Quin

Remember when they attached Tatis to get SD to eat more of Shields' deal? Good times.

The problem is that it's very, very easy to see a light at the end of this tunnel: They have an ace (Crochet), mega-tool star CF (Robert), starting catcher (Lee) and their top prospect is a power-hitting lefty shortstop (Montgomery). That's basically the four hardest spots to fill. Honorable mention: Vaughn may be coming alive? June could also be an aberration, but 1B offense is down this year. Then they have absurd depth building at SP: Thorpe, Schultz, Cannon, Nastrini (yeah, he's having a rough time), Iriarte, Bush, Eder, Adams, Taylor, Pallette, Keener, Gowens, Batista and Carela. That's not even counting Burke or Martin. Bryan Ramos has made his debut. Quero is turning it around. Wolkow is all-tooled up. Baldwin is on fire. Gonzalez has turned it around this year. I'm going to personally throw Colas in there because his approach seems different this year. I also acknowledge that Fletcher could always revert to his prior career numbers. The Sox look like they'll get something nice at #5. So, on paper, that all looks fantastic. Especially that pitching depth. But... They once had an ace on a Hall of Fame track (Sale), a top #2 (Quintana), cornerstone 1B (Abreu), top SS prospect (Anderson) and RF putting up amazing numbers (Eaton). That core failed miserably. Outside of Thorpe, Cannon and Nastrini (all very fresh rookies), all of that depth is in the minors. They can still bust. Giolito and Kopech were both #1 SP prospects in baseball (or Kopech was at least #1 RHP). They failed Lopez as a starter. Cease and Rodon were in house. Much like last time, the relief depth isn't inspiring. Hahn spent that wad of cash after acquiring or drafting so many young relief prospects and they all busted. I assume some of the starters would be converted or traded off. They had a position core oozing talent after the last sell-off — so why would a new one, developed by the same guy as last time — turn out any differently? Burke looked good last year and is cratering. Ellis has reached the majors, but he needs a hit tool to stick. Terrell Tatum is hitting poorly. Zach DeLoach is meh. As we've seen, high draft picks aren't guaranteed. Most importantly: Jerry didn't spend the fucking money on two superstars that were falling into their lap. Getz is gonna convince him otherwise? Last go around I'd have been super optimistic, but this team has beaten the optimism out of me.

Who knew that the blazing speed of Gavin Sheets would win the day?

That...worked?

I play the fool.

Ugh why didn't I place a bet

Wait, is Pedro challenging even though Lee didn't even try to mime like he was hit?

Unrelated but these jerseys are hysterical. They're green vs. blue text bubbles

Omg Benintendi

I'm sorry, we need to see DeLoach's amazing defensive prowess some more.

Please let June Vaughn be real

Bro make Korey Lee the manager

So many GMs are banging down Ozzie's door to manage this team that you can book him on Cameo.

The Sox jersey has tiny flaws (spacing between letters, my aforementioned hat critique) and it's still upper echelon. I'd like to see it with gray pants as well. And like I said, add more red - or even teal - to Serpientes and it becomes something the Dbacks should keep in rotation.

The worst part: I only saw it cause it's sitting on the homepage. I was on the homepage so I could go submit my five votes for #AllStardanado

Clint Frazier, Miguel Andujar and Estevan Florial for Chris Sale, who says no?

"John Danks didn't work out so no"

In this vein: Andrew Vaughn has hilarious (in a good way) numbers in June. He's got a .361 / .395 / 1.061 split. Now he just needs to sustain that for more than like, 10 games.

I think with the best ones is that they (at least the Sox and Marlins) submitted designs to Nike instead of vice versa. If I could change one thing about the Sox, I'd swap the Chi hat for this hat that a local artist made and they did a giveaway for. It's one of my favorite hats that I've got. Thoughts on others, in order of the rankings of this article. Baltimore should have had the color on the outside instead of the inside for some weird reason. Why in the world did the Cardinals make their pinstripes so hard to see??? Philly is fine design wise, but the color scheme - while I get it - is too far of a departure. Long live the Peagle. Love Texas' jersey. Mets needed more purple to contrast with the gray if they're going with the subway lines. Boston has grown on me. Angels should adopt these as their primaries. CINCY looks like a sublimated softball jersey. Royals went simple and it paid off. Brewers is only ruined by MKE, much like the Sox "Chi" If there was more red in the Serpientes jersey, it'd be top, top tier. Skateboarding Ray and the texture = win Cleveland's is boring, no idea why it's ranked high. I can't decide if I love or hate Colorado's green. Padre's are grand. Washington should keep these but stop doing three letter abbreviations for the love of god. Marlins are fucking fire and are a great way to pay homage to city culture and the past. Yankees are a joke for not participating (and they lost jersey purity arguments the second they slapped a giant concrete logo on their sleeves). A's are a joke in general.

Several did, yes.

JR lucked into two of the most iconic brands in sports (thanks to MJ and the hip-hop community) and does f*** all with either one.

At least Colas has an arm, meaning he has the most tools of the three.

Those who can't, teach