SoCalChiSox

It's gonna be really hard to keep Kopech on the taxi squad for a few weeks given he is this far out from the injury but maybe they can say he still hasn't gotten in any minor league games in yet which was the plan before this all happened so maybe he can just throw some taxi squad games instead. If it's prorated time They could easily have Madrigal play like a week on the taxi squad and that would be enough to qualify for what otherwise be like 3 weeks in a regular 162 game year. Plus he was somewhat struggling in ST beforehand as it was. Kopech it would require a little more twisting themselves into a pretzel to justify but it could be done particularly given we have a ton of "experienced major league" pitchers already esp with Rodon coming back.

Jack even if they lose the grievance it'the right move. It will take like 2 years to resolve. Which means it will be a cloud over the owners heads after the 2021 season when the CBA expires so it's a bargaining chip for the next negotiation that the union can throw in to get sweeteners. Also the bigger issue here is the expanded playoff which owners disproportionately benefit from and an agreement would have made it far harder for the union to use that as leverage for 2022. Once fans enjoy the expanded playoff it will be hard for the union to realistically threaten not to renew it for 2022 onwards, it will be like trying to unscramble an egg or trying to put toothpaste back into the tube and the owners would use that threat as a PR weapon against the union once people got used to it and expect it after two years.

Horn is a good player and was having a good season he isn't going to sign for 25k. He was a RS Jr. so he has eligibility Not Cishek indicated awhile back there would be some savings with Crochet. If they can sign Horn for 200k instead of 386k and squeeze 200k out of Crochet, then it still works out more or less.

So the union wins big. They still get 60 games (not 48) plus keep their grievance rights and deny owners the most profitable part of the earlier bargain which is the playoff expansion.

Ahh but they didn't win. Now they have a potentialbillion dollar grievance hanging over their heads, the loss of millions to the owners in expanded playoffs money all for the savings associated with 8-12 games.

The league keeps making concessions because they can tell the vote will not go their way. Union is doing a good job here of extracting more and more and it makes sense for them to reject it as is. The expanded playoffs generally benefit the owners. Why would you trade that plus your grievance rights just for 8-12 more games. The owners are clearly concerned about the potential for the grievance to succeed so if you have a billion in potential damages and say even just a 30 percent chance to win, that is worth 300 million. So if the owners trying to run out the clock to ensure its only a 60 game season tops, then the players should get something worth the difference between 300 million (or whatever they peg as the rough chance of success times max damages) and what will be imposed vs what's offered. The players are doing the right thing. That's why Manfred keeps sweetening it, it's cause he has to.

Vaughn will probably play in the expanded AFL to save his service time and to get him ready for 2021. My understanding is that under the March agreement Kopech will accrue service time no matter what now so theres no benefit keeping him off the team. So I expect him to be in the rotation. Madrigal is an interesting issue. I'm assuming in the upcoming agreement if he is used for any part of the season he will accrue a full year so they are gonna have to bite the bullet there since we are trying to win with the whole expanded playoffs.

It's either that or age finally caught up with him.

Collins should catch 1-2 games a week vs RHP and DH 1-2 vs RHP also

Colome's statcast data was terrible last year and his FIP suggested regression too...not sure why we are surprised.

Bummer is the closer now... lol

.280/.350./.560 year comin! Savage!

Now that the contract is out of the way he can relax and just play

I'm really encouraged by Robert taking his walks. If he can get a decent OBP he can be the 1. 1 Robert 2 Moncada 3 Vaughn 4 Jimenez 5 Grandal 6 Anderson 7 who cares 8 who cares 9 Madrigal

Moncada leading off.....knock it off already Ricky.

It might also be that they wanted to see how Collins looked this spring also as compared to last year.

If there was an injury, I would assume that catcher we got from the Royals system who was said to be defensively advanced would be brought up to pair with Collins.

Any idea as to velocity?

Wow I didn't even know he was in big league camp. He is prolly overwhelmed at the plate.

It's actually quite cheap....15 AAV...that's a 2 WAR player. Moncada just had a 5 win season. Even with regression to 4 or even 3.5 there's alot of surplus value there

6/90 is beyond awesome.......15 AAV...that's a steal. Great job Rick. The FO made some great long term investments this off-season.

The world isn't gonna end if we have a 2 war 2B batting ninth. That's perfectly fine. Not everyone is an all star. He's having a rough spring, I suspect he might be trying too hard to prove he should be up on opening day which wasn't gonna happen regardless. He will find himself and even if he's just an average regular that's OK.

Vaughn is gonna put up clownish numbers at High A to start the season (and yes he will start there so they can use the "3 levels" excuse at the end of the year for the service time issue). Like .350/.500/.700.

The .625 would be very unlikely in Birmingham.