Jose Abreu

I know this is mostly in jest but there really is no way Luis Robert (say he were on the Orioles with this contract) could receive fair value in a trade. You'd have to get multiple teams involved. It would need to be like the Sale and Quintana returns combined. We're talking about 8 relatively cheap years of a 4+ win baseline center fielder with a Trout ceiling

Top 5, honestly. That contract is really nice

Yes, the Sox are going to make the playoffs. That has been a pretty safe bet for weeks now. But they're also a top ~5 team in all of baseball, and just making the playoffs, as refreshing as it will be given the 12 year drought, should not be the goal now that we know how good this team is

Abreu

For all the (mostly sarcastic) jabs about Lynn's performance tonight, 6 IP/3 ER against the Dodgers is pretty good

Not just referring to their friendly banter on Twitter. Back when Tim's YouTube channel was a thing during Spring Training 1.0, one of his videos included him and Bauer hanging out and talking for a bit. They seemed to know each other pretty well

I'm not a fan of Bauer as a person but FWIW, he and Tim are actually good friends Reinsdorf hates Manfred so if anything that's a plus

Wouldn't complain about either, but Nimmo has an additional year of control and generally gets on base more often. In our power-heavy lineup, having a guy with a >.400 OBP would be a godsend. I know Conforto's is also >.400 right now but that seems like more of an outlier for him

98.1%. They need to finish 8-21 or better

Oh, totally forgot about the forecast. That certainly is looking ominous

I am expecting this as well. Or even the entire weekend being interrupted. It'll be interesting to see how the situation evolves in MLB vs NBA over the next 24 hours

And, amazingly, 0 Padres references within those 38. Very impressive

I went from "will they make the playoffs?" to "can they maybe get a top-4 seed in the playoffs?" to "how deep of a run will they make in the playoffs" in about two weeks

Grandal

Encarnacion

Heuer for 2 months of a struggling (to put it lightly) Ray would be terrifying. The most anyone should be trading for Ray is minor league depth and/or cash

Yes, depending on how much he struggles. But 1B/DH next year is pretty clearly Abreu/Vaughn, and I don't think they're going to spend on a temporary DH so that Vaughn can get ready. If he can put up a 90 wRC+ or better this year, let's say, I think he'd start up in MLB next year. That said, I don't expect him to struggle, he's just too polished and talented. I think he's going to blow everyone away, and I think he has been MLB-ready since the day he was drafted.

IMO, if he comes up, he's not ever playing in the minors again (save for rehab stints and/or he randomly sucks and needs to develop there). Given that he isn't signed to a long-term deal, it would be unlike the Sox to promote him now. But then again, there seems to be smoke, and this team is pretty good for a change

For the remaining 30 games, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. For next season, I'd hope we have a new face out there, whether that's Joc, one of the Mets LHHs, etc

I prefer to look at it as Min 20-10 Sox 17-12 Cle 17-12

Whenever I bring this up on Soxtalk, I'm told they desperately needed relief help and he was the only option. I still really don't get how the ONLY option is trading your top prospect for 2 months of an elite closer as opposed to, I don't know, any other prospect for 2 months of any other reliever

I see the bat speed line used a lot and I just really disagree with it. Yes, a player's bat speed can look slow, but it doesn't mean he's an over-the-hill bum who will never be good again. In many cases, things like bat speed, swing mechanics, swing plane, etc. are just facets of a game that go through ups and downs like anything else. Far too often, I see people criticizing the bat speed of Abreu, or even Mazara (who of course is still slumping, but probably not for long) and using it to imply that they're done

It's really hard to have actual data to back these discussions up, aside from looking at where the teams play and where their fanbases are. But yes, in my experience, Cubs fans are more likely than Sox fans to be right-wing. Which is not to say that there aren't right-wing Sox fans, of course

I would, if it wasn't for that Nightengale article a month or so ago where Jerry was crying poor

The biggest signing in Cubs history is a guy with a .756 career OPS