Bobthe4th

On the other hand, Ryu and Shoemaker both getting injured early, Pearson's innings limit preventing his promotion, Vlad's weight, our awful outfield, and Giles being traded could equal a sub .500 season. That's why they play the games, and this season should at least be more interesting than 2019!

Towards the end of last season he said he wants to stay at 3rd and admitted he got tired by the end of the season. He knows being in better shape helps with both of those things. Whether he's decided that he's only going to work out more and not change his diet could be either because he's still just a kid (i.e. naive and won't listen to other's advice) or because he loves food too much doesn't really make a difference, it's still disappointing. If his bat takes off this year no one will care, but if he repeats last year, he's going to get slaughtered by the press and fans for wasting his talent.

It'll be interesting to see if the Red Sox go full rebuild if they don't make the playoffs this year, or if they just throw money at the roster.

Plus world series rings are garish and hidious!

My mistake, 4 f***ing advert breaks at halftime.

Watching the Classico with a stream of the American beinsports broadcast. f*** me it’s f***ing awful. Co commentator is senile, main commentator thinks he’s watching basketball, they have a sideline reporter giving pointless “insights”, and the half time analysts have literally 10 seconds each between the 3!!! advert breaks. Americans can just not cover football.

Sleeper: Connor Law New legit: Forest Wall Bust: Anthony Kay

D’oh for some reason I thought the home leg was yesterday’s game! It was the Manchester game I tried to get tickets for. The Bernabeu is the best stadium I’ve ever seen a game at though so I’d love to go back one day!

None of the first five regular season starters for the Jays are in our rotation by the end of the year. The Dodgers win 120 games but still fail in the postseason. Aaron Sanchez makes a glorious comeback, ending with him pitching in the World Series. After Mookie Betts signs an extension with the Dodgers, Marcus Stroman secures the highest contract in the free agent market. This year’s surprise team will be.... the Detroit Tigers.

Yeah, a few ways they can round out the roster. Could really do with a Gurriel like breakout from someone as that bench looks very light on hitting.

Based on the Yankees' luck last year, this means that Nick Tropeano will now have a Cy Young type season!

Gurriel is getting reps at 1B too which supports the need for an extra outfielder on the roster. I'm not convinced Tellez makes the roster over Drury though (even though I'd be happy with that - I've never liked Drury!), with Hernandez probably getting a significant number of games at DH.

Not many teams can bring off the bench the likes of Goretzka, Coutinho and Tolissio!

The BBC gave Davies the man of the match. Bayern look really good this year, with a very deep squad.

Shapiro's recent q&a with the Star made specific reference to looking at a player's makeup and mentality when assessing whether to sign them. Got to assume they think Puig would be a bad influence on the kids.

26th man isn't guaranteed to be a pitcher so you never know we might take an extra outfielder, or even Tellez if he has a good spring training. RF and DH are the biggest uncertainties but good chance neither has a full time first choice.

About £120-150 for tickets for both me and my Dad. Normally go to one or two Man City CL games a year but this game sold out very quickly - possibly because it might be the last European game for them for 3 years!

Yeah, knockout CL is awesome. I tried getting tickets for Man City vs Real tomorrow but they sold out!

Should be a good game. Surely it won't be quite as big a walkover as the last time they were in London though, when they beat Spurs 7-2!

Mark Shapiro Q&A Highlights: The Star: You mentioned at the winter meetings that you thought the upside for payroll might be even higher than it was a few years ago, or you could at least get back to that point. What needs to happen for you to get that support from ownership? Shapiro: “I think we need to win. We need to win more, take the next step and obviously we need to see the fans coming out. But it doesn't need to come out to the level that we'll spend exactly what we make. I think there's an understanding, and there always has been, a clear messaging that at some point the spending will have to outpace the revenue and then it usually it catches up, that happens everywhere in baseball. That’s not just here. If you read Mark Attanasio quotes with the Brewers and you look at almost every situation out there, as teams start to win, they ratchet up payroll ahead of the financial support that follows.” The Star: On that note, there are lots of fans who consider Toronto a big market team, one that shouldn’t have to go through those cycles. What would you say to those people? Shapiro: “Toronto is a big market. It's not as big a market as New York or Los Angeles. That's just a fact. It doesn't have the regional media dollars that Boston has. It obviously has a national following, but the regional media dollars that exist in the U.S. media markets is very different for the largest scale. “That along with the exchange rate, which is real. I tend not to dwell on that, because it's not an excuse, but the reality is that the majority of our revenue comes in and Canadian dollars and the majority of our expenses, is U.S. dollars. It doesn't take much figuring, that's just a 25 to 30% tax and no other team has. So that mutes our revenues. The Star: How would you evaluate the job that Ross Atkins in the front office has done and how it lines up with your vision of the franchise? Shapiro: “I look at our baseball operation staff led by Ross and think, for us to have tried to play out that stretch as long as we did, which to some extent compromised the pace of retooling and putting a new team on the field, yet to still have elevated the talent level to where the last couple of years we're one of the better farm systems in the game, and then to see those players transition to the big leagues and do it in a way where their potential is clear to everyone watching, that's a tremendous accomplishment. That's much harder to do than it sounds.

Yeah, and as Alford is out of options it looks like he's got the best chance of making it.

This use of regional blackouts just seems stupid to me. When your local team isn't very good, instead of watching other teams more you're going to watch another sport entirely rather than pay for two separate packages. I thought MLB's priority was growing the game's popularity?