Jake

Is that 2 or 3 runs that Palka has already cost us?

Our exit velocity against Keller the past few innings: 99, 102, 102, 101, 105, 99, 77, 110. Only 2 hits out of that.

I think Rodon will be able to eat innings for us, but I really would have liked to see some more velocity on his heater.

I've gotta say I see no justification for this guy being discussed as a $2 million signing bonus guy. If he was a conventional free agent, sure, he might be ready to be light-hitting utility guy in MLB right now with some unknown upside. But there's a big opportunity cost when you invest so much of your pool in a guy like this who is about to be 22 and has no apparent track record of hitting at any level. Who's to say he's any better than Yeyson Yrizarri or Cleuluis Rondon?

Have the Sox ever carried carried a 12-man pitching staff in the past few years?

Hahn said on broadcast that Rondon is on the team. I think team will wait to put Santana on the roster until April 10th, delaying the final position player cut until then.

I got the impression this was something he got prior to going pro there, so he may have only been the best among some amateur Cuban teenagers.

I honestly don't even think he's going to start the year with the big league club.

I thought that last one was gone off the bat for Moncada.

They probably want him to go ahead and start getting ABs with the minor leaguers since they have other players to focus on in the remaining MLB games.

If you want to compare a Sox signing of Keuchel to the Cubs pre-WS signings, would Keuchel be Edwin Jackson or Jon Lester?

What a fantastic accomplishment for Verlander. 5-ish years ago his contract was widely seen as an albatross that would prevent the Tigers from competing and artificially extend his career as someone would be trying to extract some tiny bit of value out him. Instead he's been worth every penny and is just putting the whipped cream on top of a hall of fame career.

I'm reminded of Kevin Youkilis

Anyone else find it strange that there still is no announcement from Sox on this? Any reason the commissioner's office might scrutinize this? Or would we really wait out Eloy's "head cold" before completing (yet another) physical?

He's looked fine every time I've seen him. Haven't seen him really challenged, though. Today he almost goofed up a routine play by taking about 5 steps before throwing, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

Hate seeing Moncada lunging for the bag like that

I think if the Sox wanted to put the best lineup out there every day, it would usually include Leury

Moving Moncada to 3B was a tell that the Sox think Madrigal will be up soon. Maybe not this season, but they clearly don't think it will be much longer than that.

No. Only one comparable deal has been signed and Scott Kingery was still in MLB spring training when he signed it. Whether a player has ever been sent down in camp only to make his debut on opening day anyway, I'm not sure.

I expect him to be called up but I'm sure interested in what the Sox say about why they optioned him to the minors and decide to call him up after the contract.

Main thing with Giolito is he's at least missing some bats in between getting hammered on his mistakes. There's a clear Gavin Floyd comparison but it's becoming a very optimistic one.

The way I see it is you have to price in (if you're Eloy) the value of getting to FA a year earlier. So you might take a kind of small guarantee to get to potential FA earlier, and you'll be okay with big dollar options on those years.

As has been suggested, if true I suspect the 8 years 100 million is a maximum value rather than guaranteed length/value.

They also used to pitch underhand.

The main question is if at the end of the season we feel comfortable that we have several core pieces going forward. Potential candidates for that status: Eloy Yoan Tim Anderson Reynaldo Lopez Lucas Giolito Dylan Cease Michael Kopech There are of course other players who may end up core pieces, but they are too far away for us to know by the end of the year. Kopech is sort of in that situation, but we have good reason to think he'll be a core piece in spite of his injury. To be honest, solid seasons from Eloy, Yoan, and one starting pitcher will be enough to keep me hopeful. I don't rule out a big step forward for Tim but I think that's mostly wishful thinking and he'll always be kind of a peripheral guy who is nice to have but isn't pushing you over the top. I also think Rodon is still important but that's now more of a near-term concern.