caulfield12

Interesting comp between Giolito and Ken Hill with that short-arm pitching style...although Giolito from this point foward looks like he should have the better overall career minus injury. 5 k's.

Wonder how much of that's the belief he has to "tutor" the next younger generation of White Sox fans under age 20...? All the wacky cultural/movie/t.v. references, that's just his "schtick" that it seems like he doesn't lose except for those regional southeastern NCAA football games. Nice play by Anderson ranging to his left and throwing on the run.

Just knew Trout was going to run that one down. Not much evidence so far this season that the ball's performing in a radically different way...

David Fletcher, by the way, also signed a new contract extension with the Angels...one of those "glue" pieces like Madrigal.

Giolito is really locking in that slider now...

It's also going to be really fun to see TLR use Hamilton for a week or two like Terrence Gore/Dyson with the Royals in the late innings...like an automatic double or triple to get into scoring position.

Six Tools!!! Now all he needs to do is rob a homer and make an acrobat Matrix-like move getting back to the bag on his next stolen base attempt. Giolito looks awesome coming out of the gate, following up his Spring Training run of success.

Shades of the 80's Cardinals with Coleman/Herr/McGee at the top of these line-ups. Violated the "don't try to steal 3rd with two outs" credo. Point 1 for TLR.

The prediction about leading the AL in SB might not be wrong.

Encouraging start by Robert after he overswung on the first pitch.

Getting old...21 years ago, Albert Pujols made his first (with TLR writing out the line-up card) Opening Day start. Twenty more consecutive starts later now. Might be his last.

On paper, that offense for the Cubs doesn't look too bad. The problem is on the pitching side. At this point, it might be that the team has moved on and waiting for the inevitable teardown if Rizzo's not coming back. Because that means with Bryant likely gone (perhaps holding out for a comp pick if they're somehow competing still in July and don't like the offers), then what's the point of trying to keep Baez and/or Contreras? Jake Arrieta's on his last legs and he's their second starter. Makes the White Sox "problems" with pitching look tame by comparison.

They have never played 154 or 162 games in the minors. It has always been April through late August, playoffs in September (obviously different for short-season leagues.) Well, there's always the chance that Jimenez could get at-bats for Birmingham, Winston-Salem, etc. Would prefer something more challenging than Low A, although even mashing there to get his confidence back quickly wouldn't be the worst outcome, obviously.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-01/long-covid-symptoms-are-affecting-1-1-million-people-in-u-k?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-businessweek Long Covid Symptoms Are Affecting 1.1 Million People in U.K. By Camomile Shumba and Lucy Meakin April 1, 2021, 4:54 PM GMT+8 Women and younger people more likely to suffer longer Vaccine hesitancy declines but remains an issue in poor areas

Top Gun. The theme song for the first Rambo sounds hokey and dated, then it starts to stick with you. Footloose, Purple Rain, Beverly Hills Cop, Less Than Zero, Dirty Dancing and Electric Dreams all stand out. Weird Science, another.

Brad Stevens Matt Doherty (unlikely) Hubert Davis Phil Ford Jerry Stackhouse King Rice trying to brainstorm some guys for UNC spot...Steve Robinson, CB McGrath, Brad Frederick, Sean May

Well, fortunately, everyone gets to come back as zombies repeating James Earl Jones speeches. KyYle The Enforcer/Punisher is more fun.

Still think the first Pacific Rim was far better...at least I didn’t play on my phone when Idris Elba was overacting in a good way as Stacker Pentecost in 2013. Just a few days later, I can hardly recall any of the human characters in Godzilla.

Yeah, hard not to vote for the six tool human highlight reel. He was my pick.

Now if you can fix their bullpen, get consistency out of McKenzie and find a couple more 800+ ops bats...not to mention they went 8-2 against the Sox last year.

No team in baseball develops pitching as well as Cleveland. The latest success story is Shane Bieber, who went from fourth-round draft pick to Cy Young winner in five years. They also have a third- (Aaron Civale) and 12th-round (Zach Plesac) draft pick in the rotation, and in recent years the club has helped Mike Clevinger and Corey Kluber go from unheralded trade pickup to ace starter. Cleveland's next breakout pitcher: Logan Allen. I am boldly predicting it. Cleveland acquired the lefty in the three-team Trevor Bauer/Yasiel Puig trade with the Padres and Reds, and he's impressed this spring after spending most of last season at the alternate site. Allen's velocity has been up to 97 mph and his slider is sharper as well. He's struck out 18 and allowed one run in 14 spring innings. Allen, 23, shed 35 pounds over the winter and he fully bought into the team's pitching program. MLB.com's Mandy Bell has more: So, how exactly did he put himself in this position? Aside from his diet that allowed him to enter camp in great shape, Allen said that the Indianssuggested some tweaks based on physical movements and analytics when they were breaking down his mechanics. He started working at the Indians' alternate training site last season and continued all through the offseason. Not only did he quickly pick up on how to better his delivery, he's mastered how to repeat it. Cleveland has not had a left-handed pitcher make a start since Ryan Merritt in August 2017, if you can believe that, and Allen will surely end the no-lefty streak this year. He's poised to do more than be a token southpaw though. Allen's stuff is better than ever, and he's refined his delivery and improved his control. Simply put, he looks like a breakout Cleveland pitcher now. The bold prediction is Allen throws over 120 innings with a sub-3.50 ERA and more than a strikeout per inning in 2021. As always, Cleveland is loaded is pitching, though the team will have to monitor workloads and build everyone up carefully after last season. That will create a need for innings. The bet here is once Allen gets his foot in the door, he's in the rotation for good. https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/indians-logan-allen-likely-to-begin-year-in-rotation/ Now, if he becomes the pitcher Brady Aiken was supposed to be, we can all criticize Preller for dealing Allen.

The Padres have the much more difficult path...to get past the Dodgers, who’ve been to eight consecutive postseasons and just won a World Series and added Bauer, pushing Price and Gonsolin out of the rotation. Because there’s so much that can go wrong in a wild card game, versus at least assuring themselves of a playoff series. We had an Indians’ team basically waiving the white flag (minus trading Ramirez and Bieber) and a Twins’ team that was inert or inactive until the final six weeks and could have crushed them with a Springer, Ozuna or Bauer signing. Heck, just Cruz and Odorizzi would have been enough. But no...we always leave such a thin margin for error, you’d almost believe all those rumors that JR is content with aiming for second place every season.

Not to mention the presence of Bummer from the left-hand side...well, it’s the Sale to the pen in 2010 and 2011 argument. Sale went 71 innings in 2011, 192 and 214 over a three year stretch.

Call your governor's office, your Representative (Eileen Horn)...write a letter to the editor to the KC Star or Topeka/Lawrence newspapers...ask what the heck is going on, where's your vaccine???!!!

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31173033/los-angeles-dodgers-mookie-betts-cody-bellinger-top-mlb-jersey-sales-los-angeles-angels-mike-trout-10th Had to leave Hendriks, Eloy Jimenez (simply because of the injury, otherwise he's definitely there), Adam Eaton and Bummer/Heuer off the list, as well as Zack Collins/Mercedes. Quite a few names to go through. Logically, it would be TA, Giolito or Luis Robert, with Moncada/Abreu in the distance and Madrigal/Vaughn/Kopech/Crochet true dark horse candidates.