mmmmmbeeer

Filthy.

With a guy who can hit .300 with 40 dongs along with a batting title winner? I mean, did you expect an improvement with those guys both out?

I mean, I guess none of them struck out. It's the little things.

Bummer really needs to pull his head out of his ass. He's avoiding contact at all costs resulting in non-competitive pitches.

Just under the weather or something more concerning?

Meathead take of the season and it's only April 11th. Well done, sir.

Were the failures of those guys due to the inability to play basic fundamental defense and know how to run the bases? Of course not. No 4th overall pick should be struggling with the fundamentals of baseball like Madrigal has since being called up.

He was a fourth overall pick. He gets compensated as a fourth overall pick. He's not playing like a fourth overall pick. Expecting AT LEAST replacement level defense and the consistent ability to make routine plays isn't exactly asking a lot out of a fourth overall pick in MLB. He has zero "adjustment time" to play some damn defense and not make stupid baserunning errors, imo.

Whoa man...that's going waaayyy back. I'm trying to remember who hosted that. Wasn't that Alex kid one of the hosts?

Man, y'all are salty as shit. It's the second inning and the bottom of the order was up.

The thing that struck me last night, outside of the obvious, was how often he would step off the rubber and really think about his next pitch. A few times he was literally stroking his beard with his glove while he was thinking lol. I saw that and realized he's going to be an entirely different animal this season as he becomes much more a pitcher than a thrower. IMO, this also speaks to how much Coop let him down as a pitching coach. I understand he was hurt but his entire strategy and demeanor have changed (based on just one start, of course).

This is key, to me. That line-up is dangerous. It's sure as hell not a line-up you give extra outs to, as proven by the 7 unearned runs in 3 games. Our pitchers allowed 19 runs over the course of the 4 games. More than a third of those runs were unearned. You take away those unearned runs, Sox pitching allowed 3rpg against a top line-up in the AL. Not awful by any stretch of the imagination. I do have concerns with our offense, especially with Robert and Moncada.

Thanks. Hopefully minimum IL stint.

Saw Engel was moved to the IL for a hamstring? When did he get hurt? Haven't been following ST closely.

96 wins. Offense suffers a bit of regression but the pitching staff carries us to an AL Central championship.

Sox games are probably going to be a tough ticket to get this season with the hype of the team and people missing evenings at the ballpark. Not sure what the season ticket deal is this season, but if you've got them, you're going to probably make absolute BANK on the aftermarket sales this season.

The launch angle, coupled with average home run distance and average distance, definitely speaks volumes on untapped power potential. We've seen how streaky he can be with the long ball with the number of multi-HR games he has, likely due to a slight swing adjustment on particular nights that may be unidentifiable to him but is impacting his launch angle at times. Don't get me wrong. He's a hell of a hitter and I wouldn't change much. But I've got to think that the analytics people in the Sox org are seeing the same thing we're seeing in this thread which could lead to a very slight tweak to his swing resulting in an absolute MONSTER of a longball threat.

The absolute balls it takes to consistently throw near BP-speed pitches down the middle of the plate against MLB hitters is severely underrated. Not only could they easily go yard, but they could just as easily take the man's head off if they tee it up right back at Gio. It's just plain supreme confidence in a pitch coupled with an unflinching belief that he has the mental upperhand in every at-bat knowing he can fool them.

You're right, we know he's cheap. This is why we were willing to put up with this rebuild, knowing that we couldn't fill out our roster with big time FA signings and needed to develop and obtain young talent. We were told by the GM, guaranteed, in fact, that the money will be there during our competitive window. We were told that a young, talented roster would be buffeted by strong, veteran FA signings to bring at least one, and hopefully more, championships to Chicago. That language hadn't been used previously under JR's reign. We know the man is cheap, but his organization told us that he's going to be willing to go all in. He lied to us. Yes, the team will be good regardless. It would be a lot better if Jerry did what he said he was going to do. This roster with a Baeur? This roster with a Springer in RF? This roster with Cruz at DH? ENORMOUS upgrades made by any owner who wanted to push all his chips in. We can't even get freaking Wainright because of money? Seriously? I've been a fan for a long time. I can take "cheap". I've accepted cheap. I don't accept straight up lying.

You sure? How would a waived player count against luxury tax? This is kind of an unprecedented deal to say so definitively that this is the way it would work. Not that we're going to reach LT, but still interesting to understand.

Solid interview. He seems both very humble and coy. Seemed especially excited about what he can do with Dylan. I got the sense he was given a mandate from Rick because he seemed very nonplussed by working with Larussa or having to fit in with Larussa's strategies.

Agreed. I think this move to the Sox has much less to do with fulfilling a childhood dream than it does finding another announcing job in baseball that keeps he and his family in Chicago.

He'd been around for soooooo long...it was inevitable the game would move beyond him. This is especially true with an "old school" guy like Coop who never really committed to new technologies, strategies, and pitching theories. Ya know, kind of like the 93yo manager we just hired. I'm expecting Katz to reinvigorate a career or two in short order. He's hungry, is "new school", and has been empowered by the FO to do whatever needs to be done. Love it.

If there's one thing I've never met in my life, it's a silent Trump supporter. Fuckers will bring up politics and Trump no matter what the subject. "Pretty good salad, eh Bill?" "Yeah, enjoy it before AOC and the Green New Deal takes away our farms!" "I mean, I was just saying it was a good salad, Bill."

Do you forget that we're all die-hard fans on Soxtalk? Why are you trying to bullshit us with your contrarian soliloquies?