caulfield12

Yeah, I saw that video, body fat % is way down, decreased time to 1B, etc. It's quite encouraging. Being around professional training and nutrition staff will really benefit him as well. And certainly not every Cuban can be transformed into the Winter Soldier like Luis Robert.

This is why the Cubs ended up with nothing for Schwarber... Eloy's the better hitter, but not going to fetch a premium pitching prospect. His market is already pretty much limited to the DH role in AL unless they know it will change in next CBA. What would White Sox fans give up for Yordan Alvarez, for example? Let's see some names that would be realistic, not the 3-5 player package of 40-45 FV extraneous minor leaguers. Keep in mind you're already committed to that long-term extension with Eloy.

With the plethora of LH pitching options (knock on wood)... unless he's a starter with 95 mph heater and big Sale-esque slurve...Oscar should be spending all his time getting into even better physical shape (most of the way there already) and mastering the art of RF play and hitting extreme velocity pitching he didn't see in Japan or Cuba.

Well, we certainly excel at position changes. Let's see, there's Josh Fields, Dayan Viciedo, Gordon Beckham, Marcus Semien, Mark Teahen, etc. And he had those two plays last year where he jumped or fell into the netting in a pretty short time span. He clearly didn't learn much from the first experience. Then you have the running joke of Robert taking every ball but to the extreme LH 15% of left-field. Thankfully, those two franchise players together at their size running together hasn't happened YET, but the results of a full-speed collision wouldn't be pretty.

Sorry, since every game starts at 3 a.m. here in China with the recent time change in US, a bit difficult to follow. If you have a wife or g/f, you can probably imagine her incredulous reaction to being awakened by a glowing iPad in the middle of the morning on a work day for a mere spring training game.

Maybe never making two consecutive playoffs in over a century does that to a fanbase? And since when in baseball history was it extremely difficult to find a defensively limited corner outfielder with plus offensive production (especially in a platoon) and limited arm strength? Maybe one who's consistently a 900+ hitter, but Eloy won't accomplish that if he can't stay on the field or keeps getting hurt. He will end up like Carlos Quentin at this rate. Anderson has the tools to be one of the elite fielding shortstops in the game, but makes careless errors, loses focus and occasionally tries to do too much. There's really no comp there to Eloy's limitations in the field.

Calling PTAC ? He hasn’t been around so much these days...

All I know is Skye Bolt would be an awesome name for Usain’s brother or any track and field athlete in general...

This is also a petition to play Adam Engel or Leury Garcia with Eaton everyday...and trade Vaughn at less than peak value while Abreu is declining, creating yet another positional hole in the future that won’t or can’t be closed by the likes of Sheets or Collins. Maybe they get lucky and Hahn executes a trade for pitching or 1B, but not counting on it.

Well, if you look at the back of their baseball cards, you’re going to see a BIT less volatility out of those three Yankees’ hitters. Now if you included Sanchez or Andujar, the comp would have been better. Are you really that confident Moncada is a 900+ ops hitter and Robert 825-850?

Here we go again...we’re one more injury from being forced to make a trade or put Vaughn out there. Which calls to mind the Josh Fields debacle. The lineup suddenly doesn’t look so hot if Jimenez and Grandal are struggling with Injuries and not knowing exactly what to expect from Robert, Moncada and Abreu this year.

While we don’t know the duration of the deal between Sinclair and the Cubs, for our purposes, I assumed that the reported average annual value of $132 million was again spread across 15 years, which fits a neat $2 billion total. While the White Sox figure is unknown, I took the $750,000 per game both the Cubs and White Sox received from NBC Sports Chicago in those clubs’ previous contract and prorated it over a full season for the White Sox. Without the Cubs, the network should have similar revenues given the lack of subscriber losses, and higher distributions to the three remaining clubs at NBC Sports Chicago.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/angela-merkel-backs-eu-chief-041702413.html EU on verge of being inundated, spat over AstroZeneca distribution with Germany leading the fight to block overseas deliveries in favor of EU member local populations.

