caulfield12

I'm in BKK/Bangkok. Fly out tonight (in theory) back into mainland China for 7 day quarantine, followed by three days "stay at home" when I can finally fly home from Zhengzhou China (I have to pay for room for seven days but have completely random allocation from 1 to 5 star). My family all is supposed to not see me and stay in different places while I wait out those three days, lol. One of the craziest travel experiences ever. Spending $1000 on Covid tests, 6-7 rebookings, cancelled or suspended flight due to a valve problem (United), sleeping 2-3 hours per night all week. figuring out every possible way into China (Taiwan and Macau turned out to be a bad plan my wife and I changed at last minute since nowhere to even stay since priority for residents/foreign work visa holders)...still nervous something could go wrong with the paperwork in the end. So much bureaucracy. Only people masking in the world are Asia/Asian and mostly Chinese students abroad. Only people making money are QT hotels and testing companies. As for Thailand, my Chinese friends made me go to NANA Plaza to a Japanese bar, lol. I was in Bangsean/Chonburi seeing my former co-worker and teaching a class of university students (French majors) even though I have been away from my own classes back in China for 22 days now. Met two women from Angola, a Laotian, Eastern European wanna-be backpacking English teachers and experienced monsoon rains in 24 hours. If it wasn't so damned expensive right now, would also like to travel for 6-9 months and enjoy that feeling of freedom instead of going back into the uncertain prison-like atmosphere of China with never-ending lockdowns and testing. Thailand has amazing food...just starting to fully reopen again but won't be back to "normal" (meaning 2019 levels) by their predictions until 2024/25. Think I've spent $7000-8000 total on flights/cancellations/rebookings/health fees for Covid, that doesn't even count food and entertainment. Coming back from China it was $3000+ plus for "one way" ticket booked at the last minute after I got a call from my cousin in Iowa that my mom was near death. Then just last night my wife's grandmother died at age 96.

Hate to see the opposite of "relative success" for any fanbase...

Pretty sad we're getting run over by the Orioles' front office, but they went through a complete revamp and finally started to throttle back on owner interference. "According to Orioles' GM Mike Elias, the team is about to enter into a “decade-long window” of winning.Aug 8, 2565 BE" Blame that weird signature for the date on THAILAND internet, lol. They've gone insane here with their military junta and attempting to control the Internet much like China does. At any rate, the AL East is suddenly better across the board than the entire Central. Red Sox now at the very bottom. Rangers are spending. White Sox had a wide open window of opportunity this last season and completely whiffed on it. Angels might have to do something completely outside of the box and trade either Trout or Ohtani. Only teams not a threat to the White Sox right now are arguably the A's (not going by regular season 2022), Angels, Tigers and Royals...but they're all coming for the Sox, and SOON.

That makes Hahn look even dumber.

Maybe spend that money more wisely. See Guardians/Rays/Mariners.

Seems like Hawk Harrelson memories/recollections will always be centered around 1967 and 1968, fwiw. Then the 69 Mets and Cubs.

Well, at least they have Julio Rodriguez. He's pretty pretty good.

See Ron Washington working with Marcus Semien, or improvements out of Omar Narvaez. Heck, improvements with Dayan Viciedo in Japan, lol.

See Gordon, Alex and Kuntz/Rusty. See Royals' outfield defense from 2013-2016/17.

Over/under tonight on how much time is spent promoting food/concession items and NOT talking about the real problems or talking about other teams like Detroit, KC and Minnesota? 11-12 minutes?

Okay, acquisition. By the way, thanks for fighting so hard to protect the Guardians name this year!!! It was seemingly an omen of things to come for the Clevelanders.

Maybe someone should ask if he has any concern with Katz going forward as Giolito AND Flaherty (teammates with Fried at Harvard Westlake) have both basically hit brick walls in their respective careers???

"You try to do things that make sense," said Williams, speaking in general terms regarding Rowand. "I can't give you a dollar if I only have 50 cents."

