Nardi on fire in this thread.

Escobar is an upgrade to Mendick or Leury (who, I suspect will start getting 2B AB once the front line OF return). No one is meeting the Dbacks price but in a month it becomes a matter of paying him for the rest of the season or not paying him. I think he will be had for cheap for anyone willing to pay his salary.

I'm confident relievers will be available

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I’ve recently learned he has a balky quad.

Do not want.

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Agree. If there is an option at 2B and a chance to get bullpen arm(s) for a low level prospect or two, make the move. Escobar might be had for salary relief and a PTBNL, but that is generally not the way JERRY operates.

The Outfield will be back to form by early-mid August
You have to hope to tread water with Collins and Zavala behind the dish

You don't give up anything of consequence as this team is supposedly built for the long haul. With nearly a thousand days of IL time and their current record, I think we're seeing that to be true.

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I fully understand they are currently bum slayers.

The roster will be entirely different by mid August. Adding two gg level defenders, two AS level offensive players, etc. will entirely change what this offense is.

We are beating MLB level teams with rookies and AAA players. The biggest offensive complaint is the lack of power. We have that covered.

Anderson
Moncada
Abreu
Eloy
Grandal
Robert
Vaughn
Engel
2B

I'll go to war with that, especially against a LHP.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

So that's the knock on the White Sox? They are 16-24 instead of 21-19 against good teams?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The Sox can bum slay their way to the AL Central title, and that gets them a ticket to the dance. Then anything can happen.

If anybody would know about bum slaying, its somebody that's a fan of what happened in 2016.

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This

All of this

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Great picture of the first place Brewers' dugout there

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

#1 in bum slaying. Nothing wrong with that. It's just that scrubs and rookies and 3, 4, and 5 starters turn into bums themselves to the tune of 24 losses in 40 games against decent teams. This isn't a good team in the present. So just keep faking it until we make it.

Their record says otherwise. Given their current roster makeup, they might not be as good as a team that wins games at a .593 clip, but they aren't as bad as a team that wins games at a .403 clip either.

At some point, you are what your record says you are.

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A lot of it is magic dust and a brutal division.

I still have rose colored glasses though.

You need magic dust when half your lineup goes out for most of the season.

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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

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The White Sox have 3 of their 9 projected starters in the line-up on any given day. The fact that all but 1 of those guys will be back before October should tell you that the team you see today isn't as good as what they will be. When Eloy went down, we all said we would be happy if they were in it August 1st with Cleveland and Minnesota as we figured he would carry them over the hump. Well we're without much more than Eloy right now and they are 8 games up with a 95.9% chance of winning the division and 96.4% chance of making the playoffs.

This line-up is going to fucking rake when its together in August/September

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Nothing more needs to be said.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

This is dumb.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

yeah, it kind of is.
The only thing dumb about it is referring to the 2016 is bum slayers. That was a legitimately good team.

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The four teams other than the Cubs in the 2016 NL Central had a win% of .471, which is not very good.

The 2016 Cubs were an incredibly good team, who also had the good fortune of beating up on several rebuilding teams MANY times during the year. You need some good fortune to win a title. You play who is on your schedule, you beat who is on your schedule. Make no bones about it.

Again, bum slay your way into the dance, and see what transpires.

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Well when a team wins 103 games and most games are played in division its not terribly surprising that the other guys have a lot of losses.
Plus there was not much bum slaying involved in beating the dodgers and the giants in the playoffs. And the Indians won 94 something games.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

check the fortuitous injury reports of those teams

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

the current Sox have to rely on feasting against weak sisters

That changes in August

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

That changes right after the break with Houston and Milwaukee as two of their first three opponents.

On the bright side, from the break until Labor Day, the Sox play 24 of 40 games at Home where they have a .689 win%

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They probably should have rescheduled the playoffs for injuries.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Right after they re-seeded the playoffs based on records vs >.500 teams.

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2005 White Sox. 6 games over .500 vs wining teams
2016 Cubs. 6 games over .500 vs winning teams.

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2016 Cubs were a solid team.

Not the juggernaut, wire to wire dominance of the ‘05 Sox, but definitely one of the better teams the city has produced this century.

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You are using the strength of those teams as some kind of argument the cubs didn't bum slay but those teams each were at a reduced capacity due to injuries. Cubs didn't have to beat anyone good even in the playoffs

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.