WookiesOnRitalin
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Posts posted by WookiesOnRitalin
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Sox pitching has really been the main reason the season has slumped so early combined with the early injuries.
The Sox are only 13 and 14 runs scored behind Houston and Toronto respectively despite the injury bug. The Sox additionally have 4 starters in the top 14 in strikeouts (currently 4th in the AL). The problem is walks. Control issues seem to be the main thing holding back this staff and thus this team. Free baserunners is killing our chances of winning and if the the staff can figure it out, then we could see a fast improvement over the next several months.
It is also clear that the lineup is missing a power bat. You would always hope that Eloy, Robert, and Vaughan were providing more power, but they just are not. If Hahn would be smart, he would figure out how to get another power bat in the lineup. Not sure who is available. The team is also dead last in walks. Any improvement in working counts and being patient would also lead to improvement as imagine. I think the hitting could just maybe use a change of philosophy.
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1 minute ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:
He's our worst pitcher, by far.
His pitching quality (or lack thereof) is not in contention.
The fact that the club is paying him 18 million dollars is the shocking reason. Your highest paid pitcher is sitting for the playoffs. A guy you went out and spent $55 million on is not going to contribute to your playoff run.
Nice work FO.
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Dallas did not make the playoff roster? What?
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My big criticism of Luis last year was how bad the strikeouts were and until he fixed it, we really needed to dampen expectations. With 40 more plate appearances, he's actually struck out 20 less times. That's pretty good improvement and consequently all of his numbers have improved along with it. His approach is better and hopefully he keeps improving from this point on.
You know, one day, these bats we have we all actually click at the same time. I just hope that happens in the Houston series. It seems as though no one is hot together. Just one guy and then cools off, then someone else. Can we get these guys to hit at the same time? That would be convenient.
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6 minutes ago, Timmy U said:
Someone traded for JA Happ. If you're willing to eat salary, you could get something for him.
It's possible, but who would be likely suitors? Almost anyone would be interested if the Sox are picking up the tab, but how much would the Sox have to eat in order for that to happen especially when they can just ride out 2022 with him on the roster knowing he's gone after that.
I imagine an NL team could be interested if they needed a 4 or 5 that could help them get to the playoffs, but the picture of that would not open up until June or July of 2022.
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Dallas' problems are centered around his command which is absent at this point. He's traditionally good for two rotations through a lineup (Roughly 5-6 innings) at which point most hitters have him timed. With his increasing age, this is likely his last hurrah and it is unlikely that he will be here past 2022. His 18 million is a tough pill to swallow, but you hope he bounces back next year to be a serviceable #5.
The interesting question is do the Sox cash in the 20 million club option in 2023 if he bounces back in 2022? What scenario would have to happen in order for the Sox to pick it up?
I imagine an ERA under 3 and a WHIP around 1.1-1.2. Plus, you have to consider the money needed to extend TA7 at that point.
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4 hours ago, ShoeLessRob said:
Can we change the tittle to does Dallas even make the opening day roster for 2022?
Lol. He's scheduled to make 18 million in 2022. He'll be on the roster unless he's traded, but at this point, who would trade for him?
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At this juncture, it just seems imperative to get the rotation healthy. If this means Lucas misses one or two starts, so be it. The only chance the Sox have at advancing in the playoffs is if they are getting rock solid performances from the top 3 in the rotation (Lynn, Rodon, and Gio). Bats have been far too inconsistent this year to be relied on against playoff level pitching.
Rest Lucas for 2 weeks, then really start putting these guys on pitch limits.
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I was on vacation with my family during the WS in 2005. I had the game on and they all went to sleep. I was watching intently. What a brutal 1st game that was. Highs and lows. Then Pods gets up, hasn't hit a homer all year, unleashes that homer in that situation. Unreal. I lost my shit. I screamed so loud and woke everyone up. I didn't care. My team was in the World Series for the first time in my life. What a moment. I'll never forget it.
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With a 9 game lead, you can afford to be patient.
