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You never know what you get but you have to try. I'm not sure you differentiated between who was a shitty vet and who wasn't. All I heard this off season was fans crying about how Getz didn't improve the pen. I guess that remains to be seen and all the injuries to a lot of our youthful depth is hurting the cause but pitching does have a market more than bats. It seems fairly useful that he picked so many veteran arms on the cheap. Some young arms he gave up for veteran arms might turn into useful position players. It's always hit and miss working in the fringes. Either you end up giving up someone you regret or you make the other team regret it. So far there's not much to regret on either side of these minor trades that everyone makes a big deal about because of the process. It's all just howling into the wind. The sound gets lost most of the time. I'll admit a lot of what Getz is doing is on the job training. He's made mistakes but some things are working and he's hired outside the organization and Crochet was a major win. I don't think he's had a bad 1st full year. Maybe a solid C grade considering JR isn't giving him much to spend unless infrastrure rebuilding is a lot more expensive than I think it is. I think the initial costs are higher than the maintenance costs so we'll have to wait and see what bears fruit if he's around long enough to see the fruits of his labors. I like the initial returns on the Bannister hiring. The efforts of the FO seems a lot more collaborative. I'm looking forward to seeing how Braden Montgomery and some of our draft picks like Bonemer,Antonacci, McLain,Saucke and Hagen Smith do. Bergolla will be a good follow too as well as Zavala,Meidroth,Wikel-man Gonzalez , Jacob Gonzalez and Colson Montgomery.

You could say the same thing on a lesser scale for now about Bergolla. Kid looks like he knows what he doing on the diamond.

I think it's fairly normal. The closer you get to opening day the less you want to risk injuries against young pitchers with iffy control or all the other numerous ways to get injured . Robert played yesterday got 2 hits.Dont want to tempt fate too much with him. Drury was originally in the lineup. They pulled him before the game started. Judging by the amount of low minors kids from both sides that started coming into the games it was probably agreed upon by both sides to let some kids play who they both brought into camp.

3 up 3 down Sox win !

Phil Fox pitching the 9th for the Sox . 22 yr old ACL RHP 5'9".

Busenitz finally replaces Suter on the mound and promptly gives up an RBI single to Zavala, his 2nd hit of the inning. 8-5

Nishida just singled in another run . 7-5 now. 35 yr old Brent Suter throwing 86 MPH 4 seamers.

Sox kids put up a 4 spot so far in the top of the 9th to take a 6-5 lead. Not a lot of familiar names except Zavala.

I'm going to have to resist the idea of shitty vets that aren't good enough to return anything. You never know what you can come up for a relief pitcher especially LHRP. Look how that A ball SS Bergolla has hit in ST since they started using him. They picked him up for Tanner Banks. He's got hits, a few doubles a bunt hit, played the position well. Seems like a real savvy baseball player. We'll see how he does in Birmingham but if what he's done in ST so far is any indication along with what he did in A ball he's a likely .300 hitter who can also draw some walks at a premium position. Getz said they scouted and liked him because of the Phillies overtures into Crochet.

No but Shane made the team but his role hasn't been defined yet but 5th starter seems likely right now. Between how Smith, Martin, Cannon and Burke pitch or health, Wilson will likely get a chance to start at some point.

I was thinking yesterday about making a thread about Shane Smith. Then I thought "eh feel good stories around here these days aren't worth posting. I'll just get bombarded with the guy hasnt even accomplished anything yet. Why are you slurping Getz and Bannister ? However, it would be cool to see if he can stay healthy and accomplish unexpected things in the coming seasons. I'd have to read the Rule 5 thread again but it's not like anyone expected much. Personally I think the majority thought they'd take a hitter but in light of all the TJ surgeries and questions regarding Thorpe that they made a pretty good pick.

Perez 4 scoreless, 2 hits, 5 K, 1BB. Just aced Tim Anderson on 3 straight pitches .He didn't swing at any and all 3 called strikes . Sosa flys out to mid warning track in CF .