But even with that huge ratings increase percentage~wise, we were still bottom 5-7 in MLB. There's huge room for improvement these next three seasons with the Cubs fading increasingly into irrelevance. Plus, you've lost that waiting a century for a World Series title factor... becoming more just like a typical corporate entity under Ricketts family ownership.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/lets-update-the-estimated-local-tv-revenue-for-mlb-teams/ Here we are already at #3 in MLB with $120 million per year under the renegotiated 2018-19 five year arrangement. If they're not spending it on more than a mid tier payroll, where the heck is that inflowing revenue going, exactly?

All that said, the White Sox have consistently been around #11-14 MLB broadcast revenue the last 5-7 years, even with a crap product. And they have enhanced incentives to drive up ratings because their advertising rates would finally go up quite considerably. Not to mention the value of the RSN itself skyrocketing in value.

To only renew their agreement until 2023-2024 off-season. In theory, that's going to be perfect timing if they can go on an extended run these next three seasons and really bump up their t.v. ratings and surpass the Cubs/Marquee Network. Not to mention all the issues with the CBA will/should be ironed out by that point in time, in terms of forecasting future incoming revenues. Then, they're going to be in a MUCH better position to have 25-50% more money flowing in to utilize on free agents, international as well as extensions for Giolito and Tim Anderson (the ship with Lucas might have already sailed, unfortunately.) But at least we'd have the opportunity to make a legit $150+ million offer if he continues to sustain his performance level as the ace of the staff and top Cy Young candidate. The below is not directly Sox-related, and one can certainly argue that NCAA basketball/Final 4/March Madness, and league-wide deals for NBA, NFL or even NHL are quite different than for any individual team, but the point still stands about not getting locked into the "security" of a much longer term deal. The White Sox are essentially betting on themselves, and it's really looking like it was the right move unless they completely implode the next 3 seasons. https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-president-mark-emmerts-35-billion-mistake-will-define-his-failed-tenure-232648011.html

Actually looking forward to Godzilla vs. King Kong. The human action, shockingly...was pedestrian, but the action sequences really make up for it. One of those movies you score 3 1/2 out of 5, but entertaining and so much better than the last Godzilla reboot.

Josh Phegley ended up sticking around longer than most would have predicted...

Since a lack of predictable revenues has been presented as one of the main reasons for more conservative financial approach this offseason...and the White Sox hardly draw more than 40-60% other than OD into late May, it should be closer to business as usual.

Spend, spend, spend...!!! This is the year to vulture veteran talent off financially challenged rebuilding franchises...

At this point, would take even Alek Thomas. Well, guess we shall find out soon enough if they evaluated Cespedes and Colas correctly. Add in Montas, Bassitt and Semien over those last two years as well.

Well, the best is not to bottom out like the Cubs and Royals did at the end of their runs, or the Giants/Red Sox, etc. That's proving almost impossible for most organizations outside of the Yankees, Dodgers, Braves and then the small market Rays/A's to sustain. In the reality, our system should have already peaked. The finishing touches almost always come from trades and/or free agency. The real question then becomes how much are we willing to spend, and how much is putting a championship-caliber team on the field to this ownership group?

Kansas getting their hats handed to them. Not one of the better Self teams. Could see this one coming a mile away. PAC 12 advances Oregon, UCLA, USC and Oregon State. Colorado the only casualty. USC/Oregon should be an interesting rematch. One of those two will give Gonzaga their first real test of the season, assuming Gonzaga can knock off Creighton quite easily unless the Blue Jays go insane from the outside and Gonzaga has an off shooting night.

But the Pac-12 and other conferences in basketball and football (always) seemingly have the better athletes. UCLA and USC historically recruit well, Washington until recently, Arizona and Hurley's ASU, etc. Colorado now. Iowa certainly didn't have any highly ranked players, other than Garza and Weiskamp. They did have a number of experienced veterans. Let's not forget MSU was a Top 5 team at the beginning of the year based on the fact they're always highly regarded like Duke, KU, UNC or Kentucky coming out of the gate every year. Michigan wasn't expected to be the Top 5 team they were for most of the season in the first 4-6 weeks until they went on that extended run. Illinois was pretty high, hit a skid and then dominated the last half of the B10 season. Ohio State also went through a streaky season, but flashed a dominant stretch. This was also the weakest WI team in recent history. Finally, it took weeks and weeks and weeks for Purdue to finally sneak into the Top 25 near the end of the year.