YourWhatHurts

It's nice to see an organization do pretty much everything well, especially one you didn't previously hate. I hate the Dodgers, Red Sox, and hate a lot of Yankees fans even though I don't hate the Yankees, so when those organizations pretty much do everything well I am not really happy about. But the Padres are an easy team to root for, and more than that, it's very easy to root for the example they have been setting (obviously aside from the medical records scandal). If the Padres can do this then why can't any other team? It's nice to see a supposed small market team make the kinds of moves that according to some, the team isn't big enough to make. It puts pressure on other organizations, or at least it should. Of course an owner like ours will never feel that pressure. Just in our own division, the Tigers ownership spent well over a decade operating in a way that should have been absolutely embarrassing to and for our Sox, but the dorf never felt a hint of that pressure. You would have to have a conscious and a soul to have that prerequisite sense of moral obligation. But at least he will be dead soon.

Did you watch him pitch at all whenhe h was on our team? Because if you did you would see that his good stuff is much better than what he had tonight.

Agreed but Dunning also had nothing tonight. Not diminishing what the offense did but the guy we faced tonight from a stuff perspective isn't the guy we traded Eaton for or the guy the Rangers traded Lynn for. We caught him on a bad day.

This is like some Edgar Martinez shit we are watching or something. There's no way anyone can have so many consecutive quality ABs with it being a fluke. I mean the look at this dude. And he can hit a ball 450+ feet with 2 strikes without even lifting his foot off the ground. There's no chance it's a fluke.

Our scouts never got the chance to see Tatis play and the team traded him without even having made a proper evaluation. Then with Yermin they all got to see tons of him but apparently they didn't think he was any better than the likes of Palka Reed Delmonico etc. I actually don't know which scenario is worse. Both are pretty harsh indictments of the org.

Hot take: outside of some potential future rehab assignment, Yermin is never going to play a minor league game again. The question is what do the Sox do if Vaughn and Yermin are both doing well when Eloy comes back?

Tony will be hitting him 8th next week just because. TLR is such a fucking moron. There's no reason for Yerminator to be hitting later than 4th.

Disney owns all the star wars stuff. That movie would be the Yerminator ripping through Luke Skywalker and darth vader and chewing up and shitting out r2d2, chewbacca and all the wookies. It wouldn't be some cerebral pussy film like the one about the devil rays pitcher.

Hamilton should go down for Engel without question.

IMO bad pitch selection to Yermin. He was clearly sitting on the fastball taking 2 sliders and I thought he was going to go out of the zone with the fastball but he gave him another slider and oops. Yermin is just too good for that.

What did the fan do?

Katz needs to fix Bummer already.

I am not sure there is a rhyme or reason for anything TLR is doing. He moved the leader in hitting to the 7th spot for no reason for instance.

Foster must have ceded the gas can to Marshall. He's been good today. IMO the Sox bullpen gas can is like a hot potato that Marshall and Foster pass back and forth. One of them always has it but you don't know which one until one of them is out there on the field.

So I haven't read through this thread but I have to ask, does anyone know what cerebral pussy is? I have a few ideas but I am not sure. It definitely sounds like a trap / something I don't want to be involved with.

A Silver SLG%er is as within his realm of possibility as 3000 hits. I know you're a Madrigal supporter but statements like these make me concerned. Have you spoken to a professional about this?

Moncada is the biggest disappointment in the entire organization for me ATM. I'm hoping he can pick it up, but he's always had issues controlling himself at the plate. COVID aside, he gets way too passive and way too aggressive way too often to truly become an elite hitter. He has the tools though. I'm hoping he's like a .275 guy at the end of the year who just gets on these long hot streaks between his cold streaks. As Hawk would say, when he's hot he can carry the team. That's part of the reason we need guys like Eaton, TA, and we need Vaughn to develop, etc., because we need those consistent performers on offense to deal with the cold spells of the other guys.

