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I know, right? It's almost as bad as if he'd called out an elite hitter for a poor start three years in a row, only to have that elite hitter prove him wrong each time.

Replace him with:

It appears that Shields once again cares about tanking

Also kudos to Chuck, as he's been the MVP of the rebuild so far. He's had 3 straight days of podcasts. His podcast last week with Hostetler was simply awesome. No doubt in my mind Chuck has been pushing to get Sox minor league games on the channel formerly known as Comcast Sports.

Abreu is a decent 1Bman who works hard at getting better. A player makes an error and some folks are ready to cut his hands off

Just listened to Garfien's podcast, some interesting tidbits. If Madrigal was taken 1-3, Sox were going to take Alec Bohm. Garrett Guest (Midwest Cross Checker) was adamant in taking Steele Walker in the second round. Real high on Lency Delgado. 70 arm. 70 power. Will start at SS, but most likely go to 3B as he grows. Highlighted the pitchers in rounds 12-15 as huge power arms that with mechanical changes they can be real solid.

This coaching staff...yikes. Can't wait for them to start contending and get rid of these placeholders.

He's probably distracted by all the trade talk.

Amazing how some are focused on the one thing Madrigal lacks and completely ignore the other things he excels in. For some, the Sox can't do anything right.

He was 19 fucking years old playing for the first time after basically taking a year off and still put up a 1.027 OPS. But yes, those 23 strikeouts are what really matters.

You mean the whole KW insisting on Singer was a ruse? No, I find that hard to believe that a FO would leak false information.

Thank you!! This was a fun one to write! Who would have guessed optimism feels better than pessimism?

what's the likelihood that Rodon reinjures himself? seems like hes been hurt more often than not

They should wear the jersey Sale cut up.

Rutschman being drafted in 2019 after a certain CWS playoff, and somehow making it to Chicago in 2020 would be pretty unlikely.

Shields for Berrios straight up,I think the Twins bite.

That's the most annoying part,he risked a stupid play to slide like that? jesus christ.

This team's IQ is negative.

Well done, you called the Bummer move yesterday.

Gotcha. My apologies.

I think he will be, without a doubt. To me Madrigal has more speed and should easily hit for more power. That's who I was thinking of. Thanks!

Meet Gaby DiMarco https://www.mlb.com/cut4/meet-gabby-dimarco-the-fan-who-caught-the-foul-ball-in-her-beer/c-279997458

Lebron is the better overall player based on size, athleticism, longevity, etc. but Jordan is still the GOAT. Excelling at the absolute peak of the profession...Jordan has no match in the modern game.

Me. I despise the idea of taking a catcher in the first round. I understand the counter arguments about scarcity, etc., but my philosophy is exactly the same as yours.

Lol. How are we going to pay for these things!!! Schultz, my friend. I have one idea.

There is a reason no teams took a chance on him in the Rule 5 draft this past offseason

Unlike the green traffic light meaning you have to go the green light in baseball means go at your own discretion if you so desire. And in case there is any confusion considering your baseball novice status when Nokona (above) says hit 3-0 he means when the hitter has 3 balls and no strikes on him which usually means the pitcher may groove a pitch right down the heart of the plate which is a pretty good pitch to hit really hard which you have to weigh against the possible walk (base on balls) you may get in that situation.

The manager has given him free rein to steal at any time. You'll also hear it "he's got the green light here" to hit on 3-0.

I for one welcome our new beaver overlords #Rush2Rutschman

I get the concern but whats next ? Don't dive for fly balls ? Don't try to run down long fly balls because you might run into the wall ? Gotta let guys with talent use it and whatever happens happens.

We have two more years of his endurance bicyclist body

Nobody cares about the debt. People pretend to because it's a slogan. Then you give them the choice of increased debt or tax cuts, and well, the Republicans have done the same choice 3 times in my adult life. They care about the debt when they can use it to berate a Democrat and people like you go along with it because it is an excuse to berate democrats and not Republicans.

I love the amount of extrapolation in this thread... Multiplying college baseball numbers to a 700 PA sample for an MLB season isn't even close to being predictive, of anything. Madrigal is going to strike out more than 25 times per season and he'll also hit more than 10 home runs per season.

