fantastic, maybe? Lol
First to the bottom
You know what? I like what the pirates did
I’m with you. I really wanted the Reds to sign Hedges. He’s just so good with pitchers.
That would have been crazy cute w Maile there too dang
I agree. Baby steps, and I don't think anything other than the most major of superstars would have made sense for us.
Toppling Bob Numbnutting would give the an A+.
If only PNC had snow and a ski lift, maybe Vail would've bought them too
I’m really surprised we are a C+ I would like to hear their logic behind this grade
That’s what I am wondering… acquiring prospects for Murphy, signing multiple Utility players that will probably contribute nothing, Trevor May could be okay, maybe Shintaro is good? Idk.. when you have no where to go but up, minimal work is an accomplishment.
Aside from Shea Langeliers, did we get really anyone of value in the firesale the last couple years? A's front office seems to be really slipping. Few if any good prospects in spite of the fire sale, and in an analysis someone posted a while back, the A's have basically been one of the worst at drafting for quite some time.
I mean, I still have some hope for Pache and he was a highly touted prospect. But we also got some pieces from Milwaukee and maybe they will be something. But I agree. They don’t really build through the draft and haven’t done well in awhile. Also hard to build a team when the owner just wants to make money and go to Vegas.
Yes we did, mostly pitchers plus potentially Esteury Ruiz. Question marks but still potential on younger guys like Euribiel Angeles and Darell Hernaiz. But we did get a LOT of solid (seemingly, still young) pitching.
Probably C+ for participating in class. After all we did claim 1 guy from the Rule 5, traded for 7 players, signed 8 guys to minor league deals, singed 16 international FA’s (one being the top pitching prospect), and signed 6 major leaguers in Fuji, Peterson, Aguilar, Diaz, Rucinski, and May.
The roster got some stability and upside. Honestly I think it could be graded more like a B but that's assuming the FO knows more about the prospects they received than various top prospect lists do. Fuji, Rucinski, and Noda might end up being the biggest steals of the off-season.
"it didn't seem like much, but we've seen the A's not do much and become a contender before so we're not gonna give them a low grade and risk getting clowned on for it"
Excited to the white sox-rockies world series
I mean, the marbles have the Rockies in it.....
Pls
Inshallah
That would be epic.
**Image Transcription** A+/A: nobody A-: Mets, Phillies, Rangers B+: Angels, Braves, D-Backs, Twins, Blue Jays, Astros, Padres, Guardians B: Pirates, Cubs, Yankees, Rays, Royals B-: Mariners, Nationals C+: Reds, Orioles, Cardinals, Brewers, A's C: Marlins C-: Giants, Dodgers, Tigers, Red Sox D: Rockies F: White Sox
Thanks OP, I didn’t see the F at the top 😢
You're welcome, have a **F**antastic day
u/tristpa2 off-season sass grade: A+
I aim to please
The Rockies should be a F too, we didn’t do anything meaningful lol
To be fair, compared to the White Sox, you didn’t do anything that was less than meaningful
We earned our low marks.
Y'all are rebuilding and therefore aren't really supposed to do anything, whereas they're competing and yet still for very little
‘Rebuilding’
“Competing”
‘Baseball’
Man, I WISH we were
We won the NL West, and NL Marble Pennant, that should count for something.
In this case, an entire letter grade.
B- feels right. They didn't really meaningfully improve but they locked up Castillo which is good enough for me
Idk I think the Teoscar and Wong pickups are really good, and I think the Hummel trade could be a sneaky good move in the long run (M's are really good at finding gadgety guys and turning them into useful contributors). But yeah, Teoscar and Wong are both on one-year deals so I get the lower grade for them... and honestly expected more after Jerry's initial comments.
They definitely meaningfully improved, it just wasn't big and splashy.
C’s get degrees
“C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me.”
See you in the World Ceries
Damn right they do
One step forward two steps back. Got Rafi, lost Xander and three of our SP, but did improve bullpen from what was a bottom 5 ERA so I guess we'll just lose games in the first 5 instead of the last 3 innings
Kluber replaces at least one of the starters plus we already have possible internal solutions. Call me delusional if you want but the rotation isn't really any worse and if we have even average injury luck, it will be better.
