Balta1701

The Parkland, Florida shooter had a "demon voice in his head that told him to burn, kill, destroy" and was legally and responsibly able to purchase an AK style rifle. Since we judged him to be responsible, I'd assume that's true about most other responsible gun owners.

Well, except for last year with Giolito and Lopez, who were both called up in early August, but that was so long ago that it's understandable you'd forget.

So can y'all cite any example of the White Sox purposely not calling a guy up for service time reasons or is that a new priority on their list?

And the next year Chris Sale went on the disabled list for a month at the start of the season with arm problems and had to blow up at Kenny Williams to avoid being put in the bullpen. That some guys did not get hurt does not mean that there isn't a best way to do this.

It's the Bulls and he's under contract for 3 more years right?

Reynolds has been way better in his career than what we've seen from Davidson. He's very inconsistent about it, but over his career he's been a slightly above average hitter (.787 OPS, 105 OPS+).

I think he's just saying start at 30 and work your way to 16 rather than starting at 16 and working your way to 30.

Just so I stick this somewhere, wanted to count this before going home. By my numbers, ignoring a partial game they have to complete, I see 27 games left on Charlotte's schedule. Kopech pitched yesterday, so if he pitches every 5th game, he'd have 5 starts remaining. If they had him go every 5th day, they might be able to pack a 6th in, but let's say he has 5 starts left. He's thrown 113.1 innings so far this year. If he went 7 IP in each of his remaining starts, which would be high for him but it's what he's done his last 2 outings, that would put him at 148.1 innings this year. Altogether last year he pitched 134 innings, so although it's at a higher level, I'd kinda like him to be able to get 12 or so innings more than that, to get closer to 160. So...if I was doing what was best for his development, I'd probably have him complete the season in Charlotte, try to stay in the groove he's in right now, and then give him a September callup with a plan that he's going to start 2 games down the stretch and then make a few final outings out of the bullpen to finish the year. That gives him a bit of MLB experience, game planning, and coaching, and it gets his innings where we'd want them this year, so that we can think about him going 180+ innings next year in the bigs. I would be a little disappointed if he wound up close to 140 innings this year and they didn't call him up to push his arm a little more, that might be the right thing financially but it's not the right thing to do with his arm. I also don't think he's an AFL candidate, especially with him looking good right now I don't want him to just take a month off and then start again, and with the number of injuries we've had there are probably a lot of other guys who should have priority for those 6 slots just to get more complete seasons in.

They may not be a first place team, but if they're not looking something like what the Braves or Phillies are looking like right now, or the Cubs or Astros in 2015 for alternate examples, that will mean something has gone majorly wrong with the first wave of arrivals. 2020 should have Kopech in his 2nd year, Moncada in his 3rd full year, Jiminez in his 2nd, Giolito in his 3rd, Lopez in his 3rd, Rodon as a veteran, with guys like Collins, Cease having arrived and all of that talent currently down at A-ball somewhere on the doorstep, along with a whole lot of free agent money spent and a number of arrivals in the bullpen. Some of these guys should be talking about all star appearances by that point. Frankly, 2020 is even slower than I thought it was going to be last offseason, I thought there was a good chance at a 2019 breakout where they are back above .500, but that was before all the injuries piled up. If they're not at least knocking on the door by 2020, then that means a whole lot of the first wave of talent has busted, and we might start thinking we did something seriously wrong in how we evaluated or developed these guys.

I think it’s worth reminding that this franchise has signed players to nearly $80 million in contracts to try to find left handed hitters to fill their DH spot in the last decade alone, and that’s despite them not thinking they were competitive for 3 seasons in that time span. If either of these guys can hit decently, that’s another role it would be really nice to not spend a lot of money on.

Well, that does mean that the White Sox can't easily dump Davidson to bring up Jiminez.

Aoki and Beltran really weren't that important to the Astros world series run, Beltran was good for "leadership" but he didn't really produce at DH for them. Gregerson had an ERA of 4.57 last year on their way to the Series. The Free Agents who did make a difference for them were Reddick and Charlie Morton, and once again there's a lesson here. They signed several guys, and at least 1 of them simply wasn't worth his money - that was Beltran. The other guys contributed and helped them win that title, but...take those guys away and the Astros are still the best team in last year's AL West. They started with a strong team that they developed, and their signings filled in a few gaps around it. Frankly, they did better than most teams in free agency, they're not stuck with a Jayson Heyward or a Pablo Sandoval deal.

I think the lesson on guys like this is they'll keep moving up, occasionally some of them will do a Brandon Allen and tear up AA or AAA, and then every so often one or two of them will do a Josh Donaldson where they reach the bigs at 27 or 28 and explode, but the reason I cited a guy who blew up in 2018 at age 27 is I can't remember a guy who did something like that since then. Most of them wind up career minor leaguers or playing in Japan.

21 innings and 0 unintentional walks? I have only one thing to say about that.

So the A's gave the Nats their entire bullpen last year and it's now flowing the other way? Did the A's give up anything interesting?

Now can we figure out a way to get him to 160 innings this year? That's the right number, but it might take a few starts in, uh, September.

Have I mentioned that Paul is a buddy of mine?

I'm....ok with this. Actually I have one problem with that why didn't you bold the K/9?

If he got pulled from the lineup after starting due to the flu....I gotta say I think there was some vomit involved in this. I doubt the amount was small.

He's not up yet he probably spent today throwing up in the locker room.

Matt Davidson is so close to being a solid DH that it really, really frustrates me. You don't need to be a great hitter in that role, just a good enough one. If a guy is a tiny bit better than where Davidson is, then I'm ok with that. When all you do is HR, stikeout, and walk, a few walks and a few HR is the difference between a good, .850 OPS DH and a sucky, .700 OPS one.

A couple days ago someone asked if every one of his tweets contains a typo. I don't follow him is this really a thing?

I'm genuinely amazed so far. That looked AWFUL. My hand will not bend like that.

I thought about posting that tweet and then figured we already all expected that he had been lying the whole time, that he had conspired with the Russian president about those lies, and that their campaign was totally willing to accept criminal assistance from a foreign power.