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Kondo is an excellent hitter, he’s actually really similar to Yoshida as a player except he has a lot less pop. A slightly better defender, but also injury prone. Tetsuto Yamada is never coming. He reached unrestricted free agency a couple years ago and signed like a seven-year deal to stay in Tokyo. He was weighing coming to MLB then, but according to every report I’ve seen he decided to move past it. As far as relievers, rumors are that Eagles closer Yuki Matsui may be posted after the season. He’s a lefty with a wipeout slider and a decent splitter, sits low 90s and touches mid. I don’t know if he’s a closer over here but I think he’s going to be a useful reliever for sure. If you’re going to be in Tokyo I’d highly suggest trying to see the Swallows at Meiji Jingu stadium. It’s a historic relic that is scheduled to be torn down soon, so I’d get there while you can. Yamamoto is the one to watch right now. Sasaki isn’t like to come for another 3 years at least.

As much as I’d absolutely love the Sox to end up with an NPB star at some point, the a white Sox specifically needed a left-handed outfielder who can actually play the field, and that’s what Benintendi is. Yoshida is a lefty and is by far the best hitter, but he’s a borderline DH. I think the Red Sox evaluated the opportunity to minimize that impact well in their weird, short LF. But the White Sox literally played two first basemen in the OF and their good CF is injury prone. They needed a dude who can cover some ground. Suzuki has the most upside of the group, but he comes with the most risk and is right-handed. The handedness is the least important piece, though. I also think he is the style of personality/has a track record of managing his own improvement, which is the only type of positional talent that ever finds a way to succeed in the Sox organization. But he still probably wouldn’t become as good with this org as he would with an average one, so it’s hard to make the case the Sox won’t get more out of benintendi. As an NPB stan, it pains me. But I think the Sox got the right guy for their needs, even though both the others may play better where they are.

Right but Eloy is the one blocking his ABs. Unless you want to relegate Vaughn to a weak-side platoon, Sheets has to play over actual OF Colas (also a lefty) or pinch hit to get playing time, and I just think he should never be on the outfield grass. I’m excited about him as an injury fill-in at 1B/DH, but until that need arises, why not put him in Charlotte, you know?

I just don’t want him playing the outfield, I guess, and maybe (probably) I’m buying too much into Haseley’s swing change but I feel like both him and Marisnick are fine as actual bench outfielders and Sheets can be stashed for when someone goes down.

Why does this organization love Gavin Sheets so much? He is an archetypal example of a replacement player for AAA. What possible argument is there to force him onto the field, out of position, ahead of players that actually play those positions, just to get his 105 wRC+ bat into the lineup?

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is most likely coming next, rumored this coming offseason. It’s a shame the Sox are “maxed out” because he looks every bit as good as Tanaka when he came over, possibly better. A little less size, but a wider arsenal and the same great command.

He’s become surprisingly passable at third after looking horrendous in his rookie year (at first!), but I don’t think anyone thinks he can stick there long term. He’s a 1B/DH when he comes over here.

I’m now seeing that Japan is going to start Shota Imanaga? Which is interesting. He throws like 91 but there’s something about his fastball that seems to make it exceptionally hard to square up.

Wow. This and the US/Ven game were two of the best games I’ve seen in years.

Are you f'ing kidding me

I do not understand how so many people don’t love this s%*#

For anyone looking to watch without cable, I’ve found Sling Tv to be the best deal. The Blue package has FS1 and you get the first month for $20 and can cancel anytime.

MLBAM has been positioning themselves for this for years. There's a good chance that the mlb.tv infrastructure becomes one of the shrewdest investments of the past several decades. IF, that is, they can survive the painful interim period without losing too much of the fanbase for good. I will add one piece of information that I haven't seen discussed, because I've had some recent conversations with people directly involved -- not every RSN is in the same position, in terms of revenue. Some are markets are operating in the black, and the one where I currently am is telling its business partners that it has a clear path to continuing operations in the near term even if Diamond ultimately dissolves, possibly to the point of making the transition back to an independent entity. I have no way to confirm how true that is, but I can tell that it is very much the official company line. If that IS the case, this could turn into a much longer and more painful transition period than MLB is hoping, and select fans may be pretty screwed for while, as the fractured remnants of the old system continue to persist.

