MiddleCoastBias

Sheets' swing looks so smooth when he's confident. The latter half of the season, after he made some adjustments, he had great plate presence and looked confident that he could find a ball to drive. I'm excited to see that develop into what it could possibly be. Maybe that's as a White Sox or maybe that's with someone else, but he's one of those lefties where you can see some real potential to do some damage from that side of the plate.

Buehrle gets the love (rightfully) for the HR, but Matt Albers' double and celebration will always hold a special place in my heart. https://www.mlb.com/cut4/white-sox-pitcher-matt-albers-hits-double-and-has-hilarious-reaction-c181541836 https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/private/t_16x9/mlb/w5o8cxzivtbqakqphj0h.mp4 Other than that, good riddance to pitchers hitting.

Cancelled mine after the Machado/Harper fiasco. Only so much we can do to get a point across, "vote with your dollar".

Yep, the owners seem to work against their own long-term interests, saving a penny when it could pay off millions at the major league level. Just seems like the opportunity cost for teams to spend a little more earlier on to fully realize their prospects' potential could pay off huge down the line. Hell, teams throw int'l signing bonus money at 16 year olds on pure speculation, then turn around and squeeze pennies on the development of these same players once they're in the fold. It just doesn't make sense for anyone involved.

Mark Appel with a good a thread about being a minor leaguer and what they need to be successful re: housing, food, and off-season training. Lays out a pretty decent proposal that makes a ton of sense from the practical perspective, but owners will hate from a financial perspective. https://twitter.com/markappel26/status/1493693618988720137?s=20&t=KaSaeV1eqf_cY7VrDvMcZA

I'm on record with my concern/interest to see if/how he can adjust defensively to meet the requirements to play 2B. Let him get the reps in the off-season to see what he can do, can't hurt. Setting aside all rational thought now and jumping on the positive feedback loop, I now fully expect him to be the next Max Muncy that can play every infield position and mash as a big guy. Don't let me down, Max! Er, Jake!

I agree with you that I think it'll be great to see his bat in the lineup and I think it plays at the major league level, and I do think stretching him out at 2B in the off-season is a great idea to see if that's how we can fit him into the lineup. Where I have issue is the "can’t believe 2nd base is that much more difficult than 3rd base." The footwork, glovework, and quick hands/body are definitely different from anything he may have done at 3B. It's no longer fielding something and throwing to someone right in front of you; turning the DP and flipping around *smoothly* to throw to 1B requires totally different body control. I want to see if he can develop that, but turning DPs is a huge portion of the 2B defensive requirements, especially when we have ground ball pitchers like Keuchel that will rely on it for outs.

Kudos to you for what you have been able to find and the information you've provided on these guys. This is great insight into some guys that most folks aren't able to get otherwise, appreciate the work you've done on this.

Hopefully he can do something to condition everyone's hamstrings better than whatever was done last year. I know injuries are injuries, but the rate at which the team injured (and RE-injured) a hamstring seemed way above norm.

And while we're at it, remind people that Stroman will never play here either. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/11/marcus-stroman-tony-la-russa-white-sox.html

Oh, it's definitely out there it you want to look for it. It's just that there are fewer posters sharing every "nugget of wisdom" the foodies et al drop.

But none of those guys were expected to keep their legs under them and play up to the defensive demands of shortstop. Sure, Baez can move to 2B in a few years if they replace him with a younger SS, but you still can't rely on burying his aging legs at DH when he will never be the hitter Pujols or Miggy are/were.

I'm still holding out hope we bring in Rich Hill as one of our last signings to complement the total innings we get out of Kopech/Keuchel/ReyLo.

If nothing happens before the lockout, this board is going to be a hellscape of negativity for two solid months while there's a freeze on any possible moves that might be coming after the new CBA (trades, Schwarber, etc)

Tough to commit dollars to a utility guy first when we're still trying to get a judge on the landscape of what the available big ticket FAs want and what we can fit in our budget. I'm sure they're in touch with his camp talking numbers to see what he's looking for and then will see if they can fit that in after having a better idea of our other signings. Wouldn't want a $5M locked into Leury prevent us from getting someone to fill RF/2B/SP and fill Leury's spot with Romy on the cheap.

I know folks like to fall back on the "biggest offer wins", but what if this is one of those situations where Matz saw what St. Louis offered as an organization (chance at winning, clubhouse identity, etc) and decided "you know what, I've seen enough of the Mets and want to move on, so a matching or close offer isn't worth discussing." Cohen may feel jilted, but could be Matz wasn't going to seriously consider coming back after seeing what else was out there.

With *this* move, I'd like to see a package that adds more pieces to help us in the future, and then our "win now" moves are big FAs. We can achieve both our goals through different mechanisms.

I just like hearing that there's competition, and from teams with talent and money to spend. Stoke the flames!

Blackhawks bringing back aging vets for a reunion tour.

I won't believe it until Hector Gomez says so.

Curious, where was Maldonado in throwing out runners? I was under the impression that he was strong/elite in this category and expected to see him here. Actually, for how the broadcasts played up his defensive specialist role throughout the playoffs, kind of expected to see him topping all of these defensive metrics.

If you want talk about Conforto, that's over in the Semien thread.

Feel like we should be focusing our energy on attracting coaches and personnel that can turn guys like guys like mid-season Joc and Soler into the post season producers they turned into. And also the oft-repeated issues with our ground ball launch angle philosophy. Status quo with the staff is frustrating, blah.

Actual thought - let's just sign the Braves hitting coach(es) that can turn scrap into gold. We tend to get in this rut of trying to find the players that we can turn around. Why don't we spend more energy getting the *coaches and personnel* that can actually turn the player into something.

Agreed that we're going to be down relievers and will need to replace that production somewhere, but wouldn't it make more sense to move Kimbrel's $16M and use it to sign more guys like Tepera at reduced cost? Have to imagine we can get a replacement to what Kimbrel actually did for us (not what he did on the Cubs or what we HOPE he can) for far less. Expecting him to bounce back at $16M seems like a far greater gamble than signing a couple $5M-$7M guys and getting better production. With how finicky relievers are year to year, use that money on other pen pieces and get the same production at minimum, and possibly even better production than Kimbrel at a lower premium.