CaliSoxFanViaSWside

I've never thought of switching my fandom from the Sox and that's after now spending the majority of my life in So Cal . I know the Sox are bad and honestly a historically bad franchise. Family tradition was Sox fandom and I embraced it . It helped with my relationship with any sports minded member of my family. I got a World Series win from it. While I might write a lot about how JR is the root of all Sox problems I just don't take it personally. I'm entrenched in my fandom but not an emotional prisoner of it.

There's way too much talk about doing a prospect a disservice when talking about hurting their development. It's all sooo speculative. We have no idea why some guys make it and some don't. Was it something a coach suggested that was learned through some aspects of organizational philosophy tied to the sports science department and a multifaceted biomechanical study that broke them down and rebuilt a swing or arm angle combined with physical maturation, weight training the right muscles, a diet change, getting married, a new level of mental maturation ,1 or more of those things combined ? Too often we talk about bringing someone up too soon ruining a prospect . It's picking the low hanging fruit as a fan because we have zero clue what the player or the team is doing or has done to get to the point where he becomes a better player. Players with great talent and numbers can be brought up very young and the truly gifted ones physically and mentally can handle it. The majority will struggle at some point and wether or not that player was brought up early is only one among perhaps dozens of things that impact development. Being brought up early may even help some guys because no matter who you are you are going to have to hit MLB pitching at some point. With some the sooner you start facing them the faster you can start making those adjustments. How often do rookies come up and become really good players right away? I'd say almost never. So fans are always going to see young guys struggle and bam, grab that low hanging, brought up too soon, we ruined him fruit.

Except the whole thread is supposed to be about doing your best to compete quickly with $190M. Calling someone out for signing an older pitcher to a multi-year deal or a position player would be one of those things likely to happen if you were trying your best within that budget to create a winning team. It's all a silly exercise with a practically impossible task. You'd have to overpay someone or another to get them to come to a pitiful losing team. If you're looking for a bunch of 1 year bounce back candidates it's not like you're the only team looking for those types to trade off at the deadline to get more prospects. You're talking about a rebuild strategy. This thread is about insta-compete with an unlikely high payroll budget so if the top priority is competing your spending has to reflect that with a secondary goal of if we aren't competing by the trade deadline then I might have to trade off anyone who I signed who actually did bounceback even if I signed them to a relatively cheap contract with an option year. A contract like that which offers a team option for a 2nd year with a significant increase in pay would be a good incentive to get someone to sign here , even though guaranteed money is the best incentive ,which often means some of your bounceback guys get 2 year contracts instead.

He would've been a better get last year since he was one of a dozen or so young mostly LH OF I suggested the last 2 off seasons. Have to get guys like him coming off rookie struggles or multiple call ups over a couple of years that reduce their value or some unranked but overlooked guys. My past suggestions were Nootbaar, James Outman, Kelenic , Varsho, Santander among the lefties and the RH Stone Garrett. I really like Colas but alas he might be another guy with a 10 cent head .

I'll wait until I see who's non-tendered for depth purposes. All the starting pitching FA have pretty much been mentioned. I think you need an impact signing for 5 years or so which would mean the biggest Sox contract ever and a similar contract the following year. That would mean dumping Moncada and Eloy between now and after the season. Guys in my head for this year, Bellinger, Soler. I agree prospects most ready for the majors need to get a shot Sosa, Colas even though both looked bad. Maybe Colas gets traded since the Sox don't seem overly fond of him. Outside of that I'll continue to stress left-handed fast powerful, OBP, defensive youth like I have done in the past. Problem is places those types usually play is OF and Robert and Benintendi take up 2 of 3 available spots and Bellinger is going to get way more than he should considering before last year he was pretty bad and people weren't sure he was capable of overcoming his injuries. He was very good last year but now he may get 4+ yrs and well over $100M. The Sox throughout their history have the worst hitting LH players in baseball . This needs to change in our ballpark. I wish they had listened to me last year and gone after a trade for Outman or someone similar instead of wasting money on Benintendi. Now he's just another salary that needs to be dumped. Of course anyone taking a stab at this exercise has to believe JR is going to spend money and that a rookie GM isn't as infatuated with Salvy Perez and Merrifield as has been speculated and he's only retaining Grifol because it's pointless to fire him knowing how bad they are going to be next year . May as well just keep him so you're not paying 2 managers. Just tell Grifol what to do and who to play if he wants to keep his job and if he doesn't like it he can quit and forfeit the remainder of his contract.

Good observation.

Night and day between the 1st and 2nd half for him. Hostile environment . Bears outcoached 2nd half. NO made adjustments.

That's all she wrote. Bagent under pressure fumbles after the hit NO recovers.

Another holding penalty this time on D. Wright.

LOL so now NO doinks one off the upright from 47 yds. Still a 1 score game. Another chance.

3rd down and 4 . Pass batted down. Punt. Facemask penalty on Bears on Velus Jones. 15 yards .NO gets the ball again in Bears territory.

Bagent will get another shot at it with plenty of time. Unfortunately they will have to go 98 yds to get a TD.

Yeah he was behind the receivers .

3rd and 10 Kmet catch for 11. Another INT for Bagent. Just couldn't find any open receivers for most of the downs. Had time just nothing there.

Bears stop NO on 4th and 1. NO couldve licked a FG and made the lead 10. Hope left ?

defensive holding on J. Jones give NO a 1st down on 3rd and 3. NO hasn't had a single penalty called on them all game.Bears 6th.

Blah. Bagent INT .NO starts on the Bears 38. Bears 3rd TO can't win that way. No takeaways.

Saints TD. Too easy 24-17.Bears conservative play deep in their own end led to that TD. Have to trust that Bagent could produce 1st downs like he has all game.

Bears went conservative team in their own end. 2 runs and a quick out to WR on 3rd down produces their 1st 3 and out of the day. NO starts in Bears territory.

Bears D bends but doesn't break. Forces a punt . Bears ball on their own 10 yd line. Can Bagent lead a long drive ?

Bagent coming right back down field. Now holding penalty , now false start Braxton Jones . But Foreman 23 yd run. 3rd and 7 Moore double teamed in the end zone almost makes a spectacular catch but couldn't hold on to it. Santos ties it with 31 yard FG. Bear down Bears defense !

NO 10 pts. off 2 turnovers. Bears 1 missed FG. Hurting themselves.

DJ Moore fumble a pass after Bears stopped NO on it's 1st possession of the 2nd half. Bears then stopped NO after the fumble . 3rd down Sweat forced a bad pass by getting his hand on Hill's shoulder. But NO 55 yd FG . 17-14 NO .

Bagent 10/13 140 yards. Leading Rusher with 6 rushes for 60 yards. Mooney had a nice half. 4/70 Kmet 3/27 2 TD Evans 1/17 Moore 2/34 Rushing: Foreman 10/43

Santos misses a 40 yd FG . His 1st miss of the season off the upright. Doink ! Looks like it'll be 14 -14 at halftime.