Jose Abreu

Well now you're on to something... medical staffs and trainers indeed have zero impact on pitchers' health when it comes to UCL tears. An unrelenting need to "blame" this on somebody for the sake of confirmation bias doesn't make any sense

Goldman deal is huge. Very underrated NT. I'm honestly feeling good about the opener. We have the leverage right now, the Packers defensive players have even admitted that they have no idea how to gameplan for us because they don't know what our offense is. And nobody does know, really. I'm excited to finally see it unveiled.

There were many plays where he wouldn't even go through progressions; he would just stare down one receiver the entire time and fire an incomplete pass. The worst part? When I noticed this, that one receiver was never even Julio.

They're dropping like flies out there, so many injuries

I found this interesting because Stone seems to be implying that, if he were in the booth last weekend, he would've challenged Hawk on-air

anderson

Please continue, rain... let's have Kopech's stats wiped!

Assuming the forecast holds, the Sox would be idiots to even send him out to start. But that's what I said last time against Boston and they still did it.

delmonico

This second half surge reminds me more of the 2014 Cubs than it does of the 2013 Royals. Lester was their big FA, so we'll see if we can get one too. A lot would have to go right for our 2019 to be like their 2015, but I'd also argue that we're in a better spot as an organization on this date than they were in early September of 2014.

Boog Powell is a free agent in 2024 and he's not good. Did you mean someone else?

I was shocked by Pollock's numbers. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=polloaj01&year=2018&t=b I remembered him as a .900 OPS guy with good defense in center this year. He has gotten worse every month dropping his rate stats significantly since I last checked, plus you always have to be wary of home/road splits for Rockies and Diamondbacks players. I don't even know if he would be worth it

Part of my point is that the team was very unlucky in April/May, so I see this more as regression to the mean than some sort of outlier

Yeah, a Pollock contract would be tough with our farm system. Obviously no guarantees, but between Robert, Basabe, Gonzalez, and even Rutherford, I'd be very surprised if we don't produce one MLB starting caliber center fielder. I don't know if Pollock would take a 1-2 year bridge deal, but maybe if it were with $20 million AAV so that he can prove that he can stay healthy and then get more on the open market again

There had to be some positive regression. And Rodon outperforming his FIP is sustainable since he doesn't allow hard contact.

I was thinking third base, which I am assuming he will go back to when $300 million+ is on the table. Apparently he has stated that he would be willing to go back to it

It's the fact that Lopez and Giolito specifically have been pitching much better lately. I don't care about Rodon's peripherals because he still doesn't have his best stuff and is still allowing weak contact and missing barrels. Those stats you referenced don't really care about quality of contact, and Rodon has been terrific at getting weak outs while not missing bats. I also don't consider FIP to be a predictive stat but that's a debate for another time.

Off-topic, but replace "NFL" with "MLB", "Mack" with "Machado", and "pass rusher" with "middle of the order bat", and that's exactly why I think we're planning a huge run at Machado this offseason.

Official:

I noticed that both Yoan and TA lead their respective positions in out of zone plays by a large margin. Is this due to shifts, their range, or a mix of both? Also, on an unrelated note, if Tim plays defense like he has since mid-May, we could even see a 4 WAR year from him next season.

I don't see why that has to be the case. I think a lot of the winning would come from the starters (mainly Rodon/Kopech) and the new and improved bullpen. Not sure if that group would give 15 WAR but I could easily see 10, where Tim/Yoan/Eloy combine for 8-9 of it.

I think people underestimate how big of a role coaching played with the Bears last year. If they were consistently getting blown out then I would agree that they still have a long way to go. But this is a team that ran the most predictable offense (run, run, pass, punt) ever, didn't let their quarterback take shots, and, with the exception of the Eagles game, generally only lost Trubisky's games by one or two scores despite these limitations. They may have gone 5-11, but they played more like a 7-9/8-8 team with Trubisky around. Now that we've added Mack/Smith/the offensive weapons and system, I wouldn't consider a 9 or 10 win season that big of a jump.

Sale, Quintana, Eaton, Anderson, so 4, right?

Schedule is tougher than it looks. Pre-Mack I would've said 8-8. Now I'm probably at 9-7. If they stay healthy, which is a big if given recent years, they win double digits and make the playoffs. However I am factoring potential injuries into my prediction.