MiddleCoastBias

My prediction: Lucroy starts the season as the backup, Collins stays in extended spring training for extra work before the AAA season starts. Bold prediction: the Rays trade for Yermin

Lynn, Kopech, and Crochet scheduled to pitch - should be appointment viewing. Hendriks was previously scheduled as well but has been moved to a bullpen session on a back field, apparently.

Good AB by Robert, decent eye laying off some good pitches. Hard hit right back up the middle, just bad luck.

Uhh... good.

Just idle thought here, but I wonder how Eaton is fitting in with this team and carving out his role as a vet. Seems like when he was young, he was doing that Madrigal is doing and probably knows how to approach him. From interviews, he sounds like he knows he was brought in to fire guys up and be the gritty vet, show the ropes, etc. But he also knows this isn't "his" team and he doesn't need to be "the voice". No real point here, just the Madrigal discussion has me wondering how everyone is coming together and finding their roles early.

White Sox were one of 11 teams that watched Yoenis Cespedes workout in Florida on Tuesday. Other teams in attendance: Yankees, Rays, Jays, Tigers, Marlins, Braves, Reds, Brewers, Cubs, and Padres. So 5 AL, 6 NL. Have to imagine teams are looking to give him an NRI and he's looking for a major league deal. Of those listed, I feel like the Rays are the best fit? No way he can go to the NL right now until they announce the DH, but that changes the calculus if they do. I've been interested in seeing what he could do here as a bounce-back candidate earlier this winter/spring, but I don't think he's a fit given what I suspect his playing time expectations are and where the Sox view the DH position with Vaughn et al. Very interested to see what he ends up doing however.

Today is only slated for 5 innings, correct? Or is this one with 6 innings?

Are we using this as a game thread today, or will there be another?

Related, -ish? Bottom line, hands off our boy.

Not this again.

The bolded part is it for me. We've had two years of people on the board saying how Burger has given up, doesn't care about baseball, disappeared from the face of the earth, just wants to eat his signing bonus, etc. and written him off as a person, let alone a player. Just goes to show how much we don't see or hear about these players in what they're truly doing to get better as a player and person. Just because we didn't get live video of his at-home workouts doesn't mean the guy has stopped caring about the sport. We're quick to judge these kids, I'm guilty of that as well, but it serves to show that the *professionals that work for the team* see and know a whole lot more than we do.

Relevant to the Burger discussion -

Better be a generously tall hat, or that's a new definition of "field level view".

Providing a different perspective on which divisions look to be competitive based on overall free agent spending.

As an East Coaster, I can't tell you how happy this makes me.

The quote below from the Nightingale article is EXACTLY what makes me nervous about TLR and what he'll do to the clubhouse - “He saw the game the way it was going and didn’t like it. He told me, 'I really don’t have the right to complain if I don’t do something about it.’ So now he’s in position to do something about it.’’ What part of where the game is going is it that he doesn't like, people having fun while playing the game? This reeks of enforcing "unwritten rules of baseball" mentality and I want no part of that. I regret reading that article - today is supposed to be only good news.

Any of our writers and contributors able to attend Spring Training? Interested to see if anyone has any photos, footage, live updates, etc to provide that we can follow along with.

To extend that metaphor, you don't give the keys to a Lamborghini to an inexperienced driver like Collins without expecting an accident or two.

Couple very interesting names pop up in the last paragraph... https://www.mlb.com/news/these-are-the-hall-of-famers-you-will-see-in-2021

I imagine combination of young and inconsistent (Robert) or returning from an illness we don't even understand (Moncada) hurts some of the other player projections as well.

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/standings/#alc PECOTA has us as an 83.1 win team this year, good for 3rd place in the Central. Even our bell curve for expected win percentage doesn't look favorable in their eyes. Does PECOTA ever like us?

And it's come to this, the inevitable final stage.

And with Heyman now chiming in and basically saying it's a bidding war between two teams, figure this is resolved today.

For the folks that are upset by the anonymity afforded by this board's emoji system, I've got bad news for you about this thing called "the internet".

But what would we be losing in the Gray + prospect trade? That's not a full equation to compare to Wainwright that doesn't cost a player.