Interesting. Maton at 2nd base. Just yesterday I made a post about how It wasn't likely Maton will make the team because of the crowded OF and INF but that Getz needed badly someone LH to step up but that it was all RH who stepped up with good springs and no one except Maton really had enough PA to make a good impression . He's both an INF and an OF so I don't know for sure what he can play well defensively. I think original scouting reports had him 55 defensively at SS arm and range. I forget which thread I put it in, maybe Opening Day 26 man best guesses.

True .If you apply that same logic that Robert is always injured why even bother hoping he stays uninjured to get better prospects ? Sell now at bargain basement prices and maybe you'll be right. It'll be better than picking up the 20M option next year . But if he does get injured again you can say Getz is an idiot for hoping he wouldn't get hurt again and should've taken a bare bones offer. Gee whiz he got hurt again. Getz and anyone else thinking or hoping for a 1st half rebound or good health was delusional ! Should've traded with Cincy.

I don't mind it either. I'm not the boss making decisions . Just saying if you become known as a problem child whether it's unwilling to make adjustments or whatever it's just another thing that could make you unwanted by another team. Coaches like guys with good attitudes and pliable. Once you establish yourself you can show your um, idiosyncrasies.

As one of the few Sox hitters who has show a lively bat in the recent past and who is out of options you have to play him. If it's DH, 2nd base 3rd or SS, him and Vargas have to get the majority of PAs. The rest of the guys like Meidroth, Rojas, Baldwin, Ramos or anyone who is RH and wants to DH will have to wait. I get the impression that Getz is dying to have a LH guy succeed but most of his best hitters this spring have been RH or LH guys who aren't really ready for the majors. The only guy who is LH who got enough PAs this spring to make a good impression offensively was Nick Maton and the Sox might not be taking him seriously since he can't play CF or just was considered Charlotte filler for infield or LF. His power was always considered worse than his other baseball skills but he's got that buggywhip LH swing that hits velocity well but 3 HRs this spring and .333 BA in 27 AB w/ 3 HR and a double was surprising. I don't recall if he was sent down yet but he will be. The OF and INF are both too crowded for his ST performance to mean anything at 28 yrs old.

I think just using age and less failures so far Mayo is projected to have the better future. Looking at who's likely to be more productive in MLB in 2025 it's probably Vargas just because he's likely to play more in MLB this year. He just as easily can end up DFA'd though if he doesn't produce. Same goes for Sosa. Mayo has a couple of years before he reaches Vargas level of MLB incompetence and runs out of options but he can end up in that same boat and he isn't doing himself any favors by whining about life not being fair.

With 2 outs Cal Mitchell tripled. Colas walked but Hackenberg grounded out on a 2-0 pitch .Game over Sox lose 5 - 4.

Eisert gives up a 3 run bomb .Sox behind now 5-4 heading into their last ABs in the top of the 9th.

Over 1100 PA in the minors .425 OBP. Over 550 PA in AAA last year, about 4.4 years younger than average there, .437 OBP. Might want to give the kid a few minutes to acclimate to MLB. .337 would be a decent OBP on the Sox. Today he only got on base 2 of 3 times.Single and a walk RBI. Picked a strange game to say you can't see what he does. Solid if unspectacular fielder. Solid body says 5'10" 190. Wouldn't be surprised if he's shorter than that though. Can play 2nd ,SS and 3rd .Pretty useful guy. Wasn't Hank Aaron about the same size ?

Colas back in action replaces Slater in RF. Clevinger pitching .K Tyler Black, Squibber in front of the plate Thaiss throws out Caleb Durbin. Chourio K. Easy inning for Clevinger. He's probably cemented his place on the 26.

Slater K ,Robert and 10D both pop out. Robert has cooled off.

Civale out.Meidroth singles in Taylor, 4-0.

Civale imploding in the 5th just gave up a 2 run double to Taylor .Sox up 3 -0 . Vargas single, Thaiss walk after a dropped foul pop up.Sosa single, WP, Taylor double.

Shane Smith 4 innings 0 runs,3 hits, 1walk, 2K. ERA down to 3.38 after that disastrous 1st outing. He's got to be in the rotation.