My money's on the mojitos. Not literally; you can buy your own.

I look forward to some day going to spring training. It always sounds like a lot of fun.

You mentioned a couple prospects, so I wanted to share--Fangraphs just put out their top 100, with the following Sox making the list:


Triston Casas, 55, #16
Marcelo Mayer, 55, #19
Nick Yorke, 55, #29

No one else from the Sox on there, which is probably about right. I'll be interested to see how Casas's physique looks since he recently said that he was weighing in at 265. Yorke is interesting in that looking at his scouting grades, the only category that grades out above average is his hit tool (35/60). Some lowlights: fielding (30/40) and throw (30). But overall, they still seem very high on him, which is nice.

Read the whole piece, it's great.

From what I've seen in him Casas is a BIG dude. Not in a bad way, he's just built like a brick shithouse. Not that we can put a lot of stock in this stuff but Chris Davis is listed as 6'4" 255 on BBRef and Casas is built somewhat similarly. The 265 doesn't worry me if it's apportioned OK.

I agree that it's not necessarily a concern. But he was originally a pretty wirey looking guy and how/where he added that weight will be important. In the one recent video I saw of him hitting in a cage, he looked a bit stocky, but that was far from conclusive.

Gotta be honest; the vibe I am getting is that 2022 won't have baseball at all.

Yeah but that's my point. He doesn't look wiry in person, his body looks to me like someone who has room to grow into it.

Happy Faces - This is a little thing but one of the best parts of spring training is the joy on everyone’s face.  We all turn into kids again and the actual kids are clearly having a blast.  This is especially true in 2022 in a world that is SO frustratingly fractured the camaraderie and joy at a spring training game is a welcome respite from the day to day grind of a world that increasingly feels like it is going backwards.

I'm kinda hanging on to this comment by my fingernails given everything that is and isn't happening in the world right now.

C'mon, spring training. You can do this!! We believe in you!

From what I've seen in him Casas is a BIG dude. Not in a bad way, he's just built like a brick shithouse.

The Fangraphs article likened his build to Paul Bunyan.

Watching game 1 of the 2007 ALCS because why not. Anyway in the 3rd inning the Sox lost a couple of runs temporarily when a ball deflected off Gutierrez into the stands. Had he not touched it it probably would have been a triple or ITPHR. Now it didn’t matter because the Sox pushed both runs across in the inning and won the game handily but it was reminiscent of the Renfroe play in this year’s ALDS.