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The good news is that no one is ever amped up on opening day, so we don't have to worry about him overthrowing things or over stressing that arm. We also can count on the manager to be responsible about his pitch count and innings count.

Did you remember to subtract 81, since we won’t need a pitcher to cover the bottom of the ninth for any road game this year?

This is just a funny story he can tell someday. I think this guy is going to be a good major league starter. Yea, he was traded twice because he’s not a huge arm, but there is still a place in the big leagues for guys that can change speeds and locate…you know, pitch. He’ll be fine.

God that Guardian's logo is horrible. Should have just went with the Spiders.

Gio Gonzalez was “passed along” three times and put up 32 fWAR.

Crochet is going to help the team get into the 2024 Playoff race.

Hopefully this will quash the talk of rushing him to the bigs this year. Let the kid earn his way up.

Oh come on, this is hilarious. A guy they bragged about how great he’s been in ST went out and allowed 6 runs without an out in seemingly 3 minutes.

Might as well get as many "starts" as you can before he clutches his elbow or shoulder. They used to call these guys openers. Maybe they think the bullpen gets a day off on Friday, so the short start won't matter as much.

Choo Choo this is the train to get aboard for Nastrini [x] Tremendous Stubble [x] Does not give up runs [x] Hat fits well [ ] Cy Young Will he get there?

These comedic replies alone make this announcement worth it. Thank you.

Yes. So a guy throws a baseball and therefore he is now stretched out to be a big league starter. No multi-year conditioning effort required! He stretched out in the offseason. Frankly, ludicrous. I'm as into turning him into a starter as anyone, and this is a super high risk way to do it. We know his arm isn't well conditioned as he has never thrown innings and you cannot do that magically, guys get hurt when they try that. We know that in the modern big leagues it is a max effort league, guys throw way harder than they did even 10 years ago. Taking no time to even build up his arm because he threw a baseball in the offseason...blah. Standard White Sox fare, pretend guys don't get hurt and act stunned when things go wrong with the plan, it's how Crochet was treated all along.

I personally love how ST performance has gone from entirely meaningless to career defining over the course of one half inning and about 10 posts in this thread.

Opening Day bullpen day let’s gooooo

Dude's nervous. He probably read SoxTalk, realized he's worthless based on a couple of really really smart fans' takes, so he decided to commit suicide by home run.

how much use do we get out of this this year

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Id much rather see this experiment happen in the minors. Not only do you gain a year of a control for a season that might actually matter, you also protect yourself from losing a ton of it if he hurts himself again. So what happens in July in the off chance that he hasn’t hurt himself? Shut him down? Move him back to the pen? Not the route I’d have taken, but all you can do is hope for the best.

Absolutely no one in the history of ever said his injuries are behind him. He's very likely to get hurt again if he's a starter or a reliever so they may as well try to maximize his value before that happens.

Did someone actually state that Crochet is ready for a starter’s workload this season? The same guy who has thrown 73 total major league innings since 2020? There’s no way the Sox were expecting 150-180 innings out of Crochet this year.

"Stretched out all winter"? That...makes no sense! Stretching out a starter typically takes years, to condition their arm to be ready for the workload. Did he throw 160 innings over the winter? If so, he probably should be shut down already.

Pass-along prospect is always a red flag.

Heaven forbid you allow for legitimate critique of an org that has a lengthy history of making dumb, backwards, and shortsighted moves. Anything that isn't 100% effusive gets that special all or nothing sycophantic hyperbole from you. It's tired. Yeah, Crochet has looked fantastic this spring, in all of 9 innings. But let's just shove the only name fans will recognize into an opening day start when he hasn't started a game in the bigs... ever? I mean, nothing to question or critique there. Nothing could possibly go wrong. 1000% sound wisdom from JR's Yes-Man brain trust. For f***'s Sake.

Let me guess, he’s not fully healthy

Padres won the trade.

His glove might actually be better than his bat, which is saying something because his glove is about as awful as it gets. His OPS+ last year was freaking 63!

O/U: 2.1 IP

This is the nastrini train sir

Getz gonna bring him up for opening day and Grifol gonna sit him on the bench to have him learn by watching.

I mean, we understand it. Pedro is desperate for "veteran leaders" (who don't run to first) that he's familiar with from his time with the Royals and they're riding the coattails of Maldonado's reputation and ignoring the last 5 years of his career as a hitter and last two as a defender (2022 as average, 2023 as worst). It's very easy to understand. It's just fucking stupid.

The funniest part of this is that everybody laughed at thinking Fletcher was good based on 102 MLB PA's, but are now declaring him a bust over 30 spring training PA's. Smells like Troll Spirit.

And I am looking to have a 13 inch penis that has built in freight train vibration functionality that is controlled telepathically.

Fun choice and there's not much fun going into the year. I like it.

The problem is that Chris Sale learned how to pitch in the mid to lower 90's so he could handle a starter's workload...and only use his mid to high 90's stuff when he really needed it to bail him out of a jam. Don Cooper 101 The problem here is that it seems Crochet is just going out there throwing full bore like he's coming out of the bullpen in the 9th inning. And he's not using his secondary pitches nearly enough...just relying on blowing away hitters, especially those on the LH side of the plate. But that's just raw stuff and not with a refined slider like Sale had. Whatever it is, he has to come close to developing at least one secondary off-speed pitch that might not ever be "plus plus" but is at least major league average and that he can control confidently enough to throw it for strikes and get hitters off the fastball.

This is good because the Thorpe train just got derailed. 🤣

It’s more about the draft pick attached to Snell than Boras. I’m pretty sure Boras is doing okay…

Did you say that earlier or is it just apparent now while he's getting bombed ?

I'd be happy to entertain legitimate critique as soon as I read some. Yes, because all the bad trades, questionable PR decisions, that's why Garret Crochet will fail. That's probably the most logical part of your rant. You do understand that every single pitcher in MLB history never started a MLB game before their first one, right? But if you want your critique to be treated as legitimate, maybe don't be the 20th person to lazily ask, "what could go wrong?" Or call the entire organization "yes-men". That's tired, and lazy. Nothing that I listed, that you called tired, is inaccurate about the initial deluge of comments on the opening day start. I just find it weird that you glum guys get so angry about people actually being excited for the baseball season.

Welcome to Soxtalk !

Let’s all just chill about six at bats, please. Maybe the guy never pans out, but this does not prove anything.

Or he’s trying to impress his new team by throwing too hard (as he hits 91). Not being serious, and I know this start means nothing. Just kinda goes with vibe of this organization these days.

Yes, let’s ignore all of Sheets’ history of being a bad major league hitter and slot in his horrible glove into RF because of a few dozen meaningless spring training at-bats.

His bat is crap and has declined over his three years with the Sox, but you are going to trust 41 Spring Training at bats? Take a look at his stats. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sheetga01.shtml

I love this. Almost forgot he existed. One exciting thing to watch in the rotation.

Right. Lets hope its Lorenzen so we never have to mention the other shithead ever again...