It's very simple. They have 3 shots at the post-season now, 2022-23-24. If they don't like where they are with Machado, Tatis and Soto in 2024, they start a rebuilding phase in that third season. Three pretty decent assets to hold onto there to kick things off. Not to mention they hold Hader in his walk year next season, which can be perceived as a good or bad things, depending on one's perspective and his $15-17 million price tag in Arb 3/4. Essentially the same place where the White Sox are, two post-seasons out of three, but with one series victory already (against StL). Dodgers a bit more of a challenge, and SF last year, than the dreaded AL Central. They do have to replace Clevinger and Manaea, as well as Josh Bell and Drury, who has been huge for them down the stretch. Dumped Hosmer deal off the books (sort of), and Myers' onerous deal will be gone at the end of this year. That leaves Musgrove, Darvish, Blake Snell, Nick Martinez, Morejon or Baez (maybe moving out of the pen), David Weathers' kid, etc. Rotation is definitely a WEAKER spot, which is why they felt the compelling need to sign Musgrove to an extension before the offseason (plus the no hitter and the fact that he's from SD, hometown kid). SNELL has absolutely carried the team as the best second half starter, along with Darvish's solid steadying presence. Line-up is very stable, although they do need to get a lot more out of Trent Grisham and not sure that Azocar's an everyday player going forward. They do get back a certain SS back a month into next season, with Profar/Cronenworth/Kim proved their worth this season, building invaluable depth. Jorge Alfaro and Nola have been solid/above-average at catcher. Luis Campusano, one of the their top remaining prospects, is getting invaluable experience at catcher now as well. 2022 San Diego Padres Depth Chart | RosterResource | FanGraphs Baseball This is the current FA pitching list for this offseason 1. Jacob deGrom (would be an absolute shocker if he left the Mets) 2. ***Carlos Rodon (from $3 million make good deal to the top FA starter on the market, with deGrom unlikely to leave NY) 3. Verlander (retire or stay in Houston) 4. Kershaw (see Verlander) 5. ***Chris Bassitt (another great Hahn Special, so the two biggest FA's are former Sox farmhands as it stands right now) 6. Luis Severino (would be a shocker if NYY didn't exercise his option) 7. ***Adam Wainright (potential reunion with TLR where he gets tremendously overpaid off 2022 season, Molina moving on in life) 8. ***Nathan Eovaldi (classic high risk, high reward guy...pretty stable the last 2-3 years) 9. Charlie Morton (he's really going to choose the White Sox at age 39 looking like a 2nd/3rd place team?) 10. ***Noah Syndergaard/Thor (mostly likely option for Sox, since fits the "big name" requirement but well past his prime now stuff-wise) MLB Free Agents 2022-23: Ranking the Top 10 Starting Pitchers – NBC Boston

Somewhere between PICK 4 in the whole entire draft and the 5th round...there's some opportunities to not mess up 2nd and 3rd round drafts like pretty much every SOX draft in like FOREVER.

To me, it's Seby Zavala suddenly becoming part of the core of the team, much like a certain April Rookie of the Year the prior season and even having a sandwich named after him, even. That didn't end well. We went from TOUTING how Rodon, Z. Collins, Madrigal, Crochet and Fulmer had simultaneously been on the roster as former #1 picks to having almost NOTHING to show for all that with Vaughn completely out of position now.

Hahn has been the wrong one for the job ever since the Keppinger trade, another guy who just didn't want to play baseball for the Sox, much like Pollock and LaRoche and Cesar Hernandez/Kimbrel. I think the year that really defined Hahn was the Melky Cabrera/Robertson/Beckham/Bonifacio/can't remember the random junkball catcher (the equivalent of Jorge Fabregas)...that offseason was CLASSIC Hahn at his best/worst. Let's not forget Zach Duke, the failures of Beckham/Viciedo overhanging the beginning of Hahn and the Jeff Samardzija trade. That whopper (trade for Shark and then TRYING to resign him but failing) would have gotten HALF the GM's in baseball fired ALONE during that 2014-15 cycle...that eventually led to Frazier as the big ad, the clubhouse implosion (Sale/Drake LaRoche, Ventura not even wanting to be there) and then a little discussed trade with names like Big Game James Shields and Erik Johnson involved.

