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I think I’ve finally lost faith in humanity. The fact that anyone would waste even a single ounce of energy protesting a requirement to wear a mask and slow down this virus is just something I can’t process. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic on top of serious economic turmoil and social injustice and yet the thing that gets you going is not wanting to wear a fucking mask when your outside? You literally have to be the scum of the earth or just the dumbest piece of shit to want to fight this battle. I know there are bad, ignorant people everywhere in this world, but the U.S. has to take the cake and Trump’s presidency has created an environment where these people are able to be bold with their hateful or dumb takes. It’s an absolute shame what’s happened to this country with that clown in office.

I mean...that's not that much money over a lifetime. That's what like 40k over 40 years, that's not bad but people probably dream of making more than that.

***This is not directed at you Bmag*** I just wanted to jump onto this thread. I have already had Covid as well as my family. I also identify as a conservative. We are finally just starting to open up. I want to see this open up more. But it requires one thing. Wear a fucking mask. I hate wearing a mask. Its not comfortable. But in the end its something I do because its a requirement and if it opens up the economy and keeps the people from spreading it around then lets go for it. I have witnessed over and over how morons want to fight with store owners on their personal freedoms. My anti-vaxxing neighbor has issued a petition to their facebook friends on how the wittle kids cant wear masks in school. Which is bullshit. This is the same lady who lets her 3 year old run in the middle of the street while she does something else besides parent. Oh and the kicker she is going to school for to work as a respiratory specialist. Thats the person I want taking care of me when I have issues. These are the crazy "freedom" caucus members who are just ignorant. Now do I think that Covid will kill most people. Probably not. If you are not old or have secondary issues you will run through it. And on the other side we have the crazies who want to stay locked away until there is a cure. They watch Pandemic media porn every night where they forget that most "News" outlets will do anything for ratings. They almost relish locating a person under 25 who has it and dies. I saw someone link a 15 year old who died. The headline read healthy 15 year old dies of Covid. So while Covid probably finished him off. He was a newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetic with a 1500 mg/l blood sugar count and obese. So while he succumbed to Covid as a betting man the other two issues probably helped with turning this for the worse. In the end this becomes a battle of crazies on both sides and then the rest of us in the middle. But wearing a mask is a minor inconvenience to get my kid back into in person classes then he wears a mask. If you really are a so called conservative then its in your best interest to get these numbers under control so there is no risk of being put back into the penalty box. Wear your fucking mask already.

They have signed two others to this point. There is a thread in the FS board for signings.

I think just the opposite? If there are games every day and/or doubleheaders, the starting catcher is going to need a break. Think about hockey and goalies that get worn down, need off-days to stay fresh down the start. And then through in the possibility of losing one or two for 2 weeks to quarantine, and I think we might be in the BEST position to have all of the catching depth we have. That position (and SPs) will be the greatest need for depth this season.

(now do global warming) edit: the current president is a symptom of the mindset you're talking about, not the cause of it

Oh and FWIW, heard he hit 99 in his bullpen session a few weeks ago. I asked him personally on discord how his bullpen work was going. His response and I quote "Daddy's back."

It’s like a pox party but where you all get COVID.

Bingo. Myself, my friends, family, etc. We all work in offices, factories, etc. I have two doctors in the family and even they only make a fraction of what a ton of these guys do. These guys also have all kinds of restrictions, daily testing, and world class doctors walking by their side. There's a ton of people who are 100% okay with average Joe's and even themselves going back to work. Yet, they'll also say "Ha! You cannot have a sports season! That is insane!".... uh... what?

I am very concerned about anti-vaxxers and the vaccine. The anti vax movement has seemed to have seized on this and made some real growth recently. But yeah I'm one-hundred percent in the crowd that thinks once the virus is low enough, masks + handwashing + certain restrictions allow life to mostly go on. That said, I really don't think night clubs or venues should be allowed to reopen until a vaccine (and should be reimbursed), and that restaurants/bars should be shut down at 10. If not, they need to be the first things that snap back when numbers creep up. But they need to be reimbursed.

Id pay $200 to sit in the upper corner with a facemask in 30 degree weather in the rain to watch my White Sox.

