raBBit

Kelly threw at a guy's head which is entirely objectionable. He also caused the benches to clear during the pandemic where there was a precedent for heightened punishments for any action that resulted in a bench clearing situation. There is really no comparison between Donaldson's situation and Kelly's. Per rotoworld, Donaldson called in and said he had COVID symptoms and wasn't tested by the team. He didn't even join the team at any point. Absolutely they could. This happens all the time. They couldn't put him on the COVID list if he weren't sick or exhibiting symptoms but he reported symptoms. I wasn't aware that someone's personal opinions were a consideration in the COVID protocols. Seems science-y.

So players are being alienated by the league because of an article from 2013 says travel baseball is expensive? Tim Anderson started playing baseball in high school - how was he alienated from the sport again? Hockey, tennis, golf is far more cost prohibitive than baseball. MLB is roughly 8% black. Do you think any of those sports have black people represented at a rate higher than their demographic share of the population? What about the top AAU teams traveling around the country? Is that free? Hockey is a rich kid sport. Golf is another level. Baseball isn't in the conversation of exclusivity in comparison to other sports in America. I know you're in China so your only understanding of this is biased writers talking about stuff they are only pretending to understand but if you think travel baseball teams are trying to exclude good players you're clueless. These coaches are insane. They're all about their own personal egos unfortunately. But on the bright side, if you are a good player without the means, they will find a way to include you. Also, high school baseball is a couple hundred bucks and must schools will exempt a kid's fee if his family can't afford it. Also, how do these players from LatAm overcome not being able to afford full time travel teams? These kids are often impoverished far greater than your average poor kid in America. How is pay-for-play keeping them from reaching the heights of the sport? It's not. They are more interested in the sport. In their country it is baseball and soccer. All the biggest stars in their home country come from baseball and soccer. If you're a black kid in America, how many NBA/NFL stars do you have to list before you list the biggest MLB star. There are probably two dozen black basketball players that are bigger stars than any black MLB player. In the NFL, it is the same thing. Baseball's popularity has waned in America for decades. The trends towards the percentage of black people in the MLB directly reflects that. The trends of Latin American players in the league also supports that. Baseball is not the most exciting game and a lot of the most exciting athletes are going to find themselves in basketball or football because of that.

What evidence is there that players are routinely alienated? It's really unfortunate this guy is trying to diminish the borderline torture that JR went through to integrate the game. There are more young black kids that want to play baseball because of TA, not the other way around. Of course the writer doesn't substantiate his claims (there is no evidence). Tim is a star and absolutely deserves everything he gets but the MLB puts him at the front of their leaguewide promotional materials regularly. Along with Judge, Betts and others. Donaldson is an idiot. TA is a superstar. This writer is a blowhard who doesn't know what he is talking about. Let's hope Sox unite around Timmy and rattle off 10 straight. Also, Judge is the man. Hope he continues to be a stud and signs to an NL team for 400 million in the offseason.

I don't think so. Keuchel is a sunk cost. Look at how quick they pulled the plug on Danks several years ago and Danks is a great guy who was adored and Keuchel is...Keuchel. Keuchel has obviously been horrible, seems to be a bad clubhouse presence, does not profile well in the pen and we have roster constraints. Banks was just sent down when he has largely done what has been asked of him. Once Lynn is back: 1 - Gio 2 - Lynn 3 - Cease 4 - Kopech 5 - Cueto Hopefully roto can stay healthy through June and then acquire some cheap #5 starter type or leverage Velasquez to protect Kopech's usage so he's an option when they're (hopefully) in the playoffs.

Moncada/TA can't play two games. Garcia/Harrison have to play two games. Chess not checkers.

Lol. You think Hahn wanted this situation?

I am in favor of whatever course that leads to Garcia and Harrison playing the least.

