WestEddy

They need to play the games, and the 22-year old everybody's crushing on is not major league ready.

The whole team sucks right now. You're not making some great, intuitive observation. The bullpen and rotation will work their way out, and at least get them through games. 5 of 7 games have been one-run games. If the bullpen was trash, the first week of the season would look like Charlotte's.

And it's okay to look at a bullpen and not engage in hyperbole when it can be effective when everybody gets their roles down and hits their stride. Maldonado sucks. DeJong/Lopez/Shewmake's offense sucks. Vaughn's production sucks.

I've been joking about Nicky Lopez to mess with the naysayers. I'd have no problem with Sosa taking 2B away from Lopez. Or Lopez kicking it up a notch, and holding onto 2B. None of it really matters.

I did. And I still think that's true. They've played 7 games.

Popeye is not AAA ready, let alone major league ready. And we have no idea if Sosa is even on the level of DeJong and Lopez. He sure wasn't in his previous 2 cups of coffee. I think Sosa should be starting at 2B. And Lee should be the main catcher. But none of that has anything to do with cutting Popeye, as he was regressing, and wasn't worth a 40-man slot. I look forward to the Phillies developing him over the next 3 seasons, then DFAing him because he's still not MLB ready, and he's out of options.

If Sosa is ready for MLB. And If Popeye is ready for AAA (which he wasn't last year).

And each of them would need to be put on the 40-man. I think Barlow is returning from injury.

Because Popeye was on the 40-man, and you need that space to play the mlb games. You have kids to play. Shewmake and Sosa. The 40-man problems are Josimer Cousin, Jared Shuster and Davis Martin. They didn't want to blow a year of control over Martin, so they didn't put him on the 60-day to clear a spot. Cousin had a contractual deadline. Shuster's a AAAA junk-baller. An actual bullpen arm on the MLB club isn't the problem.

If he becomes Nicky 280 OPS, Sosa or Shewmake will force him to the bench.

Lopez's futile OPS is from 20 PA's during a season-opening slump. If he stays at a 500 OPS, Sosa or Shewmake may end up replacing him. Popeye is not MLB ready, and could look like 2022 Lenyn Sosa. .300 OPS.

Probably a lot, if Speas can't throw strikes.

That Popeye would do much worse over a larger sample size.

And it's weird how many here translate me not getting hysterical over a minor move into Getz-worship. If the Sox option Korey Lee and go with a tandem of Maldonado and Stassi, I'll be disappointed. If Sosa comes up and gets 2 at-bats over 10 games, I would think that was a waste of an opportunity. If Clevenger ends up blocking Nastrini, Cannon or Thorpe, that would be a dumb move. Cutting a AA bat who regressed in a major way with his chase rates doesn't really raise my ire. Dragging poor performing players from the MLB roster into the conversation, albeit at a position Popeye doesn't play, even less so.

I've told you this multiple times. Have you not printed it out and had it framed, yet? Fletcher could be the strong half of a RF/CF platoon. He has hit at the major league level. If you say "small sample size", then I will submit Popeye's much larger sample size of AA PAs over 2 years that show him regressing as a hitter. Mena looks to be a back-of-the-rotation arm. The Sox have a good half dozen of those at the higher levels, and felt they could deal one to fill another area of need.

And Popeye isn't good enough to force his way onto the worst roster in baseball, right now. He regressed at AA, then when promoted, regressed more. Other teams passing on him is totally relevant. Because it's not just "bad roster management by Getz". The league holds Popeye in low regard. And we have better options on the 40-man in all regards you can imagine. Lenyn Sosa is much closer to being a major league utility infielder than Popeye is. Sosa is raking at AAA, and Popeye didn't cut it last year at AAA.

Leone helps more in the major league bullpen than Popeye does watching TV at his mom's house, right now. Or even more than Popeye struggling at AAA.

I'm not really sure why everyone is arguing Popeye vs. AAA relievers who got beat up by Norfolk. Relievers are fungible, and they only have 2-4 guys who can shuttle back and forth between AAA and MLB. A team doesn't go through utility infielders at the rate they go through bullpen arms. Why should I have a problem retaining a AAA bullpen arm over a guy who is stuck at AA and regressing?

Neither Remillard or Mendick need to be cut, as they're not on the 40-man. And I'm not sure why you keep saying that they could cut guys then resign them. I guess there are other options on the market equal to them. If you think both of them are "chaff", Popeye is worse. The end. Jose Rodriguez is also an easy cut. He tops out as a utility infielder who can't take a walk, and by the time he "developed", he'd be out of options, and have to be cut, anyway.

As I said elsewhere, your pitching staff has to get 27 outs. If Speas or Horn aren't even prepared to pick off 2 or 3 of those outs, what's the point? Horn was obtained for the same reason you want to keep Popeye on the 40-man. To develop. Josimer Cousin hired an agent who put a 40-man deadline into his contract. Getz added Grossman to get a bat into the lineup. One guy. Popeye wasn't pushing for a spot in the MLB lineup. He hadn't even shown up to his minor league assignment, yet. He took so long to get to AA detritus that Hahn panicked and put him on the 40-man. Then he regressed. Popeye tops out as a utility infielder who can't take a walk. He hit 270 at AA, I believe, and couldn't even clear a 300 OBP.

How does being able to understand why a move was made, and not becoming irrationally angry over it translate to being Chris Getz, or working for the White Sox? 9-10 worse teams took a pass on him. A bottom third minor league system took him, and he's their 28th best prospect on MLB.com. The Sox already have better options on the 40-man, and better options right behind him who are progressing in ways that Popeye wasn't.

You have Lenyn Sosa and Bryan Ramos already on the 40-man. Sosa does the same thing as JoseRod, but better. You then have Zach Remillard and Danny Mendick off the 40-man, who are pro players who can actually start in the majors for a week. Right behind JoseRod, you have Brooks Baldwin at AA, who actually looks like a much better utility infielder than JoseRod. The real problem with Jose Rodriguez is that it took him so long to develop, he had to be 40-manned well before he was even close to the majors. The big step backwards he took last year put him even farther away. For the guys saying to just throw Speas in the bullpen, you still have to get 27 outs. If Speas isn't even ready to pick off one or two of those outs, what exactly is the point of rostering him?

The Phillies are a bottom third system, and Rodriguez clocks in at 28.

Hi. I flipped back and forth between Sox/Royals and Iowa/UCONN. We'll figure it out. IL Robert, bring up Colas, platoon Fletcher and Grossman in CF. f*** it. Start Lee, start Sheets. Grifol has to get creative. Even Ozzie's wondering about sticking Benny in the 1-spot.

The Orioles have a scary major league lineup at AAA, so I'll wait for another series to pay attention to our pitching, there. But Charlotte has put up 30 runs in 4 games against Norfolk pitching.