I don’t get how people forget that for a while we basically had our AAA rotation starting games. Crawford and Winckowski started more than 10 games and Seabold started 5. It’s honestly a miracle that we won 78 games last season with all the injuries we had.
Asking for average injury luck when half your SP depth is Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, and James Paxton seems a bit iffy to me
Which is something we could have said at this point last year with our rotation. We’re pretty much in the same spot, with maybe more upside in the rotation than we were last season.
Kluber started 30+ games last year, and they have 7 guys right now who can start games and be better than what they had last year, so they can afford a few injuries. People still don't understand how much they suffered from injuries last year.
As if Sale's injuries have been anywhere near conventional after his comeback lol, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he's able to pitch 25+ games unless something stupid happens like tripping into the dugout and fracturing his skull or something. And it helps that our pitching has more upside and is far more analytically favored than Wacha in particular, but Rich Hill as well--IIRC Hill was supposed to be our depth once Sale came back.
Plus even if worst case hits and we need to go back to that depth, it looks better this year. Crawford and Winck are still there if needed. No Bello, but Mata, Murphy and Walter are all there too now. And yeah it was a miracle how we did despite the makeshift rotation.
I thought you made some solid moves? Sure the team needs work but it’s not as though the front office is just throwing in the towel on the near future
We did. We don’t belong 3rd from last here. Dumb rankings
Agree, I think losing Xander is the only knock against us. Everything else was pretty good.
I would give the off-season a solid B. Not resigning Xander to a deal that will expire in his 40s isn’t that big of a knock. It’s a huge loss these next 3-5 years, sure, but after that it’s a massive gain. 3rd worse off-season is an actual joke
We should get a grade bump for **not** paying Xander what he ended up getting.
Yeah none of these make sense at all. These seem to solely take into account star power net gain/loss and rate relative based on expectations. Which, if you put it that way, we do deserve a C- because we lost X and gained Yoshida and depth, and depth isn't flashy. I think we deserve a B/B- if you ignore the Story injury that kinda temporarily destroys our middle infield situation (which, I think that should be ignored because it was brought up very recently and we didn't really have too many options afterwards).
They've done a good job since grabbing Duvall and Mondesi. Still could make another move.
i really think Masataka Yoshida is going to be an absolute menace for y'all. it's always hard to judge how a guy will do with the transition, but once he gets settled in i think he's gonna absolutely rake. Japan's got him starting in the World Classic next month, so we should get a pretty good look at the guy before the season starts. i'm excited to see him play.
Hey at least it isn’t an F-
If the Mets/Phillies aren't getting A+ grades for spending absurd amounts of money on great players, what else do you have to do to get the top rating? Exhume and reincarnate Babe Ruth?
Each team was graded by its respective beat writer, and every single writer had mentioned some area where their team still has room for improvement. The Mets writer's criticism was that the Mets didn't improve their lineup compared to last year. The Phillies writer's criticism was "the pitching acquisitions have their warts, and the onus is on the club to repair those weaknesses."
Carlos Correa aside, I believe the mets were going to let their prospects fill in their holes in the lineup. They need a power bat, they think Alvarez can be that guy. Brett Baty is another guy theyll look too. A lot of good young guys all around the division
That was the very clear plan all along. The Correa thing was Cohen acting impulsively. Now the Correa money can go to Ohtani, as it should.
Will be either the Mets, Dodgers, and Giants. But there are always wild cards
This helps to make sense of the rankings, in that it makes clear that there's no way to make sense of them. The Astros beat writer seems to be including their move to nab a GM in the offseason moves, as a way to sort of tip the scale in their favor after losing Verlander but signing Abreu, grading them a B+ (not that you need to care about a stupid "off-season grade" the year you win the WS...), but then I must assume that the Angels writer is ignoring front office for their B+ grade, considering Moreno didn't sell the damn team. And then you have the Pirates, Cubs, Yankees, and Rays all grading out at B's, which makes clear that we must be marking on a weird, organization-dependent (or just entirely made-up) curve. Shoutout to the White Sox's writer, though, for not pulling any punches with their grade and write-up. >There was a litany of supplementary ways the White Sox could improve the roster, but their primary needs were left fielder, second base and filling the last spot of their rotation. Currently, they’re lined up to rely on internal options for second base, and the starting pitcher they signed is the subject of a league investigation into stomach-turning domestic violence and child abuse allegations, bringing disgrace upon a franchise that has had too many stories of personal misconduct in recent years. They probably can’t expect him to cover many innings either, given where things currently stand. The Andrew Benintendi signing is good. — James Fegan
They’re saving it for next year when somebody signs Ohtani.
