Jake

Is there any good reason for that to be the rule?

Yeah I see Mendick as Saladino. Saadino probably had more fielding talent but Mendick a little more pop, I think.

I wonder if Santana will just accept the assignment

The hard truth in this game is we've hit the ball quite a bit better than them and have nothing to show for it

Nicky has been hitting the ball hard

IDK, to me Montgomery seems clearly more valuable than Colome given his extra year of control and untapped potential as a starter

Hard not to root for Chris Davis

I think frequently about how we moved the top prospect in baseball to a new position because of a guy with a .070 ISO in A-ball

Also, Statcast's metrics on 90 foot runs had Engel 0.01 seconds faster than Hamilton (so basically the same) last season.

Just goes to show you there's more to it than speed, I think. Clearly stealing bases has a major skill component, but the other metrics of baserunning success that don't consider stolen bases show Hamilton is quite a bit ahead of Engel as well. That being said, those same metrics would tell you Engel is a very good baserunner but Hamilton is just special. That being said, the difference is more dramatic defensively. Hamilton is a very good defender but Engel is really special and has added more value in many fewer innings since Statcast started keeping track.

The goal for Engel is be like a slightly better hitting version of Billy Hamilton (knowing he would never steal bases like Hamilton despite having similar speed). As for Engel's swing mechanics, what I always say is he swings like he has never watched baseball and only read about it in a book.

While I don't doubt that the Sox are truly at or near the worst in the league, I'm not very convinced by their analysis. If Baseball America and/or FanGraphs have biased analyses of players from an organization, then it makes it very hard to interpret the surplus value you're getting. If every guy you trade to the Dodgers see his value increase, is that because he's really getting better or because Dodgers prospects get overrated? It can be hard to tell from what they're doing. The ultimate equalizer would be to only use MLB performance as an indicator but they don't have prospect grades going back far enough in time to track players from minors to a decently long sample in the majors.

Always worse when you know the guy has a history. With all the injuries he's dealt with you know part of his reaction is just the emotional part of confronting what feels like yet another serious injury

That cutter is a seriously nasty pitch. Hope he can spot it up and realize he should be throwing it about 50% of the time

Yoan trying out some new footwork

I would really like to see Fulmer stop missing way up and in like that. I'm a little worried that it's a canary in the coal mine for an injury

I was going to say that Nick's post-injury resurgence was a good sign for Zack but now maybe not

I can't take what they're doing to this pitcher

Subbing Engel for Nicky is pretty rough given how precious Nicky's time is here

Castro's stuff reminds me of Mike McDougal

Feel bad for Castro.

Will be interested to hear about velocity for Burdi

Man that Birmingham lineup is terrible right now. That was supposed to be the fun one!

Wild in the zone better than wild out of the zone