TaylorStSox

If you're going to compare Clevenger and Bauer to Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, there's really no point in us having any type of conversation. Clevenger doesn't fit that profile at all. Like, not even a little bit. From what I know, that worst thing he's ever done was breaking covid protocol to do blow with a few girls. As a kid in his early 20's, that's pretty normal. Irresponsible? Absolutely, but he's an idiot baseball player with a lot of money and no education. That doesn't make him a psychopath.

The other thing to watch with Thorpe is that his 92-94 looks super easy. It's really, really deceptive.

When Gio was at his best, his slider was the pitch that really made the difference. I think Thorpe's change is better than any pitch Gio ever threw. Is it good enough for him to be a 2 pitch starter? Maddux was able to throw 4 variations of his change along with a serviceable curve and a 4 seamer with movement. The ch was the pitch that made him truly elite though.

I'll post this again. This change is so good, it would make Keith Foulke blush.

The question with Thorpe is whether major league hitters will just sit fb and completely ignore his change. I'm not sure if he's deceptive enough to fool truly elite hitters. He makes AA hitters look terrible.

From what I can tell, he has a few different grips on the change. It drops against RH hitters, almost like a 12/6. Against LH hitters it tails when he throws away and drops when he throws it in. His slider also looks serviceable against RH hitters. It has good movement, but he doesn't throw it with authority. He throws his 4 seamer with purpose. His ch is so good that it looks like he feels like he's throwing 98. He's super interesting to watch - guy with change up that's so special he can throw 92 and lead all of the minors in k's and k/9.

Bauer had consensual, fetishized sex with a few different women. He was investigated by MLB, the police and the DA. Ultimately, he was cleared. He's a really weird guy. He's a defiant asshole, but he's also fairly likable. If you watch his Youtube channel, he does a lot for kids and really loves the game. I'm not convinced he's a bad dude. I think he's a guy that really likes to challenge convention. Clevinger seems like a guy that likes to party and was set up by his ex. He's been under more scrutiny than any player I can remember. He might be dumb. He might be an asshole, but I'm also not convinced he's a bad guy. He was also cleared by the police, DA and MLB. Baseball has been littered with really bad people that did terrible things. Bauer and Clevinger have been under investigation for half a decade and they're cleared to play. What else can they do?

I'm not sure if there's evidence that it matters, but all of them have 1/8th slots and don't throw hard. Thorpe's change up is the best pitch all of them feature. Soroka throws the hardest and pitches more diagonally. I just think if you want to set up Thorpe for the very most success, you want to sandwich him between pitchers who look nothing like him. It makes his ch look even more devastating. After watching several innings of him pitch, that ch is really, really fuckin special.

The other thing about Bauer is that he's not a low effort pitcher. He's a baseball nerd that obsessed with the game. He's just got some kind of personality disorder I'm not qualified to diagnose. If he fails, it won't be because he's not trying. Based on the carefree profile we've seen from all of our players since the Hahn era began, he might actually be a positive influence. He's a total asshole, but he actually plays hard as hell and he's not scared to talk s%*#. He's also willing to absorb all the negative press the team will encounter. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

The one thing that I really hate about this trade is that Soroka, Flexen and Fedde are RH's that don't throw hard and feature plus changes. That's not how you set up a pitcher like Thorpe up for success. You'd like a LH or a hard throwing FB/SL/CU starter to separate their profiles.

I dont' think becoming the Raiders of baseball for a few years is the worst look for this franchise. Both Clevinger and Bauer's cases have been highly scrutinized and investigated and MLB has cleared them. It's not ideal, but they're both pretty damn good and cheap. I would bet both of them would also like to stick it to the league. They might give max effort while they're here, just to prove a point.

Props to FutureSox. It really feels like that's the last place where Sox fans can actually talk about baseball. I can't wait for their write about Thorpe. If he can stil hit 94 on occasion, I absolutely love his profile. His change might be the best pitch the Sox have had since Sale's slider.

Back in the day, this board was known for being objective. Now, it's just an echo chamber of negativity. There's only a handful of poster who are actually objective now. The rest are just circle jerking about how much we suck. We know that. It would be great if the board could move on from that and try to be a bit more analytical. Last night I was really hoping we could have a discussion about Drew Thorpe's change up, and only a small group of posters actually wanted to talk about baseball. It's a bummer because his board used to kick ass when discussing actual baseball. Now it's a circlejerk of "jerry sucks." Yeah, no s%*#. Jerry's always sucked.

Imagine if Luis Robert was on Tatis' "supplement" regimen. He would be Mickey fuckin Mantle. He's bigger, stronger, faster, has a better swing and has a better feel for the game. f*** Tatis.

Yeah, Tatis is an insanely talented player who does steroids. He's going to put up Nintendo numbers. That's what they do.

The kid can pitch, and he beat all his cases. f*** it. Bring him on.

Nobody is ever making excuses for the Sox. We all realize we suck and we're cheap. You're yelling into the wind. I can't think of a single Sox apologist on this board.

Machado and Bogaerts are crippling contracts. Tatis has had multiple serious injuries and he's a juicer. His contract is scary as hell if you're a Padres fan. You're a warm weather Padres fan, so it doesn't matter to you, but if you lived in SoCal, you'd care.

It means that they wanted him right now. The Padres have some really bad contracts on the roster and they're a small market. They need to win now.

Absolutely, AAA is for refinement, not development. They're very different things. To say the Sox "developed" a lot of those players on that list is just absurd.

I had doubts about Kopech when I saw him trying to deadlift 450 lbs and trying to crow hop 110 MPH. It all just seemed very immature and self destructive.

Under the Hahn regime, there seems to have been no accountability for the players themselves. At some point, it's up to them to figure it out. It just seems like we've had a lot of dipshits who didn't take their craft seriously enough.

I'm ready to turn the page on Robert too.

He's had years to figure it out. He's damn near 30 years old. I would guess the Sox gave him some kind of ultimatum in the off season and he didn't fulfill it.

I wonder if the Sox have just had enough of Kopech. They've given him every opportunity to right the ship and he refuses to attack hitters.