caulfield12

Seems appropriate to bump this after tonight... We've seen players that collect lots of infield hits have higher BABIP's, but this is pretty extraordinary the last couple of months he's putting up, combined with his batting approach (minus the homers) the first month plus. Of course, he needs to stay healthy for 145+ games in a single season, that's the biggest test remaining. Now the pendulum is swinging back towards Mike Trout again, but fortunately he's been able to ascend to his current heights in relative obscurity, other than his highlight reel homers and standout defensive plays.

Harold, you're really pushing it. At least with Puig in his first two seasons and then Tatis, they put up legit numbers that didn't need to be "massaged" to make reasonable-sounding arguments on behalf of a player. Obviously we'll never know how the likes of Kelenic and Vaughn (from a White Sox fan perspective) would have had their career trajectories transformed by playing a "normal" 2020 schedule. But someone will argue perhaps that player never would have been a star regardless, if Covid completely derailed their career/s. Of course, there are players like Eduardo Rodriguez and Freddie Freeman that are quite fortunate to be alive, for example.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32293462/vaccinated-nba-staffers-concerned-health-risks-being-exposed-unvaccinated-players-season-approaches

What I want to know is why we're assuming illegal immigrants from Haiti (or, in general, from Central and South America) are bringing Covid-19 into the US at higher rates than the US population is already spreading it in some of those same border or immigration-heavy states like Texas, Florida and Arizona?

https://www.mlb.com/news/2021-home-run-leaders-make-history

Now at .172, had a big chance to break the game wide open but just flew out. Got to feel for Mariners and Blue Jays fans. (Not that anyone predicted Seattle would be in this position without Lewis and Paxton for most of the year, and Kelenic struggling to get his OPS up over .600)

You have to be more confident of the Dodgers fending off the Cardinals in a one game do or die situation due to the strength of their starting pitching. Padres now get to play spoiler. Next manager (Bochy, Glenn Hoffman, Francona) yet to be determined.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/roberlu01.shtml Some pretty eye popping numbers, other than RBI’s…which is due as much as anything due to his spot in the order. Looking at 25-35 homers per season, probably not the huge stolen base numbers (for injury reasons alone) but roughly 15-25 could reasonably be expected. Mid 800’s OPS.

The math is still off…

2008, living the life near the beach on the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand, teaching at a Thai university. Separated. Finished second Master’s degree. Two black Labs. Nightmares of the Carlos Gomez/Bobby Jenks blown save game and Alexei Ramirez down the stretch, as well as Carlos Quentin losing the MVP and blowing Sox playoff chances in frustration. 13 years later, almost 52, w/ six year old son starting just first grade here in Wuhan, married for second time. Still teaching, for around twenty years now. Survived at the epicenter of Covid-19 but haven’t been able to return to the States for 2+ summers now due to lengthy quarantines. Also miss having the dogs. Still wondering whether the FIRE movement will lead to self-actualization, haha. Would be happy just to take another international flight, or have access to mRNA vaccines.

https://fortune.com/2021/08/24/singapore-pivot-covid-zero-reopening-international-travel/ Because Singapore is no longer a Zero Covid (see China, Australia, NZ) country, as they believe the higher rates are worth it to attract businesses…especially banking and finance/investing…away from Hong Kong, which along with Australia and Nz has the toughest quarantine rules in the entire world. They also have a higher population density to deal with in terms of opening up. China has no community spread even with two vaccines that are just 20% effective against Delta even with a double dose, btw. Now Singapore is changing direction. The country is about to become the first to go from a zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 to one that will allow COVID to become endemic in its population. Its new approach is a contrast to that of its counterpart and sometimes-rival Hong Kong, which closed its borders on March 25, 2020. Both cities—like many other places in Asia—adopted a “COVID-zero” strategy, using social distancing and, in Singapore’s case, lockdowns to eradicate local cases of COVID-19 while using travel restrictions and inbound quarantine to control imported cases. Now, more than a year later, Singapore is cautiously reopening, while Hong Kong’s government has announced a raft of new inbound quarantine restrictions. Not that Singapore will allow life to return to normal. It is choosing to take it slow. First, it has set itself an unusually high bar for vaccination: It won’t begin to reopen until 80% of its population have been double-jabbed. By contrast, Britain lifted restrictions with about 65% fully vaccinated. Second, even when it reaches that threshold in early September, Singapore will reopen with a whimper rather than a bang. On Sept. 8, Singaporeans will be allowed to travel without quarantining on their return—but only to two countries with low rates of COVID-19, Brunei and Germany. For the time being, mask-wearing will remain mandatory, contact-tracing apps will remain in use, and restaurants will still have to abide by the 10:30 p.m. curfew.

I'm starting to think you work for Starbucks, with how many times they get mentioned in Greg long posts, haha. Although this particular story doesn't exactly promote the franchise all that effectively...

"Let's apply a little 20/20 foresight to the late 2020s. In the runup to 2029 and the end of the Chicago White Sox's current lease, people probably will be inured to calling the team's publicly funded home Guaranteed Rate Field. They may barely notice the concessions affecting that lease's final years that the state agency that built and manages the stadium proudly claimed from the Sox in exchange for approving the new renaming rights deal. The focus by then will have shifted away from the current home of the White Sox to zero in on the next home of the White Sox." https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-rosenthal-white-sox-guaranteed-rate-isfa-0828-biz-20160826-column.html

Just hope he has a better career than Jeremy Reed for Harold’s sake…

We are still talking about a 22 year old who finished 4th in the MVP voting last year and will still likely finish 2nd or 3rd this year, assuming they give it to Harper now. Any player at that age is going to struggle when the team goes 10-24 during the key stretch of the season. Other than Griffey Jr. and Mike Trout, it's rare to see someone at that age smoothly transition into stardom. Machado himself has had a career filled with issues into his late 20s before he suddenly morphed into an elder statesman like Pudge Fisk. (Sports writers get more clicks documenting falls from grace and then historic comebacks...see Tiger Woods and MJ, for example.) Let's see how Tatis handles playing for a legit manager who doesn't coddle him and let him get away with everything as long as the team's playing well. Let's also not forget that KW, Ventura, Eaton and the LaRoches also bear part of the blame for Chris Sale's maturity issues, for example. There's two sides to every story. Just three short days ago, Tatis was still great for the sport, at least until the storyline quickly changed.

