Balta1701

Hmph, apparently this is true: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/04/why-the-us-still-cant-donate-covid-19-vaccines-to-countries-in-need

You only burn the year of control if he's on the big league roster. If he's sent down for more than 15-ish days, you get that year of control back.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/phillies/nick-williams-phillies-40-man-roster-battle https://www.thegoodphight.com/2020/1/11/21049526/why-is-nick-williams-still-here

Really, no reason to play him? We already know for certain that Vaughn's righty-platoon splits will be bad?

First of all - there's a reason I haven't flown in 14 months. You'll have to scroll back 300 pages, but there's posts in here by me saying "Yeah filling up a plane right now is a really bad idea, and no, you really shouldn't fly right now" when people asked. If the standard is that I'm not allowed to comment on one bad idea without commenting on all the others every single time, well that's not particularly effective at anything. That's just a red herring. Both are bad! The right decision was always to come up with a legit plan to beat this thing into submission, and as an outcome put the country in a position where cases can be tracked to their source. But because of the choices of political leaders throughout the last year, that never happened. We even have conflicting data about whether opening schools has been key in outbreaks or not, and that's one of the biggest calls people had to make! Second, there are only variants because we are allowing this bug to remain in the wild. Variants only occur when there is diversity in the virus. The British B.1.1.7 variant is thought to have originated with a single person in England who got the virus while having a compromised immune system. They held onto the virus for a while and remained contagious since their immune system couldn't fight it off quickly, and then eventually passed on a version with multiple mutations that made it several times easier to transmit and more deadly. This was something like a 1 in 100 million event globally - the right person had to get the right version of the virus at the right time and then still pass it on and start a chain. If you want to avoid variants popping up - having fewer cases and thus less diversity available to the virus is your best defense! Third, you just highlighted a whole bunch of Asian countries where mask wearing was adopted early and without a fight from the population. In other words, deaths are extremely low in those countries because, compared to the US, cases are extremely low. Vietnam has a population of 96 million and has 2700 known covid cases. The US's population is just over 3x that, and the US has 30,000x or more as many COVID cases. That's a testament not to obesity, that's a bold statement that the US Could have done better and chose not to do so. Next, no one really knows how many Americans have had this thing, but it's probably something like 1/4 to 1/3 of the population. That killed 600,000 people. COVID deaths in this country over the last 12 months are comparable to the deaths from heart disease, and that's with trillions of dollars spent to contain this thing. And we genuinely don't know the long term consequences of this, but it's entirely possible that a number of people have lost years from their lives and had substantial declines in their quality of life from this thing. Saying "yes we should spend more money on Elder care" or "We should provide better health insurance" - I fully agree with those things, and none of that changes how absolutely awful this bug has been. Finally, you'll forgive me if saying "There are consequences for actions" doesn't really work with a virus because the consequences are likely not born by you. Irresponsible behavior by a whole lot of people made this year worse, and many of the ones who were irresponsible sloughed off the consequences onto someone else. Some actual responsibility by people last year could have prevented a whole lot of suffering.

Interestingly, hospitalizations in young people are occurring at a greater rate in Michigan than they did at the peak of case numbers last fall, so roughly 2x as many hospitalizations of younger people with half the cases. It really does seem like this variant is several times worse for young people. https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/us/michigan-covid-surge-patients-variants/index.html

I could defend yesterday, I got nothing today. Maybe LaRussa just doesn't like him.

Here's the trick with Nick Madrigal - he was supposed to be very high floor. Meaning, yeah he might not put up a 5 win season for us, but he's coming from a major college program, he's a 4 year player there, he should get drafted, fly through the minor leagues, be up in the big leagues, and be a solid baseball player right from the start. So a guy like Moncada may put up a 5 win season in year 3, a 5 win season in year 5, and 20 WAR with the White Sox during his first 6 seasons overall, but Madrigal should be a 3 WAR player almost every year and wind up with 18 WAR for the White Sox during his first 6 seasons because he contributes right away and, aside from injuries, never has a year that is just bad. Especially given that the White Sox were hoping to start competing soon - getting a guy with their 2018 draft pick who can step in right away and should be an above average big league player every year would have been extremely valuable. This is why I've been harping on Madrigal since last fall - he wasn't supposed to arrive and need tons of seasoning, especially on defense and with baserunning. That he's been so bad at those spots to start is incredibly disconcerting.

