chitownsportsfan

can someone start an official spring training thread? I'm not going this year but surely someone that is will want to make a thread, DO IT.

correct. I've worried since he was drafted that he'll get the bat knocked out of hands before he is issued a walk at the MLB level. We'll see. He seems to be putting on the "doubles" strength at least.

Give it 5 years. I'm only half joking but the "springs" in the upper midwest seem to be turning into summer more often than not now. not great for cherry trees but not bad for baseball.

I'd love, love to see Mexico City and Montreal added.

I like that aspect of it. It would be sorta like a "mini march madness" at the start of the playoffs.

Easy guy to root for hope he can play a little better defense this year. He seems to be a very streaky defender. If he can avoid the couple months that seem to give him problems and not just bottom out like previously he'll be a league average defensive SS and with his skill at the plate that's more than fine.

I'd be OK with that. I can't stand playing the unbalanced schedule.

Good lord. I can't stand Manfred but dragging the sport into a modern format by getting rid of the AL/NL schism and expanding the playoffs is a worthy goal.

I would def do expansion and the DH at the same time. It's long past time to use the DH in the NL.

Yea the caveat being that if you do include 14 teams you shorten the regular season to 150 or so games and you make all the series 7 games. If 14 teams are getting in there's no way the top seed should have to play a short 5 game series with the 14 seed.

This is a great idea. Best idea from MLB since the WBC. The last expansion was a half measure that gave us the silly 1 game playoff. Here's what I'd do: best 14 teams make it by record, regardless of league. Top two teams pick their 1st round matchup. How much fun would that be? A lot imo.

Madrigal has a very unique skill set. I'm not sure he'll ever put it all together but if he does he'll be a star. There are hardly any players that can hit 300 and play great defense up the middle. If he walks or hits for any power on top of that he'll be a superstar. Fun player to dream on, similar to Robert but in a completely different way.

Pitchers and catchers cannot report soon enough.

If he plays 150 games and is + 10 runs FRAA with a .400 OBP he's a 5-6 WAR superstar. He'd be Robbie Alomar with a little less power. He'd be one of the highest paid players in MLB.

And his performance. There's a lot of assholes in pro sports that produce. Problem with Puig is that it's 50/50 if you're getting the 1 WAR version or the 3 WAR version. The 1 WAR version ain't worth it and everybody knows it.

No idea because it really depends on if he hits 280/330/400 or he hits 300/360/440. the latter is a borderline star with good defense at 2B, a 3-4 WAR player. The former is just a solid regular 2 WAR type. Can he find some power? Can he maintain a high batting average without it? Can he learn to take a few more walks? We'll see.

Nobody wants him. That’s a red flag.

oof.

Fegan's talking a lot more past the halfway part and it got a lot better. That said, Fegan didn't really say anything groundbreaking either. Oh well it's content on a boring day.

Starts at about 59 minutes. I'm about 1/2 of the way through the part on the Sox. Can't see I really agree with much of anything they'd said so far. As usual I think us fans know more than most national guys. Some pretty lazy takes imo. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/effectively-wild-episode-1497-season-preview-series-padres-and-white-sox/

Yea but yanking their chain is part of the fun as well!

There's a professional digital media 30 something running the account and then there's probably half a dozen "interns" or entry level twentysomethings that brainstorm marketing ideas or run the account in the wee hours of the morning in case some news breaks. That's how most PR operations work at mid sized companies. Of which the Sox qualify here. The Fortune 50 companies I'd imagine like Apple and Nike and so forth have an entire army of PR folks in digital and everywhere else.

'cause it's fun and there's still about a week until any real spring training news?

I think in this case it's tenacity of the self promotion from the "ground zero" account: mlb incel, er intel.