CentralChamps21

Exactly equal to the odds of a PB or WP.

I haven't been paying attention the last 15 minutes because my brain is still trying to process Collins swinging 3-0.

Why the hell is Collins swinging 3-0?????

Danny Mendick found all of Yoan's missing BABIP luck.

He was trying to bust him in and missed his spot. If he only does that once every 4 innings he'll be fine.

Sheets is more valuable to the Sox in the future if he's playing every day now, and he needs to be in AAA to do that.

Lowe with a 3R HR for Texas in the 1st at Cleveland.

1-2-3 inning but I'm not so certain that constant deep fly balls is a winning dtrategy.

Grandal likely returning Friday. Possibly Engel as well.

TA still out. Garcia in for Hernandez. Lamb at DH instead of Vaughn.

I don't have recall of 2005, so I had to look it up. Frank's game logs from that season were from May 30-Jul 20, so that suggests to me that they were expecting him to be out April-May but back the rest of the season and then he apparently got injured again. As for not being in the prime of his career, he put up a 140 OPS+ in 137 games the following year, so not prime Frank but still pretty damn good. Carl Everett had a 94 OPS+ in 2005.

Just a first ballot hall of famer.

I would love to see a deal get done with Rodon, but I get the sense that he's going to take the best offer, and the Sox really shouldn't go anywhere near that kind of offer with his injury history.

Once Leury is back, Cesar definitely should get a day off, but his defense has been great and he just needs to be dropped to the 8 or 9 spot in the order. Moncada should bat 1st on days TA is off.

Whenever Yolbert Sanchez becomes the starting 2B, the Sox really need to sign Yolmer Sanchez to be his backup.

3 starts this year vs the Sox: 18 IP, 9 ER, 5 BB, 15 H, 4 HR Not terrible but not great either.

He's valuable when healthy, but he hasn't been for quite a while now.

I think the reality is that this team overachieved in the first half. Guys who really aren't even close to good and a couple prospects who really aren't ready yet had hot streaks at the right time: Mercedes, Goodwin, Lamb, Hamilton, Sheets, Burger. They masked what the lineup is really like when down 2-3 of its stars, which is what we're seeing now. I also think that in a weird way, despite Eloy and Robert being better hitters than Grandal and TA, the lineup suffers more without the latter pair.

Everything is bigger in Texas.

When Engel went on the IL and the Sox shortened their bench by bringing up a pitcher to replace him, the Sox have been really short-handed. In addition to having a 3 man bench instead of 4, at least one starter has been rested every day so not bringing up another bat has been looking really bad. As soon as I saw that TA was out again, I didn't even bother watching the game, it was a predictable ending.

Kimbrel's last 2 outings: 1) Walked on batter, then got two outs, then someone else let that run in (plus others) 2) Batter snuck a grounder through at the right spot, then scored on wild pitches/passed balls Both had more bad luck than getting hit hard.

So Grandal and Engel are on track to be back Friday, meaning that the Cubs get to be the first ones to feel the full force of the Sox lineup.

The game was tied 1-1. Sox would still have been > 50% to win that game.

If Madrigal stays healthy this will end up being a great deal for the Cubs, but his health is the risk both sides were taking in making this deal. I think from the Sox side it wasn't worth the risk to count on a guy who's been on the field so little the past two years without a suitable replacement.