YourWhatHurts

Leury should play in more than 100 games if he is being used properly. Aside from his starts, he should be getting some burn as a pinch runner, and he should come into LF for Eloy every single game the Sox play where they are ahead late.

I had the athletic before when they had a July 4th sale. It was $14.40 then for 1 year and maybe slightly more. That's a great price also, but I didn't think it was worth the regular price. But that's just me. I like about 1 of every 5 or 6 Sox articles as being especially informational, and read a bit about the Bulls here and there, but that's it. Definitely it pays to watch out for the sales.

Thanks for the heads up! Here's another tip: when you sign up, click "your account" and click the "cancel subscription" button. It'll ask if you really want to cancel or add 30 days for free. So click add 30 days. I think that helps add an extra month.

In Ricky's defense, Rodon couldn't hit the broadside of a barn and Foster completely forgot how to pitch. And Jose Abreu choked in several big spots. That series loss to OAK was on more guys than just Ricky. Although I do agree he shouldn't have started Dunning if his plan was to pull him as soon as the opposition put a RISP even if it was the 1st inning. That's not exactly a good plan, especially when you've got one of the top offenses in baseball behind you.

Do they use a strikezone in Korea? If not....

I have the Cubs pegged for about 82-85 wins. Their rotation is garbage and their pen has a ceiling of mediocrity and the floor of an oil tanker crashing into a gas station. I do believe they will experience an offensive resurgence however and they will be buoyed by the overall shittiness of the worst division in baseball, the NL Central: not a single dominant team or title contender, just 4 midgets battling it out for the title of weakest divisonal champ in baseball, with the Pirates bringing up the rear as inarguably the worst team in baseball and one of the most putrid teams of the last 20 or 30 years.

I do believe it'll be great for the gophers.

I feel really confident predicting that Kasper being with DJ is going to bring out the best version of DJ there's ever been. Also worth noting: that pic is a couple of cool cats. Nice.

Ah, makes sense. Narron, the former manager, is a good babysitter option.

Also "Shts"

Did TLR do that? Not only is the calligraphy beautiful, but it's a good trick by the FO to make him do the lineups in calligraphy pen before witness as a means of proving his sobriety before game time.

Watching him last year, he pitched a lot better than his numbers would indicate. I remember him getting a lot of ground balls that were not fielded, which could or should have been fielded, and were not called errors. Also a lot of grounders IIRC that may have been more defensive positioning issues. Regardless the stuff is definitely there. There are a lot of players in AAA and some on the 40-man that have nowhere near his ability, so might as well hang on to him and give him a shot. He was initially really good after coming over from Washington IIRC. Also, the Katz factor. If anyone thinks Katz can help Lopez, then he certainly should be able to help Cordero. Cordero is a whole lot closer to being "right" than Lopez is.

Putting Vaughn at 1B and Kopech and Crochet in the pen to open the season is a huge Sox olive branch to the players union. That's the only thing that makes sense, because losing 1 year control on each of these players is just not anywhere near worth whatever the "reward" here is. If the Sox are making moves like this, then hopefully other clubs do it also, and hopefully this means we get a full 2022 season.

The biggest limiting factor on the Sox success in 2021 will be the starting rotation. The 2nd biggest limiting factor is the health and strength of the bullpen. The 3rd biggest limiting factor is probably LF defense IMO. The offense will be good enough and could be historically great for the franchise if Robert, Eloy, and Moncada have big years while Eaton is healthy. If Hahn doesn't think Sox fans should be cynical after his offseason then he can go suck a dick. Certainly I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not betting on Lance Lynn being an ace, and I'm not betting on Keuchel being better than about 80% of his quality last year, and I'm not betting on Cease becoming a #3+ SP in 2021, and I'm not betting on Rodon doing shit other than missing games and being ineffectively wild while he's on the mound **or** finding the zone more with diminished stuff. Also, spending money on Hendriks isn't exciting at all to me. Not only is this very likely to turn into a shit contract, but he's replacing a guy whose numbers in 2020 were sick. Colome gave up basically nothing. Even though in people's minds they *think* Hendriks is a better player, it will actually be difficult for him to even equal Colome's 2020, much less better it. The pen is better with Crochet in it, but I'd argue that move is missing the forest for the trees and is a bad long-term decision. Outside of those 2 there have been no additions to the pen. The Sox are hanging their hopes on guys like Marshall and Foster being as good or better along with Bummer and Heuer continuing to be dominant. But a couple off-years from guys in the front of their pen and they could be in especially big trouble from an IP perspective if their #4 SP is a 4-5IP starter, their #5 is garbage, and Lopez is the 6th starter "mop-up" guy or "gasoline spreader" more appropriately. Knowing what we know now as far as what players signed for, if the Sox signed both Eaton and Pederson, and had Robert in CF with those other guys on the corner, with Engel in a platoon with Pederson and acting as the 4th OF, and with Leury as the 5th OF, they might have the best OF defense in baseball. But they're going to keep running Eloy out there so they certainly didn't address LF defense.

