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Cueto is on his last legs and needs a few week to get ready and maybe Keuchel is too. That's the long and short of it Greg.

I don't think Rodon's replacement is Kopech. He is a young guy just starting out as an MLB starting pitcher . To replace the production of a 5 WAR player you have to get someone who has shown that ability to be a 5 WAR player in the very recent past. He will have his troubles. Plus the older guys like Lynn and Keuchel are a year older and Keuchel coming off a bad year. Kopech was better off as a replacement for Keuchel , one old question mark replaced by a young question mark. That's a better definition of a "replaced." One question mark for another question mark with the potential to be a better replacement because Keuchel's best years are behind him while Kopech's are ahead of him. If you want to compete at a championship level you must have starting pitching depth. If you want to use "replaced" as we threw a young guy with a lot of unproven potential coming off an offseason of Covid, we have a very different definition of "replaced". If that was the plan all along why was it that Hahn told us we needed more starting pitching and the lineup had to be balanced ? Any time you start throwing around talent that is unproven or fighting father time into your starting rotation ( Kopech, Lopez, Cueto, Keuchel, Velasquez) in your aspirations for a championship chances are that you aren't going to get that championship.

I know the word "bust" encompasses many ways in which young players fail. Like many of them the Rodon failure was always injury related. He always had high end talent but his mechanics sucked and led to injuries. Sometimes a player can overcome a previous reputation. It's very hard for people who have been at the top of the athletic food chain for most of their lives to discard the things that made them successful. It may also be hard to actually work harder because things had come so easy before. Rodon made changes and came out the best version of himself. The question now has been and forever will be with him "will the changes he made also help him stay healthier" ? That's where we are all divided. It's always easiest to go with the flow and say he's always been bad, he's always been unhealthy , he is what he is and will never be anything else and a high percentage of the time you will be right. I like to go against the grain sometimes because it's a belief in the player rather than a belief in his past. Plus logically my head told me he was the best chance at a high upside arm at the lowest possible cost. To most of the board Conforto was worth twice as much as Rodon. But I'd rather take my shot at an often injured high end 29 yr. old talent from just a year ago for the next 2 years for what the Giants paid for him than throw money at Harrison, Kimbrel, Leury etc.. When you lose your best starting pitcher he has to be replaced with someone equally impressive. Rodon was the best person to replace himself without the 5year $100M contract people were expecting for and willing to pay for Conforto, a guy who had a very good track record of success but a terrible year in 2021. Apparently even though certain people here told us that GM's would not be as swayed by the bad year as fans are, apparently one GM was swayed more by a guy coming off an elite 1/2 year. There are also apparently 30 other GM's not overly swayed by Conforto's past success.

When you are always positive people see it as fake, like the way Steve Garvey was seen. Garvey with the Superman good looks , big smile ,very good hitter and fielder was a fan favorite though and that attitude got him tons of commercials, motivation speaker gigs , radio and TV time. A lot of his peers didn't like him. They called him The Senator and Mr. Perfect. You should know by now that losing game threads are twice as long as winning ones. It's not macho to be all sweet , kind and positive because you end up looking like a caricature . How often to you hear it's exhausting rather than , it's refreshing.

Royals 11th rounder back in 2013 26 yrs old now, non roster invitee.

Mieses and Yolbert 2 singles , Dedelow 3 HR all with 2 outs.

People with a very competitive nature can seem like asses. But once out of the competition , most of them are decent.

Nice in game interview with Snell. Seems pretty personable.

So you want to promote censorship ? If we are talking baseball and which involves the players and the front office decisions what's the beef ? We are all allowed our opinions and there will be lots of people who don't agree with almost anything anyone says. If they want to say it over and over again that's away to get a message across. Do people promoting any issue ever that's important to people ever shut up ? Not really. I don't care of your issue is people's rights or baseball. People have lots of opinions about Rodon. Your opinion is he gets hurt and you just told the rest of us to STFU and made a definitely statement like it is the gospel truth. . So basically you have spoken, you are right and the rest should shut up ? You sound like you are promoting your dictatorship.

Real good play by Cronenworth up the middle to steal a knock from Jose.

Timmy's been a ribbie machine this spring.