Well, a handful of young White Sox infielders just learned once and for all how much your manager’s public vote of confidence is worth. Hopefully Andrus really did discover another gear of some kind, because he projects to be no better than the in house options, and the cost of the acquisition isn’t the $3m — it’s the lack of development/evaluation the Sox are paying in opportunity cost. If nothing else, the Sox now know they’re on track be in exactly the same boat next year. I know, I know, I’m too negative. Complain about everything blah blah. But look, mathematically, Andrus 2022 looks like the most obvious dead cat bounce anyone has ever seen. Literally no one was buying it, there is no defensible objective argument whatsoever that he is likely to approach what he did last year. The in-house options aren’t good, but it isn’t clear at all that this even qualifies as an upgrade to them. This isn’t a big loss in a vaccuum, but it continues the Sox trend of paying a steeper and more diverse price than any other franchise to make marginal upgrades. No team more consistently robs peter to pay Paul.

Watching all the veteran minor league SP deals come off the board without any going to the Sox is baffling. Really hard to believe that these guys don’t see the obvious path to innings that currently exists, which makes me have to think the Sox aren’t trying to sign them. Which is completely bonkers.

That’s what I get for posting on mobile

Hate trading with the Rays, but that MLBTR post about Vidal Brunson being a trade candidate sure got me thinking.

Yeah, it needs to be a multi-faceted approach, for sure. My sense, anecdotally, from working in a ballpark every day when the rule was first implemented in AAA, was there was a palpable and immediate reduction in the amount of people that remained engaged and in the ballpark. I would fear you’d still lose a lot of those people if you waited a couple innings. I do think the benefits are more significant to the in-park crowd than the broadcast crowd. At the MLB level, I didn’t notice the same huge difference last year, but where I am, there aren’t currently a ton of reasons to stay real late anyway.

Yeah, I’d be totally okay with it on the post-season. I agree consistency is better — it should either be part of the game or not. Keeping out of the lost important games is almost a tacit admission that that the league even sees it as a worse/inferior version.

I don’t think anyone is looking at this like “let’s change baseball because we feel like it needs tinkering.” But this change makes sense for the same reason college football overtime makes sense: the likelihood of scoring in each possession is low in both sports, so an indefinite tiebreaker can last way too long. For baseball, this was fine when a two hour game could stretch to a three hour game, but the reality of MLB today is that the average game length is already long enough that the typical fan can barely fit it into their day. Die hards like all of us don’t care, but we have to realize that it’s bad for the game if it bleeds fans, and it’s really hard to maintain or grow internet in a product where your average consumption involves giving up on the game before it ends. I see this change as taking a handful more games per year accessible to the average fan to watch, and allowing thousands of fans to stick it out to the end of a game instead of bailing early, which is huge because that game will probably be the only one that most of those fans attend in the whole year.

This doesn’t make sense. It increases each team’s chance to score equally, and then the normal forces of the game situation take place. Differences in the home/away dynamic are already present on instances where the away team scores… it just now is more likely to happen sooner. But it’s also easier for the home team to defend, with or without more pressure. And if you think getting the first bite at it in the top of the tenth confers an advantage, you also have to acknowledge the even greater advantage of being the home team in the bottom half of the inning in instances where the away team fails to score in the top. Separately, what are the “many downsides”?

I am not opposed to ties, conceptually, but as someone who watches a lot of NPB games/has become an invested fan in a team, I can tell you that ties FEEL absolutely terrible every time, to me. I hate them. It makes it feel like the whole game was a waste of time.

I agree that’s the closest thing to a problem. But I guess I feel like it’s natural for varying base running skills and batting order luck to factor into the game situation. Admittedly that’s just a personal feeling, but it just seems to line up with how the game already sort of works — like you’re in an extra inning situation, you have an advantage of the good part of your batting order is up, etc.

I’m in the minority, but I love this rule. I don’t see how it detracts from the game in any way, and it helps to make witnessing the end of games more accessible. I haven’t seen any downsides whatsoever; the only reason to dislike it is to dislike change in general.

Or that great organization may have helped develop into a legit SS when he was younger. The White Sox player development strategy is essentially “draft guys that are so physically gifted that they become major leaguers despite their flaws,” and TA is one of the success stories, but that doesn’t mean that he was actually able to reach his ceiling.