caulfield12

Great job, Luis. Sigh. Have to prepare for the conditions.

Shane Smith now 7 over his career high in innings pitcher with six weeks to go...

Oops. Only 93 mph ev. Thought Teel hit that one harder. Elder and his near 6 era survive the first.

Did you hear about the Vargas swing change? Gordon needs 3 coffees to get through these 3 1/2 hour games. And Schiffren lives in Vegas. Figures.

Not a great effort by Albies.

Part of it's related to political polarization the last two decades. Not being able to separate posters' political views with their sports opinions. Sox being so terrible makes it a convenient place to take out frustration with the team/owner/GM on other more conveniently available people...such as posters here. The mods by and large have less time for the Sox compared to let's say 2019-2021 and there's almost nobody left willing to consistently defend the team but 2-3 posters...the era of healthy, two sided debates ended with Hahn/KW and Getz replacing them. So you get a slew of repetitive arguments and what amounts to an echo chamber. Most positivity is related to the minors, where optimism is eternal. That said, falling so quickly from Top 4-6 to 16-20 and the setbacks from Smith and Schultz (and Taylor) have really been damaging body blows. It feels like we have to either wait for Jerry to die or not care much about the team until around 2028/29...that's a lot of time to invest after the limited returns of waiting from 2008 all the way until the two playoff seasons that ended so disappointingly. Just a lot of frustration and wondering whether the Sox are even worth it anymore when the owner barely seems to care about anything other than begging for public funding for a stadium yet again. Winning actually fixes a lot of the issues, though.

You have the obvious arguments about watching guys like Baines Frank Thomas Edgar Martinez David Ortiz Manny Ramirez ARod Pujols in the second halves of their careers. Pitchers getting hurt on basepaths or hbp is a real concern in the days of $300+ million contracts. Guys like TLR really slowed the game down to a crawl in StL with all te double switches. Generally better to make the game more fast paced...although that's mitigated to an extent by today's bullpen specialization trend.

Well, Vaughn's early error today was the key play of the game despite a later double and RS.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/article/rob-manfred-radical-mlb-realignment-014102687.html

Speed/defense is always cheaper than power. The easiest thing to do would be to change the dimensions of the park to make it more pitcher-neutral. The commonality between 2024 LAD and MIL are relentless offensive attacks that take their walks and don't give up many at-bats...always applying pressure on opposing pitchers. Maybe the White Sox can get hometown hero Owen Caissie when he's 30+?

Beckham wrote "Getz is g-y." Hopefully Bama Rush or SEC football is their next topic of the day if it's not the LLWS.

The correlation should be with batting averages falling dramatically due to 4-5 inning starts and the continuing trend of lockdown pens with so many more guys now at 95-100.

Was puzzled by how Milwaukee was doing so well and started investigating how their roster of "no names" was put together... There are the obvious ones, W.Contreras from the Braves before he blossomed, Yelich from Miami, Vaughn (1.7 fWAR), Chourio signing for $1.9 million and then his relatively "cheap" extension...guy is worth 2.8 fWAR in an injury-plagued, down offensive season compared to 2024. F.Peralta from SEA. All great original moves. The core of their roster could be the current White Sox group, though. 2B B.Turang a fringe Top 100 guy (#88-104 like Ramos/Colas), #21 pick, 2.8 fWAR. OF Sal Frelick ranked between #30-70 (milb) and #15 overall pick, 3.2 fWAR. Great defender and plenty fast. Joey Ortiz (milb #63-99) from Baltimore (much discussed/debated here), 1.4 in a down offensive season, great defender. Isaac Collins putting up a 3 fWAR as a Rule 5 and 3B Caleb Durbin (KC/NYY) as a minor league free agent at 1.8 fWAR also really stand out here in terms of under the radar acquisitions. The rotation is 4/6 imported. Other than Woodruff and Miz, you have the a fore mentioned Peralta, Patrick (great trade for Abraham Toro straight up), Quintana (bargain bin), Priester ( controversial #7 prospect trade to Boston for #33 draft pick, Priester and PTBNL). Closer Trevor Megill was acquired from MINN for a PTBNL not even with the Twins any longer. 3 more bullpen guys via trade, Tobias Myers from White Sox AAA. Looking at all these moves...Jackson Chourio might be the only one JR might not have approved of, but Paddy wasted a ton of money after Abreu/Robert in similar amounts. Getz positives... Original Fedde move S.Smith/Vasil Rule 5 Crochet as starter/eventually traded for what looks to be a very solid package Maybe saving/rehabilitating C.Montgomery as a prospect? Houser acquisition and trade Sticking with Sosa, Vargas jury STILL out Tauchman addition, albeit sliding Not trading Robert for scraps, we'll see

If Braden is not better than, let's say 2024 Wilyer Abreu...that's just not quite good enough. He has to be a middle of the order consistent run producer and 25-30 homer guy. And a huge jump for Teel from 2 to 4 fWAR because he won't get enough playing time if they DH Benintendi and Tauchman more often...as Quero will get at least 40% of time.

11th overall pick and $3.7 million signing bonus vs. $350k for Sosa. I guess the biggest comparison is they are both flawed players on the defensive side, but that's true for 95% of MLB. They're also not burners, although Burger's sprint speeds always surprise those who don't know how he he hustles watching on a daily basus. and growing to appreciate the other intangibles. Staying patient with Sosa might end up as the biggest current story of the season, along with his eventual position...as Vargas was the first half. At any rate, between Vargas Mead Montgomery Meidroth and Sosa, some really key decisions are coming up by the end of 2026. Also, Baldwin hopefully ends up improving his outfield defense and gets more regular playing time these last six weeks.

Almost ended up blowing that lead...at any rate, maybe 2-3 days off will do him some good mentally.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/brewers-fan-calls-911-beloved-200640371.html Idiot Cheeseheads...

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mlb/breaking-news/article/padres-manager-mike-shildt-ejected-after-fan-interference-call-overturns-xander-bogaerts-home-run-in-loss-to-giants-031845115.html You see both sides to this argument. Sucks that it turned out to be the deciding run.

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/coming-off-sweep-dodgers-cant-031956917.html Speculation Betts wants to move back to RF...Hernandez to left, Comforto out and Freeland/Rojas/Kim at SS. “It was one of those where you had to make a spectacular play. I didn’t,” said Hernández, who was playing deep in a no-doubles defense. “I [got] to the ball, I get the ball, but it came out of my glove.“ https://sports.yahoo.com/article/coming-off-sweep-dodgers-cant-031956917.html

Appendix. He looked to be stretching his back during one of his at bats. Maybe just routine tight ness. Back spasms would normally be a minimum of 2-3 days out. At least time off isn't ruining a hot streak...he's currently as cold as Lambeau in January.

Is Sosa really admired by Sox fans as much as Burger,eg. persevering/dealing with two consecutive torn Achilles' tendons, then all the health problems with his infant daughter?

Narvaez Semien immediately come to mind.

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/46011947 Pham gonna Pham... Rockies walk off the Dodgers. Baseball.

You weren't watching Sosa try to play second? Considering how much time he has spent at 1B, 11 is a lot of errors.

At least he was calm on that one... This is like Rockies home games always used to be...