We need these guys banging and terrorizing the hearts of pitching staffs in September. Rush it, it may not be that way.
Robert needs time to get his timing back and test the leg. When he's showing signs of both being back to where they need to be, then call him up. I would not do it before then.
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21 minutes ago, reiks12 said:
Cease at home has been unreal
Cease has been pretty pedestrian over the last two months. His ERA is somewhere over 5. He's given up twice as many HRs.
Let's hope he can manage 6 innings without too much damage.
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5 hours ago, ptatc said:
Got it. I still think you are undervaluing a nearly double injury rate by calling it minor. It the largest baseball has ever seen at this point in the season. I don't think it is by chance.
You are correct that we don't know why that is why it needs to be investigated. Purely my opinion and others I've talked to that the relative decrease in baseball activities could be a factor. It makes physiologic sense.
Could be, but what if the injury rate sustains itself continuing forward? It could just be an abnormality (which I think is more likely). Occasionally you get spikes certain years and dips in others. In general, I feel that the injuries are climbing across all sports. If anything, the drive to enhance human performance (bigger, faster, stronger) has had a consequential correlation of increase in injury prevalence. That's why I just accept that it's now just the cost of doing business. If you want to be a professional athlete, it's risky, that's why it usually comes with a good health plan and decent pay.
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8 hours ago, ptatc said:
The proof will be in the pudding as you say to see how the injury rates change not only next year but also through the rest of the year.
However I have seen no research at all linking vaccines and injuries so that is far down the list of possible reasons.
11 hours ago, ron883 said:So what you're saying the vaccine is causing players to get injured more. Very interesting.
The last part was a jest meaning that if you account for all the other variables you are only left with the improbable.
We are trying to explain an uptick (mind you a minor one) in injury presentation. Alas, no one has any real good idea why it might be happening.
I do not believe the vaccines are causing more injuries. That seems rather silly.
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21 minutes ago, ptatc said:
Velocity is the primary cause of elbow injuries. Research shows this. Not so much for shoulder injuries.
The almost double the rate of injuries is not just pitchers, it's a huge increase in position players. It is a big issue as it is a huge increase especially if it's an outlier. This would add credence to the time off from baseball activities could be a cause we have never really considered. Not to say that it is but it brings up the new ideas to consider.
It is definitely not normal to have this huge increase in injury rate from one year to the next. The lack of baseball specific activity may not be the cause but it certainly needs to be investgated.
Proof will be in the pudding. If they have a full offseason with normal activity and injury rates drop, then you'll have your conclusion.
If they do not, then the only thing that is really different is the prevalence of vaccination among players.
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2 hours ago, ptatc said:
Of course there can be no conclusions as we are looking at just one season to another. The type of workouts they do would be irrelevant from the research perspective as none of the workouts can replicate true baseball activity. The question is is baseball specific enough that workouts can't replicate it. However with an almost double the injury rate from last year to this year it is an interesting discussion and will lead to further research on it because anecdotally it sure looks like there is a relationship.
The majority of the injury rates increasing in baseball are mostly due to the increase in velocity from pitchers as shoulder and elbow injuries account for 40% of DL assignments and 55% of DL Days.
I would surmise that comparing injury rate from last year to this year is a complete wash and not much can be relied on data wise from last year. There is not much difference from year to year outside of the fact that the boys last year had more time off then they did this year as the season did not start until later in 2020. So is the conclusion that injury rates decrease with a later start and less games played?
There really is not much to conclude. It just seems normal to me. Pitchers are the most at risk group for injuries and if they continue to increase velocity, they can fully expect to keep getting injured. The human body was not meant to maintain such heat for such long periods of time. It's not a question of if, but when these guys will blow up or if they are smart enough to dial down the velocity and develop pitches.
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2 minutes ago, ptatc said:
The new part here is how specific baseball activities are. Most of these players getting injured worked out for the last year but for the first time in the lives they worked out more than played baseball. It really seems to have a negative effect in their health.
