caulfield12

LOL...I took a lot of crap for criticizing the Moncada extension last night, but he absolutely has to be 2019 Moncada and not 2017-2018/2020/2021. My main hope or encouragement is Byron Buxton after all these years finally becoming the MVP-caliber player he was predicted to evolve into...but White Sox fans certainly don't want to wait another 2-3 years for that to happen.

What would our record be without his two grand slams, though? Moncada has been the much bigger issue.

You just can't have guys who are not in rhythm like Lamb and Williams in the line-up against a Bieber-quality pitcher. The only really good at-bat I saw all night (and I missed most of the game) was Yermin Mercedes against Bieber. Probably ended up losing that game by a matter of less than 6 inches. Saw there was yet another defensive miscue with the catcher's interference...that put Crochet behind the 8 ball. Hopefully he can come out of it and get back his playoff-level confidence from last year. He must be a little shell-shocked right now absorbing a couple of tough losses in extra innings like that.

Classic pitchers' duel...couldn't have possibly predicted this one, looking at the starting line-ups.

Whose suggestion was that? Yeah, whenever you see him that far off the plate, you just know a slider low and away is coming...I guess he's trying to clear his swing path to go after the high and inside fastball and turn on it, hoping to get his hands extended?

The AL Central this year is going to be a war of attrition...and keeping one's starting pitching as healthy as possible.

At least this game is going along quickly, so there's that. At least until the bullpens get involved. Giolito has been quite successful despite throwing most fastballs in the 92-93 MPH range, cold weather again?

Robert and Abreu now with matching 703 OPS. Robert vs. Bieber was never going to be a good match-up, but you have to put Robert in CF regardless of the offensive match-up against XYZ pitcher.

Great start, now just be careful with Rosario/Reyes and make the rest of their "pesky" hitters beat you...

Williams, not sure I'm seeing that one...but it is what it is. It's not like this Indians' line-up is filled with world beaters, other than having to be careful with Jose Ramirez and not giving the other team any cheap runs.

It's also impossible to quantitatively assess the psychological impact on pitchers like Giolito of looking at that line-up and just knowing they can pretty much only give up 1 run or at best 2 to beat Bieber with our defense and bullpen woes.

But the entire NL Central is elated to see Ben Gamel gone...that guy seemingly has a knack for clutch hits. Going to have to hope that Bieber continues to be off compared to his All-Star/Cy Young version of pitching.

Okay, let's just call him an MLB average left fielder...but he still didn't get much game action against the best opposing starting pitchers in spring training. I would expect his success rate to be right up there with Leury's funk.

Because Pederson is struggling...there's somehow a corollary that Engel will automatically sustain his success from last season? When we're actually DEPENDING on Adam Engel to help solve offensive problems, you know it's going to be a really long and torturous season.

Well, "fine" is pretty subjective, when you're comparing to Eloy and Vaughn... We used to rip on Scotty Pods and Juan Pierre for their noodle arms, but at least they could get to the ball and make most of the routine plays.

But Williams has put up some of the worst defensive stat lines of any LFer in the last 2-3 years, with the Phillies. I mean, 2012 Dayan Viciedo looks like a Gold Glover in comparison. Might as well bring him back from Japan and stick him out there.

Here's why you need to have QUALITY depth. Padres have lost Nola (starting catcher), Tatis, Morejon (very easily for the season if he needs surgery) and now Snell. Trent Grisham was out the first week, and is now the hottest hitter in baseball upon his return (the little-noticed Brewers deal with Zach Davies for Urias/Lauer/$$$ or player to be named later.) That's not even mentioning Pham almost dying in the offseason stabbing outside a strip bar...and quite clearly not 100% himself if you look at his numbers. They've now had two games in the span of a week that the entire bullpen has had to cover from the 1st or 2nd inning on. Fortunately for them, they still have Dinelson Lamet (one more rehab start), Weathers and Gore backing up the starting rotation. Very quietly, they're 8-3, but the first real test will be this weekend against the Dodgers.

Twins, Royals White Sox and division-leading Indians all separated by 1/2 game. Even the Tigers are only 1 1/2 back. Otoh, we could be tied for last after tonight, or alone in first with Twins completing DH against the suddenly resurgent Red Sox.

Didn’t Renteria hit Palka and Delmonico 4th? Those were the days... Btw, Byron Buxton at .484 is closing in on Mercedes’ batting average of .500. We’re sitting the league’s best hitter statistically.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/mlb-player-yu-chang-shares-racist-messages-received-after-game-n1263945 It wouldn’t be 2020/21 without incidents like these being added to every major sport...with the irony being he actually is from Taiwan and not mainland China, which had perhaps the best Covid-19 response in the entire world.

Can anyone recall a top 3 draft pick being recalled so quickly to the majors then mostly sitting? This is just as much on Hahn as LaRussa. Or TLR is trying to send a message to the front office that he believes Vaughn isn’t ready for Cy Young-caliber pitchers? Trying to showcase his purported strategic brilliance with crappier line-ups every day?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Hagin A 30 year career spanning six teams is still pretty difficult to pull off...with just a couple of one year breaks in between gigs. But yeah, Rooney is always going to associated with the Cardinals now, like the Bucks, McCarver and Mike Shannon.

Even Frank Thomas spent a couple of months in Birmingham.

The best pairing was Wayne Hagin (went on to the Mets) and John Rooney...

Well, one way to look at it is that simply "treading water" and staying around .500 (likely 6-8 games over) until the end of July might be the way this division goes. CLE doesn't have the offense to bury anyone, despite their pitching strengths. The Twins are having all kinds of bullpen/late game issues and also have to figure out how to keep Josh Donaldson and Nelson Cruz healthy. Everyone's going to need to go 13-6 or 14-5 against the Tigers, if not 15-4/16-3.