JoeC

Plus... what did we give up? If this were headlined as the marquee acquisition of the offseason, yes - time to be mad. For what it is, it's a good move.

Devil's advocate take: Could be a "Wintrust Field at Comiskey Park" sort of thing. Like "Oriole Park at Camden Yards."

Not a bad trade at all. Guy has 3 options remaining, to boot, per Fangraphs. Doesn't change the overall outcome of the offseason, but it's a nice needle-nudger.

Yeah, definitely not a positive read. When I see frustrations by the front- line talent met with "that's how we do things here" by management... the only thing i can think of is that "the way we do things here" sounds shitty. Sounds like the obvious question is "what if the way we've always done things is wrong?"

I can't see us doing fireworks for the visiting team's home runs, and besides - Keuchel's gone. (that's the best I could do)

On kids' day: one lucky fan gets to be an "apprentice pyrotechnician" and help the pyrotechnician load and fire the fireworks. Note: I actually kind of like this one for real.

Create a new "600 level" located on the rooftop of the 500 level. Include an "activity zone" complete with rappelling and a rock climbing wall. A lucky winner gets to base-jump off of the roof and make a grand entrace onto the field to deliver the first pitch ball. "Rooftop seating works for the Cubs, so why not us?"

It's more that it is becoming clearer and clearer that the Sox are sugnkng these guys as necessary minor league depth, when they should be considered minor league fillers.

I love these kinds of acquisitions. Low-risk, high-upside (albeit low probability) ...that said, I hate that this type of acquisition is the best we can hope for.

Yeah, seems like we're more of a dropout... like we've just given up entirely.

I think he's talking about having 20k people at the game. Currently there are 0 people making the commute to Soldier Field ("Downtown").

One-way traffic only on the concourse. No exceptions.

Promotion: "Bat Night" (note: this used to be real. Not sure if it is now.) Between-innings-entertainment: "Bat Flip Cam"

Bartering-based concessions where fans can obtain food in exchange for "trading down" to less-expensive seating. Taste-of-Chicago-style tickets for all concession items. As a cashless venue, force all fans to purchase paper tickets, which will be the only way to acquire any food, drinks, or merchandise. To reduce operating costs, keep no more than three ticket vending stations open at any time. To minimize localized crowding, periodically and randomly close each ticket vending station without warning to provide fans with the ability to explore all parts of the stadium prior to being able to buy something from a vendor while in their seats

Emphasis on pitchers' fielding practice in the FUNdamentals area.

Free MLB.TV trial subscription while in the stadium, so you can at least watch one meaningful game while you're there. "Speed Catch" machine where, instead of clocking your fastest pitch, you get to try to catch a 99-mph fastball.

I read his post more as a “Clevinger may be a bad dude, but he’s no worse than the other despicable characters if philandering is your standard of ‘bad dude.’” But yeah - otherwise I agree. That “locker room” culture is frankly the cause of some of the worst excuse for human behavior I have seen.

In the end, nobody comes out of this a winner. The accuser will surely be harassed for making these accusations, regardless of whether she is ultimately proven right (note: I'm inclined to believe accusers in these cases). Clevinger will forever have this held over him even if the accusations end up being false. That said, I believe MLB actually has a framework in place to make sure due diligence is completed before "firing" a player in cases like this. The only way to redeem his image is IF Clevinger is innocent + IF MLB finds him innocent + IF MLB is transparent with its findings and process. Do I think he's guilty? Yes. Do I think the Sox should be done with him? Fork yes. Do I want the process to play out before giving him the boot? Yes. Of course, if the MLB process is actually a joke, then I will change my mind about this all....

For Lopez's sake I hope not....

Really going out on a limb there, eh?

Well, hopefully the underlying peripherals show that Kelly did just get hit by bad luck: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/joe-kelly/9761/stats?position=P The eye test still tells me his command sucked, but it'd be interesting with this new analytics-friendly regime, what sort of usage Kelly will get.

...you do realize that minor league contracts are basically zero risk, right? I've never understood the gripe with minor league signings / spring training NRI's. Super low risk. Even this org isn't stupid enough to sign non-prospects to block the development of actual prospects.

Well, hopefully this works. Can't say he's not trying at least. ? I do notice a difference in his landing from 2020 to 2022, and the 2022 landing seems to have carried over to the above video.

Analytics should impact both player acquisition as well as in-game strategy. One of our major gripes as a fan base last year was the horrible decision making by the coaching staff. Analytics hires like this, to me, show that we’re going to change that.