Jack Parkman

I don't agree, as Trout probably has it locked up but I think YoYo is a finalist. Mine is that Robert hits .255 with a .320 OBP but hits 35+HR and has a ridiculous slugging percentage.

You predicting Robert struggling to the point that he gets sent back to Charlotte?

Dude, I want to see him do it in a regular season game against some other team than (probably) the 2nd worst team in baseball. There are tons of guys that have great springs and shite regular seasons.

Colorado might be almost as bad as Pittsburgh.

Cease isn't a sinkerballer. Carry matters for 4SFB guys, of which Cease is one.

Nope, but I think that high spin doesn't necessarily result in high carry. Carry is more deceiving to hitters. Stuff=how hitters react to it. Break, velo, spin rate doesn't matter as much as the hitters not being able to pick up the ball.

Eventually, they will be able to go 9-9. I think an 18th game is coming whenever the next CBA happens.

I miss this perk. The extra $0.15 off of gas at Shell stations was nice too. I have Att now. I'd have had to pay twice as much per month to stay with T-Mobile.

It matters. They're all over Cease's fastball when it's in the zone. Lopez had the same problem before his arm fell off.

Yeah, but what's Bauer's fastball carry vs Cease's? Giolito's fb has about the same spin as Bauer's. Cease has more spin but worse carry. I thought Cease and Lopez had similar fb carry.

He can't stay healthy as a pitcher. Idk how much longer before they just put him in RF and be done with it. Ohtani trying to do both diminishes his value as both a hitter and a pitcher. Dude needs to just pick one. IMO he's a better hitter than pitcher.

I actually have better perspective in years like 2017 than when they're trying to win. I get really meatbally during competitive times. I tend to lose perspective when they're good. Anyway, I talked it out with my buddies and I don't feel so bad about the Sox anymore. World Series? Probably not. But they have a good chance to make the playoffs and maybe get to the ALCS.

My guess is he probably ends up in NY.

Bingo. For example I'm much more willing to give the Blackhawks the benefit of the doubt than the Sox.

I despise gambling mostly. Too much uncertainty. There are some gambling sites that do give away money and I'm there for those. Beyond that, nope. I'm not agoraphobic or anything, but a lot of things that most people wouldn't think twice about doing I find very risky. Most of my pessimism comes from being extremely risk averse.

Actually no. There are some things that I'm optimistic about. There are others (the Sox being one of them) that I'm pessimistic about. Actually I can only think of two things that I'm definitely pessimistic about, and the Sox are one of them. You guys just caught me in a bad mood today.

^^^^^^

It's definitely not my parents, they're pretty optimistic people. There are definitely some pretty shitty things that have happened to me throughout my life, and that's where it comes from. There was a joke the other day that I saw that sums it up perfectly:

I actually don't. I have them at 86 but I think their floor is about 83-84. Their ceiling is way higher. I just tend to go closer to floor than ceiling. My opinion is that it takes more talent to win 90 games than it used to.

They're at 90.5 right now. Like it wouldn't shock me if they won 91 games anyway just because of the potential on this club. It wouldn't shock me if they won 86 games either. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, don't get me wrong. For me, I tend to err on the slightly pessimistic side.

Vegas sets their number so that they win either way. Vegas's number is about making money, not about the most likely scenario.

Are you saying that ZiPS and PECOTA are really pessimistic? I think they're a pretty objective view on the most likely outcome.

I'd be willing to if I had the money to lose. What I'm saying is that a lot of your hopes come from unrealized potential rather than what is. A lot of the Sox players don't have a track record that makes me feel comfortable yet. I can list those players on one hand. Anderson, Giolito, Abreu, Hendriks and that's about it. I really like Moncada and Robert but I can't say for sure that they're going to be good this year. Moncada's only done it once and Robert only has for a month. I will not deny that the Sox have a metric shit ton of potential, because they do. But it's only that until the potential becomes reality. As we all know about the law of averages, some guys we don't expect to be bad will underperform, some guys we didn't expect anything from will have good seasons. Some players will get injured. (as we've already seen) I expect them to be in the playoff race deep into September but I'm not positive they'll get in.

Saying that I think the Sox are an 84-87 win team isn't negative. It's grounded in reality. It's where the projections have them. If I said I thought they were going to win 75 games, that's being negative. Could the Sox win more games? Sure. But I surely don't expect them to. BTW I thought they were in the 88-92 range with Eloy. There's a ton of upside in all areas but I'm not counting on that potential to be realized until it actually shows itself for a couple months. The rotation is where all of the question marks are. They're still going to be a solid offense, rather than one of the best in baseball.

It's not for me. I'm sick of toxic positivity culture. Disappointment is just the worst.