Sambuca

I absolutely loathe the Moncada is lazy or disinterested narrative. I am pretty disappointed with Steve Stone’s comments, but it doesn’t surprise me that a boomer has boomer-takes. Anyone who watches Moncada on a regular basis should be able to see the effort he puts into honing his craft as a baseball player. He takes that craft to the field and to me, it looks pretty and I love it. The “balls-to-the-wall” style of baseball doesn’t work for him. His style is steady. He works his ass off to perfect his technique and trusts that technique to take care of itself on the baseball field. You don’t improve your defense as much as Moncada has by being lazy. It’s literally impossible. I 100% do not think a lazy person would bust his ass to improve on the defensive side of the game. Maybe to hit more home runs, but not to play GG caliber defense. The dude is also a smart baseball player, pop-ups aside, he makes good decisions on the field, and that tells me he’s also a student of the game. Abreu looks different when he plays because he’s a different type of player. He literally needs to go “all out” to be an average defender. Yes, a lot of it is natural ability, but Moncada’s defense wouldn’t be improving every year solely because of natural ability. It would be regressing. I personally love watching Moncada play on both sides of the game and I’ve never looked at his steady presence as disinterested or unmotivated. I welcome it as it avoids instances such as grindy Madrigal freaking out because he has to make a quick play on a ground ball hit to him. Every person/player is different and everyone approaches things in a different way. Just because it doesn’t look the same, doesn’t mean it’s bad. Stone Pony should just shut the fuck up. He should understand his own style of play had to be different because he didn’t have 1/4 of the talent Moncada has for the majority of his career. And I highly doubt Pony has ever worked half as hard as Moncada has in an offseason. Moncada’s work will pay off, and when he’s playing at an elite level, it will look exactly the same as it does now, and we should commend him for it.

That’s pretty good. I was just telling a friend today that I was at acceptance before I even saw your reply. I’m actually proud of how quickly I made it through that.

This is fucking unacceptable. What the fuck is wrong with the training and conditioning staff in this organization?

Does anyone have any potential more positive possibilities? Is there a chance they are being ultra conservative and see a better prognosis after some time or with a second opinion? Is it possible he could recover better and quicker than they are expecting? Is it possible this will not affect him long term whatsoever?

Sounds weird for me to find that encouraging (I do), but I was just going off what I’ve read on a few medical websites. I will search ptatc’s posts to read any information provided, as I find his first hand knowledge and experience much more useful and reliable than a general website’s information.

Is there a chance this could require surgery if it’s fully ruptured? I have no idea how much pain each “grade” of a hip flexor strain causes, but unless Robert is extremely dramatic, it sure looks and sounds like a grade 3 tear.

This is stupid.

There’s a decent amount of players going on the list for a day or two due to vaccination side effects. Have a lot of players actually test positive as well?

Dece post.

The last thing I would call this is a problem. When has the White Sox organization ever had too many good players? If every player in this thread is good enough at the same time to force some tough decisions, we are in a very good position and probably a WS favorite. We cannot possibly go from worrying about having zero depth to worrying about having too many good players in a few days span. We sound insane.

Please explain rushing a player from High A to sit on the bench and burn a year of team control. If he's barely playing, the team is not manipulating service time by giving him reps at both the plate and at a new position at the alternate site, and eventually AAA. It literally makes zero sense and is beyond infuriating.

Kopech. After that, whoever is throwing best in the minors between Stiever, Lopez, Lambert, etc. My money is on Lambert.

Joe Musgrove.

I don’t see how he doesn’t become the backup IF when he’s back and ready.

Wait, are you saying Jerry is using Bob as some kind of ploy to start the negotiations, or that Jerry is slow playing Bob on how far along the talks are?

Whatever you think Mauer’s career dWAR tells you about his defense behind the plate, you’re still comparing Zack Collins to Joe Mauer. Just stop. You are being absurd.

So, uh, you guys believe in angels?

I think this is the year Rodon, Lopez, Cease, Kopech, and Crochet all blossom into #1 starters. And also the year Stiever proves he can throw harder than 92, and thinks one of his breaking pitches moved a little, right at the end. You guys saw it, right?

Rodón would have to look unhealthy or extremely horrible for him to lose his spot in the rotation to López in ST. It could happen during the season, but it’s Rodón’s spot going into the season.

Yeah, if Crochet is dominating in high leverage late inning situations (situations that will generally restrict him to 1 inning max), there’s no way they send him down during a pennant race to prepare for next season. That only happens if they realize they might need him in a starting role this season and want to quickly stretch him out as efficiently as possible in AAA. Not sure what that situation looks like, but they aren’t sacrificing this year for next year. Whether that’s smart or not, it’s the plan. LaRussa didn’t agree to win a championship with a team who is refusing to let him use his best players wherever he can fit them. I was worried they’d be able to stretch out Kopech in relief more than Crochet, and that looks to be the case. He will be too good not to pitch in some of the toughest spots of the game. I get it, and it’s exciting. But at the same time, not only might it not be best for the organization, it would suck to limit his career not knowing if he could have been something much better. I expect Kopech permanently in the rotation at some point this season.

Is the minor league season starting on time?

Definitely alluding to a few things, but they aren’t all black and white (pun intended, but I’m also saying there is a grey area in there). I don’t think the example of TA coming around on La Russa means anything in relation to potential free agents or even trade acquisitions. TA is already on the team, and there’s not much he can do about that, so he’s learning and trying to be opened minded about the situation. His immediate reaction was quite different. Which means, a FA who has a similar reaction won’t have the motivation and/or time to “come around.” Most people will not commit to a situation they aren’t completely comfortable with. Let’s face it, we won’t be handing out much bigger contracts than our competition to change their minds. This season could change some minds about La Russa, but I think it will always be a question mark for some players and an obstacle those same players might not feel is worth it.

Not at all. I don’t think anyone was worried about someone like Hendriks.

No way Kopech is on this team opening day. This is one of the times you want the extra year of control and it’s actually in the best interest of everyone to do it.

Don’t need to convince me. I have Moncada 2nd too. I get the feeling La Russa will want Eaton to use that “pesky” “edge” at the top of the order. If Eaton can put up at least a .340 OBP and show some speed, La Russa will be able to justify it. I understand Moncada can be also be putting up a .340 and showing some speed, but La Russa will make him force his way to the top of the order. It feels weird defending my post as La Russa. I don’t think the La Russa lineup I provided will be the lineup by mid season, but it’s what the man wants. It’s what I feel when I channel my inner La Russa. That just basically means I’m drunk, brother.