South Sider

Heh. I dropped my wallet right outside my car when starting a shift at work (and sadly had $200 in). Came to realize it 4 hours later on my lunchbreak. It was still there, but the $200 wasn't. That was definitely a day ruiner.

I gotta say, this thread has been a very interesting read with a lot of good back and forth between the two sides. Overall, I am warming up to keeping Abreu. I'd actually like to see if he changes his approach when he doesn't feel like he has to be the "RBI guy". It's possible we see a more selective Abreu next year, and also possible that those slumps where he swings at everything are shorter. The key to all of this will be to strong starts next year from guys like Moncada and Eloy. If they are crushing it, he will hopefully put less pressure on himself. It's also possible that he gets worse, but I think it's a gamble you can take with 2/24 while our core is still so cheap. This isn't quantifiable but I just get a feeling that Jose will continue to produce at a somewhat similar rate for at least a few more years. What I mean is I don't expect that massive instant drop off. He finds his time enjoyable here, he has a basic clue of how to hit a baseball, he's not a complete old-timer yet, and he's incredibly excited about this teams future. I think that's a pretty good mix for success. Whether or not you think his current production is successful is another debate. Although he hates DHing (what else is new from old 1B-men), with any new contract there needs to be an agreement between him and management that he should expect to DH significantly more, especially when Vaughn is ready. I think he will luck himself into plenty of games at 1B next year because we will likely see a lot of Collins/McCann at rotating DH, but after next year all bets are off. In a 2 year deal I think he should expect to play much more DH in 2021, and be a good soldier about it. Vaughn is probably going to be the main guy at 1B in 2021, we can't have Jose complaining about DHing too much when that time comes.

Eloy was scratched. Sounds like a hip thing. Moncada is back. Detwiler pitching.

He's played 60% of a full season and accumulated 4 fWAR in those games. That's a pace for approximately 7-7.5 if he stayed healthy and people argue he can still be better than he is right now, and that's not just with stealing bags. Moncada's absolute ceiling is one of the best players in the game. I dont think it's out of the question to see him put up some truly eye-popping seasons.

Sounds to me like Ricky's butthurt about something. We have Jay batting what is it, 7th today? That's abnormal, almost like someone told him what to do. Then you have a rant about sabermetrics? Sorry Ricky, your lineups suck a fat one. I hope someone did finally tell you that.

I'd like Leury as a starter in the sense that he starts any position on the field in case of injury or scheduled days off. I also absolutely would love him as our go to pinch hitter.

Have any of you ever taped your mouth to a tailpipe of an internal combustion engine?

This dude Is a trip.

Okay, I'm bored as hell at work today and I've wanted to make this thread ever since the Oakland series, so here we go. Oakland is a noisy ballpark. It seems to annoy a lot of folks from what I read on the game threads, but it also appears to be a fun way for fans to engage with the game while at the game. I must admit, I envy the baseball traditions that Latin American countries have. They are loud and boisterous at baseball games, where most North Americans are quiet, boring and only make noise if something good happens or if the JumboTron tells them to. When I'm getting my buzz on at the ballpark, or any sporting event, I want to make noise. Personally, I'd find a great deal of fun with taking my saxophone to the game and using it to get the team and the crowd going. I wish we had more of a communal mindset in North America when we go to sporting events. They are meant to be a fun thing to do, and your favorite team is not going to win 100% of the time, so having that fallback of "Well my team lost, but I still had a blast because of all the fun we had in the crowd" would be amazing. Last year, I went to the Bears/Jets game and had an absolute blast. Not only because they won, but because it is expected that the fans are noisy when the opposing team is on defense. This creates a fun atmosphere, for me at least. As fun as that was, I made my way to the Blackhawks game that same evening and tried to bring that same kind of energy (I was also plastered), and basically got told to shut up by other fans. What a disappointment! I'm sorry, I'm not going to wait until playoff games to make noise for my favorite hockey team. My question for you is, if the Sox came out and said "We are okay with fans bringing musical instruments or noisy things to the ballpark", how would you feel about it? Would you just be annoyed with it? Am I more of an anomaly than anything else? Oaklands crowds, albeit small, seem to enjoy having that around which suggests that there would indeed be a decently sized subset of fans that would enjoy it here. If this were to occur, and you aren't a fan of it, would you be more likely to complain to the Sox about it, or simply tolerate it?

I don't see the point of them actually discussing such things, but I do see his point because it is insane. The only thing I can see is that it really did hurt the Joc trade or something like that, so there's a tangible negative outcome for the Sox other than their feelings being hurt. If you don't like the Sox direction, fine, but it's what we have and there's literally no point shouting your opinions on Twitter because no one except Rick Hahn cares. In his mind, he is doing the best he can to complete the task of building a winner so I guess I really can see why he takes it personally. Like him or not, he is doing the best he can, in my opinion. Just roll with it and hope for the best. For the rest of it, it's useless. I'd like to see a bunch of Red Sox fan tweets during their little losing streak. Probably worse than any suicide watch we've ever seen around here.

Ahh I can't wait to hear Joe Buck call this game.

I'd bring back Nova on the super cheap and if he's okay with the possibility of being a 6th starter should Gio/Lopez/Kopech/Cease/Rodon be good enough at some point in the season. If he likes it here, I think there'd be a decent chance of that happening. Never a bad thing to have too much SP.

Sweet, thanks.

Adolfo is back?

David Crosby. I had a chance to meet him in Cape Cod but instead opted to allow him his privacy. My dad was fanboy'ing out though. It was pretty funny.