Jake

I still think Abreu was offended by whatever paltry contract we offered him

Yeah it crossed my mind that this story could be a one-sided thing coming from TA or someone close to him (that said, I'm more pro-TA than most around here) that omits context about why Grandal wanted to get out of town. And if it's true that he didn't ask out of the lineup, it makes the ask to leave early not as bad even if it's unseemly.

Yeah my best guess is this was meant as a dig at Middleton but it's easy to read as a dig at all those guys. And IDK, I have a hard time believing Reynaldo, Giolito, or Burger were problems in the clubhouse. Lance and Joe Kelly, sure I could believe it even if I don't necessarily think they are a problem. If you take Middleton's comments at face value, the problems are probably more about inaction than action. Maybe most players need some leadership and they're just not getting it.

Right and also on the flip side, he might see a Jimmy Lambert type as a rookie even though he exhausted his rookie eligibility some time ago

Hire Dallas Keuchel as manager

Not sure if this affects the potential suspects, but don't count on Middleton to know whether everyone is technically a rookie or just "basically a rookie"

Oh and as far as worst owner in sports, while I think it is obvious that JR is not it without even diving into the details, please do not let Dick Monfort run my favorite team.

I have always had the impression that this comment was referring to rank in the league not the division, in which case he would be perfectly right that it would be fine to be nearly the best but not quite the best every year. Remember JR grew up in the era of pennant races, not the playoff era.

As we tally up his suspensions let's remember one of them was for a completely BS reason (maybe one or more others were too but I don't remember what they were for)

Well that's a Sox winner. Are we happy?

That's what I respect, he doesn't care about looking pathetic

TBH, I respect Pedro's willingness to boldly lie to protect his players in public. Going back to the LouBob running hard to first base fiasco earlier this season.

Jimmy Lambert, closer

Yeah I think Tim wasn't looking for a fight before the play started but once Ramirez stuck his finger in his face it would have been incredible if there wasn't some sort of fight. IMO, if you want to punch the guy in that situation, don't be honorable and say let's fight like TA did. Just punch! Wouldn't even be a sucker punch as far as I'm concerned because Ramirez's actions were clearly begging for a reaction like that. A better and more typical reaction would be to just shove the guy because he's both invading your space and clearly saying fighting words. It's hard to imagine a way it could have resolved **once Ramirez got up and confronted him like that** without them getting at least lightly physical and the benches clearing.

Seems emblematic of the broken state of the Sox fanbase that an opposing player completely misunderstands what happens to him on a play and gets real mad about nothing which triggers a fight... and our fans pile on our player who got mad enough to fight about someone instigating like that. I'll always be a Sox fan but the way fans have treated Tim throughout the season is despicable and embarrassing IMO and has made me distance myself from fan communities.

I think Kopech grabbing him, while the right thing to do, unintentionally set up the death blow by adding confusion and blocking Tim's view of what was going on. The whole thing seems like a fluke since Ramirez couldn't have been aiming for the spot he hit when he was getting moved mid-punch.

So what's the deal? Yips? Injury?

If this is the useless argument thread, can someone point me to a thread where we collect scouting reports on the new Sox farmhand?

I hope Colas has figured something out. He honestly spent most of his time in AAA treading water, but that's a hell of a lot of homers this past week. Hopefully something just clicked.

I've definitely been watching less and pursuing other hobbies. I still tend to follow the games on MLB's app or website as they go on. I tend to search for something positive, so it's nice to think about Luis Robert's good play and the whole Jake Burger phenomenon. But the team doesn't stir much emotion anymore, I hoped they would but the personnel moves over the past 12-18 months or so have left less and less to be hoped for. There's a lot of apathy now. I'm not really mad at anyone, I don't think Jerry is the worst owner ever or a tightass or whatever. I think people are trying their best and they aren't good enough. The Sox are not widely watched or cared about and it's probably better that way because the team would be more fully exposed as an embarrassment under a brighter spotlight. But I'll always be hanging on waiting for them to pull me closer. And of course I still track everybody's stats and so on looking for something. One thing that hasn't changed is I feel no pull towards another baseball team. Some are likable, some aren't, but none are the Sox to me. I sometimes wonder how I would react if Jerry sold the team and it moved out of Chicago to become the Nashville Guitars or whatever. I think I'd just be done with this lifelong passion, I'm just too loyal to this team. It's Sox or nothing, but for now that does mean there's more nothing than usual.

I know McGuire got off to a hot start this year (has slowed down considerably since then it looks like) but he had played terribly for us, Zavala was on fire, and we were about to release him. Wish Diekman had pitched better but that trade isn't even on my list of things I'm upset about.

When Giolito and Kelly come back, who is the odd man out? Aren't we carrying an extra position player? Feels kind of like Haseley has earned a spot on the roster but I'd be surprised if we called up Hamilton just to immediately send him down/DFA.

I've never bought into this kind of thing but I think the players who we believed to be the leaders of last year's (unsuccessful) team were Abreu, Hendriks, and Tim. All of them absent at the moment.

"The Bears will be successful thanks to the QB whose statistics so far are not very good" — words that have never steered me wrong

Too soon to say worst, but it certainly is provoking a lot of apathy in me. BTW, does anyone else remember when Jacob May was our opening day leadoff hitter and then didn't get a hit for like 3 weeks?