I see. Thanks for the info. If I get it I'll probably log into MLBTV from the android box on a new account in a foreign country, then pay with paypal if they let me.

I just noticed this now, but if you go to MiLB.com and click on MiLBTV, and create an account, they are giving away a free MiLBTV preview which allows users to watch archived footage of 2019 MiLB games. So like, probably more than half of all of the Sox prospects you want to see are going to be on there for free. BTW this belongs in the main Sox thread because a bunch of current MLBers are on there. I just watched one of Robert's HRs off some junkballer in Charlotte.

Thanks. I have paid versions of both Nord VPN and AVG VPN so I think the VPN will be good enough. I'm just concerned about the mailing address I would fill in when I make the purchase, and if I should ask a family member out of state to use their address for my subscription. I'm wondering if all of the MLB lawyer scumbags will still try to block me if I put in a Chicago-market mailing address from the purchase. I guess I can check if there is a refund policy and if so, cancel, get a refund, and then sign up on another account with a different address.

So I will put my question in this thread, but I am considering cancelling my Comcast TV portion (I already have Amazon Prime & Discovery Plus & some free stuff, so for me cable is really unnecessary aside from sports) and I am thinking about getting MLBTV and maybe the NBA version also. If I buy the subscription with a Chicago-market address, can I still watch the local broadcasts if I am using a VPN on an android box? Or will my mailing address automatically disqualify me from watching the games? I know I can't watch on my rokus because you can't install a VPN on those.

Eaton has always been better than Jay. Much better bat and much more pop. That said, Jay was what he was expected to be, when healthy. The worst part of the Manny fiasco was 1) failing to offer the most guaranteed money and coming off like a team full of clowns in the process, and 2) actually trading for Yonder Alonso as though it ever would have mattered in the first place. If Jay is even the 3rd worst element of the Manny fiasco, it's a very distant 3rd.

I still have no idea why people are so down on Eaton. Arguably he's the best non-Springer Sox target. If he can get healthy and stay healthy, he's basically good enough to start and he's paid a price that will enable him to be a 4th OF if an addition is made. There's a lot to like about Eaton if he's healthy. It's not like Joc Pederson is some great player. I have no idea why Eaton gets so much hate here. I for one pin all of the clubhouse bullshit of the past on Robin and Hahn. Robin couldn't manage a game or a clubhouse. Easily the worst Sox manager since Bevington. Then Hahn brought in Turd Frazier and LaRoche who pretty much always sucked. I remember him coming up with the Braves and he was just absolutely underwhelming. The LaRoche brothers were probably the most overhyped and underachieving pair of "huge prospect" brothers ever. So that's all on Robin and Hahn. At least Eaton was a good player.

At least the idiots like dan clark sports can put their real name on it.

32 guys in MLB history have done this according to baseball reference. Player (yrs, age) Hits Bats 1. Pete Rose (24) 4256 B 2. Ty Cobb+ (24) 4189 L 3. Hank Aaron+ (23) 3771 R 4. Stan Musial+ (22) 3630 L 5. Tris Speaker+ (22) 3514 L 6. Derek Jeter+ (20) 3465 R 7. Cap Anson+ (27) 3435 R 8. Honus Wagner+ (21) 3420 R 9. Carl Yastrzemski+ (23) 3419 L 10. Paul Molitor+ (21) 3319 R 11. Eddie Collins+ (25) 3315 L 12. Willie Mays+ (22) 3283 R 13. Eddie Murray+ (21) 3255 B 14. Nap Lajoie+ (21) 3243 R 15. Albert Pujols (20, 40) 3236 R 16. Cal Ripken Jr.+ (21) 3184 R 17. Adrian Beltre (21) 3166 R 18. George Brett+ (21) 3154 L 19. Paul Waner+ (20) 3152 L 20. Robin Yount+ (20) 3142 R 21. Tony Gwynn+ (20) 3141 L 22. Alex Rodriguez (22) 3115 R 23. Dave Winfield+ (22) 3110 R 24. Ichiro Suzuki (19) 3089 L 25. Craig Biggio+ (20) 3060 R 26. Rickey Henderson+ (25) 3055 R 27. Rod Carew+ (19) 3053 L 28. Lou Brock+ (19) 3023 L 29. Rafael Palmeiro (20) 3020 L 30. Wade Boggs+ (18) 3010 L 31. Al Kaline+ (22) 3007 R 32. Roberto Clemente+ (18) So yeah, since Madrigal is so much like all these other guys then sure... But hey, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's try beating this guy first: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/eckstda01.shtml

Do we have any reason to believe it is Hahn spending the money and not TLR?

indeed he is one of the stinkiest turds in the toilet bowl