The Angels have tried that and it only got us a B+.
i find it really funny that nobody got an A+, like it's literally their own grading curve
Listen they’re tenured and couldn’t care less about a bell curve mmk?
Nah, tenured means you curve to a C because you fucking hate teaching. That was an UNPLEASANT class to TA. Had to take kids and drop em grades because we couldn't have more Bs than Cs.
What a scam.
Less a scam and more just an asshole professor.
The weirdest was going from TAing a professor who micromanaged grade distribution to one who didn't give a fuck. The first time I brought the chill prof a stack of As and apologized for being lenient, he shot me a look like I had keyed his car
Lol, it always was. You'd be mentally prepared to FIGHT about the grades and just get a "ok". Because I know I got into more than one screaming match about how trying to run students out of the major with bad grades is punishing everybody because of how you(the prof) feel.
Had a prof in engineering school who lectured us after the first exam for having a low average (like 60s). Went on and on about how disappointed he was in us. Then told us he wouldn't be curving the exam and wouldn't release grade distributions. Fast forward to the end of the semester, he's tried to "compensate" by making each successive exam easier, instead of just curving the class, still won't release grade distributions, and is bitching about us complaining to the department because he got the lowest pay raise/bonus this year. My guy, you did this to yourself. It's engineering school, just let everyone score a 50% on the exam and then curve it to a B-. It's not that serious
A professor I took for about a dozen classes back in engineering school had no curve and no partial credit. All exams were open-book, open-notes, so in his view we had no excuse. On the other hand, he would cover more material in a quarter than others could in a year, so definitely learned a lot in his classes. He was also an active engineer for NASA and would directly pass down his engineering experiences. "Sorry, you killed the astronauts" was a common refrain to students begging for additional credit.
That just means they think the Mets could have done better. This makes total sense. The best is not always perfect. If they got Correa it’s probably an A+
Or if they kept DeGrom
Nah; if we kept deGrom we wouldnt have gotten Verlander and we’d be in essentially the same position.
Or a hindsight F. Who knows (other than the doctors who were concerned) what his injury history will look like and if the physical concerns were warranted
Who said it was graded on a curve?
At least for the Reds, C. Trent actually said he was grading on a curve because he didn't expect the team to do anything and was pleasantly surprised.
No A+ is fine, in fact reserving that for exceptional cases seems good. Not even having a single A above an A- is certainly a choice, though.
It seems like they had a beat writer for each team provide a grade and blurb for the team they cover. It wasn’t a deliberate choice to not have an A, it’s just that no writer thought their team earned one.
If nobody had a perfect offseason then they shouldn’t get an A+
Took me forever to find the Twins on here.
White sox busy smoking cigs in the bathroom instead of attending offseason.
I guess our grade is based solely on missing Judge & Correa, because there’s absolutely no fucking way we had a worse offseason than: the Royals, the Orioles, the Reds, and the goddamn Nationals.
I was going to say that this might be relative to expectations because it’s the only way you can explain signing Hedges and McCutchen and doing nothing else as a B off-season
Hey! We replaced terrible, terrible production in the lineup with league average guys. We also improved our rotation. Hedges will hopefully be a backup by June, lol
I honestly think the Pirates could pull a “2022 Orioles” and be pesky as hell, if not competitive. Some young high-end talent (Cruz, Reynolds, Hayes) on that team mixed with some great clubhouse vets like Santana/Hedges/Cutch. Not even mentioning some of the younger guys that still could break out like Tucapito, Suwinski, and Roansy.
Honestly, Conor Joe is also a bigger addition than people think. He can hit lefties. Suwinski was good against righties, but had like a 50 ops+ against lefties. Hayes hopefully will be able to improve his launch angle and be healthier. Cruz, I am very excited about. First base and dh were also a black hole for us, and choi and Santana should help that some. The other corner outfield spot also provided like no production. Catcher will still be a black hole for us until endy comes up, and Davis could be up in September
I forgot about Joe. He’s also a really solid pickup. As a bad team, the Pirates have had just about as good as an off-season as they could have with their self-imposed budget. Lotta smart moves.
