cabiness42

Where are you seeing that Kluber is in 1st?

From the mlb.com story on the final vote 1) Rizzo is noted as holding a "slim edge" while Sale simply "leads" 2) Sale's closest competitor isn't even mentioned. 3) Look at the county by county map. Sale is near or over 50% in most of the NY metro area, doing very well in the Bay area, PHI-BAL-WAS corridor and in South Florida. This one is in the bag.

Wait a minute. A teammate complained because AJ was looking at his phone after a game instead of running right over to the pitcher to provide a shoulder to cry on? If that's the worst thing AJ did, then they seem a bit too sensitive to me. Wait, they thought that they would be able to influence AJ's approach at the plate? Wow, that's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If you signed AJ expecting him to suddenly take 50 walks a year, then you're beyond stupid.

I have some chunks out of the wall.

Sounds like the fun stuff already happened.

They didn't have to. Rodon wasn't going to turn down $6M to go back to college, and if he was going to turn down $6M then he's an idiot and I don't want him. It isn't so much just this signing as the precedent it sets. Now that the Sox have gone over slot once, every first round pick from now on is going to expect it. Setting a bad precedent.

Why did the Sox cave in? Hahn must turn into a little girl when in a room with Boras.

You had to know this would happen.

Third Base!

It wasn't really that scary. I was in a smaller city and not on a main street. Just a bunch of drunk shirtless men (and a few women) with black/red/yellow face/body paint shouting a bunch of stuff that I probably wouldn't have understood even if I spoke German.

Getting a peek on MLBN right now. Got to see Gillaspie's diving stop.

No contender is taking AJ. I doubt anybody takes AJ if the Sox don't. Also, this is before July 31, so the waivers are not revocable. Boston has 10 days to deal him (which won't happen) and then he becomes a FA.

I was in Germany for the 90 WC Final. Never seen mayhem like that before.

To be a bit technical here, claiming him off waivers means assuming his contract. There is zero chance that happens. Once he clears waivers, the Sox can pick him up, and Boston is on the hook for his entire salary minus the prorated veteran minimum.

WC Final = Current Pope vs Retired Pope

Why would they do that in a game that seems headed for PK?

OK, but Nieto is already on the roster and isn't ready to be the starting catcher so giving Flowers' playing time to AJ carries no risk.

I'd like to change my answer to the original question to: 10 days from now.

Bat Gillaspie 2nd vs RH starters, he gets on base more than Beckham, more runs driven in by Abreu/Dunn, have the lead in 6/7/8/9 and don't worry about the matchups.

There is no future catcher ready to get valuable major league experience. Thus, bringing back AJ at league minimum has no downside.

Trade anybody for him and/or take on any portion of his salary beyond the league minimum? Absolutely not. Sign him for league minimum after he clears waivers? No good reason not to. He can't be worse than Flowers and he'll sell some tickets.

Notice at the top of my post I said, "aside from the obvious of developing better players." Getting players onto better clubs in better leagues is how you develop the better players, but doing better scheduling for the USMNT is how those better players get the team's ranking up. Nate Silver's SPI does take into account where players play professionally, but the FIFA rankings don't, and those are what determine getting seeded in the WC. Regardless of how good the team is, playing more games against European and South American nations and fewer against Jamaica, Panama and Cuba is how the US gets their ranking up.

If an older guy can hit enough to stick at DH, then yes, he's worth spending money on, but Allen Craig does not fit that description. Also, I'm not in favor of subtracting Ramirez. The way baseball's economic system works, it is very rarely worth the price, either in FA dollars or traded talent, to acquire a guy over 30. Maybe on a 1-year deal if you can get it.

My county: Sale 46.9 Kluber 26.6 Porcello 13.7 Richards 12.8 Keuchel 0.1