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@Jose Abreu IS RIGHT, I WAS WRONG I got confused when he started liking a bunch of old tweets making me think we were past the speculation. Editing old posts.

??

I see Stroman liking a bunch of tweets making fun of jay cutler, and praising keith law for putting him at #4 free agent.

edit: incorrectly said I couldn't find the likes attributed to him

I'm kinda hoping the blow back here matters, though I don't think JR reads enough twitter and if he does his feed is garbage. Also I think most of these stroman things are fake. But this is good for us, I think.

come on man.

nothing we didn't know aside from that today it may not be announced. He resisted idea that Hahn was against this, saying typically JR would not circumvent staff and push for a hire. He may suggest but not force it, adn this would be different. He sounded like a wounded puppy.

Texted my old friend tim from college. I asked him if I should be worried. Tim said he thinks he'll be fine. he's a cards fan. so basically book your world series tix.

This interview was pathetic but Bruce says he only heard announcement would be before the weekend, not necessarily today. Also he sounded scared of every question.

I imagine that bruce loves this. It's been hard on him having to try and follow baseball, bringing back characters from 10-20 years ago? Right in his wheel house. He's going to list out every name he remembers from then.

I'm optimistic as hell about this team, but it's not yet very deep especially in pitching. If Giolito went down that would be a body blow and they'd need to really figure something out in season. If they get some good (and I mean good, not filling out #5 with gio gonzalez types) depth in SP I'm as optimistic as any. But 162 game seasons are hard!

Stars and scrubs team at the top of their budget that just needs a few pieces to scrape into the playoffs? Sounds like a job for Rick Hahn.

Very possible. Playoffs not even close to guaranteed next year with bullpen regression and without key additions to SP.

dream release today: "After talking it over with my family, I have decided to stay in retirement. I thank the white sox and chairman Jerry Reinsdorf for his interest, and may find a role within the organization to stay involved in the game of baseball that I love." ^ tony you can just copy that.

This is true and it's not true. 1) I think players have more power in their communications than they did then. Stuff gets out more readily. 2) He had lots of open battles with Smith, Rolen, Reyes and Rasmus. To not even be a cards fan and know this stuff should tell you something. This team needed some more accountability but was mostly on the same page. TLR plays favorites, and that could cause some open rifts. Will that affect on-field winning? Maybe not, but he hasn't had a lot of very young teams. I don't think Matheny was a great manager, but I do wonder how TLR does with the '13 cardinals which were such a different group than 11.

Oh, I see the confusion. That's actually how we measure age.

The good news is there's not that much difference between managers so I don't really care if he knows the difference between Geren or Quatraro.

I doubt it was an explicit trade-off. I can see this meaning JR is very excited, and if JR is excited I think he'll be able to stretch and find ways to make money work.

Great stuff from Law in here: https://theathletic.com/2153856/2020/10/29/keith-law-top-40-free-agents-ranking-of-the-mlb-offseason-2020/?redirected=1 One bit I hadn't thought of: 39. Chris Archer, RHP, age 32 Archer missed the 2020 season after surgery to repair thoracic outlet syndrome, and he had his worst-ever season in 2019 after a mid-season trade to the Pirates the year before. He has a great arm, with an out pitch in his slider, and he wouldn’t be the first pitcher to struggle under the previous Pirates’ coaching staff and find success elsewhere. If he’s healthy, he should have plenty of suitors on one-year deals. Other favorable writeups for Gausman as well. Also favorable bit on Kluber that was nice to see, as I wasn't sure how risky I was being still being interested i him: 33. Corey Kluber, RHP, age 35 Kluber threw just one inning in 2020 before a slight (grade 2) tear in his throwing shoulder ended his season, although it’s unclear if he will require surgery. That comes on the heels of a 2019 season lost to a broken arm after he was hit by a line drive and a lat muscle injury he suffered while rehabbing. We haven’t seen the “real” Kluber since 2018, when he led the AL in innings pitched and was third in the Cy Young voting, although his stuff was pretty close to normal when he did pitch in the last two seasons (by velocity, with slightly lower spin rates). Assuming the muscle tear has healed, I’d certainly throw him a one-year deal with incentives to see if the 2018 version — or something close to it — is still in there.

Many here yes. He's not going to become a manager of any big league club anytime soon.

Just a reminder Jirschele is a 30 year old manager of an A ball team. There aren't many places he'd do better than here.

La Russa to Danny Mendick in spring training

There are three areas of concern for me: Number 1) The drama and conflict that follows TLR teams Number 2) The prospect of TLR going around Hahn / Scouting to make player requests Number 3) Tim Anderson's thoughts. That dude should have been able to hand pick the manager imo. Numbers 2/3 I think can be mitigated and we'd hear pretty soon. but we are definitely going to live with #1.

Yes, I'd feel better if we see sox PD guys get onto the field so there is some greater connection between our PD/analytics and on field development. Really had dreams of getting the UMich pitching coach, that ain't happening. Worst case scenario: a bunch of TLR buddies come back. And the spending, hoo baby that'd be nice. Really starting to think if sox were given greenlight to expand payroll this offseason it could be like buying up the loop after the chicago fire (that said, feel terrible for the players that are FA this year, but better sox spend for them than not)

This is just incredible work, this is an excellent resource to guide gatherings in winter or tough decisions you may have to make: https://english.elpais.com/society/2020-10-28/a-room-a-bar-and-a-class-how-the-coronavirus-is-spread-through-the-air.html?ssm=TW_CC