nrockway

Coby Mayo is such a punk. That was bizarre, he goes out of his way to hit Sosa, then does it a second time. They gotta throw at him next time, right?

right, I think the three bats have exceeded expectations to this point and I thought it was a good package at the time. Braden is like 2 for his last 30 though, so we'll see, but did anyone have Meidroth on pace for like 4.5 WAR? most of it is with the glove too, he looks like a legit SS which I wouldn't have expected from the 'third piece'. if we wait to trade Crochet, maybe they keep Meidroth and probably still don't part with the #1 prospect in baseball. hard to see any deal getting done with all their injuries to position players and no production at SS. Cease trade looks horrific though, what are the chances DFA'd/cleared waivers Steven Wilson is the best player in the trade? maybe Thorpe comes back and his fastball isn't 83 mph...

Thanks for the thoughtful post as usual and I appreciate your perspective! I don't know if it's Devil's Advocate, because I agree with everything you wrote. I personally don't agree with 'corporate handouts', but for instance the City of Chicago offered Amazon (allegedly) $2bil worth of tax breaks if they set up shop here. Ostensibly there might have been some economic surplus for the city which factors into this decision-making I'm sure (I'm skeptical but one sees the logic), but the logic is wholly different when it comes to sport teams due to, I think, the failure of the previous generation of arenas to produce revenue. Of course, there are tons of cash cow arenas now. I just read an interesting article about a hockey arena in Edmonton or Alberta or somewhere on the Canadian periphery producing a bunch of tax revenue for the municipality. There's things to read about the impact of new minor league stadiums, even...clearly there's potential, some singular company has been buying every single minor league team, right Even if you look at the Braves or Rangers, dubiously successful developments, you see something the city of Chicago could learn from and try to implement with a private sector partner. I'm very "pro-public sector" and am skeptical about any "private-public-partnership", but sport seems like an environment where it makes a lot of sense. The team means more to Chicago than simple tax revenue or jobs it's part of our spirit -- even if spirit doesn't show up in quarterly reports, that it's a source of funding, it should be considered. I'm pretty annoyed by the new Bridgeport alderman's "whatever, man, the related company has it figured out" take on the whole thing. I'd be very disappointed if a South Side institution moved to the Loop. It would call into question my fandom. I would wonder how that scar on the landscape could be filled, if not by the Chicago Fire. Not sure if you have been in the vicinity of 35th and Shields recently, but the area is quite nice and gentrifying. I will always be pro-public housing and argue in favor of what was destroyed, but the logic of the area is simply different than it was 20 years ago. This is now a place you could build an "entertainment district" (I'd go there off-season. closer than up north, potentially more 'lively' than hyde park) that would be well-used and JR would make money hand over fist, especially because (I'm pretty sure) he owns all the vacant land. If the City is serious about its strategy to invest money on the south and west sides, this is a real opportunity. Play hard ball and get real concessions out of it that might benefit the people of the city. My bias is toward more free sport-related, literature and science-adjacent opportunities for kids and there's definitely available land nearby the ballpark to build such a facility. The Sox do an OK job of this already, but an arena in a 'liberal' city could be a good opportunity for a PPP that makes the team some money and benefits our kids at the same time. I think if we had a better team, it would be an easier sell. I tend to think no movement will happen on a new SoxPark any time soon, and why should it, the ballpark is already great. Very underappreciated piece of architecture and I love that I can spend 10 bucks and sit pretty much wherever I want. oh also: on the useless concrete bit, that's why I wrote trees specifically because you might be able to measure the economic/ecological impact of such things and it costs basically nothing. Planting more trees is generally a good idea if you can find space for it and it's easy to do and (reasonably) easy to maintain (though there's definitely a cost)...and to allude to a previous point, I don't think you can ignore the positive impact of living around a forest, a natural space, etc...I can't prove it, but Chicago is very good about this generally. Milwaukee is even better. Some fantasy I have for future ballparks is something of an eco-arena, well-situated in its natural habitat but is forward-thinking in its energy use. It's occasionally a fun story when hawks decide to nest at SoxPark, why not create an environment for them specifically?

it's also Adisyn and not Addison...the more ya know. that trade might've worked out better for the Sox if it had been for Jymes Shylds.

