35thstreetswarm

In a word, no.

I know it's a cliche, but Eloy really is visibly slimmer. Hopefully that indicates renewed offseason focus and translates into lower injury risk.

It was just a matter of time before a segment of the fanbase turned on TA. I'm surprised it took this long. I just hope he comes out balling this season and shuts everyone up.

Yes, the best thing about spring training is it heralds the glorious time of year when the offseason sport (layman speculation about baseball) gives way to the regular season sport (actual baseball). It's super exciting for most fans. Though I've learned that it can be discomfiting for the more self-serious prognosticators among us to be reminded that they don't know s%*#.

Yes, or general mental health or exhaustion or something. I'm more and more convinced it's 90% face-saving cover for the firing.

"Simplistic questions" are usually easy to understand, but somehow I literally have no idea what you're asking. ? It's like: "Here's an easy one: who ISN'T the White Sox going to rely upon (ala 2008) from those players who Jerry believes are so important to have on a roster supposedly in the top MLB payroll tier (Cohen says hi, not to mention Steinbrenner of the 90s and 2000s ha ha ha), who doesn't have a team-friendly contract, which everyone says is Hahn's specialty (not exactly AJ Preller, even if best case scenario you consider us more like the Brewers - Yelich, Cain, Hader before he was traded, etc. etc.)?? It's a yes or no question."

Yes, agreed. Coddling him and hiding him from the media would be worse. Their hands may be tied in keeping him around, but they don't have to shield him from scrutiny or consequences either.

It is interesting if she really was not the one to first report his behavior to MLB, but only reluctantly participated after they went to her first. Also, I'm sorry but I have to say it: "checking for parasites" from "raw goat's milk?" Chiropractic adjustments? What the what?

PECOTA had the Sox winning like 92 games last year (more than the Astros), and Cleveland like 76 if I recall.

"Pitchers And Catchers Report" will always be the best four words in the English language, and nobody can take that away from me. I'm just going to hope that this group performs the way the 2022 team was supposed to, which would not be all that crazy. I'm also going to take solace in the fact that the small number of fun seasons the Sox have given us in the last 20 years have mostly come on the heels of offseasons that left the fanbase angry or nonplussed about the coming season's prospects. (It's those hype years that kill us.) Go Sox!

True - tough for a casual fan to justify spending extra for box seats when you can usually buy cheap bleacher tix and go sit there anyway if you want. My kids and I bounced around from open seat to open seat almost every game. We sat right behind home plate all the time. Unlike Wrigley you don't have to battle the straw hatted geriatric enforcement squad to get down every aisle

Yes -- I was honestly shocked at the per-seat/per-game cost of season tickets. Even though I knew the secondary market had changed things dramatically I figured I'd get *some* meaningful "volume discount." Not at all. I was paying about $35/seat for lower-bowl tickets, which was definitely below single-game "face value" but above what the secondary market commanded for 70-80% of the games. It was only a bargain for the Cubs series, really.

The last point is the reason why I’ve bought packages. But you can get those playoff options by purchasing a package at the end of a successful/playoff season too, which incentivizes fans to take a wait-and-see approach (which is what I’m doing this year.) Until they sustain winning and actually have regular sellouts, though, season tix will be a tough sell.

In other words, "I don't know either." ?

Oh, it does.

*Your full-season ticket base. It won't capture partial season plans, which are heavily weighted to weekend games. My 20 game plan had like 2-3 midweek games and they were all later, and relatively high profile matchups. I'm guessing the partial-season ticket base is a lot more variable than the full-season ticket base, but really no sure.

Nah. Even season-ticket holders don't go to those games. Also doesn't capture partial plans that don't include that particular game. (I know you're probably joking anyway.) Anyway, I have a feeling the dropoff is pretty large, but especially large in the partial season packages they sold at the end of 2021 to suckers like me.

Does the org publish season ticket numbers anywhere or at any point? I'd be curious to see how big the dropoff.

[Oops]

Sounds like you treat baseball as some sort of "pastime." Sad. Are you aware that if you get angry enough you can control the direction of the team through sheer force of will and fanpower?

It's like how I always laugh at the suggestion that a poor record in a single season will somehow force Jerry (to force himself?) to sell the team.

Everybody cites "81 wins" as if it's the definitive and precise mathematical measure of team quality, but let's face it -- there are different ways to get to 81 wins. They were 5 games over and very much in the race going into that September Cleveland series, and frankly took their foot off the gas for several weeks once they lost that first Cleveland series game in a heartbreaker. They were in free-fall for a while after they realized they were out of it. They were probably an 85-win team that fell to .500. A meaningless and negligible difference, really, but then so is the difference between 81 and 83.5. 83.5 seems reasonable. As a sidenote, I love threads like this where neutral, outside reality creeps in to the Soxtalk doom chamber for a moment. The cognitive dissonance can be fascinating to watch. I swear, we could be heading into the ALCS next year and somebody would post that "the people celebrating the ALCS are missing the real point, which is that Rick Hahn failed to sign Zach Wheeler in the 2019 offseason and..."

I do feel for them. Bottom line is season tickets make much more sense if the tickets are a tough get during the season. But you can walk up to the G-Rate box office on any game day and get tickets. Why inconvenience yourself by reducing your choice of games to attend?

Yep. It's just not worth it to me. I'll get my pick of the games I actually want instead of getting locked in to arbitrary dates months in advance, then buy 2024 season tix if they're in the playoff push and secure playoff tickets that way.

Photographs can be circumstantial evidence or direct evidence. The relevant distinction is not between "circumstantial" and "physical." It is between "circumstantial" and "direct." Photographs can be offered as either direct evidence (photograph of suspect shooting the person), or circumstantial evidence (photograph of suspect covered in blood holding a gun outside the victim's house minutes after the murder occurred.) Again, though, calling something "circumstantial evidence" does not suggest that it is not powerful or even case-dispositive. The example I just provided is an example of very powerful circumstantial, physical evidence.