jacksonianmarch

Urshela is incredible with RISP

That's a huge K. f***ing A. That is also not a strike

Drive the ball Frazier. Get Torres home

How the f*** is that only a single???

Porcello is getting lucky to this point. Both he and German are having trouble with the zone. Porcello is missing in the zone, German missing outside of it

f***ing LPGA instead of yanks-Sox baseball on fox?

One thing that boggles me a bit is that Tanaka has been really good this year and is healthy. CC has been good, but is currently on the DL. Why not throw Tanaka tomorrow, take the off day to recover and start CC vs Toronto on a Tuesday?

Historically, we haven’t hit him well. But this isn’t the historical Yankee squad.

The draft penalty is far better. There’s no way you can tally extra expenses and designate those players as untradeable. I guess they could up their spending by 30% at season’s start and then deal off parts that increases overall spending by 20%, but that’s not the goal here. The owners goal is to have a semi competitive team. The players goal is to up salaries. Look at this year. If the Tigers knew they were facing a penalty as they would under my plan, they’d have been in hard on Kimbrel and Keuchel. No question. Adding Keuchel and Kimbrel to that dumpster fire would have absolutely improved that club and would probably keep them from being a 98 game loser again. The goal for the owners is competitive teams. Fans don’t show for non competitive teams. Fans for the competitive teams beating the snot out of the bad teams don’t show. Fans from the teams getting steamrolled don’t show. Overall, it’s a revenue killer. You could use both criteria. If a team is a 60% loser two years in a row, they must either avoid losing 60% of their games or show an overall increase in payroll by 20% to avoid a draft penalty

Pearce was bought for a song and at the time, that was his only worth. Eovaldi was bought for Beeks, who was a AAA prospect who has turned out rather well for TB

The Sox were paper tigers in 2016 and 2017. They became juggernauts when a few guys peaked and JDM was added. Those guys have come back to earth and the same bone headed s*** that happened during the paper tiger years has reappeared. The only difference is the ALE is WAY better than it was then. The Sox are an above average team with a lot of talent. They happened to play Together for one season and they won it all. This season, from the games I’ve watched, it looks like the Sox team is playing in silos. Good individually but together a mess

Dalbec is probably best served by staying in your system. Yes, he’s got potential, but his star power is diminished by his age and approach. If you deal him for a rental, then you risk the chance he becomes a star. He doesn’t have enough capital to bring back anything more than a rental, so you might as well hold onto him. I’d deal Darwinzon if I dealt anyone. He should help bring back a good arm and from what I saw, he’s a middle reliever going forward.

They can always spend on nobodies and still tank. The Tigers would have been FAR more active this past offseason if they knew the risk was there. Tanking teams want two things. To trim payroll and more importantly, the early draft picks and high draft pools. Hit them in the latter and they’re gonna do something

And if that rule was in effect starting before 2017, the Tigers would be at risk this year. They’ve been below .400 two straight and it looks like a 3rd straight is possible with them at .407 before they sell off parts

Yeah, the supply side will be high which should drop some demand. What it does, though, is create multiple super teams by Aug 1. That doesn’t do baseball good either. What I’d propose is a 3 sucks and you’re our rule. 3 straight seasons below a .400 win percentage and your entire draft slot drops 10 spots. Not just your first round pick, EVERY pick drops 10 spots. You wanna tank 3 straight years? Enjoy a mediocre as f*** draft spot. See how that feels. The players would LOVE that as it would spur teams in a rebuild to open their wallets for fear of falling too far back.

It will be far harder to blow leads this year mostly because of the talent differences between contenders and tankers. If you’re gonna make up a deficit, you’re gonna have to beat the team you’re chasing. The Sox could go 9-1 and not gain ground if they don’t face TB or NYY as they could be facing similar shitbags over a 10 game spell. On a side note, I fully expect the owners to do something about this. Baseball had more parity when you had teams around the .500 line who could pop up for a season. Right now, there are 7 teams at or above .500 in the AL with the White Sox, Guardians, A’s and Rangers close to .500. But of those teams, only the A’s actually added to their roster in the offseason. The Guardians subtracted Alonso, Encarnacion, Miller, Allen, Gomes and Brantley and only added back Santana. They’re sub .500 and in a free fall with Kluber on the DL and Bauer throwing like a #3. The White Sox have been hot of late with Giolito finally reaching his potential, but Rodon is out for the year and the rest of the rotation after Lopez is awful. Their offense is also thin beyond Moncada, Abreu and Anderson. The Rangers are seeing Gallo become a superstar, but beyond Minor, they can’t pitch. The Guardians have the look of a team bound to finish near .500. The White Sox and Rangers are going to finish well below .500. The A’s will probably get hot as the season goes along as they typically do. If my prediction serves true, then TB, NYY, BOS, HOU, OAK, and MIN will be the 6 fighting for five spots and the other 9 teams will be tankers. Good luck making up a deficit when Houston and Minnesota are resting players down the stretch due to clinching in early September and the 9 that are out of it are literally trying to lose

