hogan873

He's having a banner off season.

On a lighter note, Nightengale made an ass of himself again last night re-tweeting his own tweet about IF the union and MLB agree on universal DH and expanded playoffs, and saying in his retweet that it is now official. Needless to say he got destroyed. I'm beginning to think he does that kind of stuff on purpose. I like the 7 inning doubleheaders but not the runner on second in extra innings. Seems like the universal DH would have been agreed upon before that, and maybe it would have if MLB didn't tie it to expanded playoffs.

Before the vaccines were a reality, things looked really grim. Now we have two vaccines approved (for emergency use) and several more coming within months. Things look brighter today than they have in close to a year. Going to a baseball game is going to be a reality this season. Maybe not right away, but I can't imagine there no being at least limited fans by May. Hopefully...

People will feel safer, a lot safer. There's no indication that new vaccines will be needed by fall. The thought is that booster shots may be required annually. So far, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are showing to be effective against newer strains. That's not to say they will be effective against all strains, but so far it's encouraging. Remember that the idea behind the vaccines is to prevent severe disease. The majority of the population gets vaccinated, people can still get sick but will endure mild effects. Hospitals aren't overrun and people stop dying. Regardless, I believe the safest way to handle getting fans back into the ballparks is to require proof of the vaccine to attend. I don't think they'll do that, but it makes sense.

That's good news.

I imagine regular boosters will be necessary even after getting through this year. Many are saying COVID will likely be endemic.

There is a lot of differing opinions out there regarding the vaccines and now quickly we can get to herd immunity. The latest I read hinted that we're going to end up with a surplus of vaccines due to supply outpacing demand. Most polling says that slightly more than 50% of the 16+ population is eager for the vaccine. Then there's a smaller percentage of "maybes" and another chuck of the population that believes the government is injecting us with spyware or whatever. The concern is that we'll get most of the eager folks vaccinated pretty quickly, say by April/May. Hopefully a lot of those on the fence will see that it works and opt to get the vaccine. Only then will we reach the herd immunity magic number of 75% or so. What happens when we get to 65% to 70% of the population vaccinated with the rest refusing? Can we truly allow this small percentage of the population to limit when we can start getting back to normal? Can we delay allowing fans into sporting events and concerts because of the minority. I see this being a potential problem soon. You'd hate to say to those COVID anti-vaxxers, "You're on your own...sorry." But where do we draw the line? Does requiring proof of the vaccine for admittance to sporting events make sense at that point?

Yeah, I agree. Especially those who have been vaccinated will be eager to go to sporting events, concerts, movies, etc. Personally, I will be buying tickets as soon as fans can start attending.

In this case, at least, it was more likely a minor league deal vs. a major league deal. But, yeah, I'm very surprised they haven't signed a trash heaper yet.

Throw enough cheesy beefs at the wall, something is bound to stick.

If he throws 200 innings, he'll be making $200,000 an inning. That's insane.

It's almost guaranteed he'll opt after the second year. Unless something odd happens.

That's...that's heavily front-loaded.

He's not having a great off season.

This is nothing more than a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lucroy makes picking the backup catcher a tough decision. On a side note (and I didn't want to start another thread for this), remember that the Sox signed Tim Beckham to a minors deal? Any chance he makes the roster?

I read an article about a town in South Carolina that had extremely long wait times for the vaccine so the mayor called in the manager of the local Chic-Fil-A, and he was able to organize the check-in process and got wait times down to 15 minutes. Governments should think like this and utilize people who know how logistics. Imagine having an Amazon logistical manager running the vaccine roll out. Or FedEx, UPs, etc. Or, hell, a Portillo's manager.

We may still get there. I'm not sure there is enough supply to do it yet. Maybe once the J&J vaccine is approved there will be enough supply to set up sites.

Yeah, it was one of the last ones. I remember telling my son that Kopech was hitting 100 with ease. And it does seem like years ago.

It was a weird feeling last year watching the last spring training game or two, knowing some sort of shutdown was coming. Little did we know it would change everything. I equate those last few games with the end of life as we knew it. Now we'll get to watch the spring training games knowing there's light at the end of the tunnel. I'm actually pretty positive about the future. I think we'll see limited attendance early in the season (May?) and close to full capacity by late August/early September. And we'll look back at spring training 2021 as when things really started to look better.

Hector gained a lot of attention when the Sox were pursuing Machado because he did have good information about what the Sox offered. This year, though, has been rough for him. He's swung and missed more times than 2011 Adam Dunn. The Sox may have had an interest in Cruz, but it seems that it either wasn't serious or there wasn't mutual interest. It seemed logical to most of us that he would end up back with the Twins, and sure enough.

A work stoppage prior to the 2022 season seems likely right now. Regardless of who is truly being more unreasonable, both parties are going to be seen as the bad guys from the fans' perspective. All we can hope is that they get to work immediately and hash out an agreement.

Um...

Really nice analysis, and I agree with most of what you said. This team, even as it stands now, should be the favorite for the division and will be a contender for the pennant. I'd still like to see more stability in the rotation, but a big Rodon rebound and a potential bargain bin project working out (Folty) could make the rotation one of the better ones in the AL. The bullpen is easily one of the best in the AL, especially with the guys they can use in the later innings. Lineup is solid. I'm one of the few that didn't mind the Eaton signing...maybe because he's the "devil we know", but he'll definitely be better than Mazara. And with an Engel platoon, RF could be a strong point for the team. I would still like to see another bat added. Bench is decent, but I agree the catcher position looks much weaker. And as far as coaching, TLR is what he is, but he'll be a better decision maker than Renteria. I'm very happy with the Cooper being replaced. These young pitchers need a different voice, and Katz should bring that.

I wish there was a free agent tracker that would use the terminology we use here and separate the pitchers into those categories. "Here are the TOR pitchers, followed by mid-rotation guys, then the dart throws, and finally the trash heap."

So he ended up with less money on a worse team. Whoops.