You're opening this up to a much larger scope than the conversation requires but inflation is absolutely real and it is not a guise. The resource shortages are compounding the issues to be even more impactful. Suppliers of commodities and resources have limited availability basically across the board and they have to make business decisions on which customers they are going to prioritize in fulfilling orders. Of course, they typically choose the large MNC's which is killing smaller companies. The less competition makes the MNC's stronger and allows them to increase prices with fewer alternatives for sourcing. The inflation and difficult business environment is completely and directly a result of bad policy. Opening day is an entirely different crowd than most other games. You have your die hard fans but it is otherwise a lot of young people who are there for instagram pics, to be social and to get drunk with their friends. I went to Opening Day and it was a pretty awful crowd. I went yesterday and it was a bunch of kids and families (like most Sundays). In short, Opening Day is an exception to your "typical Sox game" and your experience that day shouldn't set your expectation for the next game you go to.

Jose has been hitting the ball hard and been a bit unlucky. Has had some good ABs too. I am not seeing anything to be worried about with him. Eloy on the other hand looks awful.

The Bloomberg article says in the tag line the team made less profit so not sure what exactly you're taking exception to.

Yeah it's not as if the price increases are unique to MLB stadiums. There are price increases everywhere and affecting all businesses. It sucks. America is not what it used to be.

Should be interesting to see what kind of legal fees the MLB is willing to take on to keep him out of the league.

There is zero chance the Sox let Keuchel's option vest.

I am saying that Rodon was not going to accept the QO. Not anything about Hahn but obviously it seems like Hahn thought he may take it given they didn't offer it. The Sox, like in many other cases with other players this offseason, seemed to have underestimated Rodon's market and didn't want to risk the 18.9m that they didn't think he'd get. It was the wrong call.

I actually do know that Rodon was not going to accept the QO. He did like Chicago and want to stay but was not going to accept the QO.

Yeah I guess it's hard to say now that there are projections have changed with Pollock. Would have been a crapshoot for them guessing how many games each of Vaughn/Sheets/Engel/Leury got in RF. They currently project Vaughn/Sheets to be 5-15% above average on offense. They are pretty bearish on Engel both offensively and defensively. Have him begged for .3 WAR in 42 games after posting .7 WAR and 1.2 WAR in 36 & 39 games in 2020 & 2021 respectively.

Regardless of their intent, Rodon was not going to accept the QO. Whether they thought he was worth 18.9m or not wouldn't have mattered. Plus, while I agree with exercising Kimbrel's option, it's kind of hard to make of sense of being willing to exercise Kimbrel at 16m when he was a disaster and not offer Rodon a few more to fill a serious hole that they ultimately never addressed.

Yup. Just like last offseason when they acquired Lynn, the number 1 priority should have been a playoff caliber starting pitcher. If Scherzer/Verlander/Ray were too rich/risky, then they should have gone to Gausman/Stroman or even Rodon. Unacceptable to just completely misjudge the market. Sox play in a great city, should have the highest playoff probability in baseball and a route to winning for years to come. They had a very enticing offer if they could just compete monetarily. They need to stop expecting the market to come down to their internal valuations which have been incredibly low. Especially with the minute potential the team had to acquire this type of player via trade, they should have understood the necessity to strike in FA and convert on a big arm early. I think they tried, but were woefully low on Verlander, Ray and probably others. Seems like they didn't give Rodon much thought or pursuit at all.

Wow surprised they were as high as they were without him.

So your view is his medicals were still sketchy following 2021? Seems like the Giants were comfortable enough with them and frankly their org has earned the benefit of the doubt with veteran arms

Saw they are now #1 at catcher following McGuire acquisition.

I know Rodon has historically been a baseball player during the season months and a hunter/video game player in the offseason but he did have legitimate injuries and combined for 41 innings in 2019 and 2020. Expecting him to bounce back from that, even with a renewed work ethic and rapport with Katz, and throw 32 starts with 200 innings pitch is unreasonable.

Rodon looked incredible last spring. He looked the part of an ace.

Your first paragraph is accurate. How much it would have killed his market is anyone's guess but no doubt he would have gotten a good chunk less with the QO attached. I know the Sox didn't rule out Rodon coming back after not giving him the QO so they pretty obviously had a value on him of 1 year less than 18.9M. Which is crazy.

Money. JR doesn't like eating money. Hahn doesn't want to give him away. If the Sox were an effective organization they would have eaten 3m or so to get a better return three weeks ago.