I've been thinking about this. I know Altuve is the popular exception but cmon we should not expect Madrigal to hit more than 3-5 homers a year. The guy is what, 5-foot-6? 5-7? Not that he has to hit homers to be productive. I mean like somebody said our lineup "should" have enough power to win a couple WS. He better be a good average and on base guy and fielder or he'll be known as a horrific draft pick. He can allegedly do the three things I just mentioned so we should chill. But he's NOT going to hit 15-20 hrs a year, cmon folks. Altuve is a "freak" in a good way.

They absolutely should be, all of them. If we don't see a mass wave of promotions by the end of the month I'm gonna be pretty upset. That would be around the point where you're actively hurting the development of those guys, plus Eloy, by not letting them face competition that's more at their level

If you don't mind seeing 1-2 balls a game fly over his head that other SS would have caught.

Moncada may end up at 3B if Madrigal gets up by 2020.

Ron out here making threads like

At this point I'm pretty sure Ron is the reincarnated ghost of Fidel Castro.

I think it's important to realize that, while Robert has some of the loudest tools in the minors, he has not consistently played in live games for like two years now.

I think the strategy for now is to let him be a butcher in the OF so we can get a longer look at his bat. If you give up on his glove so much that you don't play him in the field, you are taking ABs from Davidson who has out-hit him this year and has a similar pedigree. The optimal lineup for winning right now would probably be Yolmer in LF, Davidson at 3B, and Palka at DH, but Yolmer playing outfield is more hypothetical than anything else right now and Davidson's 3B defense is somewhat of an unknown quantity by now. I worry about a guy who is on a hot run with no walks, though it's encouraging that he has hit the ball so hard. The comparison to Delmonico isn't perfect because there were signs last year that Delmonico was on a lucky run. Look at the hit probabilities on Nicky's homers: most of them were worse than 50/50 and his average exit velo was not good. The main negative with Palka for now is that his defensive problems affect more than just his fWAR, it hurts our pitchers too. A couple of our young starters have had outings undone partly by bad plays from Palka. I think we're going to just tolerate that for now, hope he improves, and hope that the continued exposure helps us figure out what he's got. A final note about his minor league track record: It's not great, at least lately. Summarizing: 2015 in A+ (129 G): .890 OPS, 29 HR. 29% K%. Also, 24 SB???? 2016 in AA (79 G): .890 OPS, 21 HR. 29% K%. 2016 in AAA (54 G): .780 OPS, 13 HR. 39% K% 2017 in AAA (84 G): .760 OPS, 11 HR. 22% K% 2018 in AAA (17 G): .860 OPS, 3 HR. 29% K%. What stands out to me is that he hit a wall in AAA and hasn't really produced at that level. This was predictable from his high K rates at the lower levels where his overall numbers were still good. There was a positive development last season despite his worse production in that he did cut his strikeouts. They were back up this year in AAA but the sample is small and the difference from last year wasn't large. Strikeouts haven't been a major problem in MLB. Still, I'm always suspicious of guys who hit better in MLB than in AAA until I've seen them do it for a while or if they were called up young/inexperienced.

Aw, it is a sure sign of summer, Ron's annual Abreu hate thread.

Rutschman > Witt

LeBron = GOAT. Longevity matters. He's been doing it just as good if not better and hasn't taken routine siestas because of a gambling addiction.

Agreed, and longevity matters. His career has transcended Jordan's, and in my opinion he's a far superior player than MJ could ever have hoped to be and a superior talent among his generation than MJ was among his. The talent/dominance gap from LeBron to whomever the fuck you'd consider the 2nd best player in this generation is massive. He's on another planet.

Its not equal, which is why they are trying to elevate minorities. Thats the entire point. Straight white males still hold the overwhelming majority of the power and the advantage.

Awww, poor Jose. If he doesn't want to be DH then he can work on his sorry ass defense and not be the worst defensive 1b in the league

To put it lightly, his defense has been a steaming pile of garbage. His uzr/150 is freaking -14.4. That will only get worse after today. If Jose isn't traded by the deadline, do they make him dh and stick somebody else there? His defense has been pathetic. They might as well try Davidson there. There is absolutely 0 chance he can be worse than Jose. The awful defense at 1B is particularly disappointing because it hurts His trade value to NL teams.