chitownsportsfan

Yep they've been doing it for a few years now. Good way to build a little camaraderie with the new guys.

Lifetime bans or fire them, I can see it. Allow them to possibly save some face while de facto banning them for life at the same time via blacklist. I'd imagine it will be hard for Luhnow to ever work as a GM again.

Good, hopefully the Peter Principle hits every one of the middle managers.

nah, whoever comes in is going to clean fucking house and they all know it.

Dude everybody in that org is sending out a resume this afternoon. Their rabbis are gone.

Well now that both guys have been fired it's a big fucking deal. The Astros will be in disarray for a few years. This is great news for the Sox.

I would imagine it's a complete ban on any contact. And I'd hope that if he doesn't follow that directive he's banned forever.

Well damn. You draft a guy you think is a sleeper then don't have the coaching staff in place to bring it out. Classic Sox disconnect.

Not sure how they'd enforce this but it could be as simple as posting an MLB employee in the clubhouse. I think it's something they should look at.

Probably should amend that bylaw then. 5 million is ash tray money these days.

I think the fine could have been more, something that lets the owners know this will hit them in the pocketbook hard if their Club does it. Maybe 30 million or so. That's the only complaint I have with the punishment.

I'm with you. This is hardly a slap on the wrist. This is a serious penalty for the individuals involved and the club. Could Manfred have done more? Could he have vacated the WS? Sure, but that would have opened up a whole 'nother can of worms.

Manfred just couldn't help himself could he? Manfred the White Knight!

Very well deserved. I'm shocked Manfred had the guts to do this. They also lose their 1st and 2nd rounders next two years. Pretty devastating penalty. Should deter this bullshit in the future.

Have any specifics on this? He had quite the rise and fall.

alright we've made it to Hitter's Camp! What's next, Sox Fest, then Ps and Cs? Then games, THEN REAL GAMES!

It was a really tough time for me personally. Was 22, was a few credits short of graduating college, which irked my dad greatly seeings how he had pitched in about 60K for me to go to an expensive private school. I was living at my parents' house, but they weren't living there (dad and mom have moved downstate for work at that point) and it was a really shitty winter and spring taking classes at the local community college, barely talking to my dad, fighting mostly when we did. Anyways, that 2005 season brought my dad and I closer and made us some shared joy. It was a very emotional season for many fans I'm sure. I will NEVER forget that I left the sports bar (the only one in town) that had the game on up in N. MI after the bases were loaded for El Duque in ALCS. I figured for sure he'd blow it, how couldn't he there was nobody out...bases loaded...but that SOB got it done and from that point on the Sox mostly cruised to the title. I was sitting in my car outside the bar listening and made the biggest "WHOO YEA" when he got the last out. That's right it was 3-2 check swing K, wow!

About 10 years too late, but nice to finally see. Get everybody on the same page and have a unified teaching philosophy throughout the system.

@Look at Ray Ray Run the fact that he put up that peak without a whiff of PED is the most incredible thing about Frank as a player imo. Sure he was into weight training and legal supplements from his days a TE at Auburn, but Frank was clean and about as natural as you can get in pro sports. An amazing athlete.

I like OOTP but I've found as I've gotten older I just can't get into it like I used to. It requires a lot of time, every season is probably about 5-7 hours. But when that game clicks, it clicks.

I thought it was mostly a stat BP made up because they couldn't think of anything better. Then I saw Omar Narvaez stab at the ball for a season and became absolutely convinced it plays a big (too big, the umps should be better) role in what pitches get called balls and strikes. It's not even so much turning "borderline" pitches into strikes -- it's making sure obvious strikes get called strikes. Omar loses so many fucking calls on the outside edge that are obviously 2/3 in the zone on pitch trax because he's diving out to get them and the ump is influenced. I can't wait to watch Grandal 120 times next year behind the plate. Should be good for about 5 calls a game going the Sox' way or so that previously wouldn't. McCann isn't a very good framer either. Grandal is elite.

@Dick Allen strange hill to die on. Sure these guys are replacement level but they are young enough to where an improvement or breakthrough still might happen. It's a bad time of year for teams to try and make claims most 40 mans are fairly full, so it's not like "nobody wanted them". Nobody wanted to give up a 40 man spot, which now the Sox don't have to either! Genius.

after looking at his stats 3 million sounds about right. He's like a 1 WAR player. Better than Engel tho.

what's the cost going to be? 1 year 6 million? If so, it's a no brainer. Engel's time is up.

Given that literally every other athletic endeavour on the planet has gotten incredibly more advanced, seen records broken and so forth given the passage of time -- sorta leads me to believe that today's MLB players just might be, on average a little better than previous generations. That said, greatness is greatness, that's why baseball stats that are normalized by year and relative to the league are so fucking cool; we can easily compare players relative to their peers. And of course if Ted Williams was alive today or any other superstar of the past they'd have gotten the best sports training and science and all the advantages so they'd just as good as Trout or Lebron or Bolt or whoever.