caulfield12

Harold, you're really pushing it. At least with Puig in his first two seasons and then Tatis, they put up legit numbers that didn't need to be "massaged" to make reasonable-sounding arguments on behalf of a player. Obviously we'll never know how the likes of Kelenic and Vaughn (from a White Sox fan perspective) would have had their career trajectories transformed by playing a "normal" 2020 schedule. But someone will argue perhaps that player never would have been a star regardless, if Covid completely derailed their career/s. Of course, there are players like Eduardo Rodriguez and Freddie Freeman that are quite fortunate to be alive, for example.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32293462/vaccinated-nba-staffers-concerned-health-risks-being-exposed-unvaccinated-players-season-approaches

What I want to know is why we're assuming illegal immigrants from Haiti (or, in general, from Central and South America) are bringing Covid-19 into the US at higher rates than the US population is already spreading it in some of those same border or immigration-heavy states like Texas, Florida and Arizona?

https://www.mlb.com/news/2021-home-run-leaders-make-history

Now at .172, had a big chance to break the game wide open but just flew out. Got to feel for Mariners and Blue Jays fans. (Not that anyone predicted Seattle would be in this position without Lewis and Paxton for most of the year, and Kelenic struggling to get his OPS up over .600)

You have to be more confident of the Dodgers fending off the Cardinals in a one game do or die situation due to the strength of their starting pitching. Padres now get to play spoiler. Next manager (Bochy, Glenn Hoffman, Francona) yet to be determined.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/roberlu01.shtml Some pretty eye popping numbers, other than RBI’s…which is due as much as anything due to his spot in the order. Looking at 25-35 homers per season, probably not the huge stolen base numbers (for injury reasons alone) but roughly 15-25 could reasonably be expected. Mid 800’s OPS.

The math is still off…

2008, living the life near the beach on the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand, teaching at a Thai university. Separated. Finished second Master’s degree. Two black Labs. Nightmares of the Carlos Gomez/Bobby Jenks blown save game and Alexei Ramirez down the stretch, as well as Carlos Quentin losing the MVP and blowing Sox playoff chances in frustration. 13 years later, almost 52, w/ six year old son starting just first grade here in Wuhan, married for second time. Still teaching, for around twenty years now. Survived at the epicenter of Covid-19 but haven’t been able to return to the States for 2+ summers now due to lengthy quarantines. Also miss having the dogs. Still wondering whether the FIRE movement will lead to self-actualization, haha. Would be happy just to take another international flight, or have access to mRNA vaccines.

https://fortune.com/2021/08/24/singapore-pivot-covid-zero-reopening-international-travel/ Because Singapore is no longer a Zero Covid (see China, Australia, NZ) country, as they believe the higher rates are worth it to attract businesses…especially banking and finance/investing…away from Hong Kong, which along with Australia and Nz has the toughest quarantine rules in the entire world. They also have a higher population density to deal with in terms of opening up. China has no community spread even with two vaccines that are just 20% effective against Delta even with a double dose, btw. Now Singapore is changing direction. The country is about to become the first to go from a zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 to one that will allow COVID to become endemic in its population. Its new approach is a contrast to that of its counterpart and sometimes-rival Hong Kong, which closed its borders on March 25, 2020. Both cities—like many other places in Asia—adopted a “COVID-zero” strategy, using social distancing and, in Singapore’s case, lockdowns to eradicate local cases of COVID-19 while using travel restrictions and inbound quarantine to control imported cases. Now, more than a year later, Singapore is cautiously reopening, while Hong Kong’s government has announced a raft of new inbound quarantine restrictions. Not that Singapore will allow life to return to normal. It is choosing to take it slow. First, it has set itself an unusually high bar for vaccination: It won’t begin to reopen until 80% of its population have been double-jabbed. By contrast, Britain lifted restrictions with about 65% fully vaccinated. Second, even when it reaches that threshold in early September, Singapore will reopen with a whimper rather than a bang. On Sept. 8, Singaporeans will be allowed to travel without quarantining on their return—but only to two countries with low rates of COVID-19, Brunei and Germany. For the time being, mask-wearing will remain mandatory, contact-tracing apps will remain in use, and restaurants will still have to abide by the 10:30 p.m. curfew.

I'm starting to think you work for Starbucks, with how many times they get mentioned in Greg long posts, haha. Although this particular story doesn't exactly promote the franchise all that effectively...

"Let's apply a little 20/20 foresight to the late 2020s. In the runup to 2029 and the end of the Chicago White Sox's current lease, people probably will be inured to calling the team's publicly funded home Guaranteed Rate Field. They may barely notice the concessions affecting that lease's final years that the state agency that built and manages the stadium proudly claimed from the Sox in exchange for approving the new renaming rights deal. The focus by then will have shifted away from the current home of the White Sox to zero in on the next home of the White Sox." https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-rosenthal-white-sox-guaranteed-rate-isfa-0828-biz-20160826-column.html

Just hope he has a better career than Jeremy Reed for Harold’s sake…

We are still talking about a 22 year old who finished 4th in the MVP voting last year and will still likely finish 2nd or 3rd this year, assuming they give it to Harper now. Any player at that age is going to struggle when the team goes 10-24 during the key stretch of the season. Other than Griffey Jr. and Mike Trout, it's rare to see someone at that age smoothly transition into stardom. Machado himself has had a career filled with issues into his late 20s before he suddenly morphed into an elder statesman like Pudge Fisk. (Sports writers get more clicks documenting falls from grace and then historic comebacks...see Tiger Woods and MJ, for example.) Let's see how Tatis handles playing for a legit manager who doesn't coddle him and let him get away with everything as long as the team's playing well. Let's also not forget that KW, Ventura, Eaton and the LaRoches also bear part of the blame for Chris Sale's maturity issues, for example. There's two sides to every story. Just three short days ago, Tatis was still great for the sport, at least until the storyline quickly changed.

And I will say this, despite being a flawed team chemistry-wise, they still won 7 out of 8 in the first half against the Dodgers. They’re playing in the same division with two teams that will end up with 100+ wins, and played the majority of their games down the stretch against pennant contenders. Of course, problems began much earlier against teams like the Rockies and DBacks. All of those are excuses, along with 28 other teams being in the same boat at year’s end, and the bottom line is that this season has been a massive disappointment…even making it like the 2008 Sox did, they were unlikely to go far with Darvish fading and a hanging on by a thread bullpen. Hopefully, the White Sox season doesn’t end that way…you are only okay with losing if the best team beats you, instead of giving it to them like we used to do nearly every year against the Twins.