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Dane Dunning throws a complete game, losing after giving up only 1-hit. The only hit being a Nick Madrigal home run.

This has the opportunity to provide a gamethread of epic proportions.

who the fuck cares?

I understand the joke, but even if Eloy is miraculously healthy, for the love of god do not play him in the game anywhere but DH. He'd go for an easy fly ball in left and we'd lose him in the Iowa cornfields for at least two weeks.

The fire he shows is exactly what this team has needed. Who gives a shit what he says/does on the mound as long as he gets the job done

Oh please, Eloy would get injured falling over backwards on the bench with a hot dog in his mouth causing him to choke because he was too busy yelling “hi mom” into the camera

Have you heard the good news?

The music swells as the Sox, one by one, walk to the dugout railing and begin a slow, deliberate clap for Dunning. Dane removes his cap and tips it to Madrigal, who, with tears on his cheeks, is lifted onto the shoulders of Abreu and Robert. Eloy makes a surprise appearance, and the crowd swoons.

Like you said - its a dominant pitch. I'm not comparing him to the all time greatest closer in baseball history - but this guy named Mariano Rivera threw 1 pitch - a cutter - which was AMAZING - and in 2011 - he threw the pitch 85.9% of the time - got 44 saves - and put up a sub 2 ERA.

Or - bullpen will start to gel and bats will start hitting in clutch and this team will climb to the top of the division, league and baseball!

Lol he just came into a game with 1st and 2nd 1 out that turned into 2nd and 3rd 1 out and k'ed two

Cmon Liam, the game isn't over. Quit howling like you just got a save in the world series. Act like you've been there before for gods sake. Do your job, then get the hell off the field.

I come from the land down under.

Can someone get him those gummies he liked in the past

He’s becoming unplayable behind the plate

Yermin's average was sinking perilously close to .400, so he decided to do something about it.

I did a study on crede when I got Into statistics in college. You could argue he's the most clutch player in the history of baseball. The difference between his regular performance and his clutch performance is by far the best In baseball in the past 40 years, blew Ortiz out of the water but Ortiz was obviously much better typically. His numbers with risp, risp 2 outs, bases loaded, and lips situations is remarkable.

Lol no. That's not at all what it means. It means the guy with cerebral palsy didn't actually play in the mlb so he defers on things related to that kind of expertise to the guy that actually did... which is his job. Time to move on from this, ta7 bout to go yack ball

When will Dylan cease ever be allowed to pitch into a game and give up runs? I hate the quick hook there honestly.

If Eaton is healthy he will produce great signing!

I love the optimism.

It took him a while to just quit swinging at everything he sees, then recognizing when breaking pitches were coming (he could hit them if he saw them but he was tending to think he could hit anything). But he looks like he's got it now. Can't wait until he reaches his ceiling, that first month in the majors was just... wow

If Texas is smart, they will get the bullpen up as soon as Dunning gives up a baserunner.

So do at least half of us

There's not a scout on planet earth who is more accurate than a well put together projection model. The scout may nail a couple players that a projection model wiffs on or misses, which is why scouts still have value, but if you give both the scout and the model the same list of every single player to analyze, the scout will almost never be more accurate in their 3-5-7 year projections. I left a .00000000000001 possibility because I felt like being kind. No one is saying scouts don't still have value, but Harold's insinuation that he trusts his thoughts on every player over statistical models is not based in reality, and unless he's a literal machine, his brain can not process enough information efficiently to achieve that task.

It's simple scouting if you know what you're looking at and you don't need a certain number of games to scout a player. You evaluate the players tools and those tools translate to on the field production. It's obviously not perfect (nothing is) but I'll trust what I'm looking at a million times out of a million over some stat projection system.

Engel pushed back another week. Really hope we don't see Hamilton play 2/3 this weekend.