And I will say this, despite being a flawed team chemistry-wise, they still won 7 out of 8 in the first half against the Dodgers. They’re playing in the same division with two teams that will end up with 100+ wins, and played the majority of their games down the stretch against pennant contenders. Of course, problems began much earlier against teams like the Rockies and DBacks. All of those are excuses, along with 28 other teams being in the same boat at year’s end, and the bottom line is that this season has been a massive disappointment…even making it like the 2008 Sox did, they were unlikely to go far with Darvish fading and a hanging on by a thread bullpen. Hopefully, the White Sox season doesn’t end that way…you are only okay with losing if the best team beats you, instead of giving it to them like we used to do nearly every year against the Twins.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2021-09-19/padres-jayce-tingler-aj-preller-manny-machado-fernando-tatis-manager Not surprised about the error with the sun, team falling apart and never having played CF before…was always in RF. I guess it’s supposed to be a lesson about playing where the team needs you with Grisham falling apart. All that said, Preller is going to have to fire Tingler (could even be if they slip below .500) and if he doesn’t replace him with Bochy, Francona, or someone who will be more respected in the clubhouse than Andy Green or Tingler, he will be the next one shown the door. Adding Frazier unnecessarily (and he hasn’t been much better than Cesar Hernandez), losing Scherzer to LA, threatening to trade Hosmer (but not succeeding) but most especially not adding more starting pitching was the beginning of the end. While they have a hellacious schedule this month, that’s not the main reason for being 14 games under .500 since August 10th.

Cease is going to get a start over Rodon and Giolito?

But it is the Trump vaccines that are largely being rejected by his own voters...Operation Warp Speed. His potentially winning in November, 2020, was at least partially predicated on getting them out to the public before the election.

Or SemiEn. We're also the champions of producing MVP candidates at the SS position, as we can claim 3 of the best. Of course, you just know if Marcus came back he would struggle to hit 20 (aka the Cesar Hernandez Effect.)

Well, it must be happening in the Deep South (Alabama and Mississippi) because .... "fill in the stereotype" This whole overweight issue is just another red herring. I don't see anyone arguing we should take guns away from people because that's yet another leading cause of death. As far as Republican talking points go, it's a complete failure...look at all the the pushback Michelle Obama got when she attempted to get involved in school food/nutrition, and that was young people. Generally, protecting young people is universally popular as a polling issue. But make it "big government," "mandates," "taking control away or decision-making authority from local officials," each and every time "freedom" and Americans being allowed to do whatever they want, no matter how harmful to their health it is will win out. Why not take away alcohol from everyone, that's another huge issue, right? Why not outlaw cigarettes, too? If anything, guns, cigarettes and alcohol (through drunk driving) all are better comparisons to Covid-19 because they can impact OTHERS around you....not just your own personal health (or insurance rates.) Of course, many Republicans are screaming now about insurance companies not paying out benefits from Covid deaths when unvaccinated. Shocking.

China, Singapore, Vietnam and to a lesser extent Thailand have all taken draconian measures to prevent Covid spread. The closest countries where you might have similar lock downs but more "obese" people would have to be Australia and New Zealand. And Thailand now has an increasing Delta death rate because they waited too long to join the vaccine pipeline...95% of their vaccines are from China, and dubious against Delta.

And therein lies the danger of not being at the top but "pretty/really good," especially with Rodon likely leaving and Lynn getting older/more injury prone. We're either going to hit a payroll ceiling...or we're going to have to keep coming up with unexpected performances from guys like Yermin/Goodwin/Hamilton/Rodon. Hard to bank on that happening every single season, unless you're a team like the Dodgers spending in the $250 million range. And ramping the payroll up to compete quickly can backfire too, or making trade after trade after trade...like the Padres have done. If they held on to Quantrill, Patino and even Lauer, they might have ended up better off. We'll see what happens with Clevinger, Snell, Lamet, Darvish and Gore next season. As Fathom noted, they've turned into dead team walking and Tingler will definitely be gone if they miss the playoffs and likely if they lose the WC Game to SF. (Although I'm sure Preller will keep repeating injuries, injuries, injuries as his off-season mantra, attempting to deflect blame from himself.)

I would take Francona or Bochy in a heartbeat. For all the talk about Hinch, he's done a solid job getting the most out of an offense-less Tigers team as well...don't think anyone expected them to be competitive as early as 2022.

Bigger picture, we really need the Tigers or Royals (they've given us fits already) to emerge as real threats to keep the team (as well as the front office and JR) honest...because coasting into the playoffs every year for the next 2-3 seasons doesn't seem like that greatest idea in the world. The Indians look to be around .500ish again, especially if they decide they can't sign Jose Ramirez. It just MIGHT work this year, who knows really...but there's plenty of examples where teams in all professional sports couldn't just turn it back on when they actually needed to in the post-season after an extended period of "resting up" and picking their battles carefully.