caulfield12

Abreu, Vaughn, Sheets, Burger, Jimenez...all profile best at DH/1B. In retrospect, drafting Madrigal and Vaughn at non premium positions might have started the series of roster debacles leading to Rodon/Kimbrel...then Pollock...then Benintendi to correct all those poor decisions. Always playing catch up.

JR KW Hahn TLR Coaching staff Abreu, TA7, Liam, Giolito, Andrus, Cueto Sox Fans for being pessimistic, lol

If Hahn hadn’t fucked up the payroll allocation and got an actual competent outfield instructor like Rusty Kuntz, we could have Eloy in LF at league average, Abreu at DH and Vaughn at 1B. Then we wouldn’t have needed to spend another $75 million on Benintendi. That money could have gone into another starter and reliever instead. We’d have enough LH hitting from Colas, Moncada and Grandal…

https://sports.yahoo.com/2023-fantasy-baseball-rankings-top-100-outfielders-202600945.html Anderson #9 SS, Robert #10 OFer and Eloy Jimenez also sneaks into the Top 20 positionally.

Well...other than Greg775, haven't seen anyone advocating giving him that contract for his full decline years. Astros had a similar situation with Gurriel and seem to be repeating it...hoping for one or one and one-half solid seasons left in that bat.

Deep thoughts by Jack Handey. Madrigal moving about as well as I can remember for Cubs tonight on the basepaths...seems to realize his career trajectory is seriously at stake, finally.

Reds have three lefty pitchers, all out of TCU. Colas continues to rake against fastballs. 6/13, first XB hit.

Lopez and Graveman really have to come through in the back of the pen...it's as simple as that.

Reds aren't going to be very good this season but will be quite aggressive on the basepaths. Really need a healthy and productive season from Nick Senzel and continued progression from Hunter Greene.

Lots of first pitch breaking balls. Like any pitcher who can get off speed pitches over consistently... Montgomery got overwhelmed in his at-bat.

Ray Knight highly complimentary towards Avila. Took out two of the better Reds' prospects.

Much more likely to pull the ball on the ground than in the air though...especially against 97+ heaters.

He let Grandal and Moncada lead the Cuban Corner off a cliff. Hopefully they get their acts together with both their careers on the line this coming season. Renteria allowed the players to have fun together. They totally lost that with TLR being the laughing stock of MLB the last couple of seasons...despite the team trying to present as much evidence to the contrary that Tiny could be cool hip modern as a manager and make the necessary adjustments to the modern players.

Sox fans tend to turn even more skeptical in seasons when they start April and May mired in mediocrity. They would really need to be at least 10-12 games over .500 at the 54 game mark to start being most back into the fold. Not to mention jacking up ticket prices and parking coming off one of the most disappointing seasons in team history. I would give fans a free GA ticket for every game they turned up to and the Sox lost by more than five runs.

Here's the thing. Winning cures a lot of clubhouse and chemistry issues. Machado and Tatis were at each others' throats quite publicly two years ago when their season was imploding. It happens in every clubhouse where a massive preseason playoff favorite disappoints...players tend to turn on each other. Then the fact that he was pushed out the door pretty unceremoniously must have hurt after almost a full decade with the team. Fans understand the logic behind cutting him loose...a lot more than we disagreed about no QO for Carlos Rodon. No TLR or hitting coach excuses this year. It's on the players to perform. Unfortunately, they've already taken a bit of a gut punch losing Hendriks.

With Liam and Giolito on one side, Abreu and Grandal on the other, the ONE leader who could have bridged that gap between leadership of white and Hispanic players was arguably TA7. We all know how that went last season...

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/iowa-hawkeyes-lukas-van-ness-000034059.html

The biggest problem is that consumers continue to migrate away from traditional cable TV to streaming services, with the number of pay TV households in the United States dropping from 100 million in 2014 to roughly 65 million today. Fun fact: It’s estimated that there will officially be more non-pay TV households (68.2 million) in the United States than pay-TV households (63.4 million) by the end of 2023. Number Of Pay TV Households In The United States 2014: 100.5 million 2015: 99.6 million 2016: 97.7 million 2017: 94.3 million 2018: 90.3 million 2019: 84 million 2020: 78.2 million 2021: 72.9 million 2022: 68.5 million 2023: 65.1 million Add in the fact that RSNs are the most expensive part of the cable bundle, and the decline of cable TV households has only further accelerated their problems. For example, Xfinity dropped MSG Networks — home to the Knicks, Rangers, Devils, Islanders, and Red Bulls games — in 2021 after it found that 95% of its customers didn’t watch more than 10 of the 240 games on the network. And this creates a vicious cycle. Cable operators that choose to keep these RSNs have to continuously increase the bundle's price to make the economics work, which only makes more people cut the cord in the long run. And given that RSNs typically earn about 90% of their revenue from carriage fees, networks dropping their channel from the cable bundle can be disastrous for the company’s bottom line. Remember, the NBA and NHL playoffs are about to start, and these leagues have already received payment from Sinclair for this season. And when you look at the long-term impact, it gets even more interesting. Major League Soccer was criticized a fair amount for signing a long-term, exclusive deal with Apple TV. For example, why would a league that is trying to grow and acquire new customers close its distribution model and go 100% exclusive to streaming? Well, maybe that wasn’t so bad after all — because while MLS limited its growth and discoverability by removing itself from cable TV, at least its cash flow will be stable over the next decade, and fans know exactly where to watch games (without blackouts). So when/if the RSN model fails, don’t be surprised when these leagues go back to airing games on free local TV stations and allow everyone else to pay a monthly subscription fee to stream anything they want. https://huddleup.substack.com/p/the-multi-billion-dollar-problem

It wouldn't be unlike Marcus Semien if the White Sox for whatever reason gave up on Vaughn early (partly due to Semien never finding a true defensive "home" and partly due to the lack of exceptional infield instructors)... The White Sox inevitably learn that short-term thinking (the potentially marginal improvement in 2023 performance, at best) leading to Sheets/Burger instead as a platoon combo doesn't override having the youngest player who doesn't have to be platooned. You simply don't platoon Top 5 draft picks when they haven't even had an opportunity to play their natural position for one full season, and missed so much developmental time due to Covid as well.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/forget-the-new-rules--the-biggest-story-in-baseball-right-now-is-the-collapse-of-the-regional-sports-networks-032239854.html As of right now, 20 total teams involved, with Cubs/Marquee and Yanlees/YES peripherally involved due to various ownership stakes. This article mostly about the blackout rules and centralized MLB revenues that are divided more equitably to preserve competitive balance vs. $200+ million differentials prevalent today across the sport. RSN's currently comprising roughly 20-24% of individual team revenues...further negating importance of day-to-day attendance over 81 home games.

Minor league deal...he and Villar had been the last two remaining 2B with decent fWAR numbers, unless you count Profar as a part-time there.

Moncada...sigh. At this point, would much rather take my chances with Buxton if both players were compared head to head. And Buxton has a much more favorable contract.

Profar in no way shape or form is a SS any longer. 2B and LF. Chris Taylor already duplicates that.

Lux was slated for SS this season...

I think Romy's going to have an uphill climb to make the roster. Doesn't seem to have the type of offensive approach that works well with less than ten PA's per week.