MiddleCoastBias

But that's also trusting the front office to get into and win TWO bidding wars to build our super pen. What's stopping them from signing one to $8.5M and balking when the price goes up on the other as well? Then we're stuck with one inferior piece. On paper this sounds like a great idea, but the reality is that hoping for this outcome to actually happen in this off-season is higher risk. While I'd love the look of a super pen like that, I have higher confidence that we can just sign Hendriks and be done with it.

Oh no. This sounds like a tip-off that the MLB season will be delayed. Should see this coming but I still hate it.

This is so insulting how the org continues to peddle their definition of what "all in" means and refuses to actually spend the money that would SHOW that they're all in, instead choosing to leverage years of controllable pieces.

I think the so-called "character clause" is just as divisive as the question of PEDs in the Hall or not. Some voters use it a deciding factor for borderline guys, rightly or wrongly. A guy like Vizquel has very borderline hard numbers, but was getting the benefit for his defense, longevity, and "being good for the game". He would've benefited had that good-guy narrative stuck. Take that last part away and he's on the other side of fence. Schilling objectively should be in, but people again use the character clause because they don't like him and need a justification for why they can vote against him and still feel good about their decision. I feel like Eddie Murray was another case like this back in the day because he was an ass to reporters - he just wanted to play ball, and he did it really, really well. The reporters/voters took took that as a slight and held him out for a long while.

Another view of the tracker that has Buehrle staying on the ballot for next year with reasonable confidence.

Ryan Thibodaux https://twitter.com/NotMrTibbs?s=09 actually tracks all of the public ballots and shares them in spreadsheet that calculates percentages, etc. Buehrle is currently tracking just over 10% (I honestly thought he would get less than 5% this year and drop off). For those that want to keep up to date on what the numbers look like as more ballots come in, his sheet is found here - https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=F2E5D8FC5199DFAF!31002&ithint=file,xlsx&authkey=!AKnsRGrHzGEkOuw

I will personally fight whoever said "Let Benetti announce everything. Preferably accompanied by Bill Walton." Man, that is unwatchable schlock. I've come around on Benetti and enjoy him with Stone now, but don't push it.

This. We always talk about building the next generation of fans and how the team's performance competes with the cubs for the next generation of fans Imagine if we can sustain this pipeline of talent and build the next generation of Cuban fans that grow up watching their favorite players on the Sox, and then they too want to play for the Sox. Success begets success.

It's like bizarro Caulfield - he named 18 players and managed to misspell 6 of them.

Not sure where else to put this or if it's already been mentioned, but Chuck's podcast interviewed Katz. Some really good insight here, including guys preliminary work with Reynaldo Lopez. He specifically said they're working on the curve ball and bringing that back.

No one actually THINGS Baines made the Hall strictly on his merits, or really even deserves to be there. Just because they made the mistake with him doesn't mean they need to make another mistake and let in another undeserving player in Altuve.

I love this in principle but I can't see the MLB enacting that and dealing with the blowback. A bunch of our are going to say that taking a vaccine is against their religion, or whatever reason they want to use, and forcing them to take it in order to attend a game infringes on their liberties I see that just being a quagmire for MLB to enforce, and a PR nightmare when faced with turning people away who feel it's their right to not get vaccinated. Like I said, I'm for it. It's like a "no shirt, no service" rule at a far grander scale, but that's also why I don't think MLB will/can do it, unfortunately.

He said Rick called him right away when his option wasn't picked up by Washington. Knew the org, comfortable with our approach, knows team is built to be "win now". Praised Tim for what he's done to become a household name. Asked impact of having a new manager, said he likes an old school hard-nosed skipper, very excited to learn from TLR. "Have to let that happen organically." Said Tony has called him multiple times and that Tony likes to send letters (????) to his players to get to know them. Talked about impact of learning from vets in Washington on how to carry himself now as an older player that has been around. Lot of platitudes, nothing really ground breaking (except TLR mailing letters through the pony express), but interesting nonetheless.

Adam Eaton is going to be interviewed on Hot Stove on MLBN in a minute after this commercial break.

*puts on tinfoil hat and races over to that prospects thread where Weems was rated to see who was suggesting he was named so he would be moved*

I think it was Joel Sherman last week that said this might happen and threw Seattle out as an option to land Realmuto. Seems kind of off the wall to me but could be another one of those "sign Robbie Cano"-kickstart the program moves.

Big fan of Matt Davidson's career renaissance, huh? Assuming you meant Robertson, I agree - I hope this is where they go big and spend what they need to to get Hendriks. Would love to have him anchor our pen.

Few hours old, might be in another thread, but reputable source:

Joc AND Dahl? On the surface that seems duplicative, but I can see that as the rolling RF/LF/DH move with Eloy, Engel, and Vaughn when he comes up. Kind of mix them all in there - doesn't block Vaughn but gives us flexibility at DH at the corner OF spots. I can be sold on this.

For anyone else like me that either doesn't like Lynn or didn't want to move Dunning and is looking for a reason to accept or even like the trade, let's look at what some of our opponents have to say about it: Twins Reddit - "A) fuck. Good trade for the WS and they addressed a huge need for a reasonable cost" Texas fans - "We got a pitcher with a history of recent TJS. What else is new?I Ihope this pans out." "His value spiked a bit last year, too, which is a mild concern. Sox are selling high." "White Sox look so good right now except for their manager." "To be fair, we don't know exactly what the white sox gave up yet. And I just don’t think the league was ever going to value Lynn as an ace." "Sox fans melting down they gave up six years of Dunning for one year of a MORP. I love the internet." BONUS nod for the fanboys: "I am a tiny bit devastated we didn’t wrangle Yermin from them."

With McCann as good as gone and less need to work his bat into the order as DH and no longer carrying 3 catchers on the roster, I can definitely see this musical chairs working to replace McCann's and EE's at bats. And hey, Schwarber can serve as our emergency catcher (if Tim Anderson doesn't have something to say about it).

I was going to float this as an idea/question. Like I wonder if they would keep the same length of season on the calendar but trim the schedule to 140 games or less, gives everyone more off days that can be used to make up games.

Re: the Wheeler stuff, any word on if he had a no trade clause or list? Feel like it would be pretty awkward to be traded here a year after his family publicly said no to Chicago and turned down a higher offer. Not that he would necessarily have us on his NTC list, just got me thinking of that and the first awkward conversation he would have.

I still like the idea someone threw out a month ago about targeting Joe Musgrove from the Pirates. They seem to be in shambles and might take a package of lower level guys to develop as well.