southsider2k5

After hours it is back into the 180's. We will see if this lasts, and then if some of the restrictions get pulled.

It wasn't at all what you said, but after Ray bailed you out by giving you another goal post, I am not surprised you latched on to it.

Eventually these guys were going to take profits. Once that damn breaks, you can't really put the water back. There is still a couple of hundred dollars of retracement that is waiting to happen.

If your guys suck in the first 5 innings, it doesn't matter what happens in the last 4. We saw that a TON last year.

The starters are important because you need to fill starter's innings. 5 innings a start is about 800 innings coming from your rotation. Push that to 6 and you need almost 1000 innings from your starters. You need 50 to 60 innings from your closer. Sure, but #1 the Sox already had a great bullpen, so no problem there. The Nats comparison falls apart right there. The Sox also have a staff loaded with potential closer arms such as Garrett Crochet, Michael Kopech, Dylan Cease, Codi Heuer, Tyler Johnson, Aaron Bummer and company. I feel REALLY good about them being able to find a high level closer among that group if they needed to. Sure Hendriks is a great add to this team, but his addition is a marginal improvement over what they had last year. A higher level starter gives a LOT more chances for improvement, especially when compared to what there end rotation starters looked like last year. The Sox could have flipped the signings upside down and signed a $13 million starter, another 3 million dollar arm in the pen, and then picked a closer from the winner of the spring competition for the closers role.

Because there are eight innings that happen before the 9th. There are also major holes in the starting rotation as it stands now, with some really good relievers already in the pen who might have been able to step into the closers role, or someone cheaper out there to do that job. Even a mediocre starter going to cover triple the innings that a closer will, and if the starters are bad, it doesn't matter how good your closer is.

Yeah, there is zero consideration of anyone other than themselves for a LOT of parents. They don't care about infection spread and the danger it could post to teachers, staff, bus drivers etc. Our school system didn't shutdown because of kids, they shut down because they ran out of healthy teachers due to them getting infected. But this has always been the case. Take a couple of Tylenol right before they get on the bus to hold the fever down as long as possible to get them through school, is a big time strategy in this crowd.

Only 44. Wow.

But every advantage you give yourself in these situations is a chance to separate yourself from the pack. Just because we might be as good as the other teams deemed to be playoff teams doesn't mean you stop adding, especially when you have the chance to do so. When you have built in depth and back up plans, bad luck can more overcome than if you are shallow and unlucky.

If the Sox don't add a DH, there is zero chance (barring injury, shutdown, etc) that Vaughn doesn't see the majors this season.

The other school of thought is that in older pitchers could NOT having a full 100% workload actually rest their arms a bit and allow them to not be as beat up as they would normally be?

I mean obviously it is all speculation, but lining up what we already know indicates the Bears probably aren't a favorite.

I am going to guess right around 100 for this season, but wouldn't be surprised to see him peak late as he starts to figure things out.

But knowing there is already some bad blood there, I would imagine something about the Bears situation would have to actually stand out in the positive and not just be "not as bad as Houston" to be a place that Watson wants to go. The whole not even talking to him around the draft is a thing for him. He has already shown that he is willing to raise a stink when he doesn't like things. I just don't see what about Chicago would sell Watson on wanting to come here.

The question is how big do you think that chance is? 1%? 5%? 15%? Making the playoffs means you could go all of the way, but when you have major flaws and a lack of depth, those odds aren't as high as those who don't have them.

This seems to be more like, "hey give my guy a call and interview him at least" which Houston ignored and broke the final straw.

There is reasonable expectations for a team. It isn't reasonable to think that Michael Kopech is going to throw 200 innings this season, but this franchise would be damned lucky if he did. It is reasonable to expect a guy like Giolito and Lynn to be around the 200 inning mark this year, but it would be bad luck if they didn't. If you start putting together a list of reasonable expectations for both the Sox and the top franchises right now, the Sox list would come up short of what those other top teams are looking at. That is where I am talking about needing "luck" When you start talking about bad luck situations, because the Sox are already playing from behind when it comes to reasonable expectations for this season, they would need a ton more good luck to make up for it. Other teams have more depth and more quality player development to help contribute to those expectations and luck factor. This just kind of reinforces that idea that without some breaks, the expectations for the Sox are not what would usually result in a WS type team, but maybe with more luck than others would need, they have a chance. Sure that puts them ahead of like 20-25 other teams in baseball, but you don't play these teams to be 5th.

Do the Bears include their players in that process? I honestly have no idea.

Again, that all depends on your standards. For most of the Sox universe, this is supposed to be a chance at sustained success and World Seriess' (plural). If the standard for you is to make the playoffs, that is fine. But most see with some strategic pieces, this run could be potentially more than that. That's not a "hot take" that is recognizing the difference between a playoff team and one that has what it takes to go all of hte way. Think of it this way, do you want to see a repeat of last season where we made it, but were so flawed that we got beat by a not a not great team in the first round? Do you want to repeat the Twins recent playoff history? Because that is where we are now.