caulfield12

Bauer, Plesac and Clevinger all feeling wrath of Francona/Antonelli.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/14/politics/obama-trump-usps-postal-service/index.html Obama, in a podcast with David Plouffe, his former campaign manager, took on the Trump administration in direct terms, including calling out Vice President Mike Pence by name. "What we've seen in a way that is unique to modern political history is a President who is explicit in trying to discourage people from voting," Obama said. "What we've never seen before is a President say, 'I'm going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting and I will be explicit about the reason I'm doing it.'" Obama added: "That's sort of unheard of."

https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2020/08/did-cleveland-indians-zach-plesac-help-or-hurt-his-case-with-video-explanation-podcast.html

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/contact-tracing-a-key-way-to-slow-covid-19-is-badly-underused-by-the-u-s/

This directly contradicts Dennis Lin The Athletic story, who had Indians with first offer, and Rays as well as another team (pretty sure it was the Blue Jays) all making offers. Nothing about the Cardinals. Fernando Tatis Sr.: Toronto made an offer to us. At that time, he was in the DPL (Dominican Prospect League). We didn’t really know exactly what the offer was, and then they decided to sign Vladimir Jr. We had a lot of teams interested, but at that moment they didn’t have the money to sign him. They signed a lot of players before he was coming out. A lot of people liked him, but in that moment they didn’t think that he cost that much money. A lot of people wanted to sign him, but they only wanted to spend $500,000, $600,000, $700,000, and we weren’t looking for that at that time. Tatis Jr.: Cleveland was pretty close. Tampa. Who else? I didn’t have that many teams trying to sign me. https://theathletic.com/884960/2019/03/25/everybody-was-surprised-but-here-we-are-an-oral-history-of-how-the-padres-acquired-fernando-tatis-jr/

To be more specific, in the mail-in, a fan posed the question whether it was possible the movement to replace him was picking up steam....Fegan doesn’t at all, at least not at the moment.

Fire Renteria gaining steam? I’m trying to be more economical with my answers, so there’s a temptation to just write “No,” and move on. But between the pandemic effect on team finances, the unusual nature of a season that is more about survival and crisis management than reading Renteria the riot act about proper deployment of Ross Detwiler, I truly don’t sense it, see it, taste it, etc. The White Sox have pushed back against the notion that anyone has a job for life or scholarship, but as it was described to me, there’s needs to be an affirmative reason for why a coach/manager has to go for someone to be fired in this organization. It’s not a simple case of “Let’s try something different!” but rather, “We’re failing at these specific elements and this coach/manager is specifically failing to address them and also has not shown the ability/willingness to address them going forward AND we think we can find or have already identified someone who would.” (my take, the reason Omar Vizquel was jettisoned, also caring more about winning than development and protecting top prospects There can be frustration with day-to-day decisions, as Rick Hahn has conceded there will be at times, but I don’t think any of that gets us there with Renteria, nor particularly close. https://theathletic.com/1994354/2020/08/14/white-sox-mailbag-youre-all-nuts-and-i-depend-on-you-to-live/?source=dailyemail

By Ptac?

SOXTALK BIG BOARD. We're playing three-dimensional chess while the rest of MLB fan boards are playing checkers and Tiddly Winks (does anyone even play that anymore, haha)?

Anderson, Tim. END of DEBATE. Please see quotes from Timmy himself in The Athletic (Accountability Thread) upon his 4/5 performance and rumors Luis ROH-BEER would be coming for his job...

You never know with the Indians, pretty budget-conscious. Remember playfully “stripping” owner Rachel Phelps in the clubhouse with each victory down the stretch run? The two “they’re still shitty” Asian dudes? Charter flight on an old DC-7 that almost crashed in lightning storm and heavy roller coaster-like turbulence?

https://twitter.com/ChewieTheChi/status/1136375559754092544/photo/1

Francona was already out of action when all this transpired, yes? Alomar, Jr. running team...

That makes sense too. Springer’s age, expected contract years and high K numbers are not an ideal when almost all of the hitters but Madrigal and Grandal already fit that profile to a tee. https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2020&month=0&season1=2020&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2020-01-01&enddate=2020-12-31&sort=10,d&page=6_30 E. Rosario, Blackmon, Ketel Marte, Tyler O’Neill, David Peralta, Michael Brantley, Starling Marte, Whit Merrifield, Adam Frazier, Jeff McNeill... Outfielders/super utility guys exactly in that mold. Love Peralta’s defense, too. Merrifield’s awesome. Ketel Marte a quietly budding star nobody pays attention to because of West Coast. We already targeted Brantley once, but will be too old at end of this most recent deal.