3 walks 3 hits against Kopech so far this inning and Kopech is out . Might return.

Kopech all over the place.

So it's Giolito , Cease and Kopech to start the season. Kind of Surprising to see Kopech 3rd.

not 100% sure but looked like 21

Legend HR off Snell 2-0.

He did throw out a couple of runners ealier in ST and the guys in the game thread and tweets were raving about it. I know the 2nd one was in the March 25th game.

Meh if they don't trade him I'd say there's no room for him even on the 28 . But I'll give us both a 50/50 shot of being right.

That's a fine example of what he could've become and still could if given the opportunity.

I don't think it's a matter of being fooled by a ST sample size. Of course any team will have to check his minor league stats from last year and watch video but also have to understand where he is coming from. If he never had as many injuries as he did he could've been a big power hitting OF with a very strong arm . He has tools that teams look for. They also have to analyze his process. He is selective, does he drive the ball the opposite way, break down his mechanics etc.. It's exactly why I made the thread about him. I would be fine with merging the 2 threads

I wouldn't call his best outcome a Daniel Palka type existence because Palka was never a viable option as a fielder. Adolfo can play RF probably average or slightly above average, kind of like Pollock only with an arm to make runners think twice about heading to 3rd . There are very few guys with an arm like his. I haven't seen Cola's arm yet but Cespedes also has a cannon.

Frankly I thought it sucked. Now don't get me wrong Collins sucked at framing but that video didn't prove anything . 1st of all in order for a catcher to be an effective framer the pitcher has to throw the ball where the catcher is setup and throw it either in the zone or very close to the zone. Once in a while a really good framer will steals some pitches a good 3-5 inches off the plate but they still have to be thrown on the side where the catcher setup. Of the 12 examples they gave for McGuire the pitcher threw the ball where he was setup 10 times and almost all the pitches were knee to waist high. Most of the time a catcher either sets up on the inside or outside edge. McGuire looked setup down the middle 1 of the times. Of the 14 examples for Collins only 6 of the pitches were actually thrown where he setup and while the pitches to McGuire were usually knee to waist high not only did the Sox pitchers miss their spots but the majority of the pitches to Collins were also down below the strike zone . So when you add it up the pitches not only missed the spot where Collins setup but also missed down. Only one of the 14 examples was a strike actually called a ball when Collins was setup up and in and the pitch came down and in . There was another example with Crochet pitching where Collins set up outside and the pitch caught the inside edge at 92MPH that was called a ball. But 1st rule of getting framed pitches called strikes is hitting your spot and Crochet missed his spot by a lot. So basically the video shows McGuire catching pitches where he setup, catching pitches from knee to waist high, on pitches in the zone or barely off the zone. Most catchers given the same set of circumstances are going to get strikes called. With Collins they showed pitchers not only missing their spots but also missing down where most catchers given the same circumstances would also get those pitches called balls. I'm pretty sure I can put together a video of Collins catching strikes that were thrown to where he setup inside the zone and or off the plate by the slimmest of margins being called strikes too. I 'm also fairly certain that I could show McGuire catching pitches getting called balls by the ump on not only pitches that missed the spot but were also down and out of the zone.

Oh no never feel alone on that. I wanted Rodon back pretty bad. I know plenty disagreed with it but I never felt shouted down. You disagreed with it too. As a matter of fact I was disagreed with on just about everything concerning Rodon. I didn't like how much he pitched early in the season. I really harped on the fact that he would get tired and wouldn't be available to pitch his best in the playoffs. People said he was injured and I said he was tired. Then I wanted him to get a QO and many said Sox know him best. I trust their judgement on his arm. Or they talked about some under the table deal with Boras If you wanted a guy with ace potential for relatively short term he always seemed like the best choice especially since he got some innings under his belt last year. Sure it's a risk with his injury history but that's why you could get a guy who pitched like Scherzer without the Scherzer contract.

You were funnier when you were a White Sox fan.

I hope the Sox get all kinds of competition in the division. It will keep them sharp or show they wilt under pressure. It's hard to keep an edge wen you know you can coast to a division title without your 2 best hitters like last year. You have to be prepared to go to war when you finally enter the playoff war. Time to play with a snarl instead of a smile.