MiddleCoastBias

I thought Madrigal was recruited as a shortstop for college but only moved to 2B because OSU had an even better defensive SS at the time? I remember reading that he would've been an SS in any other program and that his flexibility in the middle infield positions made him an even more attractive player at draft time.

Man, I love the look of 1 through 7. Grandal-Jimenez-Vaughn-Robert can be especially dangerous and will be fun to watch.

Yeah but SouthWallace is Spring Training MVP with the play by play. Really helpful when I miss a game and want to catch up quickly on everything I missed

9 groundout in 4 IP, sheesh. Timmy's going to get a lot of action out there. Leury made a great play on the barehand chopper, but I'm also relieved to know we have a potentially-GG caliber 2B waiting in the wings.

Bumping this because I'm getting antsy for games. For the 'webcast' games, does anyone know if those are all the free things through the White Sox website, or do they require the MLB.tv subscription?

We've got a Bruce Levine reference, Jerry being cheap, AND talking about how extending Abreu was dumb - it's a Soxtalk trifecta.

My buddy sent me this photo of his dad who attended and brought this flag to hold up with Eloy. He wanted Eloy and Cease to sign it but the lines were too long, apparently.

You guys know more about this than I do so here's another dumb question: what's the process for hiring/retaining/promoting/firing minor league coaches? Do they have contracts and, if so, so they ever span multiple years? Always just hear about how some coach is no longer there (Vizquel, Grudz, etc) but no mention of being fired or contract expiring, etc - they just disappear. And then you hear coaches are with one level one year (Jirschele, etc) and then moved to another the next year. Are they not locked in for multiple years? I get the sense that everyone serves on a one-year contract basis that is reviewed annually but there must be something I'm missing, yes?

Considering we haven't finished a season higher than third place in the last 7 years, I think we would get absolutely roasted publicly claiming that second place isn't good enough.

I feel like I can guess your age 😉

You beat me to it haha

I think this part is huge. So often people think framing as stealing strikes by bringing a ball back into the zone, but equally important is avoiding bringing a strike OUT of the zone with poor receiving. Narvaez really seemed to struggle with receiving pitches at the bottom of the zone and would flail at them, swinging his mitt out of the zone. He cost pitches like Rodon a ton of strikes by swiping at low sliders that caught the zone but were called balls because of how awkward the catcher was in receiving it. The human nature thing is right - if the catcher moves as little as possible, pitcher hits the mitt/target, and the catcher doesn't need to adjust to receive it, the ump is naturally going to be inclined to think "that's a good pitch". Having a 'quiet' catcher that doesn't blow calls with poor receiving skills is just as important as stealing the odd strike, imo.

Best Thread (for me) was the continued Manny Machado saga with the ever-changing titles. So many highs and lows over the first couple months of 2019. "We have him!" "We don't!" "But sources!" Even when it ended it heartbreak, it really was a thrilling ride that brought a lot of old posters out of retirement and attracted a lot of new posters (or activated old lurkers) to the board.

This is a broader question outside of EE, but anyone concerned about the cyclical nature of the game swinging back from the HRs and launch angle, and limiting Eloy? All it takes is MLB overreacting and changing the ball again, and now we have Eloy's development years geared toward hitting dingers that end up as long pop outs. Not saying that's guaranteed, just that I want Eloy to be focused on being the best pure, all-around hitter with monster power, and not just limit it to being a Joc Pederson high-launch-angle-dependent guy.