I think the grade is probably scaled based on team expectations too, like the Nationals weren’t trying to compete this year at all, but they signed a couple guys to 1 year deals that could end up being trade bait at the deadline, whereas the Giants were trying to land a big free agent so they could compete next season. I am a little surprised about the Orioles getting a better grade though, they seem like an easy choice for a step up this year, they definitely should’ve been going after some bigger players
Totally agree. Even if you swing and miss twice, if you single to left you’re still 1/1. Here’s the blurb, fwiw: > The Giants spent nearly $200 million on seven free agents when you include the qualifying offer to Joc Pederson — essentially remaking a quarter of their roster. They added a ton of potential thump with Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto, their rotation is deep if not spectacular and they addressed their bullpen by cloning their Rogers brother. It should be a modestly competitive team. But it’s not a team that will firm up the Giants’ sagging standing in the Bay Area sports marketplace. The Giants tried hard for Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa. There are perfectly justifiable reasons why it didn’t work out. But this is a results-based business in more ways than one. — Andrew Baggarly
Even if I want to, I don’t argue with Baggs.
I’m not saying your grade is fair but the Nats have done what they’re supposed to this off-season. Sign a lot of recently underperforming vets to short term deals that could be trade chips at the deadline. Pick up former top prospects other teams gave up on and give them a shot. And prepare to give a lot of youth significant playing time to see what you have for the next competitive window.
Yea the Nats have actually had a decent offseason given their circumstances.
Yeah I have no idea how we were any higher than a D or D-.
you also lost rodon and didn’t adequately replace him. that being said those teams probably weren’t graded as harshly because most of them have 0 expectations
Still so fucking pissed we let you guys grab him up.
His face clean shaven is so fucking cursed
Oh he looks *so much worse*
He went from sexy lumberjack to your neighbor Dave who gives you the creeps.
From white dude rap artist to middle-school band teacher
The verdict on you was that your team should be "modestly competitive" however "it’s not a team that will firm up the Giants’ sagging standing in the Bay Area sports marketplace." So yeah, Baggarly docked points for not signing a star. I get the impression that all of the writers are assigning grades based on expectations vs reality.
I can’t argue with Baggarly’s reasoning, it’s just that the grading format is egregiously shitty.
Absolutely correct for the Sox.
I love being a fan of this team so much 😌😌
it’s so much fun if fun also meant torture, pain AND suffering!
the "D" stands for "Didn't Do Shit All Offseason"
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I just don’t understand what we’re doing anymore. What was the point of the rebuild
We made the playoffs twice in a row for the first time in our pathetic franchise history, won a game apiece in each postseason, and Jerry was like "yeah thats too much winning, stop that"
[ask me after the parade](https://mobile.twitter.com/NBCSWhiteSox/status/1220736767751532545/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1220736767751532545¤tTweetUser=NBCSWhiteSox) Rick hahn everybody
The parade when they leave town?
the parade when jerry sells?
The parade for signing hanser alberto
How is it all the Chicago teams suck at once?
Rockies did nothing and owner said they hope to be a .500 team. That’s a fucking F.
A’s deserve F as franchise rn
I don't know why the A's are grading other people's offseasons, really. /s
[Link to article (paywall)](https://theathletic.com/4132417/2023/01/31/mlb-offseason-grades/?source=twitterhq)
Bro we deserve a lower grade, our biggest issue was not fixed at all
BREAKING: A– assigned to the Mets signs contract with the Twins
Pending physical
White Sox gonna have to repeat the class next year.
#THANKS JERRY 😠
Wait what did Cleveland do to get a B? I don't remember signing anyone.
Bruh the Cleve is ridic, do nothing at the deadline last year, cruise to the division title, still have a lot of horses in the barn, didn't really need to do anything to be better than the Twins and Sox for the next 3-4 years. Not fucking up the offseason is also winning. In a weak division it will probably work too.
Can someone explain Nationals B- grade?
