Jack Parkman

That is the perfect park for Keuchel.

I think the short arm action is creating a lot of deception

So is McCann going to be the starter!?

All aboard!!! I'm not ready to gloat yet, gotta see it for at least 10 starts first.

It's more lamenting the fact they can't hit even shitty pitching. The entire team looks lost at the plate against schmucks.

I'm shocked they didn't run Merrifield.

He's had the best fastball of any of the starters so far.

It's a valid concern. He's really slow to the plate.

Because he sucks. /thread

I wouldn't mind Palka in the OF as much if Jimenez wasn't exclusively a LF. LF is the only position they could hide Palka at.

I'd hope they'd have the cajones to sit Alonso and DH Palka, but it doesn't seem they do. What would be "so White Sox" would be for some of the younger players to suck here, the Sox give up on them, everyone gets fired, and the players go figure it out and have a few productive seasons elsewhere.

I agree with the bolded, but they aren't going to waste $9M on Alonso. As long as Alonso is here, there is no room for Palka. His defense sucks and he won't get better. He's a complete butcher in the OF. He's a DH and only a DH.

He's a massive liablilty in RF, to say the least. He's too detrimental to the pitching staff to start in the OF. Palka is either a DH or not startable. With Alonso here, he has no spot. Jimenez is going to be the long-term DH so there isn't really any room for him here anyway. I don't think anyone is giving the Sox anything in trade for Palka. There really is no shame in cutting bait. Most of the problem that people had with Alonso, was him displacing Palka. It would have been worth it had they landed that 3B that plays in San Diego, but they didn't so now they have to deal with the consequences of that decision.

I used to have confidence in Cooper as recently as 2017. By July 2018 I lost confidence in their entire coaching staff. They need to clean house, at the very least in coaches. I wouldn't mind if Hahn got whacked too, but he has job security until 2022 probably. The game has passed Cooper by. He was a great pitching coach 10-15 years ago, but by 2015 he was obsolete.

I'm not sure about his arm. Is it RF quality? It doesn't have to be awesome just passable. I really wish they would have traded for Domingo Santana. He would have been a good flip candidate.

This. So much this. Once they traded for Alonso, the writing was on the wall for Palka. So be it. Quit costing the team runs with a shitty RF. Jay doesn't help either, because he doesn't have a RF arm. I hate saying this, but if they didn't have a plan for RF they should've brought Avi back. They need someone that can play passable D in RF and has a RF arm. If they don't have that, they're going to cost the pitching staff runs, which will make their pitching staff look worse than it is. They should have signed CarGo or Jones.

He does? I thought they claimed him off waivers, which would mean he was out with the Twins.

Yeah, Palka is out of options though. If they send him down they lose him. Idk what they can do.

Possibly. When you've been injured as much as Sale has the last two seasons it isn't out of the question. Boston may have messed up by signing Sale to that deal. I looked at the link in that fangraphs article and they say it takes 3 starts to gauge fastball velocity.

Merrifield is 30 dude. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/merriwh01.shtml

I was surprised they picked up his option this past offseason.

Is there something they're doing since Herm Schneider retired that is causing every pitcher to have a significant velocity drop? Serious question.

Statcast is being fooled by the Sox pitchers throwing much slower than normal. That fastball was 93mph from Jones and statcast thought it was a changeup hahaha.

Who said it was Burr? Was it Stone or Bennetti?

You know your team's pitching sucks that day when it gives up 3 hits to Billy Hamilton.