Players don't play for other people's amusement. It's a job. A job most of them love, but come on. They are playing for money

All I can say is that I keep hearing that "we are all in this together," but few act like it. Trump certainly doesn't act like it. Secret Service agents have tested positive and others now have to be isolated. All of this is astounding.

They're full steam ahead. We may not agree but the league is expecting positive tests and they're ready for them. Prepare to be uncomfortable. They have this taxi squad for a reason as well. They're committed to doing this and they wouldn't even attempt it if positive tests would shut down the league again.

The governor has already given permission four outdoor sporting events to take place with 20% capacity. We have people attending youth sports events outside every weekend. I'd bet on 8K people being able to watch baseball in August at this point. We've earned this in Illinois with our response IMO. Diligence and protocols must continue throughout this phased re-opening though.

Has it been clarified how exactly service time is going to work in 2020? I know that the 60 game season is considered a full year of service time. However - take Madrigal for example. He needed to spend~3 weeks in the minors for the Sox to get that extra year of control with a full 162 game season. How long would he need to stay now that its 60 games? Is it pro-rated on a 60/162 (37% basis), so basically he'd only need to spent like 10 days in the minors in that case? This is also very important for Kopech. He needed to be optioned and be in the minors until ~mid June for the Sox to get a year of service back. So now they'd have to get extra cute with him to recoup a year. I doubt we see them do that. To be clear, and I was one of the biggest proponents of getting that extra year for Madrigal, and the year back on Kopech, but I would just start them both on the MLB roster at this point. But I am curious how this is going work. This will obviously affect other guys that may spent a portion but not all of the season in the big leagues (Collins, Burdi, Mercedes, Mendick, etc.). Obviously its also a bit of a dagger to the org for the pre-arb guys and non-extended guys like Cease, Giolito, and Lopez who are extremely likely to spend the whole year in the bigs, but the club will lose a full year of service. But I guess every team has that problem, and Sox may be less affected than most since they've extended a lot of their young elite talent. I did read that those on the taxi-squads will NOT accrue MLB service time, if anyone is wondering about that.

Anybody else feel like the last 10-15 games of this season might be some of the most exciting baseball ever?

That’s fine, but these guys are adults and are able to make their own decision. If they’re eager to get back on the field or simply want to make a fuckton on money, who are we to say no? I’m not suggesting your saying that, but I do get that vibe from certain posters.

Baseball helps us feel "normal."

I don't hate it, makes sense with the way rosters are at the moment. If you are going to kick a guy out you want it to be for more than an interesting college senior.

Adding to this and maybe Harold can help me out here. I heard the White Sox went after some pretty unrealistic targets in the NDFA process. Lots of juniors. It could help them in theory next year though. These guys will go back to school and while they'll make more than $20K next year in a 20 round draft, the White Sox could draft and sign guys potentially underslot in the 2021 draft.

Even buying out the last arb year and signing him for like 5/55 (i.e. not "a lot") would be a bad choice IMO. I know there's hope for Adolfo, Basabe, etc. but I still think the long-term RF is gonna come from FA/trade, and there are so many good options in the near future that would make settling even worse

Yeah, the common argument that keeping a player in the minors for 14/162 games might "cost you a win" usually doesn't work since the player in question is not worth an extra ~12 (162/14) wins over the vet starting at his position. However, in a 60 game season, regardless of how good or bad the rookie is compared to the vet, I don't see why you'd take the risk.

With the margin for error being 60/162 of a normal season, they really can't afford to mess around with the roster this year. Put your top team on the field and let it roll. For a team that is probably just outside of playoff range in a normal season, also take advantage of the fluke that with one long streak, you can actually play yourself into a playoff race, or out of it if it is a bad one. There isn't time to cover up for a bad month or two week stretch.

Wow I hadn't realized that. Thanks.

Just modest interest on an 8.5 million nest egg, say 4% a year, is 340,000 a year—close to the top 1% of all US incomes. That’s before even digging into a dollar of your multimillion dollar principal. Plenty of people put their kids through college, live in a nice house, and pay for sports, etc. with much, much less.

His value is higher now given the uncertainty around COVID-19. If Grandal somehow gets it and is out two weeks, having a quality backup option in McCann could save the season. I was all for moving him back in the winter, but no way am I giving him in this environment unless blown away.

