MiddleCoastBias

Billy is batting .095 with a .174 OBP. .317 OPS. My gawd.

I'm concerned that he'll try to compensate so he doesn't feel it as much when he swings, but then that will put too much strain on other muscles and cause another injury.

Doesn't feel too long ago that they had $1 hot dog nights on Thursdays. Now $5 hot dogs are *special*!

I'm guessing this means Gio throws a sim game to stay on rotation, and that we don't see him for another week. Was looking forward to seeing him throw a few innings.

Yeah, but consider TWTW intangibles Billy brings! I joke, but only kind of. I totally get the argument that you want your backups to actually be *good backups*, but I'm still stumping for Billy as his role as a teammate helps outweigh his negative value at the plate. Now, if he's starting 50 games, yes that's a problem like you said, and our depth is very shallow. I agree on that. Just had to defend Billy's name as I think he has more value to this team that we can't quantify. I firmly believe a bad clubhouse does more harm to the team performance overall than one noodle-armed slapjack hitter that can't hit his own weight does.

I really hope Billy Hamilton makes this team. He's just so fun, and this team needs that. The dugout seemed so much more energetic when he and Brian Goodwin were here. He's our new Yolmer. Wish we had Brett Phillips for that very reason. This team needs an energy guy, someone that is actually *likeable*.

Same could be said for the Rodon contract mentioned in that article, 6/$162M is a lot of scratch. Hopefully for their sake that forearm strain is just a strain...

My guess is that the FO wasn't ready to pen him in as the '23 OD starter and wanted to see what was available on the FA market first. Perhaps another big-brain move thinking they'd get someone like Nimmo or Comforto on a bargain? Idk. I'm not against waiting to see if they could get a FA RF, even if we knew the likelihood was low. We tried (maybe?), didn't work out, Colas starts '23 anyway. Same result, different route. Imagine how ripshit people would've been if we telegraphed that we were punting on FAs when everyone knew how big of a hole we have in RF.

This is the one area I DO trust Cleveland to have success. Until they prove otherwise, I just assume their pitching prospects are going to be a success based on their track record of at least the past 8 years. I've got: 1. Cleveland. Youth, pitching, excitement, and everyone seems to like each other 2. Sox. Loads of talent, too many health/bounce back season variables. Lost Abreu#. 1 if everything goes right, #3 if more of the same. I think the new coaching staff has us close to #1 than #3 though. 3. Twins. Top-heavy talent. As a baseball fan, I want to see Buxton play 150 games. As a Sox fan, I expect he'll play less than 50. 4. Royals. Young talent is fun to watch, will be fun to see Greinke finish out his career in powder blue with a "f*** it, let's have fun" season 5. Tigers. What even are they.

Can you imagine what he's thinking right now with larger bases and limited pickoffs? Great opportunity for him to stick around. All he needs now is to grant the ability to steal first base and he's golden.

That hurt to read more than I expected it to. Damn.

I trust you'll share the link here once it's live, yes?

The Padres once again beat us to the punch

Sox announcing that Colson is playing tomorrow but also not allowing us to watch it has some big "free frogurt, but the frogurt is also haunted" energy.

I believe this is also live on MLB Network today for us out-of-towners.

You mean we all get to use the balls they used for Yankees games last year?

It's literally the first practice game of the preseason, I don't think the Sox are concerned with any messages their practice squads send. They're getting their guys ABs and they're trying Eloy in RF - like Grifol said they would. Frankly, let him get his reps in early like this so we can prove it's a failed experiment and move on from it sooner rather than later. I'm just not going to get bent out of shape over literally every lineup in practice.

The one thing that irked me was him complaining that the guys writing about the team were negative and hard on them, when most of us here get upset that our beat writers are too easy on the front office, never asking tough questions or follow-ups. I get there's a difference between questioning the players and questioning the front office, but Chuck is also the most positive person I can think of when discussing the team and its underperformance last year. To single him out seemed like whining.

All of those things can be true. But when the club is actively saying how great he's preparing, he's got a great eye for, ready to compete for the OD job, and just overall pumping his tires, it looks pretty suspect if we then send him down for the minimum time to retain that extra year of service. If he doesn't break camp with the team and stays down through July, that's different. But the way the team is making it sound, he's going to be the RFer sooner rather than later, and keeping him down for service time reasons is going to be pretty transparent.

Yep, they're making it really hard to send him back down to "work on his defense" for a few weeks a la Kris Bryant without a grievance. They must know what they're doing (I hope).

Impressive pull to remember that you started a thread 4 months ago highlighting Declan Cronin. Didn't realize it was an old thread, saw Bilous' name in the first post haha

I can't believe we're letting this loser speak to the media. And also Mike Clevinger.

Joe West is coming out of retirement, boys.

Brief scouting report from 2021 https://www.prospectslive.com/scoutingreports/jb-bukauskas Highlights include: "Violent operation that puts stress on Bukauskas' arm and shoulder." "he drops down and slings the ball from a low three quarters delivery with a heavy crossfire finish. This leads to continued issues with strike throwing as he'll consistently lose his release point." "the amount of action on his fastball leads to serious bouts with his command where he'll lose the zone entirely with the pitch." "He'll struggle to command [the slider], much like all of his pitches leading to less strikes than you'd like to see from a plus or better pitch." "Overall: Bukauskas is the perfect example of how great stuff only takes you so far. His command profile limits his ability to project long term in the rotation and leaves some doubt around his ultimate effectiveness in the pen."

..... you signed a career utility player to a 3-year, $15.5.M extension to "beat the market".