turnin' two

That 2 seamer looked pretty darn good tonight. That fade back is amazing. That is now quality starts in 8 of his last 10.

Pretty nice day for the Dash.

Yeah, my head hurts.

Am I remembering incorrectly, or weren't you the cat that said he could never be good because his velocity wasn't high enough?

Yeah. I know that. You are the one who said OBP is the center of offense or whatever nonsense. I am just looking for a logical point, relative to others at the position that add value in the ways that Anderson does. He isn't Lindor, but to treat him like a cast off or a super sub is pretty ridiculous. He is 25 years old and has been showing improvement in pretty much every way the Sox could have hoped.

It isn't people. Seems to be one guy.

Not as strong as a correlation as there is to OPS.

Disagree. The goal of offense is to produce runs. Not making outs is a big factor, but sometimes so is making the right outs. What Tim does with XBH and SBs helps to create runs in ways other guys can't. A higher OBP would be better, yes, but Tim has already more than doubled his walk total from last year. Why would you believe he can't continue to improve?

Yeah. Picking 5-6 looks realistic at this point.

How many franchise changing catchers have there been in MLB history? 5? 10? Catcher is a physically demanding position that wears players out quickly. Catchers also have basically no hope of playing more than 120 or so games, making their impact even more limited. Maybe Rutschman is one of those players, and honestly I've only seen him play 2 or 3 games, so I don't know, but I feel like it is extremely doubtful.

As someone who nearly fell off the abyss on Giolito, he has been pretty darn good lately and this is even more encouraging. Seeing that he had some mechanical adjustments is hopeful this can be maintained (as well as shows competence in the staff). The movement on some of those 2 seamers is great.

That was the rankings from before the season, he seems to address that.

I think Shields was taking one for an overused bullpen.

He isn't that old, and is pitching as well as he ever has, I don't really understand why he would retire unless there is personal stuff going on in his life.

Yeah, that is great.

No, not serious. At all. A jab at previous FG evaluations.

I feel like it would be super odd to have a guy in the AFL in his draft year, especially after a long NCAA season.

Screams reliever doesn't it?

Getting picked off is the last box he needs to check.

Well this trade was clearly done so there weren't two "Avi"s on players weekend.

Nunez a couple hits as well.

I wonder if Cordell gets the call. Probably only matters between the two of them for a week or so.

Not that they would (or should) push him for this reason alone, but there will be a lot of other OFers (Robert, Rutherford, Gonzalez, Adolfo) slated for Birmingham. If he shows some degree of mastery of AA, it could be reason enough to move him up to Charlotte.

This is what has been so encouraging about Alex Call. He currently has an OPS over .800 in Birmingham. Yeah, it took him a little time to get right after the injury plagued season last year, but he has betting hitting with authority (.451 SLG - 15 doubles 6 HRS) and walking (22 BB in 211 PA). He has put himself back on the map as well.

I would expect Adolfo to be in Birmingham for much of the season as well.