max silver

Lol it was worth a shot. This seems to be a more chilled out thread oddly enough, sort of the opposite of what I originally created it for.

Come on guys, you need to ratchet up the emotion to 110% here and really give it your all. Of course make sure you don't try to do too much as that would be detrimental. I've always wondered though, is 110% effort indeed doing too much? Maybe 105% is still safe?

I'm tired of the constant bickering going on in the other Coronavirus threads as they have descended into a constant state of pointless arguments. I'm sure there are people on this board that would love to be able to present emerging facts, stories from around the world, relevant local happenings that pop up due to Covid-19. What we don't need is a group of self-described viral outbreak experts constantly polluting our general discussion threads with the garbage that has become rampant. Here is your own personal thread for you guys to go back and forth with this crap so the rest of us don't need to be inundated with it when attempting to discuss this pandemic like rational adults.

I honestly don't understand why you guys are wasting so much time arguing about fatality rates of covid-19 vs Spanish flu, like seriously who f***ing cares? Covid-19 is this era's major global viral pandemic. We should take it every bit as seriously whether fatality rate is 2%, 5% or 10%. The long lasting societal consequences are going to be far reaching regardless of what the final fatality rate ends up being.

Thanks I think?

Holy s*** man you are just making a fool of yourself at this point. Other posters here have presented numbers from reputable sources, if the truth is going to scare a certain subset of the population then so be it. Your assertion that people discussing something on a baseball message board is somehow going to whip people into some kind of frenzy is ridiculous. You know what is scaring people? Things like are happening in Italy is scary, the idea of hospitals crowded to capacity with people dying in the hallway is f***ing scary. The fear of the unknown is scary for people, Chinese healthcare workers collapsing from exhaustion from the overload of patients and getting sick and then dying themselves is scary. Talk on a message forum isn't scary. There seems to be people that are prone to misplaced anger with the situation that's enveloping the globe. These people blame the media stoking fear, you yourself blame reasonable posters of a message forum, blaming the messenger is such a waste of time. If you need to be angry then get angry at the people directly responsible for this. Get mad at the Chinese government, get mad at the US administration and their completely bungled response despite months of available planning time, get mad at those snapping up all of the emergency pandemic supplies and gouging people desperate to prepare themselves for the emergency that's now here. If the entirety of this board is telling you that you are taking an asinine stand with no sense or reasoning behind it then maybe, just maybe you can realize that you are the person in the wrong here.

People being scared is simply just an emotion that they will get over. That's a hell of a lot better than legions of people ending up dead because a certain segment of the population attempts to downplay the significance of the greatest public health crisis in any of our lifetimes. Start using your brain to process what is a more desirable outcome, people being scared into reacting appropriately, or just going about your normal life as if nothing is happening.

The best thing that can happen is that people take this pandemic as seriously as they should and do as directed by health officials in order to minimize the impact. This garbage accusing others of scaring people is worthless. People should be very concerned about the potential impact to our society as a result of this outbreak, and it's people like you attempting to downplay the seriousness of this that are the real issue. If people don't take this seriously what are the consequences? Thousands upon thousands of unnecessary deaths, far worse financial impact, longer to return to normal etc. etc. By the time this is finished the numbers of total dead are going to be devastating no matter what the percentage of people that die ends up being.

I get the feeling we are going to be praying for a return to the old arguments, potshots and insults about baseball related matters incredibly soon by the ways things are rapidly turning on here.

Hopefully that comes with an included supply of lube or I shudder to think what my penis would end up looking like.

The whole thing has started to feel very real to me the last few days. On Tim and Sid yesterday they sort of predicted what was likely going to happen, in that seasons would be shut down completely as soon as a player were to test positive. Sure enough one NBA player initially tested positive and here we are. I can't say I've ever had to go through anything like this before, it's a bit frightening dealing with the unknown of how the Coronavirus outbreak is going to unfold.

