caulfield12

“I hoped to do the impossible and sleep in, but was awakened by one of the worst sounds on earth: my sister’s Portuguese water dog whining at 6 a.m. The whining (or “squeaking” as my sister calls it) is akin to Chinese water torture, only worse. It’s like listening to a screaming baby who needs to be fed, changed and put down for a nap all at the same time.”

Watching these games with this lineup is like Portuguese water torture...even when we get a lead, you have to worry about the bullpen or defense self-destructing.

Was still a bit off balance...could tell it wasn’t going anywhere.

We were lucky to score one...if Collins hit it harder, tailor made double play.

Please set the BP machine at slider slider slider for Vaughn...

Need to get at least two here.

Did they say why Moncada is out? #5-9 and Goodwin is an at best average AAA lineup. Not that we didn’t know that already. Thank goodness for the Central.

Or pop ups to the opposite side...getting themselves out.

What would be the White Sox equivalents of McKay and Honeywell missing long stretches?

Do they even exist any more?

They will get their shot the next couple of weeks...

And now Australia is a disaster impacting NZ and Taiwan is caught in a political tug of war between Chinese mainland and American vaccines. Vietnam, maybe. Germany and Israel...relatively.

That's fine if you have chemists, virologists, epidemiologists and doctors in your family, but at a certain point we all have to make informed decisions based on research of all the available up to date information. Very few governments around the world have consistently distinguished themselves throughout the pandemic. It's arguably a number less than you can count on your fingers out of 200+.

Because of the way it was rushed like no vaccine in world history, as well as the potentially game changing but "controversial" mRNA platform. I just met a French guy at the airport here in China yestetday who seemed scared to death of spike protein/mRNA consequences down the line and expressed support for Chinese vaccines after I affirmed I was definitely still going to get the Pfizer booster after two SinoPharm shots. "It's not going to be as pervasive," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday. "It's going to hyper-regionalized. There's certain pockets of the country where you're going to have very dense outbreaks." Those pockets will be ones with low vaccination rates and low rates of prior infection, Gottlieb said, like in many rural and southern communities. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 46.1% of the total US population has been vaccinated against Covid-19. Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Wyoming are among the states with the lowest vaccination rates, with less than 35% of their population fully vaccinated. CNN.com

Even then, TB has an exciting younger player ready to replace a veteran...the White Sox are far from being in that situation depth-wise. Cespedes is still miles away from big league ready. We’ll just have to wait and see with Colas. Another thing the Rays have done extremely well is knowing when to part with backend relievers one year early versus one year too late. They’ve essentially pioneered modern bullpen management after the 2013-15 Royals started the trend.

https://friarsonbase.com/2020/12/05/padres-look-back-pham-cronenworth-trade-year/ The jury is still out on Snell/Patino, but Cronenworth has arguably become one of the 2-3 best second basemen/utility guys in the NL. It’s one of the rare moves that backfires on them in recent years. And Pham has been one of the hottest hitters the last 4-6 weeks after getting over the offseason stabbing. Adames has surprisingly helped the Brewers offensively, at a position they’ve struggled to get consistent offensive production. "The Brewers are on a season-high six-game winning streak that has pushed them a season-high 13 games over .500. They have won 25 of 35 games since Willy Adames arrived on May 22, the best mark in baseball over that span. “That was probably one of the best wins I’ve ever been a part of,” Adames said. “And this is just the regular season. That felt like the playoffs.” Adames made his mark again on Monday when he launched a 411-foot, three-run home run and flipped his bat about as far toward the Brewers dugout." MLB.com As far TB, despite losing McKay and Honeywell for extended stretches, they’re seemingly always one step ahead in operations across the board.

