Jake

Wow, that's a really valuable freebie. I've already paid some 3-figure amount for it (and am not a T-Mobile subscriber, nor do I know any especially well). As for the team-specific package, there was something about it that made me go for the Premium package instead. Was it not being able to choose your favorite team's broadcast crew? No mobile app?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 4, 2016 -> 09:05 AM) Sure it is, you arent obligated to hit every step of the minors before going to the Majors. If they think you are ready, then you come up from whatever level you are at See Quintana, Jose and Jenks, Bobby and Thomas, Frank for some examples that come to mind

I have to say that while I love Little Caesar's Crazy Bread and Italian Cheese Bread, their pizza is pure garbage, it tastes bland and not fresh at the same. If you can have pizza that is uninspired, that would be it. I'd rather have a Jack's frozen pizza. Freschetta's rising crust or whatever it's called is actually fantastic, as frozen pizzas go.

Gonzalez's lost velocity is concerning

I've only had Papa John's at hockey games in Bloomington. I always thought it was decent in the way that a frozen pizza can be pretty good. Nowadays I've been digging Domino's for the big chains and Donatos for a local one here in OH

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 28, 2016 -> 10:14 PM) Ironically just saw this part of the movie while I was channel scanning at the hotel the other day. Not doing the "NANANANA" but just started coughing and plugging my ears so some guys wouldn't ruin a day of exclusion on my way home. I have to say, having never lived in Chicago, I find it so unrelatable to think that just walking around town would get a Sox game spoiled for me. I have to watch out for texts from family/friends and promoted Facebook posts, but otherwise can pretty much stay in the dark until I can watch.

Davidson always was an imperfect prospect, but IMO the main reason he hasn't been the starting 3B for the past 2 years is all because he collapsed emotionally after not making the team out of ST when we traded for him. On one hand, that means he could turn it around at any point. On the other, it means he may be too mentally fragile to ever be counted on.

Where I grew up in Central IL (not far from Bloomington), Sox were definitely third fiddle to Cubs/Cards but by no means off the radar. I'd estimate 20% of my high school graduating class were Sox fans.

If you don't think the nominee should be put on the court, for whatever reason, just do the hearings and vote no.

I wonder if Chris knows that players complaining and coaches complaining and concern for precedent are not at all mutually exclusive possibilities/explanations.

I took that Robin comment to be as much about the crybabies on the team as it was a vote of support for the LaRoches.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 18, 2016 -> 03:20 PM) This is officially a disaster. At this point one of two things needs to happen. Kenny needs to resign, or they need to flat out state that LaRoche is lying, whichever is true. You can't say LaRoche is lying IMO. You need to get your players to shut the hell up and wait for it to blow over. Do whatever has to be done within the organization to get the players calmed down, but most pressing is to get it out of the news.

It's interesting since LaRoche has nothing to lose and if he's pissed at KW, putting the spotlight on him as a potential liar is a great way to get back at him. If you look at who has the incentives to do what, LaRoche can point to the money he's walking away from and the direct way that benefits KW. I still have a hard time believing that KW would go to the media and say he was okay with the kid being there some of the time if he really told LaRoche the kid couldn't come at all. If their 1-on-1 meeting was heated, though, who knows what kind of haphazard kinds of statements may have been made.

There very well could be something in LaRoche's contract that alludes to his having family in the clubhouse but in a way that wouldn't restrict KW from telling him to reduce the amount of time the kid is in there.

LaRoche is a guy who thinks school isn't very important, is best friends with the Duck Dynasty guys, and named his son after a duck. Not too hard to figure out who's out of the ordinary here.

At this point, there's no way the talent level doesn't improve at Illinois. Lovie doesn't have to be a good recruiter, he just needs to make Illinois not one of the worst teams in the conference. Once he's comfortably done that, we can talk about whether he needs to get better at recruiting

Guys let's not act like Tyler Saladino is some kind of big deal. He is on the old side for a prospect and his MiLB record is very spotty. He has some nice skills and we saw that he could pick it at 3B last year, but if the Sox are trying to win this year then they don't owe him s***. I'm already borderline shocked that the Sox seem to be putting him ahead of Sanchez on the depth charts.

I don't believe Dexter Fowler was worth a late 20s pick at any price.

It could also be the case that this player has taken the initiative to seek out Cooper's advice. A lot of these guys, knowing Coop doesn't see them play all that much, may not see any reason to be calling the guy up all the time when they have instructors in person to talk to.

I've wanted Rollins since I saw what the SS market looked like. Now the only question is whether you let him win it in ST or find a way to have him wait in the wings if/until a youngster fails there.

The argument against Eaton as a RF doesn't live and die on this statistic. He has trouble with his arm last year because he was frequently very inaccurate. Something that I believe affects outfielders in a way that doesn't apply nearly as much to infielders is the carry on the throw. Two players with equivalent exit velocity could be vastly different in the functional speed if one has a lot of slicing type of action and the other can throw with a perfect backspin. If nothing else, the pure backspin throw is faster because it travels in a straight line, but I'm also fairly certain that it loses less velocity while in the air as well. My guess is that this is the reason that a reasonable person could have watched the Sox last year and assumed Melky had the strongest throwing arm of the 3 starting OF, probably because his seems to have a nice carry to it. I'm not sure that Eaton and Avi are bad in this way, certainly not like Rios, but both of them struggled hitting a target at times.

These players are proof that something has to change with the QO system, because they truly aren't worth a lost 1st round draft pick when you also have to pay them money on top of it.

Not a soul in this thread mentions the actual ranking the Sox got

Seems like Ishikawa keeps finding ways back into MLB. I could see him as a useful bench piece under the right circumstance

Will be interesting to see what Sox are thinking about 5-man rotation. How much better of a bet is Latos than Erik Johnson? Is John Danks a better bet than either one?