MiddleCoastBias

I know this is a "dream" trade that probably (definitely) will never happen, but even with that caveat it seems like a Nintendo trade. That's a whole lot of shakeup moving the entire infield around, plus moving one of the faces of the franchise to a position he's never played, just to get another SS. Teams don't reshuffle 3+ player's defensive alignments to sign a redundant position piece. Doesn't make a lick of sense to me.

Billy Hamilton DH'ing for the White Sox in a ST game is almost as good as Jimmy Rollins DH'ing a regular season game. I guess give him a few ABs so the team sees him live, but he's exactly who we thought he was at this point in his career. No real point giving him a look here.

Really cool stuff, akin to custom hockey goalie masks. Not allowed in games yet because the higher-ups in the league office love tradition, but I can see this being an easy way to grow the game and let players express themselves. There's a huge marketability opportunity here - let's hope the capitalize on it.

Agreed. Gio has publicly said "I know what I'm worth" on multiple occasions and has given the impression that he intends to get it. Not that he's out there as a mercenary scraping to get every penny, just that he knows he's good and deserves a fair deal - no discounts. For that reason, I've thought he's the least likely to sign, given what you said about questioning JR's willingness to do that. Would love to be proven wrong here, though.

Grabbed another one, stealing that low strike 3 for Bummer there as well. Great inning by Bummer K'ing all 3 batters he saw.

Benetti and Stone on the call as well. Getting the gang together!

Ump huddle for a rules discussion on a pickoff play, two runners on one base. It's spring training for everyone, folks

I think when hitters know that he's got that wicked curve in his pocket and it's back in his arsenal, we'll see fewer people able to just sit dead-red on him.

Good to see using that curveball we saw last year in the 'summer camp' or whatever Spring Training 2.0 was called. Looks like he also has Giolito's little leg kick on his follow through when he's upset with himself missing his location, kind of entertaining.

I know you allude to the risk on the low hit rate on high school catcher draft picks, but does he look like a kid that will actually stick at C? Or is this like one of those situations where he'll be drafted with almost the expectation that he'll be moved to those other positions? Kind of like a poor man's Bryce Harper "we'll try him at C until he shows he can't" type thing?

Precautionary for an abdominal strain for Robert. Hopefully nothing.

Lineup. Seems like we've been going either "good lineup, minor league pitcher" or "minor league lineup and established pitcher" in our outings

More idle speculation based on nothing but remaining teams left in the musical chairs

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.