MiddleCoastBias

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".

Dunk tank on centerfield concourse featuring Jerry Reinsdorf. All proceeds go to the Sign All of the Relievers fund.

Benetti doesn't have a contract Benetti loves Nicky Lopez Sox trade for Nicky Lopez ??? Jerry back on his "friends and family plan", smh

This is so frustrating to watch. I get that Grandal is dealing with whatever injuries, but there are times he grounds into a double-play and he's barely in frame when the second out is recorded. I'm cynically expecting him to get thrown out at first by a RFer this year. And he's definitely not the only culprit (but is the biggest offender).

I always thought he looked like a dummy when he was running but I couldn't put my finger on it. Definitely the running upright thing, that makes a lot of sense now.

Didn't hear what he said, but I expect this is off-season "coach speak" and won't read too much into it. He could see Eloy there once or twice that first week and say "cool, I've seen enough."

For me it was this game. I was at the game and in line at concessions on the concourse, and I *heard* the impact of the pitch. Like, we all know the sound of the crack of the bat, and this was very much not that. Everyone rushed out to see what was going to happen because everyone there knew tensions were high all game, place was a powder keg. Tl;dr Joe Kelly lights a match when he needs to.

Also feel like there's some desperation there on SF's part to get someone locked up. They had Judge, then didn't. They lost Rodon. Correa was there, then he wasn't. The dollars might be a "hey we CAN'T miss on this guy with so few options left" move.