Jake

See, for instance, Derek's next AB without a bunt

Buxton can appreciate a guy who mixes in some blasts alongside some regrettable at bats

White Sox players' baserunning value, per FanGraphs calculation. The units here are runs relative to MLB average. To some extent, hard to distinguish yourself a whole lot one way or another.

Vargas going to 3B there is an example of a play that I don't expect Colson to have attempted.

Feel like we're at about 4 out of 5 Twins batters who justtt missed it

Grichuk had an awfully casual jog for how close to needing to leap over the fence that was

Yeah I mean my initial thought was "I'm not sure if a runner will advance here" and then "oh it's Colson so now I'm really sure he won't"

Colson tends to grade out as one of the worst baserunners in MLB. He's not fast, but it's not just his speed holding him back. Seems ultra-conservative as he doesn't really get thrown out, yet by the numbers he just doesn't get many bases.

Besides the homer, which was very much killed, they didn't make any good contact against him. Seems like he started filling the zone a bit more as the game went on and they weren't quite as chase oriented. Had his usual loss of 1.5mph on the fastball from the first to his final inning (down to 93.4 average). This is a guy who averaged almost 97mph in his first start of the season. Seems like the drop and drive delivery will make everything play up though.

Been seeing a few more of those nice solid lined singles from Colson lately.

Feel like nobody is getting a great look at him

Home run notwithstanding, the stuff looked very good in the first inning. Don't throw low 4 seamers to Byron Buxton

I think the "sinker" is a kick change

I'm noticing that there's a lot of variance in the fastball shape. I don't know if he's trying to throw more than one kind or what. But he's thrown some four seamers with as much as 13" horizontal break and as few as 2". The actual numbers are less important than the difference. How are you supposed to locate if your fastball's movement is that unpredictable? I notice that the armside run is reducing as the game goes on, which I don't have much interpretation of. Just another one of those things that makes me feel like this is a very unfinished product.

Subsequent innings definitely looking better...jumbo shrimp are chasing a lot. He's only thrown 33% of his pitches in the zone which is crazy low. Tells you something about the quality of the stuff but I hope he can zone it up if they make him do it

I certainly don't deny the importance of pitching, just saying that ROI for pitchers in free agency looks pretty suspect. Of course like all gambling, you can't win unless you play. From a team building standpoint, I would certainly want to delay my investments in pitching until it looks like my team is on the precipice. By contrast I'd be more comfortable investing in a position player even if I think the pieces might not all be 100% into place for a couple years.

I will preface my statement by saying I strongly support the players. That being said, I think the union is very weak right now. They have been getting rolled for the last several CBA negotiations and I am not optimistic that they have gained any resolve. If they actually end up backing Meyer, that will be a positive sign. But I feel like there's a lot of guys who will be willing to give up a lot in the name of some concessions to minor leaguers and fringey players. And frankly they need so much from the owners I don't know how they'll get it. Besides staving off the salary cap, they badly need a shorter timeline to free agency. In the last negotiations, owners wouldn't even talk to them about that subject. Of course, they also need to work on another subject that the owners have declared taboo, which is revenue sharing. I do think you're right that the owners are not going to be quite as united of a front on all the particulars of the salary cap and other agenda items. The opening salvo will be a salary cap that is very low with a floor that is really, really low. Something assures every rich owner that he can have cost control for life and every tightass owner that he doesn't have to spend any additional money while he still gets to have cost control for life. If they got into a more serious discussion about a salary cap system that would use numbers more like the other major sports leagues, you'd see some owners who would absolutely balk at the kind of payrolls that would require. That is, unless they got revenue sharing like the other leagues do...in which case another set of owners would be putting up massive resistance. That's why I say you can't stick it to the players with a salary cap, let the owners work out their own problems if they don't like the revenue disparities. All that said, my gut feeling is the end of this will look bad for the players and I don't think they will withstand much pressure from ownership in the form of missed paychecks and such. I know the PA has a war chest to keep the bills paid for their guys, but the rank and file will know that only lasts so long and they will want to get back on the field. Hope I'm wrong both about how much pressure the owners apply and how the union would respond.

I think the "don't spend money on pitching" philosophy has come all the way back around to being the smart money again

Hagen stinker in progress

There's a quote earlier in this thread from Venable saying he kept the bunt on for 2 strikes. It was a bad decision when you have a guy whose whole offense is swinging bunts and he would get to have unlimited foul balls to get one in play

But I agree that the WBC injury would feel different if it was done for a country he actually had a serious allegiance to

Team doesn't have the right to stop him

Once he's down to two strikes I think you have to let him swing away

On the side view it clearly short-hopped. But Antonacci had a terrible vantage point for it with the 1B in front of him screening his view. Just a flukey play and bad break. Mune didn't actually hit it very hard so it would have been easy to overestimate the flight distance considering who was batting.