glangon

Volstad is a potential bring him up, see if he can stick around, then flip him at the deadline. It will cost nothing to bring him up. I reckon it will be a right handed reliever which would be him or Vieira. The only other thought may be someone like Gonzalez or Austin to cover the injury to Castillo, if it is more serious than they first thought.

I've got a feeling that there will be another move to free up a 40 man slot. Something tells me that Chris Volstad is next man up.

Yolmer Sanchez please.

Tim Anderson

Adam Engel

Matt Davidson

1 surprise - I'm going with Matt Skole, he will come up from Charlotte due to an injury and hit like he belongs in the majors. 1 disappointment - Sorry Miguel Gonzalez, but I think you will have a James Shields type year this year. 1 dark horse - Leury Garcia to step up, wrestle Centre Field from Engel and be the every day centre fielder.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Jan 16, 2017 -> 01:51 PM) Love all the people trying to push Collins out of C when they've never even seen the kid play. All reports have him making good progress and it hasn't even been a full year yet. Collins is the C of the future until he proves he can't do it at the MLB level. If his catching was as bad as people around here make it out to be he would have been moved already. Anyway...I still find it hard to believe the Astros don't finally get the deal done. Been saying all along that it makes way too much sense for them. I'd rather see us get a haul from the Yankees though. Frazier, Mateo/Rutherford, Kaprielian/Sheffield is my preferred package. Sounded like Cashman is balking at that but who knows, could all just be posturing. Nah, that's not the case mate. He's a legitimate catching prospect. I think he'll have a hell of a future ahead of him. Apart from him though, what is there in the minors catching wise. It makes sense whilst we're rebuilding to get your hands on another decent catching prospect. What happens if Collins gets a bad injury for example?

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jan 16, 2017 -> 11:48 AM) McGuire is with Toronto now. Damn. Oh well. I still think we should be looking at catching prospects to try and improve what we have in the minors

I think the Pirates have a greater selection of prospects. I'd like to see if we could possibly include Reese McGuire in that haul. I still think that we are woefully short in catching depth. Outwith Collins, we really don't have many catching prospects at all.

I love watching people argue how good Sale is. Last Season he was outstanding but did tend to give up the odd long ball or have the odd elongated inning, that was mainly down to trying to strike everyone out which was mainly down to having a godawful defense behind him. This season, he recognises that he has a much better defense, so instead of trying to strike everyone out cause he doesn't trust the Fake smiling Alexei not to flub the ball, he chooses to use that defense and put himself in a situation where he goes longer in the game, the bullpen is getting more rest and hitters are seeing less pitches which as a result isn't tiring him out and is giving him a better chance of not leaving fat pitches in the zone and not having too many extended innings. It's not that he's changing the way he pitches, last season he had to pitch a certain way due to how awful the defense is, this season, he has more freedom to pitch the way he wants to.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 6, 2016 -> 09:49 PM) Why would you say this isn't a spot for the rotation? We will need a fifth starter in 4 days. We have Kahnle up to fill in for the injured reliever Petricka. Carroll might helpin long releif but who pitches in 4 days? My guess is Carroll. Do you have other info? He's pitching at the moment on ESPN and Kenny Williams is there. You do the math.

What has happened is a huge shame. Injury killed a great Sox pitcher, Danks will always be remembered for 2008.

Jason Coats is hitting .364 with a .977 OPS, 2 homers, 9 RBI's and 8 extra base hits in 17 games for Charlotte. Surely he should be the one called up when Avi is inevitably sent down to Charlotte to lick his wounds.

i think EJ gets the start with Danks to the pen as the long man in case he screws up. Gonzalez's starts moved to mirror EJ's in case EJ has issues and needs to be optioned back to Charlotte. That would give them 2 righties in the rotation which is what they've been after all along.

Ironically, Rollins, Sands and Saladino have been our 4th, 5th and 6th best hitters with Rollins hitting .217, Sands hitting .231 and Saladino hitting .267. I know that Sands defense was ropey when he played at 1st base but his outfield defense is better than both Cabrera and Avi. I agree that Avi needs to be sent down for a Left Hander, so I think I'd want to see some speed and bring up Jacob May. I think I'd platoon May and Sands in Left Field and stick the Melkman at DH. There will also be the option to stick EJ or a pensman to Charlotte once the long spell of games is out of the way (May 2nd). That could be used to bring up another bat to help.

With Shuck having been sent down. Danks to long relief and Johnson / Gonzalez to move into the rotation would be my call. Unfortunately, we're more likely to see Aumont or Ynoa.

Jerry Sands

I thought Latos was outstanding. He worked round the plate with varying speeds and threw mainly strikes. He even pitched around the error. Albers continues to look solid and I'm liking Albers in the 7th, Jones in the 8th and Robertson in the 9th. Jones looked good when he came in, it was good to see him coming in without a runner on base from Daisy Duke. Daisy Duke struggled for me again. He's the pensman that currently causes the most concern as he is struggling to get people out. The Defense of Lawrie was outstanding with two highlight reels catch and throws. I'm also encouraged with the late hitting of the team. Onwards to the Tribe and no Corey Kluber

More errors than hits in this game at the halfway point.

Todd Frazier

Cabrera

Sonny Gray scratched due to food poisoning. Rich Hill starts in his place

The problem we have is that we don't have a bench big enough for Panda. It would need to be re-enforced and have a branch of McDonalds next to the bench for Panda to agree the move.

Shoeless Austin Jackson for me.