caulfield12

Dan Pasqua and Daniel Palka say hello...Mazara, etc,

He’ll come out of it when his offensive confidence starts to grow IMO. That feeling of “I belong” sinking in at the big league level. A certain SD shortstop went from one of the worst in baseball defensively in 2019 to one of the best in 2020, and then made five early errors again (already) this year. Madrigal doesn’t have the arm strength to force as many throws that shouldn’t even be attempted, but the commonality between the two players was/is dealing with shoulder injuries and not being 100% physically but still wanting to be out there in the field everyday. Running speed is unlikely to improve, but the moves that worked at Oregon State (getting hung out to dry between 2nd and 3rd against the Angels, then bailed out) are only going to work 25% of the time, not 75% like they did in NCAA play.

No, but just a reminder not to get excited about tape measure shots. Not all created equal. Robert’s was probably the most impressive given the circumstances in Game 3.

Balta know it...pretty sure.

https://weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/l/e0abde3003a88dedecad92fedc96375000c16843287a51dbf2cd92f062217180#detailIndex4 Make that two in a row...unless they were willing to wait and play at night time in April. The exact peak is 2-3 p.m. bag the game and push it back to later in the season when we can bring in more revenue for needed deadline trades.

I think they must be measuring or counting fans as someone who says baseball is their favorite sport...and not do they watch MLB but still favor NFL or NBA? Certainly losing youngsters to things like esports and MMA/boxing/wrestling. it remains to be seen in terms of the fallout from the ASG decision...how many of those older, majority white male baseball fans are turned off by a largely political decision, or boycott. I would guess it’s not an insignificant number, looking at voting trends the last two elections and the Facebook response of baseball fans in my family that I know to be more conservative or Republican. “I know that’s a pretty obscure question, but it turns out that we have the data to figure it out. In our Q1 2018 U.S. consumer benchmark survey, we ask about the sports that people like to watch on TV and we also asked about their political leanings. As you can see in the graphic below, baseball fans are decidedly more Republican than the general population.” https://www.xminstitute.com/blog/baseball-fans-lean-right/ Interestingly, you wouldn’t know it from SoxTalk, where the average age is probably 28-36, right? Heck, watching the Masters feed this weekend, I wonder how many of their beloved “patrons” as Jim Nantz always refers to them are currently unhappy with the club statements this past week and no Tiger Woods? Having lived in Augusta for 2 1/2 years, I was a bit shocked they wanted to wade into the voting rights controversy. Perhaps they are feeling the same pressure from sponsors like Mercedes-Benz and Rolex, but that in and of itself would be shocking that Rolex would want to take the same controversial stand, too.

As with last season, let’s see what happens when they face good teams (Angels certainly looking the part so far) and excellent RHPers. Other than Pittsburgh and maybe the Brewers when Woodruff and Burnes aren’t going, the NL Central looks tougher than expected. Better than having to face the NL East, but probably a toss-up with the top heavy NL West where there are two strong teams and three pretty bad ones.

Probably 2006 when we had six starting pitchers entering the season with the additions of Javy and McCarthy...and had sunk a huge percentage of payroll into all those 5 veteran guys who started all but three games (Brandon and Charlie Haeger of the now infamous murder/suicide case last fall.)

Joe Borchard 500+ foot homer?

Tyler Naquin had 17 homers in his last three big league seasons. 5 homers already in a week plus with the Reds. Not giving up on Madrigal just yet...once he gets his first it will come. He can be similar to Tommy Herr someday, another Cardinals’ reference.

Hitting for how long, exactly?

I will contract with WBWS (something like that) or whoever says he writes to JR about job prospects and used to get personalized responses. Great idea!

Now JUSTgottaBELIEVE has reverse jinxed Joe Musgrove into throwing a no-hitter...amazingly, last franchise without a no-hitter. Dates all the way back to 1969, 52 years. The Mets were the other (last one to get one, Johan Santana), pretty incredible with all the stuff pitchers they’ve had. Also the Phillies went 8944 games without one, longest stretch in MLB history. That’s now also 29 consecutive innings without a run scoring against him. Musgrove grew up a Padres’ fan, local kid, idolized Jake Peavy and now wears his number 44. Hit Gallo with a pitch that got away or it would have been a perfect game. Giolito, Alec Mills the only no hitters last season. Now 306 in MLB history. Gabe Caratini has amazingly caught two of the last three, haha. Had game winning hit in last game and is useful depth with Nola out, the completely overlooked aspect of the Yu Darvish deal.

We just need to convince the local sportswriters to put the pressure on JR with headlines like this. I know, fat chance, right? He’ll retort that with ballpark staff, concessions and security he’s still losing tens of millions. I mean, they were crowing about a 90% jump in tv ratings last year when they were starting with around a 0.9 share. Amazing, our percentage increase was higher than any team in baseball!

