Jake

Differences between Schultz/McDougal examples and Mune is that Mune is actually Japanese and that Japan generally embraces samurai as a positive representation of their culture (and especially relevant to competitive sports). Better analogy would be something like an American player having a cowboy nickname or something like that. I think Randy Bass got branded as a Colonel Sanders lookalike in NPB, lol

Oppor is cooked

Clutch Colson!!! Small sample sizes rule everything around me!!

Is there some kind of narrative/explanation for why Kelenic posted a sub-.600 OPS in AAA last season? He had hit well at that level before.

There's my power hitter

Lucky Kelenic didn't pick up an interference

Ump immediately looks to see if he can take it away from Peters lol

Lowe running like it hurts out there in left

Fantastic defense for all involved there.

Just setting up the Kelenic hero game

Hudson finally providing some validation for the Sox braintrust's obsession with release points and approach angles.

Hard for me to complain too much about Chase's overall level of production at the plate but he definitely looks caught in-between. I think he's got a small dose of what's afflicting Quero which is that the Sox have encouraged him to make some tweaks to find some more power but he's not seeing any benefit from it...while getting some of the downside in the form of added whiff and less bat control.

One interesting thing is breaking pitches at the very top of the zone tend to perform pretty well, much like other pitches on the various edges of the zone. They're aided partly by looking like they will miss high. I think we will see some more pitchers trying to grab strikes with the higher-than-high curveball in particular. But middle of the zone is pretty much always bad no matter what you're throwing. And yeah part of the point of same-handed breaking pitches is that it ends up in a place that you can't possibly reach so it doesn't really matter whether the batter sees it "correctly" since they can't possible make contact without throwing the bat.

I'm not upset with Fedde still being out there given that he was doing fine and the pen isn't exactly deep

Favorite misconception is that the elevated breaking pitches don't move. Usually, they do. Statcast shows that home run ball moved exactly the average amount for Fedde's sweepers. Problem was throwing it right down the middle.

One too many hangers

Quero got gooched there I think

Yeah it might be good for him to start that process sooner rather than later. For the Sox, I see it as basically an inconvenience to have to bring up e.g. Korey Lee just to need to waive him again in a ~couple weeks.

Collisions aren't prohibited by the rule but the runner is supposed to slide if given any opportunity. If runner "unnecessarily" collides, he's out.

I don't seen much point in sending Quero down until Teel returns. Can just ramp up Romo's playing time for the moment.

From MLB: "The catcher is not permitted to block the runner's path to the plate unless he is in possession of the ball." Emphasis mine. Their guidance further notes that runners are expected to slide and to slide towards any lane provided them by the catcher. If the runner is not sliding to avoid contact they are given less of a presumption that they were blocked.

I was under the impression that if you have the ball in your hands you can block to your heart's desire

I've always struggled to anticipate how New York judges catcher blocking rulings.

I guess it's a little difficult to say whether he touched home, but if he did then I think he's safe.

He's safe IMO