CentralChamps21

There are three position players who are going to come off the IL: Engel sometime this week, Robert and Eloy both likely sometime in August. Unless the Sox are willing to shorten their bullpen, which I find very unlikely, that means (barring additional injuries) three position players have to go: I don't see the Sox putting Eloy and Vaughn in the same OF. That's just too much ground for Robert to cover. That pushes Vaughn into a 1B/DH crunch with Abreu and Mercedes. There are two months to sort things out, but as I see it, if Vaughn and Mercedes aren't both producing consistently, one of them will be sent down. Keeping both eliminates a lot of flexibility on the bench. Keeping both means that Lamb, Hamilton and Mendick are all gone, where all three provide the skill of batting lefty and/or playing positions that Vaughn and Mercedes can't play. Mendick has options so he's probably the first one to go, and it's a battle between Lamb and Hamilton to see who can be the most useful down the stretch and during the playoffs.

The bad decisions don't always reflect in the W-L record. Every decision is worth some number of runs, most of the time fractions of a run, sometimes more than a full run. Sometimes the cumulative run value of the bad decisions is less than the final margin of victory in a game, sometimes not. In either case, the decisions are just as bad.

All this stuff going back and forth about Mercedes and Grandal, just realize there aren't a lot of good options right now: OPS last 30 days Abreu 1.079 Lamb .974 Grandal .895 Moncada .883 Vaughn .733 Madrigal .706 Hamilton .702 Eaton .699 Anderson .674 Mercedes .665 Garcia .643 Collins .553 Mendick .540 The pitching is carrying this team right now, and if you have a day like today when you can't hold the opponents under 3 runs, it's going to be tough to win.

Just keep Burr away from Hamilton.

Cleveland bringing in a righty to turn Hamilton around and away from his massive RH power.

Even with Karinchak likely not available, you figure Sandlin has the 6th and Clase the 7th so better do something in the 5th.

Someone asked earlier if there's any chance Hamilton could stay when Robert and Eloy are back and the more Yermin slumps, the higher those odds get.

Well, it was a nice game thread run.

Because when a team gets repeatedly screwed by ball/strike calls, a manager usually gets tossed once or twice to show the players he has their back and to show the umps he's noticed how bad they are.

That's not just a bad call but a very high leverage one, 3-2 with 1 on and 1 out.

Short version: no Long version: really, no

TA didn't look 100% trying to steal a base and Vaughn has been bad vs RHP lately.

Lambert (ML debut) vs Quantrill Get it!

That may have been the original plan but with all the outfielders getting injured that became impossible.

Hamilton due up 3rd. Does he have a third HR in him?

How many bullshit strike calls were there in that "record" strikeout streak?

Galvis just flew out to end the game vs MIN in 10.

Camera showed the catcher's sign.

This isn't about Lamb, it's about Leury. He has a WRC+ of 63 and giving him any more PA than is absolutely necessary is ridiculous.

Each spot in the order gets roughly 20 PA more than the next one over the course of the season. Balance isn't a valid excuse to give your worst hitter mire PA, especially when there's such a large gap.

At least it's Lamb and not Eaton. Still refusing to bat Leury 9th where he belongs though. Don't know why it's hard to understand that you want your worst hitter batting the fewest times.

So the obvious logjam is 1B/DH where you have Frank Thomas, Paul Konerko and Jose Abreu. Frank is obviously in, so it's between Konerko and Abreu. I give a very slight edge to Konerko but it's razor thin. I'll take Fisk at C, Appling at SS, Ventura at 3B, and Minoso at LF as obvious choices. I go with Collins over Fox at 2B and Baines over Ordonez in RF Comparing guys from the very early years is hard but I'll give Fielder Jones the nod over Lance Johnson. For the bench I give AJ the nod at backup C over Lollar due to being a lefty bat. Abreu's bat has to be on the team. Need an infielder and outfielder and will go with Ray Durham and Lance Johnson. Chose Johnson over Ordonez because there is already plenty of righty power on the team and Lance brings some speed. Starting rotation: Ed Walsh, Chris Sale, Eddie Cicotte, Jack McDowell and Mark Buehrle. Joe Horlen and Wilbur Wood are spot starters/long relief. Bobby Thigpen, Keith Foulke, Hoyt Wilhelm, Matt Thornton and Jose Quintana in short relief.

If average pitch velocity is a problem, I'd rather move the mound back than dangerously limit the number of pitchers on a roster. This would force teams to play musical relievers between the majors and AAA.

That's exactly who you blame for the #2 spot. If a guy isn't reliable, he shouldn't be batting there. Moncada/Abreu/Mercedes could have been moved up to 2-3-4. Madrigal could have hit 2nd. Grandal could have hit 2nd. Any of these would have been better than letting Eaton continue in the 2nd spot when he's been so bad. Also, Leury Garcia is a negative WAR player, and I understand that he has to play because of injuries, but he should never, ever bat anywhere other than 9th. The order you put guys in the lineup matters.

TBD vs McKenzie I'm a bit worried, as TBD usually struggles.