Jose Abreu

A lot of people are gonna look foolish for writing him off. He won't be a star but he'll have a nice MLB career.

I get that this is a strict R-L-R thing but if Eloy Jimenez is batting 7th long-term then we might as well pack up and start over

I believe that game was on August 13th, 2014, which coincidentally is 5 years ago exactly.

From what I've seen, I think it's less being defensive about bad takes, but being annoyed by lazy journalism. More specifically, someone will publish a very positive Trubisky article with only one semi-negative sentence about him, and the national media will highlight that one sentence and run with it, and suddenly that's all the article is known for. This has literally happened three times with verified reporters in the past week and it's just disgraceful journalism. I totally agree with your overarching point, it just sucks that the media has already made up its mind on the kid. It reminds me of the pre-2019 Moncada takes.

I agree. Bears 11-5 Packers 10-6 (WC) Vikings 8-8 Lions 7-9

He's on a full season pace of 4 for this season so I don't know if I'd really be elated, or if he'd just be meeting expectations

Anderson

Jimenez

Update: He walked

Yeah so judging by the schedule, they could debut during the Seattle series, but I have a feeling they'll wait until Friday 4/10 against the Twins

Bailey is 2-4 with a 2B. Interestingly, 0 BB/K today. Unusual for him

Anderson

I should clarify, I was referring to Greg's question of the best "bang for your buck" player in the league. If the Royals ever trade Merrifield I think it would take even more than just Madrigal.

Maybe that’s just bWAR but Moncada has a 4.0 fWAR which I think is a better indicator of his performance this year. To Greg’s question, for non-pre arbitration guys, Whit Merrifield might be the answer

Ever since Robert and Madrigal left, Basabe and Gonzalez have actually been doing pretty well. Small sample though

Yeah, I was probably one of the most vocal posters pre-2018 offseason saying that we would be right there in the mix for Machado, back when most thought we wouldn't even express interest. But I have a really hard time agreeing with the people who think Cole is a real possibility. Yes, we could afford it, but it's all about money as you alluded to and teams like the Yankees will be in the running.

What is the "in anger" part referring to?

The initial updates are really vague but yes, it was not expected to be a quick 10 day trip. I think the wording was "at least 2 weeks" and that was not necessarily for returning to games.

He has reduced his hitch, is being more aggressive early in counts (sort of how Moncada adjusted from 2018 to 2019), and seems to have done something with his hands pre-pitch. They're located differently now

It's that too. I interpreted his message as being aimed at SoxMachine and people with that mentality, but I agree that it applies to people you described too.

The point is that people who take hours out of their days to complain about Kevan Smith, Alcides Escobar, and the Field of Dreams game aren't really fans. If you're gonna complain, at least complain about something that matters

I get why people would be annoyed that he is talking about this in the first place, but he is 100% right that there is a substantial and growing subset of Sox "fans" on Twitter who have seemingly made it their life mission to incessantly whine about every little thing for no apparent reason while completely ignoring anything that is good. I'm not saying that there is no reason to complain, but they take it to another level and his description of them is pretty accurate.

From what you've described so far, the answer is a resounding no (as in no, you are not a jerk), so I'm not sure as to how further conversation could have changed that? I respect that you want to keep it private but I struggle to see what possibly could have happened since that suddenly makes you the bad guy here

Abreu

I believe his 10 days are up tomorrow but he's expected to need at least another week or two before returning to games