MiddleCoastBias

Naive question/crackpot theory: what if the owners didn't counter offer and intend to go with Manfred's right to make it a 50-game season expecting the players to refuse (strike) to play? The CBA has penalties that prohibit a strike, right? Would that put the owners in a better position to negotiate from strength for next year's CBA? Like, admitting that this season isn't going to happen anyway so they force the players' hand now to make them out to be the bad guys so the owners get more of what they want next year?

I don't know, what about college football players that sit out of their team's bowl games because they know they'll be high picks in the draft and don't want to risk injury and their future paycheck? Their teammates get pissed because they "bailed on the team", but the players have that right because they don't want to jeopardize what they're worth. MLB stars playing for a fraction of what they're worth might see it the same way - why risk injury in a circus of a season for less than they're worth?

Wonder if the NHL playoffs news today will light a fire under the ownership to soften their approach a bit. They can't let a winter sport be the only live sports played all summer.

I'm naive on the ticket situation, but I thought it was something like 8000 tickets split evenly between the two organizations with season ticket holders given priority. If that's the case, I wouldn't think Sox season ticket holders would give those up easily, but I'm probably mistaken on the ticket allocation. If it was a 30,000 capacity stadium, I agree that would be harder to fill up against the local Cubs fans, but 8000 shouldn't be too hard to fill out quota.

Why do you think it would be the cubs? And if so, why would it be that upsetting? The cubs have a big national draw that will bring eyeballs to the tv screen. I'd love an opportunity to embarrass them with all of America watching and make a statement game with our young players as a team to watch.

Let's check in on our old friend Dan Clark, see how he's doing - Midseason form.

I know it was the hot thing to do for teams for a very brief time and seemed dated very quickly, but I really miss the sleeveless jerseys with black shirts underneath from the early '00s. Would love to see them incorporate that as a home Sunday afternoon jersey

Let's sign that other Wander and hope some GM is dumb enough to trade for him, like when Arizona's Dave Stewart traded for the wrong Luis A. Basabe. https://arizonasports.com/story/742725/yahoo-teams-gobsmacked-by-d-backs-haul-in-brad-ziegler-trade/

I feel like MLB and the owners really want to find some way to happen for financial (current, and building/keeping a generation of new fans), so I picked "season starts in June either in AZ or spring training sites, and limited attendance is eventually allowed by late summer" BUT I feel the limited attendance will result in a bounce back of covid cases and people will realize it was too soon, and the season will be cancelled thereafter in embarrassment for the league. If anything, I think they should do "all AZ, no fans" to limit exposure and just play ball, but it makes sense to just cancel it.

It'll also mean more chances to beat up on the cubs for more than 4 games a year with this temp realignment. Honestly, it would be kind of fun to play some teams more often that we don't traditionally play, get to see some new players and form new rivalries. There are a number of teams in the Cactus League that have intriguing young players like the Padres, A's, and Reds.

As good as any place to put this, haven't seen anyone else mention it - Garfien and Benetti are calling simulated games on MLB The Show as if they were real and sharing it online. They're doing this every Thursday at 3pm CT for that week's regularly scheduled game. Here's last week's Red Sox game. An hour and a half of banter, "season stats", and discussion about the real team. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon. Baseball is back, -ish!

I thought Madrigal was recruited as a shortstop for college but only moved to 2B because OSU had an even better defensive SS at the time? I remember reading that he would've been an SS in any other program and that his flexibility in the middle infield positions made him an even more attractive player at draft time.

Man, I love the look of 1 through 7. Grandal-Jimenez-Vaughn-Robert can be especially dangerous and will be fun to watch.

Yeah but SouthWallace is Spring Training MVP with the play by play. Really helpful when I miss a game and want to catch up quickly on everything I missed

9 groundout in 4 IP, sheesh. Timmy's going to get a lot of action out there. Leury made a great play on the barehand chopper, but I'm also relieved to know we have a potentially-GG caliber 2B waiting in the wings.

Bumping this because I'm getting antsy for games. For the 'webcast' games, does anyone know if those are all the free things through the White Sox website, or do they require the MLB.tv subscription?

We've got a Bruce Levine reference, Jerry being cheap, AND talking about how extending Abreu was dumb - it's a Soxtalk trifecta.

My buddy sent me this photo of his dad who attended and brought this flag to hold up with Eloy. He wanted Eloy and Cease to sign it but the lines were too long, apparently.

You guys know more about this than I do so here's another dumb question: what's the process for hiring/retaining/promoting/firing minor league coaches? Do they have contracts and, if so, so they ever span multiple years? Always just hear about how some coach is no longer there (Vizquel, Grudz, etc) but no mention of being fired or contract expiring, etc - they just disappear. And then you hear coaches are with one level one year (Jirschele, etc) and then moved to another the next year. Are they not locked in for multiple years? I get the sense that everyone serves on a one-year contract basis that is reviewed annually but there must be something I'm missing, yes?

Considering we haven't finished a season higher than third place in the last 7 years, I think we would get absolutely roasted publicly claiming that second place isn't good enough.

I feel like I can guess your age ?

You beat me to it haha

I think this part is huge. So often people think framing as stealing strikes by bringing a ball back into the zone, but equally important is avoiding bringing a strike OUT of the zone with poor receiving. Narvaez really seemed to struggle with receiving pitches at the bottom of the zone and would flail at them, swinging his mitt out of the zone. He cost pitches like Rodon a ton of strikes by swiping at low sliders that caught the zone but were called balls because of how awkward the catcher was in receiving it. The human nature thing is right - if the catcher moves as little as possible, pitcher hits the mitt/target, and the catcher doesn't need to adjust to receive it, the ump is naturally going to be inclined to think "that's a good pitch". Having a 'quiet' catcher that doesn't blow calls with poor receiving skills is just as important as stealing the odd strike, imo.