Unfortunately, we cannot make any conclusions based on this without any concrete data as there are WAY too many variables to consider. This is why making conclusions based on broad themes is a dangerous game.
We have to consider several factors. Age. State of training. General condition. Previous injury history. Anthropomorphics.
Then we have to consider what type, frequency, and intensity of said training they are doing. Then you would have to figure out a control and go from there. Then you would have to figure out what protocols were more impactful. Foam rolling vs stretch. IASTM vs dynamic warm ups. It's crazy to think about the amount of protocols and variables to consider with regards to athlete health and outcomes.
I agree that baseball specifics are important, but I would not associate an increase in injury frequency with a "working out more and playing ball less" paradigm without something that resembles more concrete data. How much time? How often? Etc. Etc. Etc.
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Also, the greatest predictor of injury is previous injury. This is why on ramping after injury is so important which means making sacrifices in performance in the short term to allow for maturity in the healing process.
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On 6/12/2021 at 10:28 AM, ptatc said:
After reading about the latest muscle injuries and Engels comments I think the injuries are from what the exercise field refers to as the SAID principle. Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. In other words nothing really gets you ready to play baseball other than playing baseball. We've always known this in running. We knew it was unique and you need to run to get your body to run. You can to other thing to prepare the body bit you need to run.
We've never thought baseball was that specific as we see running to first base is just running. But coming out of the box and stretching to first look to be specific activities that need the adaptations.
Anyway just thought I would share some discussions we've been having in the medical field about all of these injuries.
More simply, it is called Specificity.
So yes, specificity is king. However, there is something to be said for increasing capacity at a joint in question in terms of stability.
Let's say I have a client with an ASL range of 80 deg and a passive range of around 105 deg. This tells us that the athlete has stability up to 80 degrees, but instability from 80-105. So we know we have a software problem. The reason why this might be necessary is say an athlete is trying to leg out a slow chopper in the infield or stretch a single into a double. The increase in length of stride will facilitate increased demand at the glute and hamstring from a contractability perspective and at a length perspective (hamstring). So take the example athlete and if he consistently ranges past 80 degrees of hip flexion without stability, he could have an increase an injury at the joint in question.
Now, running as a modality has a lot of different components to its execution much like pitching (see Eric Cressey). So, with an athlete, I would want to evaluate his symmetry from side to side. Running as a demand for rotation at the T-Spine and Hips along with dynamic, on demand stability at those joints while producing force at said joints (making biomechanics a cool topic of conversation).
A more likely predictor of injury is an asymmetrical presentation in both length and stability of a particular joint. Now, some of this could be an adaptation to demand (say a Pitcher), but that is all the more reason to stay on top of specific care in order to manage the asymmetry. Pitchers have a greater need due to the nature of force production from one side of their body (where as a position player would not have as great of a demand). We know this due to volume.
A starting pitcher for example produces 70-100 high production reps per performance whereas a given position player only produces a fraction of those attempts per game in terms of rotation (both swinging and throwing) and not at near the same intensity levels. This is one of the reasons why pitchers must have increased body care and increased rest in order to recover from such.
The care for the position player is built around managing relative stiffness. These players increase their stiffness in order to move more explosively and quickly to either cover their position or in terms of running bases. This is why the majority of position players will have issues with backs, hips, knees, and less shoulder pathologies. So the athletes need stiffness to perform, but the big key is managing stiffness symmetrically AND find out if they gross discrepancies at a given joint that may increase their risk of injury.
One of the pieces I find very interesting is how everyone likes to point to studies assessing hamstring ROM and injury risk, but fail to find references that look at the relationship between hip IR and available thoracic rotation. Not everything happens in a vacuum. We have to explore beyond one joint as the body works as a system. Imagine if I have an athlete with limited hip IR and a super stiff t-spine. When an athlete cannot get the extra force production from one area of his or her body, he will find it somewhere else increasing demand at that joint or muscle group.
I have no insights into Nick's injury specifically, but these are the elements I look at with my athletes.
