Jake

Another possible explanation for this is that Ryan Goins getting an apparently permanent call-up is what led Escobar to believe he was lied to. May have been given the impression that if injuries created a need for a veteran IF to get called up, it would be him.

I suspect that sometimes stuff like this happens because of miscommunications with the agent

Was Skole already on the 40 man? At any rate, I'm not as down on the idea as others. I really would like to see someone other than Palka and I can live with the desire to call up a lefty. Makes sense to let Collins gets his reps at catcher down there and call him up in September. Skole has slowed down since his blazing start to the season but he's got some pop and has earned a shot.

Collins looked so bad last time here that I'm not sure that they'll want to call him back up despite his strong play since he was sent down. I assume they'd want to be able to get him more catching reps than he'll be able to get up here as well.

I'd like to know how we ended up underspending our international pool — I didn't realize we were trading current-year money. So in this case, it may not be this trade that is a huge fuckup but something else that happened before

This is a real headscratcher to me. Unless there's something we don't know about these prospects, it seems like we just gave up a big chunk of a very finite resource (int'l pool $$) to save a little money on Nate Jones

Fulmer will be with us until the 5th spot comes up again at which point we'll call up Hector. Whether Fulmer stays past that point will probably depend on who among the players with minor league options is rested.

Anything's possible, but I think there's a very small chance that Jose Rondon is going to be a MLB player of any value. I do not think he's better than Yolmer, who has also been disappointing. Last year, Rondon had a solid offensive year in AAA and MLB with a sub-.300 OBP and low batting average. He hit 24 homers between the two levels after never topping 7 in any prior season. He simultaneously began to strike out at a rate that is only sustainable with either a lot of walks (nope, very few) or a lot of power. His defense did not look good to the eye or the metrics, especially at SS. He's not a fast runner. While I generally am skeptical of things like this, he also gave the impression of having his head up his ass much of the time. I'd rather watch Ryan Goins play than him.

I strongly doubt the front office is hoping to lose at this point. The value of shuffling around a handful of draft spots is not large. You can see how being just a tick better this year has helped push attendance and TV ratings up. At some point, you need to give fans something to cheer for, because eventually they stop being fans. About half the guys I knew in high school that were Sox fans are rooting for the Cubs now and these weren't people who don't care at all about baseball. But you can only keep running horrible teams out there for so long. That doesn't mean we need to empty the farm to bring in Zack Greinke or something, and it doesn't even mean we shouldn't look at trades for guys like Colome, but there's no urgency to lose. The effects of losing are primarily negative.

Seems to me the right choice when TA returns is to send Reed down. Then you can move Jay (who seems to clearly be playing hurt), Eloy, and maybe Castillo through the DH.

Are they that much more dysfunctional than the Lakers?

Give them Carson Fulmer and let's make a deal. If they're too stubborn, I'll throw in an Alec Hansen

Grindiness

The point of his statement is not that he's some baseball god whose play is unquestionable. It's that he's trying his hardest, however good that is, to win. He seems to be wondering whether the Sox are trying their hardest, which is a reasonable question.

What you say makes sense to me and of course you're the expert. I have also heard people make the argument for cross-training on the basis that it basically prepares you for the unusual movements (in the chosen sport) such that they don't turn into injuries. So for a distance runner, playing some basketball trains them for lateral movement, so they don't blow out a knee on the rare occasion they have to suddenly plant and cut sideways during a run. Is that thinking right or have I just been misunderstanding?