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Remember when he asked Moncada to bunt and then Moncada almost broke his hand before he roped a double into the corner? Yea, that "cast has changed" excuse doesn't hold much water.

Perfectly positioned for years of 2nd place finishes.

I love this site....where else can "fans" rip on a potential stud as being fat. I guess the team photo is photo shopped. Mercy.

Anyone calling Eloy fat (ridiculous) should be forced to post a picture of their obviously chiseled selves

They've already spent a TON of money. There isn't much else out there that's a non-controversial upgrade right now. I'm fine with them waiting until the ASB or next offseason to augment. There are still a lot of unknowns on this team right now.

What an insane take based on that picture lol.

Good to hear that JR is still not fully 100% committed to winning.

I've heard similar from other beat writers privately FWIW. This is a Reinsdorf problem. Don't displace your rage toward Bruce in this case.

If b****ing and moaning for not spending money on bench pieces is where we are at, things are looking very good for the Sox this season.

Japanese team could let him out of his deal. They could also post him. The problem is, the posting date has passed. They could post him again in December. At that point, a tean would have to have enough international bonus pool space to sign him or wait until July 2nd 2021.

I just listened to the new Mazara interview, on the NBC podcast. What a terrific, likeable young man. He was more personable, intelligent and articulate than most of the American ball players, whom I've heard interviewed, especially considering that English is not his native language. I'll be rooting very hard for him and love his potential.

I worked at Party City with a guy named Less Bunting.

Agreed. The Sox need to know what they have prior to spending money on much else. They have a bunch of young kids and who knows where they will need to augment going forward.

So you're saying that the Sox are going to max out a payrolls of ~$120-125M moving forward? Because if that is the case, this whole rebuild was for nothing.

Man, some of you need to show some humility. The guy is probably working his butt off and your ripping on him. The guy doesn’t look fat, he just looks like he bulked up a little during the offseason.

The latest piece by Fegan about the pitching staff, technology, Cooper and more importantly Giolito was fantastic. Cease changed his delivery and looks a lot like Giolito; as he spent all off-season working with Giolito to fix his spin and balance issues. His grip issues and etc. His glove being far from his body through him off balance. Lopez, who had turned down Giolito's offer last off-season (to which Giolito said he felt he'd never come around) and worked out in DR, took Lucas up on the offer this off-season. He also went to learn about maximizing his spin, command and etc with modern new-age tech that Lopez wasn't a big believer in prior. Giolito also made changes; to his slider grip, and he worked all off-season to find that old 12/6 hammer's release point to throw it for strikes. And Carlos Rodon has been using all the new Sox tech to learn how to use his lower body more (he always stood so tall) to tech stress off his legs. This is obviously a spring training fluff piece in a way, but players believe when other players have huge turnarounds like Giolito. They bought in, and who knows how well it may benefit the team going forward.

Good for Timmy. Plays the game the right way, plays the game hard, is honest, came from humble beginnings. How can anyone not like him? Hope he hits a few line drives right at Verlander’s knee caps.

People here have been overly negative about Mazara. I think there is a plan that can work.

I know I was saying it all last season. He was playing the hand he was dealt, a bunch of below average hitter who had a better chance to execute a bunt than get a hit. If he has better hitters he won't feel the need to bunt as much. This is really the first time in his entire career he has a good team. I have no idea if he going to be a good manager but I don't think we've seen the "real" manager either.

Moncada is the only guy that really makes sense as a lead off guy from a numbers perspective, but you're right, he doesn't seem comfortable with it. So I'm content with putting the batting champ there to start. Have a feeling I'll be saying this a lot, but as long as Mazara and Garcia aren't batting in the top of the order on a regular basis I could not give less of a shit what the lineup looks like.

Huh, imagine that. Who could have foreseen this?

They desperately need position player depth if they're serious about making the playoffs this year, and as we've seen, such players are signing for peanuts (such as Brad Miller for $2 million). I think the frustration/disappointment is warranted, even if the offseason was largely a positive

I wouldn’t worry. If the Sox are kicking ass at the ASB I guarantee they make a push for relief help.

I just want to point out that Puig is working out wearing white socks on his latest instagram story post. Signing imminent.

That other picture must have just been a bad angle. He looks like his usual size in the upper-right picture. He’s basically built like Jermaine Dye in his later years. He will likely always be tough to watch in LF but he will hit 40+ bombs. Hopefully, he can avoid the nagging injuries from here on out.

I'd rather not make Eloy look bad

Yeah I just read that someone else was granted an extra year and I was surprised (didn't know Micker was granted one either). Forgot what team though.

Dude just looks beastly. I think 40 bombs is a minimum this year if he plays 150 games.

Yea what a fat ass.

We got lucky we were granted another option for him.

Micker just needs to stay healthy. He’s shown real signs of progressing but has lost a ton of development time.

As a wise man once said, "lady, I ain't no athlete, I'm a baseball player." If he hits 40 HR no one will care.

