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Can you quickly explain why you think there is 0 need for Donaldson ? What if he leads the Tribe to the World Series ? He has to be highly motivated and needs to perform in order to get a decent contract over the winter and even if he doesn't perform well he still has to be considered a decent bounce back guy, has no QO attached to him , might come cheaper than we think.

Just so you know Brantley hasn't played any CF the last 3 years and very very little since 2012. Jones is pretty much on life support as a CF and as a productive major leaguer having posted just a .3 WAR this year. Pollock's been pretty injury prone and probably also should be a corner OF. Marwin Gonzales puts the super in super utility plays mostly LF .SS , 2B,!B and very little 3B and even less CF as to be a non factor there. Cargo is the role model for great splits in Coors not so great way from Coors. Donaldson will fit right in as The Bringer of Rain. He might be a good bounce back guy and a useful trade chip if he can stay healthy. But if anyone offers him 3 years forget it. Could always use the LH power of a guy like Moustaskas. Outside of Brantley and possibly Gonzales none of these guys should get a qualifying offer.

The Cubs and the Sox have always been conservative with Cease since he was drafted in the 6th round and given a hefty bonus for a 6th rounder who was about to have Tommy John surgery. It's pretty much the whole reason fangraphs doesn't give him a ringing endorsing. He is kind of perceived as somewhat frail.

Well the good run might be over. Good news for the draft. Sigh.

The universe just told us " You can't have nice things! " The light has now been covered by a dense fog. ( Kopech torn UCL for future reference to this thread). Sigh.

Because if you know baseball ,pitchers are always sore.He said he didn't even classify it as pain. It's why every pitcher ices his arm after every start.

Or it was already slighted torn and just pitching more up here turned it into what it became " a significant tear. "

I feel bad likening the arrival of Kopech to the " The Light." Then the weather, when he pitched ,cosmically told me that wasn't the case at all. The universe has just told us it's going to be cloudy for a while.

I don't think anyone should be angry at all. Don't direct anger at anyone, It's just so reactionary and judgmental . We have no idea why it happened . It just did.Pitching a baseball is highly stressful on the arm . Throwing over hand is not a natural thing. Find some inner peace and hope the young man can rcover well enough to have a great career. Wish him a speedy recovery. Imagine he was your friend and this happened. Everybody wants to blame someone but in reality it's just part of the game or the human experience. Crying about the rebuild or looking for blame is just so selfish. The last thing we should care about is how it has affected us.

I wish Michael Kopech a successful surgery and recovery and I'm glad he will be getting a ML salary during his recovery time. As a fan it sucks losing the extra year of control and sucks for the rebuild. But being a Sox fan for a long long time has told me to be more concerned with the individual who is hurt. It's his hopes and dreams that are on the line here , not mine .As a Sox fan of many years I expect things to go wrong. It's why I constantly remind everyone about injuries and flops. There's no need for outrage or crying over the rebuild. Good luck Michael Kopech.

Not aimed specically at you but my God doesn't anyone want a good pitcher ? Throwing around Shields and reclamaion projects . How about Patrick Corbin or someone good ?

I have a T shirt designed in my head just make the chain and logo as close to the real thing as possible in size and color but make the chain part look as though it is around your neck. Since it's mostly silver the tee color should be black , No words are needed.

In other news, Dylan Cease named MLB Pipeline's Pitcher of the Year.

There was another incident about a week ago where a catcher made a tag play with his mitt and the ball was in his hand . The ump called him out and the Nationals (the team that the call went against) had their people look at it and decided not to challenge . Their replay people missed the fact that the ball was in the catchers hand not the mitt too,

the little white heart on the far right on the same line as + and quote, put your cursor over it then click on one of the 4 choices ( like , love, haha or thanks)

But he hasnt even been given a chance to find that out yet. I can tell you one thing . They hit 93 real good. Why screw with his speed before you find how it'll work on this level ?

I doubt anyone told them hey guys Kopech will be throwing slower tonight to work on command. They guess like we all do.

