YourWhatHurts

Nick Williams caught a couple balls yesterday which at best would have been difficult for both Eloy and Vaughn. Both of those guys probably miss at least one, and the Sox end up giving more runs to CLE. So I can understand why you might want a guy with a better glove out there, but batting 5th? Seriously? TLR is an old shoe.

I can see from the lineup that the strategy TLR is employing must be one of the following: 1) he is attempting to lure the opponent into a false sense of security so that he can use his brilliant HOF baseball person manager guy brain later on in the game in a manner which will befuddle the opposing manager; or 2) out of genius, he is trying to lose the game on purpose, because he knows that there is some other, greater reward which will come of this loss later, which will actually make the team better and result in a higher win total at the end of the season. ....Or maybe he's just unfit for the job. Who knows?

The Sox just need to figure out how to not play like horseshit. Some (lots) of these ABs with RISP and damn pathetic. Yermin with the bases juiced nobody out is an excellent example of this. Normally he's aggressive on the first pitch and the guy threw a slow meatball about thigh high middle of the playe IIRC and he took it, then took another one not much better, then Kd on a hanging breaking ball that dropped in on the inside corner. And this is our best hitter ATM. Whereas Moncada always pulls this shit and takes shitty get-me-overs before deciding to swing in a pitchers count, Yermin is someone who is not supposed to do that. There's a lot wring with the way they are playing. The best sign is Cease is looking good and improved. If they figure out how to play to 80% thrir potential they'll contend to the end, 85% and maybe they'll win the division, 90% and the division is in the bag. For once they have enough talent to underachieve and still win. So there's that.

Sox obviously are horseshit but otoh it sure is a pleasure to listen to the best tandem in the booth that the Sox could make in Kasper and Stone. I'd love it if it continued like this. Not only do I no have to listen to Bennettis stupid bullshit all game but hey Steve Stone is a complete 100% baseball analyst again. Man Bennetti can GTFO / go pound sand with Boog for the Cubs and I'd be thrilled with Kasper and Stone on TV.

Also I was thinking, maybe for another promo idea, that t-shirt guy who had the thread earlier selling stuff maybe could make some Yermin-themed men's underwear. On the front it's a full body picture of Yermin, but the dickhole is where Yermin's Yerminator would be, so that way when you put it through the hole it's like this 4 inch tall guy with a whopper twice his size coming out of it. And then it could say "Yerminator" on it also and maybe have the New Era logo or a Nike swoosh on it. And hey if it wouldn't be okay to sell it in the park maybe that t-shirt guy could sling pairs from inside of a stall in a bathroom at the park.

If Boyer has any sense, he's working on this now. Please make the body half human baseball player / half cyborg with a red eye, with dark sunglasses of course.

Pick it up, other guys.

I don't think any team really sees Madrigal as a centerpiece for a guy with real ceiling and lots of control left. The wording of it never made any sense. Madrigal is like a 3rd piece in a deal or maybe a 2nd piece if the first guy is someone like Kopech.

He's looking like a 4-5 year player that isn't good enough to pay in his 5th or 6th year through the arb process. And he also looks easily replaceable. Hopefully he's David Ecksteinish at this point. I don't remember Eckstein being a dumb player.

Never seen a P blow his own perfecto by defense before.

Does anyone call this guy Helen? Because I think people should. Oh, now Hellen's leaving. Bye, Hellen.

In the span of about 2 weeks Yermin's trade value went from about "middle reliever" to "LOL fuck you not available." This is great.

Sox rotation

Who has Power of Attorney over the bullpen when TLR is incapacitated?

Well gee if Hendriks is capable of pitching and Bummer as well it sure would have made sense to get one of them going when it was obvious Foster wasn't tricking anyone. All TLR has to do is walk to the mound once it takes him like half an hour to get out there, either guy would have been warm by then. Where is Jerry Narron? Isn't he supposed to be TLR's babysitter? Take the reigns Jerry JFC.

I think he was trying to let Rodon get it together before the playoffs, and honestly, I can't remember Rodon throwing any strikes at all. He was way behind everyone. I would put Rodon's issues equally on Hahn. And really as I said, Ricky didn't have the talent. The pen this year doesn't have an offbalance Rodon coming back from TJ after a brief tour of Schaumburg stuck in the pen half due to his potential and the other half due to his contract and that fact he couldn't retire anyone out of the rotation.

That Keuchel contract is going to (hopefully) get Hahn fired. Or it should. I bet that Hendriks contract looks like one that should get him fired also in about 1-2 years, hopefully later than sooner. As long as that POS reinsdorf is still breathing however, KW is the Stooge #1 and Hahn is Stooge #2.

Foster was in to take the sacrifice until Tony remembered that that Bummer guy pitches for the White Sox. Then he was like "Oh shit" and he made the move. I was watching this and defending TLR, thinking that some of these guys just couldn't be available for health or workload purposes. When Ruiz came in, I thought Ruiz was going to go long. But then Bummer comes in and WTF? Why didn't he come in earlier if he was available and healthy and ready to go? RR was never this bad. The Dunning move in the playoffs was bad but for the most part, Ricky didn't have the talent. Tony has the talent. Honestly though, this bullpen shit is all on the starters for being 4-5 inning pitchers who aren't the horses that SP are supposed to be, and it's on the dogshit defense for forcing the P to throw more pitches and get more outs. You can blame the umps also who have been terrible but the other teams have to deal with that also. As Ozzie would say, you don't take a donkey to the Kentucky Derby. This rotation is a bunch of donkeys.

It's like something Houston might do. They played Altuve and also didn't trade Altuve when nobody thought he was special. And Yordan wasn't really all that exciting of a prospect IIRC either. Yermin doesn't fit a mold. If he does it's more like a jello mold. But sometimes you chase prototypes too much and as Hawk would say, you out-dumb yourself. Ultimately the guy can hit, so give him a shot.

Yermin is kind of like how I was about sushi way back when. It just didn't look right at first, but after trying it... damn. I'm addicted to the sushi, and I'm addicted to the Y.

He definitely didn't look like a seasoned vet on that but unlike Eloy he had the wherewithal to check where the wall was and managed to 1) not kill himself and 2) actually catch the baseball. He's definitely better than Eloy IMO.

It's nice to play SEA. I wonder how many other AL teams have a real murders row offense. Angels, Yankees, Twins, Jays, Astros, maybe A's if everybody gets back to normal? Our SP probably isn't as bad as the Angels made it look but there's still a need for improvement.

If Hawk were announcing he'd be talking about how many ABs Robin Ventura had to go through before he got his first knock. I'm not worried about Vaughn. He's good enough to be here.

The same scouts watching AJ Reed in the minors were also watching Yermin, and all of them were reporting to Hahn. Ditto for the rest of that group. And don't forget Delmonico. We have some problems.

For the opposition, he's Yer Daddy until further notice.