Normally I'm a homer enough to easily get hyped for baseball season, but not this year. I fucking hate this team right now.

Peeps, JORR, and Frank, as best I can tell, you guys are the most wide eyed optimists of this bunch. Give me reasons for hope so I can attempt to actually look forward to Opening Day.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

There will be plenty of seats available again this year.

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Also Eloy will be up at some point.

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You’ll see Eloy win RotY this season and you can rub it in the Cubs fan faces for years to come.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Lopez
Jimenez
Cease

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Probably not. They'll keep him down to til 2021 most likely. Service time!

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Well, one out of three ain't bad, I guess.


Eloy really is the only acceptable answer in this thread imo.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Please, LTG, don't trainwreck this thread too.


I am looking forward to seeing Giolito and Lopez take big strides this year. Cease should be up in the summer, perhaps sooner if there is an injury. Ivan Nova and Earvin Santana probably won't be very good, but they cannot possibly be worse than James Shields. The Sox bullpen should be better this year. Madrigal will be up at some point.

Eloy could hit 40 bombs and be MVP, but realistically I think he hits 25 HRs and bats around .270 and should be in the conversation for ROY provided he stays healthy.

You are probably going to have to look at this season like you are the Bulls right now, FF. Forget about the record and the scoreboard, and just look to see what younger guys are doing well.

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I've watched by far the least amount of Bulls games this season of my entire life

Thanks for the optimism!

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Winter sucks. Good or bad Sox team, sitting out at the ball game on a nice day/evening and having a couple of beers is a great time. Likewise sitting at a local beer garden watching the game or having a daygame on the radio while doing yardwork or something is always enjoyable as well.

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Everything is shitty, can't possibly get worse it would seem. So the baseball gods will have something inneresting in store I'm sure.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

They saved a lot of money to keep the core intact. So look forward to that.

There are still a lot of arms and free agents out there. So maybe there will be some reason for optimism by time the season actually starts.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Take the name White Sox off of this team and replace it with the Indians and you'd pretty much have the makings of another "MAJOR LEAGUE" movie. This is a terrible team with a shitty owner and a clown for a general manager. The original movie had a better broadcasting team though than this team does, though.

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An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

If I could poach one guy from the Sox it would be Lopez.

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So negative. No wonder attendance blows and the management has the thoughts they do. Even with Machado this team was not likely to be 500. There was never going to be a one year early now.

Your optimism during a rebuild should not have changed. Some pieces will come up and we should enjoy their growth. All of this angst should really be next year if it seems the same.

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Machado would have been the Sox Khalil Mack. Make everyone in the lineup a little better and bring a swagger to a clubhouse that desperately needs it. They would've been over .500 with him this season.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Things can only get SLIGHTLY worse, maybe.

I don’t think so brother but the level of angst doesn’t match the rebuilding plan. We should be pissed about the Machado thing yes but not the team as it sits.

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"It's all a problem."

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

When I went through this 7-8 years ago on the other side of town, I looked at staying competitive and having young players do well. If James McCann goes 0-4 and throws 2 balls into center field, so what? If John Jay goes 4-for-5 and wins a game all by himself that's nice, but it's not really going to help in the long run.

1. Are the core young players having solid PA? Are they holding their own against the other teams #3-#5 starters and their middle relievers? Are they hitting to all fields or are they continuously rolling their hands over and hitting soft grounders to the same spot? Is the shift killing them? Are they not striking out with 0-1 out and RISP? [I don't care how much they strike out with 2 out, especially without RISP]

2. For the young starting pitchers, at first I only cared about the first time through the lineup. If they could get through 9 hitters and not give up a run, it was a great start. Eventually they've got to get through 13 batters, then 18, then think about the third time through the order mattering.

3. Did I get my ticket at a discount to face value? Were there enough people in the lower bowl to generate enthusiasm? Is the 50-50 jackpot growing as the year goes on?

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

The only thing that would worry me is the injuries. Many of the future guys seem prone. Otherwise, as a non-fan of the team, I am excited to see the young players develop.

And for all the Manny hand wringing, at least the Sox showed they are willing to offer large dollar contracts.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

That is NOT encouraging denis. They showed they aren't willing to pay what the best players are going to command. It takes quite the creative mind to spin that into a positive.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Look what the Phillies have done with ticket sales and jersey sales with BH. This was the year to land Manny when Cubs, Red Sox, L.A. and Yanks sat out. Machado would have put asses in the seats.

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Moncada will take steps towards becoming a good player.

Rodon will figure it out. He was GREAT in July and August last year.

Their largest contract previously is like $68M. They offered $250M. I’d say they showed a new willingness to invest in talent. And I bet they learn from it.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

ok

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Some believe that they set out to come in 2nd on things like these so people will say things like /\ that.

Im not sure.

they learned if you bid $50MM under the offer, you get bupkis? quick learners.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Your signature applies here, and that's giving Hahn and Kenny a TON of benefit of the doubt on good intentions.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul