nrockway

I like our hat this year, at least. Prefer the band to just making the logo the rainbow, it's a nice embellishment and a little more creative. I wonder if the players would ever wear the hat, maybe the Boystown Cubs do.

Yeah it's concerning to me how bad the minor league pitching is. Obviously there are a lot of injuries, but basically every healthy pitcher has taken a step back in some way or their health concerns have manifested and turned them into relievers. Nasty Nick almost looked like a MLB starter, now his ERA is like 8 at Charlotte. I thought Schweitzer was gonna have a big season, guess not. Surprised we haven't seen Karinchak yet. His stats look pretty good (besides 7BB/9, but he was doing than in MLB too) and he has a track record of being a good MLB reliever before the injury. I haven't watched him in a Sox uniform, maybe his velocity fell off a cliff, his K% this year is lower than it ever was in MLB, but I think I would've preferred him over spending international bonus $ on Castro. Castro, Altavilla, Karinchak all basically seem like the same player to me. Pretty decent AAAA depth in consideration of all the injuries, just see no value in giving up an asset for a player like that, even a minor one. How do we account for this though: Charlotte by far leads the International League in walks issued. Birmingham is tied for first in their league. The Dash and Cannon Ballers are marginally better at 3rd and 6th, but I think it's concerning that it's such an issue at the upper levels.

I promise you don't need to be a civil engineer to comprehend this. The developers aren't engineers, the financiers aren't engineers, the construction workers aren't. You might be amazed to know that human beings built structures in generally smart places before the field existed. The guy kinda just said common sense things. What are you disputing? I'd also note that that it's a brownfield and the remediation can be costly. The A's definitely didn't want to do environmental remediation on that Howard Brown Terminal site (a far better location for a ballpark than the 78). The site is clearly cursed and you have one liar after another (probably different aspects of the same liar, Related Morons) telling us for the last 50 years that something wonderful is coming there. It's never gonna happen. Plant some trees and be done with it. Just south is a really great park, they ought to extend it A process that would be (relatively) inexpensive, ecologically productive, generally good for surrounding property values. Everybody wins except the Related Companies. Cermak to Polk has a really nice (east bank) riverfront already, I think they ought to plan the area for families, a consistent tax base, rather than for people from outside the city to come in for the day, clog up the roads, then drunk drive home. Particularly when we already have a place like that (SoxPark) and it's perfectly fine, inarguably better situated for regional access. Any governmental official calling for a new ballpark, even if it's entirely privately funded, is a bozo who is contradicting stated Illinois/Chicago policy goals. Disinvesting from the south and west sides is only going to create further problems for everyone in the city. They've "transformed" the Loop over the last decade into a neighborhood with bars, restaurants, expensive condos and now I never want to be in the Loop, particularly after the sun has set. Someone is making some money off these ventures, I'm dubious that it's the City. Giving real estate developers carte blanche to produce urban form and develop the city further toward consumption and waste should not be the governmental perspective. And if you're going to develop a 'megaproject' like this 78 abomination, there absolutely needs to be democratic oversight extending beyond the aldermanic level.

I didn't watch his start, was he clearly out there pitching injured? or is the commentary because he skipped that start last week for the same problem? I dunno what "lower back tightness" means regarding baseball, but I'd speculate it isn't like "elbow inflammation", ie the precursor to a more serious injury. Maybe he needs 2 weeks off to get right and we're not a competitive team regardless, but is there any evidence to indicate his manager, coaches, trainers are destroying his career? If the guy says he's fine regarding what is probably a strained muscle, what are you really gonna do about it? My completely uninformed medical opinion is that you either play through it or rest it for a couple of weeks. I can't imagine this guy is getting surgery or missing time. My question is: was there anybody already on the 40man to take his spot? I guess Freeman already was. Also Elko's back...Sosa got hurt?!

yowza. Luis could never

They have a worse offense than we do! I’ve said before, I think, this royals team cannot be sustained despite Bobby’s greatness. New George Brett. I like our shot at a World Series compared to them, frankly. I like the Tigers best of all.

Good thread. To me, Cagz or Wetherholt or Braden or (high schooler) Griffin was the pick for us. It seemed unimagined to take another lefty pitcher with an awkward delivery. The org seems to do well with those guys, and Hagan fits the mold, so let’s wait and see with him. But Jac was clearly not a Vaughn clone, and seemingly the best player available to us. I hope he kills it with the Royals. I think our Smith is gonna be good too, despite his walks, but those two positions players (sans Braden who we got) seem like they will be quite good. I like wetherholt particularly, seems like his injury concerns are a paper tiger.

That feels like a wild thing to say. Hilarious, unexpected, but wild. I love it but also…Dusty Baker, right? Was Sosa on those cubs?

The guy might be good, he might not be, but they seem to have made some contingency plans. I hope he’s good. He seems like a nice guy with good tools that tend to project well. Possibly Keith Law is right about him and how his back got broked out and he’s done-zo. That seems like the logical perspective, but did anyone consider he has an 80 grade spirit? I think if the Sox, say, pursued Adames or Bregman during the offseason, we’d, one, probably like the fact that the Sox are spending on free agents, but two, wondering about why they are blocking top prospects by signing these guys. Might prefer to sign someone like Rojas to “keep the spot warm” when your ostensible best prospect is a “short stop” who is realistically a 3B. I suspect we won’t be thinking about Josh Rojas a year from now. I’ll be thinking about him because he seems like a cool dude who was happy to be “mic’d up”, but maybe not so good at baseball. I’ll wait a certain amount of time for Colson (longer than a year anyway), but might as well have some faith in these minor leaguers. Colson is persona non grata around the league these days, time for his rejuvenation.

Don't think we really expected Elko to be this team's first baseman in 2025 and, aside from a hot month in AAA, he hasn't really done anything to earn that position. He hasn't sustained it in AAA after being sent back. Brooks has pretty much the same hitting stats at Charlotte, is he our first baseman? Heck, Ryan Galanie might be a better option for first base than Elko is. What's the rush on him? They gave him a shot and he was...just ok, bordering on bad. Let's see if he can sustain something in AAA after the cup of coffee. He can hit home runs for sure, always valuable, but can he do anything else? Was his absurdly low BABIP 'bad luck' or indicative of something flawed in his game? If Colson is any good, there's probably no chance Vargas stays at 3rd anyway. Good things are happening if Vargas is genuinely forced off third base by one of the young guys. wouldn't surprise me if Vargas is a better third baseman than Colson is and Colson ends up at 1b, but you have to at least try him on the left side of the infield. And kudos to Vargas for taking up the new position and playing great defense there. Rojas is pretty bad, but you have to think he was signed to be Vinny Capra and not to take over the role that Colson Montgomery squandered with his poor play. I just think the argument of 'Rojas or Elko' is a moot point, who really cares, Elko will get another shot and is under control for a long time; he forced to issue to earn the call-up, now he should do it again.

can't dismiss being a dick. time to log off and take a deep breath, pal

think Tauchman can OPS 1.000+ til the trade deadline?

what a catch!

10 balls in a row?

this is a comment I never would've imagined reading two years ago.

on the other hand, don't shove your opponents twice for no reason in your first game back after being relegated to AAA. or: hit over .100 in the MLB before shoving people lol. my bad, he's up to .158

The Sox players were laughing at Bozo the clown, not acting tough.

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?