Frankly, I dunno why you’d play him at 3rd or short over Vargas and meidroth. I guess those two turned up their defensive game so why not Colson, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him end up at 1b sooner rather than later. I think they have to try him at short when he gets called up, but Chase earned it to be sure. His defense has been exceptional. You have to think Vaughn and Elko will in the mix, but maybe the guy could learn right field…

2-3 tonight, a homer, a walk, 3 rbi's. up to .833 OPS. good for him! he just looks like a baseball player, he was bound to figure something out; I'm also not super disappointed he's not on the team anymore. He still can't hit lefties (albeit better) and can't play the outfield. Notably, he has eerily similar stats as he did his rookie year with the Sox. The OPS is almost exactly the same through roughly the same amount of plate appearances...same number of homers and rbi's -- so are these stats meaningful? His WAR is about 6 times higher.

This is an outdated political take from the governor IMO. It's pandering to Democrats, right, but this is the exact sort of ecosystem the laissez-faire types want: no governmental oversight over their projects and retain all the profits. The governor will end up harming the South Side of Chicago with his logic and produce another sea of vacant lots that will never be built upon. And no plan on what to do with the land. If they planted a bunch of trees there, I'd be all for it. That won't happen, it'll be useless concrete because of its 'development potential' that likely will never again be realized. The present location is great and the city/state could 'invest' like they 'invest' in countless other giant projects that are less meaningful to the residents of the city and state (and with less revenue-producing opportunity to boot). The City alone invested over $500mil in Lightfoot's "Invest South/West" program, and what gains have been realized? There's plenty of money for a ballpark, and the city/state should be thinking about how the people can benefit from it.

"ABMR - Always Be Middle Relieving" doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same. Castro has looked interesting, like he has some tools. I figured he was way younger, but turns out he's 30 and has nearly 500 IP under his belt. Weird guy to trade bonus money for, you'd think you'd rather have a talented 16-year-old in the system. Also, maybe it's been discussed, but was this bonus money from the previous the previous cycle (Sasaki, our own Alejandro Cruz, etc) or the upcoming one? If the previous, can Houston be expected to actually use that money?

I think the idea is he got paid millions for failing; and even if some of his former peers got paid a lot more to be bad, it's still a ton of money. $3mil is also a fairly large signing bonus and Colas was a top prospect. I tend to think most of these guys don't pan out, but I wonder what the 'success rate' is for big money international prospects. Colas was older than most of them and ranked highly, you might imagine those kinds of guys do pan out in some capacity (kind of like Abreu, just not as good). Don't get me wrong, I liked what you wrote and agree with the premise, I just liked the term "MLB minimum wage" more lol. I also don't think the comparison is fruitless. most of this thread is about the comparison, right? is it a lot of money? I think, like, 99% of society would want to make this minimum wage and I'm wondering why so many of the posts are about "if it's a lot of money" or not. maybe you guys really struck gold with SoxTalk LOL but I think it's a lot of $. You're joking, right? He got rushed through the minors, privileged above other players in the system, and in those 88 games produced -1.4 WAR. Those 88 games were far too many. He's been getting way too much opportunity in the minors this year. You know he was playing first base in Charlotte just so they could get him at bats? Did you see his stats there, because I posted them and so did another guy. I think he can be productive too, as I wrote I think he's clearly better than his statistics, but I think he has some "Oscar" issues to work out and the relationship with the team was torched here pretty much from the beginning I have to think, certainly with the new front office. Maybe he will mature and maybe another org will give him a shot. It is ample opportunity and it's weird to think it's only about MLB games. Cherrypicking.

hahaha what an ending

pinch hit for this guy!!

great hustle. tough slide. edit: omg

Then Andrew Vaughn should've been better at hitting. Why not get players used to it in this lost season so that they're used to it when the team is winning games? Mental lapse but the pitcher blew that inning.

yikes. just watching the play.

three feet off the plate, dumped into right field. I love it. statcast in shambles.

let's get that old guy trashing Robert back on, it seemed to light a fire.

feel like Stoney didn't need to say "thank god we nuked Japan"

"MLB minimum wage" is a very funny turn of phrase as if it isn't, like, 50 times more pay than the federal minimum wage. I wouldn't mind if some team paid me 3 million dollars (minus agent fees and my willing donation to the Cuban govt of course) to suck at baseball and hit on my teammates' girlfriends. Maybe not the last part. Too bad about Oscar but, like, he's an idiot and was given ample opportunities. Hopefully he'll stop being an idiot and figure something out. He was OPSing under .600 in AA which is just weird, he's better than that.

