YourWhatHurts

I can hear the theme song playing in my head every time I see someone wearing those Chicago City Connect jerseys. Matches the song perfectly. Also makes me want to do this:

F U C K Y E A H ! ! ! ! ! ! Best news EVA! ...and she'll Like it too!!!

Sometimes. When Marshall is hitting his spots Marshall's off speed stuff is much better and much more consistent. Burr has a slider that looks pretty good on occasion. Foster with his command is a good enough MR as long as he's no more than 1 IP. All of these guys are more consistent in the zone and therefore better than Reylo IMO. What Reylo is doing is just a mirage. Ride it while it lasts ( in low leverage situations only and preferably against bad teams and the 7-8-9s). Reylo's stuff just isn't that great. The fastball looks good sometimes but he is still wild in the zone with it. Compared to the other guys he came up with Reylo is definitely the least impressive in terms of pure stuff.

Reylo's era keeps going down but he also keeps missing his spots and keeps getting away with hangers. This won't last IMO and he's absolutely a nontender after the year still. He just doesn't have anywhere the command to be a late inning reliever. And his stuff often lacks bite.

Also they showed the chainlink boundary fence on NBCSCH.... For all fucks sake keep Eloy away from that. He will tear his arm off. Players better come out of this thing healthy.

Is James Earl Jones going to be involved?

He will collect more PAs than other UT types because he is one of the few rare **true** UT types. These days, you can be a shit backup 3B/1B/LF guy and someone will call you UT. You can have a noodle for an arm and get penciled into SS and people will call you a UT player. Leury is one of those few guys who can literally play everywhere except P and C, plus he can come in as a defensive sub, PR, and is a switch hitter with a high contact rate and a little bit of pop. He's definitely a rarity and his versatility theoretically allows a manager the roster flexibility to carry more limited types of players like Lamb, Sheets, or Hamilton for other roles.

The biggest problem is the fans who forget that they are getting middling production constantly from the same 1 player who is playing all over the place instead of middling production from some combination of players who don't have the versatility of Leury which varies throughout the season. And the other big problem is that the Sox have had so many injuries. There's really nothing wrong with Leury. That $3M or whatever he is making to play all over the field is an excellent value and he's definitely a guy other teams would want to have. Bitching about Leury is just bitching for the sake of it IMO.

Rodon's a lot like Kimbrel pre-2021 in terms of how his value went from nothing to extremely desirable, except as a #1 SP Rodon's value ceiling is way higher than Kimbrel's could ever be. In hindsight we should have traded the Cubs a bag of balls during the offseason and just taken on Kimbrel's contract. IMO 4/80 wouldn't do it and if it would, the Sox should offer it. Something more fair might be $25 in 2022 (the QO threat) with a mutual option for 2023 for like $30 or $35 with a $5M buyout or something like that if the team declines and the player accepts. Carlos on a 1 year deal while we are trying to win a title is still a great value at that price. If Bauer can turn 3/8 of a season into essentially something like 2 years $40M AAV under normal circumstances then Rodon is worth at least that much on that scale, given the LH and stuff upgrade over Bauer. I also like the idea of shopping Giolito as another poster mentioned. Of course dumping Keuchel's deal would be nice as well. But we would need to sign a FA starter for 2022 in that case. I wonder if the Padres would do Gio for Clevinger + Gore or something similar to that? Also the Dodgers might offer a real nice package of a short-term piece and a long-term piece. I would be in favor of this way of doing business generally in order to try to extend the playoff window out another couple of seasons. IMO, as long as you have a two-headed monster of TOR starters at the front of your rotation and a shut down back of the bullpen, you have a shot at doing damage in the playoffs. I would like to see our SP window get a little longer on the back side. Of course a Giolito extension should still be on the table anyway.

I have never seen a very good to great player get as much shit on here as AJ. AJ is one of the 2 best all around players I have seen play here as starting catchers in my life time and the other is in the Hall of Fame. But my gosh reading SoxTalk you'd think he wasn't good at anything. I guess people have different meanings for the term whipping boy. In terms of getting saddled with undeserved complaints about production, it's AJ for me. Many of the players listed here we're wholly deserving of the criticism they received. Of course, it all belongs on the dorf first and his cronies in the office below him well before any of it deserves to fall upon the shoulders of a Jerry Owens or Darin Erstad or Mark Kotsay for example. Teams with championship aspirations should never have to rely on players like that and when they do and those players are inadequate, the blame all belongs on the shoulders of ownership and the front office. The biggest screwjob the Sox and their fans ever got was jerry. Some of the names listed in this thread should serve as a good reminder of that.