Don’t want to bother with a separate RF thread. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/pittsburgh-pirates/gregory-polanco-15330/ If Pirates ate at least half 2021 and 2022-23 buyouts, that would be an interesting play if they can’t get Springer or Pederson. Put him on a team where little to nothing is expected, as opposed to being a future franchise cornerstone with Pirates...basically, exact same theory as underpins Mazara move. And yes, I realize his recent numbers are quite ugly. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be forced to jettison his contract.

https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2020/5/28/21270926/mlb-chicago-cubs-ricketts-family-coronavirus-wrigley-field-wrigleyville Paul Sullivan recently wrote an article about the Chicago Cubs possibly needing to trade away some of their higher-priced players because the COVID-19 pandemic had hit the Ricketts family particularly hard. The article was full of the typical media claptrap that caters to a Ricketts family that loves to get positive press. The actual content of the article matters very little next to the general idea of the Cubs being so strapped for cash that they must move salary. That idea has been put forth by the Ricketts’ for two offseasons now. It’s an idea that isn’t going away it seems, no matter how much the facts may reveal it as a lie. When the MLB season is underway and the MLB machine is in full swing the Cubs run like the smoothest part of that machine. The Ricketts’ find themselves with a franchise that is a gold mine in every sense of the phrase. The Cubs are always at or near the top of ticket sales, ad revenue, merchandise sold, endorsements, and so on and so forth. Wrigleyville has become a way for the Ricketts’ to use the Cubs to print money. That is exactly what they have done by renovating the area, forcing out most of the other business interests, and monopolizing every cent of profit that can be made from the neighborhood directly surrounding Wrigley Field. Before we go any further keep two numbers in mind; $3.2 billion and $5.3 billion. The former is the value of the Cubs as a franchise while the latter is the value of the Ricketts’ family as a whole. We’re not talking hundreds of millions or even just a few billion when we are discussing the riches of the Cubs and the Ricketts’. Nope, we’re talking about amounts north of $5 billion. Let that sink in for a moment and make sure you remember it because it is most important to everything you’re about to read.

But did he get to upgrade to a compact, or stuck with a Focus/Corolla? Unlimited miles? Sunroof?

Individually...that does it, let’s start a protest and shut down the interstate so they arrive no earlier than 45 minutes before game time Sat night. Better yet, Covid-19 checkpoints like here in China.

Lucas Sims, who used to be in Braves’ system? Hmmmm.... That trade is just not going to happen. They will come back to Raisel Iglesias.

I didn’t even do that with Voldemort...learned some lessons from Sammy Sosa and Puig in the past. Sosa was the original Panther. Look how thin he was around 1988-90.

Greg gets a TROPHY for quoting THEHILL.com. Bringing out his A Game these days. CNN)The first rule of politics has long been to never, ever compare anything to Nazi Germany. The murder of 6 million Jews defies comparison. The second rule of politics -- or maybe just an addendum to the first rule -- should be: Never compare anything to the mission that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (yes, him again) seemed to have missed that class in politician school. Here's DeSantis speaking at an event of a school reopening on Wednesday night in Tallahassee: "Martin County Superintendent Laurie Gaylord told me she viewed re-opening her schools as a mission akin to a Navy SEAL operation. Just as the SEALs surmounted obstacles to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, so too would the Martin County School system find a way to provide parents with a meaningful choice of in-person instruction or continued distance learning. "All in, all the time." Uh, no.

Feels like we’re back in the 1930’s again with that imagery...guess we all should have been forced to study 1917-18 Spanish flu pandemic in history class more carefully.

Yeah, always had the sense Lambert was perceived as more “expendable.”

https://www.mlb.com/news/al-central-trade-deadline-needs White Sox: Is the rotation strong enough? For a group taking that next step from three years of rebuilding, the obvious question is whether the White Sox can reach the postseason. But with the talent across their roster and an expanded postseason field, the White Sox definitely are contenders. They have the offensive depth from one through nine, but the real issue stems from how much they can rely upon their starting five. Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel form a solid one-two punch at the top of the rotation, and Dylan Cease certainly has the ability of a top-tier starter. But the White Sox already have dealt with injuries to Reynaldo López and Carlos Rodón, moving Gio González from the long relief/spot-starter role into the rotation. General manager Rick Hahn believes López and Rodón will be back before the end of August, so don’t look for the White Sox to go outside of the organization to fill the spot, especially if it would require moving any of their core players to acquire a hurler. Dane Dunning, the team’s No. 8 prospect, could factor into this mix eventually. -- White Sox beat reporter Scott Merkin

Also the most top tier universities per capita at risk...