No team wants to face TB in Tampa in a single game playoff with Snell on the hill

It was actually. Sale got some high strikes

I’m a fast typer and a very fast writer. Think about it. I write three page narratives on 25 patients a day!

In this crazy AL, an above average team can look Herculean if you face the O’s, Jays, Royals, White Sox, Mariners, Rangers, Or Tigers in a back to back. The Sox are going to win at least 88 games, probably more like 90-92. The best teams in the league might win 110 just because half the league isn’t trying

Once Nunez was caught, the life on the team just died out. Then the Sox had to face our pen, which isn’t easy. German tomorrow, who has scuffled in his last two starts. Once again, if you guys don’t beat him, you’re going through the teeth of our team in the later innings.

The 2019 Red Sox are in a pickle. Right now, two teams in the division are better, yet the sox are coming off a title and are near the end of their window. With how many bad teams there are in the AL right now, it behooves DD to try and make a run. The sox can probably suck against the Yanks and Rays and still make a WC spot thanks to 38 games vs the awful O's and Jays. The big question coming up is will the sox rebuild and deal off some assets to make the downslope less steep, or will they fight tooth and nail to stay relevant and make the downslope incredibly painful. If DD is their GM through the end of the season, the answer is rhetorical. This sox team needs to address 3 main weaknesses. Their rotation suddenly lacks depth. Eovaldi should return in the next 2 weeks, but he is no iron horse. Sale has finished the last 2 seasons a wounded warrior and Price has a finicky elbow that can cost him a couple weeks at a moments notice. Add in ERod's struggles and the only guy without real question marks on expectations or durability is Porcello. Adding a swing guy/5th starter isn't a bad idea here. Someone capable of piggybacking a bad start to try and hold an early deficit until the offense comes back or slots in when one of the starters invariably gets hurt would be ideal. There are only so many Shea Weber games the sox can tolerate before you completely destroy your season. You don't need someone dominant, but a veteran like Tanner Roark would do. His ERA is awesome, but the peripherals point towards a more average starter. Add in that he is on the Reds and in the final year of his deal, and he is the kind of low cost (prospect wise) acquisition that could add to your depth Weakness number two is the bottom of the lineup. I know the sox offense isn't bad, but they are top heavy. Last year, it didn't matter because the top half was so unreal. Now with Beni becoming more above average and Betts and JDM going from MVP level to all star level, the dropoff is noticeable. When healthy, the sox run out there a lineup of Betts RF, Beni LF, JDM DH, Devers 3B, Moreland 1B, Bogey SS, Chavis 2B, Vazquez C, Bradley CF. Chavis has added a spark and Vaz has added to his ability as well, but Bradley is a graveyard offensively and Chavis is awful defensively. The sox could use a utility player to slot in when there are injuries or when someone needs a day off. Having Sale pitch helps, but using Nunez, Leon and Bradley at the bottom essentially gives away an inning. I am not advocating the sox go get an all star, but they need to get a player better than Nunez and Holt to slot into the lineup. Jose Iglesias is that guy. He has been hitting the ball, but more importantly he offers the sox an upgrade when inserted into the lineup. He would probably take over 2b and Chavis would move back to 1b with Moreland and end up being an offensive minded super utility player, which would lengthen the lineup. The final weakness hasn't manifested entirely, but a closer would be nice for the sox. The easy call here is Colome, but with him having another year of control and being absolutely lights out to this point, I think the sox would have to part with something significant. But if you slot him into the closers role, push Barnes into the 8th inning role then use the other guys interchangeably, you can have a pretty solid back end that would serve you well. These three additions wouldn't come cheap, and in getting them, it will put you over the final line. But having them available will significantly increase your depth and make your team formidable through injury or rest

It was at the top of the zone on the monitor

Our pen just quadruple teamed the sox. Betances is on his way back and Green has been better of late. The depth on this squad is insane. If you don't beat our starter, you don't beat us. Ballgame!

Dramatic