35thstreetswarm

I'm not talking about what to do when Engel and Hamilton come back. I'm not talking about whether it's true that playing in the minors is important in a general sense (which is, by the way, a platitude...or very close to one). I'm not even talking about whether he should be sent down or not. Vaughn is with the big league club right now. The only question I'm asking is how someone could look at Andrew Vaughn and proven-to-be-bad-at-baseball Nick Williams sitting next to each other on the bench and call Nick Williams's number over and over. I think it's indefensible. I guess you see something in Nick Williams that I don't.

I saw a few tweets about Hendriks feeling better after consulting a tarot card reader. Figured he was kind of half-goofing in a press conference, but then saw a few articles about it. Seems like he's sort of serious, and really has some sort of personal mystic. I wasn't worried about Hendriks before, but I am a little bit now. https://www.mlb.com/news/liam-hendriks-gets-help-from-his-tarot-card-reader By the way, I'm at least 35% kidding.

Nobody is suggesting benching Mercedes right now for Vaughn (even the quote you excerpted just imagined a future scenario where Mercedes stops hitting). The question at hand is why you would play (a) a journeyman with below average defense, low ceiling, and no future with the team over (b) a #3 overall pick (yeah, I mentioned his "pedigree") with unusual polish, a (so far) sound hitting approach that has been getting him on base with regularity, and who is projected as a cornerstone of the team's future and whose development is thus top priority. Forget platitudes about "earning it" and prospects having to "prove" their bona fides in a vague and general sense. I have a hard time seeing how anyone could answer (a) in a way that's consistent with good organizational management.

I actually see the ghost of Mackowiak in Williams more than Vaughn. None of these situations are 1-for-1, but from Mackowiak to Erstad to Teahen to Lawrie to Alonso to Jay to Nick Williams, I have a near-allergic aversion to this organization's seeming affinity for prioritizing low-value "veteran" roster filler over the development of long-term assets.

Right -- the anti-Vaughn arguments on here read like the choice is between Vaughn in LF vs. Engel, or some other defensive whiz. I think it's getting lost that the choice right now is Vaughn vs. *Nick Williams*, who is not good.

Don’t need to look back at prior posts to know what they say, just here to say hahahahahahaha

Looks pretty bleak. Unless they want to push it back to like 8 pm I don’t see them playing this one

This place is great.

Am I reading this right that the White Sox got "crushed" by picking hall of famer Harold Baines in the draft?

My weather forecast just got a lot worse, going from 40/20% at 3:00/4:00 to 60/75% at those times. Starting to worry

Seriously--the guy needs reps. It's going to be hard for him to get acclimated with all this stop-and-start nonsense.

No worries - thought that with the forecast they may have bumped it. (Wouldn't be surprised if it's delayed as a previous poster mentioned.)

...3:10 game time, no? Has it been changed or is the thread title wrong?

With bells on. Let's gooooooooo

Billy Hamilton always looks terrified

Thanks. Hope to head to Maria's pregame, and hopefully Bernice's post-game. Both seem to be open.

Forecast I'm seeing says the rain will clear up in the afternoon so I'm hopeful.

This is the very thing that makes me think he'll be fine. Not making routine plays is totally aberrational; he's been doing it his whole career, and slow grounders are no harder in MLB than in the Minors or college. Missing plays like that is definitely attributable to jitters. Hopefully he gets over it.

Not intended to be the game thread, but I lucked into a ticket that will allow me to keep my 18-year Home Opener streak alive so wanted to start a thread about my favorite day of the year. Who's going? What are you planning to do before hand instead of tailgate? Any intel on whether any bars will be closed pre and postgame? Discuss.

Nobody ever thought he was going to hit for any power. That's nothing new.

A) It was a joke; B) you may well be wrong anyway. But otherwise good post

WON'T GET THAT HERE! Seriously, I think he's absolutely in his own head. His issues so far don't strike me as being related to adjustment to MLB talent level: you don't just forget how to field or run the bases. He's pressing and I think he'll be ok. The biggest worry is that his mental makeup won't allow him to get through this, but that also seems doubtful given all his success at other levels.

This reminds me of all the "well *obviously* Vaughn will start 2021 in Birmingham" discussions of several months ago. We'll see what happens. I have a sneaking suspicion that if Crochet is dominant going into the playoffs (and we make the playoffs) he'll figure more prominently in our playoff pitching plans than a standard middle reliever. There's also no way there's a 60-inning limit.

I'm not so sure--perhaps it depends on how you define "starting rotation." He was basically used as something akin to an opener in last year's playoffs. I certainly don't think he'll be on the Strasburg shelf; if he's dominating I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a starting or near-starting role assuming they limit his innings all season.

Having lived in Boston the Boston Marathon/Patriots' Day thing is a lot bigger than most realize, so I'm not surprised at the tie-in. But man oh man -- those are horrible. They're so plain. I'm surprised as I think Nike has generally done a nice job with alternate uniforms (City Edition, Color Rush, Oregon, etc.)