caulfield12

He has a much better natural swing to the opposite field than Moncada. The main disadvantage (to the oppo approach) is any ball pulled to the left side...especially deep SS...gives him a decent opportunity to beat it out. Usually he hits liners to the opposite side and pulls grounders to the left hand side...but I’d guess 65-75% of those balls to the right side are very hard contact...95 mph and above.

I’ll back up because I think you were the one with the comments about Pat Fitzgerald and social media/internet addiction. My students are fixated on their phones and iPads, music, etc. Any way MLB can connect to the next generation, be it AR/VR, RBI Baseball game, YouTube hosted games, movies/multimedia, music connected to baseball, kids don’t have the patience to watch a game for the first time on tv, but they might fall in love with the sport indirectly reading a Stephen King novel about Tom Gordon or, in this case, through movies...because kids are so visual and have (mostly) limited attention spans. Someday soon, every MLB stadium will have plug in & play goggles...waterproof iPads attached to the arm of the chair for tracking everything going on in the game, etc. Connecting more kids to baseball through movies is just the tip of the iceberg. Bill Walton is even doing the game next Friday with Benetti in Anaheim, and lots of people will tune in to find out what hell’s going to happen or what they will talk about. Baseball needs more seemingly wacky things going on like that to differentiate itself.

Thompson, Dahlquist and Stiever...

Just so John Cusack can show up once a decade to pretend he’s a White Sox fan more than a Cubs’ fan...

https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/10-worst-trades-in-baseball-history10.htm Surprised Broglio/Brock was only 4th.

Watch the highlights at MLB.com, three Gold Glove-level defensive plays in one game...one was a double play with Urias. https://www.mlb.com/gameday/rockies-vs-padres/2019/08/08/566330#game_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=566330

Beckham was switched positionally three times. Viciedo three times. Mark Teahen might have been the ugliest, the Buddy Bell Special. Fields was another good one. Semien was moved all around in the minors, 69 games at second, 23 at 3rd and 208 at SS but then they mostly played him at 3B when he first came up to the White Sox.

Our Samardzija and Shields trades cost 13.1 fWAR...and that's just for THIS season.

Burger, too. Collins might be the only LH hitter I've ever seen whose swing doesn't look aesthetically-pleasing.

Amazing he's already been with the White Sox just a little over six years now. Send him and Walker to AFL, stat!

22nd homer follows one of his best defensive plays of the year (took an outside high velocity fastball from J.Gray and hit it out down the RF line), did an entertaining Rickey Henderson impression with the celebration...on defense, fully extended to his left, got up quickly and threw a two hopper as quickly as he could to Hosmer who somehow snagged it. Had another single to RF for an RBI, should have had his 15th steal (now 5 caught stealing) but he couldn't hold onto the bag with the "oven mitt" and then McMahon kicked his forearm off the bag (non-renewable play, see Ron Gant vs. Kent Hrbek in World Series.) Sixth leadoff homer (new club record, passed Wil Venable), fastest to 100 hits for any player in franchise history (Johnny Grubb). 22 homers in 79 games, beat Carlos Correa by 20. Current pace=35.367 Nomar Garciaparra owns the all-time major league record for homers by a rookie shortstop with 36 in 1997. 27 is the NL rookie SS record, Trevor Story in 2016 (passed Troy Tulowitzki).

Baseball needs to figure out every possible way to reach young people...if they can't follow a 3-4 hour game, perhaps engaging with a story will help to do the trick. Arguably, the one area where baseball still has an advantage over the NFL and NBA is in their connection to Hollywood going back to the 1930's. I guess I should never have any ideas, Brooks Boyer is doing a great job already...Sox marketing has reached its limits until the team actually improves.