Why would he focus on command by throwing slower when his command was fine throwing harder in the minors his last 7 starts ?

! had a feeling a SP would be on your list, And I totally know what you mean, Anyone who's ever said we won't need starters or relief pitchers because that's what our great pitching prospects are for, I've argued with them too . I only mentioned position player FA's because that's where the Sox are weakest. The Cubs went out of got Lester Q ,Chapman, Darvish and now Hamels because they are strongest in position players. I also understand not wanting to ruin the young arms by pushing them past their limits. Even if you don't those arms are always a bigger risk than position players for injury which makes the Sox rebuild a riskier proposition than the Cubs but its also our strength as an organization. Sometimes pushing guys passed limits cant be helped. How many pitchers be it veterans or youngsters are truly prepared to pitch through the playoff and into a World Series when often the rotation is only the 1 2 3 Sp's and once in a while the 4th starter ? I've often said the season should go back to 154 games especially when MLB expanded the playoffs.But baseball kind of solved that problem by relying more and more on relief pitchers but now I think rosters need to be expanded because of that . I think MLB is putting a lot of stress on pitchers arms and not doing much to take the load off .

Oh I know exactly what you;re saying and agree with most of it. I don't think there's a chance either we get one or Harper or Machado. I've argued with the guys who think money is the only motivator to sign with whoever they end up with while I argued sure its the money 1st and foremost but 2 guys who haven't won a World Series will want the money and a chance to get the ring. Everything I've said up to this point is purely based on what happens if we do get one of them. Without one of them that changes everything just as getting one of them changes everything. I keep imagining Eloy being a great player right away and Moncada stepping up in a big way and Kopech not having the kind of problems Gio and Lopez have experienced even though I'm sure he will. Rodon could be an ace but he could also be the same guy we've seen over and over with dominant runs only to fall back or get injured. I'm basing everything on best case scenarios and a lot of things happening that aren't likely to happen, I know deep down that it's a year too early but I can't stop myself from dreaming bigger. The sooner we start to realize that our path to the playoffs might be quicker than anticipated due to our weak division the better. If we cant compete or get significantly better next year I think it limits the chance of success in 2020 and I keep seeing the timeline for success being pushed further away based on waiting for more prospects, If in 2020 we say OK prospects are here, now we sign free agents and expect it to all come together all at once is just as unrealistic as me wanting to go for it next year because position player prospects are just as likely to have the same kind of growing pains the pitchers do.

Another day that Yoyo doesn't K is a good day, and it rhymes

Today is a clunker no doubt but we all know the sucky Sox are bound to show up more than a few more times this year. Hell we beat the Red Sox 8-0 and we are going to have our share of lopsided losses too the rest of the way. Even the recent pitching surge is going to have its off days. No one is a complete product yet.

Hell there might even be amateurs t shirt makers outside the stadium now selling the Chain t shirts version. I always think of the Fleetwood Mac song "The Chain" when discussing this.

To each their own . I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. It's my personal belief that one must take affirmative action and be aggressive when putting this all together . Patience is great and i'm sure that it can reap many benefits but the guys that matter most are in the 2019 and 2020 FA classes and I truly loathe the idea that we strike out this year wait for 2020 thus increasing our odds of failing.

It's good to have another knowledgeable guy on board here and I hope you continue posting often. I'm an old school guy admittedly and respect the hell out of sabremetrics with the caveat that only the people that look at just about every sabremetric stats are truly worthy of using them. You might be that guy. I don't know. Very often on message boards, and I have been here on Soxtalk for 14 years, I rarely ever see them used them correctly and often in isolation from other sabremetric stats. For example. I've seen the FIP/xFIP and other stats used to support arguments but some believe things like weak contact or barrel rate also is a useful indicator . It's hard to explain because it just take a ton of knowledge and I don't have the time, knowledge or mathematics abilities to use it myself. That's why teams use a whole staff of sabre guys. Welcome and stick around for the good times ahead.