Perfect Vision

If the Mets decide to sell, what would it take to get Brandon Nimmo? Right fielder, left handed bat, high OBP, under control through 2022. He would be such a perfect fit for the Sox. I should say, playing CF right now for the Mets, but really better suited for a corner position.

The Sox are going to roll with EE and Mazara the rest of this year. If Hahn makes a trade before the deadline, it will be for a starting pitcher.

I have zero problem with the Sox keeping Collins as a back up/part time player for the next few years and then, possibly, making him the starter when Grandal's contract is up. Collins has always been a solid prospect, but he simply never developed into the type of great prospect that you have to find a way to get in your lineup every day. He's just not good enough. He's the equivalent of a Danny Mendick - a guy who serves a role, plays occasionally, can play every day in the event of injury, who can go back and forth between AAA and the big club, and you give no consideration of service time for. With that said, I wouldn't want to see him traded, because then McCann leaves in free agency, Grandal strains an oblique in April next year, and the Sox have some organizational scrub catching for them every day in 2021.

Collins has caught Dunning many times. They were together in Winston-Salem in 2017 and Birmingham in 2018.

Clinton Cole tweeted that Zack Collins is catching tonight.

Luis Gonzalez, for a left handed hitter, has actually performed better against lefties than righties in his career. Wonder if he gets the start tonight.

I wish people would stop comparing Robert to a guy who's won 16 consecutive MVPs.

Everyone can draw their own conclusions, but the decision by the org thus far to not call up Dunning suggests to me that they plan to have him be a part of the rotation for the foreseeable future. If they were seriously thinking about signing a starter this offseason, why not call up Dunning now and give him 8-9 starts the rest of the year? See what you have in him before signing a free agent. He's clearly a better option today then the bullpen games the Sox are currently going with. The only logical reasons I can think of for not calling him up now is (1) service time/super 2 considerations or (2) be careful with him to avoid injury. Both reasons would indicate a plan for him to be a big part of the future of the team.

If this were happening to the White Sox and not the Cardinals, would we as Sox fans even want them to resume the season?? I'd want to see them play, but I'm not sure I wouldn't prefer their season be cancelled. Long layoff and then jumping into a schedule full of double headers....seems rife for injuries. And with no guarantee they'd play enough games to even be eligible for the postseason. No thank you.

Absolutely can't be forfeits. That would give the Central division teams a HUGE advantage over teams in the other divisions in the playoff race. Better to just finish the season with some teams playing 54 games, some 57, etc. and go by winning percentage. But I agree the Cardinals season should be cancelled.

In my opinion, those guys are too good to be viewed as just back up options. Kopech, Dunning, and Stiever are all very good prospects. All could be mid-rotation or better starters. Signing a free agent and forcing one or more of those guys into the bullpen before giving them a legitimate look in the rotation (half season or more) seems like an inefficient use of resources. If the team is willing to spend the money, they'd be better off giving whatever money they'd offer a free agent starter to George Springer.

This sums up my thoughts. I don't see a starter being added this offseason. Giolito and Keuchel are locked in and Cease is looking like a mainstay as well (assuming all remain healthy). While I think the organization is probably prepared to move Lopez and Rodon to bullpen roles, I expect them to give both Kopech and Dunning a year in the rotation next year before deciding if they need to add an impact starter through free agency. Of course, this all changes if there's a significant injury to anyone, which is always a possibility.

They won today and yesterday and I'm still firmly in the fire Ricky camp. They're winning in spite of him, not because of him.

We seem to be getting close to the point of no return for the Cardinals, so to speak. They've only played 5 games!! Some clubs will be at 20 games after today. At what point does it become essentially impossible for the Cardinals to have a viable season? Would MLB really let them have a playoff spot if they only play 40 games, over some team that has played 60? They need to start playing, and very soon, or just cancel their season.

I personally like watching and cheering for Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, and Nick Madrigal. If Tatis was here, at least one of those guys wouldn't be.

This is it, plain and simple. The team is losing because the offense has been bad, and the offense has been bad because the middle of the order has been bad. I'm really not sure a healthy Anderson, Madrigal, Rodon, Bummer, etc. would have resulted in more wins over this stretch.

Not that. The predictable part is that the Sox will keep him down an extra couple days so they can pretend it wasn't about service time.

The Sox keeping Madrigal down was obviously about service time manipulation. Everyone knows it. But the Sox will keep him down for an additional couple games just so they can say it wasn't about service time manipulation. So predictable.

Eloy has shown a startling lack of awareness in the outfield, that has caused him to get injured, what, 3 times now in just over a year. This can no longer be considered a fluke or bad luck. He plays LF in a way that puts him at risk of injury every day. His bat is too important to risk in this way, just so that he can play a non-premium defensive position, poorly. It's definitely unfortunate to have to put a 24 year old at DH. I get that. But you do what you have to do. The Sox should have made this decision. Instead, they drafted Vaughn and then gave Abreu a 3 year deal, all but guaranteeing this can't/won't happen for a while.

It really all boils down to a simple question: Is it the organization's priority to try to win as many games as possible? Many of the things they do -- from giving Abreu a well-above market "loyalty" contract to abiding Renteria's objectively dumb lineup construction -- suggest that the answer to that question is clearly no.

Assuming that Mazara is out for a while, a lineup with Madigral and one of Leury/Engel in it sounds so much better than a lineup with both Leury and Engel in it.

I actually think Engel is the first option to replace Mazara in right. With that said, there's been no indication yet that Mazara is in danger of missing opening day.

With all of the testing capacity, I think the idea would be that if someone tests positive, the rest of the team could immediately be tested to determine if they have it too (and continue to play if they are negative). So unlike how it was a few months ago, players shouldn't have to quarantine if they've just been exposed to someone who tests positive, only if they themselves actually test positive.

It's not positive cases that I'm worried about. Are they prepared for the possibility that someone connected with the league could get covid and die? The league would shut it all down in a heartbeat.

Bruce Levine was on the Score this morning and this is what he said he thought would happen.