ottawa_sox

Toronto's population is actually listed as ~ 200,000 more than Chicago's. Surprised me.

And then there was the Arod fiasco. Where a Sox last minute, embarrassing, smarmy, back door attempt to speak directly to Arod was summarily rejected by Boras.

I've always found the cultural bias towards Cubs baseball in the city of Chicago and beyond a little bewildering. Mostly because it comes across as an immovable, static situation. But nowadays, more than ever, cultures are receptive to innovation. In the Sox case, they might try winning. And clearly one year won't do the trick. Why should it? It's annoying to think that aldermen and a lack of neighbourhood re-investment affect the brand nationally. Excuse my naivete but a true visionary could approach these problems too.

I was 8 in '59. Through rose coloured childhood glasses it certainly was frustrating, mainly because they pulled it off in '59. And they had a true home field advantage. Long, wet infield grass, great starting ground ball pitchers, incentivized by 20 ground ball out suits (at least for 1/2 year until they were awarded too many). Expansive outfield manned by speedy outfielders. And could those Sox ever bunt (oh for the goodle days!!!!). No such thing as blowouts. They were built to win close games. I still tend to have unrealistic expectations, each year, come day 1. Child indoctrination will do that.

Aside from focus/command issues, I think he has to offer more consistent deception in the vertical plane. One of his best starts, possibly his last good one, he showed a nice 12/6 slider that seemed to greatly help keeping everyone off his fastball. He needs to further develop a third pitch. Get more comfortable with the changeup. Throw a few thousand of them this off season. A splitter with his arsenal could be fantastic. But I don't think that rabbit is being pulled out of the hat anytime soon as his hands don't look big enough to me.

Beautiful. My laugh for the day.

Perhaps hitters incorporated uppercut swings to advantage of the juiced ball. Ball first, followed by strikeouts and home runs. Also, I think, the same sensibilities drive fewer hitters to choke up on 2 strikes.

How in God's name is that play not reviewable.

While trying to put a wicked offensive team, it seems nobody, including Kenny, thinks of Moncada as the right fielder. This would be the resulting upshot of acquiring Rendon. Now, commence eye-rolling. But Jerry has the money. Maybe he is a little embarrassed about last off-season. That to me, would take care of the starting 8. You'd think that given Moncada's speed, arm and athleticism, he would have a pretty high defensive ceiling. You would expect tracking problems to begin with, that would undoubtedly diminish over time. As far as it affecting his hitting, I think he has arrived.

It wasn't a lack of hustle, it was a brain cramp. Hopefully the resultant embarrassment will be his learning tool.

I would say that Jon Jay has more focus than ReyLo

This made me laugh. I guess I needed a release as well.

It was a safety squeeze, not a suicide.

For me, the 'couple' and the 'few' might be within the norm. But the 7 is not. Still, pitchers with elbow problems that throw 100 don't seem to favour one jersey over another. And we have Hansen/Burdi/Kopech. Discouraging, but maybe only screwing the the timeline a bit. The ruptured achilles is a concensus long time wear and tear issue. We seemed to be an organization that for years escaped a lot of injuries. It's bound to momentarily sway the other way at some point.

I feel like it took Hahn 2 years to convince Reinsdorf / Williams to stop 'going for it' with over-the-hill, off-season fill-ins. So we've had a lot of change in 3 years - Hostetler / Getz/ Paddy. 3 years feels like approaching the edge for me too. And I get the development / injury angle, but I always feel squeamish when an injury results in a finger quickly being pointed at someone in management. You would think mostly it's just plain bad luck.

I agree. Getting healthy players and prospects back is the key. Shit happens and blaming management for bad luck seems misguided. But I do put more blame on one guy in management. The Chairman has the final say. The Machado fiasco was demoralising. What if another owner, with a willingness to open his pocketbook (what did the Padre owner say - something like "I had to do it for the fans"), oversaw the operations. I don't think Hahn would have nearly as much stink on him. How would Hahn do with a ballclub that had an owner that did not hamstring him. At least the team philosophies regarding international spending, player development and analytics have been trending upwards recently under our three headed monster. Too early to tell how it's turning out.

Not that we think there's anything wrong with that. ?

Then how about Iguchi as a comparison. He hit for a little more power than what many people project for Madrigal, but he was a seasoned 30 year old veteran when he started for the Sox. With the juiced ball and Madrigal becoming man strong, who knows. Personally I don't care about the homers much. I look forward the to the increased pressure on the defence and excitement caused by a true contact hitter. And Iguchi struck out about twice as much as he walked. Aparicio / Fox; Pods / Iguchi ........ then who knows (maybe Robert / Madrigal). When a batter reaches first in the first inning and stays there it feels like 9 innings of corpseball mentality settling in. We've witnessed too much of that over the years. I used to hate seeing an aged Tim Raines standing on first, smiling a lot, while having an apparent aversion to negatively impacting his career stolen base percentage. If the guy hitting second can't be counted on to make contact we'll be missing out on a winning aspect of the game. It's an especially valuable skill set against very good pitchers. Also great defence, leadership qualities. Can't wait.

That '59 season is what made me a life-long Sox fan. My father was extremely hyped over the evil empire not winning and his enthusiasm branded me for life. I stayed home from school and got to see Mazeroski stick it to the Yanks the next year. Luckily a note for my school absence wasn't an issue.

I think Lyman Bostock tried to give some money back because he was playing poorly. I think management said 'no', so he gave some of his salary to charity. In a sad case of reverse karma, he was murdered not too much later.

No doubt money is the big factor, but it would be nice to offer a home that one doesn't associate with the ubiquitous label of non-winner.

I hope this proves true. But as our ineptitude becomes more concrete, you would think the pressure to not sign here would increase as the amount of money needed to entice a highly sought after player moves towards an untenable position.

The suggestion at the beginning of the season was that they would have lots of money available to make an offer to the appropriate free agent(s). I believe Hahn said as much. The implication was that they would be able to fill in areas of need for the big push. To me, this does not imply that you would have to wait until 1 given year to add a player(s). If after this year the assessment is that, for instance, there is no suitable 3rd baseman in the pipeline for say the next 2 or 3 years, then adding a Machado a year early might make sense. Where does the line "blow it all up, for free agents" or the insult of swapping pinstripes for Yankee pinstripes fit into this idea. My guess is I have been a Sox fan longer than you have been on this planet.

What difference making free agent from this coming offseason, other than a confirmed masochist, would choose this team. That's my biggest concern with what we are witnessing.

He still had lots of time. Martinez was not even in the picture when the ball sailed by.