caulfield12

Because he still has the most natural ability of any player on the team...if he can stay healthy. He and Robert are the two best CFers in the AL, along with Kiermaier. He added 10-15 pounds of muscle in the offseason...and has never looked more comfortable at the plate than entering this season. Buxton has something to prove, definitely. He also broke up Burnes’ no hitter yesterday with an oppo homer, and his other against Woodruff I think was 456 feet. And he’s just hitting the prime years of his career. Ask any scout in the game, they will list him as one of the ten most talented all-around athletes in the game. Speaking of the Central, Nomar Mazara (4/9) just homered against the Indians, haha. Donaldson and looking like Benintendi on the DL.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/white-sox-tim-anderson-star-is-only-growing-brighter-and-his-voice-black-experience-baseball-175145174.html Speaking of TA...if Lindor is worth $360+ million, Tim Anderson’s looking at $200-225 million and maybe even more.

https://www.coveringthecorner.com/2021/3/29/22357522/i-enter-the-season-caring-less-than-ever On the other hand, not sure VAFAN and Balta can comfort this Indians’ fan. The obvious answer to me is their finances. Dolan gives an interview every year during spring training griping about how the team is losing money. How small markets cannot afford big rosters, and how their "financial flexibility" will help them compete in the long run. Ignoring the fact that I struggle to feel pity for a man who’s family amassed a billion dollar fortune, and that despite the team "losing money" annually the team manages to increase in value like clockwork: I struggle to believe the team is actually losing money all that often. The teams’ expenses changes by tens of millions of dollars every single year. Either the Dolans are injecting tens of millions of dollars regularly (which I doubt because, as Paul points out: his family does not have other business to inject the team with this kind of cash), or the team has a break-even point higher than they would lead us to believe. “Which leads me to this: I do not believe this ownership values winning more than their bottom line, and I also believe they are lying to us about their finances. I do not believe Dolan truly cares about social justice (if the story he spun after the Black Lives Matter protests is true: the team would not be named the Indians this year). I do not believe the Dolans are all that concerned about the allegations against Mickey Callaway. Which, to me, makes it difficult for me to support the team. I no longer know what this particular ownership group values. In terms of the Major League roster, there remains plenty to get excited about. Shane Bieber may surpass Corey Kluber. Jose Ramirez is on pace to enter the Hall and is among the best players to ever don a Cleveland uniform. There is a chance the young players the front office so zealously acquired will pan out in 2021. The front office remains one of the best in the business, and whatever else you want to say about the corporate culture: they are loyal to the ownership group, and other teams covet the talent they develop. The Cleveland Baseball Club may be many things, but an incompetent organization they are not. I plan on rooting for some of my favorite players this year. As for the franchise? I stopped caring months ago, and I am waiting for a reason to start caring again.” Pretty sad when not a single team in the division’s fans currently believe they value winning championships more than the bottom line...

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Then we have to go after Moncada defensively as well this series...he missed a double play and couldn’t cleanly handle a barehand play in his direction. Eaton already has multiple errors.

Luis Robert has to be better than 718 against RHP...Yoan Moncada went from 945 in 2019 to 703 last year. That’s the most glaring shortcoming. Grandal 813 to 744, etc.

This is laughable when you look at how many years we gave Gordon Beckham. It’s not like he is Mike Caruso. He hit .340 last year, which provides value to almost any team in the majors but the Dodgers, Padres and Yankees.

Not at second. It will be Leury or Mendick.

Someone like Rosario or Pederson. The problem is nobody foresaw (or could they have anticipated?) the Jimenez injury in the front office...at any rate, the White Sox never budget to have positional insurance that costs THAT much. And Mercedes, Collins and Vaughn might get the job done well enough to get us to August. Not since the 2006 starting rotation have they deliberately overspent somewhere going into a season.

Does anybody know why Heuer wasn’t warming up with Bummer yet...? And whether Hendriks was actually available after 36 pitches the night before?

Arguably, the Twins’ two best (or at least most important) players in Buxton and Berrios have two seasons before hitting free agency. Same with the White Sox with Giolito (3 years) and Anderson (4 years). With the money being spent on extensions now reaching the hundreds of millions, the fate of these players will determine the next four seasons. If the Twins can’t retain either player, then they’re going to be stuck with Josh Donaldson and paying him $29-37 million in his age 37-38 years in 2023 and 2024 (buyout year, $8 million.) They have no choice (especially with Nelson Cruz hitting his age limits) to be “all in” these two seasons. Assuming JR is not going to fork over the extension money for Giolito or TA, we have to hope our own veterans (Abreu, Grandal and Keuchel) can keep producing and we can beat the Twins on the Tier B trade market and especially beat them on the margins with value-oriented moves...which haven’t been a Hahn specialty. The White Sox definitely have the core of young players with the most potential (Robert, Moncada, Vaughn, Kopech, Crochet, Jimenez) but nothing is guaranteed. And the one thing I don’t like about the Lynn move is we might have to turn around and replace him, too. If TLR is still around at season’s end, you like your chances to retain him...but he’s also going to soon join a race against Father Time. At this point, though, it seems like we still are 2-3 players behind the Yankees...and, if you look closely at last season, we struggled mightily with most of the above .500 teams (especially Cleveland) and beat up on the weaklings. It’s the same dilemma the Twins face, with their complete inability to break through in the playoffs. The thing I worry (most) about is that ownership and Hahn/KW are on a totally different page...that we’re more concerned with proving TLR can still manage than beating the Twins. When I think of the Padres, every single move they make is about finishing ahead of the Dodgers. Not sure we have found that same level of laser focus, simply preferring to just “out-talent” them. It’s essentially going to be up to TLR to create that unique identity...as we’ve already come close to blowing as many 7th inning leads as the 2002-04 Twins and 2014-15 Royals on the first weekend of the season.

Basically, Miguel Olivo... Mercedes this weekend is a bit reminiscent of this....you could see Robert or Jimenez doing something similar.

Wow...getting a bit heated in here. Let’s just hope that we don’t mess up Vaughn. I know, I know, if he can’t handle having to learn a new position on the fly and completely bypassing the two most challenging levels of minor league ball he’s not as great as he was cracked up go be.

1.4 seasons...

Would rather have a Dyson vacuum cleaner...

Marshall took the loss in Game 3 last year as well...just had a feeling the magic wasn’t going to continue. The ironic aspect is the changeup was supposed to nullify LHH but Rendon/Walsh touched him up and Heuer should have been called upon. He’s throwing harder than anyone in our pen out of the gate.

The lack of pinch-hitting from a late game strategic genius, so called, is honestly mystifying.

Unavailable due to pitching two nights in a row...warming up, etc.

There’s no way to go get the ball along that curve...the danger is too high you get impatient and turn it into an inside the parker.

Feel sorry for Yermin, he should have been the story of MLB for two days in a row.

Garcia has been absolute garbage so far...

Not to mention you can’t ask anything more out of Giolito and Lynn, but 0-2 likely now in their starts. Then you enter the really uncertain area of the rotation... Of course, Guerra used to be Sox property.

Making Hendriks go 36 pitches yesterday certainly didn’t help matters...

Did Jed Hoyer/Epstein suddenly become Cardinals’ GM?

Should have been Heuer...