Acceptable for a #4 overall pick. I will take a solid baseball starter who is really good on defense for that pick.

I don't think his approach is ever likely to change, and TBH I doubt if he does make changes in that they will wind up improving things. The key for him remains defense and baserunning. If he's a really good defender and baserunner, then that approach at the plate is acceptable.

It sure does matter when they are trading for guys with 1 year of control and signing big expensive contracts for relief pitchers. These things put you over the top right now, at the expense of future years. It’s not just a slogan.

If Nick Madrigal is not ready to be a solid member of a playoff team, that’s totally ok. If your team insists they are a playoff team, then they better have plenty of depth to cover things if prospects come up and struggle, or they can’t afford to have the prospect filling that role. In that case, should have been traded in the offseason to a team where the expectations this season are lower, or had someone signed where he can have additional time to work in the minors. This is the standard the White Sox insisted they were setting. “We will show good fundamentals on our way to a playoff birth” is in their opening day message. They did not say “in 2023 after more guys develop”. Edit: no idea why moving text around also changed the font size.

No. White Sox fans are following the standard the franchise agreed to. what part of that says “we mean playing in October 2023, of course?”

Right now the White Sox don't actually need someone to cover innings - they have that. Kopech and Crochet doing 2 inning batches has left everyone else with plenty of time off. What they need is either more flexibility or better managing. If their manager is going to insist that Bummer and Hendricks can only pitch in the 8th and 9th, they simply need better middle relief. They don't have the pitchers in the bullpen to keep Kopech and Crochet on multi-days of rest, keep Hendricks and Bummer for the 9th inning and any save chance, and to win games when they need help. Even Fry would be useful here.

Didn't have time to do all this earlier today. First of all, the spacing between seats in a ballpark is on average 20 inches. That means there are 6 people just in a single row within 5 feet. If I assumed that the rows are slightly wider than the seat spacing, there would be 26 people within a 6 foot radius. While the people behind may not be exposed, people in front will be getting regular exchange of air, and it could well go farther than that distance limit. Over 15 minutes - not likely to infect anyone. Over 3+ hours? Much better chance. When that roof gets closed later this season? Even less airflow in and out. But there's one other detail. Globe Life Field hosts 100 suites, each of which is partially to totally enclosed and holds 20 to 80 people. There are luxury suites, party suites. Again, 3+ hours in each spot, and you can probably guess how much they will enforce masking in that setting. Effectively, it's like having 100 different indoor restaurants open at a single time in one spot. Their website would like you to know that they disinfect surfaces in them nightly. Texas isn't spiking right now...because B.1.1.7 was introduced on the East Coast, and is expanding as though it's a new outbreak from there.

That would be admitting he can’t do it. Pride will keep him from anything like that.

Robin Ventura spent 4 years on a couch trying to explain that “hard work made me quit” and was given the opportunity to resign rather than being fired. LaRussa will not be leaving. It’s everyone’s pride at this point.

Hendricks pitched once in the first 6 games. Bummer twice. Get back to me when they’re not having to do mop up duty to stay fresh.

The real answer would be to have 2 different guys on MLB Networks top 10 reliever list on this roster right now. Then you could use one guy in the pressure situation in the 6th and have another one in reserve for trouble later. Shame we can’t do that. (is handed the list)....wait...u mean...

What is actually interesting is that because those guys are doing long outings, there were fewer tolerable middle relief guys available today, so one of the teams worst relievers came into a pressure situation and lost, for the second time this week. So yeah the long outings are helping in some games, but they’re also leaving the team with no options who can go on back to back days if the game stays close.

“Of course our guy is going to get out coached he’s not very good but maybe will become average with enough time!” Doesn’t really defend him all that well.

Other teams have evolved. But the manager believes baseball achieved perfection in 2006 and all decisions must be made in that style.

The f*** does this even mean? It’s not LaRussas fault because Bummer and Hendricks might also be bad?

He didn’t the last couple times.