At risk of Sosa being the next HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED. Actually, I don't think MOST baseball fans out there dislike the guy all that much, he's pretty much the perfect mentor/role model of that group of youngsters who will lead the sport into the future, such as Julio Rodriguez and maybe Acuna and of course Vladdy still. The bridge from Trout and Harper to where the sport is today. (Fwiw, a month ago, I would have said the Padres' only chance in HELL was to play the third divisional winner, likely the Cardinals/Brewers winner. Now, having a match-up with the Braves isn't as scary as it once was. That said, they're beating the Cardinals now and took them down two years ago in the post season.)

And that talent is mostly Cease and Kopech, crosses fingers ONE of them doesn't go down with TJS or that would be the absolute death blow to the rebuild....whatever is actually left of it right now. Sure, Lopez and Liam and Crochet and Bummer are undoubtedly talented, but a bullpen isn't enough to carry a team, unless it is as good as the 2014-15 Royals. Of course, we end up getting the likes of Herrera about 2-3 years too late, just like Joe Kelly and Diekman and maybe even Graveman, who has taken a beating usage wise over the last half decade. Vaughn and Jimenez are the most realistic guys to get something out of moving forward, with our other three Cubans at risk of being flameouts or entirely new players under a different manager and/or operating system reboot. PS: please please please never allow either Leury or Engel another day on this roster after the conclusion of this season. Same with Mendick. Move on and see if any of our prospects can actually play, such as Sosa/Ca.Perez/Colas/Martin. The worst result this offseason was that guys such as Luis Gonzalez were actually more competent (and certainly better "values") than the likes of Pollock and Leury out there. Because of how poorly our roster is currently constructed, Davis Martin, Seby and Sheets are all due for recurring roles in 2023, and we all know how likely that is to work out in the end. Same with overpaying Andrus, Harrison or Cueto.

Perfect leader for their youngsters like Oscar Gonzalez, Rosario and Gimenez...mentoring opportunities abound with all their Latin American infield prospects as well. Essentially co-captain with Ramirez, although he's the bonafide superstar and Abreu likely to end up more like Encarnacion in his final year/s.

Ultimately, AJ Preller is the winner for not giving up on getting to the playoffs this season, despite the Hader and Bell trades not going swimmingly in the beginning...Bell's numbers have been horrific. But anyone in baseball could and should have traded for Brandon Drury. RH/LH aside, he would have been the perfect addition. As far as the Twins and Indians go, I was pretty consistent that those teams were going to lead the Sox at least through June/July. The one thing I didn't see coming was the complete and utter disaster that is now the Twins, because of both injuries and starting pitchers that couldn't consistently go more than 4-5 innings without completely wearing out their own bullpen (despite Jhoan Duran's best efforts)...trading Rogers to the Pads for Pagan/Paddack is where things first started going wrong, although that was actually a "net zero" move from an overall perspective since Rogers imploded as well (quite similar to Hader, who seems to have recovered at the perfect time for the post-season.)

Amed Rosario is going into his walk year in 2023. That's the ONLY decision they really have to make. Do they want to pay him for another season? Somehow, turning around and trading him would be unbelievable with how he's played the last couple of months. Civale and Plesac, on the other hand, good odds at least one goes and they simply plug in another youngster from their highly touted system. They've already broken the club record for rookies used in a single season.

Discovered something interesting thinking about the Guardians. Out of the Top 90 sprint speed guys in the majors, 12 are/were connected to the Padres. In theory, every team "on average" would have just 3 players (3 X 30). 1. Trea Turner LAD/FA 2. Ruben Mateo Balt 3. Esteury Ruiz MIL 4. Oscar Azocar SD 5. Jankowski NYM/PHA 6. Abrams WASH 7. Owen Miller CLE 8. Edward Olivares KC 9. Trent Grisham SD 10. Jack Suwinski PITT 11. Tuppy Marcano WASH 12. Jorge Alfaro (C) SD Of course, Tatis Jr. would also be a part of this list as well, so 13 out of 90 or almost 15%.

Statcast Sprint Speed Leaderboard | baseballsavant.com (mlb.com) Gives the average sprint speed for every position and an individual ranking by players. Highly-touted rookie Corbin Carroll of the DBacks is now #1 overall. Witt, Jr., is right up there in the Top 5. Same with Trea Turner, a player we most assuredly won't be even with a seat at the table in terms of "in on."