Chimpton

It's not just that Moncada gets hurt alot or has back issues which may genuinely be hampering him in some situations, but he appears to have little to no baseball intelligence. The plate appearance the other day when he had 3 balls against a pitcher who had already walked 2 and then proceeded to take one down the middle and swing wildly at 2 off the plate balls was awful, it would be insulting to little leaguers to call it a little league play. Equally, Eloy gets injured alot but similarly shows an amazing lack of baseball intelligence or ability to adjust his play to the situation on the field.

Sad but true.

The White Sox will be out of it by mid-April let alone May!

The media wil be interested if the White Sox have a historically bad start! The "when will they win a game?" attention would be more than they would get for just being mediocre. Then the attention of will they have the worst season ever would guarantee attention beyond the All Star Break. Maybe Jerry thinks that any attention is better than no attention.

My pre-season prediction of about 65 wins suddenly seems very optimisitic!

I think that is the problem with TLR still lurking around whispering in Jerry's ear and Getz as a rookie GM where will Grifol get that guidance? I think that the way things are keeping Grifol this season is not a total disaster, but he has to show some signs of becoming a competent MLB manager. A repeat of last season in terms of they way they played and the way he managed would be a wasted season and could do damage to young players development. With all the new players and the 'rebuilding' the team needs a manager to guide the younger players and teach them fundamentals not a manager who is learning himself and shown few signs of being up to the job himself. Whilst there is something to be said for the team and manager learning and growing together nothing he has done or said so far suggests that is going to happen.

With the product the White Sox have this season the grass on the field should be well fertilized.

Not sure it is spirit being broken so much as reality, and not wanting to get our hopes up again. The way I am thinking at the moment is that anything above 5th place will be above expectations so will anything above 65 wins.

I think we all know the answer to that one.

It's nothing we didn't already know, but seeing it in writing somehow makes it seem worse!

I'm hoping that the team surprises us by not being the worst ever but I can't see them winning more than 70 games.

"The entire situation made the organization look inept and dysfunctional." This could be the catchphrase for the last 10 years at the White Sox.

Not just claim back a year of control but actually build him up properly to be a starter like a responsible management would. If he lasts through May before breaking down I will be surprised.

That's the big issue, given how few innings he has pitched over the last 2 seasons it would be crazy to expect him to be a regular starter this season. It would be better long term to have him starting in AAA but we all know that won't happen.

Its not a question of being a 'good teammate', he could be the best guy in the clubhouse, which is unlikely given that no other team will touch him, the whole off field nonsense is not what you want around a supposedly rebuilding team looking for a fresh start. As for being a 'success' he was hardly 'lights out' last season and once again no other team seems interested in his talents, he is at best a 3 or 4 starter these days. In addition it would be far better to give a younger player MLB exposure this seaon considering the WS are going to be losing anyway. Clevinger is hardly going to transform the team into contenders this season so why bring him back?

No matter whether he was innocent or not of the allegations re-signing Clevinger doesn't suggest the 'new start' and 'new attitude' that Getz has been big on over this closed season. Considering the WS will not be winning or contending anyway this season signing a player with this sort of baggage who is not exactly going to transform the team is needless.

Maybe I am biased being a Brit, but relegation isn't stupid. It forces the lower clubs to actually try all season because otherwise they get relegated and lose money by being in a lower league. Yes it doesn't suddenly make the lower teams equal to the big teams, but nothing ever will, salary caps etc won't equalise the teams as the big teams will always find a way round it and the lower teams will still not spend up to the cap. And there are many examples of small teams who get promoted to the top league who go on to become good competitive teams, equally some former big teams who have been living on past achievements have been given a kick up the backside by relegation. Relegation also makes the season more interesting for fans as there is the jeopardy of relegation. In football here in England 3 teams are relegated each season and 2 get automatic promotion from the lower league and the third place goes to the winner of a play of between the teams who finish 3-6 in the 2nd division., this makes the season longer and more interesting as well. I know promotion and relegation is alien to US sports but it does work in other sports around the world. It would be far too radical a change to ever happen in baseball but in my opinion it would spice up the season and prevent clubs perennially tanking.

Definitely you are right about Sheets, and Colas could get a season of experience to show what he can do in the MLB on a team that isnt under pressure. We already know Sheets can't do it at MLB level especially as a RF.

To be fair he has done nothing on the field that makes him a roster certainty. He is only hitting 3/16 in ST and last season after he wnet down to AAA he was hardly stellar.

I know it is a radical solution but could the AL and NL have 2 divisions each? With only the top division in each being eligable for the playoffs. Then you could have promotion and relegation between the divisions, and even a relegation playoff. I know relegation and promotion are not a popular concept in American sports, but as a Brit it keeps things interesting in football (soccer), especially as teams want to avoid relegation.

Does 'slept on' mean something different in America, because here in the UK we would say they are being 'sh*t on'.

If Eloy runs hard to first that's 10 weeks on the IL usually!

Does the Little League 'Mercy Rule' apply in Spring Training?

If you read my original post I clearly said he may or may not have been a problem, but what is clear is that TA went stale at the White Sox for whatever reason and was going through the motions, like some of the other so called big names.

No matter how well TA does in Miami, and I hope he does well, it was the right decision to part company with him. The relationship between TA and the White Sox was clearly not working anymore and he had gone stale. If he had stayed then a marginally better season was probably all we would have got, hopefully a fresh environment will spark an upturn in his form. From a White Sox point of view it was probably best to cut ties and rebuild a new clubhouse atmosphere without his presence even if he wasn't the cause of all the bad clubhouse rumours recently. I know the 2b SS options this season are hardly inspiring but this was going to be a write off season no matter what.