caulfield12

He was supposedly low 90’s in the B game. Needs 93-95 to be effective.

Sharp and efficient first inning. Wish Lucas, Lopez, Rodon and Fulmer could pitch that quickly, really picks up the defensive morale.

Curious to see what Santana has left, finally. Also, Mendick fans are getting a rare treat this preseason.

I’ll have one of whatever he’s having...despite having to get up for work in 3 1/2 hours.

At least they now get 32000+ for the opener unless the weather forecast is abysmal...an attendance in the twenties would have been a PR nightmare.

Let’s just wait and see. With Michael Fulmer out now and Keller starting for KC in the opener, there’s 57 divisional games to pad offensive numbers.

Surprisingly good two years ago, surprisingly bad last year. Which, when you look at his overall milb body of work and how we acquired him, was not altogether unexpected.

We all know the fate of other Sox sites that enforced “group think positivism” about any and every move the team made. It’s going to take Eloy raking to refocus us, and Robert/Cease/Madrigal asserting themselves as 3 of the Top 25 prospects in the game and then the energy and exciting surrounding the June draft and finally, getting some more useful pieces back for Abreu, Alonso, Nova or Santana, N.Jones, potentially Herrera or Colome and maybe Leury or a catcher depending on their seasons as well as the progress of Collins/Zavala at Charlotte.

With Guyer, Engel, Leury, Jay, Palka, Alonso...there was already no spot for him on the roster. Hopefully he lights up Charlotte and gets traded to a team where he can play after a minor trade...not sure if he any more options left or not. Palka actually is the one feeling the roster numbers crunching, he needs to play but where?

The Red Sox have three younger flamethrowers they’re very confident in...at any rate, we shall see when the rubber meets the road how justified that confidence will have been.

Their window is now 2024-2028? In reality, they are desperate to put a winning product on the field as quickly as possible. Only if they thought Abrams or Witt could make it to the big leagues in 2 1/2 years rather than the typical 4-5 year timeline for high schoolers would they even be considering it.

This makes absolutely no sense...other than being a convenient excuse to scapegoat someone. If Hahn couldn’t go up to $300 million, and should have known this as early as two years ago, why enter negotiations in the first place? Why would a team president care more than the owner about controlling free agent salaries? KW simply is a reflection of JR’s wishes, not the other way around...in the same way Huckabee is a mouthpiece for Trump. If Hahn was that upset, why not go directly to Reinsdorf? The Cubs with Hoyer and Epstein are nearly always on the same page, but the White Sox aren’t? What would be the point of that type of structure, where no consensus emerges? Also, who’s the one who signed off and adding 3 legit veteran in a matter of 2-3 weeks before the 2015 season? KW doesn’t have a problem spending $125 million, but $250 is the magical cutoff all of a sudden? Logically, any team president who felt his job was threatened would be the first to go out there with the GM and convince the owners to allocate that money for a superstar...so it’s pretty clear Reinsdorf and not KW set that line in the sand. Why doesn’t Hahn quit if the situation is untenable...and why is Hahn seemingly helpless to make a convincing argument with that Harvard Law degree of his sitting there on the wall collecting dust?

During the ESPN broadcast from Japan tonight the announcers were really focusing on Omar spending so much time working specifically on pitch framing. http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/feb/17/ms-new-backstop-narvaez-playing-catch-up-with-new-/ “Narvaez also is concentrating on developing his pitch-framing skills. He ranked near the bottom of the AL in getting borderline pitches called for strikes in each of the last two seasons, according to the metrics used by StatCorner. “A lot of drills,” said Narvaez, who counts Yadier Molina as a role model. “A lot of stretching. That is a big part of framing, being able to feel comfortable when I am catching. I think all the work I’ve been putting in is going to show up. My main goal this year is to make more pitches strikes and help my pitchers even more.” Like many teams, the Mariners have made pitch framing a top priority. “The value of stealing a 3-2 pitch is huge in our game,” Servais said. “On the 50-50 pitch that may be a ball or a strike, if the catchers are adept in turning that ball into a strike, it changes the course of a game. Pitchers certainly see the value of it. We do, too. It is something we will spend a lot of time on this spring.”

Seth trade?

Team, lol. Front office over owner.

Narvaez almost broke his thumb when he got crossed up. Homers by Santana and Khris Davis, who led the majors. Bullpen battle now. Ichiro popped to second at age 45, just fouled off four pitches and walked in second at bat. Might be his last two games ever, unless he retires with the Orix Blue Wave, where his career started.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26307346/a-430m-bargain-why-mike-trout-worth-billion-dollars Trout worth upwards of $1 billion...? Conservatively, $800 million.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2826593-mike-trout-does-most-mike-trout-thing-ever-in-signing-record-deal-with-angels?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

I listened or watch almost all of Moncada's AAA/Charlotte starts the first couple of months in 2017. After that white hot April, the strikeouts and disparity in his splits was already quite an obvious concern.

Moncada should be the 900+ OPS hitter he was around April 23rd last year in the "optimistic" thread...right?

Since Abreu's already on a one year deal, there's absolutely no reason not to keep doing that...year to year, assuming we trade him this mid-season to a playoff contender. Then again, if you were Abreu, at his age now, wouldn't you prefer to play for a playoff-contending team, even if it meant you were platooned? NOTE: All those who argued that Bregman and Jimenez should get what are essentially now similar deals officially are off their rockers. No wonder the Astros are so much better than the Sox.

It is what it is. At this point, we all know exactly what Hahn's going to say and how it's going to sound, and it would just piss off the majority of fans anyway. Frankly, it would be more fun speculating about Hoiberg going to Nebraska to replace Miles (Creighton would be interesting, too, although that definitely won't happen this year).

https://www.mlb.com/standings/spring-training Tied with the Reds for the worst spring training record in baseball...that means we'll be in first come May 15th, right? Actually all alone for worst ST record now....that’s an accomplishment of a sort.

Rutschman is so good that the Royals aren't going to pass on him, even with Sal Perez coming off TJS. They'd logically trade Perez to a playoff contending team when he proves that he's back 100%, because he can't play 1B/DH...his offense just isn't good enough for those positions (see Mauer, Joe.)

Is it really that indisputed between Abrams and Witt? Abrams has the advantage on speed, but of the five tools, which other one is he comparable with Witt on, defense/arm?