chitownsportsfan

That was my thought as well. Pretty safe predictions and not that much different from the FG Depth Charts projections. Depending on how the final roster spots shake out I will be predicting 83-85 wins. If they add a bit more, gets closer to 85, add nothing really and I'll stay at 83. That just feels right personally. I can see a breakout season or two but also I can see some stumbles, especially with the young pitching.

Christ this man can say in 200 words what can be said in 20. Anybody worth adding will be too good to accept a bench role with a top 20 prospect in MLB at their position already in AAA.

Seems like a pretty fair deal for both sides although if I'm the Mariners I'm not exactly sure what the rush is to lock him up given you just started a rebuild. He has less trade value now imo.

Stub Hub should work more closely with the clubs to prevent fraud. I don't really blame the Sox here it's more just that system is setup to fail.

cool, represent.

Hard to believe Stub Hub didn't know what was going on earlier. They guy was literally selling 100x the volume of Sox tickets as any other reseller on their platform and he was selling them at what they had to have known were rock bottom prices indicating he was either taking a loss or -- much more likely, was selling fraudulent tickets. And yea, what was going on in the Sox' sales department that they couldn't figure out why they were seeing so many of these "comp" tickets not only activated in their system but then resold on Stub Hub?

I don't mind it. The logo and swooth are too big tho.

It's a good day imo. February 1st is a huge date on the calendar for any sports fan. Super Bowl. Then signals the start of CBB tourney season and spring training, and then obviously the Big Dance and the start of real MLB. Meanwhile you've got the PGA Tour in full swing on the west coast (leading up to Pebble Beach and then the Masters) and the NBA is winding down for ASW and then gearing up for the final playoff push. If you're into soccer, it's the meat of the Cup and League season for all major Euro leagues, and this year we also have WCQ starting. For Chicago folks and most of NA above the mason dixon line it's also the time you start to notice the days getting longer and here in the PNW usually the 2nd week of February starts gardening season and the end of "winter" (at least any real chance of snow in the lowlands). Today is a good day.

Rimworld. Before that slay the spire but I quit once I got A15 on Silent and and beat the heart. I don't think I have the fortitude to try and get the A20 achievement, which I think is like .01% of players. Getting A15 was hard enough. But yea I'm obsessed with Rimworld right now. I've rarely seen a game with such a high skill cap that is also so incredibly relaxing. It's not a perfect simulation by any stretch but it simulates enough different systems all at once that I feel completely IMMERSED in the universe which honestly when you're as old as I am, in my 30s now, doesn't happen too often. I don't even need to get stoned to lose myself in it for hours, which is fairly incredible. I saw FM 20 is on sale for $35 on steam this week. Might pick it up but will probably wait until it's $19.99 on summer sale in anticipation of FM 21 next fall. I"m currently still rocking FM13 and have held off because the last 6 haven't gotten great reviews but '20 got really good reviews and apparently they finally fixed some of the match engine stuff. That's about it for now, quit playing Rust after like 4K hours. It just got completely boring to me which hey, at 4K hours that's to be expected. I played it for the better part of 6 years, which seems incredibly as it was still in "Legacy" at that point and now it's a completely different (but at the same time mostly the same) game. Certainly a helluva game and probably the best "state of nature" simulator on the market. If you want to compete against other ruthless humans that's the game for you.

Boston does something they call "truck day" which is a celebration of their equipment trucks going down to Florida for the start of spring training a week before players show up. Usually it's this week or next iirc. Sox could do something like that and market it a bit.

I would certainly say this is a minority view point among fans. We all root for the laundry but you also have fan favorites and Moncada with his production, beautiful swing and incredible athleticism is certainly a favorite of many. Trading him "to make the team better" (which I think you're conflating with the owner saving money) would piss many people off.

That picture of Frank rocks. Need to bring back that batting glove look.

Technically everybody is a "guess hitter" as every hitter goes up there looking for "their pitch" which for most guys these days is a low fastball out over the plate. What I mean with Eloy is that he needs to be guessing (looking really) fastball even when he's seeing a steady diet of sliders and junk. Eloy will hit plenty of mistake hangers out of the park just off reactions to when he's looking fastball but his talent and power take over on a hanger. Too often last year he looked really bad with 2 strikes, even with a pitcher struggling to get a pitch over other than a fastball, because he was surprised he saw a 2 strike fastball.

