South Side Hit Men

Great comeback, glad I (and most here) stuck with the second game. Rey Lo and Foster kept it close, glad Foster was OK after the scary comeback. Keuchel shooting for 5 or 6 IP tomorrow in his quest for 160. Hope the Sox crush Ober, then Pineda to close out the homestand, before leaving Jason and Steve in their dust and heading up to Milwaukee.

Pretty sure the Sox will go with 14 in the playoffs, two more than now (1 less starter, 1 less reliever), though Tony may stick with 9 relievers, even with the three hitter rule. Hamilton is a lock regardless. Think Tony is going to want Lamb as a veteran off the bench. YM, TA, LG, DM, JA (INF). YG ZC (C) AE EJ LR AV make 13, leaving room for Sheets or Burger if they go 14. (assuming all are healthy/no acquisitions).

Yoan has no power.

He’s still Rey Lo from the block.

Weeeeee. That’s a peach, hon.

Tony should have screamed the take sign. Should have screamed it to Mendick as well. Hendriks solely reserved for save situations. Take sign solely reserved for unwritten rules situations.

Glad Robert is in Winston-Salem. Eloy can’t injure him at this point.

Perhaps if we had someone more worried about the take sign on 3 - 0 with 13 balls in 15 pitches in a tied game. Too bad a Twins position player wasn’t pitching in a blowout, you would have heard the take sign all the way in China.

No Tim tonight, Leury is Tony’s choice to set the table. 1. Leury Garcia (S) 2B 2. Yoan Moncada (S) 3B 3. Jose Abreu (R) 1B 4. Brian Goodwin (L) CF 5. Andrew Vaughn (R) LF 6. Gavin Sheets (L) RF 7. Jake Burger (R) DH 8. Zack Collins (L) C 9. Danny Mendick (R) SS

So to recap, 4 run lead, nobody on, burn through your best two pitchers to get the last six outs with a double header the next day. Tie game in extras, “told” both were available today. Don’t use either Kopech or Hendriks, even after two reach to load the bases, use your two least experienced rookies instead, lose the game. Brilliant.

Surprised they didn’t bunt here, make Crochet attempt to field a baseball.

They are being reserved for low leverage situations.

16 pitches 13 balls 3 strikes / all via contact 0 runs. Tim and Mendick needed to take once it was obvious he couldn’t locate the plate.

Don’t swing at all Mendick.

Vaughn continues to strike the ball well, results will follow.

Hoping the team knocks one in to get a win for Lynn, who gutted it out today without his best strikeout arsenal.

Gold chains, music videos. “Partying, eating Twinkies”. These things matter, imagined or otherwise, much more than actual performance, at least to the usual suspects.

Billy replaces Hamilton.

Still have at least one or more innings this game, and seven in the second. No need to burn through both yesterday, with a DH today. 1 Run Game = High Leverage 4 Run Game = Low Leverage.

Yes, this is why people were concerned with burning the two best relievers in a four run game yesterday.

$800 for a pair, hard pass.

They have no answer for Tim Anderson. Most teams don’t. He is the Sox spark plug and MVP.

Keuchel’s is the closest to being an albatross, if he vests (and drops in 2023 worst case). They are paying Donaldson $14M more over the same period, and Joshis garbage compared to Yoan, Tim, Luis, Eloy, Lucas, Lynn, at minimum. Who exactly will Minnesota recruit to play up there? More over the hill unproductive players like Happ, Pineda, Colome (sorry big guy)? Then they announced they are having a hissy fit and will trade Buxton next week, their only legitimate potential star, because he won’t sign their garbage lowball contract. The Twins are among the worst teams in baseball, and it’s only going to get worse from here. Reap the whirlwind.

The report posted is to pimp the as of yet under/severely underperforming hotels built in Wrigleyville, similar to pimiping non existent economic benefits to build sports stadiums, host the Olympics, and other taxpayer boondoggles. The Cubs are nowhere close to drawing "30%-40%" of attendance (12,000-17,000 fans per game) from out of state, it is complete and utter rubbishit. Any advantage of out of state attendance is primarily driven by the fact their two division rivals are closest to Chicago are the Cubs' division rivals (Milwaukee and Saint Louis), and both have spent enough to field competitive teams drawing significant numbers of fans (home and away). There is not a lot of demand the past few years from Detroit or Cleveland to watch their tanking teams play at Comiskey Park II. The Cubs have a much higher season ticket base, nobody is buying season tickets from out of state. http://www.mlb.com/cws/downloads/y2009/cp_brochure_09.pdf I'd expect the Cubs to have similar demographics, perhaps slightly higher income / higher % of city residents vs. suburban due to north side/ north shore income disparity vs. south side / south suburbs.

I believe Lopez will perform a lot better than people expect, both today and beyond. He pitched well Friday, granted in a low leverage stress free outing. Lopez will be important to take up 1-2 innings throughout the second half, save stress on Bummer and Hendricks on days Kopech/Crochet aren't scheduled for their development outings. I expect him to remain up the rest of the season if he can pitch well the next two weeks, and the Sox passing on a swing man before the deadline. Foster and to a lessor extent Jimmy Cordero were able to perform in that role last year, but Foster was ineffective and Cordero is out. Ruiz is the other 1-2 inning guy, but he really should be reserved for very low leverage situations (up/down several runs).