I was thinking about that Howard Dean bit, only it's "we're goin to Arizona, then we're gonna go to Arizona and Arizona and Arizona and finally we're going to Arizona to take back the World Series...YAH!"

perhaps. you're probably right. I wouldn't say I'm giddy, just optimistic. and if a situation could go one of two ways, why not look at the glass as half full (at least when it comes to sport)? I don't think it's a complete fantasy. Fantastical thinking was me thinking our team last year could've played .500 ball. life is miserable enough, baseball is pretty fun, would rather think "that kid is gonna be awesome" versus "we're gonna be in the cellar for the next decade". the latter might be true, but I'd tune out of this team like I tuned out of the Bulls if I believed it and wasn't entertained. my impression is that this reconstituted Sox organization is much less of a mess than whatever Reinsdorf Jr. is doing with the Bulls, and there's some reason to think the Sox will be a contender before the Bulls are. Getz is clearly more competent than Karnisovas despite Karnisovas having a "better resume" and "more experience". also, it just seems like the baseball landscape has changed. we just set the "most losses" record last year, now it appears the Rockies will do it. you add in the terrible 2018 Orioles and 2019 Tigers, it seems that an outsized number of these historically horrific teams set records in the last decade and that it's only getting more extreme. the discrepancy between the 'haves' and 'have nots' is widening, which seems to parallel American society as baseball so often has. this might be an indictment against major league baseball, which isn't the point of this post, but interesting to think about why there are seemingly many more 'bad teams' these days. Now, that historically bad Tigers team has turned into a very good team with more talent in the wings, meanwhile the Orioles built a 'great' team that has already collapsed (a la our 2020 Sox). that's to say, I think our fortune can change quickly and historical precedent is probably not that helpful (same as it wasn't for Garrett Crochet and his lack of innings pitched). I think we should bear in mind how big a step forward for the franchise it was to replace Hahn/Ken. A lot of us give Getz a hard time, maybe it was a nepotistic hire, but the positive organizational changes are becoming more apparent. What would David Stearns have done differently with the Sox aside from not sign Fedde? Would he have brought Juan Soto here lol? Probably would've signed Sean Manea who is not playing major league baseball this year. He hired some very competent people to come work for the team, it would seem. I made a joke in the game thread about how bad the Orioles are since firing Fuller, but the org's three biggest hires this offseason were: Venable, McKinven, Fuller and all three of their former teams have gotten much worse despite similar rosters. Is it a coincidence? Almost certainly, just pretty funny. I think the one total blind spot for fans is amateur scouting and drafting. yet, it seems to me the team has finally gotten over the Wilder saga and is finally back to operating in the DR with a new academy opening in 2026. Ultimately, my take is that there were innumerable mistakes that accumulated over the years that hurt the Sox in the present and that these issues are seemingly being addressed under a new front office. It probably takes years to bear fruit, but I'm not "giving up on the team" specifically because these changes were made and the grand scheme moves make sense to me even if I wonder why guys like Josh Rojas or Martin Maldonado are signed to several-million dollar deals. There are enough bad Getz deals made to go along with the good deals to raise some skepticism, trades or free agency, but so far it seems like the positive outweighs the negative.

That's actually awesome. I thought Beckham was getting better and that he would be the inevitable replacement and that it wouldn't be so bad...but this one's a little out of left field (out of the bullpen?) but not unwelcome -- I had no idea he was from Gary. IMO he sounds better than he did last year, less outward negativity, but he's been a ghost for years. still occasionally funny.

I like that site, usually they're better about discussing players' attributes. I specifically wanted to see what they wrote about the Vaughn option and was disappointed by the blurb... but the Sosa bit stuck out specifically. If you just look at his bbref page, yeah maybe he looks like a 4th year player who isn't really catching on, but I think we see a player who has finally "figured it out". The "utility player" bit is funny in particular, because I don't think we would've considered him even an average defender before this season. Poor analysis. His double/near grand slam is the highlight for the season of me so far. Very dramatic. He calls time before the at bat begins, then nearly slugs a grand slam with that giant grin on his face. I'd love if there's a photo of it.

liked hearing what Fuller said about it on the broadcast last night...seems they've really stepped up the services offered at the AZ complex. is it a 'bad sign' to send a player to AZ or is it unprecedented because there was nothing worth sending them to? hopefully it sticks with Colson. I think it's a good sign for player development in general, hopefully the ACL guys are getting something out of it...Profar jr. not looking so hot thus far.

almost looked like a major league lineup today, gonna be really exciting when we get the next crop of players up. Colson and Ramos look like they're turning it around even. The sting of them floundering was helped somewhat by Meidroth and Vargas looking like MLB regulars, but what a boon if they can play to their former top 100 prospect potential.

he just got unlucky. he hit it really hard. really.