The FromThe108 blog started in March of 2016 with a post about Avisail Garcia. The FromThe108 Twitter account (or should I say X, it’s bad form to dead name) started in late 2015. Ostensibly “This Thing of Ours” has been around for (rounding purposes) damn near a decade. In that time our original tag line “Baseball, Beer and Bullshit” has basically fulfilled the promise of what we would bring to yous on the daily. Of course MySoxSummer mostly drinks Whiskey (or is it Whisky, I forget) and lately the Bullshit part is crowding out the Baseball. The Baseball can get a little mundane with the contention window very far in the rearview, but we pretty much stayed the course.

Amongst the tag line I think people take too far the scenario of three guys in the bar wise cracking, talking nonsense. Or maybe we take that too far, but buried in that slogan is also the amount of creative thinking that can be done in those exact same scenarios. Write Drunk, Edit Sober became a slogan because in many ways it is. I mean, Bill Hicks built damn near an entire legendary status around the thesis. The twine that ties the 108ers together most specifically is the willingness to look at things just a little differently, to have a contrarian bent, to dig deeper. Me, MSS and Chorizy all try to operate in that manner.

At the End of 2018 I Wrote that the White Sox Should Trade Luis Robert Jr.

The above excerpt was from my SoxMachine Off-Season Plan Project in October 2018, just after the season. That post is still up at SoxMachine (READ IT HERE). At the time, this sort of suggestion sent shock waves through WST. It was not a common refrain that the team should trade a highly rated prospect they just spent over $50 million to secure.

My thought process (other than digging into my contrarian creative well) was that in order to speed along the “REBUILD” and start turning prospects into real players a big trade was needed. If successful that trade could put the White Sox in position in 2019 to maybe sneak out the division. It was a trade of timing, a trade of knowing that good things don’t last forever. Strike while the proverbial iron is hot! The obvious push back at the time was that Luis was destined to become the Cuban Mike Trout.

I go into much more detail on this trade in an old episode of Pinwheels and Ivy (WATCH HERE). Around the 22 minute mark we discuss the trade. I note in the video that my mind was between Dylan Cease and Luis Robert Jr. for making a big splash and landed on Luis for his perceived higher trade value. As you could imagine, this trade was highly unpopular at the time of writing this and has followed me around for awhile.

But knowing what you know now, what do you think about this trade idea? Is it possible I was right to suggest it?

So Was I Right About Trading Luis Robert Jr.for Eugenio Suarez?

I think that’s for you the reader to decide. I try not to focus on “being right”. That’s why the Au Jus tag line is “We aren’t tryna be right, we’re just tryna understand“. Being right is often pointless. I think for me the journey is about understanding, aka learning something. So did I learn anything? And if so, what was it?

Three Things I Learned….

Keep Looking Where Nobody Else is Looking

Pretty self explanatory, but revisiting this was a good reminder that it’s tough to find gold if you dig in the same spot as everyone else.

Don’t Be Afraid To Look Stupid

I was apprehensive to go on Pinwheels and Ivy back in the day to discuss this. I was comfortable with my idea, but I didn’t have much experience talking on a microphone then and thought I’d probably end up getting crushed. In hindsight though, who cares? Even if someone does think you are a dumbass or tries to paint your thought out idea as dumb, who gives a fuck. It’s a great reminder to spend all the time on creating and none of the time worrying about the response.

Just Make Things You Love

I’ve been listening to Rick Rubin’s podcast lately and his general ethos is for his artists to make something they love. That’s perfect. This old idea was a good reminder to me to just make things I love. Sometimes that is an idea that will have people making fun of me….and that’s okay.

Don’t worry, when the next “TRADE LUIS ROBERT JR.” style idear comes to my skull, I will rush to share it with you.

-BeefLoaf