A few days ago I made this Post in the Gorkys Hernandez thread: "If we revisited the thread about payroll expectations this year,aren't we still under the $120M which was the Athletic number ? I'm going to guess more than half the people who posted thought it would be higher. I know it's nitpicking to say I'm unhappy about the lack of late signings but I am. Sure I can understand relying on Mendick and Leury and not trading more prospects but I really think the bullpen could use more help especially a long reliever. Heck you can see what the Red Sox want for Brandon Workman but that seems like a move for a team who is sure they are going to contend or more likely to happen at the deadline if the Red Sox still feel they can contend and it doesn't happen. I can't help but feel they skimped a little on payroll this year not only in order to see how everything looks at the trade deadline but also to prepare for next year, But it just feels like they are in wait and see mode rather than trying to make the playoffs this year. Perhaps too many young pitchers and pitchers in general coming off injuries to push more chips in. Just seems odd that Hahn has talked about how JR reminds him that he isn't getting any younger but we still didn't make a much larger effort to win this year. In my mind I am also drawing a correlation between the current payroll and increased spending in IFA and more developmental aspects of the game such as biomechanics or more high speed cameras. I have no knowledge that we have more high speed cameras now then before but I am seeing cameras in some of the spring training photos behind the pitchers. Maybe this feeling needs its own thread but that's how I feel." Now conversation has cropped up in the Puig thread regarding the lack of late signings though some very helpful pieces have signed elsewhere for relativity cheap. I 've had this feeling for at least a week before I made the post above that no one else was getting a major league contract. Thought the topic deserved it's own thread. So how do we feel about this ?

Hey, leave the trainer out of it. The poor guy makes next to nothing (comparatively) and always takes care of everyone. You dont have to berate him as the lowliest person around.

Ricky is a total pushover when it comes to veterans. Wouldn't surprise me if Eloy bats sixth behind the aforementioned veterans

Sounds like SoftBank is exercising whatever rights it has to either keep him on their team, or, at the very least, negotiate some sort of compensation for his release. It's difficult to tell how much leverage they have with respect to the former, since it seems that Colas is currently physically missing and has probably fled the country, but my guess is that this is more of a message to MLB teams saying, "hey, this guy is under contract with us, and we are asking that you respect that, as opposed to simply signing this guy as if we don't even exist."

Bingo.

If this is true, it makes you wonder about ticket sales. I always figured right around here was best case scenario for this season. Despite the ridiculous profit losing was making them, you knew JR wasn’t going to suddenly risk all of it. He still wants to make a profit. Breaking even is fine for a season, but losing cash, even if overall the bank account is bloated has never been acceptable, and never will be. It is one reason why sustained winning is going to be difficult. Look at the Red Sox and the Cubs. They hit a wall financially. The Sox will too, only far lower. Better win when you can because if these guys are as good as advertised they will have to be paid, and will be trade bait in a couple of years. i think JR would consider selling the team if they won again and he realized he couldn’t or wouldn’t fund a run at a couple more.

I hate Colliton. If it takes firing Bowman to be rid of JC, then so be it. That being said, it was time for Quenneville to go. I was fine with giving Colliton a chance. It's not working, time for him to go. Bowman isn't terrible. If he got fired he'd have job offers from 10 teams within hours of his dismissal. You and Tony deserve Chia Pet. Bowman can't hear all of the GMs that you claim are better than him because his ears are plugged with 2 of his 3 Stanley Cup rings. Tallon wanted to Re-Sign Havlat instead of signing Hossa. That would have been a disaster that would have resulted in zero Stanley Cups, so you can shove your "Tallon and Mike Smith built the team" where the sun don't shine. Bowman is responsible for all 3 Stanley Cups on that move alone. There are some truly bad GMs out there. You don't know how good you have it.

Anderson Moncada Grandal Abreu EE Eloy Robert Mazara Madrigal 😍 Once Robert gets acclimated, switch him and Anderson. If Anderson is lighting the world on fire and that is hard to do, you have yourself a very good problem.

Don’t like Anderson leading off. Hope by the all star game he’s in the lower third as a real threat most teams don’t have the luxury of and Madrigal or Robert is in the top spot. It really could be great for Robert to hit first and Madrigal to be second. He’s an ideal guy for that lineup position.

I'd be okay with not signing Puig, but not if the reason was a tight wallet.

I feel like David Samson is right. It's going to take a 2005-like convergence of happenings for the Sox to win the division or a championship. Otherwise, be happy finishing 2nd to the Twins for another decade.

Steve doesn't give a sh** about anything except showing how smart he is. He bores me.

I remember this little older lady standing next to me literally jumping into my arms after Iguchi’s homer. I was jumping up and down with the rest of the crowd cradling her like a baby. Leaving the stadium that night was definitely the first “oh my god, this could really happen” moment for me.

I wrote about the recent rumors and the White Sox for the upcoming J2 period. http://futuresox.com/2020/02/18/the-white-sox-are-eyeing-cuban-prospects-in-international-marketplace/

Tim strikes me as a high caliber individual on an off the field. Actually...the whole team comes across as a class act. Going to be easy to pull for all of them.

Hopefully before there are any more hints at Steve Stone being racist without any evidence.

Tim is a fun dude who was having fun in this interview, don't take anything he says here too seriously. He's the best.