CentralChamps21

Anderson / Moncada / Abreu / Mercedes / Grandal / Eaton / Robert / Vaughn / Madrigal

Lamb shouldn't have been in the lineup to begin with. You don't pluck a guy who's been on the bench for a week and throw him in the lineup against the best pitcher in the league. I also thought Hendriks should have pitched the 10th. Finally, Mondaca has to get moved out of the 4th spot. He's awful there and it's dragging Abreu down with him.

No, I just quoted the first sentence of a very long paragraph.

The entire Cubs team has a .580 OPS. Joc is just following the crowd.

I frankly stopped reading your post when you suggested that a good fWAR might be due to a pitching-friendly ballpark. Need to know why (spoiler below)? fWAR adjusts for park factors

Bieber has a 65 OPS point split differential for his career. That's not so substantial that you need to shove all your LH batters into the lineup and bat them high in the order. I can live with Williams playing LF because of the defense but there's no good reason to bat him 5th, and no earthly reason to put a guy who's not played in over a week at DH.

I got my 1st dose and my dad got his 2nd dose today. Both were Pfizer.

I don't know that "evidence" of another player not making a hypothetical play exists, but there was one ball in foul territory and one where he had to come in quite a bit where he covered more ground than Vaughn possibly could have if he had been starting from the same spot.

One of the reasons the bullpen seems worse than it is is that they've had very few low-leverage innings. I count only 3 out of the 34.2 bullpen innings as low-leverage. A bullpen can't succeed when they always have to be perfect or near-perfect. The offense and the starters have to give them some bigger leads more often. Ruiz really isn't that good and Foster is struggling right now but the rest are doing OK or better.

There were at least 2 balls in LF that Vaughn wouldn't have gotten to. Not a criticism of him, but he just doesn't cover as much ground. When a contact pitcher like Keuchel or Lynn is pitching, I don't mind leaning toward the better defensive option. Also, Mercedes is cooling down so Vaughn might start getting some time at DH.

So for tonight, the claim that a pitcher "shit himself out on the mound" might be literal instead of metaphorical.

Split DH shouldn't be allowed if they are 7 innings.

Rest isn't the issue so much as the notice. Giolito went to bed last night and woke up this morning expecting to start tomorrow and I don't know how short of notice a pitcher can get pushed up a day and expect to perform normally.

If Rodon has a non-COVID illness, like some kind of stomach bug, you'd have to put him on the 10-day IL and end up giving ReyLo 2 starts to bring him up. Or, you have to send down a position player to bring up ReyLo and play with a 3 man bench. If Giolito can't be ready to go tonight, I'd think a bullpen game is more likely.

Twins home game tonight against Boston has been postponed due to expected continuation of unrest due to a police shooting of an unarmed suspect in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center.

With Engel back, I see the playing time getting split something like this: CF 95% Robert, 5% Engel RF 80% Eaton, 20% Engel LF 60% Vaughn, 40% Engel 1B 95% Abreu, 5% Vaughn DH 95% Mercedes, 5% Abreu

After games of 4/11 the Sox MLB ranks are: 6th in runs at 5.67/game 11th in AVG at .242 3rd in OBP at .354 15th in SLG at .390 9th in OPS at .745 18th in ISO at .148 8th in lowest K% at 22.3% 1st in BB% at 13.6% So the offense is excellent at walking (which is very, very unusual for the Sox) and as a result very good at getting on base. This is leading to above average scoring despite mediocre hitting with sub-par power. Part of this of course is due to the absence of Eloy and TA. Anderson coming back will help a lot with both the offense and defense, and Engel coming back will help the defense a lot and the offense a little.

MLB seems very reluctant to consider having ties. I get that a tie is a very unsatisfying result for fans, but when it's one game of 162, I'd think people would understand. I'm OK with the runner on 2nd rule this year as pitchers are coming off a 60-game season and haven't pitched much, but it has to go after this season.

That wasn't an issue today though. There had been a complete game followed by two off days so the bullpen was plenty rested.

He was doing his most damage batting 2nd in the lineup. Maybe move him back there and try to get him going. Eaton 9 / Moncada 5 / Abreu 3 / Mercedes DH / Grandal 2 / Robert 8 / Vaughn 7 / Mendick 6 / Madrigal 4

Should have skipped Cease and started Rodon today. Just sticking with the rotation and not thinking outside the box is very Ricky-ish.

It looks like there will be a window of about an hour if they start at 1:10. I guess they need to decide whether or not that's worth starting the game and not being able to resume it until after 6. EDIT: Apparently, the answer is no

Right, plus Tatis is playing where he is because of a really stupid decision by a Chicago team and Mahomes . . . well, never mind.

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