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I don't know. I was right about Kimbrel when they made the option but I'm still so grossed out by the offseason process I'm not even particularly looking to take my winnings here. But I think this board as whole has crushed on pollock since his AZ days and I'm looking forward to watching him play, and this is positive and I'm happy and am just going to be relieved.

He's pretty strong vs. RHP, and was amazing all types of pitching last year.

I mean we have Grandal and Moncada. They aren't monsters but they are good LHB, certainly better than halfway decent.

I'm probably picking nits but I think because his limitations are so obvious that makes him not big bust potential. But just having him, even with a likelihood he's only at 100 games, makes engel more valuable and the OF seem so much better.

Isn't the question "where do SHeets and Vaughn play if they want them getting at bats"?

One thing about Pollock that is nice vs. most of our hitters is he is good at hitting breaking balls (he also, like the rest of our team, absolutely fucking crushes fastballs). His splits are good too. While he may have had an outlier last year, he has always hit above average vs. RHP (113 wRC+). So he's a productive RHH. And in our extremely easy RF, and next to Luis, maybe he can turn a positive OF defense.

I'm glad they did this, and maybe individually Adam Engel and AJ Pollock are injury-prone but maybe when you put them next to eachother in the dugout it balances it out and they become extremely healthy.

lol, pretty good

I don't think those are fair critiques. All of that are things that could be contributed to many of those pitchers going from 40-60 IP in 2020 to 150+ with playoffs. There were changes to the baseball, there were changes to what you were allowed to use with the baseball. And now this year they have the short ramp-up and thin SP. And yet the stats on the pitching staff both show a top ten unit in bullpen and starting. And they were in front of atrocious defense too so I think that's even more commendable and a reason you should want strikeouts from this group.

I think this would be a good time to bring up how fascinating that recent biography of Ty Cobb was which among other things re-enforced how difficult it is to look at 19th and early 20th century baseball with the same lens. He makes a strong, actually researched case that the contemporary knowledge around cobb was essentially made up but was entertaining and became common knowledge (not unlike 8 men out). But cobb was actually someone that stood out back then for being prickly about trying to professionalize the game. Because it does all come across much more like a rec softball league, and I do think even if unfair Landis coming out harshly set the league forward that this was a job and important and not something to screw around with anymore.

Can't just draw a straight line in history like that.

I think it would have been good if sox got babe ruth imo

I think he's probably fine. Vibes are turning positive. He probably just had a boo boo.

Eh, I'm not sure I buy this. They traded college relievers because they have nothing else of mid-level value in their system. And when you are trading those picks for .5 year relievers and then having to pay full market value for relievers how much surplus value are you really generating with this approach?

I remember in like 2018 or something after a draft where the sox again used a bunch of 4-10 round picks on relievers someone quoted Haber saying they thought this could be the new moneyball. After a relatively homegrown bullpen in 2020, they've now spent $50 million to build a bullpen and used a top 25 prospect and first round pick to supplement it. I guess they didn't find the new moneyball

Bennett Sousa

Has anyone seen severino pitch yet? Has he looked at all interesting?

Kelly was their best signing

?Burger Boyz? @Quin

?????????

I am someone that believes routine does matter quite a bit for relievers. But the idea that kimbrel is magically solved in the closer role just seems like such a farce. He was still eaten up in the playoffs, was that not enough adrenaline?

Everyone has moved on, but not me. I have a new RF bird drop (flamingo no. 492)

Just looked it up but our grandstand tickets were $250 (we are at grandstand 31 in front of turns 9/10). Not sure how it compared to COTA (October is way harder to travel due to school) but was definitely cheaper than miami when we looked.

Way, way higher on what Cherington is doing in PIT than what Elias has done with the Orioles with a year longer. Especially since Cherington had to start right before COVID.

At least vegas is built for large influxes of people, and will probably be just as fun just to be there during that weekend if not in the race. I could see COTA definitely becoming more affordable for tickets but still a pain to travel to, austin hotels see such crazy price inflection depending on the events. Miami I always find to be a pain in the ass, no doubt it is going to be fun for those who go. We are actually going to Montreal which all-in-all is pretty decent, not expensive to fly to, hotels are normal big city prices, and wasn't difficult to get tickets so long as you were prepared when they opened.