bukie

But they have an offensive floor of scoring zero runs, which is a thing no other team ever has to deal with!

In effect, though, sending Assad "down to the minors" has largely been a semantic effort recently as a way to keep an extra pitcher around without needing to play the DL games (well, play them as much, hi Cabrera). Assad has options, so use the options to gain a roster spot. He likely didn't miss any major league time in his last stint down it was so short. I'm sure the next labor agreement is going to have some fun wrinkles to it too, but for now, this is the built in effect of the option system, and that's really the only reason Assad is bouncing around.

The Cubs have quietly caught the Braves in the standings now, so if they can keep playing well and catch the Brewers the bye is definitely in play (whereas if the Cubs caught the Brewers simply by the Brewers playing badly then ATL and LAD would get the byes and it wouldn't really matter). In fact, there's a solid argument that the 4 best teams in baseball are all in the NL right now, and the Cubs aren't 4th. The Rays have a good record but their underlying numbers aren't great, and the Yankees, Red Sox and Tigers actually have the best underlying numbers in the league. If the Tigers somehow can sneak into a playoff spot, they could be dangerous even without Skubal.

White Sox can continue to take consolation that 5 games over .500 in the AL is good enough for the 2 seed bye and then a series against the winner of a .500 team and a 2 games below .500 team.

It was a trick play, except the trick was Carson Kelly scoring easily.

And that's why you send aggressively at 3rd every time.

A Carson Kelly or Michael Conforto walkoff HR would be kind of hilarious.

You tend to not know the names of the good umps because they're effectively invisible in the games.

PCA might want to do a DNA test to see if he's related to the Reinsdorfs because I'm pretty sure he owns the Sox.

Let's not go crazy...the Sox won't win 85 games.

As of last night, there have been 80 30-30 seasons in MLB history. When Pete hits his next HR, there will have been only 62 31-31 seasons in MLB history.

Pete notched his second consecutive 30-30 season last night against the White Sox, who have never had a 30-30 player in their 126 year franchise history.

Through 5, Imanaga had given up 2 hits, had 9 strikeouts, and had only thrown 81 pitches. Anyone saying he "looked gassed" was clearly working with revisionist history at best and is full of complete nonsense at worst.

Pete now 5th in MLB in SB and 7th in MLB in HR.

Get some pressure on Shedeur Sanders and there's an immediate turnover.