Balta1701

@Kyyle23 what am i supposed to be seeing there?

You don't find that fair contests of skill are more entertaining than rigged ones? If I wanted something where one side was going to win based on something decided behind the scenes rather than the skill of the people involved, I could go be a wrestling fan.

If you're going to strip anyone of anything, #1 on the list is that world series title. Unless they are willing to do that there's no good reason to pull away individual awards, as that title is the most contaminated part of this right now since we know 100% they were doing this to the Dodgers.

We've had 2 major cheating scandals in this sport in 20 years and it fundamentally shapes the sport right now. If the sport is decided by who has the best illegal chemist or best way to hide their rule-breaking, why watch?

So it knocked out 10% of the managers in major league baseball.

IMO - he drilled that team exceptionally hard on fundamentals and it showed as they were extremely fundamentally sound (Making correct throws, hitting cutoff man, rundowns, etc.) all year, with the exception of guys who weren't in their own training camp. But, the team clearly wore down in September and hit a losing skid - this was almost entirely because their young pitchers had thrown so many more innings than the previous year, but Ventura interprets it as a reason to take it easy on the team in the spring of the next season so that they're fresher in September. The same players who had drilled so hard pre-2012 reached the 2013 season so out of practice that every ball on the ground turned into a clown show. By 2014, Ventura has a new extension and "Don't work them too hard" has become a motto for the entire coaching staff, up and down through the minors, and it was convenient because it meant the coaches didn't have to work that hard either. So when Abreu and Garcia clearly needed help in technique to keep themselves from getting hurt, or Marcus Semien needed to be drilled on basic footwork of a shortstop, the coaching staff did nothing but expect them to figure it out on their own.

Well, they're giving Trubisky every resource they can to make this work.

"Texas man arrested for following Dallas Keuchel around banging on a trashcan"

In terms of direct effects on the White Sox, given allegations by Bauer and others, I think it is entirely plausible that his numbers in Houston were improved by doctoring the ball and stopping that could have a performance impact. But no suspension or fine, they gave virtually the whole astros roster immunity so that they would testify, something like 20 did so Keuchel probably was one of them.

Just going through the report more - apparently after Danny caught on, the Astros are described as "panicking" and actually removed the monitor before the end of the game so that even if they were caught they didn't leave behind the hard evidence and switched to another, more portable monitor afterwards. Keuchel started that game. Apparently I was also in the crowd down the RF line.

I would agree with this statement that I have no reason to believe this makes Abreu's contract look worse, how's that? I'm still going to point out that their offense is pretty dramatically different. Donaldson with Abreu's offense is a 3.5 win player rather than a 5 win player.

Yea Donaldson is a year older and plays a more demanding physical position as of now. That does not mean 127 = 119 or that the difference is small. You replied to a post pointing out that Donaldson put up substantially higher WAR numbers by asserting that their offensive production was similar, when it isn't - per Fangraphs last year 1/2 of the difference between Donaldson's 5 WAR and Abreu's 2 WAR was Donaldson's more effective offense - Donaldson was worth 1.5 extra wins on offense over Abreu, without counting any of the positional adjustments or defense. None of the other points you made were things i replied to, so I don't know why you're repeating them at me, you asserted something that is false in an important way.

Really, it's been more than 20 years since a 34 year old got this money? Legitimate wow. TY.

1. No I will not agree that a .900 OPS and a .834 OPS are equal, so you're correct we can't agree on that. 2. Well now I'm curious, who got the largest? Who's #3? Have those deals worked out for their teams?

No one really said their chances were weaker than Chicago's, this part of the conversation started where I said "I can think of a bunch of ways Minny isn't right there just as I can think of ways the White Sox aren't". Given the choice, even though they're less experienced I'd take Chicago's starting rotation over Minny's rotation on paper easily as there's way more talent in the White Sox's rotation, but I'd take Minny's lineup again on paper because even though there's talent in the White Sox's lineup, the guys for the Twins performed so highly last year that's hard to ignore. When you play the season, who knows. Maybe the White Sox's pitchers all struggle and Minny's rotation steps up. Maybe Minny's lineup takes a big step back with a different baseball and Robert and Eloy are monsters. I don't have a good guess about how this season's going to go other than thinking all 3 teams have 95 win potential on paper and a personal guess that the Native American Stereotypes are the most likely to get there.

IMO - if you want to beat this Twins team, it's not even as much up to your pitching staff as it is your offense. You're going to have to win some games 10-8.

The Rally Crede.

I don't think it "Ensures" anything. It improves the chances of Minny being right there, but I can think of a bunch of ways that they're not. Just as I can imagine ways the White Sox aren't.

At least one local writer has noticed that even though the Astros players loudly proclaimed that nothing was going on for years, and their long time coach and colleague was just fired, every player involved in this has suddenly, immediately gone quiet.

So out of what, 4 seasons as GM, you were fine with him for the first 3?

It could certainly be true that Abreu was a contributing factor but the idea that Abreu's contract extension coming first is evidence for that is nonsense. They did Abreu's contract right around the qualifying offer deadline.

This is absolutely terrible logic.

On paper I still think the Cleveland racist stereotypes are a better team than either the Twins or the White Sox. They have currently the strongest pitching staff in the league, still have Lindor and Ramirez, and their OF grew up quite a bit last year. They had a nightmarish season of injuries last year. Maybe that repeats again next year and they have a bunch of injury prone guys, maybe the Twins still hit 300 home runs and a pitcher or two come through, or maybe the White Sox have 5 all stars from their kids, but don't underestimate that Cleveland team. A quick look at the steamer projections seems to have the Twins with Donaldson and the Indians being within a couple WAR of each other.

I'd be genuinely surprised if the Braves don't make a move for one of them. It's a move that makes sense for each team.

Why can't Donaldson move to DH in 2 years?