jad

Can't recall, but I think I heard earlier this year that tapping the helmet was an automatic ejection--same as arguing balls and strikes.

Oh well. Abreu doesn't suck; Durbin probably had never seen a throw that bad in his career and thus had nothing to go on; Chapman doesn't suck ... But it really came together on that play! (Btw Yoshi and Duran don't suck either).

What was Durbin doing on that pplay? He looked like he was deliberately avoiding the ball.

As usual, Cole pitches and Devers hits two dingers.

He was 0-4 with two Ks, and is hitting .198. Yoshida was 2-3 with a dinger, having a bad year and still hitting around .250. Yes Duran 'should' be leading off, but in order to do that, he 'should' be hitting a lot better thana he is.

Do not throw a .180 major league hitter a fast ball down the middle.

Yeah, Yoshi couldn't even get on base to be driven in.

"challenge skill' is an idiotic one to develop, since the system will likely be changed in a year or so anyway. How about using that time to develop skills in, say, hitting or fielding.

Bears repeating!

Didn't know they were playing early. Oh well, turned to the Dodgers: guy named Mookie just made an incredible defensive play, 3 for 3 with a HR so far. A joy to watch (with Ohtani as a bonus). I'll catch Devers and Bogaerts later on. May they all do well.

Well, to me it matters. Particularly when 'cancerous plague' seems to apply more to the organization that went 'full-Tito' on him last season. (But I doubt either of us will change our views of him. I just hope he gets back to raking as he was, since he's so amusing to watch.)

Anyone who read what Vitello and Devers said about this non-incident should regret he's not on the Sox. Very very sad/

You realize the difference between the first and last draft position is one player total. One player is not going to fix this team, since what's wrong with the team is not what's on the field. And dumping productive players (Chapman) is not going to solve it either.

Wow. Just astonishing!

Exactly. When I was a kid, I rooted for players, not stats. My favorite players? -- not Teddy, but rather Jackie Jensen, Jerry Casales (!), Jimmy Pearsal. Not the best players (well Jackie had aa couple great years), but just the ones I liked. I.e., human beings. Same in the past few years: Xander, Rafy, JBJ, and now Yoshi and Raphaela. I don't give a crap about xWAR or fkWAR or salaries or any of that. These are the humans who (for whatever reason) I want to see play and want to see succeed. I don't care if some stat-head cries out "THEY SUCK!" any more than I would choose a friend or a gf based on their height, or relative beauty, or their bank account.