caulfield12

Reds aren't going to be very good this season but will be quite aggressive on the basepaths. Really need a healthy and productive season from Nick Senzel and continued progression from Hunter Greene.

Lots of first pitch breaking balls. Like any pitcher who can get off speed pitches over consistently... Montgomery got overwhelmed in his at-bat.

Ray Knight highly complimentary towards Avila. Took out two of the better Reds' prospects.

Much more likely to pull the ball on the ground than in the air though...especially against 97+ heaters.

He let Grandal and Moncada lead the Cuban Corner off a cliff. Hopefully they get their acts together with both their careers on the line this coming season. Renteria allowed the players to have fun together. They totally lost that with TLR being the laughing stock of MLB the last couple of seasons...despite the team trying to present as much evidence to the contrary that Tiny could be cool hip modern as a manager and make the necessary adjustments to the modern players.

Sox fans tend to turn even more skeptical in seasons when they start April and May mired in mediocrity. They would really need to be at least 10-12 games over .500 at the 54 game mark to start being most back into the fold. Not to mention jacking up ticket prices and parking coming off one of the most disappointing seasons in team history. I would give fans a free GA ticket for every game they turned up to and the Sox lost by more than five runs.

Here's the thing. Winning cures a lot of clubhouse and chemistry issues. Machado and Tatis were at each others' throats quite publicly two years ago when their season was imploding. It happens in every clubhouse where a massive preseason playoff favorite disappoints...players tend to turn on each other. Then the fact that he was pushed out the door pretty unceremoniously must have hurt after almost a full decade with the team. Fans understand the logic behind cutting him loose...a lot more than we disagreed about no QO for Carlos Rodon. No TLR or hitting coach excuses this year. It's on the players to perform. Unfortunately, they've already taken a bit of a gut punch losing Hendriks.

With Liam and Giolito on one side, Abreu and Grandal on the other, the ONE leader who could have bridged that gap between leadership of white and Hispanic players was arguably TA7. We all know how that went last season...

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/iowa-hawkeyes-lukas-van-ness-000034059.html

The biggest problem is that consumers continue to migrate away from traditional cable TV to streaming services, with the number of pay TV households in the United States dropping from 100 million in 2014 to roughly 65 million today. Fun fact: It’s estimated that there will officially be more non-pay TV households (68.2 million) in the United States than pay-TV households (63.4 million) by the end of 2023. Number Of Pay TV Households In The United States 2014: 100.5 million 2015: 99.6 million 2016: 97.7 million 2017: 94.3 million 2018: 90.3 million 2019: 84 million 2020: 78.2 million 2021: 72.9 million 2022: 68.5 million 2023: 65.1 million Add in the fact that RSNs are the most expensive part of the cable bundle, and the decline of cable TV households has only further accelerated their problems. For example, Xfinity dropped MSG Networks — home to the Knicks, Rangers, Devils, Islanders, and Red Bulls games — in 2021 after it found that 95% of its customers didn’t watch more than 10 of the 240 games on the network. And this creates a vicious cycle. Cable operators that choose to keep these RSNs have to continuously increase the bundle's price to make the economics work, which only makes more people cut the cord in the long run. And given that RSNs typically earn about 90% of their revenue from carriage fees, networks dropping their channel from the cable bundle can be disastrous for the company’s bottom line. Remember, the NBA and NHL playoffs are about to start, and these leagues have already received payment from Sinclair for this season. And when you look at the long-term impact, it gets even more interesting. Major League Soccer was criticized a fair amount for signing a long-term, exclusive deal with Apple TV. For example, why would a league that is trying to grow and acquire new customers close its distribution model and go 100% exclusive to streaming? Well, maybe that wasn’t so bad after all — because while MLS limited its growth and discoverability by removing itself from cable TV, at least its cash flow will be stable over the next decade, and fans know exactly where to watch games (without blackouts). So when/if the RSN model fails, don’t be surprised when these leagues go back to airing games on free local TV stations and allow everyone else to pay a monthly subscription fee to stream anything they want. https://huddleup.substack.com/p/the-multi-billion-dollar-problem

