WestEddy

Every day on MLB trade rumors, there's another story about a pitcher going down with arm problems. It seems like that's kind of a risk of pitching. Or maybe 30 organizations are abusing pitchers by making them throw baseballs hard. Pitchers pitch. If they're healthy, they throw 90-100 pitches a game. Weird how, in 2022, Rodon went to SF, in a system overseen by Brian Bannister, threw 90+ pitches in his first 6 games, and didn't break down. Some of those were with only 4 (gasp!) days rest. Look at his 2022 game logs. Pretend he was pitching on the White Sox that year. Pretend he got hurt like he pretty much did every single year on the White Sox. Now make up an argument about how he was misused. See how fun this game can be? Seriously, I don't care who you think has credibility or not. You think that a pitcher should take years and years and years to come back from injury, or turn from reliever to starter. I'll stick with listening to the guys who are getting paid to oversee pitching for major league teams, and not an internet guy who complains about every single development.

68 wins.

nevermind

I dig.

Read the string.

So, because you don't "trust" Ethan Katz, you get to spout off insane conspiracy theories? Okay, the moon is made of cheese because NASA has always lied, and they won't come clean about Roswell. I guess we're on that level of discussion, now.

I'm guessing that Katz and Bannister are making this call, not really Grifol. Or if Grifol decided on it, that was based on very narrow stipulations. He's probably good to go on an inning/pitch limit, and a game/pitch limit. And they'll increase that as they feel he's able to push it. I swear, everybody believes the same dichotomy the right does about Biden - that he's an ineffective, senile simp who can't even wipe the drool off his own face, but who is masterminding the enslavement of mankind by playing 4 dimensional chess. if Grifol is an imbecile who is only being kept on because JR doesn't want to pay 2 managers at a time, why would they be letting him make key decisions like this?

Enjoy group prayers to the glum Lord. Which airport will you be soliciting donations at this week?

I would imagine a lot of the "Sox fanbase" cancelled their Athletic subscriptions when they decided to not cover White Sox baseball. So, yeah, the other 29 teams' fanbases don't have a lot of "hope" for a team they don't follow.

Yeah, it's a rebuilding year. Please don't bother telling me that you were told it wouldn't be one. If you need somebody to explain what "fun" is, maybe you need to get out more often. I mean, I suppose that to all the highly esteemed scientists of watching sports on TeeVee, one can't be happy or excited about team developments. It's all data. Crochet's a great comeback story. First rounder. Multiple injuries. That's a nice, unemotional, Mr. Spock take, though.

I was roundly laughed at for suggesting Dominic Fletcher could hit in the bigs after 100 MLB plate appearances. I guess the joke is that the magic number is 34 spring training PA's. I don't know why Getz suggested that Thorpe could be major league ready. Maybe he is, and that comment freaked him out. But Getz has to understand that if he opens a press briefing with "good morning", that will be sardonicly referenced for months, because "how dare he call it a 'good' morning when Jerry Reinsdorf still owns this team, and I'm unhappy!!!" The Cease trade was probably about as good as Getz was going to pry loose. There is a weird aura of collusion going on with the Snell and Montgomery FA campaigns, and GMs are all engaging in prospect-hugging. I believe the economics of the game dictate that nobody will be trading their top-10-in-the-game prospects for a while, now. I suppose, too, that baseball-gal and balta were right in suggesting that GM's wanted to wait to make sure Cease still had his ceiling intact. But it was a strong return. I think the trick, going forward, is getting the 90-100 and 'barely missed' prospects who will be shooting into the top 50 with a bullet next year. Casual observers don't get to see "#12 MLB prospect" to inform them it was a good trade.

Of course I'm suggesting it's good news. And it is. It's exciting. I don't think a Sox fan can get "overly" excited about it. Everybody here grouses incessantly about how Reinsdorf hates the fans, and the first fun development, everybody freaks out and wails. It seems like all the people who were hoping for Erick Fedde to get soundly beaten on opening day so they could cluck their tongues at everyone they judge to be "overly excited", are truly unhappy that they didn't think of this development to complain about, beforehand. It's fun to talk about screwing over baseball players like they're game pieces, but "clawing back" a year of control is problematic, from an MLBPA standpoint. I'm sure Jerry Reinsdorf's toweling himself off right now, thinking about holding every minor leaguer at AAA until he's ready with the perfect team. You should suggest that to him. Maybe he'll hire you as one of his flying monkeys. As far as protecting the bullpen, everybody says this is a lost season, anyway. Keep two long men in the bullpen. You already have multiple 2 inning guys. They're covered. It's funny when commenters think that only when crazy moves succeed will they "look stupid".

I don't think the naysayers deserve the benefit of the doubt, either. Every single move gets them screaming, even good news.

The Giants are signing Blake Snell. Finally, we can trade Cease!!

Then it doesn't matter whether he starts or relieves, it sounds like. I think the regular routine of more pitches might even build him up better than the chaos of bullpen usage.

I'm not getting what you're laying down, here, Stone Pony. Affordable care Act? What does that have to do with anything? I'm still not sure why the Sox were so bad after 2011. Reinsdorf meddling? KW/Hahn ideological tug of war? Hahn clearly not knowing what he's doing in baseball? It appears you don't, either. I have said I do like the idea of bringing in a bunch of cheap bodies to fill out the bullpen. Looks like that won't be an issue. I don't think there was a better defensive SS on the market than DeJong, was there? And for all the pining some of the people here want to do over Adam Duvall, Pillar/Fletcher will probably suffice. Cochet, soroka, Fedde and Flexen look good to serviceable. I'm not sure what you would have done differently.

Lost in all of this is that 5 White Sox relief pitchers have come in and completely shut down this same lineup, allowing 2 baserunners in 4.1 innings of work.

So that's why the Guardians were so angry, and took it out on poor Drew Thorpe.

I don't know why you think coming in from the bullpen and airing it out for a couple of innings on an inning's notice is better on his arm than a planned, 5-day routine where he's not throwing full velocity on each pitch. Something tells me that a group of professionals who coach pitching as their life's work know a bit more about the situation than two internet guys.

And hang on, kiddies, here's another right hand turn in this circular argument. Pitchers pitch. You say you are totally in favor of turning Crochet into a starting pitcher. But he can't be stretched out until he starts for years and years and years. Please tell us which month of 2026 you might let Crochet start a major league game. You're a silly person.

You make a compelling argument, Stone Pony. Weird that Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery haven't dropped their salary demands dramatically to play for such a selfless billionaire. They're probably calling their agents right now to send him blank contracts. I'll watch for their signings tomorrow in the news.

Well, at least we don't have to worry about knee-jerk, worry posts about him losing velocity.

And it's a great decision. I get it. It's a logical feel-good story that fans will like, and it will succeed, thus making fans happier with the team. And that would drive the glum-lords, here, nuts. Perhaps you can protest.

Starters don't come out and air it out from the first pitch. Relievers do. Perhaps you don't understand that starters "start" the game, thus the name. Relievers come in and "relieve" the starter. The more you argue, the more wrong you become.