caulfield12

Acuna and Soto don't have the premiere defensive value of playing SS, C, CF. And neither of them are amazing defenders in the first place, let's just call them competent to slightly above average.

More like Drew Carey...

Who would you choose? Left off a couple of obvious names, like Christian Yelich...

https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2020/08/cleveland-indians-reinstate-mike-clevinger-and-zach-plesac-from-mlb-restricted-list-option-both-to-alternate-training-site.html “We spent time thinking about what gives our team the best chance to win tonight,” Antonetti said. “We made the determination that it made the most sense to, in order to be the best team we can be, we made the decisions we did to option them to the alternate site.” “They hurt us bad,” Plutko said after Cleveland’s 7-1 loss to the Cubs at Progressive Field. “They lied to us. They sat here in front of you guys and publicly said things that they didn’t follow through on.” Francona’s reaction upon seeing the video did not necessarily produce the results Plesac was likely hoping for. “I was disappointed,” Francona said. Antonetti said he also had a chance to view the video, and he’s not sure Plesac was able to convey what he intended after speaking to him individually. “I think if he had a do-over, he may have said things a bit differently,” Antonetti said.

Giolito vs. Wainright, Opener vs. Flaherty Keuchel vs. Dakota Hudson/Ponce de Leon Just some guesswork...

They have to be scared to death about Flaherty. He’s their franchise cornerstone. Carlos Martinez is already out.

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.