It wouldn't be unlike Marcus Semien if the White Sox for whatever reason gave up on Vaughn early (partly due to Semien never finding a true defensive "home" and partly due to the lack of exceptional infield instructors)... The White Sox inevitably learn that short-term thinking (the potentially marginal improvement in 2023 performance, at best) leading to Sheets/Burger instead as a platoon combo doesn't override having the youngest player who doesn't have to be platooned. You simply don't platoon Top 5 draft picks when they haven't even had an opportunity to play their natural position for one full season, and missed so much developmental time due to Covid as well.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/forget-the-new-rules--the-biggest-story-in-baseball-right-now-is-the-collapse-of-the-regional-sports-networks-032239854.html As of right now, 20 total teams involved, with Cubs/Marquee and Yanlees/YES peripherally involved due to various ownership stakes. This article mostly about the blackout rules and centralized MLB revenues that are divided more equitably to preserve competitive balance vs. $200+ million differentials prevalent today across the sport. RSN's currently comprising roughly 20-24% of individual team revenues...further negating importance of day-to-day attendance over 81 home games.

Minor league deal...he and Villar had been the last two remaining 2B with decent fWAR numbers, unless you count Profar as a part-time there.

Moncada...sigh. At this point, would much rather take my chances with Buxton if both players were compared head to head. And Buxton has a much more favorable contract.

Profar in no way shape or form is a SS any longer. 2B and LF. Chris Taylor already duplicates that.

Lux was slated for SS this season...

I think Romy's going to have an uphill climb to make the roster. Doesn't seem to have the type of offensive approach that works well with less than ten PA's per week.

Eloy just can't throw at all...arguably worse than Pollock.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2023-02-27/dodgers-gavin-lux-right-knee-inury-spring-training-andrew-friedman Looks like Trayce Thompson making Dodgers as weak side platoon CFer. Opportunity to trade a spare 2B as a Gavin Lux replacement.. EDIT: No way they trade TA7 to the Dodgers, but maybe Andrus "Miguel Vargas (JAN ADP 264 → FEB ADP 225) Vargas fits the profile of another type of player that typically climbs up the draft board as we get closer to March – talented young prospect whose outlook for playing time has been solidified. Early in the draft season, there was thought that the Dodgers would land a big name free agent shortstop to replace Trea Turner. When that didn't happen and the team committed to playing Gavin Lux at shortstop, it opened up the second base job for Vargas. The 23-year-old struggled in his 50 plate appearance sample during the 2022 season – but slashed a terrific .304/.404/.511 with 17 homers, 100 runs scored, 82 RBI and 16 stolen bases in 113 games at Triple-A. He'll hit at the bottom of the lineup, but with the Dodgers lineup being loaded once again it shouldn't ding his counting stats too much." Yahoo fantasy sports

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35749533/dodgers-gavin-lux-injures-knee-spring-training-game Trade Leury to Dodgers, get bacl 2-3 Top 100 prospects. If only...

Didn't he actually hit better RH in 2021 or 22?

Ryan Sweeney. In all seriousness, he's got one more shot with the M's. They HAVE to compete now, so they can't afford to baby him along. Didn't he put up solid stats in AAA last year after he was sent down, then struggled yet again upon recall? Pollock doesn't come out like 2022, and Kelenic's cold again, all bets are off. Not sure why they would be playing Pollock in RF, though....that's idiotic. But Teoscar Hernandez must be even worse in RF, haven't watched him play a whole lot. Obviously the guy is a hitter, first and foremost.

"Sánchez is still young and was identified as an intriguing prospect as a teenager. Baseball America considered him the #3 prospect in the Angels’ system going into 2015. Many years have passed since then but the southpaw threw 146 Double-A innings in 2019 with a 4.44 ERA and 3.40 FIP. After two mostly lost seasons, he didn’t quite match that production in 2022, but perhaps he will find better results now that he’s further removed from his lengthy absence." mlbtraderumors.com

In the same way Mark Teahen or Josh Fields could...

It's the White Sox. We know how this story plays out. That said, Sheets and Burger have negligible value to the rest of baseball...rebuilding teams aren't going to give up much to acquire a corner bat at a relatively advanced age. Burger and Sheets still have MORE value to the Sox (injury insurance) than they do to any other organization...unless that team has a defensive specialist to coach him up, so to speak. But the bat definitely plays. Unfortunately, that's only 1/3rd or 40% of the battle at 3B/1B/DH.