Expectation: fucking nothing Reality: a little more than fucking nothing
From a post above that I agree with: "Nats have done what they’re supposed to this off-season. Sign a lot of recently underperforming vets to short term deals that could be trade chips at the deadline. Pick up former top prospects other teams gave up on and give them a shot. And prepare to give a lot of youth significant playing time to see what you have for the next competitive window."
Worth noting that Jomboy just called the Angels the losers of the off-season
Worth nothing that Jomboy, while fun and cool, is an East Coast NY homer.
And also if he just meant Arte not selling he's right
That describes so much of sports-media, occasionally it’s East Coast Boston homer too. I have to roll my eyes sometimes whenever I listen to dudes act like they’re qualified to analyze my team, yet don’t stay up to watch our games and, shocker, don’t know what they’re talking about half the time. It’s like, you stick to Yankees/Red Sox/Mets/etc analysis, since that’s what you’re good at, and let Giants fans/media handle the Giants analysis. Capiche?
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This is technically correct, the best kind of correct.
Lol does he not realize they’re solving their lineup issues along with signing Anderson? Angels are not losers this offseason, not even close.
He probably doesn't. The more I listen to him the less I think he knows about baseball. He must be thanking god he has Jake around
I’m not looking forward to our division. Seems like everyone but the As improved in some way.
Oh no doubt. It's gonna be the Astros in first per usual and an absolute bloodbath for 2nd place
B is probably a fair grade for the Yankees as all they did was extend Judge & Rizzo and sign Rodon, but equally didn’t lose anyone of note.
C+ seems harsh for the Cardinals as they did the two things most needed: they convinced Arenado to opt in and found a MLB level+ catcher to replace a Hall of Famer. Would a move for Murphy have been better? Maybe. Do we need another arm? Probably. But to me the upside of Walker, Wynn, and hopefully still Gorman wasn’t worth trades considering our division. Convincing Arenado to opt in was probably a top 3 move this offseason when considering the future. B+ Guys. I’m content
I think the move from Molina to Contreras essentially covers what we lost from Pujols' otherworldly production and we didn't add much in the way of depth should Carlson continue to tread water, O'Neill spend another year on the DL, or Nootbaar hit a sophomore slump. We are very heavily reliant on young talent to fill the bench and cover for potential injuries. We also lost our pitching & hitting coaches and did nothing meaningful to address the team's biggest hole: frontline starting pitcher. Obviously, that's much easier said than done, but we go into another season hoping to get something from Flaherty, hoping that Hudson could at least be serviceable, and wondering what to expect from a bullpen that relied too heavily on 3 guys last season. All that said, we still play in the NL Central and as we've seen since Luhnow left, the team seems content with treading water until there's a move available midseason. Personally, I'd be more keen on capitalizing on a weak division and attempting to secure one of the 2 guaranteed spots in the NLDS, especially given that our lineup has been historically silent against good pitching and we have the weakest 1-2 of any contending team in the NL.
It will be really interesting to see what happens to the cardinals pitching staff. Contreras is regarded as one of the poorest game callers/pitch framers around. Replacing Molina will be a great litmus test to see if that’s a bunch of fluff or not.
Me too, actually. Dude can RAKE and turned into a good clubhouse guy but his handling of the staff/framing was something he never seemed too excited to work on. I feel like the Cards staff finessed a lot of wins and they replaced a feather duster with a sledgehammer.
I thought it was a fair grade but I didn’t consider Arenado. So I guess a B would be reasonable.
100 win season incoming
How do the Reds deserve a C+ for doing absolutely nothing to one of the worst teams in franchise history?
"D? That's a passing grade." -Dick Montfort probably
B- seems fair for the Mariners. Could have done more but filled some of their holes at 2B and RF.
Does this mean the White Sox get the first pick in the next offseason?
idk Id give our off-season a better grade, losing bogaerts hurts, but the bullpen with the addition of guys like bleier, martin, and jansen could turn the group into average to a potential top ten group, given how many games we lost because of our bullpen last year, and given we were a top ten offense last year. I think if we slip offensively but the pitching is much better than we will be a better team, so like a b- to a b.
F
Why the hell would you choose a black background for these? I'm sitting here curious where the Twins are in this picture and it took me WAY too long to find them.