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1 minute ago, chw42 said:
I have nothing against Crochet, but he's no Liam Hendriks. I also hated the matchups for Crochet against the hitters the Tigers had coming up.
Schoop hits lefties better than righties, especially after the damage he did tonight off Keuchel.
Candelario has a 183 wRC+ off lefties this year.
Haase has a 173 wRC+ off lefties this year, as he's basically only hit them until his HR off Marshall tonight.Cabrera also isn't as useless against lefties as he is against righties.
Tony knows what platoons splits are. He should have seen those and said there's no way in hell I'm throwing a lefty reliever against those guys if I have one of the best relievers in baseball in my bullpen.
Statistically, you're right, but Tony needed a way to get Hendriks. GC was a great way to get there especially if he was locating. Looks like TLR made the right call.
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1 minute ago, ShoeLessRob said:
So going forward Dallas is a 4-5 inning pitcher if they don’t want him facing hitters 3 times around?
Depends on the situation mostly.
If I'm a manager, you get six good innings out of Dallas. You got a 5 run lead. You know you need to get some of those bullpen arms some work. Surely...I mean surely, you are not going to allow a 6 spot in the 7th right?
In terms of percentages, a six spot with a five run lead is rather low. So it was a good opportunity to get Heuer and Marshall out there. They just did not show up and pitched like garbage. Heuer could not locate. Was opening up his hip way too early and the ball went everywhere.
Lastly, we got a long way to go. You get 6 innings out of a 30+ year old starter and a 5 run lead, sit him. I'd make that call 9 times out of the 10 unless the guy is just absolutely being lights out or a top tier pitcher like Bieber.
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3 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:
not to get too offtopic but in the last 10 years RealGM bulls forum has gone downhill big time and Soxtalk has gotten much, much better. two forums going opposite directions, one improving user base, user interface, other one, losing users with a tired, buggy, not updated in 15 years interface. i hardly even post on realgm anymore.
The problem is not RealGM. It's the NBA. I grew up watching a different brand of basketball. I've written some quite lengthy posts about how killing hand checking is killing the game. The game hit a low for offense in the early 2000s with only 1 team scoring over 100 points. I believe it was the Memphis Grizzlies who in the mid 2000s were the last team to hold an opponent under 90 points for an entire season. Now, there is not one team who does not allow over 100 ppg. It's a shooter's league. Less emphasis on rebounding, defense, and tougher play. The game is soft. The players are soft. Lebron is king of the soft era. It's not impressive and it's boring.
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My overall impression of this game is that the team has the ability to put themselves in a position to win most nights. The other night, they had the bases loaded with a chance to win in Cleveland and then Jose pulls an outside pitch right into an easy grounder 🙄.
Bullpen is rather terrible except for a few highlights (Kopech, Crochet, and Hendriks). It's fair to assume that the Sox will make some moves in order to shore up the situation.
Cannot wait to see what the lineup can do at full strength.
Lastly, NICKY MAGIC WITH THE POWER STROKE. When I saw it leave his bat, I was like, that might have a chance. Kid will never be a huge OPS guy, but damnit, if he does not have a good approach and about as ideal as you can expect for a 9-hole hitter.
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Just now, chitownsportsfan said:
welcome man, glad to see a fellow old head, assuming you're the same old wookie that posts on bulls forums as wel.
Thanks. I've been following Soxtalk for about as long as RealGM. I could not locate the pw to my old login for here so we just went with a new one.
There is also only one WookieOnRitalin and hopefully it will remain as such.
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9 minutes ago, Quin said:
Pulled Keuchel after 80 pitches because ... who knows.
Teams are hitting .340 on Keuchel on the third trip through. It was likely the reason he was pulled.
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Reinsdorf considers moving White Sox out of Guaranteed Rate Field or selling team
in Pale Hose Talk
Posted
As a Nashville resident, I would go watch the Sox here!
In reality, it makes no sense for the Sox to move out of Chicago. It is one of the oldest franchises in the league. I could not even imagine the White Sox being anywhere else.