I'm on a Bears and Bulls mesage board for I'm sure about 15 years. And for those 15 years they have made a big deal about preseason on both boards 15 times. And if the preseason ever has matched the reg season, it hasn't happened much. But they return year after year with the same correlation talk.

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“We’ve got a pitching coach that is allowing me to be competitive with myself and challenge me a little bit,” Kopech said...

While two years off the field have hidden what Kopech’s adjustment and maturation process as a starter would look like, a switch to relief work could hit the fast-forward button to what his approach will be in the old and crafty portion of his career. Kopech’s first pitch in his Cactus League debut on Wednesday was a high, 98 mph fastball taken for a strike at the letters. But it was followed by a slider on the outside corner, and the at-bat ended with Austin Nola rolling over an 0-2 curveball, as the velocities from Kopech went from 98 to 87 to 78 mph.

“I’m not setting up guys to have to face them two or three times per game,” Kopech said afterward. “I’m not necessarily having to set up guys for the next guy, and so on and so on. I’m going out there with my best stuff every time and trying to throw that. So that’s really exciting to me, to not have to strategically plan for the whole game and really just do my best, pitch to pitch. It was fun today, but moving forward it will probably be more fun.”

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...The last time the White Sox ran Adam Eaton out in right field every day, his combination of on-base skills and sterling defensive metrics suggested he was an elite player, or at least produced like one. He hit .284/.362/.428 in 2016, and FanGraphs had him just shy of six wins above replacement.

Five years later, it’s a fair question how different he is after the significant slate of injuries he endured in Washington. Eaton has already asked it of himself.

“Once I had my (ACL tear) injury in ’17, I was able to sit back and say I have time to work on things,” Eaton said. “One was body maintenance and corrective exercises; I had neck problems and different things. I want to be more of a back-foot hitter. I want to stay on my backside longer, see the ball better and deeper. A more refined, long-term solution as a hitter.”...

“It’s very difficult to hit on your front side your whole career,” Eaton said. “As you age, you need that extra ball and a half to see it in the zone.”

Why haven't you gotten your Athletic sub yet?

19 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Why haven't you gotten your Athletic sub yet?

Wanna hook me up with your login bro?

1 minute ago, ron883 said:

Wanna hook me up with your login bro?

I already gave it to JR.

13 hours ago, yesterday333 said:

While pre-season scores and stats don’t matter there have been some things that have made me nervous. How many innings did we go without scoring a run? And that’s with starters and against a lot of lefties. And it seems a lot of our pitchers seem to be walking a bunch of hitters. Thankfully it is spring training and we have time to figure it out. But there is reason to be concerned.

Before you start with general “concern”, it would be best to point out specific core  players to be worried about that have been noticed  in order to have productive discussion around this. Otherwise, general concern is not very convincing. Which core players  are you projecting to have issues? I have seen more reasons for optimism around core players personally than concerns. If batting averages for this guy or that guy have shook anyone, rest assured batting average in Cactus League are completely worthless for more or less proven players. And the core pitching looks amazing. I can’t believe Lance Lynn is something to worry about if he walked a few guys in Arizona. The Sox are probably vulnerable to good right handers. But other than that.....don’t have an average day against these guys. They will hit right handed pitching.

Edited March 11, 20215 yr by Fernando Tatis Jr

There's no game thread but just wanted to point out Eloy so far tonight has a triple and a solo homer which the Reds radio announcer said "May have gone over the entire scoreboard."

 

Hoping we get a video in a few minutes here.

Edited March 12, 20215 yr by DoUEvenShift

So Spring Training and all but at what point is the non existent offense likely a regular season carryover?

21 minutes ago, bmags said:

So Spring Training and all but at what point is the non existent offense likely a regular season carryover?

I think it's when the regular season starts.

Just want to point out Joc Pederson hit HR #5 today and OPS @2100. Oh well.

1 minute ago, Flash said:

Just want to point out Joc Pederson hit HR #5 today and OPS @2100. Oh well.

Not grindy enough. 

24 minutes ago, bmags said:

So Spring Training and all but at what point is the non existent offense likely a regular season carryover?

It technically carried over from the last few weeks of last season. We're done. In all seriousness, when all 9 of our guys are slotted in consistent roles things will look much better. 

1 minute ago, SonofaRoache said:

It technically carried over from the last few weeks of last season. We're done. In all seriousness, when all 9 of our guys are slotted in consistent roles things will look much better. 

I mean sure but like it’s not like we are the only team doing spring training things like that.

I'm not concerned with what I have seen, but rather players we have not. Legitimate concerns at this point include the fact that three important players have not made an appearance with less than three weeks to Opening Day:

• Dallas Keuchel and Dylan Cease have yet to make an appearance / start. Will they be stretched out to start the season with at least a 5 inning outing with 3 weeks before Opening Day?
• Yasmani Grandal has also not made an appearance, though he should need less lead time as pitchers do building up arm strength. How serious is his injury, or is he ready to play, getting work in and just resting / allowing more playing time to sort out the backup catcher(s)?