One often overlooked issue with Moncada is that he represents the only viable option to fulfil that perennially elusive need for a middle of the order LH bat. If he doesn't hit well enough to bat somewhere in the middle of the RH heavy lineup, then who will? Eaton doesn't provide the power and Grandal just isn't a good enough hitter. Many of you think that I place too much emphasis on that issue, but the Sox success versus LH pitching and mediocrity vs RH pitching supports my argument. If he at least lives up to his contract, plays solid defense and steals more bases, the Sox can hope to find a power bat to fill the void, sometime in the near future. Perhaps they will sign one to replace Eaton in RF, next year. However, in the meantime, the lack of balance in the lineup really makes Moncada's success, or failure, a bigger issue than whether he lives up to his contract and expectations. If he were simply another RH hitter, it wouldn't be that critical. However, given that he is probably the only guy on this roster who could provide a middle of the order, LH bat, this team needs him to be a better hitter. La Russa tried batting him cleanup, but so far, that experiment has been a complete failure.

Does it feel like it to anyone else that the Sox haven't played in like 2 weeks? I miss White Sox baseball when I cannot see or hear it, good or bad.

Oh boy.

Why does everybody assume Texas even wanted cease?

Luis Robert appears to be a baseball savant. If he didn't have those injuries the first couple years he came over he'd probably be even further along in his development. I think KW got a bit lucky, but he didn't miss on this one.

If it will be Cease vs. Dunning today, this thread will be like matter vs. antimatter.

He doesn't have a strong jaw, he has an awful baseball face and he buys his jeans at GapKids. Bench player here we come!

Most people tend to think they're smarter than computers and projection models. Facts will tell you that those people are almost always (99.99999999999%) less accurate over a large enough sample.

9 games against poor hitting teams (23, 25 & 27th best...ie worst) at home. Time to CRUSH this and take 7 and first place.

Same, In fact I'm heading out to get it in about 5 minutes.

I don't want to see Billy Hamilton any where near the starting line-up. He is welcome to be a late inning PR or defensive replacement. Leury has sucked but i much prefer Vaugh and Garcia in LF until Engel comes back.

How was Moncada after 45 games? The real comparison is this thread vs. the early Moncada threads that were marked by similarly relentless negativity based on tiny sample sizes. It's just too early to draw firm conclusions on Madrigal. It's also not all that important, by the way, to put your stake in the ground as early as possible and take a firm position on a message board that you must then defend to the death. We're just fans. Nobody cares.

I thought I read that someone was doing sections of vaccinated people with no social distancing. If you buy tickets in that section then you have to prove vaccination. I think this is a decent compromise. Maybe every other section or something can be full capacity vs social distancing. Therefore still giving good seats and all locations to both parties. Might help increase the capacity under the current guidelines?

*Eloy's spirit descends from the clouds

Eloy won't be making an appearance until the field of dreams game.

Let's get over .500 and stay there instead of this back and forth between 1 game up or down and back to .500. Hopefully the off days set the pitching up nicely...although one bad start,etc seems to set them right back again lately.

I’m skeptical of Madrigal’s value and very pro Moncada, because Moncada’s “sample size” is actually 411 games and he has already proven he can produce 4.15 fWAR per 162. There simply isn’t a sample size issue when it comes to evaluating his entire production; Moncada has already proven he is an all star caliber player, albeit a very streaky one. For those attempting to cherry pick the last 68 games and extrapolate that Moncada is somehow bad now, the answer is no, he’s absolutely not. He’s still very, very good. The set of 2020-21 games being referenced is just cherry picking bad stats due to BABIP being low and perhaps after effects of COVID. Moncada’s already proven himself and Madrigal has not.

FFS enough

The New York version of their passport allows either vaccination or a verified recent negative test.

The difference between this thread and the one for Moncada is interesting. There are some posters who have been bashing Madrigal's potential in this thread who are over there telling people to be patient and that 2020 and 2021 are too small of samples for Moncada to tell a story. Come on. Check your biases

Come on guys... it’s been 5 hours and no Madrigal slamming. You all be slackin.

I wish more people would have compassion for those that can't get the vaccine.