If he can turn into the kind of high-IQ solid fundamental player he was touted as, his shortcomings (pun not intended?) will be far easier to overlook and he will blend into the team much easier. As I've said many times on this site, I think he's a 4-5 year starter. As it is he looks like he'll get a typical first year arb contract offer, but the 2nd arb year is up in the air, and at the way he's playing, relative to his peers in all facets, I don't think he gets that arb offer in his 6th year. I think he probably hits his max annual contract value in his 2nd arb year or if it's higher than that, it's not a 3rd arb year kind of contract value. Really, his 2nd best attribute other than extreme contact is ability is that he's on a league minimum salary. His 2nd best trait is that he's cheap.

I assume you are adding this to the list of awards Nick Madrigal is never going to win, and if so, yes, I agree. But that's already too obvious.

But that's not even what I said. You quoted my post and highlighted part of the sentence, and obviously didn't bother to read the sentence you quoted. I stated "and as for the little things, the guy is one of the worst players on the team." And this is correct, if you have been watching the games. Those two likes you got from your totally out of context response to me should be repossessed by SoxTalk authorities and reallocated to their rightful owner (me). Edit: "the little things" refers to smart plays, on-field awareness, fundamental baseball, etc.

No one deserves their owner. It's hilarious in a really bad way how much scum there is in pro sports ownership. I'm no Mark Cuban fan by any means and I think he's a scumbag also, but he's almost a saint compared to the likes of the guy in Pittsburgh, Glass formerly with the Royals, Loria, and of course the dorf among others. I'm not sure why he can't get in. I don't know the story behind it. But you can absolutely unequivocally make an argument that the Pirates fanbase and the city of Pittsburgh deserves a winner on the field. It's probably the easiest argument to make in baseball.

In all seriousness, please list the players who you believe make as many or more mental mistakes as Madrigal. I've got Leury, Eloy, Grandal on that list. Not sure who else is at or below that level.

Madrigal was advertised as a speedy 30+ SB threat who would hit well over .300, play gold glove defense, and was a heads-up player who would do all the little things correctly which helps a team win games but doesn't show up on any of the stat sheets. It turns out his speed is grossly overrated, he's a threat on the basepaths only to his own team because his baserunning is so bad, because of his lack of arm strength and range comparatively he will never win a gold glove with his defense and due to his lack of power he will never win a gold glove with his bat either, and as for the little things, the guy is one of the worst players on the team. Yes the contact is great but he's not hitting 9th to drive in runs. He's very unlikely to ever be a huge obp guy either because pitchers will put the ball in the zone to him and make him swing the bat to get on. There is no power to respect and he's really not the kind of bunt for basehit threat someone like him should be either. I hope the Sox make a change here. They can win with him because the rest of the core is so good but let's not pretend he's any part of the core the way most of these other players are. Also here's a picture of him on vacation:

Damn you mad as hell. Whoa. Or maybe Madrigal is an overhyped average-at-best player whose strengths are masked by all of these weaknesses he has which were sold to the fanbase as strengths as he was coming up. And people are having a little fun with it as they do with everything else. But go ahead and cheer on your little Keebler Elf. As they say, size does matter, except when a player proves it doesn't. Little Nicky is proving in his case, size does matter. He's no Dustin Pedroia, that's for sure. Will he stop making so many stupid mistakes? Maybe, but how can anyone reasonably expect him to develop the arm strength, speed, and power that should be required to make him anything better than a fringe starter / bench player on a playoff team and one of the worst / definite bottom third all-around starting 2B in baseball year after year? I mean this is a guy who has 1 strength. Every single starting player in MLB has at least 1 strength. Maybe his 1 strength in contact ability is elite, but there's not enough going on with it to make him a top-end starting 2B, no where near it, and this is a team expected to contend. Madrigal is an easily tradeable player if someone else wants him. Although I do believe the Sox found out this offseason that Madrigal's value is probably half of what they thought it was and that no team is going to give up a difference maker of an MLB player or even a prospect for him without the Sox adding a lot more.

I would try to rework the rotation into Giolito-Rodon-Lynn-Cease-Keuchel because I am still unsure of Carlos being a guy who can get you into the 7th inning and Cease has definitely not proven he is that kind of guy either, even though Cease is developing and getting better. I would rather have Carlos and Cease sandwiched in between the other SPs who can be expected to go longer.