One thing he needs to stop doing is guess hitting. He's way too good of a hitter to be doing anything but sitting dead red and adjusting to off speed. No more 2-2 and 3-2 fastballs taken or weakly fouled off or whiffed on because he's looking for off speed. Now I think the injury had a role in that, as you noted. It's hard to get hurt midseason when everybody is already well match fit. Easier to come back in say May or June.

It's the classic argument as to who generates and thus deserves the most revenue: Without the players there's no MLB; Without MLB there's no baseball and no need for players! Although I usually side with labor in this case I do think the owners are correct: the institution of MLB, its history, its teams, everything about it -- would remain even if you swapped out the players for beer leaguers on every team. Most fans would STILL root for the laundry, even if filled by beer leaguers. However, the product would eventually suffer and be replaced by a higher quality professional league. It would take forever, but MLB would sow the seeds of its own ruin. Both the players and the owners need to realize they are sitting on a golden goose. The players' union needs to do a better job allocating revenue to younger players. Yes, without seniority there is no union, but the union needs to realize that the vets only makeup a small percentage of all MLB player. How many MLB players even play through their arb years? 50%? 40%? How many ever hit FA? The union needs to be unified and come with a real alternative to the pre-FA pay scale and reforms for the arb system. Let's hope they do and that there is no work stoppage in 2022 just when the Sox should be at the peak of their contention. @Look at Ray Ray Run -- ha, some people have a hard time realizing that the management phrase "if you can't measure it it doesn't exist or matter" is an OPERATIONS rule, not a statement about the existential nature of things.

yea just to clarify he's a good baserunner gets good secondary leads and is leaning in the right direction. in the OF his reads stink.

This is what they use right now: Does WAR get thrown around during the hearings for "on field performance"? I'd hazard a guess it does. A singular measure will never be in place to measure everything that paragraph above encapsulates but using a more accurate and precise player value metric, (like WAR over RBIs or Wins) is something I'd imagine owners and players would appreciate and push.

which is why any notion of trading Vaughn should be dismissed unless you're absolutely bowled over by an offer. Vaughn is the guy that's going to hit 290/385/510 and score a million runs batting 3rd with Eloy and company behind him. He's the OBP guy.

Eloy was quietly +1.8 runs on the bases last year. He's fast in a straight line and gets good jumps. Hopefully he worked on his agility this year that's where he gets tripped up on in LF.

That one is a head scratcher. ZIPS loves the Twins.

I'd have to look at all 30 teams projections and shit but just on Fangraphs the Mets' offense looks pretty loaded. They don't have a regular projected below an OPS+ of 98 and they have a couple guys above 130. By comparison the White Sox don't have a guy over 128 (Eloy) and while we might think the projection for Moncada is light (121) (and maybe we are right based on his statcast data) ZIPS thinks he's going to regress into "just really good" on BABIP instead of what it was last year. It's getting people talking, that's good. I'd say the two weeks before pitchers and catchers and then the two weeks before real games, when spring training is long boring, are the 4 worst weeks of the year baseball wise. So yea good time to release a controversial article.

That and avoiding stupid injuries by being uncoordinated and/or too gung ho at times in left. Just keep shit in front of you, make the plays at the wall and down the line, and let Robert handle the power alley.

He looks really slim. Good for him. He needs to keep the baby fat off. I can see 280/330/520 this year, which would be just fine.

The Sox have plenty of plausible deniability here. Madrigal has all of 134 AAA PA. He has all of 180 AA PA and hit for a 116 wRC+. Byrant had almost 600 PA AA/AAA and raked to the tune of like a 160 wRC+ when he was delayed. And Kris just lost his case. Madrigal won't even sniff a win if he files.

Thanks a lot to digest here. Just finished the OF preview. Man it would be nice if one of those OF prospects broke out. My money would be on Micker, health permitting.