WestEddy

Sosa homered. Reinsdorf's letter was not about these last 2 series.

I think everybody's looking for a Todd Stottlemyre reaction, unable to speak 3 words without an expletive, and reasoning that "this is how I eat!!" Most of the reactions, here, are probably a reporter asking a player, personally, "Hey, how you doing with all of this?", and the player gives an honest, personal answer. Any musing that the players need an on-field brawl to get angry about is smothered in scolding. But everyone wants players to not be able to sleep, or even function, they feel so ashamed. Part of being a pro is being able to compartmentalize their emotions. This is what that looks like.

I'd be happy for JR to "save money" by plowing half of what he'd pay the Chris Flexen version of a shortstop into a Trajekt machine, or to invest the $3 million Joey Gallo might need to play half a season - into their stats department and scouting. Katz seems to be able to do a lot with a little. I just wonder if Marcus Thames is the same, and that process is just slower with hitters.

Sure he would be. We pried Brian Bannister away from the Giants pretty easily. There's hundreds of guys who are 2nd in command, or run college hitting programs who are tapped into the latest thinking and tech. There's only 30 of those jobs in the bigs. Even the Sox are a huge stepping stone to burnishing one's resume.

I'm really curious what you think the speech the Captain of the Titanic should be giving as it disappears into the water - looks like.

Robert's 26, Moncada's 29. Robert's yet to hit his prime. Luis Robert just set a career high in stolen bases. It's his approach.

If Robert could be parked in the 6-slot of a good lineup, he could rework his approach and rebuild his confidence. That can't happen here during his contract period. He will be the man for the next 2 years, here, and he'll feel compelled to "produce".

All of the anger started getting burned up in December when they signed DeJong, or whatever. About a dozen people screamed or misquoted everybody who wasn't mad multiple times a day. The adults got over it back in April. I wish they didn't set the loss record. I won't be thinking about it in 3 weeks.

They left spring training a bad team, and losing what were supposed to be their top 3 hitters made them worse. The article clearly states this, as I have. We can agree that not being on course to set the all-time loss record would be significantly different from a 115 loss season.

That's all I've ever said. I don't know why this concept makes people dig in and fight against it. Nobody ever suggested anybody was surprised by it, or that Yoan, Eloy and Robert were the 3 best hitters in the game. The article points out that the the 3 guys who were supposed to be the three best hitters on the team were gone within the first two weeks, and that made the team worse than they left spring training.

Who on this team was seen as better, offensively, than Eloy and Yoan? Nicky Lopez?

I don't know. I was trolled by admins for a while for stating these very facts. Maybe look in your admin handbook and tell me why it's wrong to say that the 3 top offensive players being injured in the first 2 weeks might make a team worse.

It's really weird that nobody here lined up to argue with this:

To my point, conservatism and Christianity is fine. But you get these guys who are "Christian", but they hate everyone, they might give off good clubhouse vibes, but WTF turns on a guy coming back from cancer? Back in the day, I fought with all the stat heads (not here) who gushed over Grandal's framing stats, and acted like it was the victory of a lifetime when the Sox finally wised up and signed him. They're all awful quiet, now.

Are you implying that Getz had the same amount of power as KW and Hahn?

I'd guess that most/many baseball players are conservative bro-dudes. When a guy like Giolito is smart, well-rounded and curious, it's news. Too many Aubry Huffs and Trevor Bauers bouncing around.

Grossman still OPSed .756 as a RHH against lefties this year, total. He doesn't seem to be a good lefty hitter anymore.

Well, yeah. That's the whole point. The amateur draft is fine. They just need to develop the guys they draft. International is a mess, and they've taken steps to revamp. I didn't mind the return for Cease, Fedde was a good signing. The Bummer trade - I think my thoughts are known. Fletcher didn't hit the ground running, and the return for Santos seems....okay. The Fedde trade was a f*ck-up. I think they're one prospect light, as James Fox stated. They have to be able to target guys like Vargas in other organizations, and have a plan to fix them. If they can't do that, they might as well just draft and sign pitchers. I'm a fan. Like you said, I can either watch what's going on and wait to see how it turns out, or just whine and b*tch. I choose the former.

The win-loss record doesn't matter. Until it does. Getz is finally making changes to the organization that should have happened 5-10 years ago. I didn't really want the team to set the loss record, but who really cares? It's an organizational rebuild. Either the guys Getz puts in place will affect real change, or the team will get moderately better until JR kicks, then new owners will clean house. I really don't understand the need for everybody you encounter to repeat the things you say in your head.

Noticing that Riley Gowens is an actual pitching prospect isn't "carrying water". I'm not sure who expected 90 wins.

Bummer gave up the same one and a half baserunners an inning with the Braves like he did the previous 2 seasons with the Sox. I guess the Braves' defense could absorb that better than the Sox could. Bummer was a project. I believe his best days are behind him. Maybe the Sox could have gotten 2 prospect arms?

You've also said a few times that Bummer should have been traded for "prospects" - with an "S". How many teams do you think were lining up to clear out their minor league systems for a reliever whose 2023 numbers looked worse than Chad Kuhl's? Bummer could have most likely brought back a good arm. As in one. That's what they got in Gowens. Plus the others. This was Gowens' age-24 year season. I look forward to your 2-3 posts a day, going forward, telling us that this was a failed trade.

Jeral Perez slotted in as our #13 prospect (MLB.com) and OPSed .775 in a league he was a year and a half younger than. I'll wait to see if they can affect any change in Vargas, and how the injured guy looks before I make any judgements.

I still laugh at your posts. I suppose it's fun to evaluate trades when you pretend that parts of them don't exist. Riley Gowens exists. Soroka should be looked at with Flexen and Fedde, acquiring multiple starting pitchers in the hope that any of them could become productive MLB pitchers. Fedde worked out, therefore the entire experiment was a success. Lopez was a utility infielder that nobody in the system could beat out for the starting 2B job. Shuster is a serviceable bullpen arm. Shewmake should be DFAed. It's just funny that you have to post multiple times a day that you think this trade is a failure. I'm not sure what you're doing.

Modernization. Pure panic move.