Galvis - is he still hurt? He was basically Babe Ruth against us.

I think that eventually he will be a good hitter all around on another team playing in a different park, but I don't want him to have to make the adjustment with us ie I don't want the Sox to be the ones to have to eat the losses of any adjustment period. That kind of defeats the purpose. Also the price would be too high and would be a poor utilization of trade resources given the fact that we are at the front end of our contention window instead of say at the back end of a contention window.

No way a Story deal happens. COL expects to both replace and upgrade over the value of the draft pick they will get after offering a QO with Story rejecting it *and* they will expect to take the deal of the highest bidder/best centerpiece most likely among bidders. On the Sox side (and everyone else's side) there is the fact that a midseason deal eliminates the possibility of offering the QO and recouping a draft pick, so there's no second year or any compensation when he leaves in FA. So in essence Story costs a shit ton more than someone like Escobar and Schoop and probably similar to Frasier or maybe a tad less but then there's no second season. So no. It's not happening. Unless the Sox are willing to take on a bunch of money along with it in a package deal ie Blackmon which again means no. IMO Ketel Marte is a more realistic target than Story. My opinion is we'll get Escobar or maybe someone like Schoop who won't or can't get a QO and is merely a rental.

I'm hoping he's a #3 now. As 2005 proved, if you take a few #3s and a couple have some ace-level pure stuff, ala Freddy and Contreras, you can potentially get some really good years out of your guys all at once and win a championship.

Gavin has shown me more ability with the bat than I thought he had. I'm impressed overall. I was thinking the other day how I usually like the profile if a guy like Gavin if he's on another team: LH bat, contact skills, doesn't K a lot, huge raw power potential that he hasn't tapped into yet, because that sounds like a guy who has the unteachable stuff mostly down and might be able to unlock his potential with coaching and experience. Maybe Gavin is one of those guys who will continue to progress and unlock some of that raw potential. Either way, right now he definitely doesn't look like a bad pick, and for a second rounder looks a lot better than the raw high bust rate HS players SoxTalk is always bitching about not taking more of at the top of the draft.

Escobar and full salary relief for Ruiz and Lenyn Sosa: who says no?

Not happening and both Bob and Not Cishek are a couple of old and nasty bothered twats who will say anything to get some attention.

I will start by saying that I think he can work as maybe a 2nd piece for Escobar or the Pirates closer. Maybe a second piece for Caleb Smith. I'm really not sure how much people are valuing the power output. It's impressive but it's hard to gauge his value because the options situation really tanks his trade value.

So Micker obviously needs to play every day to continue to develop. Next season he will have to be on an MLB club or will be exposed to waivers. Micker really isn't the kind of prospect you can hide on the bench. He just doesn't make enough contact. In order to really learn anything he will have to be out there every day. That to me means he probably needs to go to a club that is likely to be pretty bad in 2022, not trying seriously to contend, and is also likely to have room in the OF for a project. So far I can think of maybe DET, KC, BAL, TEX, COL, AZ, PIT, maybe CHC, maybe MIA but prolly not. There's also a teeny tiny part of me that wonders about the Rays trying to make use of a guy like him even though they won't likely be bad next year. So obviously since the Sox are deadline buyers and Micker is likely a guy they are planning on unloading prior to ST next year anyway, I was thinking it makes sense to speculate on deals where maybe he can be a centerpiece or a quality second piece.

I think maybe Bailey Horn or even Adolfo might work as a centerpiece for Escobar but the secondary piece would probably have to be decent. Maybe something like Horn + Sosa + Beard for Escobar + Soria is where the Sox would draw the line. And I say that because I think Horn is a nice prospect and Sosa might be really climbing right now.

Chicken blood. It was white before all of those santeria chicken sacrifice rituals he does.

It's amazing how easy it is to get outs even against MLB hitters if you just throw strikes, get ahead of hitters, and keep your pitches especially your breaking balls out of the exact center of the plate. Marshall specifically is Chef Boyardee with the constant hanging breaking balls middle of the plate, falling behind everyone, showing all his pitches by time the second hitter he faces leaves the box. Just get the fucking ball and throw strikes. It works.

I'm not looking at him to be a setup guy, just a garbage man MR. I'd like a vet who can mix things up and get the ball over the plate. Make the opposition put the ball in the play and keep things out of the heart of the plate mostly. I think he can do that. He has a lot more to work with than Foster does. And if not him, I would like someone else in that similar mold.

You obviously haven't seen his good slider then.

OK so not to be a dick or whatever but seriously, if Marshall goes on the IL we're a better team because of it.