SCCWS

I think Tampa has a more difficult schedule than Yankees finishing with 6 road games against Houston and NY and Yankees have 6 left w O's and Rays 3. AL East other than O's will beat up on each other for the next 6 weeks. Should be some great games with playoff implications.

Did you check out the Tampa lineup today? Every team is playing w guys out of the lineup. We had a huge hit losing Eloy and Robert at the same time which left us w a AAA OF. But we just saw the Yankees playing 5 subs in series against us last week. Archer looked overpowering in his brief stint , we get him out of the game early and their bullpen throttles us.

Not as good as us.

Tough to say. Was Lopez fixed by the Charlotte pitching coach? Was Keuchel broken by Katz since he has had his worst season since 2013? Did Coop fix Gio in 2019 only to have Katz break him in 2021?

That is why you have a pitching coach.

Way to far away to project that. Injuries will happen and some guys will die in September and others will rise from the dead. These decisions will come in very late September.

Piersall was not a fan of TLR or Leland. But more people hated Piersall than both of them combined.

No. Keuchel is claustrophobic which means he has a fear of the Trop.

Unfortunately players have good days and bad days but fans seem to think it does not apply to closers. We have seen Hendriks and Kimbrel have good and bad outings this week. Last night we saw Crochet, Hendriks, and Tepera excel and Bummer and Kimbrel did not. Even starters are up and down. Gio was excellent last night against TB and struggled last game against Yankees.

It does in Tampa. Close to USF

St Pete has a higher crime rate with about 100,000 less people. In fact the area south/west of stadium where the traffic is often funneled leaves a lot to be desired. Now on the positive side, Mazzaro's is a St Pete institution in a good section.

Enjoy. Lousy stadium, if you never have been, with the canvas turf and the cowbells but Tampa is a great city. Plus side is you may get a row of your own depending on attendance

For now. The good thing is as long as they are healthy, the next 6 weeks can decide the final slotting based on any ups or downs. Great win of a series opener especially w the lineup. 10 hits and they were spread throughout the lineup.

Based on totals, Yankees and Astros have more players and lost time this season than any AL teams. Now the importance of the players who lost time is somewhat subjective. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/disabled-list/cumulative-team/

It will be great if we get healthy, but as you look around MLB, most teams are not healthy and most won't be in October. Every team has players out. As we saw this weekend, the Yankees had 5 positional starters out and took the series and nearly swept us. It will probably take a few weeks for Eloy and Robert to settle in. We have to hope that Grandal returns to form especially since he is a player who often struggles after the AS break. Maybe this year that trend will reverse w his time off. In fairness, our starting pitching has been as healthy as any staff in the AL until Rodon went down this week. Luckily we don't have anyone lost for the season like some teams already have.

No Rodon.

I hate to see a player take off 3 weeks from competition but maybe having September to regain his form works. I would rather see less/shorter starts than sitting for a while but we will see. Is beneficial to other guys getting work.

Let's not forget Zavala

I have no sympathy for Yankees, but In fairness, they are missing 5 starters so I would say their B-team. Good for us that we are finally down to 1 MIA.

Sometimes the 2nd half roster is better than the first half with trades at the deadline. It is early but so far in AL East, Tampa, NY and Toronto enhanced their roster and Boston did not. As a result a big swing in records so far. White Sox have a much better 2nd half roster than 1st so Sox should be playing much better.

Maybe simply put, breakthrough cases make up about 1% of all new covid cases. Pretty rare .

I think the health of a team going into the playoffs and how they are playing in September may determine success. The Sox have been up and down for about a month. Does Grandal being out affect the pitching? If so then the backup catcher does impact a team. If guys like TA or Abreu are out for postseason, that could have a major impact. Gio or Lynn are really important pieces of our success. Maybe having Kimbrel is now insurance on Hendricks who is also a key component. But maybe we arrive healthy and opponents have injuries going into playoffs and we get an advantage. So much can happen between now and lat September affecting all the contenders that it is too early to speculate.

No problem. It is a game in early August against a lousy team. The ledge would be in the basement.

But that includes playing LF. Otherwise we still have a hole in the outfield. Eloy is still a question playing defensively so Hahn should have added an MLB starting outfielder. We have plenty of 4th outfielders.

Agree except playing safe baseball. In juries are part of the game. Injuries can happen playing safe or not. Some injuries even happen off the field. It is fair to assume every playoff team will suffer an injury preventing a key player from participating. You have to hope it isn't multiple players on a team or the star player going down.