Edited March 12, 20215 yr by South Side Hit Men

36 minutes ago, South Side Hit Men said:

 

• Yasmani Grandal has also not made an appearance, though he should need less lead time as pitchers do building up arm strength. How serious is his injury, or is he ready to play, getting work in and just resting / allowing more playing time to sort out the backup catcher(s)?

I'm actually ok with this. If Grandal is still recovering from his injury maybe we will see both Collins and Mercedes in April when it really matters to figure out the backup.

 

3 hours ago, South Side Hit Men said:

I'm not concerned with what I have seen, but rather players we have not. Legitimate concerns at this point include the fact that three important players have not made an appearance with less than three weeks to Opening Day:

• Dallas Keuchel and Dylan Cease have yet to make an appearance / start. Will they be stretched out to start the season with at least a 5 inning outing with 3 weeks before Opening Day?
• Yasmani Grandal has also not made an appearance, though he should need less lead time as pitchers do building up arm strength. How serious is his injury, or is he ready to play, getting work in and just resting / allowing more playing time to sort out the backup catcher(s)?

Yea it’s very strange about Cease and DK... wonder why we haven’t heard anything about them as well.

9 hours ago, southsideirish71 said:

Not grindy enough. 

We made him an offer more than he got with the Cubs.  He made a gamble and lost.  We moved on (as we should have)

10 minutes ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

We made him an offer more than he got with the Cubs.  He made a gamble and lost.  We moved on (as we should have)

This is going to be said all season I’m sure, so just to make sure it’s on the record - no we did not need to. There were sufficient outfield options that good ones were available in late January. If Adam Eaton signed somewhere else in December that would have just removed one option for outfielders to land at. The only reason why the White Sox couldn’t wait on that market to develop was that they were impatient, and frankly it probably caused them to spend more on Eaton than they would have had they just waited.

46 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

This is going to be said all season I’m sure, so just to make sure it’s on the record - no we did not need to. There were sufficient outfield options that good ones were available in late January. If Adam Eaton signed somewhere else in December that would have just removed one option for outfielders to land at. The only reason why the White Sox couldn’t wait on that market to develop was that they were impatient, and frankly it probably caused them to spend more on Eaton than they would have had they just waited.

Waiting is easier said than done. They offered him a fair contract, he turned it down and it cost both of them.  The odd thing about him is why the Dodgers didn't push more to keep him as he was cheap and they had no budget it looks like.

I think the newer MO of the FO is to pounce on everything they can early to lock in some cost certainty.  Even if they pay a few extra bucks. 

19 minutes ago, Jerksticks said:

I think the newer MO of the FO is to pounce on everything they can early to lock in some cost certainty.  Even if they pay a few extra bucks. 

and I am fine with this.  You wait, you could save a few million, or you could miss out on everyone.

11 hours ago, Flash said:

Just want to point out Joc Pederson hit HR #5 today and OPS @2100. Oh well.

Spring Training: the place where players like Pablo Ozuna hit .400 and busted prospects like Brian Anderson set the world on fire.  Take all the Mike Wrights and Odrisamer Despaignes and so on out of there and tell the MLB pitchers the games are real and it's very different.

Adam Eaton is absolutely a better pure hitter than Joc Pederson.  I hope Adam's healthy because if so he is going to make more than half of this board look baaaaad.

13 minutes ago, YourWhatHurts said:

Spring Training: the place where players like Pablo Ozuna hit .400 and busted prospects like Brian Anderson set the world on fire.  Take all the Mike Wrights and Odrisamer Despaignes and so on out of there and tell the MLB pitchers the games are real and it's very different.

Adam Eaton is absolutely a better pure hitter than Joc Pederson.  I hope Adam's healthy because if so he is going to make more than half of this board look baaaaad.

Yeah this is correct. The dynamics of the game changes when starters are playing all around. Guys are also working on specific things during this "practice". As far as Eaton goes, if he gets on base and gives us solid defense I'll take it. Especially if he is platooning with Engel and won't play against lefties. 

31 minutes ago, YourWhatHurts said:

Spring Training: the place where players like Pablo Ozuna hit .400 and busted prospects like Brian Anderson set the world on fire.  Take all the Mike Wrights and Odrisamer Despaignes and so on out of there and tell the MLB pitchers the games are real and it's very different.

Adam Eaton is absolutely a better pure hitter than Joc Pederson.  I hope Adam's healthy because if so he is going to make more than half of this board look baaaaad.

I agree...when healthy Adam is a very good player.

40 minutes ago, poppysox said:

I agree...when healthy Adam is a very good player.

Yes he understands the whole concept of being in the batter’s box at a higher level than the average big leaguer.  That’s just a fact.  

I bet the Adam E platoon outperforms Joc.