hogan873

I voted for Lucroy as both who I think should and who I think will. I give him the edge over Collins for two reasons: Veteran presence behind the plate and a better offensive compliment to Grandal. I like Collins, and I agree with other posters' sentiments that he can be a good hitter. I do, however, worry about his ability behind the plate. Overall, though, I don't think Collins would get the exposure necessary to improve as much as he can. Grandal will most likely catch the bulk of the games (120+), and the team most likely has their DH in Vaughn. That means Collins might get 30-40 games and 140-160 plate appearances. I think he may end up being traded at the deadline, hopefully giving him a shot elsewhere.

With Grandal sidelined, we've seen a lot of the potential backups. The Sox have hinted that they will not carry three catchers. If that's the case, who gets the backup job? Who do you think should get the job?

Robert is fast.

I thought I recognized the voice.

Who is that announcing with Kasper?

Another nice pitch.

Nice curve from Ruiz.

Why does Zavala look different? I didn't recognize him. Or did I just forget what he looked like?

It's amazing how far we've come from months ago when we were seeing 10K+.

I'd imagine if the 30% gets approved we'll see an increase in cost of tickets sold on third party sites (Seat Geek, StubHub, etc.). Right now, aside from opening day, tickets aren't terribly expensive on Seat Geek. Season ticket holders probably have a good opportunity to make some cash this year.

Don't forget about afterwards, too. In 2019, we took the train up to see a game for the first time, and when walking back to the Metra stop I found a "vendor" selling beer for $3 a can. Picked up a couple for the train ride home.

Yeah, the bottom 4 could be Grandal, Robert, Eaton/Engel, and Madrigal. That's a tough lineup that can kill opposing teams with power AND speed.

Phillies allowing 20% capacity (8800 fans).

Brewers are going to allow 25% capacity on opening day. I expect more and more teams to start announcing that they will be allowing fans. I still wouldn't expect the Sox or Cubs to announce anything for a couple weeks.

Cardinals are allowing 32% capacity on opening day. That's encouraging.

Teams are planning now and would most likely be ready to allow fans by opening day. They're not going to wait until the city/state to say it's okay before making plans. The August 1 date is probably realistic for full or nearly full attendance IF we have herd immunity by then. Some NBA and NHL teams have begun allowing fans, and these are smaller, indoor venues. I only know about the Pittsburgh Penguins because I follow them, but officials notified them they could allow fans (18%), and they started selling tickets yesterday for games starting today. The team had been planning for the allowance of fans and was able to get the ball rolling immediately. I'm certain the Sox and Cubs (and all MLB teams) are ready.

But it's not NOT opening day. No one is going to say, "Yes there will be fans in the stands on opening day" right now because it's still too early. Positivity rates are dropping, vaccination rate are climbing, so things are looking up. If things continue to improve, I would not be surprised if very limited attendance is allowed on opening day. But, we won't hear anything, one way or the other, for a few weeks.

I'm pretty optimistic this is true, and I agree that they won't say anything until agreements have been reached between the teams and the city, state, etc. And to your point about concessions, that certainly could be an issue. Limited attendance, scaled down options, and well-trained vendors will help ensure things run smoothly.

The key with the vaccines and which one you'd ultimately want, right now Fauci and other health officials are saying take whatever vaccine is available to you. They all greatly reduce risk of hospitalization and death. I saw an interesting tidbit on the news the other day when they were talking about appointments being cancelled/postponed, specially in the wake of the severe weather. Health officials are now saying you can get your second shot of Pfizer/Moderna up to 6 weeks after your first shot. My guess is that ultimately they'll find that a person could go significantly longer between shots. Every day, we learn more about the virus and about the vaccines.

If the numbers continue to go down and vaccination rates continue to rise, things could look much better in a month. Things already look much better than they did one, two months ago. I understand officials not jumping the gun and saying they expect to allow fans by opening day. It's easier to make a last minute decision to allow fans than to make a last minute decision to rescind the allowance of fans. I'm not saying there will be fans on opening day. But, I wouldn't take what they're saying today as gospel. I do think it's entirely possible for a small amount of fans (10%-15%) in the stands as the season opens. The good news is that if the vaccination rates continue to rise, and there are indeed enough doses for all adults by the end of May, full or nearly full stadiums are possible by late summer.

Reynolds is Matt Reynolds, I believe. 11 plate appearances since 2018...and no hits in those 11 appearances.

I'd get a shot once a month if that is what's required to stay ahead of variants. I don't think it will come to anything so drastic, but I don't doubt that boosters will be required.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has met the requirements for emergency use authorization and the final approval should come soon. This is great news, especially considering it's a one-shot vaccine. I believe J&J said they could produce 100 million doses by mid-summer. This speeds up the road to herd immunity considerably. Based on this vaccine's efficacy against moderate to severe effects (66%), it might be recommended for lower risk people (healthy 16-65 year-olds). Just a guess, but if we get to a point where there's enough vaccines to pick and choose who gets what, it seems to make sense.

There is an assumption that COVID will become endemic and be a seasonal bug like the cold or flu. If that's the case, I wouldn't be surprised if there's an annual shot like the flu shot eventually.

I think the true number of potential deaths post-vaccine is complicated by not truly knowing if the vaccines prevent the spread of COVID. It is believed that they do, at least to a point. Without using numbers, my thought is that the vaccines are making COVID more similar to the flu in regards to severe infection, hospitalizations, and death. As far as the math, I'm not sure. Your figures make sense to me, but I wonder what the current percentage of people who catch COVID die is. We may never know because there are probably a lot more cases than we know of, with folks being asymptomatic or having minor symptoms.