GREEDY

I am a Keuchel bull but there are very few scenarios where the club will be excited to be on the hook for 20 million next year. I don't want to bury him. But I don't want to have an awkward storyline down the stretch if he's been good but not great (which I think is possible). In that scenario you won't want to pay him 20 million next year, but you also won't want the BS that will come with manipulating his innings. I saw the weather report, knew it was Keuchel's day and realized it wouldn't be a bad thing for him to miss his start. That isn't "Soxtalk-ish".

Sox would love for Keuchel to pitch one inning or even better yet, just warm up and then the game get washed. Nightmare scenario if Dallas is serviceable (but not great) and healthy this season and approaching 160 IP during the pennant run. He does not strike me as the type to take his innings getting limited quietly.

The food in the scout's lounge has steadily went down over the years. We started just eating in the ballpark. Rumor is that it will improve this season. The parking perk took a major hit when they closed the entrance right off 35th. You used to be able to get out quickly after a game. Now you essentially park in the same spot near the stadium but it is at the very back of Lot E. Sounds trivial but it was a gamechanger for the ease of my commute. My seats are near a corporate sponsor's seats. They have chatty people in them every game, and they are usually talking about stuff other of the game. I don't hold it against the individuals personally but it does get old that it is that way every game. I tip my waiter in the lounge and then again in the seats so that is another expense. The good? Seats are wider. No one sitting right on top of you. I'm sure everyone has had a game ruined by an unfortunate seat neighbor. Obviously, if you usually spend $25 on food and another $50 on beer in normal seats, that makes the Scout Seats a tad cheaper. No or little wait for the bathrooms is nice at games that draw 30k+. I've always marveled that they sell as many of the scout seats as they do. I've speculated that many most be lumped in as "value" into big corporate sponsorships. Like if Ford does a multi million dollar sponsorship they receive a million dollars in suites and tickets back. Pretty easy to value the Scout Seats as $1200+ for 4 and that ads up quickly. So in conclusion, NO, they are definitely not worth the money if you are value hunting.

After the hamburger (I know you are reading this) chimed in with his "guess" (or I should say sourced info) on Montas-Gate I caught up on his timeline and noticed he was reiterating Conforto AAV asks during the months where he Boras reportedly wasn't even seeking a deal because he was injured. Dude doesn't miss.

Not really, but I said 2nd to get attention. You want him to get as many plate appearances vs the starter as possible. 8th is a joke.

Andrew Vaughn should hit 2nd vs LHP

Yoyo was scuffling and wasn't excited to play in the cold. Desastre Personal ?

Not all fan bases are super excited about living through 4 year rebuilds and then going all-in with Josh Harrison and Vince Velazquez

My post, to differ from the obvious was to point out where we sat coming into last season. I am lower on the majority than I was at this time last year. On Madrigal specifically Just eyeballing his numbers, even if you extrapolate for a full season he would have been firmly in the middle tier of 3.

Coming into last spring training I was significantly more optimistic: Thought Moncada could be a superstar. Thought Madrigal could be an above average 2B (he is not and neither is Harrison). Was a tad higher on both Eloy & Vaughn (obviously nothing is etched in stone but any reasonable projections would surely be a tad lower this season). Abreu and Grandal are a year older. The only clear upgrade is Pollock (and Sheets I guess) while TA & Robert probably hold serve from my projections last year.

Any word on which surgeon will lance Lynn? also At least we already know what Lance sitting around doing nothing for 4-8 weeks will do to his body.

This happens to every club in the league, almost every year. The difference is the good organizations have two or three AAA options that have been chomping at the bit for their chance. We have the same guy who has been given his chance since 2017, this will be his 5th chance.... and literally NOTHING after him. Our front office has drafted horribly, wasting 1st round pitching picks on relievers and they haven't developed anyone else. 4 years of tanking, hundreds of starts to find a diamond in the rough... nothing.

Yep, the Manaea pursuit may have ended when they essentially only saved a million dollars on the Kimbrel trade. Reasonable chance the 10 million coming back was too much regardless of the asking price.

Love the contrarian view effort. My take? It has to be unlikely that this gets done because virtually every team in baseball *could* use Manaea at worst as a swing man. That has be driving the price to the maximum. Also, any time you deal for a vet on an expiring contract you get *some* value in acquiring a year to win them over and possibly extend them to a team friendly deal (see Lynn), but that is very unlikely in this deal. I was excited about the possibility because Manaea has that next level in him. He has show the ability to be dominant. He just feels like a guy who could get hot and carry a team in October. I think the price would make me vomit though.

A long term deal spreads out the cost of the compensation. History has shown clubs don't want to give it up for 1 year deals. I cannot imagine being this confident about something I knew so little about.

The offseason is starting to make a little more sense now. If there was no Conforto to sign and/or the injury scared our front office, they in turn blew the jerry bucks on short term reliever deals as all of the short term starters flew off the market outside of Rodon.

Hell yes. The games are way too late during the week. Work is becoming more flexible for most. Traffic on our expressways has become so unpredictable that the days of being able to take a 45 minute drive to the park, leaving one hour before game time hasn't been feasible for years. It has become a "take a half day or leave early" for many already.

I initially overreacted. He likely was a 40 man casualty in Philly and we are taking advantage because we have the space. He could easily start in Charlotte, never make the show and eventually face the same fate in a roster crunch here. I'll also just assume he'd be an above average corner OF since he is or at least was listed as a CF. Fine move if he is Plan C for the opening day roster, unacceptable move if he is the new Plan A.

Terrible. We had 4+ years to give AAAA players like this their chance. We did our time and deserve better.

The Leinenkugel craft lodge sounds like it could be the craft cave, but obviously does not sound too promising. Lets hope we can still get 180 day old Hop Butcher down there.

Since he was learning RF on the fly, everyone was giving Vaughn pointers.

Hoping for and predicting a contusion. Sit for the remainder of the spring. Do a rehab stint in extended spring until late April. Miss the cold weather, stat crushing weeks. Show up May 1 and mash.

Gonna be hard for Hahn to find another first baseman to play right field this late in the offseason.

I'd respect him more if he'd change his legal name to a fast casual chicago food option.

Hahn managed the offseason like a guy whose job is extremely secure. Which is fine, but generally happens AFTER the front office has won a World Series or was just hired. He wasn't willing to make long term deals that risked 2026 in exchange for maximizing our chance in 2022. Front offices do this all the time, where they blow money but really try to keep it short term, it just usually gets spent on veteran starting pitching. Hahn either didn't love the guys that were available or decided to try and moneyball the league on right handed relievers.