It's looking like spring training is likely to be suspended later today.

It seems inevitable that the season is at least going to be delayed if not outright cancelled. All the ingredients are in place for a massive outbreak of Covid-19 south of the Canada/US border. There was a delay in rolling out testing which subsequently means a delay in identifying and quarantining infected patients from the general population. Large scale public gatherings are likely to disappear very soon for awhile so no crowds means greatly reduced revenue for owners. How long they would have the appetite to try to play with no fans in the stands remains to be seen. And even with no fans in the stands once Covid starts hitting the player population at large that could easily mean suspensions of all major sports leagues in North America. The NBA is suspending their season is likely just the start of what we are going to see with the major sports.

In other breaking news it's been announced that water is wet

His statcast page tells you all you need to know about the complete lack of a power tool for Panik. He's bottom of the barrel in hard hit percentage, barrel % and exit velocity. It's a momentous event now when he connects for a home run. A two homerun month constitutes a power surge. The true prototypical slapdick hitter if ever there was one.

I was checking out Panik's numbers from last year and it appears at first glance that his numbers improved when he was traded to the Mets. When looking deeper those improvements don't look to be sustainable for him though, as most of his value was generated in September/October when he managed to run into a couple of home runs. His HR/FB for the month was 22.2%, for a guy that has a 5.2% HR/FB for his career it seems unlikely he can pull that off again. Outside of the 2 months where he managed to hit 2 home runs each, his numbers were absolutely terrible, he had 3 months with WRC+ between 45 and 53. Unless he managed to miraculously gear his swing for more power at this stage of his career he may be a total dud at the plate this season.

Hopefully Panik being on the roster means either Drury gets sent to AAA or outright waivers.

Some interesting Jays prospects don't fall under your cutoff age of 24. Should we just pretend pitchers like Anthony Kay, Thomas Hatch, and Julian Merryweather don't exist? Is a prospect not a prospective player who has yet to make it to the top level of his sport? Simply being over some random age cutoff doesn't somehow mean the player doesn't qualify as someone who may eventually make it to MLB and contribute.

What does an older player like Julian Merryweather appearing on a prospect list have to do with guys like Winckowski and Castillo getting opportunities? Are you suggesting that baseball organizations give out opportunities based on whether or not players appear on top whatever prospect lists?

Why should guys be removed based on age? Sure that diminishes their likely future value if they are already in the middle of their physical prime before reaching MLB, but it's not like everybody develops at the same rate. Injuries delay some guys hitting peak performance, some guys are simply late bloomers (see Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion). Taking guys off prospect lists simply because they are a little older seems pretty pointless.

While Boston is certainly one of the premier franchises, there is still enough drama from the media and fanbase that you need to develop really thick skin in a hurry to play and succeed there. Look no further than David Price to see how quickly things turn sour, guy gets hurt and suddenly the media starts smearing him constantly and fans can't wait to ship him out of town. It makes me wonder if this is something that scares guys off from signing there, or makes the Red Sox really open up the vault to get guys to sign anyway.

That clears up so many questions, I always suspected somehow that A-rod was a closet cross dresser.

Yikes that puts things in perspective in a hurry.

I'd make do with a George Springer addition for center field instead if/when the team misses out on Betts.

This defense may end up being ok. Grichuk by Statcast outs above average has been mostly average or slightly better in his career, UZR and DRS are mostly neutral on his defense as well. Gurriel looked to me to be a guy that might end up as a very good defender once he's completely comfortable in the outfield. He has a knack for making quick release super accurate throws from the outfield, and is able to make some pretty spectacular catches due to his athleticism. The biggest question mark to me is what Teoscar looks like in right field. For much of the year he was actually surprisingly decent in left field before resuming adventure mode later in the season after getting moved out of center field. The speed allows him to get to balls that a lot of players don't, the arm is plus as well, but how many boneheaded mistakes he makes out there will ultimately determine whether he has any business playing right field.