This reminds me of the way the politicians worry about spending over $1 trillion, but have managed to spend $4-5 trillion in recent years. It’s almost not real. It’s the same way with the Sox budgets. We’re almost conditioned to act like its our own money. That we’re wringing our hands over $4ish million and worrying there will be no way to add a RFer and reliever is telling. Next year, it will be the CBA uncertainty. The whole mentality is not a championship-focused one. It’s more just being happy to get into the playoffs and maybe advance. It’s always this way. We added Grandal, Hendriks and Keuchel, now there’s almost no financial flexibility. Seems a foregone conclusion that Giolito and Anderson will eventually be gone, so why worry about window years 5-7 when we should be maximizing year 2? Even at the budget of the Cubs, it wasn’t sustainable and their last four years will be disappointing barring a major pitching miracle. We’re ONLY about $70-80 million behind them. But that was 2016-2018. It’s like we are supposed to be thankful we’re not running even tighter budgets like the Indians, Tigers and Royals. Austerity rules. But it will will unlikely lead to a championship since we have no niche or competitive advantage, other than Cubans (diminishing every year) and what, Katz?

He has a had a huge weight loss and was considered nearly a Gold Glove level collegian, very strong arm, etc. A pregame warm-up where he didn’t look 100% focused is not the right way to effectively scout a player...certainly not the player he actually is in 2021.

Sure, in the olden days, Escobar with his 17 homers and 51 RBIs would be getting a lot more attention than Moncada. Grandal would be getting absolutely blistered...like Dunn did in 2011.

fWAR does. #17. https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2021&month=0&season1=2021&ind=0 I’m sure we would have a huge debate if it was suggested we acquire Jesse Winker (the next on the FG list behind him) for Moncada straight up...as Winker plays a decent outfield, more control/cheaper and has put up massive offensive numbers this season. If Jimenez, Robert and Madrigal were all in the everyday lineup, we wouldn’t even be considering this. And that #17 is down after two major errors and a mini slump in recent weeks. He was all the way up around an 870 ops.

Well, generally speaking, trading top 3-5 MLB 3B, SS’s and 2B for corner outfielders/1B/DH types has never been a recipe for sustained success. Obviously, you’re putting more importance on his home run numbers than anything else like fWAR, doubles, walks or defensive ratings, but we could do the same thing with Luis Robert’s first month of 2021. Neither player could be traded to get anything comparable back to their value to the Sox. Jimenez has his obvious positional limitations and Anderson isn’t going to be dealt, either.

Why are you trading, at least one of the 10-15 best players in MLB at the peak of our competitive window to give the position who’s another major injury from having to retire, and who’s only one year younger? Not to mention those huge prospect haul trades are just not out there in June/July. They usually take multiple teams or an entire offseason to put together. Can’t even recall the last one...where a playoff contending team traded a young potentially star player for prospects, even close to major league ready ones.

Let’s not forget...the Tigers have 3/5ths of a really solid future rotation with Manning up and pitching well, add Greene/Torkelson and they’re suddenly a real threat for 2022, especially if the Indians deal Ramirez, Bieber or their two backend relievers. They have been playing .500 or better ball for the better part of 4-6 weeks now. At one point, they had a worse record than Balt, Colorado, AZ and Pitt. If they have any sense that both Jimenez and Robert will be close to 100% this year, it might be as good an opportunity as they get with the Yankees down as well and the entire AL wide open.

The problem is there’s no guarantee the defensive falloff at two positions will offset the increased offense. We’ll already putting stress on our starting pitchers, as is..leading, or close to leading the league in errors. Then you’re talking about another guy like Vaughn who murders lefties but might be 675-725 ops against righties, best case scenario. Then you’re also expecting Moncada 1) not to get injured playing in the middle of the diamond, and 2) not to let defensive struggles affect the offensive side of his game. Lots of risks to this kind of desperation move. To me, it has the potential to backfire more than Vaughn in the outfield. That said, it’s unlikely Burger would be ready to play big league 2B everyday...and we can’t afford on the job training in a must make the playoffs with Rodon and Lynn year.

See Samardzija deal.