+Santana, Cody Anderson and Bradley Zimmer

His point was that if you took Gregorious, Hicks, Judge, Severino, Stanton, Sanchez, Andujar, Bird, Betances...Encarnacion just broke his wrist, and Sabathia has been ouchy all year, so you’d expect to be 15 games below .500 instead of running away with the division. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/disabled-list/new-york-yankees/ That’s like all seven of those top 7 White Sox players being out, or 8 if you include Rodon. In fact, they have enough depth that they still didn’t call up Clint Frazier, just like the Astros had Alvarez and Tucker.

1) It’s good to try to activate the largely dormant fanbase in that part of Iowa that has more allegiance to the Cubs, Brewers and Twins in that order. 2) Also helps bring more attention to Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Sox in general, which is only a positive. More attention for Eight Men Out, as well. 3) Is something totally unique. I’m frankly surprised they haven’t tried to do something similar with the Indians (Major League), the Twins (Little Big League, like having a competition for a teenager to manage a game in spring training)...another movie like The Rookie 2 about that kid that just got signed after throwing 96 at a stadium fast pitch last week. Anything but that preposterous movie Rookie of the Year. Then you’ve got The Sandlot, 42, ‘61, Bang the Drum Slowly, The Natural, Pride of the Yankees, Bad News Bears, Moneyball, Trouble With the Curve, Bull Durham...a movie every other weekend at every park in the country when the team’s away...or maybe just six times per year. https://www.scout.com/Article/Kevin-Costner-Sports-Movies-Ranked-105187854/ Costner’s father is wearing a Yankees’ 1929-31 jersey in the movie

And we can keep adding some more “ifs,” McCann and Colome...

Only 8 “ifs” there...

If they’re not competitive this time next year, the Sox internet nation will have all kinds of fun satirizing the “Dreams” element of the game. Not even Doc Moonlight Graham will be able to save Annie, or JR/Hahn/KW.

I think Kevin Costner’s dad when he came back as a youthful “catcher ghost” around age 25-30 was sporting a Yankees’ hat...at least 90% sure. That scene where he’s playing catch with his dad always gets to me...especially since my father passed away and we used to do the same thing in the backyard every night.

https://sports.yahoo.com/white-sox-yankees-play-field-dreams-2020-143123684--mlb.html They’re really going to build a temporary stadium to accommodate 8000 people? Might as well build a new stadium in Clinton or Cedar Rapids with all that money...or this is just the artist’s conception?

They need a lot more bathrooms than two port a potties and that trailer can’t handle the concession sales...plus the gravel roads, last time I drove there a rock cracked my windshield.

Only if James Earl Jones is the announcer and Ray Liotta plays LF to protect Jimenez...and someone gets to punch Timothy Busfield in the face.

https://community.fangraphs.com/the-ten-highest-babips-since-1945/ This gives you some comps, trying to find a newer one. If he ends up playing only 125 or so games, he might not qualify for full season results statistically. It will be close, since he always hits leadoff. This year another rookie, Reynolds (Pirates) at 412, Moncada and Leury top five. JD Martinez .369 in 2018 Avi Garcia two years ago at .392 in 2017 DJ LeMahieu .388 Odubel Herrera .387 Lorenzo Cain .380 Chris Johnson, Atl, .401 Dexter Fowler, .391 in 2012 Adrian Gonzalez, .380 in 2011

Strop's fastball and stuff overall has seriously declined, Maddon really works his pen hard, and it's not a surprise that Edwards, Jr. burned out and Cishek is showing signs as well of faltering...but Strop is not unlike Herrera coming into this season. Osich can't be relied upon to be in high leverage situations with a lead, thankfully, they at least have Bummer and Fry.

Yelich and Huira REALLY stand out so far...an example of a player with some flaws in college and injury questions who looks like an absolute hitting machine so far at the major league level. Milwaukee doesn't have any standouts in their starting staff, but they also don't have anyone who will embarrass them or get them blown out of games early like a number of the 5th/emergency starters we've been forced to use this season. It's also about projection...looking at what Fulmer was, and what his teammate Buehler became.