The ability to evaluate performance is going to be close to zero no?

Both parties are trash garbage captured by the wealthy but there's still pretty marked differences between the two, especially as it related to COVID responses.

One can dream. They should have never let him walk.

I don't think there are going to be many trades. And if there are, returns are going to be minimal. Even the best rentals will get at best interesting guys. I'd count on zero top 150 prospects getting moved.

Then stay home

Basically, the opposite of Ebola and MERs, but much more resilient. That’s not the case, however, in places such as Florida, Texas and Arizona, where governors have resisted calls to make masks mandatory and have insisted that lockdown is over for good. According to a recent study reported in Health Affairs, mask mandates in 15 states may have prevented as many as 450,000 COVID-19 cases in the U.S., and new modeling from U.K.-based researchers suggests that effective public health efforts to track new infections and trace and isolate the contacts of those infected can also lower the risk of infection in a population by more than half. Yet in the U.S., views about mask wearing and social distancing have become incredibly polarized. A new Gallup poll shows that only about 30 percent of Republicans would now advise others to stay home as much as possible (down from more than 80 percent in March), and fewer than half of Republicans say they’ve practiced social distancing in the last 24 hours (down from about 90 percent in March). Among Democrats, both numbers are still hovering around 90 percent. Given how little mitigation and containment some state governments are doing, and how lax certain segments of the population have become, especially young people, it’s no wonder that cases are rising. Few other countries have followed a similar curve, but the ones that have — such as Iran — also report widespread skepticism about science, distrust in government, premature rollbacks of lockdown and low levels of compliance with public-health guidelines. The point here is not that lockdown should have continued forever. After all, it ended in Europe, and so far, cases haven’t spiked there. The point is that lockdown should have lasted as long as necessary to limit the amount of virus circulating in the population; reopening should have been tailored to conditions on the ground; and personal precautions should have been encouraged, not politicized. ..... A report Tuesday in the New York Times revealed that the EU is considering two potential lists of acceptable travelers based on how foreign nations are faring in their fight against COVID-19 — and neither list includes the U.S. This slight — “a stinging blow to American prestige in the world and a repudiation of President Trump’s handling of the virus in the United States,” as the Times put it — not only underscores how much worse the U.S. outbreak has gotten in recent days. It also highlights how much better the EU is currently doing than the U.S. And that raises the question of why. “American exceptionalism was not supposed to mean this,” Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently tweeted. https://www.yahoo.com/news/as-covid-cases-fall-in-europe-calls-to-ban-travel-from-america-what-the-eu-got-right-about-controlling-coronavirus-164627926.html

Let’s pretend that it’s a maximum of “only” 5,000 fans. Let’s further stipulate that they use 5 gates for entry, and assign 1,000 fans to a specific gate to even it out. 1,000 fans lining up for security x 6 ft. of space between them is a line over a mile long at each of the five gates.

I believe Danny Parkins less than Bruce Levine...

We've had possibly the strictest and longest lockdown, plus a slow, phased re-opening here in Illinois. I'm guessing you don't live here but our curve looks like what you see in Europe, not like Texas or Florida. And public health officials have had basically complete control over the re-opening process here. Comparing Illinois to states like Texas and Florida that locked down for about 10 days is pretty misguided. And obviously that are certain markers with regards to testing/cases that have to be met before attendance at outdoor sporting events here is possible. So just because the Sox plan on it, it doesn't mean it will happen. Ultimately the Illinois and City public health depts have to give the go ahead

wow....just.....wow https://twitter.com/thegoodgodabove/status/1275863002403782658?s=20

As long as our numbers in Illinois stay low/continue to decrease, I see no reason you can't have a small number of fans at games. The City and state are opening back up, and provided all the health/phase guidelines are followed, it seems some level of attendance at outdoor sporting events (I can't imagine this being allowed inside the United Center at this point), is reasonable

Hi Cub fan.

Lol dude are you reading these threads

See you next year!

I will see Gio Gonzalez pitch in a White Sox uniform, Dammit!!!

What.

Lefty, .281/.409/.755 career college line, mostly played center, 70 grade name.