I was just following in the VAFAN positivity trend, lol. I’m still waiting for him to write an impassioned defense of Nick Madrigal and how Sox fans are being too hard on him and Leury. The last time we were as high as 17th was the 2010 season. https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/year/2010

Jersey sales would argue otherwise... I will just say this. #1, risk mitigation, 40-60% gets paid by insurance in the case of a catastrophic injury. Point #2, this would be the excuse for the next 10-15 years for teams NOT to sign these deals, especially mid and small market teams. Because giving that money to free agents who are older and declining eventually will never work in favor of the White Sox.

Joe Musgrove has a pretty impressive streak going, something like 25 consecutive innings without allowing a run and counting.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance Pretty unsurprising the two Texas teams are leading the way. Numbers we will never (hopefully) see again, like Toronto with Dunedin/Buffalo. Marlins have to be disappointed coming off a playoff appearance last year and taking out the Cubs. Seems Washington and Boston have some of the tightest restrictions...plus Fenway has one of the smallest seating capacities.

The White Tiger is the one I’m waiting to see. And still haven’t watched One Night in Miami.

Who would he be the, DeShaun Watson? Russell Wilson? Josh Allen? Dak Prescott? Because those guys aren’t the face of the NFL, quite. Matt Rodgers? He’s a well-established veteran who dates or marries celebrities and is creating his own quieter media empire.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/fernando-tatis-jr-s-injury-orthopedic-surgeon-explains-why-the-padres-star-chose-to-skip-surgery-for-now/ But it wouldn’t be good for the sport. It’s almost like Patrick Mahomes being similarly hurt. Not quite at that level, of course, but he has been the most highly marketed MLB player throughout the offseason. Trout and Betts are better, Acuna and Soto right there with him, Bellinger, etc. Baseball will continue to struggle to attract young fans without guys like Tatis and TA playing at the top of their game. The fact that it’s the leader shoulder for hitting isn’t nearly as consequential as if it were his throwing arm. Then we’d possibly be talking about a positional change...and they might still end up sticking him in the OF.

That said, he had the opposite skill set of nearly everyone on the roster. Contact hitters who get on base, can move runners along, do the little things, solid fundamentals, and think situationally...in isolation, it’s bad, if you were trying to rebuild a team from scratch around that pick as the foundation. There was supposed to be the certainty attached to Madrigal that guys like Jo Adell and Witt, Jr., didn’t possess as raw high school athletes. Hahn probably doesn’t want another Courtney Hawkins fiasco. Bubba Starling. Austin Beck. The list goes on and on. Royce Lewis is no sure thing after his season-ending injury. So much volatility with high schoolers. That’s not a great reason to be so risk averse, though. A lot of our highly advanced college bats haven’t performed as well as expected for a plethora of reasons.

One of the raps on India was his lack of a defined position where he excelled defensively...but that versatility comes in handy these days. Of course, there’s no way the Reds (Nick Senzel included) are going to maintain their current offensive juggernaut pace, any more than Yermin will. At any rate, they’re the surprise MLB breakout team so far, having lost quite a few important pieces, with Oakland on the other side of the ledger.

See Jeremy Reed...albeit with more athleticism. Still not a pure CFer...although he can play it more than adequately. He’s likely to be a 15-18 homer guy coming up as a rookie at Safeco. In reality, nobody will be shocked if Rodriguez ends up being the best outfielder (with Kyle Lewis in there as well, another outfielder many targeted but has suffered his own series of injuries.)

Well, the White Sox have survived having one of the worst first round draft histories since the late 80’s, minus guys like Sale and TA. That said, regardless of what we think, he’s David Eckstein to TLR already, so he will be in there pretty much everyday. He has always been one of those players who was not going to hurt the team...a complementary piece. If the big bsts do what they are supposed to, it really doesn’t matter all that much. It’s just more magnified due to injuries...we had the same thing with Brian Anderson in 2006, where he got benched not because of defensive issues but simply because the rest of the offense was struggling and they couldn’t afford a complete black hole in the lineup. All we can do is hope for improvements and a continuous process of acclimation...the results following the confidence/braggadocio. He’s not going to be traded anytime soon, regardless of everyones’ criticisms. I’m actually waiting on another VAFAN thread defending him, since picking on Leury or the bullpen/TLR is too obvious at this point. This team was always going to go as far as TA, Robert, Moncada, Grandal, Jimenez and Abreu carried it. At least now with Vaughn, Mercedes and Collins, we have even more options, two most weren’t considering or counting on much from.